Nrsinghananda dasa: Perhaps we, as an ISKCON society, are "confused about our duty." After all, we still don't have a "white paper" on the present guru-by-non-objection (word jugglery at its most sublime - it's an approval by committee system anyway you cut it), so we have continued to invent to maintain some kind of order. I was pleased to see that by December 2012, a philosophical justification for the present GBC authority over guru is promised. After 35 years, it is long overdue. Maybe the paper will help to clarify some of the fog (for some) around Srila Prabhupada's "special position."
The recent clear instructions to Prabhavishnu prabhu's disciples to take shelter of an advanced Vaisnava or Srila Prabhupada is far better than where we were twenty or so years ago, when we pronounced "re-initiation" as the panacea to guru fall-down. I met a devotee this year who had initiation from five ISKCON gurus. That must be a record. Fortunately, he had kept a sense of humor about it, but the reality is that he admits to having suffered excruciating mental and emotional anguish.
When I speak to different GBC's about the imperative to "get it right" on the guru issue, I receive a lot of sympathy for the idea. Then the inevitable gentle smile spreads, "You know how the GBC body is, prabhu; there is no consensus of priority about definitively answering that question. Though, I agree with you, it is an essential foundation stone of being a devotee in ISKCON." I think to myself, "This is a Howard Beale moment." In the famous movie, "Network," he cracks under the pressure of being a well-behaved news commentator: "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore." The rant becomes a mantra for the disenfranchised; at last, there is some hint of power in the act of saying, "No".
The recent clear instructions to Prabhavishnu prabhu's disciples to take shelter of an advanced Vaisnava or Srila Prabhupada is far better than where we were twenty or so years ago, when we pronounced "re-initiation" as the panacea to guru fall-down. I met a devotee this year who had initiation from five ISKCON gurus. That must be a record. Fortunately, he had kept a sense of humor about it, but the reality is that he admits to having suffered excruciating mental and emotional anguish.
When I speak to different GBC's about the imperative to "get it right" on the guru issue, I receive a lot of sympathy for the idea. Then the inevitable gentle smile spreads, "You know how the GBC body is, prabhu; there is no consensus of priority about definitively answering that question. Though, I agree with you, it is an essential foundation stone of being a devotee in ISKCON." I think to myself, "This is a Howard Beale moment." In the famous movie, "Network," he cracks under the pressure of being a well-behaved news commentator: "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore." The rant becomes a mantra for the disenfranchised; at last, there is some hint of power in the act of saying, "No".
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