The Philosophy of ISKCON Bangalore

Mangalore ISKCON is in the heart of South India, where in general the people are far more traditional, scholarly, strict and orthodox than in the rest of India. It is the heartland of the followers of Madhavacharya. It is the heartland of the followers of Sri Ramanujacharya. It is also the heartland of the followers of Sri Shankaracharya of the Advaita Sampradaya. getting people here to take ISKCON seriously has been a difficult task and yet the response to the ISKCON Bangalore temple by the media and the public here has been very encouraging and can be considered a major breakthrough in South Indian preaching where in spite of over 25 years of ISKCON nothing substantial has been achieved.

The temple here is everything Srila Prabhupada has wanted in a temple. 150,000 square feet of built up area, great book distribution, free prasadam distribution, a brahmachari ashram bursting with devotees, 55 strong full time brahmacharis, 200 initiated congregation and over 1 lakh visitors every week. This is a major success for ISKCON in India. This temple is a testimony to the dedication and sincerity of the devotees of Bangalore ISKCON.

The opening of this temple by the President of India created waves both in India and in ISKCON worldwide. And yet today, this very same temple, in less than a year after its grand opening, is creating waves again of another kind. It is in the center of an intense and fiery philosophical debate that is shaking the whole of ISKCON. Why has this temple become something that many in ISKCON want ostracized and amputated just within one year of its grand opening?

What is it that has prompted these young enthusiastic devotees to take up a stance that has caused so much disturbance in ISKCON? What follows is a compilation of what these devotees are going through in their own words. As to whether these boys have become conceited and corrupted with their own success or whether these boys have a genuine problem that needs to be looked into and set right is something that you must decide. For if you are in any way concerned with the future of this movement you must look into this so that it does not happen again in the future with all humility that I can muster and great respect for all the devotees who are serving Srila Prabhupada I humbly present the situation of the devotees of Bangalore temple all these years the devotees here lived in a small world of ISKCON Bangalore absorbed in the service of building this temple and and practically insulated from the calamities that were happening in the rest of this con-world since Srila Prabhupada's disappearance.

Gurus fell in abominable ways, but we were not so much affected because we were fortunate to have had His Holiness Jayapataka Swami, who was a very strong sanyasi. Today we are in the midst of a controversy. One of the many reasons why I got deeply involved in this Rithvik issue was one of the GBC members, Ravindra Swaroop Prabhu, sending me all the Rithvik materials to study so that I could lead an anti-Rithvik campaign in India. Soon I realized, as I kept reading this material, that we have been very wishy-washy about the whole Guru issue.

How can such a serious thing as a guruship in our society be subject to so much revision and confusion, especially when our founder Acharya Srila Prabhupada was known to have been a person who was so meticulous and exacting in giving instructions about so many things in this moment. want to speak of something as important as the Guru. The July 9th letter is the only directive to the society in the matter of initiation. There is no letter or instruction after this in order to change this. Here is the directive of July 9th to the entire society, to all GBC and temple presidents.

Dear Maharajas and Prabhus, please accept my humble obeisance and set your feet. Recently, when all of the GVC members were with His Divine Grace in Vrindavan, Srila Prabhupada indicated that soon he would appoint some of his senior disciples to act as Ritvik, representative of the Acharya, for the purpose of performing initiation, both first initiation and second initiation. Divine Grace has so far given a list of 11 disciples who will act in that capacity. In the past, the temple presidents have returned to Srila Prabhupada recommending a particular devotee's initiation.

Now that Srila Prabhupada has named these representatives, temple presidents may henceforward send recommendation for first and second initiation to whichever of these 11 representatives are nearest the temple. After considering the recommendation, these representatives may accept the devotee as an initiated disciple of Srila Prabhupada by giving him a spiritual name or in the case of second initiation by chanting on the Gayatri thread, just as Srila Prabhupada has done. The newly initiated devotees are disciples of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. the above 11 senior devotees acting as his representative.

