Tulasi Devi Dasi – USA:
Dear Krsnacandra prabhu.
Thank you for your reply. I cannot explain myself as well as you can prabhu and your arguments are very persuasive but you seem to miss the point. Please prabhu I do not mean to be rude but unless you are on the same spiritual platform as my Gurudev you cannot possibly understand who is pure and who is not pure.
You are right no one told me anything about the history of the movement and I don’t want to know either. What is past is past and while some devotees have remained in ISKCON and have wasted their time in criticising other devotees, other devotees have gone on to perfect their spiritual lives.
You gave three types of guru in your reply the rubber stamped one, the ritvik and the pure devotee. The rubberstamped one is wrong, this I agree. The ritvik guru worries me a little. Gurudev even though he was rubber stamped as you say he belongs to the last category, the category of the pure devotee and he is only one of the many good choices or appointments that the GBC have made. You will not see my Gurudev attending any of the classes for training gurus.
The ritvik appointments are a worry to me. How will they be chosen and what will stop them from acting like the bogus gurus you are talking about? I am sure that unless they themselves are pure they will want to be worshipped and they will end up getting worshipped. Of course many have tried to give shelter to others but due to sensual weakness they have fallen but at least they are trying to serve Prabhupada.
The problem with devotees who hold similar opinions to yours will mean we end up with more ISKCON Bangalore’s types who start their own ISKCONs. How many ISKCON’s will there be in the future? Please ask yourself which is better, thousands of pure devotees who are aiding Prabhupada’s ISKCON by increasing their disciples and building more temples or more ritvik ISKCON’s like ISKCON Bangalore?
My Guru Maharaja has spoken many times on the ritvik system and he has admitted that Prabhupada did establish this system while he was present. He has made it clear to us that Prabhupada would never allow the Bangalore Temple headed by Madhupandit prabhu if he was present. He said Prabhupada would never agree to a program of setting up a separate GBC with ritvik gurus and Temples separate from his ISKCON society.
Krsnacandra prabhu while I am writing to you like this please do not feel that I am angry with you or desire to offend you, I understand that Prabhupada has many great souls who are in his ISKCON society and sometimes they fight like Prabhupada would fight with some of his Godbrothers.
But I have to tell you that you are wrong when you say that devotees like my Gurudev are bogus. I am sorry that I do not explain myself very elegantly but I feel strongly that I must defend my Guru Maharaja as best I can.
To me he is a pure devotee and is trying his very best to serve Prabhupada and Lord Krishna and that is why we all are so attached to his lotus feet. I am sure that if you were able to spend time and listen to him you would change your mind.
Please forgive any offenses that I may have caused in my writing.
All glories to Guru and Gauranga! All glories to my Guru Maharaja.
Tulasi devi dasi