06/19/98 - 1879 (see also VNN story# 1863, 1838, 1818, 1697)

What is Past is Prologue

Brasil (VNN) - by Dharmapada Dasa

I have been reading the letters of Bhagavan Dasa with reference to the BBT against BBTI court case with interest. I have to say that I personally support the position of Hansadutta Dasa in the sense that it would be better to leave the BBT the way that Shrila Prabhupada set it up, rather than have this BBTI usurp it's assets, role and function. Choosing between these two, I see Hansadutta Dasa as a one-man wall between the present moment and probable abuses of the future. Many abuses of the past and present have already been brought to general attention. For example, books were denied to the whole Venezuelan yatra from 1980 onwards - no wonder they went to Shridhar Maharaja after that. And the Venezuelans were the biggest distributors in Latin America!

Right now, the devotees in Spain have to sneak books over to the Gaudiya Math devotees who want to distribute books. And there have been devotees in between, such as Siddhar Swarupa and Tripurari, who have organized some great preaching in the past, but have had books denied. Changes have been made to the books in an autocratic manner, without building consensus, and dubious loans have been made. I could go on and on. But now let me give the assembled devotees an idea of what abuses of the future could be like, keeping in mind that what is past is prologue.

Down here in Latin America, it is commonly said amongst the disciples of a certain guru that he is a divine being who descended with Shrila Prabhupada in order to propagate Mahaprabhu's mission. It is also commonly espoused that the books of this certain guru, who has already learned his own Sanskrit and written commentaries on his own scriptures, should be published by the BBT/BBTI along with the books of Shrila Prabhupada.

This does not correspond to the purpose of our movement. None of the new initiators should be able to control the BBT and elbow their way up to where Shrila Prabhupada is and make Shrila Prabhupada share the billing with them. This is so because they are not on a par with Shrila Prabhupada; sure, they initiate because someone has to do the honors, but they are not initiators in the same way as Shrila Prabhupada was. Ours is basically a siksha sampradaya, and as a sikshya guru, Shrila Prabhupada should remain the prime acharya for new initiates. In many places in his books, Shrila Prabhupada explains that either the siksha guru or diksha guru can be the driving force behind the disciple's advancement. In this way, the purpose of our movement is to show case the presentation of Vaishnavism which Srila Prabhupada made, much in the same way in which the followers of Shree Ramanuja have show cased his presentation of Vaishnavism for almost a millennium.

This is why I say that Hansadutta and his legal defense of the original BBT is practically a wall between the present moment and abuses of the future. We don't have to wait for Shrila Prabhupada's position to be usurped and his books swept under the rug in order to react. We have already seen how many ISKCON leaders and gurus are aggrandizing themselves and filling their own pockets, e.g, with secret bank accounts, big cars, luxurious homes and private lifestyles. If they would do that, then what wouldn't they do if they had control or influence over the BBT? As I mentioned before, one of them has even already prepared written commentaries on major scripture which would compete with the commentaries of Shrila Prabhupada for our attention, and his disciples have been primed to clamor for equal treatment by Shrila Prabhupada's book trust. As I have said before, we don't have to wait for the baby to be born to find out if the lady was pregnant. And as I'm saying now, what is past is prologue. Something has to be done about this situation, but what?

Well, we might not have to do anything, at least at first, because there is a chance that a court judge will do it for us- throw the books open to the public domain. It is here where I differ with Hansadutta Dasa and Bhagavan Dasa. I said before that if I had to personally choose between the two sides, I would choose the original BBT and I have just explained why. But throwing the books open to the public domain, at this point, is probably a better choice. I don't mean to minimize the sincerity of these two prabhus, Hansadutta Dasa and Bhagavan Dasa, by differing with them in this way. But things are different now; we are about to head into the year 2000; we are no longer in the middle of the 70's.

One thing to consider now is that neither of these two prabhus are spring chickens. Who will take their places as trustees when they are gone? What guarantees do we have that, in spite of their sincerity, someone at some point will not hijack the BBT and minimize Shrila Prabhupada's books? This is not an ultimate issue, worst-case type of scenario. Denial of books, for example, was one of the first abuses committed, in 1980, when the books were denied to a thriving yatra in Venezuela, and we already know that books are currently being denied to distributors in Spain. And it doesn't matter that those distributors were Gaudiya Math or not- if Martians with pimples wanted to distribute Shrila Prabhupada's books, that would be fine, too. In fact, it would be flattering. If the publishing rights were thrown open to the public domain, then no human beings with human frailties would ever minimize the distribution of books again. It is necessary to make sure that no person, who might assume command later on, will ever be able to do that. Let's just throw the rights open now and assure that the publication and distribution of Shrila Prabhupada's books will be perpetuated.

Bhagavan Dasa has made the point that Shrila Prabhupada wanted the BBT to channel profits from the sales of books into worthy ISKCON projects. But another point of consideration is that it's not the same movement anymore. A significant portion of the movement has been commandeered by so-called leaders who are obviously aggrandizing themselves to the tune of money, human resources and properties, leaving collapsing temples and a token picture of Shrila Prabhupada on the altar in their wakes. I've heard through the grapevine that several of them have been confronted during recent years and have threatened to apart themselves from the movement if their activities are challenged. So if this were a possibility, imagine what would it be like if funds from our book distribution, were funneled into a New -Vrindavan like ISKCON project, only to have the trustees/ leaders of that project say "see ya later" at some point later on. Possession is 9/10s of the law as some eternal Gaudiya Math lawsuits have shown; once somebody has it, it is pretty hard to take it away. The opportunities which we, at least in North America, have had over the last twenty years have been lost, they certainly can't be recovered by reverting to the "pre usurpation" BBT. A whole different situation confronts us as we face the future and I'm not sure that the original scheme meets these new challenges well.

Should we empower the self-aggrandizing leaders with absolute control over the books in the form of the BBTI? I think not. They have surrounded our pure Gaudiya Vaishnavism, with which they were entrusted, with a cult-like environment which repulses well-balanced, intelligent human beings. I think we have a situation where certain leaders are like poisonous snakes who propose milk for themselves as a proper course of action. We should not give them control over Shrila Prabhupada's books as a resource to help them further their harmful buffoonery.

I think that a good analogy which explains our situation would be that of an army whose position is being decidedly overrun. In such an emergency situation, if any good soldier finds it within himself to marshal defenses, exploit a certain weakness of the enemy, etc., he should not be hindered with bureaucracy. If the flag bearer has gone down, let any man who can pick up the flag do so and run with it. I myself would like to have the option one day to print, say, 10,000 Ishopanishads, and distribute them to libraries and public institutions. That is a dream of mine. I would like to/need to be able to do such a thing on my own. I find it uncomfortable/impossible to work within the ISKCON temple structures, at least where I am, because I am constantly challenged by new initiates of the aggrandizement-type gurus to the effect that I have to listen to them parrot that their guru is a pure devotee and that people who disagree are envious and such and such. If I have to go through these cheating leaders who have shown themselves capable of restricting book sales because of ulterior motives, then I might not be able to organize any book printing project on my own, because some of these same leaders know what my opinion is- that they have turned the Hare Krishna movement into a cult and used it for their own aggrandizement. So I imagine that they would deny me any opportunities, if past behavior is at all indicative, and why wouldn't it be?

Therefore, for all these reasons I feel that throwing open the right to print books to the public domain is the better solution. Otherwise, what is past will be prologue again.

I thank the readers for their indulgence and I look forward to hearing from a few.

Your Servant,
Dharmapada Dasa
dean@uninet.com.br