Vyasa Puja Offering of Sri Chanchalapati Dasa
Dear Srila Prabhupada,Please accept my prostrated obeisance. All glories to your divine grace. I wish to present this homage in the form of remembrance of your instructions in the context of what is happening in ISKCON today.
Fact 1: Secret of success in spiritual life is to serve the instructions of the spiritual master as one’s life and soul and never deviate:
Srila Prabhupada has mercifully revealed the secret of success in spiritual life:
“The secret of success in spiritual
life is in satisfying the spiritual master and thereby getting his
sincere blessings... It is essential, therefore, that a disciple be very
much obedient and submissive to the bona fide spiritual master.”
(Srimad Bhagavatam 1.1.8 Purport)
In various lectures, correspondences, the daily practices that Srila
Prabhupada instituted in ISKCON, his own life’s example – he has
emphasized this principle. For instance, once in Philadelphia after the
Bhagavatam class, he mentioned:
“Guru-mukha-padma-vakya, chittete
koriya aikya. Now chitta means consciousness or heart. "I shall do this
only, bas. My Guru Maharaja told me; I shall do this." Chittete koriya
aikya, ar na koriho mane asa. So it is not my pride, but I can say, for
your instruction, I did it. Therefore whatever little success you see
than all my Godbrothers, it is due to this. I have no capacity, but I
took it, the words of my guru, as life and soul. So this is fact.
Guru-mukha-padma-vakya, cittete koriya aikya. Everyone should do that.
But if he makes addition, alteration, then he is finished. No addition,
alteration. You have to approach guru—guru means the faithful servant of
God, Krishna—and take his word how to serve Him. Then you are
successful. If you concoct, "I am very intelligent than my guru, and I
can make addition or alteration," then you are finished. (Srila
Prabhupada lecture, July 12th, 1975, Philadelphia)
Fact 2: Authorization is essential to become Spiritual Master:You have stated in the purport of the Srimad Bhagavatam:
“One should take initiation from a
bona fide spiritual master coming in the disciplic succession, who is
authorized by his predecessor spiritual master. This is called
diksa-vidhana.” (Srimad-Bhagavatam 4.8.54)
Not only did Srila Prabhupada state this in the purport, you
mentioned this during a conversation with an Indian gentleman in
Nairobi:
Indian man: When did you become the spiritual leader of Krishna consciousness?
Prabhupada: When my Guru Maharaja ordered me. This is the guru-parampara.
Indian: Did it...
Prabhupada: Try to understand.
Don’t go very speedily. A guru can become guru when he’s ordered by his
guru. That’s all. Otherwise nobody can become guru. (Bg class Oct 28th, 1975 Nairobi)
During the Bhagavatam lecture in Mayapur in 1977, Srila Prabhupada stated this principle even more forcefully:
“Guru cannot be self-made. No.
There is no such single instance throughout the whole Vedic literature.
And nowadays, so many rascals, they are becoming guru without any
authority. That is not guru. You must be authorized. Evam
parampara-praptam imam ra... [Bg. 4.2]. As soon as the parampara is
lost, sa kalena yoga nasto parantapa, immediately finished. The
spiritual potency finished. You can dress like a guru, you can talk big,
big words, but it will never be effective.” (Srimad Bhagavatam class, Mayapur, Feb 27th, 1977)
Fact 3: Srila Prabhupada did not authorize or appoint any of his disciples to become Spiritual Master or Diksha Guru after his disappearance:
It is a well established historical fact that Srila Prabhupada did not appoint any one to become an Acharya or Spiritual Master after his disappearance from the material world. Srila Prabhupada’s personal secretary, HH Tamal Krishna Goswami has stated:
“Actually Prabhupada never
appointed any gurus. He appointed eleven ritviks. He never appointed
them gurus. Myself and the other GBC have done the greatest disservice
to this movement the last three years because we interpreted the
appointment of ritviks as the appointment of gurus.”