After the temple president receives a letter from the representatives giving this letter. This letter is a direct consequence of a meeting that the GBC members had with Srila Prabhupada on May 28 in regard to initiation, first and second initiation, particularly at a time when Srila Prabhupada is no longer with us. From this letter and the May 28th tape conversation, it becomes very obvious that this is the final order regarding first and second initiation after Srila Prabhupada is no longer with us. So we see that Srila Prabhupada through this directive has set up a system of initiation wherein there was no need for his physical involvement at all.

And this system was put in place and was running for five months till Srila Prabhupada's physical departure. Now the question arises, how and on what authority this system was stopped or whether there was an order for putting in place any other system of initiation. The July 9th letter is the only directive to the society in the matter of initiation. There is no letter or instruction after this in order to change this.

Yet there has been a change the representative of the acharya instead of accepting disciples for Srila Prabhupada they have acted as acharyas themselves and accepted disciples for themselves this is a gross violation of the directive given by our beloved founder acharya Srila Prabhupada we cannot accept this at all. Prabhupada left his movement in darkness without any clear instruction, expecting his young disciples to speculate, to do research, to change, modify, accommodate, try different systems, how to continue the parampara. We cannot accept this. We cannot accept this.

We cannot accept this at all. And we can see that anybody before they join ISKCON, they have already been given transcendental knowledge by Prabhupada and there is a change of heart because of which they are inspired to actually dedicate their life for serving Srila Prabhupada's mission. Only some ceremony has not happened but then after he joins ISKCON, he is expected to accept somebody else as his Diksha Guru when actually the Diksha process has already taken place. And then he is expected to totally surrender to somebody who has not influenced him in his life.

In our society it would have been ideal had we had a system where even after one comes into this society we have the GBC or whatever mechanism that's put in place promoting or helping one's relationship with Prabhupada grow, deepen, which I think would have been the best system. Because in any case it's Prabhupada who has brought you here, Prabhupada who has inspired the change of heart, Prabhupada's instructions continue to guide your life, in fact Prabhupada's instructions are meant to guide the entire society. So, we should have a system, isn't it nice if we had a system where this relationship with Prabhupada deepens and grows. He analyzes Kanishadikari, Madhya, Madhyamadikari and Uttamadikari and he says it's only the Kanishadikari who falls down.

Madhyamadikari does not fall down, Uttamadikari there is no chance of a fall down. That means what have we been offering in ISKCON as gurus? really unfortunate to analyze in this sense. Obviously, the undisputable Uttam Adhikari in ISKCON is Srila Prabhupada. So Prabhupada emphasized purity so much and he said this is our greatest asset and unfortunately today for the highest role in the spiritual life of Guru, we are saying the The Guru needn't be a liberated soul and we are compromising and reducing the standards just to accommodate what is happening presently.

So it's very very sad and depressing to see that compromises and impurities being made at the highest level. I have a background of being brought up in a Brahminical culture, in a traditional Madhva family and I have seen gurus, I have seen Peethahathipathis and I have observed them but in contrast the ISKCON, what ISKCON offers to me or has offered to me in the last ten years is highly disappointing. I am very frustrated with the development even though the person or the devotee from whom i have taken the spiritual name is still in good standing spiritually but i i cannot follow or live in a society where the spiritual standards are highly diluted as long as the spiritual master is physically present the disciple should serve the physical body of the spiritual master and when the spiritual master is no longer physically existing the disciple should serve the instruction of the spiritual master?

Prabhupada says, he writes a letter to one of his disciples saying that Krishna and his representative is the same. Just like Krishna can be present simultaneously in millions of places. Similarly, the spiritual master also can be present wherever the disciple wants. A spiritual master is the principle, not the body.

So in other words, Prabhupada physically not present, it's not a valid reason because Prabhupada also says that as Hari is not subject to the criticism of mundane rules and regulations the spiritual master empowered by him is also not subjected. So he is not subjected to time, place, circumstance or anything. He can appear anywhere just like Narada Muni. He appeared anywhere in three worlds.

Prabhupada says he can appear anywhere he wants. The daily worship that we do of Prabhupada, are we worshipping an idol? Are we worshipping a person? I mean I have been thinking about this.

