Kṛṣṇacandra Dāsa – Śrī Vṛndāvan Dham: ISKCON of today is far removed from the ISKCON society that was envisioned and established by His Divine Grace AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda. We can compare in some way the early and present history of the Roman Catholic Church with the history of ISKCON in the manner in which the ‘spiritual’ leaders were voted into position due to the allegiance to the politics of the upper echelon of the ecclesiastical body of the church. Jesus as the spiritual leader of the church was eventually replaced by a temporal / spiritual leader namely the Pope by a voting system.
Today the Roman Catholic Church is headed by a voted in Pope who has both temporal and spiritual leadership roles and is advised by a body or College of Cardinals who are also voted into position. All the way down, the line of ecclesiastical positions are voted in with very little to do with actual spiritual acumen but rather with political or practical consideration.
The institutional development of the Church eventually gave rise to the various breakaway “Christian” groups who demanded more access to Jesus rather than bend their knee to the power and authority of an earthly crowned Pope. The last two millenniums are filled with stories of the various Popes and their brutal subjugation of the people who were under their dominion. The brutal and savage nature of these ruthless Popes eventuated in the separation of religion and the state in order to curtail the tyrannical hold that the Popes had on their subjects.
The GBC have since 1977 inculcated a similar system of ‘voting in leaders’ instead of accepting true spiritual adhikāra under the auspices of His Divine Grace AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda; to be the process of appointment into our Vaisnava society. They too have removed the true spiritual authority, Śrīla Prabhupāda, from being the spiritual leader and implemented a ‘temporal’ or earthly focus on rules, regulations and lifestyle choices headed by lifestyle leaders who teach how to be a good Devotee/Catholic and not question and simply follow the rules and regulations set by the GBC/Church or you will go to hell.
They indoctrinate the ‘fear of God’ principle as the main emphasis of social control. If you question, challenge or speak the truth or in their eyes ‘bad’ about a priest, bishop, cardinal or the Pope you are possessed by the devil and you will go to hell! What is the difference in FISKCON? If you do the same to any Guru you are a demon and if given the opportunity will be burnt at the stake. They even accuse us as being on a witch hunt when we point out their failings or the failing of one of their voted in representatives.
FISKCON has a voted in Pope – the GBC Executive Chair, who in our case could easily be a woman, and all the way down the chain of command we have elected officials who were elected by their peers for political / practical expediency.
These leaders are not “representatives of the Ācārya” His Divine Grace AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda but are representatives of the GBC and Rubber Stamped Guru’s.
An elected Pope or ecclesiastical position means respect, reverence and obeisance to the position and not the person. The average devotee coming from a western background is well acculturated into paying respect and obeying the position even though the holder of the position may possess no inherent power or ability and more often than not are corrupt. While one should pay their respects to the position, we are taught that while we must respect the position of a government agent or the sannyāsa ashram, it is more important for the intelligent devotee to understand that it is not the material designation, it is the person who holds that position’s qualification or adhikāra that matters.
One could argue that the GBC Executive Chair is not like a Pope who has actual temporal and spiritual [pseudo] authority while the GBC Chair has only facilitatory power and influence. Well not yet. Remember Harikesa? He went pretty close, except he had a megalomaniacal psychological ‘event’ that nearly found him in a Hotel with mattresses on the floor and walls while wearing a tightly fitted jacket that ‘did up’ at the back.
All it will take is an ambitious big time Guru with a group of Gurus/Cardinals to infiltrate the GBC Executive and we shall see tyranny and subjugation. The disciples and apologist will bend their knees in supplication and the witch hunts will begin…
The question is – is this the way we should allow our Vaiṣṇava society to evolve?
1. Do we want positional power and authority or do we want spiritual adhikāra and authority?
2. Do we want to swear our oaths of loyalty to the GBC or to do we want to swear our oaths of fealty to His Divine Grace AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda?
3. Do we want the GBC to be the temporal and spiritual head of our Vaiṣṇava society or do we want His Divine Grace AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda?
4. Do we want to sit back and allow our Vaiṣṇava society to faction up and form into splinter groups so early in our history, like what happened to the Christians, or do we want ISKCON to be for those of us loyal to Śrīla Prabhupāda?
