Govinda Dasa – USA:
There is no bigger fool than an old fool.
Gurukripa and Bhakta das give us hope then they take it away. We don’t hear one single word from Gurukripa’s after all these years and now we hear indirectly from his spokesman/chela Bhakta das – “The GBC and Gurus are all cheaters.” Gurukripa first gets our attention by proclaiming that the Ritvik system is what Prabhupad wanted. Then he back peddles and says no, I don’t mean that exactly, but, Prabhupada set up ISKCON “ONLY” for his direct disciples (like ME) to ‘boil the milk’ and become pure devotees and only when we are pure devotees, ‘we’ will begin to initiate disciples.
In other words, Prabhupada came and established ISKCON only for the disciples he has made in his physical presence.
Any devotee who believes that he or she is now a part of the parampara by being initiated by one of the cheater gurus, who have no potency or authority, is a fool number one. Does Gurukripa think the sincere souls who have come to Krishna Consciousness after Prabhupada left will take comfort in his words?
I know I would lose heart. I would not think like Krsna das who foolishly believes leaving ISKCON is the only solution for this is exactly what the cheater “SHADOW ISKCON” people want and Krsna das is playing right into their hands (perhaps he is even one of them). They want us and the second wave initiates to leave ISKCON! They are only interested in their new recruits! Gurukripa’s present angle is not going to help our movement. Wake up will you! Our spiritual lives and service to Prabhupada deserves more than this!
Perhaps Gurukripa does not believe as Krsna das believes and maybe he thinks no one should leave? Then why should they stay in ISKCON? According to Gurukripa their initiation into the parampara is useless and what guarantee do they have that one of us will become pure in the twenty or so years we have left in these bodies, if in the last forty years no one has???????? Especially since no one has been pure enough to sort out the problems in ISKCON to date.
The only reason which makes sense why Gurukripa would want a non Prabhupada disciple to stay in ISKCON would be as servants of the direct Prabhupada disciples… Now that is an interesting idea.
We all need servants to help us become pure devotees. Just like he has his faithful sidekick Bhakta das who runs around writing his campaign letters, dealing with the replies and like the good servant he is reading them to his Holiness Gurukripa.
Come on Gurukripa do you think that we don’t know what you are up to? You sit like a little Buddha in Thailand and have your secretary read your mail while you give us your divinely inspired words of wisdom? “Come to me for I have the answers” routine! Look at how you come across from our side. Not one word from you for all these years and now you reach out to the devotee community like this? What have you said to us to make us think that you are any different than those who you seek to bring down?
Kundali explained most of the problems in ISKCON in his books. Only he did it more expertly than you could ever hope to do. He complained very nicely but he wanted to be a guru like them and they would not let him. Sure we learnt a lot from him but apart from seeing the problem more clearly what did we do about it? Nothing…
Gurukripa you have added nothing to our struggle and you have said nothing new. It is the same old same old. What you bring to the table is exactly what others have said for years and years; “He did this / He did that. They are doing like this/They are doing like that.” I have heard more than enough to last me life times! My ears and heart is full of the problems within ISKCON and the how the GBC and gurus have hijacked ISKCON and turned it into FISKCON!
So thanks Gurukripa but no thanks. Take your half truths and guru campaign propaganda and shove them.
We need answers from devotees not more complaints. Any sudra can explain in detail that the ditch they are digging is wrong and the foreman is wrong (In our case they are right) but they never give us any practical solution only complaints.
When you read most of the letters that are posted, they are full of well intended and researched opinions of what is wrong with ISKCON but the solutions, if any, are lacking in substance.
The main solution which is offered is to humbly request the GBC and Gurus to listen to them and reform. The other solution offered is to
educate the general devotees about the problems in ISKCON and hope by getting air time more devotees will decide to take up the cause.
Both are solutions of sorts but they are not real or effective solutions. The GBC and Gurus don’t give a dam about us. Try negotiating with a terrorist. This approach is very naïve. The solution to educate the general devotee is not a bad idea but we are too apathetic to speak up or do anything. We read this stuff and get angry or frustrated and then go on with our lives for there is no one who gives us a practical way in which we can change the situation. Gurukripa is no different.
