BY: ROCANA DASA
May 09, CANADA (SUN) — Studying Srila Prabhupada's conversations with ISKCON leaders.
Today's Talks is inspired by Srila Prabhupada's class on Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.5.9-11, June 6, 1969 in New Vrindaban. You can read the transcript here. Srila Prabhupada stayed at New Vrindaban for quite a few days on this visit. Because the atmosphere was very simple, his Srimad-Bhagavatam classes were longer than usual.
Those who have some historical perspective on what was happening throughout North American during this time period will know that Srila Prabhupada enthusiastically trumpeted the importance of New Vrindaban. Consequently, Kirtanananda's profile was very significant. At the time when I joined the Vancouver temple in 1969/70, there was a policy in place that was not established by Srila Prabhupada, but rather by Kirtanananda. He mandated that the devotees should only eat a little porridge in the morning, two chapattis, dal and a little sabji for lunch, and hot milk in the evening. That was it. For most of the new, young disciples this was an extremely austere program, and basically we were all ravenous. This just goes to show the degree to which Kirtanananda played a role in setting the standards back then.
Throughout Srila Prabhupada's lila period, New Vrindaban heavily influenced the rest of the society and this only increased after Srila Prabhupada's departure. Kirtanananda set the standard, showing by example what it meant to be a Zonal Acarya. His techniques and mood were adopted by the rest of the Zonal Acaryas at that time, all of whom wanted to enjoy the same power and prestige Kirtanananda had gained.
The sloka from Srimad-Bhagavatam that Srila Prabhupada lectured on this day is very significant in terms of setting down a particular dynamic that can also be seen in the relationship between Srila Prabhupada and Kirtanananda. The verse describes how Narada Muni chastised and straightened out his disciple, Vyasadeva. As Srila Prabhupada says, Vyasadeva was laboring very hard to present dharma, or religiosity and economic development. This led to Narada Muni's recommendation for Vyasadev to write the Srimad-Bhagavatam.
In many ways, New Vrindaban history is based on this whole principle. Srila Prabhupada made it abundantly clear, in this lecture and at many other times, how he wanted New Vrindaban to be developed. His program was based on the principle that as devotees, we should demonstrate that all anyone needed was a small piece of land and a cow. One could live very simply in this way and with all the time they saved and the peaceful mood thus created, one could easily develop their Krsna consciousness. Kirtanananda, however, quickly revealed the fact that his plan was different than Srila Prabhupada's. He wanted to put his hands on a lot of money in order to fulfill his grandiose schemes of how New Vrindaban should be developed. Kirtanananda's plan required accumulating a lot more land (thousands of acres), and building big buildings. In order to accomplish this, the so-called "sankirtana parties" were formed. In fact, these were simply collecting parties. Kirtanananda's crew elevated the principle of "by hook or by crook" to an art form, just get money for Bhaktipada. The impact of these so-called parties on the rest of the North American temples was very significant and very negative. The collecting parties completely disregarded all of the agreements the temples had with one another regarding collecting territories and practices. All in all, it was a far cry from the principles and plan that Srila Prabhupada had annunciated. Kirtanananda's collecting parties soon escalated into the infamous women's parties, which were based on polygamy and exploitation of women.
Srila Prabhupada explains here that Bhagavad-gita is very simple, the truth is very simple, and that it's not open for mental speculation from a "fertile mind" -- something Kirtanananda certainly had. He did a lot of speculating on Srila Prabhupada's instructions, and this never resulted in success for ISKCON.
Srila Prabhupada's exalted position as a Sampradaya Acarya means that he's on a level comparable to Narada Muni, therefore his lectures and instructions have to be understood from that perspective. We can understand that when Srila Prabhupada is giving these lectures at this point in his lila at New Vrindaban, he's speaking directly to Kirtanananda. We now know who Kirtanananda really is and how he essentially destroyed himself and the whole New Vrindaban project in due course of time, ultimately due to the fact that he did not listen to Srila Prabhupada during lectures such as this one. There's a whole series of lectures from Srila Prabhupada during this visit, and in them he is articulating exactly what he wants New Vrindaban to be.
Srila Prabhupada undoubtedly had a clear perspective of what Kirtanananda was capable of doing. Just as he says in this lecture, religion, or dharma, means serving God. Srila Prabhupada is God's pure representative, so the religion at New Vrindaban, and throughout ISKCON, was just to serve Srila Prabhupada. And here Srila Prabhupada is, articulating exactly what Krsna wants. He's stressing very clearly that just as it is was articulated by Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu and by Krsna, the devotees should just serve God, develop love of God, and give up all this other nonsense.
