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EDITORIAL May 10, 1999 VNN3835 See Related VNN Stories The Consequences Of Ritvikism BY JAHNU DAS EDITORIAL, May 10 (VNN) — 1. Ritvikism is a deadly weapon of Kali 2. Guru as God-brother 3. It turns Srila Prabhupada into a zonal-acarya 4. It fosters the idea that one can take diksa from any previous acarya 5. Encourages people to take diksa outside ISKCON 6. Minimizing Srila Prabhupada's potency 7. Wasting time 8. Turning people away from Krishna Consciousness 9. Providing ammunition to the anti-cult movement 10. Offending Vaisnavas 11. It promotes irresponsibility 12. It renders discipleship meaningless 13. It breaches the law of disciplic succession *Ritvikism is a deadly weapon of Kali Kali spreads its influence by creating dissension among devotees. The meaning of Kali is "quarrel". Srila Prabhupada wanted that we expressed our love for him through unity and cooperation. He also said that this movement cannot be stopped by any external agency, but it can be broken from within. Irresponsibly spreading Ritvikism instead of Srila Prabhupada's bona-fide teaching creates confusion and dissension among Vaisnavas. *Guru as God-brother A disciple of an ISKCON guru might accept ritvikism and start considering himself a God-brother of his own spiritual master. Accepting such absurd propositions is one of the gravest forms of the offense called maryada-vyatikrama. "Although one may be well versed in the transcendental science, one should be careful about the offense of maryada-vyatikrama, or impertinently surpassing a greater personality. According to scriptural injunction one should be very careful of transgressing the law of maryada-vyatikrama because by so doing one loses his duration of life, his opulence, fame and piety and the blessings of all the world. ...The Lord never tolerates the impertinence of maryada-vyatikrama." Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.4.26, purport "Our Krishna Consciousness movement is based on complete fellow feeling and love, but there is a word maryada which means respect which should always be offered to the Spiritual Master and elderly members." Srila Prabhupada's letter, 17 April, 1970 So considering oneself as the God-brother of one's diksa-guru is certainly a great and self-destructive offense. *It turns Srila Prabhupada into a zonal-acarya Ritvikists stress that Srila Prabhupada was the only diksa-guru in ISKCON and that he should remain so. Actually, that Srila Prabhupada was the only guru was something circumstantial, not based on some unchangeable principle or injunction. Srila Prabhupada repeatedly invited his God-brothers to preach in the West. Are we to think that, once in the West, Srila Prabhupada would not allow them to be regular diksa-gurus and initiate? Are we supposed to think that they would only act as proxies on behalf of their God-brother, Srila Prabhupada? Ritvikism implies that Srila Prabhupada was and should remain the zonal-acarya of the planet Earth, but where did Srila Prabhupada ever say that he wanted to be the only guru in ISKCON during his presence? What to speak of remaining the only guru after his departure. *It fosters the idea that one can take diksa from any previous acarya This thought itself is an offense. Srila Prabhupada has repeatedly warned us against jumping over present acaryas. Jayagopala, a kayastha from the village Kandra in Bengal was ostracized from the Vaisnava society by Sri Virabhadra Gosvami (an incarnation of Lord Visnu), when he tried to jump over his spiritual master. Recently a ritvik-maya-vadi was preaching to a lady congregational devotee suggesting that she take initiation from Srila Prabhupada, to which she replied, "If I can take initiation from Srila Prabhupada directly, then-being a grihastha-I would rather feel more inspired to take initiation from Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura." Once the principle of taking diksa from a departed acarya is accepted, the sky is the limit. It would be surprising to start seeing people claiming to be initiated by Srila Rupa Gosvami or Srila Isvara Puri. *Encourages people to take diksa outside ISKCON Devotees in general desire a personal guidance in their lives from a living guru. If ritvikism is promulgated, many might feel prompted to go outside of ISKCON to get a living, physical guru with whom to establish a normal guru-disciple relation. Will such spiritual guides give them the pure message and standards presented by Srila Prabhupada? *Ritvikism Minimizes Srila Prabhupada's potency It is said that the potency of a vaisnava is measured by his ability to convert the fallen souls into Vaisnavas. Srila Prabhupada said that his mystic potency was that he converted so many low-born Westerners into Vaisnavas. It is seen that the so-called incarnations, who gather many followers by displaying some mystic power, can't even stop their followers from smoking. According to some ritvik-maya vadis, Srila Prabhupada could not even create one bona fide spiritual master. By such propaganda ("Prabhupada was so great but all his disciples are unqualified") they are destroying the devotees' faith in Srila Prabhupada's preaching efficacy as well. *Wasting time Rtvikists don't seem to realize that all their points have long since been refuted, and so they keep cooking up new shades of their theories. This wastes a lot of time. How many