08/03/98 - 1959

The GBC is Incoherent

USA (VNN) - A Letter to Harikesa, by Narasimha das

Dear Harikesa Swami,

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

It is with great concern for your welfare and that of Srila Prabhupada’s ISKCON that I write you this letter. I pray that you are able to receive it and hear it carefully. I have heard reports from Bhaktitirtha Swami and Badrinarayana das of your nervous breakdown and your lapses into insanity. I fear that without the association of sincere devotees who are free of the illicit ambition that has haunted you for many years, you have no hope for recovery in this life. Rather you will sink deeper into delusion, as did Jayatirtha, Ramesvara, Bhagavan, Jagadisa, Bhavananda, and many others.

Before Srila Prabhupada became sick in 1977, few leaders in ISKCON dared to imagine themselves holding an absolute position in Lord Chaitanya’s movement like Srila Prabhupada’s. Some GBC secretaries, and perhaps you as well, started thinking of themselves as gurus when they felt that Srila Prabhupada would soon depart. These persons then deliberately contaminated other leading preachers with their ambitions. When Srila Prabhupada surprised them one day by asking if he should leave this world or stay longer, they didn’t know how to respond. Then, later, they made a plot to suppress Srila Prabhupada’s clear order. With much intrigue, after Srila Prabhupada’s disappearance, they convinced other leaders in ISKCON and the rank and file devotees that they had been appointed as Srila Prabhupada’s successor acaryas. The rest is an ongoing sad history.

It is due to your participation in this offensive plot to depose Srila Prabhupada as Acarya of ISKCON that you suffer so severely today. To maintain your bogus position, you have offended many devotees. You have fallen from sannyasa and put your faith in a karmi woman, just as Maharaja Bharata became attached to an insignificant deer. Maharaja Bharata had to die alone and take birth again twice--first as an animal, then as the great devotee Jada Bharata. Your situation is far more dangerous. You are not a great devotee like Maharaj Bharata, whose only fault was his sentimental soft heart. Actually Maharaja Bharata was faultless, but he enacted this pastime to show the danger of even slight deviation or inattention on the devotional path. (There is no such pastime of a Vaisnava Acarya falling down, because their position, like Krsna’s, is infallible.)

In spite of your precarious position, your so-called friends in the gbc, eager to preserve their own false positions, want to bolster you artificially and encourage you to continue thinking of yourself as the spiritual master. Even now, knowing full well your fallen condition, they refer to you as “Sri Visnupada” -- just to encourage you and your followers. But then they tell us you need professional help from a non devotee. They think you are haunted by ghosts or under a curse, but they refuse to admit that you are a severe offender of Vaisnavas and Srila Prabhupada, just as they are. They have little faith in the holy name or actual sadhu-sanga. Yet they insist they, too, are Vaisnava Acaryas. If they were actually gurus and you were actually a guru, why would they say you need help from a non devotee? Are Gaudiya Vaisnava spiritual masters impotent? Have you lost all faith in the association of actual devotees? If you are only surrounded by malicious persons in the dress of Vaisnavas, this is may be the case.

The title “Visnupada” is identical to the title “Prabhupada.” Srila Prabhupada explains that “Prabhu” refers to the Supreme Personality of Godhead and “pada” means “one who has taken the position.” Thus “Visnupada” or “Prabhupada” is a title reserved for the Vaisnava Acarya, the Jagat Guru, who takes the position of the Supreme Lord, Sri Krsna. It is understood from many scriptural references that the Acarya, by dint of divine empowerment, is equally as powerful as Sri Krsna Himself. Lord Krsna says the Acarya must be considered as His very Self. The sad-guru possesses the same power and authority as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This is not a matter of etiquette for the disciples only (that they must see their guru in this way), but the actual fact for all to appreciate. Everyone must respect the authority of the Acarya, or they will become degraded -- offenders and blasphemers of God. Unless world leaders and people in general respect Srila Prabhupada and his mission, we can expect WW3 and other cataclysms in due course. Unfortunately, due to your gross misrepresentation of the sacred post of Vaisnava Acarya, even so-called devotees constantly minimize Srila Prabhupada.

