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EDITORIAL September 27, 1999 VNN4809 Related VNN Stories Srila Prabhupada Rejects "Ritvikism" Outright BY MADAN MOHAN DASA EDITORIAL, Sep 27 (VNN) — Dear Satyahit Prabhu and VNN readers, please accept my dandavat pranams. All glories to Sri Guru and Gauranga! Thank you for responding to my article. All polite feedback is very much appreciated. In response to "Srila Prabhupada Recommends Direct Sanga with Pure Vaishnavas", Satyahit Prabhu wrote: "Concerning your quoted point that the ritviks say that "no living guru is necessary", Srila Prabhupada said that,"sometimes no uttama adhikari is present". Please excuse me, we had the exact quote & can again search for it if you like, however in effect Srila Prabhupada did say that "sometimes no pure devotee may be present physically". ...So fundamentally, we philosophically disagree with your article, & so apparently does Srila Prabhupada, at least on the point mentioned, since his quote contradicts your assertion." With respect (and I hold anyone who has served Srila Prabhupada for 30 years in high esteem), Srila Prabhupada's statement that "sometimes no uttama-adhikari is present" does not in any way confirm the "ritvik" assertion that "no living guru is necessary", or indeed contradict my assertion that such interpretation of Srila Prabhupada's teachings has no sastric support whatsoever. The proclaimed "ritvik" presumption is that no pure Vaishnava is now physically present, or will be for the next 10,000 years, hence "ritvikism". This notion does not follow logically from Srila Prabhupada's above statement, is disproved outright by the fully verifiable presence of several physically-present uttama-Vaishnavas, finds no sastric validation within any of Srila Prabhupada's books and no such interpretation of Srila Prabhupada's teachings is in any way necessary, as they are crystal clear, perfect and unambiguous. In a nutshell, Srila Prabhupada formed his Iskcon institution to facilitate direct, pure sadhu-sanga for conditioned souls, above all else. Without facilitating such pure, direct sanga Iskcon is enfeebled as just one of many thousands of mundane religious institutions, i.e. utterly useless in this world. That is not how I see Srila Prabhupada's Iskcon. Srila Prabhupada instructs us unequivocally: "...The neophyte devotee must be protected by being surrounded by pure devotees...A so-called mature devotee, however, commits a great offense by giving up the company of pure devotees...By one's mental concoctions one falls down." (Sri Chaitanya Caritamrta Madhya-lila 19.157, purport) Srila Prabhupada in his fully authoritative purports to his fully authoritative translation of Sri Chaitanya Caritamrta, the foremost authoritative scripture of the Gaudiya Vaishnava bhagavata-guru parampara thereby makes the crystal clear assertions: 1) All neophyte aspirants on the path of Krishna-bhakti must always be protected by being surrounded by pure devotees 2) Avoiding such direct, pure sanga is an offence 2) By mental concoctions, we fall down By all intelligent consideration "ritvikism" is exposed as a mental concoction with zero sastric validation or support from any recognised bona fide authority representing the Gaudiya Vaishnava line of acaryas. "Ritvik" philosophy is invariably characterised by rhetoric interspersed with sastric quotes which may incidentally refer to the subject matter being addressed within the rhetoric, but which do not actually support such assertions. "It is indicated that to learn the transcendental science, it is imperative that one avoid the company of undesirable persons and always seek the company of saints and sages who are able to impart lessons of transcendental knowledge. The potent words of such realized souls penetrate the heart, thereby eradicating all misgivings accumulated by years of undesirable association." (Sri Chaitanya Caritamrta Adi-lila 1.59, purport) The "ritvik" position is one of wilful avoidance of pure sadhu-sanga on the false assumption that no such pure Vaishnavas are present on the planet, when there is overwhelming evidence confirmed by guru, sadhu, sastra to prove the very tangible physical presence of such pure souls. Why would Srila Prabhupada direct us to "always seek the company of saints and sages who are able to impart lessons of transcendental knowledge" if no such persons are to be found? Was he deceiving us, telling us to search for non-existent sadhus? Or is it the claims of the "ritviks" that don't stand up to close scrutiny? "The Final Order", when analysed for sastric support for "ritvik" philosophy does not actually contain one shred of sastric evidence to support the notion of abandoning Srila Prabhupada's recommended search for pure Vaishnavas in favour of surrendering to progressively less and less qualified, unsheltered "ritvik" pseudo-gurus either now, or at any time during the next 10,000 years. Srila Prabhupada's statement "sometimes no uttama-adhikari is present" means "sometimes no uttama-adhikary is present", which is plainly self-explanatory. It does not translate into "apart from me there are none now, nor will there ever again be any other pure Vaishnavas physically present on this planet, after my departure", which is plainly self-deluding. The bottom line (if we can face up to the unpalatable truth) is that the "ritvik" philosophy has come about as the result of displaced disciples of Srila Prabhupada - rejected by the "official" GBC-approved guru hierarchy - trying to establish their own, alternative positions as gurus under the pretext of "loyalty to Srila Prabhupada". The outward intention may be very sincere, but the expressed desire to "represent Srila Prabhupada" is not supported by Srila Prabhupada's instructions for all neophytes to take direct shelter of pure Vaishnavas, and would seem to suggest an underlying aspiration for tatasta-shakti baddha-jivas to artificially occupy the position of svarupa-shakti Sri Guru, which is untenable. The only credible position for a conditioned soul guru to accept is to point the way towards the lotus feet of pure Vaishnavas who can actually be validated according to guru, sadhu and sastra as Sri Guru and who alone can impart divya-jnana into the heart of aspiring sadhakas. "Ritvik" philosophy is both without sastric foundation and totally untenable in all respects, with unrealised neophytes falsely assuming the position of sad-guru and thereby rejecting Srila Prabhupada's teachings outright. The "best of both worlds" position expounded by the unsheltered exponents of "ritvikism" aspires for all the honour, glory and prestige of being identified as "Srila Prabhupada's loyal servant" while accepting none of the responsibility of accepting Srila Prabhupada's actual personal guidance coming from Krishna in the form of any of His other unlimited manifestations as Sri Guru. To impose limitations on Sri Guru - Sri Krishna's omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent svarupa-shakti - is little different from equating the demigods with Sri Krishna. Sri Guru must by definition always be present in one form or another, though perhaps not always in human form or even very easily found during certain periods of history. If we accept Sri Krishna's promise to personally appear "wherever and whenever there is a decline in religion", then He could not but be present now when so much apasiddhanta and aparadha is rampant in the name of "Krishna consciousness". It is vitally important in grasping the essence of the untenable "ritvik" philosophy to always remember that "ritvik" followers are all being asked to strenuously avoid Krishna in the form of Sri Guru and ignore Srila Prabhupada's most vital instruction - to always seek out direct, pure sadhu-sanga - in favour of taking shelter of conditioned souls who are desperate to be recognised as "gurus" in their own right under the seemingly attractive but actually deceptive claim of faithfully following Srila Prabhupada's orders. "Ritvikism" has appeared due to the internal political turmoil within the Iskcon institution, all of which has occurred as a result of misinterpreting or ignoring Srila Prabhupada's essential instructions, albeit with good intentions. The "Final Order" paper, presented as the definitive "ritvik sastra" itself presumes to supercede all of Srila Prabhupada's books, the essential teachings of which are consistently ignored, distorted and contradicted based on a painfully tenuous extrapolation of the word "henceforward" plucked from one relatively unimportant letter referring to formal administrative procedures a few weeks prior to Srila Prabhupada's departure. Such a last-minute U-turn and drastic change to the authorised teachings of the entire Gaudiya Vaishnava bhagavata-guru parampara would hardly reflect Srila Prabhupada's faithful adherence to the teachings and orders of all his preceding acaryas. In essence, the "Final Order" portrays Srila Prabhupada's most valuable contribution to the mission of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and his ultimate legacy to all his disciples and followers as something like: "Please ignore all the essential teachings conveyed in my books, always strenuously avoid the association of pure Vaishnavas - none of whom exist apart from myself or will ever be seen again after my departure (i.e. between 1977 and the end of the twelfth millenium, 12,000 A.D.) - and "henceforward" establish a "ritvik" system whereby all aspiring Gaudiya Vaishnava devotees for the next ten thousand years can only ever receive bona fide initiation and divya-jnana through an ever-degrading succession of unsheltered neophyte "officiating gurus", the necessity for whom will be brought about by the failiure of my eleven officially-appointed "successors" to actually carry my mission forward according to my desires. In the event of any challenge to the "ritvik guru" system whereby supporting evidence is requested according to the infallible validation of