– HH Tamala Krishna Goswami, (Personal
Secretary to Srila Prabhupada during the last days in Vrindavan;
excerpts from Pyramid House Confessions, Dec 3rd, 1980)
The GBCs have admitted in various forums that Srila Prabhupada did
not appoint Gurus to succeed him. Like in this excerpt from a debate on
this issue, HG Ravindra Svarupa Dasa says:
“And it’s a fact that Srila
Prabhupada never said, ‘Alright here is the next Acharya, or here is the
next Acharya and they are authorized gurus for the Movement, for the
world.’ He did not do that.” (Ravindra Svarupa Das, San Deigo debate, 1990)
HH Bhakticharu Swami, a personal servant of Srila Prabhupada during
his last days in Vrindavana, further testifies and elaborates the
circumstances during that period:
“During the last days of Srila Prabhupada’s
physical presence in 1977 in Vrindavana, there was a lot of pressure on
Srila Prabhupada to appoint the successor gurus. ‘Once after the
devotees had left Srila Prabhupada’s room, he turned to me and said in
Bengali, ‘My Guru Maharaja did not appoint an Acharya. They expect me to
appoint one!’”
It is well established that there was pressure on Srila Prabhupada to
appoint the next Acharya from the disciples and Srila Prabhupada did
not want to appoint one.How can someone be insensitive to these facts? How can someone not be sensitive to these wishes of Srila Prabhupada?
Fact 4: Srila Prabhupada describes the history of Gaudiya Mutt and analyzes the causes of it’s decline to be deviating from the spiritual master’s instruction on successor acharya.
Srila Prabhupada recounted the history of the Gaudiya Mutt and the last days before the disappearance of Srila Bhakti Siddantha Saraswathi Thakura. In one of the letters Srila Prabhupada wrote:
“Still he requested his disciples
to form a strong Governing body for preaching the cult of Caitanya
Mahaprabhu. He never recommended anyone to be acharya of the Gaudiya
Math. But Sridhara Maharaja is responsible for disobeying this order of
Guru Maharaja, and he and others who are already dead unnecessarily
thought that there must be one acharya. If Guru Maharaja could have seen
someone who was qualified at that time to be acharya he would have
mentioned. Because on the night before he passed away he talked of so
many things, but never mentioned an acharya. His idea was acharya was
not to be nominated amongst the governing body. He said openly you make a
GBC and conduct the mission. So his idea was amongst the members of GBC
who would come out successful and self effulgent acharya would be
automatically selected. So Sridhara Maharaja and his two associate
gentlemen unauthorizedly selected one acharya and later it proved a
failure. The result is now everyone is claiming to be acharya even
though they may be kanistha adhikari with no ability to preach. In some
of the camps the acharya is being changed three times a year. Therefore
we may not commit the same mistake in our ISKCON camp.” (Srila
Prabhupada letter to Rupanuga, April 28, 1974)
Srila Prabhupada explains that Srila Bhakti Siddantha
Saraswathi Thakura also did not appoint any of his disciples as a
Spiritual Master. Srila Prabhupada also says that this was not an
“inadvertent slip” but a consciously meditated plan on the part of Srila
Bhakti Siddantha Saraswathi Thakura to not to appoint any of his
disciples as the next Spiritual Master or Acharya. Srila Prabhupada
describes the happenings in Gaudiya Mutt once in the purport of
Chaitanya Charitamrita:
“Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura,
at the time of his departure, requested all his disciples to form a
governing body and conduct missionary activities cooperatively. He did
not instruct a particular man to become the next acharya. But just after
his passing away, his leading secretaries made plans, without
authority, to occupy the post of acharya, and they split into two
factions over who the next acharya would be. Consequently, both factions
were asara, or useless, because they had no authority, having disobeyed
the order of the spiritual master.” (Chaitanya Charitamrita, Adi 12.8
purport)
In yet another room conversation in 1976, Srila Prabhupada
analyzes why the Gaudiya Mutt failed and links to disobedience to the
order of the spiritual master with regard to successor Acharya:
“Why this Gaudiya Matha failed?
