Суд над Бхагавад-гитой / Attempt to ban Bhagavad-gita

6) Srila Prabhupada directly doubts whether there is any possibility that the management will carry on after his departure. We can see that his doubt was not only utterly justified, but was directly a wanting to us all. 7) Srila Prabhupada specifically states that the whole movement may become victimized and spoiled by the GBC. It has come to take place; 8) Srila Prabhupada specifically states that the GBC men, who call themselves Srila Prabhupada's "direct representatives," have a propensity to simply plot and scheme. In this section, we are exposing many of those plots and schemes. We ask you also to expose these to all those who are sincere enough to hear and benefit from these truths.

"...if he received the vote, why you have opposed? You must be impartial. My recommendation is that he must be the president. He has been chosen by the vote, and I am giving the casting vote for him. He is doing things very nicely there, so he must be the president, Prabha Vishnu should go on Sankirtan, and Madhavananda should be president. Everything must go on. The women are doing nicely so why are they being changed from the pujari to the Sankirtan? These things should be done by the President. These are internal things, and you should not interfere. I do not approve of your changing the women. It should be the choice of Madhavananda who should be the pujari.

"Why did you close Edinburgh without asking me? Paramahamsa reports that you have closed the Edinburgh temple. Edinburgh was doing nicely. You can't close a temple without asking me? Is it too much to do this? Our propaganda is opening temples, and you are closing them. We are not for closing but for increasing. I do not approve of this. If possible the Edinburgh temple must be re-opened again. (Ed. note: It was re-opened.)

"If you close the temple, what is the management? Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu pushed the Sankirtan movement, but He never said to close the Jagannatha temple or the Govindaji temple. In Edinburgh we had a nice house, why you have closed it? Why you have whimsically done this? If possible the Edinburgh temple must be reopened. Don't do anything whimsically without consulting me.

"I made the GBC to give me relief, but if you do like this, then where is the relief.? It is anxiety for me. This is the difficulty, that as soon as one gets power, he becomes whimsical and spoils everything. What can I do? " (Hansadutta, 9/12/74)

Note: A very important point in this letter is that the GBC must not interfere with the internal dealings of a temple. That means they are not insiders but outsiders simply observing the activities of the temple. If they detect deviation, they may recommend replacement. That's all. Not that they have anything to do with a temple's preaching activities. The President is the leader of any temple, and the GBC has nothing to do with his plans or preaching desires, unless they go against Prabhupada's instructions. Most of the GBC don't know those instructions however, so basically every temple is on its own. If a temple president doesn't want any of these rubber-stamped "top" men to perch up on big seats in the temple, then he has the right to nip that imposition. This is now happening in ISKCON's first liberated temple, Berkeley. Hopefully many more win follow that shining example.

As stated in a previous chapter the cause of disturbance in ISKCON is ignorance. That is clear. But there is also another cause as mentioned in the following letters: personal ambition. If the current leaders are sincere, then we can easily remove this disturbance by bringing out knowledge through discussion and debate. But if ISKCON's disturbance is an intentional display of personal ambition, then it has to be removed by other means. You can only wake up a sleeping man, not a man pretending to be asleep.

Srila Prabhupada here confirms the famous quote that power corrupts, and so naturally, absolute power corrupts absolutely when the "schemers" are not in absolute knowledge.

"Our life is very short. The Krsna consciousness movement is not meant for fulfilling one's personal ambition, but it is a serious movement for the whole world." (Satsvarupa, 7/31/70)

"In my books I have tried to explain clearly this simultaneously one and different philosophy, 'acintya bheda bheda tattva', propounded by Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu. But sometimes it happens that this philosophy is given a self-interested interpretation. As soon as personal motivation comes in it is not possible for one to understand our Krsna consciousness philosophy." (Ishan, 9/70)

"As alleged by you I have received complaints against Bali Mardan and his wife, so seriously so much so that the girl has declared that Bali Mardan is an incarnation of bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakura on my name. In India some of the important members they have collected huge amounts in the name of the Society and spent it luxuriously. I wanted you all my experienced disciples should manage the whole institution very cleverly without any personal ambition like ordinary materialistic men. The Gaudiya Math institution has become smashed, at least stopped its program of preaching work on account of personal ambitions.

