re: Srila Prabhupada re Greatest Danger to our movement compiled by Damaghosa dasa

[Joseph Langevin]

Greatest Danger to our movement

Compiled by Damaghosa dasa, Seattle USA

I have gathered the following which are very potent quotes from Srila Prabhupada which should act as warnings to us all. When something goes wrong with your car and the red lights start flashing, you know it is time to stop and carefully check things out. Similarly, Srila Prabhupada has given us all warning signs for the sincere and serious devotees to watch out for in our devotional lives. These instructions by Srila Prabhupada act as beacons for us to check out individually and as a whole whether our movement is on the right track or not.

1. Do not create your own process for worshipping Deities

"The greatest danger to our movement will come when we manufacture and create our own process for worshiping the Deities. So don't ask any more new questions, whatever is going on, follow it just to the exact standard as I have given you, that's all…"
Srila Prabhupada in a letter to Dhruvananda, Bombay 4 January, 1973

2. Do not bring personal motivation

"In my books I have tried to explain clearly this simultaneously one and different philosophy acinta beda beda tattva propounded by Lord Chaitanya 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 Krishna Consciousness philosophy."

Srila Prabhupada in a letter to Isana and Vibhavati 21 September, 1970,   Calcutta

3. Bhoga offering order

"Yes, it is nice that you are worshipping Lord Chaitanya along with Radha Krishna. That is alright. Lord Chaitanya should be placed to the right side of Krishna. There is nothing special for His worship, but you may continue as you are doing now. The order of worshipping is first Spiritual Master, and then Lord Chaitanya, then Radha Krishna (as in the mantras or vande aham prayer).Your confidence to do whatever you are instructed by the Spiritual Master is very encouraging. Yes, this is the method of the Vedic injunction, staunch faith in Spiritual Master and Krishna makes one perfect in spiritual understanding."

Srila Prabhupada in letter to Himavati April 1, 1970  Los Angeles

4. Offering goes through Spiritual Master

"Regarding your question about offering Prasadam, whatever is offered to the Deity actually it goes through the Spiritual Master.  The Spiritual Master offers to Lord Chaitanya, and Lord Chaitanya offers it to Krishna. Then Radha Krishna eats, or Jagannatha eats, then Chaitanya Mahaprabhu eats, then the Spiritual Master eats, and it becomes Mahaprasadam. So when you offer something, you think like that and chant the Gayatri mantra, and then everything is complete. At last, ring the bell, take out the plate and wipe the place where the plate was kept."

- Letter to Arundhati, 16 June, 1969, New Vrindaban

5. Slight change will spoil

"One who understands and appreciates the disciplic succession is certainly advanced, and we should always be very careful to give full respect to those who have so carefully handled this Divine Fruit of transcendental knowledge before us. Even a slight change will spoil it. That is why I have always been so careful to give you only those things which I have heard from my Guru Maharaja.”

- Letter to: Devotee & Hamsaduta, Vrindavana, India August 1967

6. No outside instruction

"...Whatever is to be learned of the teachings of Srila Bhaktivinode Thakura can be learned from our [i.e., Srila Prabhupada's books] books. There is no need whatsoever for any outside instruction."

- Srila Prabhupada in a letter dated December 25, 1973

7. Do not mix with Gaudiya Math

Therefore amongst my God brothers no one is qualified to become acharya. So it is better not to mix with my God brothers very intimately, because instead of inspiring our students they may sometimes pollute them. This attempt was made by them previously, especially Madhava Maharaja and Tirtha Maharaja and Bon Maharaja, but somehow I saved the situation. This is going on. We shall be careful about them and not mix with them. This is my instruction to you all. They cannot help us in our movement, but they are very competent to harm our natural progress. So we must be very careful about them."

- Srila Prabhupada in a letter dated April 28, 1974

 

8. Avoid my God brothers

"All my disciples should avoid all of my God brothers. They should not have any dealings with them nor even correspondence, nor should we give them any of my books, nor should we purchase any of their books, neither should you visit any of their temples. Please avoid them."