Because they tried to become more than guru. He, before passing away, he
gave all direction and never said that “This man should be the next
acharya.” But these people, just after his passing away they began to
fight, who shall be acharya. That is the failure. They never thought,
“Why Guru Maharaja gave us instruction so many things, why he did not
say that this man should be acharya?” They wanted to create artificially
somebody acharya and everything failed. They did not consider even with
common sense that if Guru Maharaja wanted to appoint somebody as
acharya, why did he not say? He said so many things, and this point he
missed? The real point? And they insist upon it.” (Room conversation Aug
16, 1976, Bombay)
Particularly important in this context is Srila Prabhupada’s statement: “They
did not consider even with common sense that if Guru Maharaja wanted to
appoint somebody as acharya, why did he not say? He said so many
things, and this point he missed? The real point? And they insist upon
it.”In yet another purport to Chaitanya Charitamrita verse, Srila Prabhupada writes:
“One must judge every action by its result. The members of the self-appointed acharya’s party
who occupied the property of the Gaudiya Matha are satisfied, but they
could make no progress in preaching. (Chaitanya Charitamrita, Adi 12.8
purport)
It is to be noted here that Srila Prabhupada is describing the Gaudiya Mutt situation with the words: self-appointed acharyas.Fact 5: The disciples of Srila Prabhupada were very ambitious to become Gurus and Srila Prabhupada was conscious of this:
As early as 1967, Srila Prabhupada wrote this about his first sannyasi disciple:
“Kirtanananda was awarded the position of a
Sannyasi because he wanted it although I could understand it that he
wanted to be a spiritual master himself. (Srila Prabhupada letter
October 27th, 1967)
During the brief eleven year period of founding and growing of
ISKCON, Srila Prabhupada encountered again and again his disciples
trying to become Spiritual Master, the most honored position in the
society. HG Bhurijana Dasa writes in his book, My Glorious Master:
“Prabhupada began criticizing his disciple,
Gaurasundara, and his anger was as intense as the monsoon rains." He
wants to be guru, but he is not qualified. All of them, they want to be
guru without qualification and they will fall victim to sex life."
Even a few months before Srila Prabhupada’s disappearance, one of his
senior GBC man and sannyasi was trying to become a spiritual master:
“Prabhupada: .... People complained against Hamsaduta. Did you know that?
Tamala Krishna: I’m not sure of the particular incidences, but I’ve heard general...
Prabhupada: In Germany. In Germany.
Tamala Krishna: The devotees there.
Prabhupada: So many complaints.
Tamala Krishna: Therefore change is good.
Prabhupada: No, you become guru, but you must be qualified first of all. Then you become.
Tamala Krishna: Oh, that kind of complaint was there.
Prabhupada: Did you know that?
Tamala Krishna: Yeah, I heard that, yeah.
Prabhupada: What is the use of producing some rascal guru?
Tamala Krishna: Well, I have studied myself
and all of your disciples, and it’s clear fact that we are all
conditioned souls, so we cannot be guru. Maybe one day it may be
possible...
Prabhupada: Hm.
Tamala Krishna: ...but not now.
Prabhupada: Yes. I shall choose some guru. I
shall say, “Now you become acharya. You become authorized.” I am
waiting for that. You become all acharya. I retire completely. But the
training must be complete. (Room conversation, April 22, 1977, Bombay)
Fact 6: Srila Prabhupada was very meticulous in his working and had deep concern for his institution, ISKCON:There is abundant testimonies from disciples who witnessed the meticulous working of Srila Prabhupada.
Prabhupada was meticulous. He put on his
Vaisnava tilaka that way, artistically and methodically performing each
function. He used his pen that way also. He took it out of his pen box,
used it, and then returned it to the box on his desk. Prabhupada warned
his servants never to touch anything or move anything on his desk.
