Yasodanandana dasa Letter to
Tamal Krsna Goswami
BY: SUN EDITORS
Oct 17, 2017 — CANADA (SUN) — Part One.
The following is a letter written by Yasodanandana dasa to Tamal Krsna Goswami in March 1979. A note at the top identifies the document, written in Yasodanandana's handwriting. There are a number of words that have been clearly abbreviated. For readability, the missing letters are included in brackets. If a word was illegible, it is followed by a (?).
To place the letter on the timeline of documents recently published, the 1979 Vrindavan paper challenging the Zonal Acaryas was completed on February 17, 1979. On February 26th, the GBC and the 11 appointees assembled in Vrindavan to address the concerns of the devotees. The following letter was written shortly thereafter.
Yasodanandana dasa writes:
"Recopied from an old Indian paper notebook
True Copy of a Letter Sent to Tamal Krsna Goswami
March 1979
To: ISKCON St. Louis, Missouri, USA
Dear Tamal Krsna Maharaja
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
nama om vishnu-padaya
krishna-preshthaya bhu-tale
shrimate bhaktivedanta-
svamin iti namine
namaste sarasvate devam
gauravani-pracarine
nirvisesa-sunyavadi
pascatya-desa-tarine
namaste namaste krpa purna-drsti
namaste namaste mahananda-dhatri
namamo namama punar raksa raksa
prasiddha-prabho pahi mam daksa daksa
Sri Bhaktivedanta Prabhupada Stotram
by Ananta Rama Sastri
I offer my respectful obeisances unto him whose glances are full of mercy and who is the bestower of transcendental bliss. O renowned lord, please protect me and kindly shower your compassion again and again.
Let us offer our most respectful and repeated obeisances at the lotus feet of Sripad Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada our eternal spiritual master, who has so kindly and mercifully given us protection under his lotus feet by his transcendental vani in the form of his books and divine instructions.
I would like to take a few moments of your precious time to touch upon a few points which I feel are very important for the well being of our spiritual father's movement ISKCON. First I must beg your forgiveness for any offenses I may have committed in the past, knowingly or unknowingly.
I am quite aware that many of our GBC Godbrothers were upset by my presentation of a paper with various suggestions of how to rectify the current "Guru situation in ISKCON".
I actually I will always be indebted to you for so kindly allowing me to massage Prabhupada's feet and serve the 9 to 11 shift during the month of May and June 1977. This was an unforgettable spiritual service and I wish to thank you very much for that.
Within the body of that paper I apologized if anyone felt off[ended] by it. It was not the intent of the paper to offend any Vaisnava. I also personally apologize to all of you during those meetings.
And the fact that Godbrothers are discussing these topics should not be interpreted as a sign of envy, but rather a sign of intelligent spiritual inquiry in the pursuit of bona fide siddhanta.
As you are aware, the status and position of the 11 initiating gurus and the implemented process so far attempted in ISKCON is a very controversial issue. However the fact that it is controversial does not mean that we should not discuss it.
I should say after seeing the format and notes(?) of the meetings the GBC had on the 26th & 27th of Feb 1979 regarding the handling of the Guru paper in the V[rindavan] dham was rather I was unconvinced that the GBC and the 11 initiating Gurus are dealing with the issue prop[erly]. I am referring to 3 meet[ings] –
27th
1) the morning class by SDG in the temple room
2) the 1st GBC meeting on the 2nd floor of the guest house to discuss the various points of
the paper
3) the 2nd meet[ing] -- after prasad
26th -- all GBC men came to my room late at night
I wish to address some of the points raised by some of my Vaisnava Godbrothers on the night of the 26th of
One of the comm[ents] regarding my sugges[tion]
We suggested in the paper that our ISKCON sampradaya should learn from the examples of the Ramanuja and Madhva Sampradayas. I must say that I feel I was not given a fair chance to really explain what I meant by that suggestion. What I meant is, just as those sampradayas have kept their various lines of disciplic succession intact for the last (?) years respectively by keeping Srip[ad] Ramanuj and Sri Madhvacarya in the center (not just by seva) but helping the focus as a sampratistha acarya at the center of all the mathas it has fed and spiritually nourished the disciples and the ? nicely & has helped to keep it intact. In the same way in all of ISKCON temples & school, farms (?) we should have in the temple room Srila Prabhu[pada] as the main ? and the ? No other disciple of HDG should eve[r] be there.
I take exception to the remark made by one of our Godbrothers, when all of you came to my room on the night of the 26th of Feb. 1979.
The statement "Who cares for the Madhva & Ramanuja sampradaya, we're Gaudiya Vaishnavas." is rather offensive. I may refer you to Sri Caitanya Caritamrta Adi-lila Vol. 1 Chapter 1 Text 19 Purport, page 30 (1974 edition) 3rd paragraph Lines 28 to 32
Among the 4 Vaishnava Acaryas who are accepted by the Gaudiya Vaishnavas.
Also to Srimad Bhagavatam 4.28.31 purport, 1978 edition, p. 209 lines 2 > 10.
There are primarily 4 parties spreading devotional service all over the universe. These are the Ramanuja Sampradaya, the Madhva Sampradaya, the Vishnu Swami Sampradaya and the Nimbarka Sampradaya. The Madhva-Gaudiya Sampradaya in particular comes from Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu. All these devotees are spreading this Krsna consciousness movement very widely and giving protection to innocent people who are being so much embarrassed by pseudo avataras, swamis, yogis and others.
In light of the above quotation and numerous other citations which can be found in Srila Prabhupada's books, how can anyone make such an outlandish statement like "Who cares…".
We do not have to adopt their model of worship or their rituals, but we can intelligently inquire how their sampradayas have managed to survive for hundreds & thousands of years. Because they have kept there founder acaryas in the center of all of their maths, temples & institutions. Why don't we learn from that. Let us keep our founder acarya Srila Prab[hupada] at the center of worship & attention for all of ISKCON too."
(To be continued…)
