Kṛṣṇacandra Dāsa – Śrī Vṛndāvan Dham: The letter of resignation of Prabhavisnu Dāsa [PVD] is a very interesting exercise in a person’s failure to take responsibility for their actions and inactions. It also demonstrates the actual level of realization that all of the Rubber Stamped Gurus of FISKCON are factually on, instead of the level they are promoted to be on by their disciples, followers and the various apologists of our Vaiṣṇava society. The GBC and other Rubber Stamped Gurus know full well that the only difference between them and us is position in the corporate institution and uniform. In other words they have a job working for FISKCON and we serve Śrīla Prabhupāda.
When we look at PVD’s letter we can observe many things that reveal his state of consciousness. We need to look seriously at his exposure for it is very important that we as a society learn from his mistakes so we can educate others to know that position does not make one fit for the duty. Positions of leadership in our society demand devotees of specific caliber. A sannyāsa is of the renounced order of life and is necessarily of a Brahman disposition who is at the very least able to follow the four regulative principles. An initiating Guru should be at least of the level of a Vaiṣṇava Brahman Maha Bhāgavata.
Prabhavisnu is simply a result of GBC’s systematic breakdown of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s ISKCON society and proves that the impersonal corporate approach to Vaisnavaism will simply not work. Devotees need to see Prabhavisnu as the man that he is, not by the position he held.
He was fully aware of his lack of spiritual and material maturity yet he took every single position he was offered and, like the bulldog he is known to be, he tenaciously held on to them for decades. His apology letter displays a distinct lack of authentic remorse, introspection and accountability for his deception. It also exhibits his lack of insight into the damage his betrayal of his alleged guru, Śrīla Prabhupāda, has inflicted upon his disciples and our whole Vaiṣṇava Community.
To the members of the GBC and devotees of ISKCON,
Dear Maharajas and prabhus,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupad!
Here PVD addresses the assembled Vaisnavas of our ISKCON society as we have been taught but he ends this with a glorification of His Divine Grace AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda which if taken in the light of how he betrayed Śrīla Prabhupāda by accepting a position in ISKCON that rightfully belongs to Śrīla Prabhupāda makes his ‘all glories’ rather insincere. Perhaps if he was actually humble to Śrīla Prabhupāda and did not try to usurp him then things would have worked out a lot differently for him…
He knew full well that by taking a job as a dīkṣā guru his disciples would and did worship him as good as God and probably thought of him as better than Śrīla Prabhupāda and he said nothing. He simply allowed them to fantasize about their choice to choose him as their guru, dreaming that he had been sent by Lord Kṛṣṇa Himself to deliver them back to Godhead. This is the very same thing that all the other gurus of ISKCON are doing. They allow their disciples to build up this fantasy that the guru of their choice is a maha bhagavata shaktiavesa avatara sent directly from the spiritual world to deliver them from the clutches of māyā.
All glories means following Śrīla Prabhupāda. So how much has PVD developed Varnashram Dharma? Where are the farming communities, where are the Brahmans, where are the Ksatriyas being trained and given position? No, all that these guru wannabes do is take for themselves so they can build their own projects – nothing for Śrīla Prabhupāda’s ISKCON society, the society that was established by the Maha Bhāgavata that they claim to glorify?
So how did or does he give “ALL GLORIES” to Śrīla Prabhupāda?
It is with deep regret that I wish to inform you that I have resigned from all positions of leadership within ISKCON, including GBC member, sannyas, and initiating guru. This is because in recent times I have not been able to maintain the required spiritual standards for those who hold such positions.
Regret – Deep regret…? What does he regret? Does he regret having offended Śrīla Prabhupāda and by doing so turned his disciples and supporters against the devotees who knew that he was bogus and illegally occupied the position of a pure devotee? What does he regret really? HE REGRETS BEING CAUGHT IN THE ACT!
As a Sannyāsī and Guru he was caught red handed with a woman. He did not fess up nine months beforehand [that he states that he was with this woman] nor did he fess up when he was going to the Festival in New Govardhana as a bona fide Sannyāsī Guru and Initiating Spiritual Master. He was forced to resign by the pressure of the community of devotees not by the GBC or his own volition. The GBC and Temple Presidents and He himself were quite willing to cover the whole thing up. So what he is actually feeling is remorse for being caught in the act! Nothing more and nothing less… This is certainly not the hallmark of a śuddha bhakta / Sannyāsa or dīkṣā guru. It is the feeling of a criminal caught by the police.
Resignation – Resign from being a Guru? GBC sure – they all should. Sannyāsa… well shameful but being honest was never bad for ones maturity in material and/or spiritual life. But resign from being a guru? What is that about? How can a guru resign? It means he was never a guru in the first place.
