Sridhara Maharaja and the GBC pt.1

Srila Prabhupada: "A Guru can be Guru when he is ordered by his Guru. That’s all. Otherwise nobody can become Guru." (Srila Prabhupada Lecture, October 28th, 1975)


"The newly initiated devotees are disciples of His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the above eleven senior devotees acting as His representative." July 9th, 1977 Letter

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Sri Narasingha Chaitanya Ashram 

Two Official Meetings of Srila Sridhara Maharaja with the ISKCON GBC - March 1978 Srila B.R. Sridhar Maharaja March 1, 1978

[Portions printed in Sri Guru & His Grace]

[Known present GBC members: Tamal Krsna Maharaja, Jayapataka Maharaja, Jayatirtha Maharaja, Harikesa Maharaja, Satsvarupa Maharaja, Jayadvaita Maharaja, and others]

This talk formed the basis of the ISKCON GBC's 1978 paper entitled:

THE PROCESS FOR CARRYING OUT SRILA PRABHUPADA'S DESIRES FOR FUTURE INITIATIONS 


Jayapataka Mj: After the departure of our beloved spiritual master we came to offer our respects to you as well as to hear your very esteemed upadesa on certain matters if you would be kind enough.

Srila Sridhara Maharaja: The gurudeva is mentioned in the sastra with an example. The sisya is like a lotus, and the gurudeva like the water around, just as in a pond or in a lake, gurudevas position is like water and Krsna is like the sun. As long as the lotus is floating on the water, the sun will give life to the lotus but if the water vanishes that very sun will burn the lotus. Do you follow? This sort of example is given in the sastra.

[PADA: Correct. The worship of the bona fide guru is like a pond of nourishing water that protects the lotus flower plant of the aspiring devotee. Therefore, in 1936 when BR Sridhara Maharaja REPLACED the worship of the bona fide guru (Srila Sarawati thakura) with the worship of deviants and homosexuals, the aspiring devotees and the entire Gaudiya Matha mission began to fail. Sridhara Maharaja drained out the pond of pure guru water and he replaced it with toxic sludge of the worship of bogus people, and so the residents of the pond began to wither and die in that pool of toxic materials. Srila Prabhupada sums this up: "the Gaudiya Matha has failed."

Sridhara Maharaja is actually correct on one point, the worship of the bona fide guru protects the aspiring devotees individually and collectively as a society. Therefore Srila Prabhupada says that Sridhara Maharaja's removing the worship of the bona fide acharya, and replacing that worship with the worship of deviants, caused the failure of the Gaudiya Matha. 

In short, Sridhara Maharaja REMOVED the protective water of the pond of guru worship and he replaced it with un-inhabitable worship of bogus people, and so the poor Gaudiya Matha inhabitants dried up and withered. Srila Saraswati Thakura sort of predicted this when he said that after he departed "there will be a fire in this matha" because some ambitious leaders would try to pose as false acharyas. And one of the main persons pouring gasoline on this fire of bogus gurus in the matha was identified by Srila Prabhupada as Sridhara Maharaja, by SM's insistence that the worship of conditioned souls is required, and that the worship of the ACTUAL pure devotee is "not in the tradition." Unfortunately, Sridhara Maharaja gave the GBC the same arguments he gave the bogus guru cult in 1936: You need a living guru; You need an appointed guru; The idea of a Governing Body is wrong, and so forth. He helped set up ISKCON to fail just as he had set up the Gaudiya Matha to fail.]         

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Srila Prabhupada: "Why this Gaudiya Matha failed? Because they (Sridhara Maharaja) tried to become more than Guru. They declared some unfit person to become acarya. Then another man came, then another man, then another to become acarya. Now I am so advanced that I can kill my guru and I become guru." (Conversation, August 16, 1976, Bombay.) Srila Prabhupada is very clear here, the people who promoted these false gurus were killing their own guru.    
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Srila Sridhara Maharaja: Where is Bhavananda, is he here?

Jayapataka Maharaja: He couldn't come today.

Srila Sridhara Maharaja: He told in his lecture, that union in separation is the highest realization. [...] In vipralambha, gurudeva, in separation to gurudeva, if we can stand then vidyavatam bhagavate pariksad. I have passed the highest stage, test, examination. In separation also I can retain the memory of sri gurudeva, Sri Krsna.

