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EDITORIAL August 9, 1999 VNN4463 Related VNN Stories The Devotee Abuser Now Abuses His Guru BY ANTARDWIP DAS EDITORIAL, Aug 9 (VNN) — Dear Anuttma prabhu, You write (and thanks for writing): "Sri Antardwipa Das suggests that Adridharan and Madhu Pandit Prabhus step out of ISKCON if they are "unhappy" with the system of initiations currently practised in ISKCON. " "And don't tread the path laid by the "qualified disciples" - removing sincere & honest devotees -- the real followers, from Prabhupada's home, it will serve you no good purpose. Gone are the days when you could manipulate the devotees, beat them up, remove them from temples and brainwash them." Adri is no victim of anyone, and far from being thrown out of ISKCON, he is throwing Srila Prabhupada's entire society out of Calcutta Temple with his present court action. Adri is the one who is being harsh on ISKCON. Adri deals harshly with everyone, and despite many changes of GBC to try to accommodate him, no GBC has yet been able to develop a working relationship with him. And still he has been kept on as President - so where is harsh ISKCON? To those under him OR above him he demands total compliance and throws out anyone who - not just challenges him - but just is not his sold-out supporter, into the street. As an example, he once got the hired outside guard to throw a vaishnava I know well, into the street (down two flights of stairs) just because he was chanting his rounds instead of being in class - honestly, it's true. There are dozens of sad stories of abuse like this, especially with the Bengali vaishnavas. The Bengalis used to make a rather racist joke saying Adri being a Sindhi, when he dies, five vultures take birth, he is so heartless. The western devotees used to say that Adri interprets humility and tolerence in vaishnavas to mean he can exploit and abuse vaishnavas. These claims of harsh treatment by persons like Adri (or other leaders) are like the wolf creating chaos in the hen house, jumping outside and saying "Look what a mess the hens have made!". Many of our harshest leaders, on leaving, claim that ISKCON is harsh, actually ISKCON is gentler for their absence, not vice versa. Of harsh leaders, Adri certainly is a leader. You say gone are the days "when you could manipulate the devotees... sincere and honest devotees..., beat them up, remove them from temples and brainwash them." This is a good description of your Adri in the past and nowadays, why do you say those days are gone, if you want him to stay in ISKCON? Adri, by going to the Calcutta Courts has taken his enviousness to a new level and shown that the ritviks don't care even if they break Srila Prabhupada's heart to achieve their aims. The ritviks have taken over where the zonal acharya system left off in trying to dismantle the ISKCON family. You say "Srila Prabhupada did not give any instruction (known to us at present) to stop that system of initiation upon his departure" - so: 1: Where did Srila Prabhupada take back his instruction that the GBC were the authority in ISKCON? So why don't you follow that? 2: Where did Srila Prabhupada retract his statement that only a disciple of Kali would use the courts to decide spiritual conflicts? So why don't you follow that? 3: Srila Prabhupada said he wanted "All my disciples to become spiritual masters" Prabhupada NEVER contradicted himself in philosophical matters. Srila Prabhupada was always philosophically consistent, and the perfect understanding of his having ritvik priests to conduct initiations was that it was a system adopted to initiate disciples in his last months when he couldn't initiate personally, and when etiquette prevented his disciples to take disciples during his manifest presence. Now he has left, etiquette allows them to initiate. That's it. And now everything he has said about his disciples taking disciples was not a mistake of his, as ritviks claim, but still stands. Even though some disciples have failed as spiritual masters, others are doing fine. Still, we aim to improve our society and fulfill Srila Prabhupada's desires to the point that ALL his disciples will become the compotent spiritual masters Srila Prabhupada wanted and that his followers deserve. Because Srila Prabhupada's potency is that great. I don't think Adri will make better Srila Prabhupada disciples than Srila Prabhupada himself made. And why he would want to make more Srila Prabhupada disciples beats me, because he thinks the Calcutta Court has more spiritual knowledge! Perhaps he should get people to take initiation from Calcutta lawyers, no? Where's his logic? In his wallet, perhaps. Again, thank you for your reply, Antardwip das Related VNN Stories  Comment on this storyContact VNN about this storySend this story to a friend
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