Cheaters and the Cheated

 Srila Prabhupada describes the fate of disciples of false gurus

by Mathias Sabji

Following the falldown of yet another ISKCON guru, i present below Srila Prabhupada’s warnings about the consequences of accepting unauthorised gurus.

Going to hell without a doubt

As for your next question, can only a few pure devotees deliver others, anyone, if he is a pure devotee he can deliver others, he can become spiritual master. But unless he is on that platform he should not attempt it. Then both of them will to go to hell, like blind men leading the blind.”
(Srila Prabhupada Letter, December 14th, 1972)

”Leaders who have fallen into ignorance and who mislead people by directing them to the path of destruction [as described in the previous verse] are, in effect, boarding a stone boat, and so too are those who blindly follow them. A stone boat would be unable to float and would sink in the water with its passengers. Similarly, those who mislead people go to hell, and their followers go with them.”(Srimad-Bhagavatam 6.7.14)


”And the rascal, blind leaders are leading everyone to hell. They are simply misleaders. People do not like to accept any authority. Still, they have accepted these rascals as leaders and are being misled. In this way both the rascal leaders and their unfortunate followers remain bound up by the stringent laws of material nature.”(The Laws of Nature, chapter 1)


”Generally a fashionable materialist engages a so-called spiritual master without any profit. The pseudo spiritual master flatters the so-called disciple, and thereby both the master and his ward go to hell without a doubt.”
(Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.19.37, purport)

God sends a cheater to the insincere

Srila Prabhupada: “If you simply want an ordinary education, you have to devote so much time, labor, and understanding to it. Similarly, if you are going to take to spiritual life, you must become serious.”

Reporter: “I wondered how many people you think might have been taken in by fake gurus.”

Srila Prabhupada: “Practically everyone. [Laughter.] There is no question of counting. Everyone.”

Reporter: “This would mean thousands of people, wouldn’t it?”

Srila Prabhupada: “Millions. Millions have been cheated, because they want to be cheated. God is omniscient. He can understand your desires. He is within your heart, and if you want to be cheated, God sends you a cheater.”
(The Science of Self-Realization, chapter 2)

“Guru is there, but unless you are actually serious, you cannot get real guru. If you want to be cheated or if you are a cheater, then you’ll get a cheater guru.”
(Srila Prabhupada Room Conversation, January 8th, 1977)

Innocence is no excuse

“Innocence is no excuse of law. [...] So you have to become such intelligent person that you may not be misled by others. You have got the intelligence. Why should you be misled? Then what is the meaning of this human form of life? And you have to be educated. You have to take the opportunity of education so that you may not be misled. Why do you agree to be misled? Then you must agree to take the punishment also.”
(Srila Prabhupada Lecture, June 23rd, 1968)

No benefit or happiness in accepting a false guru

“The misguided conditioned soul also approaches so-called sadhus and swamis who preach against the principles of the Vedas. He does not receive benefit from them, either in the present or in the future.”
(Srimad-Bhagavatam 5.14.13)

“One cannot become happy by accepting a false guru. A guru should be accepted as advised in Srimad-Bhagavatam. Tasmad gurum prapadyeta jijnasuh sreya uttamam: One should approach a bona fide guru to inquire about the highest benefit of life. (…) If one is able to obtain the dust of the lotus feet of such a guru, his life becomes successful. Otherwise he is baffled both in this life and in the next.”
(Srimad-Bhagavatam 5.14.13, purport)

Not too late to accept Srila Prabhupada

“So if you are misled, if you are cheated, whose fault it is? But if you want to be cheated, who can check? Even though somebody by mistake has gone to a rascal, the book is there. As soon as you find out, “Here is a rascal who does not know anything about Krsna, and I have come to him,” reject him.”
(Srila Prabhupada Room Conversation, January 31st, 1977)

“Here, accepting Krsna as the spiritual master means whatever Krsna will decide, he has to accept. One cannot deny the order of a spiritual master. Therefore one has to select a spiritual master whose order, carrying, you’ll not commit a mistake. You see? Now, suppose if you accept a wrong person as spiritual master, and if you, if he guides you wrongly, then your whole life is spoiled. So one has to accept a spiritual master whose guidance will make his life perfect. That is the relation between spiritual master and disciple. It is not a formality. It is a great responsibility both for the disciple and for the spiritual master.”
(Srila Prabhupada Lecture, March 2, 1966)


In addition to ISKCON’s current guru system not having any order from Srila Prabhupada to justify its existence, the GBC’s of
ficial “brain”, the “Sastric Advisory Council” (SAC), has said that the process by which it does authorise gurus, via voting them in, is not based on “guru, sadhu and sastra”:

“Our present system has institutionalized a process of senior devotees voting or offering no-objection to prospective gurus. But we do not find that this institutionalized blessingseeking process is mentioned by guru, sadhu or sastra as the way that one is authorized to become a guru.”
(Balancing the roles of the GBC and the disciple in Guru selection, SAC)

So from every angle, ISKCON’s current guru system is basically a big unauthorised hoax!

"You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time."
( Abraham Lincoln )