02/03/98 - 1569

Sisupala Sees Reverse

USA (VNN) - by Nara Narayan Vishwakarma das (see also VNN story# 1556)

Since I have a vested interest in the outcome of the "violence" proposed by Rahda Charan das, I thought it might be appropriate to offer some "last words" to my prabhu, who evidently wants to "do me in".

Dear Radha Charan prabhu:

PAMHO AGTSP!

It is not hard for me to understand and even sympathize with your intense and sincere desire to protect your "diksa guru" from any accusation that would force or tempt you to believe that he is not a pure devotee fixed on the absolute platform of Prema Bhakti.

After all, have you not been instructed by everyone to regard your diksa guru as a fully self-realized soul an the same Level as Srila Prabhupada and Krishna?

Of course you have!

Srila Prabhupada has left NOTHING to the imagination when it comes to recognition of the actual position of the BONAFIDE SPIRITUAL MASTER. His words are non-different from scripture. He is expert in helping to arrange the intimate pastimes of Radha and Krishna. He is the TRANSPARENT VIA MEDIA by which Lord Krishna as Supersoul,speaks to us. In fact, the Bona Fide Spiritual Master is known to be the EXTERNAL REPRESENTATIVE OF SUPERSOUL.

The problem begins when you have to ask yourself, "is my diksa guru on the level described by Srila Visvanath Chakravarty, or is he on some lower level, and not worthy of the type of absolute worship and praise reserved for the Uttama Adhikari?"

Prabhu, I assure you that I am no fraud.

Just as you are a witness to the times in which you live, I am and have been a witness to the times in which I myself have lived.

The very early days of Srila Prabhupada's movement.

I knew Tamal Krishna before he was initiated. He was a hippie that lived on the streets of the Haight Ashbury, (as were many of the early joiners of Iskcon). I too, was associated with the hippies during that time. He and Vishnu Jna followed the popular street "religion" of taking every drug possible to "force" a connection with God. This was very typical of those time.

When Tamal and Vishnu Jna joined the temple at 518 Frederick Street in San Francisco, they were practically catatonic from the drugs they had taken. They were practically incapable of coherent speech. Yet, six months later they were mostly "dried out" by the time that I joined the movement.

Tamal Krishna das was the brahmachari to convince me of Srila Prabhupada's teaching as opposed to the impersonalism that I had preached to my own students and followers. (outside of Iskcon)

I worked very closely with Tamal Krishna for many years functioning in temple management with him in several temples on the West Coast USA.

I assure you that I have never had the slightest reason or motive to feel envy for Tamal Krishna nor that he has ever acted against me or that he somehow blocked my access to power. This would simply not be true.

Tamal Krishna AIDED me in my attempts to offer personal service to Srila Prabhupada. It is partly due to his aid that I was able to offer years of very intimate personal service to Srila Prabhupada.

Taught by Srila Prabhupada that "Krishna is the ability in man," I carved Jagganath deities for many Iskcon temples, decorated and designed the altars of over a dozen temples, built the first correctly designed Rathayatra Carts for San Francisco and London., designed and planned the first Mayapur festival in 1971; arranging for all of the decorations, tents, and prasadam. I designed a complete draping of Lord Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square in London turning the whole monument into a gigantic Altar complete with gigantic Vyasasana, Deities, and guarded by huge bronze lions! In serving Srila Prabhupada, I had the priviledge of directing the BBT art department for five years and oversaw the designs of all of the paintings in the Bhagavatam from 5th canto to 10th canto and was also the art editor for BTG during that same time and personally supervised dozens of drawings for BTG as well as the current Masthead of BTG. In 1969 Srila Prabhupada awarded me the title "Vishwakarma". Under Srila Prabhupada's direct personal oversight, I rendered the first designs for the Great Temple in Mayapur in 1970. I built many vyasasanas for Srila Prabhupada. (It is hard to see a picture of Srila Prabhupada without seing one of those vyasasanas) During those years, I worked closely with many of my more politically powerful godbrothers to perform wonderful tasks for Srila Prabhupada.

