In2-MeC

ISKCON Salem, Tamil Nadu, India
20 March 2004

I made a couple more small corrections to the entry of 18 March.

One email in response to that entry asked what my answer would be to the argument that Srila Prabhupada's ordering his disciples not to mix closely with the Gaudiya institutions of his Godrothers was a time-place-circumstance instruction. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta stated that not all a spiritual master's teachings are sarva-kalika, for all time; that instruction of Srila Prabhupada's regarding his Godbrothers was not sarva-kalika. It was like the sort of instruction a parent gives to a child that the child will naturally outgrow at a later stage.

There is a glaring gap in the logic of the above argument: where is the evidence that Srila Prabhupada intended that instruction to be temporary? One can find his very clear letters that give the instruction, but one finds no letters that rescind it. Moreover, Srila Prabhupada was himself the acarya of that instruction. He followed it personally because he had sufficient experience to know his Godbrothers could not help his mission.

After Srila Prabhupada got ISKCON up and running he did not go out of his way to get advice from other Gaudiya institutions about how things in his institution should more properly be done. If his giving that instruction to his disciples was actually only out of parental concern for his immature Western students--while he personally was of the conviction that his Godbrothers' advice was really valuable--then for the sake of strengthening his fledgling institution he would have personally not followed that instruction.

After all, when a mother tells a small child, "Do not twist the knobs of the gas cooking stove, it's very dangerous," she does not follow this instruction herself because she has to cook for the family on that stove every day. Thus it is clear that such an instruction is only for a particular time, place and circumstance. But Srila Prabhupada himself followed the instruction that he gave his disciples regarding his Godbrothers. Can anyone argue against that fact? Did he ever call an assembly of his Godbrothers to receive from them clarification on fundamental questions of tattva? Never. A few times he did advise some disciples to take advice from Gaudiya Math sadhus in matters like Deity worship, but Srila Prabhupada retained final say over whether and how that advice should be followed by his disciples. He never said, "Whatever my Godbrothers tell you, that you may accept as my own instruction to you. " He never said surrender to his Godbrothers is the same as surrender to him!

Someone may try this argument: "OK, but Srila Prabhupada's purpose was to set an example by keeping some distance from his Godbrothers so that his simple-minded disciples would better see how to relate to them at the neophyte stage; still, it was a temporary instruction. " I'm so very glad that I've not blundered into a personal philosophy that requires me to defend logic like that. Will a mother stop cooking in order to set the example for her children that touching the gas stove is dangerous?

These are matters that a child can easily understand. There's a problem to understand them only when we don't want to understand. At the point high-sounding ideals become the servants of personal bias, that point is the beginning of politics and the end of philosophy.

In my answer to that email I observed that after Srila Prabhupada's departure, some Gaudiya Math personalities put themselves in the position of knowing better what Srila Prabhupada's instructions meant than the disciples he instructed. To me, that exemplifies why Srila Prabhupada did not want us to mix with them. They are political, he said.

Someone might reply that some of Srila Prabhupada's own leading disciples realized that they had outgrown that instruction, and that is why they sought closer association with his Godbrothers. Thus it was a case of the disciples themselves understanding at the mature stage the true purport of the instruction; it wasn't a case of their being influenced from outside.

History argues against this. Even before Srila Prabhupada departed this world it was clear that some Gaudiya persons were ambitious to assume a role before Srila Prabhupada's disciples as "one who is closer to Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati than your guru is. " And that is why Prabhupada ordered his disciples to not take association from the Gaudiya Math. That a few of Prabhupada's disciples felt they had outgrown that instruction after he departed only logically raises a question about them, not about Prabhupada's instruction. After Prabhupada departed, a few disciples on the West Coast of America thought they could help his mission by making big money dealing in illegal drugs. Was that case of deviating from Prabhupada's instruction on the plea of serving him better also a matter of "mature realization"?

If a fool be associated with a wise man even all his life, he will perceive the truth as little as a spoon perceives the taste of soup. If an intelligent man be associated for only one minute with a wise man, he will soon perceive the truth, as the tongue perceives the taste of soup.

What Did the Acarya Say?

Quotations from Srila Prabhupada's Letters
on his Godbrothers, the Gaudiya Matha, etc.

Regarding B____, T____ Maharaja, they are my Godbrothers, and should be shown respect. But you should not have any inimate connection with them, as they have gone against the orders of my Guru Maharaja. [To Pradumnya dasa, Feb. 17, 1968]

In the meantime I have also received one letter which is very depressing from H____. I understand that he has been induced by B__ Maharaja to be initiated by him for giving him shelter, and this foolish boy has accepted his inducement. This isn't very happy news, and I have replied H___'s letter in the following words, which please take note, and in the future we shall be very cautious about them: 'My dear H____, please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter of March 14, 1968, and I am greatly surprised. I am greatly surprised for B___ Maharaja's initiating you in spite of his knowing that you are already initiated by me. So it is deliberate transgression of Vaisnava etiquette, and otherwise a deliberate insult to me. I do not know why he has done like this, but no Vaisnava will approve of this offensive action. I very much appreciate your acknowledgement of my service unto you, any you will always have my blessings. But you must know that you have committed a great blunder. I do not wish to discuss on this point elaborately now, but if your desire is to know further about it, I will be glad to give you more enlightenment. Hope you are well. ' If H___ writes you a letter, I think you may avoid reply. I do not approve both H___'s and B___ Maharaja's this offensive action. [To Mukunda dasa, March 26, 1968]

