The Glorious appearance day of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

Dear Srila Prabhupada, Please accept my humble obeisances

. All glories to your Divine Grace.

It was in the years 1998 and 1999. There was a great deal of turmoil in ISKCON Bangalore temple. The temple and ashram were abuzz with over one hundred devotees discussing whether you wanted us to be your disciples or grand disciples? What was your plan for spiritual succession in ISKCON? Was there an appointment of successor Acharyas or not after your physical disappearance? Who is a diksha guru? Reading of articles, position papers, GBC documents, searching Vedabase occupied most of the devotees time.

HH Jayapataka Swami had sent a warning: if one rejects a bona fide spiritual master, the disciple will not get the seed of bhakti for next millions of lives! One cannot jump over one's spiritual master! If you offend a spiritual master, you will rot in hell! Accepting rtvik system of initiation would be worse than impersonalism. And the like.

And I was the slowest to make the transition in understanding. Being sentimental and fearful of committing offences, I took the longest time when compared to other devotees. I wish to recall how you guided me in several significant steps.

Firstly, I came across the following purport in the Srimad Bhagavatam, almost quite accidentally. It was in the context of how Ashwatthama has to be treated and what Krishna, the Pandavas and Draupadi spoke on the matter. Whether it is the sentiment or keen discrimination that should prevail was the discussion:

"A good man or woman accepts anything very easily, but a man of average intelligence does not do so. But, anyway, we should not give up our reason and discriminatory power just to be gentle. One must have good discriminatory power to judge a thing on its merit. We should not follow the mild nature of a woman and thereby accept that which is not genuine. Ashvatthama may be respected by a good-natured woman, but that does not mean that he is as good as a genuine brahmana." (SB 1.7.42 Purport)

And the purport to the next verse was even more pointed:

"Arjuna arrested Ashvatthama knowing perfectly well that he was the son of Dronacharya. Krishna also knew him to be so, but both of them condemned the murderer without consideration of his being the son of a brahmana. According to revealed scriptures, a teacher or spiritual master is liable to be rejected if he proves himself unworthy of the position of a guru or spiritual master. A guru is called also an acharya, or a person who has personally assimilated all the essence of shastras and has helped his disciples to adopt the ways. Ashvatthama failed to discharge the duties of a brahamana or teacher, and therefore he was liable to be rejected from the exalted position of a brahmana. On this consideration, both Lord Sri Krishna and Arjuna were right in condemning Ashvatthama. But to a good lady like Draupadi, the matter was considered not from the angle of shastric vision, but as a matter of custom. By custom, Ashvatthama was offered the same respect as offered to his father. It was so because generally the people accept the son of a brahamana as a real brahmana, by sentiment only. Factually the matter is different. A brahmana is accepted on the merit of qualification and not on the merit of simply being the son of a brahmana." (SB 1.7.43 Purport).

These words of the purport especially seemed so pointed at the similar dilemma that I was in myself. I read and reread these words of the purport praying for your mercy to help resolve my dilemma.

Around that time, I came across a recorded lecture by HG Ravindra Swarupa Dasa. I was a great admirer of Ravindra Swarup Das as I had read his innumerable essays and articles, and even once travelled to the ISKCON temple in Philadelphia just to buy a cardboard case full of his 200 audio lecture tapes. Although I had this collection of tapes for several years, I had somehow not found time to hear any of them. And one day, during those times of turmoil in ISKCON Bangalore temple, again almost accidentally, I picked one tape randomly from the box of two hundred tapes and heard the lecture. HG Ravindra Swarupa Das was explaining the incidents concerning Bali Mardan Dasa in New York. The class was about how devotees had sentimentally accepted Bali Mardan Dasa as the spiritual authority without using discrimination. Ravindra Swarup Das made a sarcastic remark that Bali Mardhan had renounced his renunciation (sannyasa) for the sake of preaching and married a young Japanese woman! The lecture also described how Bali Mardhan was accepted as an incarnation of Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswathi Thakura by the inexperienced and sentimental devotees of the New York temple and how the BBT artists had made an artwork of Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswathi Thakura which resembled nearly Bali Mardhan Das. The lecture also described how tactfully you handled the matter during your visit to the New York temple. Ravindra Swarup recalled your words in the class you gave in the New York temple after the matter was settled, where you said, "Don't surrender your intelligence, but use your intelligence to surrender to Krishna." This instruction came as a bolt from the blue. It seemed so relevant for me too at that time.

The next important thing that happened was a visit of HH Bhakti Charu Swami to the ISKCON temple in Bangalore. He visited us around 1999 in Bangalore. He was always kind and sympathetic to us. He said that he wanted to have a heart-to-heart talk with us. We welcomed Maharaj to the temple. At that time, the Maharaj explained the circumstances during your last days of physical presence on this planet. He was especially qualified to tell us about those days as he was serving you as a personal servant in Vrindavan. He recounted to us how there was a lot of pressure on Your Divine Grace from your disciples at that time to appoint the next acharya. We heard the Maharaj explain, intently, "Once after the devotees had left Srila Prabhupada's room, he turned to me and said in Bengali, My Guru Maharaj did not appoint an Acharya. They expect me to appoint one!'" This was very revealing. I wanted to make sure that I had heard what Maharaj had said accurately. Next day, before Maharaj left Bangalore, I once again asked him to repeat what he had said and he repeated all over again. It became more clear that you had not appointed any one of the disciples as the successor acharyas nor were you wanting to appoint one.