Srila Prabhupada in a letter dated 9th November, 1975

9. Our sahajiyas more dangerous

 Prabhupada: Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, he said that, "When our men will be sahajiya, oh, they'll be more dangerous."  So our men are becoming, some of them, sahajiyas. This very word he said, that "When our men will be sahajiyas he'll be more dangerous."

Hari-sauri: Without any proper realization, on the basis of being able to read Sanskrit, they delve into all kinds of books, and then they pick fault - "Oh, this rule is not being followed. This is wrong. This is wrong."

Satsvarupa: "We don't chant sixty-four rounds, so that is very bad. We'll never make any progress."

Prabhupada: Sahajiya.

10. Do not manufacture

Prabhupada: Therefore you have got Spiritual Master. Why he is there? Therefore you have to accept Spiritual Master who will give you direction. You cannot do it. If you manufacture your own..., then go to hell. Yasya deve para bhaktir yatha deve tatha gurau, tasyaite kathita hy arthah. Krishna is there; guru is there. Why should you manufacture your own way? If you are sincere, Krishna will dictate from within. Tesam satata-yuktanam bhajatam priti-purvakam. Find out this verse. Tesam satata-yuktanam bhajatam priti-purvakam, buddhi-yogam dadami tam…. Krsna is ready to give you instruction. The Spiritual Master is ready. Why should you do at your whims, and do something wrong and go to hell? Yes?

- Srila Prabhupada in a Lecture on Srimad Bhagavatam Hawaii 1974

11. Danger of Bureaucracy

Srila Prabhupada: "Once there is bureaucracy the whole thing will be spoiled. There must always be individual striving, work and responsibility, competitive spirit, not that one shall dominate and distribute benefits to others and they do nothing but beg from you and you provide. No."

- Srila Prabhupada in a letter dated December 22, 1972

12. Danger of impurity

Srila Prabhupada: "As soon as there is a little impurity, the whole thing will deteriorate and go to hell. We shall not like to take the credit in that case, therefore I am praying simply that all of you, my advanced disciples, GBC men, Temple officers, will become sober-minded."

- Srila Prabhupada in a letter dated December 29, 1972

13. Danger of being whimsical

Srila Prabhupada: "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?"

- Srila Prabhupada in a letter dated September 12, 1974

14. Rogues take advantage of acharya’s disappearance

Unfortunately, when the acharya disappears, rogues and nondevotees take advantage and immediately begin to introduce unauthorized principles in the name of so-called swamis, yogis, philanthropists, welfare workers and so on. The acharya, the authorized representative of the Supreme Lord, establishes these principles, but when he disappears, things once again become disordered. The perfect disciples of the acharya try to relieve the situation by sincerely following the instructions of the Spiritual Master.

- Srimad Bhagavatam, 4.28.48 Purport

 

15. Jealous people in the dress of Vaishnava

"There are many jealous people in the dress of Vaishnavas in this Krishna Consciousness movement, and they should be completely neglected. A false acharya may try to override a Vaishnava by a high-court decision, (2/3 hand vote) but Bhaktivinoda Thakura says that he is nothing but a disciple of Kali-yuga."

16. Kali chela

"Bhaktivinoda Thakura says, Kali-chela. He indicates that there are other Vaishnavas, pseudo-Vaishnavas, with tilaka on their nose and kunti beads around their neck. Such a pseudo-Vaishnava associates with money and women and is jealous of successful Vaishnavas. Although passing for a Vaishnava, his only business is earning money in the dress of a Vaishnava".

- Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya, Ch.1, Text 218 / 220, purport

17. Misuse donations

Achyutananda: If a man says, “I am giving you this donation because it is a spiritual organization,” but if the money is misused, does that man benefit?

Srila Prabhupada: If money is misused, then both of them become implicated. If it is not used for Krishna, then both of them becomes under the laws of karma.