I suspect that you have interest in taking instruction from some siksha guru, but in this connection, because you are my disciple, and I think, a sincere soul, it is my duty to refer you to someone who is competent to act as siksha guru. This B___ Maharaja, perhaps you do not know, has been rejected by Guru Maharaj. So I cannot recommend him as siksha guru. I think that he has no actual spiritual asset. For spiritual advancement of life, we must go to one who is actually practicing spiritual life; not to some head of a mundane institution, not to one who has offended his spiritual master in so many ways. I do not wish to go into all details, but I must inform you that this B___ Maharaj may be considered as a black snake, and at the time of his disappearance, my Guru Maharaj did not even wish to have him in his presence due to the character of this B___ Maharaj. So if you are actually serious to take instruction from a siksha guru, I can refer you to one who is most highly competent of all my Godbrothers. This is B. R. Sridhara Maharaj, whom I consider to be even my siksha guru, so what to speak of the benefit you can have from his association. He is living in Navadwip, and if you like, I can give you a letter of introduction as well as I will send him letter to allow you to stay there with him, so if you and Acyutananda are not lost to the poison of B___ Maharaj, and are still serious about advancement of spiritual life, I will advise you to go to Sridhara Maharaj. Or else I do not know what will save you. So my advice to you both is that you immediately leave the unhealthy and envious association of B___ Maharaj. [To Hrishikesha, Jan. 9, 1969]

. . . my spiritual master, His Divine Grace, has decided to stop correspondence with Godbrothers for the following reasons: 1) Some of them are jealous of his activities in this part of the world, 2) the others are not able to help in this great work. Under the circumstances, dry correspondence leads only to strain and misunderstanding. Therefore he has taken your advice and stopped correspondence for the time being. [To Jagannatham, April 28, 1969, by Purushottama dasa on behalf of Srila Prabhupada]

. . . there is immense possibility of spreading this Krishna consciousness movement all over the western world, if it is administered properly. You have rightly said 'You alone are completing this aim of Caitanya Mahaprabhu by giving your full dedication to Lord Krishna and Radha. ' I think, however, that all of my Godbrothers should come out of India and preach this cult all over the world to fulfill this mission of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. But they are busily engaged in constructing temples all separately, and they are satisfied if there is a temple and a little income to provide them with food and clothing, without any spirit of preaching propaganda. Srila Prabhupada said it was better to accept some menial service for maintaining oneself than to get some money by showing the Deities to the innocent public and being satisfied thereby. Now there is great necessity to train preachers in all the camps of our Godbrothers and send them all over the world. Of course, they must be impregnated with a real preaching spirit, without any material profit. Whenever I ask somebody to take this job, they are silent. They are simply satisfied with some mathas, and they have forgotten the preaching spirit of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Maharaj. When none of them came to preach outside of India, I thought I was to do this humble service to His Divine Grace, and by his blessings, I am getting good co-operation from the local boys and girls. That is my satisfaction. Otherwise, none of my Godbrothers is helping me substantially. So I am not very much hampered by this action. I shall try my best to do this job, and you will be glad to learn that I have got already two dozen centers all over the USA, Canada and Europe. Those boys who are helping me are opening branches very quickly and preaching this cult of Krishna consciousness very sincerely. [To Satya Pal, Aug. 31, 1969]

Perhaps you are my only Godbrother who has appreciated my humble service to the cause of Guru Gouranga. All my other Godbrothers are very much envious, as I can understand from their behavior. In your letter dated Nov. 10, 1970, you have written to say that I should inaugerate the installation ceremony. So I am very much obliged to you for your kind invitation, and my program will be as follows . . . [To Puri Maharaj, Dec. 2, 1970]

Regarding Lalitananda, formerly H____, his proposal for joining us does not appear to be very sincere. He wants to keep himself as B___ Maharaja's man, although he has taken permission from B___ Maharaja to leave him and join us. Formerly it was reported that he collected money in Bombay as our representative on behalf of B___ Maharaja, and sometimes it is reported that he advertises ISKCON as a department of the Institute of Oriental Philosophy. I think you should not be very much anxious to re-accept him as our man. [To Gurudasa, May 16, 1973]

. . . now, one thing is I understand that in the past you were visiting L____ P____ and that you may also be planning to continue to visit him when you return to India. This is not approved by me and I request you not to go to see him anymore. He holds a grudge against my Guru Maharaja and even if it is transcendental it will gradually appear mundane in our eyes. Whatever is to be learned of the teachings of Srila Bhaktivinode Thakur can be learned from our books. There is no need whatsoever for any outside instruction. So I hope that you have understood these matters and I pray to Krishna always for your protection and advancement in Krishna consciousness. [To Gurukripa and Yashodanandana Swamis, Dec. 25, 1975]

