The Following is a Letter written to a fellow e-mail recipient concerning the mislabeling of The International Society for Krishna Consciousness founded by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada.
Dear _______ prabhu,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All Glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Are you under the impression that these people who are not following Srila Prabhupada are "ISKCON" devotees just because they are claiming to be chanting 16 rounds, following the 4 regulative principles, and have a picture of Srila Prabhupada in the house??
There is a lecture given by Srila Prabhupada in Vrndavana, November 1, 1976 where he states : "...The first thing is hamse gurau mayi bhaktyanuvrtya. This is religion. Adau gurvasrayam. If you do not get a qualified guru, then everything is bogus. …" "...The bona fide spiritual master, by his personal activities, teaches the disciple the principles of devotional service. Without personal service, one would go on speculating like the impersonalists and dry speculators life after life and would be unable to reach the final conclusion. By following the instructions of the bona fide spiritual master in conjunction with the principles of revealed scriptures, the student will rise to the plane of complete knowledge, which will be exhibited by development of detachment from the world of sense gratification. …"
So clearly it is stated if you do not accept, in our case, Srila Prabhupada and "all of His orders and instructions" ie. that he is a bonifide Acharya (therefore the allegiance HAS to be there for you to be a follower) then you are not in ISKCON. You are in a completely different organization, it ceases to be the ISKCON referred to in Srila Prabhupada's books and stipulations, legal documents. etc. It is in name only. But those who can see this difference, they prefer to refer to this organization by some other nick name: FISKCON, GODIYA PEOPLE, or whatever. For the sake of understanding, because people get this confused. The matter can be confusing for new people who Go to the temples read ISKCON on the walls, books and see Srila Prabhupada's picture. There should be an explanation that it is not really the ISKCON Srila Prabhupada intended, in fact IT IS NOT "ISKCON" AT ALL.
In "Srila Prabhupada's approved books" it is stated that when one is offering Boga it must be offered FIRST to your spiritual master and THEN in that manner the rest of the Sampradaya offers it ending with Radha Krishna. BUT when the meaning is changed and manipulated to mean almost the exact opposite then the instruction is lost.
In a more subtle and dangerous example; If the VERY words of the Spiritual Master are spoken by a disciple who deliberately does not follow his the Guru, then those same words originally spoken by the Guru are NOT EFFECTIVE coming out of the deviant disciple. This is confirmed by Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura as well as Srila Prabhupada. "'No one should hear or take lessons from a person who is not a Vaiṣṇava. Even if he speaks about Kṛṣṇa, such a lesson should not be accepted, for it is like milk touched by the lips of a serpent.' Nowadays it is fashionable to observe Bhāgavata-saptāha and hear Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam from persons who are anything but advanced devotees or self-realized souls…" "… Many Māyāvādīs have recently begun reciting Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in Vṛndāvana, and because they can present the Bhāgavatam with word jugglery, twisting the meaning by grammatical tricks, materialistic persons who go to Vṛndāvana as a matter of spiritual fashion like to hear them. All this is clearly forbidden by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu." Purport C.C. Antya 13.113
So some people accept whatever their guru says disregarding whether he is bonafide or not, whether he follows his guru or not. SO HERE THERE IS A CONFLICT OF INTEREST, A CONTRADICTION. An intelligent person will find out that the organization HAS changed. Srila Prabhupada is no longer the authority at all in the organization that calls it self "ISKCON" by name. Why? Because it is "no longer ISKCON". It is NOT ISKCON anymore. It may say I.S.K.C.O.N but that is an illusion. It is not ISKCON. The so called GBC do not have allegiance to Srila Prabhupada and they are leading a mass of ignorant people AWAY from Srila Prabhupada, all in the name of "following" him.
The International Society for Krsna Consciousness is Srila Prabhupada's body, it is eternal, it CAN NOT BECOME "CORRUPTED" or "LOST" or "STOLEN", or "MISGUIDED". So there is no point in "taking ISKCON back" because it was never "TAKEN" in the first place, it was never "LOST" in the first place, it was never "STOLEN" in the first place, it was never "MISGUIDED" in the first place.
If Srila Prabhupada says that ISKCON is his body, and you think these people are ISKCON then what are you saying about Srila Prabhupada; that Srila Prabhupada's body is "CORRUPTED", "LOST", "STOLEN", "MISGUIDED"??? This is a huge offense to Srila Prabhupada. The pure devotee, the Acharya, is never contaminated EVER.
The majority of people that go to these "phony ISKCON" temples have their own Guru and follow his instructions and read out of the changed books, undermining Srila Prabhupada's arrangement. There is no way for the pure transmission of transcendental knowledge to occur. It is stopped. It stopped when they changed the books.
"The ācārya gives the suitable method for crossing the ocean of nescience by accepting the boat of the Lord’s lotus feet, and if this method is strictly followed, the followers will ultimately reach the destination, by the grace of the Lord. This method is called ācārya-sampradāya. It is therefore said,sampradāya-vihīnā ye mantrās te niṣphalā matāḥ (Padma Purāṇa). The ācārya-sampradāyais strictly bona fide. Therefore one must accept the ācārya-sampradāya; otherwise one’s endeavor will be futile." Srimad Bhagavatam 10.2.31
Srila Prabhupada's books are the incarnation of Srila Prabhupada, but if you change them then the books cease to be an incarnation.
So the solution is to create ISKCON wherever you are and stop waisting your time with people who want to follow cheaters. There is a reason they want to follow these cheaters. They THEMSELVES want to be a CHEATER just like their guru. It is cheap and they want to spread this cheapness to others and create a community of cheaters and cheated.
Hope this finds you well
Your Servant,
{Ironic_Dejavu}
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