hundreds of ISKCON-hours have been wasted in refuting their stacks of useless, speculative papers? Of course, very few devotees actually read them, being too busy serving Krishna, but it is still a disturbance. *Turning people away from Krishna Consciousness Many people's faith has been affected due to rtvik-vadis' slanderous, anti-ISKCON propaganda. Someone got so affected that he threw away his neck-beads, stopped chanting and left devotional service altogether. Also, by slandering ISKCON in public-in particular on the internet-they are turning people away from the shelter of Srila Prabhupada's lotus feet. *Providing ammunition to the anti-cult movement If anyone has been helped by the ritvikists' preaching, it is the anti-cult people. By creating and propagating their brand of apa-sampradayic thought, ritvikists encourage the enemies of Vaisnavism to see the Hare Krishna movement as a new cult, a dangerous sect with no connection with bona-fide Vedic teachings. *Offending Vaisnavas Ritvik-vadis claim that because so many gurus have fallen the remaining gurus are also fallen, or if they are not already fallen, it is just a matter of time before they will. This is offensive to ISKCON gurus in good standing. It is also a very grave offense to try to destroy the guru-bhakti of disciples and aspiring disciples. In Sri Caitanya-caritamrita (Madhya, 15.261, purport) Srila Prabhupada cites a conversation between Markandeya and Bhagiratha from the Skanda Purana: "My dear King, if one derides an exalted devotee, he loses the results of his pious activities, his opulence, his reputation and his sons. Vaisnavas are all great souls. Whoever blasphemes them falls down to the hell known as Maharaurava. He is also accompanied by his forefathers. Whoever kills or blasphemes a Vaisnava and whoever is envious of a Vaisnava or angry with him, or whoever does not offer him obeisances or feel joy upon seeing a Vaisnava, certainly falls into a hellish condition." Srila Prabhupada also writes: The Hari-bhakti-vilasa (10.314) also gives the following quotation from Dvaraka-mahatmya: kara-patrais ca phalyante sutivrair yama-sasanaih nindam kurvanti ye papa vaisnavanam mahatmanam In a conversation between Prahlada Maharaja and Bali Maharaja, it is said, "Those sinful people who blaspheme Vaisnavas, who are all great souls, are subjected very severely to the punishment offered by Yamaraja." *It promotes irresponsibility It is as if some ritvik-vadis reckon that the best way to avoid responsibility is to become a ritvik-guru and not a regular one. This is not what Srila Prabhupada taught us. Srila Prabhupada often quoted the Bhagavatam verse that says that one should not become guru unless he is able to deliver his dependents: "One who cannot deliver his dependents from the path of repeated birth and death should never become a spiritual master, a father, a husband, a mother or a worshipable demigod." (Srimad-Bhagavatam 5.5.18) Ritvikists defy Srila Prabhupada's request to all his disciples to become qualified and make disciples all over the world. Ritvikists avoid taking responsibility and instead they want to burden Srila Prabhupada with all this obligation. *It renders discipleship meaningless Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita instructs that one should approach a spiritual master in submission, inquire from him, and serve him. Ritvikism empties that relation of meaning and substance. "Disciple means one who is regulated by higher authority. He is disciple. The higher authority is called the spiritual master, and the person who voluntarily submits to him for being regulated, he is called disciple." Srila Prabhupada's lecture, 25February, 1975 "A disciple means who voluntarily agrees to be disciplined by the spiritual master. When one becomes disciple, he cannot disobey the order of the spiritual master. Sisya. Sisya, this word, comes from the root sas-dhatu, means "I accept your ruling." Srila Prabhupada's lecture, 11 February, 1975 "A Spiritual Master has the right to chastise his disciple any way He likes. A sisya or a disciple means one who accepts the disciplinary action given by the Spiritual Master. Even although sometimes a Spiritual Master chastises his disciple as a fool or rascal in fatherly affection, it does not mean necessarily that the disciple is a fool or a rascal. You will find even in the statement of Lord Caitanya-He presents Himself as a fool designated by His Spiritual Master, but that does not mean that He was a fool. A sincere disciple feels it pleasurable when his Spiritual Master chastises him with calling him such names as fool and rascal. My Spiritual Master sometimes called me in that way and I remember that day always and feel transcendental pleasure." Srila Prabhupada's letter, 27th January, 1970 *It breaches the law of disciplic succession "Keep trained up very rigidly and then you are bonafide Guru, and you can accept disciples on the same principle. But as a matter of etiquette it is the custom that during the lifetime of your Spiritual Master you bring the prospective disciples to him, and in his absence or disappearance you can accept disciples without any limitation. This is the law of disciplic succession." Srila Prabhupada's letter, 2 December, 1975 See Related VNN Stories | Comment on this story | Contact VNN about this story | Send this story to a friend
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