BY: ROCANA DASA
Mar 26, CANADA (SUN) — Studying Srila Prabhupada's conversations with ISKCON leaders.
Today's Talks is inspired by Srila Prabhupada's class on Srimad-Bhagavatam 6.1.37, in San Francisco on July 19, 1975. You can listen to the audio or read the transcript here.
In this section of the Bhagavatam the subject is Ajamila. Immediately after his death, both the Yamadutas and the Visnudutas came to claim his soul, and they were debating as to who was really entitled to claim Ajamila. This particular subject and, of course Srila Prabhupada's commentary, has some very pertinent information for us. Personally, I feel that it's highly relevant to solving some of the problems facing our Krsna consciousness movement today.
My pervading theme has long been that many of the problems we face are due to the fact that we don't recognize who Srila Prabhupada is in terms of his status as a Sampradaya Acarya. I think this verse and Srila Prabhupada's commentary apply to this principle, and for those open to understanding, it offers some valuable information.
The theme in this verse is about both the Yamaduts and the Visnudutas. The term "duta" means that they're servants. Yamaraja is non-different than Dharmaraja, and "dharma" means religious system. Here the Visnudutas are challenging the Yamaduta's, saying if you're a servant of the personification of religion, why is it that you don't understand the essence of religion? The essence in this context is that anyone who chants the Holy Name of God and is therefore God conscious is entitled, at the time of death, to have the Visnuduta's duty retrieve his soul, not the Yamaduta's. On the surface, one would consider Ajamila to be a sinful man and therefore think that he should be taken before Yamaraja to be judged based on his sinful activities, but the Visnudutas say otherwise.
Srila Prabhupada makes many comments on what is real religion, as it is enunciated in the Vedas. It's the duty of human beings to understand the knowledge found in the Vedas, and in order to understand Vedic knowledge one has to seek out a pure devotee, accept him as a Spiritual Master, and get his understanding of Vedic knowledge as it applies to a particular time and circumstance.
Srila Prabhupada gives the example of cats and dogs, and animals disguised as men. They don't understand even the simplest things, such as how to grow grains rather than having to hunt and kill other animals in order to gain their foodstuffs. With a little Vedic knowledge, one can understand how to do these simple things that elevate you above animal life.
Dharma ultimately comes down to how to surrender to God, and adharma is everything but that. Srila Prabhupada points out that the Srimad-Bhagavatam states that we have to throw out irreligion: "…dharmah projjhita-kaitavah atra. Kaitava means cheating, false, pretentious." Such persons are not giving you the truth and therefore are not showing you how to surrender to Krsna.
Srila Prabhupada states that in order to understand dharma, you simultaneously have to understand what is adharma, so you can distinguish between the two. He states, "If you know white, you should know what is black. Otherwise the knowledge is not... Relative."
He goes on to say that there are all these Kaliyuga religions, like Christianity, where they focus on Jesus the son of God, or others who focus on a servant of God such as the Jews and the Muslims. But none of them tell you about who God is. This is where people in other religions get all mixed up. So you can't have the complete knowledge unless you know who is the Father, who is the Master. And this is what Krsna consciousness gives you. In Krsna consciousness we supposedly understand who God is, and because we know that Krsna is God, we can understand the Bhagavad-gita. We understand it on account of accepting Srila Prabhupada as the pure devotee who is presenting the Bhagavad-gita as it is.
In ISKCON today, the devotees say that we're all servants of Srila Prabhupada and that we're following Srila Prabhupada's directions and his mission. But to this day, there's no philosophical definition of who Srila Prabhupada is in relationship to his servants, his disciples - what to speak of his disciples who are claiming to be diksa gurus. A GBC committee is apparently still discussing the matter, preparing to give us the true definition of who Srila Prabhupada, and this has been a long time in coming. We look forward to the release of this statement.
At the end of his lecture, Srila Prabhupada warns us against interpreting the Bhagavad-gita foolishly:
"So therefore we say that if you want to take benefit by reading Bhagavad-gita, then you should accept it as it is said. Don't try to interpret foolishly. Then you will never get the benefit. That is our propaganda. And people are very against us: "No, I am a scholar. I am a philosopher. I can interpret in a way." We say, "No, sir, you cannot do that." This is our propaganda. Veda-pranihito dharmah."