guru, sadhu, sastra all "ritvik" proponents shall be required to: 1) shout "JAI PRABHUPADA" and "ALL GLORIES TO SRILA PRABHUPADA" very loudly, 2) write voluminous "position papers" consisting of 80% inconsistent rhetoric, 10% tenuous extrapolations and wildly imaginative speculations, interspersed with 5% irrelevant sastric quotations, fully unsupported by 5% selective extracts from my letters and room conversations, 3) publicly blaspheme and always orchestrate vigourous smear-campaigns against all non-GBC-approved gurus, especially those who suspiciously display all the qualities, attributes and personal characteristics of uttama-adhikari Vaishnavas and fully qualified acaryas. Across the next 10,000 years my preferred successors - the unqualified "ritvik" officiating gurus - shall also be held responsible for creating, maintaining and enforcing the maximum possible distance between conditioned souls in need of pure sadhu-sanga and any recognisable sadhus who alone are capable of transmitting divya-jnana into the hearts of such aspirants. Institutional excommunication, emotional blackmail and accusations of "disloyalty to Srila Prabhupada" are to be utilised as the prime weapons in the ongoing fight to maintain deluded conditioned souls in a state of fear, confusion and submission to my transparently false "ritvik" successors. In the event of total deviation from all the pure tenets of bona fide Gaudiya Vaishnavism becoming apparent within the GBC administrative body of my Iskcon institution, I want to firmly establish an inpenetrable system whereby the fallen gurus and/or GBC members hold sole responsibility for voluntarily policing their own activities, protecting each other's untenable positions and resolutely remaining in a position of absolute autocracy in the face of all conclusive and damning evidence to prove their total lack of recognisable qualifications to hold or maintain such positions. When such activity rises to a wholly sickening level of gross deviation and total unacceptability, I shall expect my "ritvik" successors to fully compound the situation by proclaiming respectful loyalty to the system which maintains the position of such divinely-elected GBC representatives while simultaneously exposing the repugnant activities of such offenders, thereby rendering my Iskcon institution temporarily useless and deadlocked in pointless bickering and internal turmoil, thus unnecessarily trapping countless thousands of members fully within the grip of Mayadevi's illusory energy, devoid of shelter." Purport "My fallen GBC representatives and their unqualified "ritvik" counterparts shall, by their unprecedentedly offensive deviations and personal attacks on pure Vaishnavas thereby succeed in achieving - through their degraded activity and negative publicity against all siddhanta, tattva, sadacara and true tenets of Gaudiya Vaishnavism and the resulting reaction - what could never have been achieved by the mere petitions of genuine, sincere and enthusiastic disciples to exert effective influence within the walls of my Iskcon temples for unsheltered baddha-jivas to seek out the direct, pure shelter and sadhu-sanga of their genuinely exalted suddha-Vaishnava gurus. Krishna in the form of Sri Guru endowed with all mystic potencies sees and knows everything past, present and future and makes all perfect arrangements to facilitate the speedy progress of all sincere sadhakas along the path of suddha-bhakti to re-awaken their dormant propensity to perfectly love and serve the Lord of their hearts. Smiling between the two armies, Sri Krishna confirms His unique position of absolute autocracy by telling his dear friend Arjuna "Everybody serves Me in all respects". The devotees progress quickly towards His eternal abode by their willing service and the unfavourable non-devotees eventually acquire the sukrti to rejoin their Lord, if they manage to avoid the suicidal path of Vaishnava aparadha along the way. For the insistent Vaishnava-aparadhis, their fate is placed precariously in the hands of the neophyte disciples of pure Vaishnava devotees. The disciples, somewhat enraged by the tirades of abuse launched against the immaculate good name and character of their beloved Gurujis, may or may not be very quickly inclined to forgive the unfortunate perpetrators of such ill-advised campaigns of defamation and blasphemy, if at all. Thus the very highest risk in relation to gambling - i.e. speculative interpretation of the instructions of Sri Guru - is fully highlighted within the misguided actions of pseudo-disciples who foolishly disobey their own guru, make offenses to pure Vaishnavas out of envy and thereby face the possibility of eternal exclusion from Sri Krishna's abode, which can only ever be attained through the direct mercy of His nearest and dearest nitya-parikara associates, ever-present in this world in the form of Sri Guru." Of course, this foolish neophyte can hardly speak for Srila Prabhupada, but surely any honest sadhaka must