Dear Godbrothers and Godsisters,
Please accepty my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
With deep regret, I must inform those of you who don't already know that our spiritual master has laid down his position as a guru, sannyasi and GBC in ISKCON. This information comes directly from him through the medium of a senior Godbrother. The official statement will be issued soon.
He still remains a devotee, so let's remember that and pray for his continuous progress in Krishna consciousness, despite the difficulties that he has experienced (haven't we all?). The position of a sannyasi and a guru is very draining, and is very hard to maintain in Kali-yuga.
Your servant,
Stoka Krishna das
Please accepty my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
With deep regret, I must inform those of you who don't already know that our spiritual master has laid down his position as a guru, sannyasi and GBC in ISKCON. This information comes directly from him through the medium of a senior Godbrother. The official statement will be issued soon.
He still remains a devotee, so let's remember that and pray for his continuous progress in Krishna consciousness, despite the difficulties that he has experienced (haven't we all?). The position of a sannyasi and a guru is very draining, and is very hard to maintain in Kali-yuga.
Your servant,
Stoka Krishna das
Dear Stoka Krsna Prabhu,
ReplyDeleteActually, the position of guru is never very draining, as a proper guru descends from the spiritual world and is thus never entangled due to their pure love for Krsna. As Srila Prabhupada has stated;
“Unless one is a resident of Krsna Loka, one cannot be a spiritual master. That is the first proposition. A layman cannot be a spiritual master, and if he becomes so he will simply create disturbance. So, to summarise the whole thing, it is to be understood that a bona fide guru is a resident of Krishna Loka" 1969.
With these statements, I beseech those on the careerist path of being 'guru' to read these statements of the acaryas and think once, twice, thrice and more before one ‘becomes a disturbance.’
The rank and file must also be aware that…
“A neophyte Vaisnava or a Vaisnava situated on the intermediate platform can also accept disciples, but such disciples must be on the same platform, and it should be understood that they cannot advance very well toward the ultimate goal of life under his insufficient guidance. Therefore a disciple should be careful to accept an uttama-adhikari as a spiritual master.” (Nectar of Instruction, Text 5, Purport)
I hope now that people will read Srila Prabhupada's books more to find the truth about who is qualified to be a spiritual master. It is definitely not a 'career' move, though ISKCON managers would lead us to believe otherwise.
There are also ample warnings about not accepting sannyasa. Here's one from Srila Prabhupada himself,
“If you want woman you get yourself married, live respectfully. We have no objection. But this hypocrisy should be stopped. There have been so many fallen down. First of all there will be no sannyasi anymore. I have got very bad experience. And at least, we are not going to create new sannyasis. And those who have fallen down, let them marry, live like respectable gentlemen. I have no objection."(January 7, 1977 Bombay)
If people took the instructions as given, there would never have been a problem. His disciples have much to blame for putting him on pedestal for so long and doing him absolutely no favours.
Unfortunately it is another case of cheaters and the cheated.
People's hearts are changed according to how advanced one is in devotion to Krsna. As long as we keep looking at the externals, we remain blind.
Since ISKCONites reject the Prabhupadanugas with utmost animosity there is nothing to lament about, "cheated disciples". These 1500 so called, "cheated disciples" were well-informed in what kind of risk they get into by becoming disciples of a rubber-stamped voted-in guru. So what will happen, either they get re-initiated by another rubber-stamped voted-in guru, or they enter material life again. These kind of folks never consider to be Prabhupadanugas.
ReplyDeleteOk, third option, they join Gaudiya-matha.