We are actually worshipping Prabhupāda who is actually present in the form of the deity. Otherwise, we are not supposed to go idol worship. Prabhupāda is dead against idol worship. So, why do we worship Prabhupāda's murti?

Because Prabhupāda is present in the center of everybody's life and his con. That's the reason everybody is worshipping Prabhupāda. And they are naturally inspired to do so. Because Prabhupāda says in the BDG, If I depart, there is no cause for lamentation.

I will always be with you through my books and orders. I will always remain with you in that way. So, Srila Prabhupada... That's a very intense...

Either in the present guru system, the guru is somewhere thousands of miles away, but the disciple still worships his photo and believes that in the photo he sees, you know, the guru. If guru can present, the present guru can present in his photo and disciple, you know, worships, why not Prabhupada? It cannot apply to Prabhupada. In other words, same Prabhupada is limited.

Reception of spiritual knowledge is never checked by any material condition. The potency of transcendental sound is never minimized because the vibrator is apparently absent. Deeksha is not a ceremony which is performed. Deeksha actually means like Srila Prabhupada himself defines in Chitanya Charitamrita.

In other words, the spiritual master awakens the sleeping living entity to his original consciousness so that he can worship Lord Vishnu. This is the purpose of Deeksha or initiation. initiation means receiving the pure knowledge of spiritual consciousness so Shila Prabhupada even though physically absent among us even now is doing and can also do this process of Diksha so I don't see any reason why this Jhulayana directive should be stopped just because Shila Prabhupada is not physically present among us because Prabhupada when he was you know in one way he was not physically present to so many of his disciples. He gave initiation through letters. So, physical distance does not at all separate Deeksha process.

So, how can you say, then you have to find a Shastric rule which says that the Guru should be present only in the circumference of Earthly planet. The understanding is that Rithvik means he's being reduced to some sort of a priest who comes and does something in the ceremony and that is it. But actually Prabhupada had a different understanding when he used the word Rithvik because he only chose 11 out of thousands of disciples. And he even said some of them are not qualified.

So in fact, being a Rithvik is not a small thing. It's not just a priest. It's a very responsible and important position in ISKCON who connects you to Prabhupada. that how each and every most of the gurus have their pet projects and they promote their project they engage their disciples in different temples for fulfilling their project and in temples so we can see that how the present guru system has got such a damaging effect on a successful the whole management of this worldwide organization. Because we have misunderstood in continuing the parampara, obviously what happened is that everybody took on the role of Diksha Guru and hence they overpowered the GBC body, hence making the entire GBC body dysfunctional.

These traditionally strong mats such as the Sri Vaishnava mats or the Madhava mats are here. And we've had this particular system, the system which was put in place by the July 9th letter, critically examined by quite a few of these scholars and mathadipatis and heads of other institutions. And it's surprising to know that the specific system that Prabhupada created does not violate any shastric injunction. In fact, when I spoke to them and showed them Prabhupada's letter and asked them if there is anything wrong with this, continuing the system, the readiness with which they accepted it, it was so striking in that really, they are so easily, right away they are accepting that this is a very valid system, there is nothing, no spiritual instruction, injunction is violated by this system.

We wish to follow the GBC. It's not that we are trying to rebel or trying to actually act as some reformers or upstarts who don't have any regard for any higher authority. It's not like that. It's just that we are really concerned.

It is very unfortunate that there is a lot of word going around that we have been in Bangalore temple being very offensive to the devotees. who visit us here. We only wish to state that it's not our intention to be offensive at all. And it is just that the subject is such that it may be, it could be very easily be perceived as an offensive attitude. So we feel sorry about that.

And definitely we recognize that many devotees who have visited us we recognize they have done tremendous service to this movement to Srila Prabhupada much much more than any of us all put together so we definitely wish to acknowledge that and recognize that and we do not have any intention to offend anyone and we request that we are seen in that spirit. We did not want to offend anyone in the past and even in this presentation we do not wish to offend anyone. It is just that we had to open our hearts and express what we have been going through and express our concern for the movement and we sincerely beg pardon if anyone feels offended by this Hare Krishna