Prabhu, from the very earliest days of the movement I watched the struggles for power, the warping of Srila Prabhupada's direct instructions in favor of power-brokering among the senior disciples and later more blatantly by the GBC. This is not a hoax, it is documented by dozens of Srila Prabhupada's letters and recollections of devotee witnesses of the time.

My statements about Tamal Krishna's derogatory and eroneous statements about Srila Prabhupada's "mental condition" are not fiction. The words I quote are his, not mine.

Remember, not being his disciple, I have seen him at his worst as well as his best. I have seen him kind and I have seen him cruel. I have seen him grasp for absolute power, and be knocked down by others. On many occasions I have witnessed him being severly chastized by Srila Prabhupada. And I was fully aware that he was exiled to China by Srila Prabhupada because of his mis-handling of the Bombay land.

THE HEART OF THE PROBLEM is that you have unwittingly chosen a guru who is not a pure devotee, and who in fact has committed severe offenses against Srila Prabhupada. That he has done such things is HIS PROBLEM. That is not your responsibility.

That you have accepted such a person as your spiritual master is YOUR PROBLEM. If you read the Nectar of Instruction, you can find out what sort of problem it is.

Now you must defend him or denounce him. Not a pleasant choice.

This same crisis comes again and again over the last twenty years to the unfortunate disciples of the "appointed Iskcon gurus".

It is an INHERENT VICE in the system itself.

SO INHERENT IS THE VICE that Vipramukya Swami has taken the trouble to write an "official disclaimer" for Iskcon stating that Iskcon and the GBC TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY WHATSOEVER FOR THE QUALITY OF THE GURUS THAT THEY AUTHORIZE!

In fact, they clearly say,"LET THE DISCIPLE BEWARE" lest he select a guru who will be of the sort that will fall down.

Radha Charan prabhu, I remind you now that you are a disciple of Srila Prabhupada, as am I. Only He has the potency, purity and Divine Grace to bring you back to Godhead.

He is the Transparent Via Medium to the Spiritual World. He is the Uttama Adhikari. All the others are either translucent or opaque via media. Such non-perfected agents of the Sampradaya who want to plant themselves squarely in the line of disciplic succession only succeed in blocking the brilliant Transcendental Light shining down through the unbroken Vaishnava chain. Such opaque men can only hope that their students will learn from Srila Prabhupada while worshiping them. If not, they will all be doomed together.

It is no fun having to say such things. Yet, If I do not then who will? For the sake of this very important historic time in which we live, it is of urgent importance to get the record straight.

Remember! even Judas Eskariot ended up quite famous in the Bible!

Af for your quote about Sisupala. That is very wonderful.

Sisupala was a person who always saw things in the reverse of what was actually going on.

When Lord Krishna swept away Rukmini from her walk to the temple of Durga in preparation to her marriage to Sisupala, it was described that it was like "the Lion stealing the prey from the jackal". Seeing the "kidnapping, Sisupala cried out that, "This is just like the Jackal stealing the prey from the lion!"

He saw himself as a "lion" and Krishna as a "Jackal" when the reverse is true.

Now you are defending blasphemy while calling me the blasphemer!

Perhaps it is time to study what the real history of this movement is, and be sure to support the truth next time.

We all are working for Iskcon to be a Glorious Success.

I personally take responsibility that this success MUST be based on Srila Prabhupada's actual instructions, not the political meanderings of some mislead early followers who clawed their way to the top.

As far as my safety, I personally doubt that you will come to California with bombs tied to your chest and sieze me in a fatally explosive embrace in the style of the Hamad terrorists.

Krishna may handle either you or me "roughly in his embrace" but not at each other's hands.

Besides, how can you kill me? I am Spirit Soul?

I welcome your response. You may e-mail me at: zakheim@earthlink.net

Your eternal servant,

Nara Narayan Vishwakarma das