"So whatever is done is done. I shall request you all not to be personally ambitious. I shall do everything in my power to fulfill your personal ambition, but that will be done in due course of time when you are fully trained up and following the regulative principles and chanting 16 rounds." (Karandhar, 10/8/74)

"We have worked very hard and established a great institution, but if we think for our personal benefit then it will become ruined. This is my only concern." (Chayavana, 11/1/74)

"Regarding Brahmananda, he is actually surrendered soul, but Maya is so strong that on account of association he has even fallen down. So these two things are always side-by-side: Maya and Krsna; Krsna is service and Maya is sense gratification, so every moment we are prone to be subjugated by either of them. Our duty is therefore to be very, very careful. The poison is personal ambition. So everyone has the chance, therefore one should not be complacent. Doubts may come about, but one should be firmly fixed up that there cannot be any doubt on the Spiritual Master or Krsna. (Satyabhama, 11/7/70)

Note: These letters indicated the razor's edge. Unfortunately, the leading secretaries have all fallen off the edge. They are now completely entangled, having been carried away by personal ambition. The facilities they took to exploit various situations have degraded them beyond hope. That is the penalty for falling under Maya's enticement in the form of the lure of personal ambition. We should not remain sentimental. Srila Prabhupada did more than just warn us; he stated clearly that these things were happening. It has not been rectified. On the contrary, it has become far, far worse. We should stop being ostriches. Srila Prabhupada now goes on to describe all these personally ambitious "disciples."

"I am hearing so many things about management. My request is that until I am able to return to the USA you all please work peacefully. At our next annual meeting at Mayapur all complaints and counter complaints will be heard in the presence of all GBC and I will also be present. In the meantime work peacefully without disturbing the situation.

"In Bengal there is a proverb that even if there are some dead metal utensils but when they are together they make so much noise, so what to speak of living utensils. So this is natural, but since we are all pledged to work for Krsna, we should follow the principle of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu; trnad api... This is Vaisnavism. So my request is do not be agitated. Let us do our duty honestly. Krsna will give us the intelligence to do everything nicely.

"Europeans and Americans are very agitative, but since we have all taken pledge to the service of Krsna we have to change this habit for the peaceful service of Krsna." (Ramesvara, 9/15/74)

Note: "Noisy living utensils" do not qualify as gurus. Ramesvara is still so agitated that he now has all sorts of nervous disorders, including serious ulcers. His nickname has become Rage-esvara. It is also well known that Rage-esvara is very fond of going to movies, especially science fiction movies. He was recently seen standing in the line for the movie "Dune" and it is said he has seen "Star Wars" five times. Of course many devotees, having been forced out of their father's temples, go to movies nowadays for lack of any kind of an organized society to take shelter within. A man wishing to take the responsibility of guru, however, should not be interested in such mundane things. Prabhupada was lenient with the congregational devotees, especially householders, but the leaders he insisted be exemplary.

"The future hope of solid standing of our mission is on the proper management of our governing body. Now we are increasing in volume. The area of our activity is expanding. Under the circumstances, if our management goes on nicely to maintain our prestige and good name, that will be our success. Such status quo can be maintained only on our being freed from any kind of sense gratifying attitude, because pure devotional service means: 'anyabhilasita sunyam,' or without any other desire than to satisfy Krishna." (Bhagavandasa, 2/16/71)

Note: The GBC's duty is supposed to be to make sure the purest standards are being followed by everyone, especially themselves. That's all. The householders will naturally be on all different levels of austerity, as stated in the next letter, but the leaders have to be purely following. If the leaders themselves are agitated sannyasis with no real freedom from desires for household fife, then how can they lead a community of householders? Some of these sannyasi leaders, the homosexuals especially, haven't the faintest idea of what a healthy Krsna conscious community is. Therefore, they cannot possibly help the householders. On the contrary, they are very expert at creating disturbances amongst them. In normal circumstances, sannyasa is a graduation from householder life, not something to accept if you are too irresponsible to be a householder. This is all clearly explained in Chapter 9.