His book writing was also like that. His
standard was that each and every word out of tens of thousands of words
from thousands of verses must have its own synonym. Prabhupada had a
limited time for writing the Bhagavatam every day, yet he never
diminished his standard that each word gets its own synonym. Then he
always gave the English translation, and then a purport. Whenever he saw
the editors or publishers failing in this meticulous standard, he
became very upset. (Recollections by HH Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami,
Secretary to Srila Prabhupada)
Another devotee who served as his secretary also recalls:
Working in the capacity of Srila
Prabhupada’s secretary during his visit to South Africa, I would read
the letters addressed to him and type out his reply for signing. Srila
Prabhupada was very meticulous about his correspondence. He read all his
mail and gave a reply to almost every letter he received. He was always
giving guidance and encouragement. He read each and every one of his
letters prior to signing them, making corrections or additions.
(Recollections by Pushta Krishna Das, Secretary of Srila Prabhupada)
Srila Prabhupada exhibited such concern for the institution ISKCON
that he founded. Srila Prabhupada had witnessed the decline and failure
of the Gaudiya Mutt institution. Would he leave the matter concerning
the succession of Acharya in ISKCON without clarity?Let us take a look at all these facts read together:
Fact 1: Secret of success in
spiritual life is to serve the instructions of the spiritual master as
one’s life and soul and never deviate.
Fact 2: Authorization is essential to become Spiritual Master.
Fact 3: Srila Prabhupada did not
authorize or appoint any of his disciples to become Spiritual Master or
Diksha Guru after his disappearance.
Fact 4: Srila Prabhupada describes
the history of Gaudiya Mutt and analyzes the cause of it’s decline to be
deviating from the spiritual master’s instruction on successor acharya.
Fact 5: The disciples of Srila Prabhupada were very ambitious to become Gurus and Srila Prabhupada was conscious of this:
Fact 6: Srila Prabhupada was very meticulous in his working and had deep concern for his institution, ISKCON.
It is important to see what the position of the GBC is as expressed by one of it’s leading voices, HG Ravindra Svarupa Dasa, in this article officially published:
“There is a failure to appreciate the
problem Srila Prabhupada faced in his last days. We can be sure that he
knew his own disciples better than they knew themselves; he had no
illusions about their spiritual qualification. Yet they were pressing
for a selection of successor gurus, the ultimate position for the
ambitious. Hamsaduta and Kirtanananda had already been rebuked by Srila
Prabhupada for receiving guru-puja in the presence of the
spiritual master, a serious transgression. Without any indication from
Srila Prabhupada in this manner, there would have been chaos. Yet Srila
Prabhupada clearly did not want to give his sanction to unfit people, a
spiritual error. He therefore selected them without endorsement. In
response to the question of initiation after departure, Srila Prabhupada
gave a list of 'officiating gurus', designating them in an indirect or
oblique manner. He expected them to become 'regular gurus' in the
future, but there was no 'hand-picking of successors', no laying of
hands and anointing with oil, no transfer of power to some special and
exclusive group. Srila Prabhupada also knew that some, like
Kirtanananda, would initiate with or without his sanction, so he named
them. If he had not, there would likely have been a schism in 1978
instead of 1987. I feel that Srila Prabhupada's solution was brilliant,
the best that could have been done under the circumstances. The result
would depend on Krishna. (Cleaning House Cleaning Hearts by HG Ravindra Svarupa Dasa)
It is to be noted in this article is the reasoning: “He therefore selected them without endorsement. In response to the question
of initiation after departure, Srila Prabhupada gave a list of
'officiating gurus', designating them in an indirect or oblique manner. He expected them to become 'regular gurus' in the future,…”On such an important matter as initiation in the future in ISKCON, which had caused the failure of Gaudiya Mutt, which Srila Prabhupada had witnessed over decades, would Srila Prabhupada leave the matter nebulous as mentioned here?
It is surprising that on such an important matter of the Spiritual Master or Guru in ISKCON, the most important principle of following the orders of the spiritual master and not deviating is not being honoured.
Srila Prabhupada, please bless us that we don’t become insensitive to your instructions on this matter or any other matter.
Your humble servant,
Chanchalapathi Das.
