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EDITORIAL February 17, 1999 VNN3077 Iskcon Is Srila Prabhupada's Body To Be Served BY SATYAHIT DAS EDITORIAL, Feb 17 (VNN) — All Glories to Srila Prabhupada! It is put forth by the GBC/guru backers group that ISKCON is the body of Srila Prabhupada so therefore all devotees must serve this body with full enthusiasm. Spiritual conceptions go way beyond all material sentimental considerations. The Sita captured by Ravana was not identical to the Sita known as Lord Rama's consort. Have you also heard this perhaps put in more detail? The ISKCON during Srila Prabhupada's stay with us is not the ISKCON existing today, or most of us His disciples, would not have left or been removed from the movement & our services. I feel safe to say that I speak for many many other devotees when I say that ISKCON's GBC/guru set up, we find to be highly distasteful, and not only because half of the original gurus disgraced Srila Prabhupada's movement, but fundamentally because the guru scheme goes against the apparent instructions of Srila Prabhupada. This is certainly the bottom line,however if the activities of the GBC/gurus were pleasing to the general mass of devotees this might soften the blow, but they are not pleasing as evidenced the $1,000,000 million of Srila Prabhupada's laksmi given to the Russian Mafia. They are stuffy, overly pedantic and all of the same opinion. This is a far far cry from serving Srila Prabhupada's movement when he was present. As Pradyumna prabhu first pointed out in his 1978 letter to Satsvarupa prabhu; our god brothers were not to place themselves on Vyasasanas upon higher levels that the other god brothers & sisters. We joined ISKCON to serve Srila Prabhupada, not this GBC/XYZ guru fall down /make new rules/ amend the rules/ ISKCON. This is actually insult to call the present ISKCON Srila Prabhupada's body as if He would have allowed ISKCON's last 20 year history to go on in His exalted presence. Again we note a swipe upon the dignity of Srila Prabhupada,that He would promote zonal acharyas whose effect was & is to split up rather than unify ISKCON. We judge by the results, and the latest results show more & more of Srila Prabhupada's dedicated & loved disciples being put on probation within ISKCON for their so called improper attitudes. What evil force is behind this scheme to purge ISKCON of all devotees whose only fault is that they want to see Srila Prabhupada re-instated as ISKCON's guru. If He were, then we would agree that ISKCON is the body of Srila Prabhupada & we would joyfully search out service in all varieties of ways to serve ISKCON. For one thing I would take out a chanting party at least every second day, which is a lot less austere than taking a chanting party out 6 days per week for 6 hours each day, as we used to do for years on end. We would also excitedly invite all those interested in hearing from Srila Prabhupada & His servants to return to the temple for prasadam & talks on Krsna consciousness,the goal of the human form of life. We would love nothing better,since life without some how staying connected with Krsna is hellish. Therefore Srila Prabhupada formed ISKCON in order to give us all this Krsna consciousness activities. But the newly formed GBC/gurus of 1978 changed all that Srila Prabhupada had freely given us. They said bow down to us, worship us, serve us and you shall do well in ISKCON. So this present ISKCON is not Srila Prabhupada's body . It is an entirely different body that repulses Srila Prabhupada's disciples to the extent that they no longer serve Srila Prabhupada's body through ISKCON. Why not? They were intelligent enough to join Lord Chaitanya's movement in the first place so why give it up? They gave it up because ISKCON's present rulers have drastically changed ISKCON into something that does not attract us. We would be put on probation also for returning, so why return? Krsna has forced us to sink or swim, like HE says to us ,"grow up my children, your father has left you". We can go on hearing from our beloved father, Srila Prabhupada, but Krsna is forcing us to learn to be continuously engaged in devotional service without the present ISKCON. We can only weep in separation from Srila Prabhupada, knowing what His presence meant to us. Now that He has gone, Kali is devastating His movement ISKCON, though the GBC/gurus don't seem to feel this way. Satyahit das Comment on this Story This story URL: http://www.vnn.org/editorials/ET9902/ET17-3077.html
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