Srila Prabhupada states that Krsna will give you enough land to do the needful… you just do a little work and there's no need for big, huge endeavors. Now anyone who was at New Vrindaban at the time knows that Kirtanananda worked everyone to the maximum. Other than the morning program, there was very little time allocated for developing your Krsna consciousness. Srila Prabhupada uses the example of working like an ass, and basically that's what everyone at New Vrindaban was doing -- working like an ass all day in manual labor or out on the streets collecting money.
Of course, in order to get everyone to do this, Kirtanananda had to convince them that he was a direct representative of Srila Prabhupada, both in desire and mood. Even to this day, we find that those who were involved, such as Dharmatma who was running the women's party, still think Kirtanananda was serving Krsna and Srila Prabhupada. They continue to believe this despite the fact that nearly all Kirtanananda's activities were not only nonsensical and adharmic, but caused a tremendous amount of personal harm to a great number of people, what to speak of negatively impacting Srila Prabhupada's efforts to spread Krsna consciousness.
Srila Prabhupada also gives the example here of crows, and how crows are interested in garbage while the swans are interested in purified places. There were many crows at New Vrindaban, symbolically, and here Srila Prabhupada is instructing them, "don't cheat people". Of course, Kirtanananda is now famous for having cheated his followers, and the New Vrindaban residents who followed became known for cheating people on the streets.
It's also interesting that Srila Prabhupada mentions sex life, and how there are restrictions in the Vedas with regards to sex stating that one should get married. Although Srila Prabhupada explains here that you can't get a wife and use her as a sex machine, this is exactly what Kirtanananda preached to many of his men - that the women were basically sex machines and marriage was meant for taking advantage of that fact. Of course, Kirtanananda himself was a homosexual who was abusing young boys, all the while promoting this negative attitude towards women and condoning programs that were outright exploiting them. In the end it was this policy that brought him down when he ordered the killing of Sulocana, who was incensed by the fact that Kirtanananda compelled his wife to remarry someone else, even though they had a child.
Srila Prabhupada also touches on the fact that you should not waste your time writing books that are not completely authorized or, as he puts it here, are "simply a jugglery of vocabulary" and a total waste of time. Of course, we know that Kirtanananda went on to write all sorts of nonsense books.
Srila Prabhupada also outlined in this lecture the different levels of sannyasa. Kirtanananda got much of his power on account of the fact that he was the original sannyasi. Giving up women was no problem for him, and that made it easy for him to cut the sannyasa profile. One of his programs after he had been kicked out of ISKCON was to make numerous sudras and women into sannyasis. And while himself a sannyasi, he was busy cutting the profile of a king. Some of his followers even went so far as to make him a king's crown and scepter, regardless of the fact that Srila Prabhupada makes the point here of how a sannyasi should actually behave.
There's another interesting excerpt wherein Srila Prabhupada uses himself as an example of why one should not speculate. He says that even though he was born in Calcutta, had five children, and was formally a businessman, that should not form the basis of speculation about him. He is stating here that he's on the paramahamsa stage and that one should not judge a paramahamsa based on some scanty information you have about his past. You should just accept him as being a direct representative of Krsna. Of course, time will reveal the fact that that's exactly what Kirtanananda did not do.
Srila Prabhupada also spoke of an incident during his householder life when one of his friends tried to get him to go to the cinema. Srila Prabhupada refused because he found it completely distasteful. This is a lesson everyone should learn.
Another interesting aspect of this lecture is that Srila Prabhupada mentions the fact that while literatures produced by great Sampradaya Acaryas may have some grammatically incorrect aspects to them, this should not shed a negative light as it's of no significance whatsoever. He says that his Spiritual Master, when he was selecting articles for his Harmonist magazine, would base his selection only on the principle of how many times the author used the word "Krsna" and "Lord Caitanya". Broken language doesn’t mean anything, and the real motive and aim should only be to glorify the Supreme.
Srila Prabhupada mentions the fact that transcendental literatures such as the Srimad-Bhagavatam are always written in poetic language, and he mentions past Sampradaya Acaryas such as Narottama das Thakur, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur, and Locana dasa Thakur. Of course, we know that Srila Prabhupada was a very expert poet himself. So this is the standard, and in this particular verse, Narada Muni is speaking with Srila Vyasadeva and asking him to produce the Srimad-Bhagavatam, which is essentially a poem.
These lectures from New Vrindaban contain an immense amount of important, relevant information. They will help disciples and followers to understand exactly what Srila Prabhupada wanted this movement to be like and what his principles are. Unfortunately, they were not followed or understood by many of his early disciples, regardless of the mythology found in books like the Lilamrta, which depict a different picture.
History has very clearly revealed that Kirtanananda, who was put on such a high pedestal by the rest of his godbrothers and sisters at the time, was no more than a great deviator and a very spiritually sick person, and that goes back even to the time of Srila Prabhupada's manifest lila. This is way history should be written because it's the truth, and there are a great many lessons to be learned from it. If you don't hear the truth, then eventually you will be sadly disappointed.
