Tulasi Devi Dasi – USA: Having read many articles on your website I fear what is to become of us if the mentality of the devotees who you post on your site becomes prominent in ISKCON. While you and others may not agree with the present guru system in ISKCON it is working and to remove it will only cause chaos within our already splintered society.
The ritvik system is not really a threat to my Guru Maharaja for even if ISKCON removed the system Gurudev will be automatically a ritvik guru and we will all be still his disciples, would we not? Admittedly we will no longer be his diksa disciples but certainly his siksa disciples. To us it makes no difference at all.
No matter ISKCON Guru or Ritvik Guru it is all semantics as our Guru Maharaja will still be an advanced soul who is able to deliver us from the clutches of this material world.
I think ISKCON and Srila Prabhupada is enlightened enough to be able to accommodate all of our ideas. The existing system of initiation along with the ritvik system will be no problem at all so long as the ISKCON institution will be in control.
In this way the devotees will have a choice who to take shelter from. Some may choose to take shelter directly from Srila Prabhupada and others will choose to take shelter of the devotees who have become pure out of Srila Prabhupada’s direct disciples like my Gurudev. This is a system that will work if it is moderated by ISKCON.
There is no need for a separatist mood in ISKCON, we need to all work together to push on the Sankirtan Movement of Lord Caitanya.
Tulasi devi dasi