Uno por Matha, Por Favor!
BY: HARAKUMAR DASA
Mar 22, TORONTO, CANADA (SUN) — In the course of Mahavidya prabhu's "Further Consideration", he inquisitively broaches two doubtful points which invite comment.
Mahavidya writes:
"I am intrigued by Harakumara prabhu's view that, should one or any of Srila Prabhupada's disciples become a bona fide spiritual master qualified to give diksa, then those prabhus should leave ISKCON and establish his or her own mathas. ... I have yet to encounter any instruction from His Divine Grace to support Harakumara prabhu's statement. I have never read or heard of Srila Prabhupada telling any of his disciples to become qualified bona fide spiritual masters and then go and establish their own matha[s] separate from ISKCON."
1. If we want and expect to comprehend this involved, controversial issue, then we must be precise in our questions and answers. The issue is one of diksa-guru only [one can be a siksa-guru always anywhere, inside or outside of ISKCON] and to avoid confusion the word 'diksa' should always be appended to the word 'guru' (spiritual master).
And further, we are not discussing disciples who are merely qualified, but disciples approved and ordered by Srila Prabhupada ("When I [Srila Prabhupada] order you to become [diksa-] guru, you become regular [diksa-] guru." Room Conversation of May 28, 1977, line 25), and also carrying out that order by giving diksa.
Second, in regard to the lack of a direct, explicit order from Srila Prabhupada that diksa-gurus must leave ISKCON to establish their own mathas, I reply, "first things first". This is not the most important explicit order that is not there. Srila Prabhupada never ordered anyone to become diksa-guru. As admitted by Tamala Krsna Gosvami in his 'confessions' of Dec. 3, 1980: "Actually, Prabhupada never appointed any gurus. He appointed eleven rtviks. He never appointed them gurus. ... You cannot show me anything on tape or in writing where Prabhupada says: "I appoint these eleven as gurus". It does not exist because he never appointed any gurus. This is a myth." It is the utter lack of that direct order that we should consider first. No order ... No diksa-guru. ("When I order you to become [diksa-] guru, you become regular [diksa-] guru.")
I also reply that Srila Prabhupada did give an indirect, implicit order that diksa-guru disciples must leave ISKCON to build their own mathas by his personal example. That, following the divine pattern of time immemorial, is what he did---build his own matha, ISKCON. (The interest expressed by Mahavidya in the historical dynamics of this accomplishment is merely circumstantial. The fact is that, as diksa-guru, Srila Prabhupada did do this as an example of how all real diksa-gurus act, following the divine pattern, to [by diksa] 'continue the sampradaya'.) The so-called 'diksa-gurus' of ISKCON follow neither the divine pattern nor Srila Prabhupada's example. Their claim that they are [by diksa] "continuing the sampradaya" is false because they are not growing out another branch from the large limb/trunk of the tree of Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu's sankirtana movement. They do not establish their own mathas, as Srila Prabhupada did, partly because that would take prodigiously high qualification and profoundly hard labor, from a matrix of divine authority. It is easier to stay 'on' ISKCON, their diksa-guru pretensions notwithstanding, almost like beetles on a large limb of the tree---sitting on bark seats, flying around (and around), 'fishing' in the fissures, sucking the sap. [Sweet deal, because there's a sucker born every minute.] All of the upside (good as God); none of the downside (no matha---no matter). There's no business like show [-bottle ISKCON 'diksa-guru'] business.
In addition, it is not actually necessary for Srila Prabhupada to be so explicit as to order diksa-guru disciples to build/have their own mathas outside ISKCON, because a diksa-guru building/having his own matha is what is expected, de rigueur, par for the course, the way it has ever been done. As above, Srila Prabhupada said, "When I order you to become [diksa-] guru, you become regular [diksa-] guru." A "regular" diksa-guru is a diksa-guru who is not irregular, in that he builds his own matha (necessarily outside ISKCON). He does not foul his father's house with hypocrisy (or worse).
2. Mahavidya goes on to query "the abuse of Srila Prabhupada's ISKCON by unscrupulous individuals", noting (correctly) that such miscreants were/are not always Zonal Acaryas, but can be under any designation (including rtvik). He then asks, in case that all all-qualified diksa-gurus do the right thing by building their own mathas outside ISKCON, whether Harakumara prabhu will then be able to guarantee an "abuse free ISKCON".
I respond that Harakumara dasa is not as good as God, and he regrets that he is not in a position to "guarantee" anything inside ISKCON. But Harakumara dasa does know that he is an eternal servant of Sri Sri Radha-Krsna under His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Svami Prabhupada, the Founder and only [diksa & siksa] Acarya of the ISKCON branch of Lord Caitanya's Sankirtana Tree, and also that there are bad people even in good systems [a large proselytizing spiritual organization, to a degree, acts like a dragnet moving through the sea, gathering fish of every kind].
This is more to the point: There are even more and worse bad people in bad (i.e. not of divine origin) systems with more power to damage the population, which as a result suffers more. Qualitatively and quantitatively, bad people and bad systems reinforce each other. How is this fact of life relevant to ISKCON? Simply compare pre- and post- disappearance ISKCON, and think it through. ISKCON rtvik diksa is the good system because it is mandated by the Founder-Acarya. If there are to be bad people in this system, they will (by far) be fewer, not as bad, and less powerful. It will not be rtviks, who merely act by order and on behalf of Srila Prabhupada, who mine disciples & daksina, reap worship & profit, murder prophets & expel holy men, plunder social resources of every kind, including the wives of others, etc. It is not the ISKCON rtvik diksa system (working in the name of Srila Prabhupada) which has been an epitome and apotheosis of aham-mama-tva (janasya moho'yam aham mameti, & Bg 18.73, pt.). It is not the ISKCON rtvik diksa system which causes friction and dysfunction by tending towards disunity.
So, for favor (divine favor, that is), one [diksa-guru] per matha, please!