[PADA: This is an interesting point, the passing away of the guru is a sort of test to see who will remain faithful to his instructions. Srila Prabhupada says that Sridhara Maharaja was not faithful to the orders of his guru Srila Sarawati Thakura to make a Governing Body for the Gaudiya Matha. Instead Sridhara Maharaja made a conditioned soul into "the guru successor to Srila Sarawati."]  

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Srila Prabhupada: "We shall be very carefull and not mix with them, (Prabhupada's God brothers like Sridhara Maharaja), this is my instruction to you all. They cannot help us in our movement, but they are very competent to harm our natural progress. So, we should be very careful about them.

You are right about Sridhara Maharaja's genuineness. But in my opinion he is the best of the lot. He is my old friend, at least he executes the regulative principles of devotional service. I do not wish to discuss about activities of my Godbrothers but it is a fact they have no life for preaching work. All are satisfied with a place for residence in the name of a temple, they engage DISCIPLES to get FOODSTUFF by TRANSCENDENTAL devices and EAT and SLEEP.

They have no idea or brain how to broacast the cult of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. My Guru Maharaja used to lament many times for this reason and he thought if one man at least had understood the principle of preaching then his mission would achieve success. In the latter days of my Guru Maharaja he was very disgusted. Actually, he left this world earlier, otherwise he would have continued to live for more years. Still he requested his disciples to form a strong Governing body for preaching the cult of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. He never recommended anyone to be acarya of the Gaudiya Math. But SRIDHARA MAHARAJA is responsible for disobeying this order of Guru Maharaja, and he and others (such as Professor Sannyal and Madhava Maharaja) who are already dead UNNECESSARILY THOUGHT that there must be one acharya.

If Gruru Maharaja could have seen someone who was qualified AT THAT TIME to be acharya he would have mentioned. Because on the night before he passed away he talked of so many things, but never mentioned (appointing) an acarya. His idea was ACARYA was not to be NOMINATED amongst the governing body. He said openly -- you make a GBC and conduct the mission. So his idea was amongst the members of GBC who would come out successful and self effulgent acarya would be automatically selected.

So Sridhara Maharaja and his two associate gentlemen unauthorizedly selected one acarya and later it proved a failure. The result is now everyone is claiming to be acarya even though they may be kanistha adhikari with no ability to preach. In some of the camps the acarya is being changed three times a year. Therefore we many not commit the same mistake in our ISKCON camp.

ACTUALLY AMONGST MY GODBROTHERS NO ONE IS QUALIFIED TO BECOME ACARYA. So it is better not to mix withe with my God brothers very INTIMATELY because instead of inspiring our students and disciples, THEY MAY SOMETIMES POLLUTE THEM. This attempt was made previously by them, especially Madhava Maharaja and Tirtha Maharaja and Bon Maharaja but somehow or other I saved the situation. This is going on. We shall be very careful about them and not mix with them. This is my instruction to you all. They cannot help us in our movement, but they are very competent to harm our natural progress. 74-04-28 Prabhupadas letter to Rupanuga
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[PADA: So it is clear, Sridhara Maharaja failed the test to remain loyal to his guru's orders to make a GBC and not to make false gurus. More importantly, Sridhara Maharaja is clearly stated to be unqualified to act as an acharya himself.]   

Jayapataka Maharaja: Maharaja, when our Srila Prabhupada left, then he has given instruction that for initiating and for carrying on the sampradaya there would be eleven-in the beginning, he appointed eleven devotees, his disciples, to be initiating spiritual masters or to accept disciples and in the future that number would also be able to be increased.

[PADA: Where was this "guru appointment" ordered? Why did not Sridhara Maharaja even ask to see the (alleged) transcript of this appointment so he could understand what was being ordered? Srila Prabhupada had said in January of 1977 that his followers are not even fit for renounced monk status (sannyasa), and they were making a laughing stock of sannyasa, so suspend sannyasa and do not make more of them, and instead have people get married. Why would he appoint them as fully realized gurus a few months later, after just saying they were falling down left, right and center? Why did not Sridhara Maharaja say, since they are not fit for sannyasa, how can they be fit to be acharyas? Or did Sridhara Maharaja simply not even bother to study the issue at all, he just rubber stamped these 11 as gurus without even looking at the documentation, or even asking to see the documentation?]