Krsnacandra Dasa – Vrndavan: Who is Radhanath Swami anyway? After spending all those years being the right hand man of the infamous pedophile Kirtananda, bad mouthing ISKCON and therefore Srila Prabhupada, he entered back into ISKCON after his Sanyasi guru Kirtananda was exposed as a pervert/common criminal. As soon as he entered back into ISKCON he was miraculously given a GBC position, stamped as a Guru and given the rare privilege to enter into any GBC territory to procure disciples and take over any temple or project he so desires.
Not only is he allowed full access to all regions/zones, he is also afforded the special privilege given to his colleague Devamrta Swami, to be able to open Temples and projects that are not in the name of ISKCON. This is a very interesting phenomenon, Radhanath is a GBC man / Rubber Stamped Guru who has the full support of the FISKCON institution and yet all of his projects are not in ISKCON’s name and are therefore not ISKCON projects. His disciples are allowed to be TPs of any Temple or project within ISKCON and yet he himself exists outside of the legal entity known as ISKCON and the GBC allow this? WHY?
What and who is this man? Why would the greedy and envious Rubber Stamped Guru’s defer to him and give him so much unprecedented privilege, without a trial period to judge his motivation and whether or not he has changed his stance against Srila Prabhupada and ISKCON, what to speak of how sincere is this man to serve Srila Prabhupada as a genuine disciple?
Why do the whole GBC and Rubber Stamped Gurus defer to this man as if he is royalty? Who is he to waltz right in and begin to preach his New Age Mumbo Jumbo Kabbalistic Tikkun Olam sentimental rubbish anyway?
If his preaching platform emphasises something other than Srila Prabhupada’s then what is his agenda? When we analyse his so called spiritual journey we may find a clue ‘a’ parampara that he is openly laying claim to. He openly states that he obtained his Hari Nama initiation from Mother Ganges.
When Radhanath Swami reached the river Ganges, He sat on her sandy bank and thought back to those first days of his life in India. Radhanath Swami remembered sitting on that rock in Rishikesh while Mother Ganges taught him lessons that were to mold Radhanath Swami’s life. Radhanath Swami remembered hearing in her eternal song the Hare Krishna mantra that would become embedded in Radhanath Swami’s soul.
This all occurred before he took initiation from Srila Prabhupada. Somehow or other the young Richie Slavin, Jewish American Hippie dropout “CLAIMS” that he received the Hare Krsna Maha Mantra from Mother Ganges herself.
The next very interesting aspect of this revelation is that the Hare Krsna mantra would become embedded in Radhanath’s soul. Now is he spirit soul or does he have a soul? It sounds like he possesses a soul. Very Kabbalistic to me…
How true is the account of his youth? How are we to ‘not believe’ that this was some drug induced hallucinogenic fantasy of a young drugged out Jewish American Hippie dropout anyway? This is truly a fantastical fairytale. I have to say that many of us who experienced the drug sub culture in our youth have many fantastic stories to tell but we do not attempt to link our hallucinogenic ‘trips’ with some actual spiritual realization.
You have to spend sometime in the mountains where many of the Jewish youth go even to this very day and hear their wonderful stories to know that this story is really some fantasy or fabricated myth to aid in his career as a New Age Mystic Kabbalistic Guru and the only truth that it may contain was that he did in actual fact sit on a rock near the Ganga in his backpacking travels around India. Yet it is more likely that he fabricated this story when he was doing the research for his self indulgent/self aggrandizing piece of poppycock he has the ‘unmitigated gall’ of calling ‘The Journey Home – Autobiography of an American Swami’ The Journey Home-which home? Autobiography – Autofairytaleography? American? Swami? This tale should really begin with – “Once upon a time…”
All of us have stories to tell from our past, our realizations, our preaching stories. So what makes his rather mundane stories any more wonderful than ours? Well I suppose most of us never think to try and make a buck from our stories…
Involuntarily swallowing more and more water, Radhanath Swami now lost all hope. Even as his hopes died, Radhanath Swami thought, It is better to drown in a holy river than suffocate in that quicksand. The same Ganges who, in Rishikesh, had taught Radhanath Swami so many precious lessons and nourished him as a mother, to whom Radhanath Swami offered his egotism in the form of his harmonica, and whose song awakened Radhanath Swami’s soul, to her Radhanath Swami now offered his life. Prayer was the only thing Radhanath Swami had left. Then something wonderful happened. Submerged under water, on the verge of death, a beautiful song awakened in his heart: Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.
If we actually want to believe this incredulous story and not consider it a rather well placed prevarication… However, it is more believable that Mother Ganga first tried to suck him into quicksand and when he squirmed his way out, she then tried to drown him in her water but the every resourceful opportunist Radhanath managed to save himself.