You have demanded that innocent devotees worship and adore you on the same level as Srila Prabhupada and Sri Krsna. This is a grave offense. You have encouraged and supported the GBC’s ongoing deviation from Vaisnava siddhanta. The GBC claims that anyone can be guru by a concocted voting process conducted by neophyte devotees without any order from Srila Prabhupada. They claim that great personalities like Lord Brahma and Dhruva Maharaja sometimes become polluted by lust and anger and thus fall down. Like the deprogrammers, they say that by working hard in Krsna’s service, one may become sick or insane, like you have. Nonetheless, they deny you are fallen, or that you have become offensive, greedy, and lusty. They suggest that Srila Prabhupada was not, or could not be, completely cognizant or capable of accepting disciples after his disappearance. They say that his system of initiations is bogus, a deviation from Vedic tradition. They have meager faith in the Hare Krsna maha-mantra, genuine sadhus, or Srila Prabhupada. Therefore your gbc “friends” want to hide your fall down. They say your situation and distress is a complex issue, involving black magic, curses, and your staunch detachment from bodily concerns and unalloyed devotion to ISKCON.

Rather than admit your actual problems, your GBC associates want to see you continue to get therapy from a mundane woman who, like Srimati Putana, may be only a witch disguised as a caring mother. This woman refuses to even marry you. She can only poison you with her so-called motherly affection. Yet you eagerly drink this poison and risk losing everything you hold dear. To save face for themselves, the GBC continues to twist the philosophy of Krsna consciousness. They do this to explain how it might be possible for a bona fide Vaisnava guru to become a raving lunatic, mad after a mundane woman.

I am begging you to wake up from your slumber and shake off your delusion. Then you should beg for the forgiveness of all your Godbrothers and -sisters and so-called disciples, the way Hansdutta prabhu and others have done. Srila Prabhupada said one can be guru when he is ordered by his guru. Srila Prabhupada gave many orders and instructions, and he created many titles and positions for his ambitious disciples, but he never told you or anyone else to take the position of diksa-guru in ISKCON. (Even Sri Gadadhara Pandit said he was unable to initiate without a direct order from Lord Chaitanya.) You have effectively cheated the mass of uneducated devotees, but you cannot cheat Srila Prabhupada or Lord Chaitanya or devotees who have carefully studied Srila Prabhupada’s books. Srila Prabhupada has warned that one who imitates a mahabhagavata will become degraded. Your case is one more proof of Srila Prabhupada’s warning.

Therefore I am requesting you to help us end this farcical guru charade that has disturbed the spiritual lives of so many devotees and threatened to break ISKCON into hundreds of mundane cults. How much longer will you play a part in this madness? Have you suffered enough? Or will you continue to pose as the sad-guru, who must be adored like Srila Prabhupada and the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Sri Krsna? Why not tell your followers to learn to take shelter of Srila Prabhupada directly?

Regarding your ailments, real and imagined, I suggest you stay with sincere Godbrothers for a few months in the divine forests of The Sahyadri. There you can chant loudly and constantly and bathe thrice daily in the holy waters of these unpolluted divine tirthas. You will quickly gain clarity in this way and feel great relief. Lord Krsna’s son Sambha was once cursed by some powerful Vaisnavas because he was proud of his beauty. As a result he was covered in sores that made him miserable and ugly. He was relieved of this curse immediately by bathing in the Kumara Dhara at Sri Kshetra Subrahmanya. We have a nice ashram in the jungle there. Once Srimati Aditi Devi, mother of the demigods, was cursed to become a raksasini. She, too, was relieved of this curse just by arriving at Sri Subrahmanya Tirtha and seeing the holy Kumara Parvat. Unlike most other tirthas in India, whose potency has now become covered by commercialism and sin (the way iskcon has in recent years), these tirthas are still potent and pure. They were revived by Srila Madhvacarya and are preserved even today by his brother Sri Visnutirtha, who still resides in these divine forest, along with Sri Parasurama, Sri Kumara Guru, and Sri Agastya Maharishi. Of course, Sri Dham Mayapur is the most powerful of tirthas, but due to your implication in iskcon politics and past offenses there, you may be unable to appreciate or benefit from this fact, physically or mentally, for the time being.

The actual cause of your suffering is quite simple. You have committed a grave offense by ignoring Srila Prabhupada’s order and misleading the whole movement for the sake of your illicit desire. You have imitated Srila Prabhupada by assuming an absolute position in ISKCON and accepting worship from Vaisnavas. You have plotted against and tried to harm devotees whom you saw as threats to your illegal power. Until you sincerely regret your offense and apologize, you will find no relief, even if you could go to Visnuloka, as did Druvasa Muni, who offended Maharaja Ambarish. Even Lord Vishnu Himself said He was unable to help Druvasa Muni. Yet the gbc says you can get relief from your therapist or some other professional. They are as incoherent as you have been and are thus totally unable to help you or give you proper advice.

I hope this meets you well.

Your servant and old friend,

Narasimha das