10/23/1998 - 2403 (See Related VNN Stories)

Iskcon Reform Group Meeting Review

Alachua, Florida (VNN) - by Nalinikanta das

On Saturday, Oct. 3, we met in front of the ISKCON Alachua Temple;started kirtan, and attended guru-puja. After breakfast, at the Lion's Clubmeeting site, the room filled to capacity with about l00 devotees from Alachuaand around the world. Bhagavat das offered to IRG his Srila Prabhupadamurti, and we worshiped His Divine Grace with kirtan and flowers. Rasatalagave an invocation of peaceful blessings, and asked us to remember ourunfortunate lives before meeting Srila Prabhupada. Nalini reminisced on SrilaPrabhupada's personal instruction to him to read all the literaturethoroughly, requesting that HDG's words be the ultimate authority in ourdiscussions.

 Adri-dharana das, Temple President of Calcutta, was then introduced, andspoke for a 1/2 hour on the developments in India and other places in theworld, saying that many Temple leaders in India were convinced of the rittvikconclusions of The Final Order and were encouraging their Temples andcongregations to stick determinedly to this path. Sundara-gopala Prabhurelated similar developments in Singapore and in China. Visvamurti das(Vineet Narayan), a famous journalist and corruption-buster in India, roaredfor adherence to truthful dharma, and got a great ovation from the crowd.

 Krsnakant Prabhu then spoke for 1 hour on the message of FinalOrder, stating the IRG's position as one of NO CHANGE. He said that beforeSrila Prabhupada physically departed in l977, "we had a perfect system, and wenever received any authority to change it." Srila Prabhupada's directresponse to Satsvarupa Maharaj's question on future initiations, especiallyafter his departure, was answered by Srila Prabhupada via HDG's intention to"recommend some of you as officiating acharyas," to which TK Goswami queried,"Is that called rittvik?" and Srila Prabhupada replied "YES." Thisinstruction was reiterated and signed into law with the July 9th letter, andconfirmed in Srila Prabhupada's will. These are basic ideas that "rittvik"adherents remain committed to. Many questions and answers were raised in theafternoon session, which were replied to convincingly by Krishnakant.

 The democratic nominee for Florida State House in the area, Bill Ogle(Balavanta das) injected a word of caution, asking for a temporary halt toinitiations and a one-year period of deep thought on the whole guru issue,warning of a big schism in Srila Prabhupada's society. He said that the l8members of the GBC, who were directly authorized by HDG, were clear that SrilaPrabhupada's order was understood in l977 to be the current "new guru" system.The audience, however, appeared impatient with these suggestions. (BalavantaPrabhu later attended the evening dinner and reached agreement on severalissues with attendees like Mayesvara and Bhutatma). Krishnakant's reply tohis suggestion was that the IRG wanted to keep the GBC system in place alongwith whatever else HDG had ordered; however, he denied that there was a clearinstruction by Srila Prabhupada to the GBC of this nature. In fact, hecommented that there were only 3 people in the room with Srila Prabhupada inthe relevant conversation, and that all three of them had changed theirstories over the years re: the guru issue. TKG had admitted that SrilaPrabhupada appointed only rittviks; Jagadisha Prabhu had vacillated on hisposition and then left. Satsvarupa Maharaj was no longer available forcomment on the issue, despite being invited by the group. There was word thathe had ordered the alternation of the May Î77 "appointment tape."Whatever this was the "absolute truth" which has guided official policy forthe past 21 years, in contradiction to all we had read in Srila Prabhupada'sbooks? Better to stick to Srila Prabhupada's direct orders, said the leadersof the conference.

 There were many devotees in the audience who participated or at leastlistened to the thoughts of the activists present; such devotees as Kirtiraj,Ambarisa and Svaha, Naveen Krishna, Madhuha, Nadiskesvara and his dharma-patni, Kapindra and Jayadvaja Swamis, and others - forgive me if I fail tomention any names. All devotees spoke and questioned without ego or (much)agitation. Ganga Mayi and Annada dasis from Alachua said that it was the best"istagosthi" they'd been to in many years, and later signed up to participateon the National IRG board. There was an almost unanimous consensus to protectbrotherly relations within and without of ISKCON. That evening we had adinner party with good vibes and prasad all around. The meeting hadenlivened and enlightened many of us as to the scope of this "movement withinthe movement." We played a video tape from LA devotees headed byYasodanandana Prabhu and read letters of support from Narasingha, Praghosa,Nityananda (SD), Visoka and others.

 ISKCON official reaction was swift and clear. The Temple board of 7members sent an open letter of no support and a warning about any provocativebehavior, disallowing even a posting on the bulletin board of the IRGconvention. Nanda dasi, TP of Alachua, was considerate in allowing delegatesto attend and take prasad at the Temple, and allowing the "heretics" tosponsor the Sunday feast prasad.. GBC representatives Ravindra Svarupa,Virabahu, Bhakti Tirtha Swami, Hrdayananda Swami and Jayapataka Swami all cameto Alachua and spoke at the Temple, obviously to rebut the Reform Group'squoting of Srila Prabhupada. We have since heard that the Alachua Templeboard has offered a meeting with the leaders of the rittvik camp, and that anemergency GBC meeting has been called for November, not to acknowledge ordiscuss the proposals of the growing opposition, but to strategize as to howto win more devotee support for the current management of ISKCON.

 Convention attendees became quite disturbed at a Temple Sunday feast lectureadmonishing against the "worship of disembodied entities," and at thespeaker's response to a "rittvik" challenge of "Why force devotees to acceptconditioned souls as gurus?" with the rhetorical yet shocking question of "Howdo we know that Srila Prabhupada was liberated?" (see VNN story #2361)

 On Sunday also, there was another question and answer session,followed by a signing of allegiance to Srila Prabhupada's Final Order of July9, 1977. Krishnakant previewed the latest changes in GBC policy for adiminished guru status, and their possible intentions to excommunicate"rittvik" adherents and proponents. Delegates broke into committees andestablished local offices of IRG in Canada and the USA, with plans for aNational office in Alachua. Less people attended on Sunday, reserved foractivists to make future plans. The next group meeting will be anInternational Convention in Sri Vrindavan Dhama in late October on the occasionof Srila Prabhupada's Disappearance Festival. Talk of a convention in LA forDec. 6-7 has begun. Devotees everywhere who believe in the validity of theFinal Order or who wish ISKCON to open their doors for at least discussion ofthe issues that the growing hundreds of devotees have faith in, are asked tocorrespond with any member of IRG and sign up to support and congregate forour society to go back to Srila Prabhupada's original system of initiation.

 On Monday morning, separate from the conference, a large group of IRGmembers and ISKCON representatives went to a recording studio to hear enhancedtapes of "poison" discussions by Srila Prabhupada in the last days of hisphysical life, along with conversations and whispers in English. A unanimousconsensus was that the statements were relevant and serious. Some think itelucidates the guru circumstances since the advent of the "post-disembodiedPrabhupada era."

 Some unfortunately think of the attendees as heretics out to destroytheir own spiritual masters. Some think we can live within ISKCON with bothinitiation systems operating simultaneously. Some continue to fight with eachother over guru-tattva, with excommunications and assumptions of insincerityon both sides, resulting.

 This letter is not an IRG statement, but a general, eyewitness account.Let's all sincerely pray to Srila Prabhupada, become increasingly moredevoted to his God-sent words, and remain positive about the future of ourmission to spread the chanting of the Holy Names : Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna,Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. Thankyou.

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