Required Spiritual Standards -To give spiritual shelter is not about what is required by a particular standard it is about what you actually possess. Either one has the spiritual adhikāra or not. You cannot give what you don’t have.
“In recent times” means what? One day, one week, one month, one year, ten years, or since he joined? When did he ever maintain the spiritual standard of a Guru? Or a Sannyāsi? He admits that he had harbored in his heart so many anarthas and so how was it possible to eradicate them or rectify by pretense? If he was truthful he would admit that he never was able to maintain the spiritual standards of the positions he held within our ISKCON upper echelon which is proven by the fact that is he is now languishing in the arms of his lover in Thailand! So after decades of practicing Kṛṣṇa consciousness and being a dīkṣā guru / maha bhagavata he did this? So what real advancement did he make after all these years?
I have become physically and mentally exhausted due to constant travel and managerial pressures. It has been especially draining for me to try to solve disputes amongst devotees, as I am by nature a non-conflictive type of person.
Śrīla Prabhupāda was in his seventies when he began his mission to spread Kṛṣṇa consciousness across the globe, look at what he accomplished. The devotees he trained with such dedication, love and compassion built the society that we live in today. These gurus simply prance around harvesting disciples for their private projects but these disciples were trained up in Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Temples by Śrīla Prabhupāda’s program, books and worship and he complains that it was too much for him?
The guru, what to speak of any leader, must train and correct his disciples or followers. Why become a guru or a leader if you can’t hack it or if it is against your nature? Guru is guru that means teacher so why complain about teaching?
At what point did his non conflictive nature conflict with his role as a guru? I had many dealings with PVD in the past and he professed to have a policy [an excuse] of non interference with his disciples as he feared they would commit guru aparādha if he tried to correct them. This idea or weakness or excuse of his to not get involved in his disciples’ lives ended up creating so much havoc in our community as his disciples were not able to be easily checked because their supposed guru did not attempt to rectify them.
The idea of “if you can’t stand the heat get out of the kitchen” is appropriate here! He must admit that he was never a cook in the first place, therefore he was never qualified to be in the kitchen in the first place. It was this lack of qualification compounded over the years that caused his headaches and problems. Why complain and blame his disciples when he failed to train them, to educate them, to teach them and to change them!
I have travelled almost constantly throughout my life since childhood and now I feel the need to settle in one place where I find the climate and culture to be agreeable my physical and mental nature. I am considering staying in Thailand as I find it to be such a place, and as I have also developed some affection for a person there who is decent, kind-hearted, diligent and humble. If that works out for me then I certainly hope to render some service to ISKCON there. If not, then I would hope to try and live in an ISKCON temple or community, perhaps in South India.
So he was used to travelling and how used to travelling was Śrīla Prabhupāda? No one asked him to do so much travelling which was born of his desire to increase his disciple base, power, influence and wealth. He had it so good with his life as an ISKCON Guru. How many top level executives or businessmen travel all the time yet don’t have dedicated disciples hanging off every word they utter, who shower them with flower petals and garlands and treat them like a God on earth? You had it good! You had it real good!
Yes we would all love to settle in an environment that is conducive to our natures and temperament but how many of us can afford to do so? How much money does he have for his retirement package to able to pick and choose where he will end up?
After being exposed he only offers these very vague details about his lover? Some affection for / decent / kind hearted / diligent and humble… If that works out for me…? By this statement one can see that he was in no means prepared for being exposed.
I am very sorry to have let you all down. I have never asked to be put in any of these positions of leadership, but by Krsna’s arrangement they have been conferred upon me. I have tried my best, but somehow I no longer feel able to continue in such capacity. Nevertheless, I have always been very happy in ISKCON from the moment I joined till the present. It has been a great honour for me to have had the opportunity to render some service to Srila Prabhupad’s movement, and to have had all of your association. I hope to be able to continue to maintain contact with devotees, visit ISKCON temples from time to time and render service to ISKCON in the future.
Let us down? Śrīla Prabhupāda was the infallible person who never let and will never let us down. If you are drowning you had better grab onto a hand that is strong for the weakling will never ever be able to pull you up. What hand did PVD offer his disciples? The same hand he is offering his girlfriend?
He never asked, yet he took so many positions all the same. He took them all and had a whale of a time! Kṛṣṇa’s arranged that Śrīla Prabhupāda had the role he usurped. Kṛṣṇa’s arrangement was that He gave him Śrīla Prabhupāda to serve yet he chose to serve his selfish needs for decades instead of Srila Prabhupada’s. Not months or years but decades. So he can hardly say that Krsna made him do it!
