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EDITORIAL July 16, 1999 VNN4312 Related VNN Stories Follower Of His Example BY ANTARDWIP DAS EDITORIAL, Jul 16 (VNN) — Dear Adri and Madhu Pandit, In contrast to you, we believe there is: 1: No failure on Srila Prabhupada's part to produce qualified vaishnava spiritual masters, 2: No self-contradiction in Srila Prabhupada's teaching on whether his disciples would initiate or not, because we accept his statements at face value and have an straightforward understanding of the word "henceforward". 3: No failure in Srila Prabhupada's ability to communicate clearly to his disciples on the vital subject of initiation, because, unlike you, the vast majority of his closest disciples DO accept Srila Prabhupada's qualified disciples as bone-fide spiritual masters. 4: No contradiction between Srila Prabhupada's teaching for ISKCON and the accepted vedic system of disciplic succession throughout time and throughout India, 5: No disrespect for the four major bone-fide sampradayas, because we accept that other groups also have qualified spiritual masters to initiate. But you have difficulty with all the above. Although you say on one hand his books are to be the law books for ten thousand years, you believe even his closest students are so bewildered over the law of disciplic succession in his books that you consider the lawyers of Calcutta better judges then them. And that is just TWENTY years after he left, not ten thousand! So what value do you, according to your actions, put on being a disciple of Srila Prabhupada? This brings me to my main point. What makes you think that devotees becoming disciples of Srila Prabhupada through you with your association will fare better than those godbrothers you are fighting who became Srila Prabhupada's disciples through him with much much more association from him than you had, especially Madhu Pandit who had none? Do you think godbrothers initiated through yourselves and not trained or given association by Srila Prabhupada directly will do better? You are better than Srila Prabhupada? Why do you want more disciples of Srila Prabhupada - especially without his personal input - when you already consider so many of them to be deluded? " Earlier this year, Sri Madhu Pandit das told Sri Srivatsa das (Hyderabad) when I was in the same room this exact thing: "A powerful diksa-guru such as Srila Prabhupada CAN post-humously initiate and accept disciples. Which sastra says that he cannot do so?"On the one hand you declare Srila Prabhupada as such an effective initiator of disciples that he should be everyone's guru while on the other hand valuing his disciples who had much personal association with Srila Prabhupada as being less spiritually capable than a Calcutta Court. In this case again, why do you want there to be more Prabhupada disciples if you do not value them? Srila Prabhupada writes: "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." Logically, the points 1-5 above cannot be believed if you accept your ritvik philosophy, for ritvik philosophy depends on many defects in Srila Prabhupada, not least his inability to communicate the ritvik theory which only now dawns of yourself twenty years after his departure. You say that over 200 of the 205 or so Temple Presidents in the world and 100% of the GBC are deluded and 0% are capable of giving initiation - that is a serious failing in Srila Prabhupada's ability as a spiritual master, no? This begs the question that if Srila Prabhupada was of the standard to change that primordial vedic tradition on initiation, would he not also have been of the standard to instruct his disciples clearly? With many quotes from Srila Prabhupada such as the above clearly supporting his disciples ability to initiate, surely you hold him responsible for bewildering his disciples? You say the majority are bewildered. We don't, we say that just two or three temple presidents have become carried away with their position and are deluded as to their . I would like to return a favourite quote Adri used to devalue so many humble vaishnavas serving in Calcutta Temple, but apparently never applied to himself, "You are insignificant." Unlike those valuable humble vaishnavas serving their guru you insulted so often whose service made you so significant you feel you can criticize your guru, you are the one who has lost all value because you are serving your material desires. Common sense has somehow got lost in your thinking. And the result is to criticize Srila Prabhupada. You think you have a right to do so because you are a Srila Prabhupada disciple. What of his other disciples' and grand disciples' and public donors' rights without whom you would have done nothing in Calcutta and Bangalore, and whose hard work and donations you are using for purposes other than they were intended? That makes you simply thieves. When Srila Prabhupada was unhappy with the Gaudiya Math, he didn't fight internally and steal Gaudiya Matha money and properties he was not entitled to, he left and served sincerely elsewhere and was successful. Are you disciple (follower of his example) enough to leave? Or only disciple (thief) enough to take? Hare Krishna, Antardwip das Related VNN Stories  Comment on this storyContact VNN about this storySend this story to a friend
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