If we are to believe that Radhanath ‘nearly drowned’ in the Ganga and we accept this unsubstantiated witness ‘less’ account as a true story, he does not leave it there. He simply has to turn this otherwise failed attempt by Mother Ganga at ridding us of little Ritchie Slavin into portraying himself as some kind of disciple of Mother Ganga herself.
He also leads us to believe that Ganga-mata personally treated him as her son, taught him so many lessons, yet he thought better to die in a holy river… A holy river? What about Mummy? Then there is the nauseating revelation about how this holy river, this mother of little Richie, ‘awakened’ his soul… Here we go again with the ‘I have a soul not I am spirit soul’. He simply will not let go of the Kabbalah, will this little Richie… So now little Richie’s soul is awakened, by mother Ganga herself! Wow! How awesome! Perhaps little Richie is trying to tell us that he is some kind of Ganga Avatar? Or perhaps something more elevated?
Just as the Ganges first revealed this mantra to Radhanath Swami, she was revealing it again at the hour of his greatest need. Silently reciting this mantra, Radhanath Swami resigned himself to die in a holy place. The mantra brought Radhanath Swami into a state of peace beyond fear.
Mother Ganga is portrayed as his guru, the one that gave him the Hare Krsna Maha Mantra and is now revealing it again to her disciple / avatar or whatever he wants us to believe from making so much of this very obvious fairytale fabrication of his. How are we as aspiring Vaisnavas to actually believe this? Seriously! Think about what he is actually alluding to with this story. He is telling us that when he was a young Jewish member of the ‘great unwashed’ hippies of the sixties that mother Ganga personally gave him the Maha Mantra. Gave ‘HIM’ the Maha Mantra?!
Of course when he eventually met Srila Prabhupada he did not need to be given the Maha Mantra from a pure devotee for he was already fully loaded from Ganda devi! Imagine that! Just as he did not need the Maha Mantra from Srila Prabhupada he was also blessed with having his soul ‘awakened’ by mother Ganga already; so he also did not need this from Srila Prabhupada. I wonder what little Ritchie actually needed from Srila Prabhupada?
I wonder if he told Srila Prabhupada this fantastic tale. I wonder what Srila Prabhupada would have told little Ritchie after he heard this outrageously preposterous ridiculous fairytale? But there would be no way that he would have told Srila Prabhupada this tale, for he would have been revealed as the liar and ambitious scoundrel that he is from day one!
Mother Ganga, Radhanath claims, not only gave him mantras but also spoke to him giving him wisdom… Now this is a truly remarkable claim. No other ISKCON guru has the audacity to make a claim that such a personality as Mother Ganga directly instructed them. Think about it. Mother Ganga revealed herself to him?
Mother Ganga devi’s son, Radhanath the fabulous tale teller, did one good deed though. He gave his mother’s ashes into the Holy Ganges River. However, his take on occasion is somewhat different to the conclusions of Srila Prabhupada.
“As I offered her ashes into the Ganges – who became my mother, nourished me with water, mantras, and wisdom – I remember thinking, ‘this is really what Bhakti Yoga is. To harmonize our physical, our emotional, and spiritual in one as an offering to God. Here today my material mother and my spiritual mother are becoming one.” Harvard University
Srila Prabhupada never speaks like this. Harmonize our physical, emotional and spiritual is somehow bhakti yoga? Physical what? Emotional what? Spiritual what? What is this unintelligible new age mumbo jumbo?
What to speak of his biological mother and mother Ganga becoming “one”?? Becoming?? One?? This sounds more like a kind of Brahmavadi/Kabbalistic merging? Is this the way Srila Prabhupada would describe the placing of cremation ashes into the Ganges River.
Then there is the – Rich American Jewish kid, victim of Anti-Semitism, low class mleccha birth, who ended up being nearly drowned in Ganga-mata… Haridasa Thakurji rings a bell? Perhaps he thinks he is an incarnation/avatar of Haridas Thakur or perhaps even an avatar of Lord Brahma himself? Who knows what this little man is blabbering about or what his angle is? He must be someone special that Ganga-mata gives him wisdom, mantras, saves his life and awakens his soul… Delusions of grandeur my dear boy…
What is absolutely clear or should be abundantly clear is that he is promoting himself as having a direct connection with Ganga-mata. I suppose only time will tell when he will actually launch his next level of revelations or perhaps there will be an announcement of his avatarship?