Srila Prabhupada, Conversations, March 14, 1976, Mayapur

18. Falsehood

Srila Prabhupada:  That is the way of falsehood. If once you speak something false, then to protect that falsehood you have to take to so many other falsehoods. This is the way of falsehood.

-  Srila Prabhupada, Conversations, June 2, 1975, Honolulu

19. Too much lying 

By pride, either artificial or real, the resultant action of austerity is spoiled; by too much affection for female association, cleanliness is spoiled; by too much addiction to intoxication, mercy is spoiled; and by too much lying propaganda, truthfulness is spoiled. The revival of Bhagavata-dharma can save human civilization from falling prey to evils of all description.

- Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.17.25

20. Losing link

"Kirtanananda may be eager to address in the Harvard university but recently he has lost his link on account of disobedience. You sing every day morning that by the mercy of the Spiritual Master one can please the Lord and one who has not pleased the Spiritual Master cannot have any access in the realm of Krishna Consciousness. Very recently Kirtanananda has developed a different consciousness of Maya which is called misuse of one's minute independence offered by Krishna.

By misuse of one's independence one at once becomes a victim of Maya and thus he loses all importance in Krishna Consciousness. So it is my definite opinion that his lecture anywhere now will bear no spiritual sequence. He must rectify his mistake before he can play in our Society any important role. By lips he says that he is a surrendered soul but by action he is thinking differently."

Letter to Satsvarupa, Friday, October 6, 1967, Delhi

21. Bogus gurus and their followers go to Hell

Unless one is perfectly anxious to inquire about the way of perfection, there is no necessity of approaching a Spiritual Master. A Spiritual Master is not a kind of decoration for a householder. Generally a fashionable materialist engages a so-called Spiritual Master without any profit. The pseudo Spiritual Master flatters the so-called disciple, and thereby both the master and his ward go to hell without a doubt.

- Srimad Bhagavatam, Purport, 1.19.37

As for your next question, can only a few pure devotees deliver others, anyone, if he is a pure devotee he can deliver others, he can become Spiritual Master. But unless he is on that platform he should not attempt it. Then both of them will to go to hell, like blind men leading the blind.

- Srila Prabhupada in a letter to Tusta Krishna, December 14, 1972

Leaders who have fallen into ignorance and who mislead people by directing them to the path of destruction [as described in the previous verse] are, in effect, boarding a stone boat, and so too are those who blindly follow them. A stone boat would be unable to float and would sink in the water with its passengers. Similarly, those who mislead people go to hell, and their followers go with them.

 - Srimad Bhagavatam, Purport, 6.7.14

[Mario Pineda]

Hare Krishna. Very nice! A step in the right direction!! Number 11 is key. One or a group that will try to dominate should be identified and preached to. Unfortunately, dominators are too competitive separatist, that tend to not care if others exist or not, unless the others support them with no questions asked.  Srila Prabhupada said that the only thing that can destroy the movement, is fighting from within.  

We must to insist on open all inclusive Istagosthi among ALL Prabhupadanugas, so we may fulfill Srila Prabhupada's orders that we unite and cooperate despite our differences. How are we going to defeat the veda vata rata "genes" all over the movement otherwise?

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[Joseph Langevin]

Institutional Gurus Destroy Institutions

[Papal voting and GBC guru voting are ecclesiastic systems -- condemned by Srila Rupa Goswami] 

[Author will remain anonymous]

In fact some teachers tried a few things to set it right in ISKCON like S. S Bhakti Swarupa Damodar Swami, he was a great devotee and Gour Govinda swami was too. Aindra Dasa was good, and SS Bhakti Vikash Swami is an excellent sannyasi. They worked hard to correct ISKCON, but material interests created from within the society are already deeply rooted. You cannot fix people who do not want to be fixed.  

Plus there is a lot of inside competition and desire for supremacy within their guru group. 

The fall of Gunagrahi dasa prabhuji was only sad for some. This was very good and favourable for others, especially his competitors within the institution. There are those who are going to get a big slice of his followers and zone and assets. And another competitor will be happily adopting the new litter of Gunagrahi's abandoned orphans of iskcon. Some of them almost want the other gurus within the institution to fail, then they can move in and takeover some remnants of the zone and followers. And many are now waiting like vultures to divide up the pie when Jayapataka goes away. 