Has anyone considered the possibility that many of the corrupt GBC and Gurus are here only to sabotage our movement and are not Vaisnava’s? Is this concept far too fantastical for us to consider? Even though we know people do infiltrate movements / businesses, countries all the time and try to bring them down. Perhaps we believe that this cannot happen to us. Every devotee (including Tamal) are struggling Vasinava’s. They are only on a power trip and when they hear our heartfelt cries and the cries of our tortured children their hearts will change and they will join hands with us as we gaily sing and dance while we change ISKCON together and bring back its former glory and purpose.
Wake up and get a life! How many years have we tried our best to appeal to them? They have never changed they have in fact only grown stronger and more defiant.
Perhaps we need to think that these devotees are in fact not devotees at all. Prabhupada has said that this movement cannot be destroyed from without only from within. Has anyone ever wondered how this is possible? Will it be because we argue and fight with each other? Yes this is certainly a possibility but then the majority of devotees do not act like they are acting. We want things back the way they used to be when Prabhupada was in control of his movement so where is the likelihood of us arguing if we all had the same agenda? They are the ones who do not listen to wise counsel or pressure from us. Their agenda is vastly different than ours. They have proved this time and time again over the years and we need no more proof.
The only way that we can be destroyed from within is by an infiltrating agent pretending to be a devotee. A Putana.
This is something that we must consider as a viable rationale why it has been impossible to change them. The Gurukripas of ISKCON have had their go at solving the problem with their tired old methods. We need to change the way in which we see the problem.
We need to hear from more devotees who are seeing our problem from different angles of vision. And we need to hear from devotees who know what we need to do to stop them. Not just educated complaints.
If we are really serious to change the situation then it is going to take every ounce of spiritual strength and drop of sincerity that we possess to change it. These guys are not going down easily.
The latest topic of discussion has been Braja Bihari who we have seen being revealed as one of the main usurpers in ISKCON. His excuse for not facing his accusers has been a heart problem that leaves him unable to deal with pressures of his work load. Yet he went off to the GBC meetings this year without so much as a clutch of his narrow chest. He is recently also been over to China teaching the Chinese leaders of ISKCON how to destroy Prabhupada’s movement before it even gets off the ground. The GBC are keeping China an exclusive resource field for their select candidates yet poor ailing Braja Bihari is not sick enough to work his magic over there! Braja Bihari is a classic example of a person who has been disgraced and spotlighted for his role in destroying Prabhupada’s ISKCON and he is still as strong as ever. We also see Jagadish coming back inside again after his offenses.
Are they going to change? Repent? Does Braja Bihari shed one single tear for the children that have been abused under his care? Does Jagadish? Does Satsvarupa? How many of us have the audacity to show our faces in public if we sold Prabhupada down the river just to save our neck like Jagadish did? How many of us will have a book Published in our name that has within its pages sexually explicit pornography like Satsvarups did? We would be too ashamed to do this but we have this idiot parading around as a Sannyasi Guru and GBC man doing what we would never do and he gets away with it?
Do we think that after all this time he is sincere? That any of these guys are sincere and are only in some form of illusion? Do we really think by sending just one more letter from someone who has not written in will bring them to their senses and help us get ISKCON back on its feet? DREAM ON!
We have to come to the realization that this is not going to happen. They will not change. Accept that. Then find a way to change them. A plan is what we need. We can do this in public for they have no power to stop us. Unless they threaten this website with a law suit as is their want. They use litigation and threats as easily as we breathe.
So long as Rocana Prabhu and his wife continue to be so very courageous we still have a forum to communicate and work together to find real solutions to our problem.
I know in my heart that we must fight for Prabhupada’s ISKCON no matter how hard it is going to be. I am not waiting lifetimes for Prabhupada to come again and there is sure no way in our present predicament we will get any pure devotees popping up to save us! And there is no way I am leaving my gurus ISKCON.
Please can we stop all the complaining and look to exactly how we will rid ourselves of the handful of corrupt devotees we have in ISKCON and get on with our devotional lives?
Govinda das
(revised by author)