Jagannath Charan Das

OBVIOUS QUESTIONS TO ASK ABOUT THE GURU APPOINTMENTS -After the announcement (BTG March ’78, 3 months late), many doubts plagued some independent-thinking devotees: (1) Why was the so-called guru selection or 'appointment' not announced by Srila Prabhupada himself during his manifest presence? (2) Why did the GBC or the eleven “appointees” not announce publicly the appointment of gurus before Srila Prabhupada departed in Nov. 1977, or at least immediately afterwards, and why did they wait until the end of March 1978, remaining silent for over 4 months? (3) Did the GBC wait until after Srila Prabhupada's departure to publicly announce the new gurus so they would not be corrected by Srila Prabhupada? (4) Why has this whole issue of Guru appointment and future initiations never been fully and thoroughly investigated by independent brahamanas or openly discussed in the devotee society? (5) Why was no evidence in letters or tapes given to support their claim of appointed successor acharyas? “Once they disobeyed their spiritual master’s instructions and embarked on the zonal-acharya diksha-guru course, they became lost in uncharted and unfamiliar waters. A catastrophic shipwreck was inevitable.” (Zonal Acharyas, Doktorski, p. 59) As Gurukripa das asked: “If Srila Prabhupada had appointed these eleven as spiritual masters, why did they not start initiating at once? Because they all knew very well they were never appointed!” (Srila Prabhupada’s Hidden Glories, 1.538)