10/15/1998 - 2361

Srila Prabhupada a Conditioned Soul?

Alachua, USA (VNN) - by Kesava dasi

Dear assembled devotees, please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

Please excuse any offenses I may commit in relating the following story,but I feel it is important that the body of devotees hear whattranspired during the Sunday Feast in Alachua, directly following theconclusion of the most ecstatic North Amercian ISKCON Reform Groupformation meetings. After these wonderful meetings all the devotees whoattended were so enthused and blissful as this was the first realisthagosti many of us had ever been to, since true isthagosthi had longsince been outlawed in ISKCON. It was such a let down to hearBhaktitirtha Maharaj blaspheme Srila Prabhupada and I still cannotbelieve what I heard him say. Here are the most shocking comments thathe made during the Sunday Feast lecture on October 4th, 1998:

1. In the middle of class, Maharaj made a very strange statement. Hesaid something to the effect that it is wrong for people to follow"disembodied beings."

2. After class, Rasatala Prabhu stood up and asked the same questionI was going to ask. He said, "Maharaj, what do you mean by disembodiedbeings? Are you saying Srila Prabhupada is a disembodied being? SrilaPrabhupada lives forever. What do you mean Maharaj? I can't rememberMaharaj's exact answer, but he seemed to skirt the question.

3. Next, after praying to Srila Prabhupada to help me to ask arelevant and meaningful question, I stood up and asked the following:"Srila Prabhupada came to deliver us all. Why is it that the newmembers are being forced to accept a conditioned soul as guru?" To myshock and that of the rest of the hundreds of devotees present, Maharajreplied, "Srila Prabhupada said he was a conditioned soul." I yelled,"But we know he is liberated!" He replied, "How do you know?" I wasextremely taken aback by these remarks and my heart was pounding out ofmy chest at my anger of hearing him bring down Srila Prabhupada likethis. I again shouted back, "We know in our hearts!" I was at a lossfor words and that was the best I could say at the moment.

Later, I heard that it had gone around the whole community there thatMaharaj had said that Srila Prabhupada was a conditioned soul. I amsure Maharaj does not feel that way and was being rhetorical, implyingthat, "How do I know the new gurus are not liberated?," he went about itin a very distasteful way. How dare he bring down Srila Prabhupada tomake himself and his fellow false acharyas look better!!

And now that I have had time to think about it, I have a better replyfor Bhaktitirtha Maharaj, since he turned the question back to me. Iread the quote that Maharaja was possibly referring to. In it SrilaPrabhupada said (as closely as I can remember): "I am a conditionedsoul. But because I am repeating what I have heard from my Guru Maharajcent percent, without changing anything, therefore I am liberated."

Therefore my reply would now be that Srila Prabhupada was being humblewhen he said that. It was not to be taken that he was a conditionedsoul and he immediately said that he was in fact liberated. So I nowwould ask this to Maharaj: Are you implying that you and the othergurus we have been forced to accept are following what Srila Prabhupadasaid cent percent without changing anything, and you are thereforeliberated? This seems to be what you are implying and this is even moreshocking after what has happened with all these falldowns coming oneafter another. Are you seeing and being directed by Krishna in youheart 100% of the time? If not, please do not draw comparisons withyourself to Srila Prabhupada, as there is no comparison. He has come tosave us all and those of you who have wanted fame, adoration anddistinction as gurus have practically ruined his movement. Please giveup this charade and become liberated by following Srila Prabhupada'sfinal order on initiations and initiating disciples on behalf of SrilaPrabhupada as he requested. Please do this now or the failure of thismovement will be on your head.

Servant of the faithful servants of Srila Prabhupada,

Kesava dasi

PS: If anyone has transcripts of the above class dated 10/4/98 inAlachua, Florida please post it here for confirmation and clarificationof my statements