be wondering how the saviour-acarya of the entire mleccha population of the world is looking upon the present propaganda war that is being waged in his name by the pro-sadhu sanga advocates on one side and the proclaimed "loyal followers of Srila Prabhupada" with their mysterious aversion to the association of pure Vaishnavas on the other, accompanied by totally unsubstantiated claims to guruship-by-proxy. Certainly the position of presenting oneself before Sri Guru is very exposed before his omniscient gaze and a very, very humbling experince. What humiliation, to be seen in all my miserable weakness, having failed to maintain a serious regulated sadhana, having strayed woefully outside the regulative principles and knowing that I am an offender to Krishna because no tears come in my eyes when chanting His holy names. But how merciful He is. So many times I have turned my back and run away from Him, determined to extract a little more juice out of the bleak and barren desert of this mundane plane. Yet, in the form of Sri Guru, He has even chased this wilful offender into his very own home in the mleccha mecca of London to recapture one more lost soul, such is the extent of His love. I could pretend to be a "guru". I know a few slokas and mantras, certainly enough to impress any newcomer. I might even be able to impress a few experienced devotees with some show of humility or by exhibiting a few external pretenses of realisation, or perhaps even a little "bhava" flowing in my heart. But personally I would rather face the embarrassing humiliation of standing in front of Sri Guru, fully exposed to his omniscient gaze, admitting that I really haven't even grasped "I'm not my body", than to pretentiously ponder my eternal svarupa without ever daring to venture into the sanga of someone who can eventually reveal everything to me, by his causeless grace and mercy. I knew nothing when I met the devotees, by Srila Prabhupada's grace, 15 years ago and I know just a little more know. But I do know for certain that I prayed to Srila Prabhupada for a guru just like him and he answered my prayer, and that my Gurudeva loves me unconditionally, however abysmal my degree of surrender, depth of faith and actual quality of sadhana practise. Srila Prabhupada makes perfect arrangements to give perfect shelter to anyone who simply follows his crystal-clear and unambiguous instructions. Sadhu-sanga, sadhu-sanga and sadhu-sanga must be prayed for, sought out and attained, otherwise all claims of genuine interest to achieve Krishna-bhakti are little more than an empty pretense. "The criterion is that a devotee must know what Krsna wants him to do. This can be achieved through the medium of the spiritual master who is a bona fide representative of Krsna...Without accepting a bona fide spiritual master coming in the disciplic succession, one cannot find out the real purpose of devotional service. Therefore one has to accept the shelter of a bona fide spiritual master and agree to be directed by him." (Sri Chaitanya Caritamrta Madhya-lila 19.167, purport) na hy ekasmad guror jnanam su-sthiram syat su-puskalam "One certainly cannot get complete knowledge from only one guru." (Srimad Bhagavatam 11.9.31) "While the bhakti-lata creeper is growing, the devotee must protect it by fencing it all around. The neophyte devotee must be protected by being surrounded by pure devotees...A so-called mature devotee, however, commits a great offense by giving up the company of pure devotees...By one's mental concoctions one falls down." (Sri Chaitanya Caritamrta Madhya-lila 19.157, purport) "Since one cannot visually experience the presence of the Supersoul, He appears before us as a liberated devotee. Such a spiritual master is none other than Krsna Himself." Purport It is not possible for a conditioned soul to directly meet Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but if one becomes a sincere devotee and seriously engages in devotional service, Lord Krsna sends an instructing spiritual master to show him favor and invoke his dormant propensity for serving the Supreme. The preceptor appears before the external senses of the fortunate conditioned soul, and at the same time the devotee is guided from within by the caittya-guru, Krsna, who is seated as the spiritual master within the heart of the living entity. (Sri Chaitanya Caritamrta Adi-lila 1.58) It is indicated that to learn the transcendental science, it is imperative that one avoid the company of undesirable persons and always seek the company of saints and sages who are able to impart lessons of transcendental knowledge. The potent words of such realized souls penetrate the heart, thereby eradicating all misgivings accumulated by years of undesirable association. For a neophyte devotee there are two kinds of persons whose association is undesirable: (1) gross materialists who constantly engage in sense gratification and: (2) unbelievers who do not serve the Supreme Personality of Godhead but serve their