"So far Dayananda, I have no objection if the grihastas live outside and earn money, but I do not want them to leave. The strict temple procedure is only for those who live in the temple. Grihastas should live outside, and they cannot follow strictly everything, but why they should give up altogether their devotional procedures? So many big stalwart devotees are leaving, why is this? Advaita, Uddhava, Krsnadasa, and now our Dayananda and Nandarani. I have sent them each one letter, so if you find them, you may deliver them my letters. This is not at all good if our big devotees fall down so easily and go away. Try to save them." (Karandhar, 7/14/72)

Note: This is called expanding to wider and wider circles as Prabhupada wanted. It is not necessary that everyone who is interested in Krsna consciousness be expected to "follow strictly everything." ISKCON's current leaders are very casual about their own tendencies, but if the "common, insignificant devotees" break a regulative principle or two occasionally, then they are quick to castigate such devotees, even to the point of destroying their families. Such leaders who have this tendency to destroy families, and thus create varnasankara should be utterly rejected. In some circumstances, when the destruction is deliberate, execution is justified in sastra. (BG, 1.36)

"I have also received the enclosed pictures of the proposed house. I am thinking that you are a very sincere devotee. I am remembering that during my recent visit there in Australia how during the kirtan you were seeing to my personal and not letting anybody come forward and still leading the kirtan. When you begin the chanting, everybody becomes captivated, and you can go on without stopping. I feel happy that even after my departure, things will go on. I am happy that I have got so many sincere devotees who will carry on. That is my happiness." (Madhudvisa, 9/18/74)

Note: According to this letter, Madhudvisa should be appointed a guru. After all, Prabhupada is saying here that, after he leaves, Madhudvisa will carry on with the mission. The point is, devotees may receive very encouraging letters from Srila Prabhupada, but it does not insure that they will continue on the straight-and-narrow path. We do not question Madhudvisa's faith. He is a devotee. But one can lose staunch sincerity despite the best encouragement, and where it has happened the worst is with those who pose and impose themselves upon the innocent devotees.

"The Miami situation is a great discredit for us because we have made such a bad impression on the neighbors that they have had us )kicked out. This is because of nasty management. Rupanuga was the GBC, and now you are, why it cannot be made clean? Avirama has proved his poor management, so he must be replaced... One thing is though, if the management continues to be so nasty, then that place will also be ruined. Management must be done very nicely otherwise it is useless." (Satsvarupa, 6/4/75)

"Now by the grace of Krishna we have got sufficient properties all over the world, so there cannot be any diplomacy or conspiracy by any sane man. All these properties and opulences, whatever we have got, this will not go with me when I go away from this world. It will remain here. I am training some of my experienced disciples how to manage after my departure. So if instead of taking th etraining if in my life time you people say I am the Lord of all I survey, that is dangerous conspiracy." (Karandhar, 10/8/74)

Conclusion: From these letters it is clear that Prabhupada was not very pleased with the GBC. He just wanted to retire to his translating and not have to deal with them. But then "Tamala would fly 10,000 miles to lodge a complaint against Jayatirtha." So what could he do? He had given us plenty of books, lectures, and letters, and he knew that if just one sincere soul would actually read them, then everything would go on. So he decided to leave.

Sane men do not engage in diplomacy and conspiracy. The pull of opulences and properties is illusory. No one can keep the control forever. It was not that simply some small section of devotees was trained by Srila Prabhupada. The training was open to everyone and still is. In Srila Prabhupada's personal presence, those "top men" he hoped to train instead became enwrapped in personal ambition. They have been thinking, for some time now, that they are the Lord of all they survey. This GBC has become a Gang of Blasphemous Conspirators. It is a very dangerous conspiracy. The Krsna consciousness movement, as established by Srila Prabhupada, is vital for the upliftment of the entire world. Now it has become almost completely spoiled by the GBC and particularly the guru sub-section. Of course they required help and so there are many fools keeping the thing propped up. And many innocent people, because of their ignorance, are also allowing this conspiracy to stay in power. We can only pray to Lord Sri Krsna, and to the real guru parampara, that some sincere disciples of Srila Prabhupada will intently read these letters, as presented above, and, without prejudice, recognize the legitimacy of our explanations concerning them. Then the duty becomes obvious.

Comments, inquiries, or donations toward this book, of which this is a rough advance copy, may be sent to: Steve Bryant (Sulocana dasa), 2124 Kittredge #32, Berkeley, CA 94794. Thank you.