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EDITORIAL December 29, 1998 VNN2755 See Related VNN Stories Thesis, Antithesis, Synthesis BY JAYANTAKRID DASA EDITORIAL, Dec 29 (VNN) — Dear prabhus, accept my obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. The guru issue is being debated once more, a symptom indicating that there is something deeply wrong with it, and that the reform measures have not addressed the real problem. What is our common concern ? We want to make sure that those who take the position of diksa-gurus in Srila Prabhupada's movement are qualified to do so, don't we? The GBC says, although he admitted the opposite in ISKCON Journal in 1990, that Prabhupada gave the order to become diksa-gurus to eleven devotees, and that it's up to the GBC to allow other devotees to take up the post . On the other hand, as Prabhupada is the only person they knew and trust to be qualified, many devotees embrace the post-samadhi rittvik theory. But both sides share the same concern cited above. And everyone, at least I hope so, is concerned to do what Prabhupada wanted. The arguments center around the May 1977 conversation where Prabhupada expressed his desire. Let us look at it once more, trying to leave behind our favorite interpretation of it. If you analyze the question asked by SDG, it is actually a double question: What to do in the near future about initiations? To which Prabhupada simply and clearly answered that he would recommend some officiating acaryas or rittviks. To the second part of the question: what to do after you're not with us anymore, he also simply and clearly answered: "When I order: 'You become guru' he becomes a regular guru. That's all." So, he doesn't at all order there and then to the eleven to become diksa-gurus as soon as he leaves the planet as wrongly interpreted by the GBC. He speaks about the order but doesn't give it, neither in May neither in the July 9 letter. He only said "When I order 'you become guru' he becomes a regular guru. That's all." So when was that order given? Both sides agree that Prabhupada is only absent to our illusioned eyes but that he is always there. So, the order to become a regular guru was not to be given to all his disciples during his physical presence, but when they would achieve the qualifications taught by Prabhupada, they would receive that order from him in a mystical transmission. Didn't Prabhupada say that his Guru maharaja came to him in dreams to request him to go and preach and take sannyasa? Didn't Srila Bhaktisiddhanta have a vision of his guru and of the Panca-tattva who told him to go out and preach? The GBC concocted system of voting in gurus is wrong, especially because if you analyze it closely, they don't really certify him to be anything, just that a number of senior devotees in his zone consider him to be 'strictly following Prabhupada' for whatever that means. The post-samadhi rittvik system is wrong as it doesn't rest on our triple authority of guru-sastra-sadhu and should therefore be seen as what it is, religion without philosophy or an excessive reaction to the excessively big errors made by the GBC and its excessively damaging consequences. What is not wrong is to become a diksa-guru if one is qualified according to sastra and Prabhupada, and if one has received this order from him. So the devotees should be educated to the standards needed to be a diksa-guru. A comparison with those already in place is not what the sastra and Prabhupada teach. For instance, what is diksa? According to sastra, it is to give divya-jnana and counteract sinful reactions. Then, what is divya-jnana? It translates as 'transcendental knowledge' so many think it means to give sastric knowledge. Some ISKCON gurus say they give it by making sure their disciples read Prabhupada's books. But that is not what it means. It is defined by Jiva Goswami in his Bhakti-sandarbha as 'knowledge of the original form of the Lord, along with knowledge of the specific relationship of the disciple with the Lord, in a seed form, in the mantra given by the guru'. So unless one is on the level of possessing this knowledge, what is he playing at? To my knowledge Prabhupada gave the order to HH Gour Govinda Maharaja to be a diksa-guru. He must have been on that level. Other devotees have been told by Prabhupada to wait until qualified. Then they will receive the order. Those who have prematurely taken the position of diksa-guru should be merciful enough to send their disciples to someone who can give them what they are themselves unable to give. When HH Gour Govinda Maharaja was there, it was easy, but now that he is been driven out by envious politics of those who saw him as a competitor in their guru-game, it is more difficult since no one in ISKCON apparently has these qualifications. Or is the GBC ready to certify any of the present ISKCON diksa-gurus to be really without a doubt fully qualified? Then what to do? Should we be so narrow-minded, blind, cruel as to deny new devotees or others the shelter of a qualified guru just because he doesn't belong to ISKCON? Are the members of our parampara members of ISKCON strictly speaking? No. But have we ever considered them to be 'outside of ISKCON'? This 'outside of ISKCON' has been made political, emotionalized and rendered synonymous with deloyal to Prabhupada. But is anyone in the GBC ready to defend the case that everything they have done so far was perfectly loyal to Prabhupada? Those who are fortunate by dint of their sukriti don't waste their time with polemics. They take advantage of sadhusanga, wherever it is available, and don't confine themselves to institutional boundaries. But it seems that too many devotees have a poor understanding of guru-tattva. They want to limit Sri Guru to the person of Prabhupada. They don't like to associate with saints next to whom they look as what they are and not what they think or want others to think they are. They stagnate as do all those who haven't learned after all these years the importance of being under the loving guidance of a living saint. That opportunity was available in ISKCON with HH Gour Govinda Maharaja. Krishna couldn't tolerate any longer to see him mistreated by envious so-called Godbrothers and took him back. Now it seems that this opportunity is made available only outside of ISKCON. As a matter of fact, HH Bhaktivedanta Narayana Maharaja said before he went first to the West: "It was not my desire nor my mission, but now that HH Gour Govinda Maharaja is not there anymore, there is no one qualified to teach all the vaisnava siddhantas so Prabhupada is forcing me, dragging me all over the world." If we don't take advantage, then really ISKCON has become IMSKCON, an imitation of ISKCON. I do not know all my Godbrothers. There may be one who is a qualified person and who has received Prabhupada's order. I do not lump him in of course. General statements always make room for exceptions. I may be accused of being very proud to claim to be able to tell that so many gurus are not qualified. Well, when you have seen the real thing, like Prabhupada, you have some idea, then when you pray and cry to him that you need a living saint to become a better disciple and then you meet someone like HH Gour Govinda Maharaja you also get an idea, and you can compare. Then you can differentiate between the saintly preceptors, like HH Narayana Maharaja or HH Bhakti Promode Puri Maharaja and so many pupils playing teachers even if sincerely. Your servant Jayantakrid dasa. See Related VNN Stories | Comment on this Story This story URL: http://www.vnn.org/editorials/ET9812/ET29-2755.html
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