08/22/98 - 2056

Open Letter To Harikesa Dasa's Disciples In Russia

USA (VNN) - (author's name withheld)

In reference to the letter Harikesa Dasa wrote to his devotees in Russia on August 16th, I would like to make a few points.

1) He says in the letter: "I am fine and happy, although quite disgusted and appalled at the hardness, cruelness and heartlessness of the leaders of ISKCON."
This directly contradicts his earlier statement he made in "OUR ORIGINAL POSITION" published by the "ISKCON GBC PRESS" wherein he states in a letter to Astaradha Prabhu "Furthermore, when you preach something against that which was decided by the GBC Body, you create a very bad atmosphere and neglect the instruction in Prabhupada's will, wherein he states that the GBC is the ultimate managing authority in ISKCON. We cannot have devotees within ISKCON preaching against the GBC resolutions in public or private forums. Especially when one is a GURU and assumes the position of an absolute authority somehow superior to the authority of the GBC, which is also against Prabhupada's expressed desire. Since you are not superior to the GBC, you should follow the resolutions of the GBC and immediately stop such preaching, publicly or privately." Now that Harikesa Dasa has been put in a similar situation, why can't he follow the ultimate managing authority in ISKCON?

2) He says in the letter: "Take care of yourselves because otherwise you will be cheated like me when you understand the actual situation and dare say it."
What is the cheating going on here? At least when Jagadish Dasa realized that he could no longer follow the vows of his Asrama, he didn't try to pass it off as his "DIVINE LILA" or make a religion out of it. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur explains in his commentary of the YADA YADA HI DHARMASYA GLANIR BHAVATI BHARATA verse in Sri Caitanya-bhagawat that : "There are five branches of irreligion appropriately known as irreligion [vidharma], religious principles for which one is unfit [para-dharma], pretentious religion [abhasa], analogical religion [upadharma] and cheating religion [chala-dharma]. One who is aware of real religious life must abandon these five as irreligiousÖ A pretentious religious manufactured by one who willfully neglects prescribed duties of his order of life is called abhasa." Seeing as Harikesa Dasa is not following the prescribed duties of his sannyasa order he falls under this category.

3) He says in the letter: "Although we are a process of self-realization, even 30 year old devotees do not know who they are and hardly anyone has love of God."
Looks like he is talking about himself. After all, the Vedas say "atmavan manyate jagat", one sees things according to his own vision. A person who has jaundice sees everything yellow. At present, considering his mental and physical condition, he is in no position to judge others spiritual standing.

4) He says in the letter. "But we have seen that as soon as one deviates from the "party-line" he is considered a heretic and rejected, although any thinking person can understand that the time has come to search deeply within ourselves to find out why this movement is mainly interested in money, power, buildings and empty institutionalization without any real spiritual energy or power and with few realized souls."
People like him have made the movement the way it is now? And now he is blaming ISKCON for what he has created? How many devotees have deviated from Harikesa's party-line and how many were crucified by him? Talking about money and power, he tried to control the whole society with money and power. A sannyasi traditionally has no money and begs from door to door as he preaches "simple living and high thinking". How much money did Harikesa take with him? And how simply does he live? If everybody else in the society is more interested in money and power than him, than he should prove it by disclosing all of his assets and all of his bank accounts. He may be able to hide it from all of our eyes, but Lord Sri Krishna in time will take care of all these things.

5) He says in the letter: "You should open your eyes and see for yourself what is going on in this so-called spiritual society. I pray for Krsna that there is not and never will be an ISKCON in the spiritual world, otherwise I will reconsider going back home. "
Like he thinks he can go whenever he wants! Look where he is right now? Does he think he is going to go Back to Godhead in his present consciousness and qualified to take others with him? Srila Prabhupada is already present in the spiritual world and is anxious for us to join him, but definitely by Harikesa being so much attached to his female therapist, for now he is not going to join Srila Prabhupada in the spiritual world. Srila Prabhupada once said on a morning walk in Nellore: If I say that "I am ISKCON," what is wrong there? Because I have created this; therefore I say, "ISKCON means I. I am ISKCON." ISKCON is already in the spiritual world. Harikesa has decided not to go there and be with Srila Prabhupada, so if you follow him, where do you think you will go? Nothing is going to stop Srila Prabhupada's ISKCON. The Supreme Lord is the source of intelligence for everybody, so let us all pray to Him and Srila Prabhupada to guide us through this difficult time and take Srila Prabh

Our philosophy states that one should follow "Guru, Sadhu and Shashtra". His letter does not quote any Guru, Sadhu and Shashtra. When he was the big leader in ISKCON everything was right. But now since he has deviated and some action was taken against him, everything has now become wrong. This is all based on sentiment and false ego. Srila Prabhupada condemns blind following. In a Bhagavad-Gita lecture on verse 4.34 in Los Angeles on January 12th 1969, Srila Prabhupada said: "Yes. Blind following and absurd inquiries. These things are condemned in this verse. Blind following means: "Oh, there is a swami. So many thousands of people are following. Let me become his disciple." This is called blind following. You do not know what is that swami, whether he is a swami or a rascal. You do not know. But because everyone is going, "Oh, let me become his disciple." This is blind following, without any knowledge, blind following."

Yours in the service of Srila Prabhupada.