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EDITORIAL May 11, 1999 VNN3841 See Related VNN Stories Willing To Forgive If... BY GIRIDHARI DAS AMERICAS, May 11 (VNN) — By nature a Vaisnava is karuna-sindhu, an ocean of mercy. A Vaisnava doesn't accept offenses committed against him personally. However, I humbly request the Vaisnava community to tell me how an aspirant Vaisnava shall react if one«s Gurudeva is called a heretic and so on in public. Shall he remain silent and rather consider his own shortcomings? Shall he adopt the same forgiving nature his Gurudeva exhibits when being the focus of Vasinava-aparadha? My senior God-brothers and sisters from Bath have given me some valuable suggestions. Still, I want to know more. Sometimes I wonder how Srila Swami Maharaj or Srila Guru Maharaj would have reacted, if their spiritual masters had been attacked in the same manner. Regarding my open letter to Sivarama Swami: It was never my intention to pronounce an absolute verdict against anyone. Rather, the letter was essentially a question. "We want to forgive you, but how can we in view of the present situation ?" The GBC shall tell us , or better show us, how they will rectify their offenses, so that we can embrace each other and forget the painful past. I am longing for that glorious day. Shedding crocodile tears or begging forgiveness in a formal, superficial way won«t be enough. If Sivarama Swami and the other GBCs are willing to take back all their offensive statements against Srila Guru Maharaja by sending a letter of apology to all devotees on the ISKCON mailing list etc., we might consider forgiving them. Otherwise the question remains: How can we forgive you ? PS: The above letter, as the one before, contains my personal opinion. Vaisnava-dasanudas, Giridhari das See Related VNN Stories | Comment on this story | Contact VNN about this story | Send this story to a friend
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