But one thing is for sure. This Radhanath is most certainly up to something. He is certainly not who he says he is that is for sure. There is no way that many of his stories can be substantiated and their lucidity speaks more of their fictitiousness than their truthfulness. His claim of having an intimate and personal connection with Ganga-mata, getting the Hare Krsna Maha Mantra from her twice which is tantamount to receiving Hari Nama Initiation from her, receiving wisdom/teachings from her and having his soul awakened by her – is farfetched and incredulous and an obvious fairytale fabrication tailor-made to fit in with the narrative of his self made guru status.
So what role is Srila Prabhupada actually playing in Radhanath’s life? He did not need Hari Nama initiation for he already has that. Anytime he wants more instruction he simply has to either sit on a rock near the Ganga or hurl himself into her waters. His ‘soul’ is awake and he has wisdom. So all he really needed Srila Prabhupada and ISKCON for was to give him a ‘guru franchise’ in an international society which gave him the ability to peddle his charlatan act and begin his disciple harvesting business.
So now he is a Rubber Stamped Guru of FISKCON and so he has a structured backing instead of Mother Theresa or Ram das or some other mentor. Now he rode on the back of Srila Prabhupada and used Srila Prabhupada’s ISKCON to sucker in as many disciples that he can into following him. Now that he is a DIKSA GURU.
Devotee: What about the Guru in the next life?
Radhanatha Maharaja: The guru will continue guiding you, in your spiritual life. How he guides you, you may not be able to understand. It will obviously not be in the same physical form. But on a spiritual level, his blessings will always be there and his guidance and his overseeing you. He may appear in another physical form, personally or he may be directing another jivatma in a position of a guru, to help you. Bilvamangala Thakur, his guru spoke through a prostitute named Cintamani, to bring him back to the spiritual path and Bilvamangala Thakur was a paramahamsa, who understands things very clearly as they are.
As Radhanath is now a (a)diksa guru, he wants us to know that even when he has been placed in his Samadhi he will always be personally guiding and overseeing his disciples or guiding another soul to guide them. Even though you may not be able to understand it… Yeah I can’t understand it either. So was Radhanatha already a self realized/diksa guru in his past life that Ganga-mata awakened in this life? Or now that he had been Rubber Stamped as a Diksa guru by the frauds in FISKCON he is automatically elevated to that status? More than likely he will be a ghost and ‘haunt’ his disciples after he dies!
Even within the trammels of Corporate FISKCON Radhanath Swami is an enigma. Like the inebriate Gopal Bhatta who is loved and hated by the FISKCON frauds, Radhanath too is loved and hated. Yes that is right, even some of the FISKCONites are nauseated by his theatrical performances and his incredible stories which are so obviously fantastically fabricated, fictitiously flamboyant, fairytale fables of a fraudulent fool, fast-tracking his fate with farcical follies intended for fame but predestined for failure.
Yet he is far too powerful to be thrown out or censured because the GBC lacks the material (institutional power) or spiritual potency; so many of them have to ‘eat humble pie’ and stomach Radhanaths new age tikkun olam kabbalic mumbo jumbo as he shams it up the FISKCON ladder of the rich and famous Sannyasi Rubber Stamped Gurus.
They also have to watch in outright envy as this new age guru harvests thousands of rich but ignorantly sentimental followers and establishes his own private and very independent career as a self made mystic guru taking over more of their Temples and simultaneously purchasing his own properties and constructing his own private Temples, Preaching Centres and Farming Projects.
Soon the time will come when he will declare himself an independent guru/acharya as he will have no further need for Srila Prabhupada and ISKCON what to speak of the incompetent frauds in FISKCON. The only problem with that is just how much of Srila Prabhupada properties / Temples and projects will he take with him?
Well I suppose this will take some time for what he really wants and needs – is control of ISKCON Vrndavan and ISKCON Mayapura. Mayapur (ISKCON) very quickly understood his greedy intentions and pushed him out very recently but Vrindavan (ISKCON) is too weak and full of greedy businessmen to be able to withstand his power and influence for long. Sure Gopal Krsna Maharaja is here and in control for now… But he is far too interested in building his empire before the coming of the Yamaduttas. Radhanath has many of his people here too and they have been trying to take control of Srila Prabhupada’s temple and properties here since Srila Prabhupada entered into Samadhi with no success.
Anyway what we do know is that everyone has a credit limit to their karmic bank account. The fact that people like Radhanatha and Kirtanananda have managed to plea bargain or give states evidence and therefore sleaze their way out of punishment by the full extent of criminal law does not mean that they are innocent or wrongly accused. They are still criminals according to; Vedic, Civil and Criminal Law, as well as Vaisnava aparadha and will most definitely be severely punished for their crimes and we are all sincerely praying that this long overdue punishment will happen very very soon!
Yours in the service of Srila Prabhupada
Krsnacandra Dasa