And the next important encounter was when HG Ravindra Swarup Das himself visited the Bangalore temple, probably around 2000. As I was a great admirer of Ravindra Swarup Das I looked forward to his visit. I was aware that he was called the learned Brahmana or the wise man of ISKCON. When he visited our temple in Bangalore, we had a short private meeting in the temple's Board Room. After the initial greetings, we began our discussion. "Srila Prabhupada says," I started explaining, "that we should take initiation from a bona fide spiritual master coming in the disciplic succession, who is authorized by his predecessor spiritual master and this is called diksha vidhana" Ravindra Swarup Das stopped me abruptly and asked, "Did Srila Prabhupada use the word predecessor spiritual master?"

"Yes, prabhu. Srila Prabhupada says this in the Bhagavatam purport!" I said hurriedly, referring to the purport in SB 4.8.54.

Instantly he dismissed and said curtly, "I have not come here to discuss philosophy with you. If you want to discuss philosophy, I will send Jayadvaita and you can discuss with him." I was shocked to see that the most celebrated Brahmana wise man of ISKCON was not aware of the most fundamental direction from the Bhagavatam purports on the guru issue!! Nor was he interested to understand our perspective and the deliberations that we have gone through.

Over the years, we have seen that several devotees have not realized the importance of authorization by the predecessor Acharya to become an Acharya. Although you have mentioned this in the context of the Gaudiya Math repeatedly and even used the expression "self-appointed acharyas" in the same purport of Chaitanya Charitamrta (Adi 12.8), the devotees, even in positions of leadership, fail to understand the absolute necessity of authorization, an explicit and clear order by the predecessor Acharya.

It is also a fact that most devotees are not aware of the exact historical circumstances and your directions on spiritual succession. They loosely say, even at the GBC level, that Srila Prabhupada talked about "regular guru", "grand disciples" and "disciple of my disciple."

What they miss to notice is the emphasis you placed on authorization when you said,

"Be actually guru, but by my order."

"When I order, "You become guru," he becomes regular guru. That's all. He becomes disciple of my disciple. That's it." (May 28, 1977 conversations).

They miss out the important point on whether you ordered any of them to become the Acharya or spiritual master or diksha gurus?

Today we see how there are innumerable young devotees coming to ISKCON, take initiation from one of the self-appointed gurus of ISKCON and heap all that you have said about the position and qualifications of the bona fide spiritual master on these self-appointed gurus ! Many of these self-appointed gurus have turned out to be mere kanishta adhikaris while the disciples were made to revere them as the most advanced uttama adhikari devotees.

We are convinced that Your Divine Grace is an Acharya par excellence. You have received the blessings of all the previous Acharyas to present the Gaudiya Vaishnava Siddantha in the present times in English language. You have blessed this world with an extraordinary treasure of your spiritually enriching association through your potent words (vani). Your spirit and vision for worldwide preaching is special. The emphasis on various aspects and practical directions for practice of Krishna consciousness you have given in innumerable circumstances in recorded and retrievable form is unprecedented in Vaishnava history. These instructions that you have delivered constitute the consummation of the lifetime efforts of Vaishnava Acharyas over several millennia. You have been chosen by the Lord and the previous acharyas to play this role due to your extraordinary surrender. You state in a purport of Chaitanya Charitamrta, "The methods, rules and regulations by which one is perfectly trained in devotional service constitute the bhakti-lata-bija, or the seed of devotional service." The methods you have taught for development of Krishna consciousness in the hearts of conditioned souls of Kaliyuga is very special. All these and more constitute the invaluable and veritable spiritual legacy that you have left behind. Your position is simply unique and irreplaceable. The most saddening part is that unfettered access to all these spiritual treasures is not promoted as a primary source of spiritual inspiration for the devotees as they have to be connected to Your Divine Grace through their so-called present gurus. The direct access and relationship with Your Divine Grace, as you yourself desired, is being denied to the young aspirants now coming to ISKCON by introduction of a spiritual dampener due to a wrong practice that has come about. Instead of recognizing your glorious position, they are made to adore ordinary men in institutionally imposed awe and veneration, as paramahamsas!

Today the word rtvik has become so despicable and has been many times even demonized! These unwarranted responses to the very word that you personally used are blinding devotees from understanding the truth. How sad!

And on this auspicious day of Your Vyasa Puja, I wish to remind myself that we devotees should manage your institution according to your directions and wishes. That should be our constant prayer and anxiety.

It is my prayer, please continue to guide us always so that we do what pleases you. Please kindly lead us the way you want us to act. Let not success and pride blind us. Please guide our convictions, thoughts, inspirations and actions in the right path because there is nothing more glorious in the world than to please a pure devotee of Sri Krishna.

Your servant,

Chanchalapathi Dasa.

For More Information about Vyasa Puja please visit http://chanchalapathidasa.info/?p=101

The Glorious appearance day of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

By: prasadkoppoluu

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