Guru should be the supreme authority, but this does not work for an institutional guru. Srila Prabhupada said the Pope is just a figurehead, and the guru who is regulated by the institution is a figurehead also.

What do you think about the idea of these personalities like Maha hari, Mahajan, Dristha, Baladeva, and who knows who else? They are working to be the ones who will choose and approve the future gurus of iskcon. Then they will be like the gatekeepers to the throne. So there is another big competition to get this type of power. And these GBC gatekeepers will only allow in those lucky few who agree to support the corrupt status quo, and they agree to work under the authority of the gatekeepers.  

But what if we don't read what Srila Prabhupada said? Be sure that what we read was written by Srila Prabhupada. We'll never know or understand the guru tattva otherwise. These institutions are originally inspired and created by the bona fide gurus, mahantas, but their missions can fall into institutional corruption, and then the guru post fails too. 

Never has an institution with so much political leadership like modern ISKCON, which is so fallible, has ever produced a soul who can save the world. Srila Prabhupada blesses any sincere disciple to follow the instructions and be qualified in order to save others. But they have to be qualified to acquire the power to create a healthy institution and save souls. 

Instead, what usually happens is that once people are inside the institution, included some of the leaders and their disciples who try to be honest, they try to live within iskcon and maybe at the same time live outside, but in the end they too are becoming complicit in all the corruption. They have to support the status quo of GBC false gurus just like people had to worship the Pope in medieval times or be branded a heretic. So most people went along with it.

They all have to agree to the main propaganda that gurus are often falling, and then you'll need another institutional initiation guru, its a business arrangement in their group. They are never going to say, Gunagrahi was never a guru and we made a big mistake giving him that position. They are going to say, Gunagrahi was one of our gurus, but gurus fall down. So now you'll need to accept another one of our gurus that we have pre-chosen for you. And now there is a fight to become one of the people who chooses these gurus. 

They never seem to consider that every time their gurus fall down that dozens or maybe hundreds of people leave the institution. The institution is not their main concern, their little guru fiefdom kingdoms are.   

To maintain their status of gurus, they are dependent on being part of the institutional corruption. You must accept to live within the corruption so as not to lose the institutional support. But if a guru is really heavy, he would be going alone and independent with his own power and not depending on a corrupt institution.  

Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Thakur never ran or supported such concepts as these institutional diversions. 

A guru cannot release other imprisoned souls if he is himself a prisoner of a complicated corporate guru administrative system, with terminal illness corruption. One of many cases is how iskcon Mayapur is guilty of so much disobedience to Prabhupada. Many of their gurus have already publicly admitted widespread corruption of their system, at the same time they say we are gurus who are perfected beings. They are creating confusion on purpose so their system will be able to continue for a few more years. 

So they'll sometimes admit it is all corruption, but then they are going to save others by bringing them into the same corruption system as well. But a man who is already in the prison of institutional corruption and maya cannot bring others out of the prison. They need to save themselves before they can save others.  

A person who is only a guru for years, or maybe only a few hours, before he is caught in corruption, this is a failed system. This then filters down to the local situation where people have to deal with the fact their guru was a cheater. And then it comes out that the rest of the leaders supported him anyway knowing he was bogus, and then this discredits the whole Krishna religion. Of course there are many people today who say they do this on purpose because they want to bring down the religion and destroy it. 

So the end product is that more and more people will reject the entire religion. A religion that cannot even produce proper gurus for its worship is destined to become no longer relevant eventually. People will flee and not come back to take it up. The institutional guru program is killing the ISKCON institution, or at least making it no longer relevant. 

PADA: For the the sake of the family, one may abandon an individual. For the sake of a village, one may abandon a family. For the country's sake,one may abandon a village. For the sake of the soul, one may abandon the world (Mahabharata 2.55.10)

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