“Somehow” he doesn’t sound very sure of what happened to him. He was not able to continue masquerading as a GBC, Sannyāsi and Dīkṣā guru because he was caught! Otherwise he would have continued, probably married had kids and we and his disciples would have been none the wiser… Kṛṣṇa’s hand in this was to have him caught in the act!
Sure he can visit the temples and continue contact but this time remember he is now the same as us. Well actually he is far far worse than any of us for he betrayed his guru who is a Maha Bhāgavata Devotee and pure Vaiṣṇava and he betrayed his disciples and he played a very prominent role in the destruction of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s ISKCON. Most of us don’t have such an ignoble past.
He must not be allowed to escape his responsibilities to his star bedazzled disciples without making them stop worshiping him as a Maha Bhāgavata thinking that this is some līlā of his meant to test the meter of their chastity to him. He needs to explain in no uncertain terms to his disciples that he is not and never was a Maha Bhāgavata and that his disciples must immediately stop offering puja to him on their altars.
He must not walk away from them. He must man up and face them straight on and for once be truthful with them and tell them that he was never a pure devotee and that Kṛṣṇa did not send him directly from the spiritual world to deliver them. That he in actual fact lied to them. He took their money and their service and their love and their respect and their awe and their reverence under false pretenses and should they keep on following him as their dīkṣā guru / Maha Bhāgavata devotee they could very well end up in the same hell that awaits him for offending the pure devotee of the Lord, His Divine Grace AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda .
He has to still be involved with ISKCON to right the wrongs he perpetrated especially regarding his disciples who have been dumbed down to such an extent that they have lost not only their intelligence but also common sense.
The onus is on him to teach them, or at least those that have the intelligence to listen, to utterly reject Rubber Stamped Gurus like himself and take shelter of Śrīla Prabhupāda. Then he can walk away and enjoy the temporary bliss of an unglamorous married life.
Once again my deepest apologies to you all. Kindly forgive any mistakes that I have made or any offences that I may have committed to any of you.
First give back all the money he has made and sell off any properties or businesses he purchased or established since being an Official of ISKCON then seek our apologies.
No problems in forgiving his mistakes so long as he has actually learnt to be honest and truthful in dealings with other devotees but this will never happen unless he is truthful with himself first. Admit that he lied to himself and others and allowed them to believe that he was a pure devotee and qualified to take them back to Godhead.
Then admit that he betrayed Śrīla Prabhupāda and his sincere disciples and followers by illegally taking on his role as dīkṣā guru of ISKCON. Then admit that he ‘betrayed’, not let down, his illegally begotten disciples, and free them from his hold of their hearts, minds and intelligence and tell them to take shelter of the infallible – His Divine Grace AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda.
He knows the deception that the GBC have acculturated into our Vaiṣṇava society in the form of the Rubber Stamped Guru system. He knows he was never qualified to hold such a position and he knows very well that his fellow gurus are also cheating their disciples. If he was half the man he believes himself to be he must know that he cannot simply retire from his job in corporate ISKCON, he simply cannot walk away from what he has done and what he was part of. The onus is on him ‘now’ to decide whether or not he will attempt to sleaze off into obscurity or admit to the devotional community and his disciples in particular – that the Rubber Stamped Guru system is fraudulent.
He owes us and them that much at least. He had a very comfortable ride on the wave of being a big Guru of ISKCON. He enjoyed himself to the max and he knows it. Sure it was hard sometimes, but come on, any job is hard. He of all people knows just how good it was imitating a dīkṣā guru in FISKCON! Now it is time to pay the price. Now it is time to be honest and man up to his responsibilities otherwise how can he hold his head with any pride and dignity in our ISKCON society ever again?
I hope this finds you in good health and Krsna conscious mood,
Your unqualified servant,
Prabhavisnu das
On a personal note -You were always Prabhavisnu Dāsa but you have been in illusion for all these decades that you could get away with pretending to be a pure devotee and take disciples and it is way past time to admit with all sincerity that you are unqualified. Your ex disciples need you to be honest with them not hide away from them and hide from the truth of your betrayal. Man up! You have to fix this.
You will soon realize what it is like to actually take responsibility for another person’s life both materially and spiritually – should your girlfriend marry you. Now is the honeymoon time, the illicit time, it is only after you settle down and live with her as your wife and have children will you understand what it means to actually care for someone else and be responsible for another’s life. I pray that you learn from all of this and treat your future wife with love and compassion and teach her to take shelter of His Divine Grace AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda and not take an ISKCON Guru like you!
At some point in your future you will have to face Śrīla Prabhupāda and you know in your heart that you betrayed him and failed him miserably. With each passing second your life can either be spent in truth or in dishonesty. For your sake you better start being truthful and honest with yourself. From this second onward you can either be part of the problem as you have done for all these decades or be part of the solution. The choice is yours.