04/28/98 - 1771

Reply To Srutakirti's Letter

USA (VNN) - Letter to Srutakirti dasa by Nalinikanta das (see also VNN story# 1767)

Haribol Prabhu,

Please accept my obeisances and thanks for your positivity. I had maybe l00 times been with Srila Prabhupada also, and I remember His Divine Grace becoming very angry several times with nonsense or nonsense philosophy in our Society. He stressed his books so strongly, to me personally also, because he wants Lord Caitanya's and the Vedic philosophy to be respected and followed by the people of the world (The best devotee is the one in knowledge).

I cannot see how, if a person loves Srila Prabhupada, and becomes disturbed that people who are murderers, child abusers, or fallen in other ways, are EQUATED with Srila Prabhupada's position-- that such person can be called a "fault-finder." There are thousands of misled and abandoned disciples, and people who have lost faith in Krishna, because of behavior like this. How about some feeling for them? How many stories of heartbreak have I heard and been consulted about , in the name of "Following." I was personally present when Srila Prabhupada screamed at the devotee who defended the support of Bali Mardan as "following the ISKCON authority."

I sat personally in the office when a person on the phone who had become a devotee by reading Srila Prabhupada's books, asked "Is there someone now

living who can be my spiritual master, like Srila Prabhupada?" To my amazement the authorities replied to such sincere inquisitive soul, "Yes, I'm sitting next to one right now (Rohini Kumar Swami). So if Srila Prabhupada is equated with the position of people like him or myself or yourself , who fall down to murder, intoxication, homosexuality, sex with other's wives, abandoning of sannyas, etc.-- what kind of preaching is that?

I find it offensive to me and to others who have been suffering under this representation of such a great pure devotee, that we are called "fault- finders" and implied that our criticisms are hampering your preaching efforts (or the preaching efforts of the Bhavanandas and Rohini Kumars of the world who seem to blame their falldowns on being victims of maya) . Perhaps some of your compassion can be applied to those of us who have been called demons and physically thrown off the Temple grounds for objecting to the likes of Ramesvara's Hitlerian abuse of devotees and of the philosophy, and who want to see that "books are the basis, purity is the force" as the cornerstone of Srila Prabhupada's movement of Krishna consciousness.

I can try to be as forgiving as possible, knowing that none of us are yet free from the modes of material nature, but when the pure devotee is belittled and his white sheet is blackened by our spots of ink, it is not an occasion for excuses. Perhaps my heart is completely blackened by cynicism thickened by one similar episode after another, and I lack your open-heartedness, but I don't think you can equate or even insinuate as "fault-finding"-- trying to establish the true position of a great devotee like His Divine Grace, and the devotion to the sole pure devotee that makes his followers want him to be worshipped rather than us fallen souls. I welcome any feedback or help with my "callous" response from higher devotees, but I also take shelter of my personal experiences with Srila Prabhupada in this regard. We cannot compare our puny positions with that of the all-great Jagat-guru, and I respect righteous indignation from those who think HDG is being misrepresented or even worse, abused. Yes, I appreciate your sensitivity in this regard, but your attitude towards those who think like me, and who are obviously seriously disturbed about it, as my attitude in this letter shows, is the other side of the coin of fault-finding.

Yours, Nalinikanta das.