senses and mental whims in terms of their speculative habits. (Sri Chaitanya Caritamrta Adi-lila 1.59, purport) The secret is that one must submissively listen to those who know perfectly the science of God, and one must begin the mode of service regulated by the preceptor...The expert spiritual master knows well how to engage his disciple's energy in the transcendental loving service of the Lord, and thus he engages a devotee in a specific devotional service according to his special tendency. If one thinks that he is above consulting anyone else, including a spiritual master, he is at once an offender at the lotus feet of the Lord. Such an offender can never go back to Godhead. It is imperative that a serious person accept a bona fide spiritual master in terms of the sastric injunctions. Sri Jiva Gosvami advises that one not accept a spiritual master in terms of hereditary or customary social and ecclesiastical conventions. One should simply try to find a genuinely qualified spiritual master for actual advancement in spiritual understanding. (Sri Chaitanya Caritamrta Adi-lila 1.35, purport) A spiritual master is not an enjoyer of facilities offered by his disciples. He is like a parent. Without the attentive service of his parents, a child cannot grow to manhood, similarly without the care of the spiritual master one cannot rise to the plane of transcendental service. ...The bonafide spiritual master always engages in unalloyed devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. By this test he is known to be a direct manifestation of the Lord and a genuine representative of Sri Nityananda Prabhu. Such a spiritual master is known as acaryadeva. Influenced by an envious temperament and dissatisfied because of an attitude of sense gratification, mundaners criticise a real acarya. (Sri Chaitanya Caritamrta Adi-lila 1.46, purport) There are no cracks within Srila Prabhupada's watertight teachings to permit the unwanted intrusion of any "alternative" philosophies that either advocate wilful avoidance of direct, pure sadhu-sanga or encourage the gratuitous criticism of pure Vaishnavas. Such activities fall outside the realm of Srila Prabhupada's perfect guidance and shelter. Srila Prabhupada's Iskcon exists only where his perfect instructions are followed - in the direct association of pure Vaishnavas - and nowhere else. Please correct me if I have expressed any misunderstandings of Srila Prabhupada's teachings and feel free to contact me at any time, with sastric validation from Srila Prabhupada's books to support opposing viewpoints. Thank you. Your servant aspiring for the service of Sri Guru & Gauranga, Madan Mohan dasa. Please send any comments or responses to 106650.1421@compuserve.com Gaura Premanande! (this article written in response to:) p a m h o 's All Glories to Srila Prabhupada !!! My name is Satyahit das,initiated by Srila Prabhupada in 1969 Boston by Him personally with explanation of our name given at that time. For the first 12 years much hari nam & book distribution was done in North & South America. Today at 12:30 pm we,Pacific Theatre Rama,will go on stage in front of the parliament building of Victoria B.C. & do bajan for 45 minutes on stage with Madhu Pandit prabhu as our director. Our wife Kelilalita dd, will be distributing prasadam & pamphlets on Krsna consciousness. We are short of books since the closest temple,Vancouver ,Veda Vyas prabhu,has decided not to sell to us because we freely distributed 10,Someone Has Poisoned me,at Saranagati,while HDG was visiting during Rathayatra. Concerning your quoted point that the ritviks say that "no living guru is nescessary", Srila Prabhupada said that,"sometimes no uttama adhikary is present". Please excuse me,we had the exact quote & can again search for it if you like,however in effect Srila Prabhupada did say that "sometimes no pure devotee may be present physically". Now one may demand that this be so,but as the old saying goes,"man proposes, Krsna,(God), disposes". For myself it is not even comon sense to say that a pure devotee on the uttama adhikary level MUST ALWAYS be present. This type of pure devotee is the overwhelming grace of the Lord. To demand that this type of elevated soul must always be present,which in effect you are saying, is different from tearfully requesting the Lord that One be present or humbly praying for the association of One. In any case Srila Prabhupada did say that,"sometimes this highest of pure devotee's is not present". He also said that in His absense one may take full shelter of His exalted books & words. He is our Lord birth after birth. So fundamentally, we philosophically disagree with your article,& so apparently does Srila Prabhupada,at least on the point metioned,since His quote contradicts your assertion. your servant Satyahit das About the Author  Other Stories by this AuthorRelated VNN Stories Comment on this storyContact VNN about this storySend this story to a friend
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