Today, unfortunately, we find that even Srila Prabhupada's own disciples are interpreting Bhagavad-gita. Rather than simply "accept it as it is" by taking up Srila Prabhupada's own Bhagavad-gita As It Is, some are re-translating, purporting, and publishing their own interpretations of the Gita. And in some cases, ISKCON temples are distributing these interpretive Bhagavad-gitas, which are essentially competing with Srila Prabhupada's own translation. A few years ago, Tripurari Swami found it necessary to offer his own version of Bhagavad-gita, which is presented in a mood unlike Srila Prabhupada's, but rather in the mood of his siksa guru, B.R. Sridhara Maharaja. More recently, Garuda dasa made the news with his new Gita translation (which we are informed does mention Srila Prabhupada).
In this lecture, Srila Prabhupada also mentions the fact that although he was the first created being some foolish people think that Lord Brahma is actually God. But Krsna had to teach Brahma from within the heart, via Caitya Guru, and since then, this has become the formula - instructin by Caitya Guru and Guru, both ways. As such, the saying is that by the mercy of Krsna one finds the guru, and by the mercy of guru, one finds Krsna. And through the guru, one understands the Vedas, which have perfect knowledge.
Srila Prabhupada gives the classic examples in this regard. Although in the Vedas it's stated that any kind of stool is contaminated, just as bone is contaminated, in the case of both stool from a cow and a conch shell, these things don't fall under the category of contamination. Yet unless you have the Vedic knowledge to help you distinguish how these items are outside the category of things contaminated, you'll be confused.
There are many such examples and deep philosophical aspects of the Vedic knowledge that require the input, the purport, of the most recent Sampradaya Acarya in our disciplic succession. We see even to this very day so much divisive controversy still surrounding certain statements Srila Prabhupada made, which have been interpreted in different ways. Those reading the Sun are constantly reminded of the great debate over how Srila Prabhupada wanted our disciplic succession to function after his departure, i.e. via a Rtvik or diksa guru system. And this is the nature of conditioned souls in the Kali Yuga material world. Such contentious debate is impacting us very seriously, but regardless, the debate rages on. My position is that the difficulty is due to the fact that it's not appreciated or recognized that our disciplic succession is composed of Sampradaya Acaryas. As such, the Sampradaya Acaryas should be followed very strictly, without any deviation or interpretation. And because this is not done, because this fact is not recognized and followed, we have so much confusion.
The Srimad-Bhagavatam sloka, 6.1.37, is one of thousands of verses that Srila Prabhupada commented on, but even on its own, it contains very explicit information that could easily resolve so many problems, if only the followers -- the Prabhupada-dutas -- understood the contents of Srila Prabhupada's lectures and purports. But it appears they don't. Just as the Visnudutas are accusing the Yamadutas, if you want to consider yourself a servant of the Sampradaya Acarya, then you best know exactly what the Sampradaya Acarya's position is on every aspect of our philosophy. But frankly, from what I've been seeing since the departure of the Sampradaya Acarya, what to speak of what I'm seeing today from lectures the GBC's reports and activities, it appears to me that these so-called servants of Srila Prabhupada don't know what Srila Prabhupada's position is. They don't know that he's a Sampradaya Acarya, or how his exalted position differs from 'regular gurus', his godbrothers in the Gaudiya Matha, etc.
In this verse, Srila Prabhupada said you have to know who God is in order to understand who is the servant of God. So you have to know who the Sampradaya Acarya is, or you don't have full knowledge. This reality is clearly evidenced by the fact that so many of our ISKCON swamis, gurus and leaders don't even see the importance of making Srila Prabhupada's lectures available to the public. After 30 years, some 40% of his audio content sits and gathers dust in the archives, deteriorating with time, while the fallen conditioned souls suffer without the benefit of a rare Sampradaya Acarya's instruction according to current time, place and circumstance. Instead, most of them are absorbed in reading Vaisnava literatures that are not commented on or published by the Sampradaya Acarya, even though few can liberally and accurately quote from Srila Prabhupada's comments, purports, and lectures, what to speak of the sastras that he presented. They're busy jetting around the globe or putting on expensive festivals. All this is proof positive that even though you can get a great deal of notoriety by claiming to be the servant of Srila Prabhupada, you have to prove it.
What's coming out of the mouths of our ISKCON leaders is a great indication of the degree to which they are actually servants of the Sampradaya Acarya. Very often, their words and actions are proof that these servants of Srila Prabhupada are far closer to the Yamadutas than to the Visnudutas. And in that regard, this particular Bhagavatam sloka is a comment on them, personally. Over the last 30 years, many of our so-called spiritual leaders have promoted irreligion, which has come in the form of the Zonal Acarya system and the Gopi Bhava Club, what to speak of institutional policies of re-initiation, voted-in gurus, retired sannyasis and diksas. So many irreligious principles have been adopted that are not supported in the Vedas or by the Acaryas, and our leaders have made these mistakes simply because they don't study Srila Prabhupada.
