When Srila Prabhupada is Happy, the Family is Happy
BY: ROCANA DASA
Sep 28, CANADA (SUN) — A reply to Kesava Krsna dasa.
Thanks for the reply, Kesave Krsna dasa. I appreciate your continued effort in the dialogue.
I find I'm being offered much free advice these days, from many people and many angles of vision. Some devotees suggest that I tone down my speech, especially when it pertains to those they consider to be Vaisnavas. In most cases these personalities are authorities, and most are gurus. Thank you, everyone, for being so concerned about my spiritual well being. Naturally I've considered the potential reaction of committing aparadha offenses by way of my truth-telling. That's my own personal consideration, and each of us has to interpret how this aparadha dynamic pertains in our lives. Kesava Krsna dasa has apparently concluded that it is appropriate for him, as a disciple of one of my Godbrothers, to give me advice and point out how much of an aparadhi I am. I wonder if he considers that this in itself may be an aparadha?
Granted, I go to a realm where many fear to tread, but I've chosen to make due considerations as to the apparent level of advancement or qualification exhibited by certain of my Godbrothers. Whether one qualifies to be titled 'sannyassi', 'guru' or even a 'Vaisnava' must be judged based upon an analysis of their qualities and character. The idea that I'm just dying to find fault with every last thing that a person does is completely erroneous. When discussing my various Godbrothers, I always refer to a particular issue that has a significant philosophical underpinning. I don’t' point them out because I'm dredging up the past, but only to point to a principle.
Some of those purporting to be acting on behalf of my Spiritual Master, and taking on responsibilities in his mission, have engaged in certain activities and philosophies that I consider to be detrimental to the mission and against Srila Prabhupada's original preaching - in other words, against our siddhanta. In my capacity as a disciple, I feel I have every right - in fact, I have a duty -- to speak up. I think I would be committing an aparadha by not speaking up, regardless of whether the neophyte followers of a Godbrother might become offended as a result of hearing something critical I've said about their guru. When this happens, the grand-disciples seldom deny that I'm right philosophically, they just say I'm digging up the past for the sake of slagging people. I say that this is not true.
Kesava Krsna prabhu now says that he's willing to talk about the philosophical issues, but I would remind him that we're discussing philosophy in the context of ISKCON and ISKCON's history. In this case, we're talking about the philosophy behind the Zonal Acarya system and the Gopi Bhava Club, behind re-initiation, and, of course behind the concept of initiation within an institutional context, as introduced by ISKCON. There are many other aspects of the philosophy I've brought up that Kesava Krsna dasa has not addressed. Instead, he has taken the opportunity to criticize me for being critical.
As for being part of a "happy" family, I think we first have to strive for just being part of a family. I don't think we'll ever be happy until we're all pure devotees, then we'll be self-sufficiently happy. You're not going to find happiness in this material world. In the meantime, the ISKCON family should embrace all sincere followers of Srila Prabhupada, but it doesn't. ISKCON is very conditional in the way it accepts or rejects Srila Prabhupada's followers.
I'm making a concrete proposal that if you want to be a family, then you must have an across-the board consensus as to who is the head of the family. I'm saying Srila Prabhupada is the nittya-siddha Sampradaya Acarya, and he is the head of our family. I am saying that ISKCON, which was my family, and still is internally, has made the enormous philosophical error of not presenting Srila Prabhupada as such. Consequently, they've had innumerable problems such as the Zonal Acarya system and the Gopi Bhava Club, what to speak of the problems they're encountering while interacting with the Rtviks or with B.V. Narayana or any number of their Gaudiya Matha competitors.
The fact is that to this very day, the gurus of ISKCON do not want to embrace this concept. So tell me, Kesava Krsna dasa, why is that? You explain to me why Srila Prabhupada is minimized while the leaders are maximizing their position. If we're to be a family, then that's where the family begins. The patriarch of the family has to be seen in an accurate and consistent way by all members of the family. The eldest sons cannot be constantly fighting, but that's what's happening in ISKCON. Behind the scenes there's all sorts of difficulty going on between the different gurus and the GBC. Because there's no free press in the institution we don't hear all the details, but we still see the results. We see it here locally in Vancouver. You can easily read between the lines of what's going on in other parts of ISKCON. But because no one can discuss it freely and publicly -- it can only be discussed by the leaders behind closed doors -- the other members of the family are quite bewildered, as I see Kesava Krsna is on these issues.
After coming to the conclusion I have in regards to Srila Prabhupada, I've found it extremely easy to address issues such as the one I discussed here with Babhru dasa on Sridhar Maharaja, or similar exchanges with supporters of B.V. Narayana, or the Rtviks. It's not that I don't like these people individually. Many of them I could easily live in community with, so long as they're not fanatical, saying to me that based on what their authorities say, I'm absolutely wrong… no one should listen to me because I'm an aparadhi.
So who are the real aparadhis here? The people who started the Zonal Acarya system? No, Kesava Krsna dasa doesn't think they're aparadhis. He doesn't think the people who started the Gopi Bhava Club are aparadhis. Just me, I'm the aparadhi for mentioning the fact that his guru was a supporter of both these huge siddhantic deviations. Of course, he doesn't want me to think his guru is an aparadhi for that. Who could miss seeing the hypocrisy of this situation?
I'm obviously not going to curtail my freedom of speech and ability to speak the truth because of some etiquette whereby I'm supposed to envision that Kesava Krsna is the son and Giriraja Swami is the father, therefore I can't point out the philosophical errors of the father. Sorry, but that's a principle I consider to be minor in comparison to the need to say what is true on these matters. I should also point out that I wouldn't have to be talking with Kesave Krsna dasa directly on these matters if his guru would step up and address me. Of course, it's highly unlikely that HH Giriraja Swami will ever talk to me, just as HH Tripurari Swami never addresses me directly. Instead he sends Brahma dasa or Babhru dasa barking at me.
I'm open to any of my Godbrothers discussing anything with me, and always have been. Of course, since the day I 'officially' departed from ISKCON, I haven't received a single phone call from any ISKCON authority to discuss with me any of the problems I'm having with ISKCON's philosophy, let alone trying to get me to come back and participate. So the big happy family concept only goes about that far with me. In the meantime, I'm ready to discuss these philosophical issues with Kesava Krsna dasa anytime he wishes to respond to what I've already written.
By seriously addressing the philosophical issues before us, members of the ISKCON family will please Srila Prabhupada. Then, by his mercy, we can begin to be a happy family again.