Under the circumstances we shall fully not co-operate with this Swami B___ and neither shall we form any kind of association with any person whose aim it is to blaspheme the Lord or His pure devotee. [Memo to all temple presidents and sannyasis, Oct. 17, 1975]

I am in due receipt of your letter dated Sept. 3, 1975 with the enclosed statement about B___ Maharaj. So I have now issued orders that all my disciples should avoid all of my godbrothers. They should not have any dealings with them nor even correspondence, nor should they give them any of my books or should they purchase any of their books, neither should you visit any of their temples. Please avoid them. [To Visvakarma, Nov. 9, 1975]

I can understand this cunning P____ dasa has taken advantage of your simplicity. So any one of my godbrothers cannot help me in this way of book writing because they are unfortunate in the matter of preaching work. They are simply trying to infiltrate our society to do something harmful by this attempt. So please do not have any correspondence with this P____ or any of my godbrothers, so-called. And do not do anything without consulting me. You can inform this instruction to everyone and send back to me the sheets of corrections sent to you by P____. I was very much anxious to know how P____ entered in our camp. Now the matter is clear. Be careful for further dealings with such men. [To Karuna Sindhu dasa, Nov. 9, 1975]

Regarding the Gaudiya Matha books being circulated there, who is distributing? Who is sending these books? The Gaudiya Matha does not sell our books, why we should sell their books. Who has introduced these books? Let me know. These books should not at all be circulated in our Society. B____ V____ T____ is very much antagonistic to our Society that he has no clear conception of devotional service. He is contaminated. Anyway, who has introduced these books? You say that you would read only one book if that was all that I had written, so you teach others to do like that. [To Sukadeva dasa, Nov. 14, 1973]

You are right about Sridhara Maharaj's genuineness. But in my opinion he is the best of the lot. He is my old friend, at least he executes the regulative principles of devotional service. I do not wish to discuss about activities of my Godbrothers but it is a fact they have no life for preaching work. All are satisfied with a place for residence in the name of a temple, they engaged disciples to get foodstuffs by transcendental devices and eat and sleep. They have no idea or brain how to broadcast the cult of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. My Guru Maharaja used to lament many times for this reason and he thought if one man at least had understood the principle of preaching then his mission would achieve success. In the latter days of my Guru Maharaja he was very disturbed. Actually, he left this world earlier, otherwise he would have continued to live for more years. Still he requested his disciples to form a strong governing body for preaching the cult of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. He never recommended anyone to be acharya of the Gaudiya Matha. But Sridhara Maharaja is responsible for disobeying this order of Guru Maharaja, and he and two others who are already dead unnecessarily thought that there must be one acarya. If Guru Maharaja could have seen someone who was qualified at that time to be acharya he would have mentioned. Because on the night before he passed away he talked of so many things, but never mentioned an acharya. His idea was acharya was not to be nominated amongst the governing body. He said openly you make a GBC and conduct the mission. So his idea was amongst the members of GBC who would come out successful a self-effulgent acharya would be automatically selected. So Sridhara Maharaja and his two associate gentlemen unauthorizedly selected one acharya and later it proved to be a failure. The result is now everyone is claiming to be acharya even though they may be kanistha adhikary with no ability to preach. In some of the camps the acharya is being changed three times in a year. Therefore we may not commit the same mistake in our ISKCON camp. Actually amongst my Godbrothers no one is qualified to become acharya. So it is better not to mix with my Godbrothers very intimately because instead of inspiring our students and disciples they may sometimes pollute them . . . They cannot help us in our movement, but they are very competent to harm our natural progress. [To Rupanuga, April 28, 1974]

But Srila Prabhupada doesn't want us to follow these letters now.

NOT!

"Correspondence [with these Gaudiya institutions] leads only to strain and misunderstanding. " Experience shows that this is as true now as it was in 1969. So what has changed?

Science proves beautiful women make guys dumb

By The Associated Press

(12/12/03 - HAMILTON, Ontario)

A beautiful woman can make a guy stupid. And now there's science to prove it.

Researchers at McMaster University showed male students pictures of women--both attractive and not-so-attractive. But after seeing a very attractive woman, the men were more likely to make dumb choices.

The Canadian researchers asked the male students to roll dice. If they rolled double digits, they were given a choice of taking 15-to-35-dollars the next day or up to 75 bucks after waiting a while. The men who saw the attractive women were more likely to take the lesser amount.

The researchers say they tried the same test with female students. But there was no lessening of intelligence among the women after looking at hunks.

The researchers say men stop thinking about long-term consequences once the hormones kick-in.

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. )

Hence, in all cases of deviation from the obvious truth. . . of blundering around in a haze of speculation about what is to be done. . . of plain, simple stupidity. . . then, as the French say: cherchez la femme.

At the end of the day, that femme is Maya-devi herself.

<< Back