5. Do we want the GBC to have Śrīla Prabhupāda’s ISKCON with hardly lifting a finger to stop them?
In order to effect change we must do something. We have choices to make and we need to make a stand. Sure the Pandavas could have taken a ‘defeatest’ attitude and slipped off into oblivion and lived in a forest or a village somewhere, maybe they would have been recognized for their strength and valor and given positions land etc but they didn’t. They came back and made a stand against the tyranny of the Kaurava’s under the leadership of Duryodhana, the protection of his blind father Dhritarastha and the advice of his evil uncle Sakuni.
They did this for it was the righteous thing to do. They took advice from the Lord Himself, Śrī Kṛṣṇa and they made a stand. There was no compromise, no defeatist attitude after all the trials and tribulations they had to endure under Duryodhana;s envious attacks; they made a stand for righteousness.
With each passing second a moment is lost and is past, never to be regained. We need to make sure that each moment in our lives counts. We need to search deeply into our hearts to see if we have it in us to make a stand. Arjuna had to. He fought his mind before he used his skills. He won in his mind first with the help of his dear friend, Śrī Kṛṣṇa before he drew his first arrow. We too need to look into our hearts and our minds and see where we stand.
The GBC is likened to the Kauravas who were led by Dhritarastha’s material and spiritual blindness. His blindness brought about the battle of Kurushetra which we most certainly don’t need to have happen. That is why we need to organize now to make this stand as a Prabhupāda Loyalist. We need to stand up and be counted at the very least.
Śrīla Prabhupāda did not conform nor did he compromise with the western secular world, he steadfastly and tenaciously pushed ahead with his mission in the very bastion of Western culture, the US, where there was also a battle raging waged by the Marxist Communist Social Engineers who led the Hippie countercultural movement of the sixties which succeeded in turning the Youth of the nation against the Establishment. It was in this maelstrom of Kali’s attack on the God centric Western cultural tradition that His Divine Grace AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda launched his own campaign. He left the war to us to fight and so we must take up Śrīla Prabhupāda’s challenge.
We have to understand that Śrīla Prabhupāda’s teachings, role and function is not for us alone it is for humanity at large. Lord Caitanya advented for humanity’s sake and we have a duty to humanity at large to make sure that the Lords Sankirtan Mission, the Lord’s gift to mankind – must not be allowed into the hands of these Kali chela GBC, the Rubber Stamped Guru’s and their disciples and followers.
As aspiring Vaiṣṇavas no matter what psychophysical makeup be it Brahamans / Ksatriyas / Vaisas or Sudras we must make this stand against the tyranny of the GBC and the corruption of the Rubber Stamped Guru.
We must not live in fear of these people who cower behind their positions and walls of silence while they feed off Śrīla Prabhupāda’s legacy to fatten their bank balances and take all the worship veneration and resources they can get before they die and are thrown into the their respective hells. They are quickly losing power and influence as Kṛṣṇa is exposing more and more of their vile corruption and deceit.
Their disciples are also losing their faith in their bogus gurus as more and more are realizing a guru is not some cheap thing. A guru does not give false displays of emotion or sentiment, visit prostitutes and live the lifestyle of the rich and famous from the money given to them by their disciples. The disciples will soon realize that the person that they chose as their guru was less than the position of a guru and make more informed decisions about their future spiritual life.
The public will also be educated about how our ISKCON society was hijacked and a bogus Rubber Stamped Guru system imposed against the order and teachings of the founder and Ācārya of ISKCON His Divine Grace AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda. They too will be reluctant to buy into the guru thing when they know better.
So now is the time to make a stand for Śrīla Prabhupāda and against the GBC and Rubber Stamped Guru’s of FISKCON. Now is the time to begin gathering together and forming allegiances that are based on our loyalty to Śrīla Prabhupāda that is more than just over the internet. We need to become friends with each other and share our experiences and learn from them. We need to read more of Śrīla Prabhupāda books and so strengthen our knowledge and faith in his status and function in not only our own lives but also his role and function for mankind.
For too long have we hidden in fear of retaliation from the GBC and the disciples of the Rubber Stamped Guru’s of FISKCON. They are rapidly losing what little power they had. Their only real power was fear… It is after it is more dangerous to cross the road than face their puny wrath.
