PADA: Yes, I am sure there was a big reunion in Australia that did not amount to much. There was also a big “reunion of senior Srila Prabhupada devotees” over in England recently, where many of the “old timers” came out of the wood work to have a big harinama on Oxford Street. After that, indeed right away, they vanished, and all went back into the wood work — never to be seen or heard from again, ok until maybe another reunion where next time, ten of them will be missing due to passing away. I agree this is not a very substantial contribution for the salvation of ISKCON.
The Gaudiya Matha also had some annual bigger meetings for Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati’s Vyasa pooja ceremonies and so forth, and Srila Prabhupada called them simply “a festival of offering fruits and flowers” — ok, their members did not amount to much either, and after the big ceremony, they also went back into the wood work. Nothing changed.
So, it seems that there are / were a lot of sentimental people who joined the Gaudiya Matha and ISKCON. And when push came to shove, they got shoved out. I do not really see a need to attack these rank and file people on a regular basis however, because without those people, there never would have been any ISKCON at all, no temples, no books, no nothing. In sum, these folks did what they could, up to their level of capacity, and then many of them reached their limits of participation when — the manure hit the fan in 1977. And most of the Gaudiya Matha’s God brothers of Srila Prabhupada folks also jumped ship when the manure hit the fan there in 1936, this is simply history repeating.
Of course its also true that a lot of the devotees are ex-hippies. I live here in San Francisco, and we can see what happened to the “hippie zone” here. Initially, the hippies took over the Haight / Ashbury and Golden Gate park area. They flourished in the 1960s, but by the mid-1970s, the area became infested with dangerous crooks. Why?
The word got around in California’s jails that when you get out, make pretend you were a hippie, go to the Haight area, and you’d get free sex and drugs. Charles Manson did exactly that. So a big criminal element began to take over the area. Then there were: beatings, muggings, break-ins, robbery of all types, auto theft, rapes, etc. In sum, the place turned into a haven for crooks, so the city voted to put in 120 more police for the beat, and 20 new police patrol cars were purchased — to patrol the area, and its still like that, there are extra police in the area.
Basically, this is what happened in ISKCON as well, the hippies types were overwhelmed by the criminal element. Except, we had no police to check the situation? And that is what happened to the hippies themselves, their kingdom was ruined by the crooks, and I know its a very frustrating and aggravating situation, but the bottom line is, the hippies are no match for the criminals, whether in or out of ISKCON.
At the same time, there are some very heavy attachments for the criminals among some of my God brothers who are getting some sort of material benefits from acquiescing with the criminal’s acharya process, and they have attacked us in so many ways, shunning, banning, threatening and so forth. The reformers excommunicated Sulochana in 1986, knowing I was working with him. So there has been some compromise with the criminals, making the problem worse.
Even recently some of the bone head sector who eats “prasada” offered to the molester messiahs at the Watseka temple are harassing me, but they never harass the molester guru’s process the same way? So the criminals have something to offer to these compromisers, namely a post, a salary, free room and / or meals etc., and some of my brothers even told me if I paid them the same salary, they would work for me.
So the whole system has broken down due to material entanglements, but then again this happened at Kurushetra, many people went along with the Kauravas because they could give them: salary, post, benefits and so forth. So this is basically the way of the world.
At this point I think we need to simply understand these factors and realize this is all part of the material world, and move along doing the best we can to focus on getting others to worship the pure devotee and Krishna, and not let “the whirlpool of unfortunate events” — as Krsnadasa Kaviraja calls it, take us down the drain.
There was a lot of compromise, plain and simple, but that is also what happened in Kurushetra, its what happens all the time here, we need to realize that and move on. At the same time, we need to understand this process, and try to avoid it for ourselves. So its important we understand all this from historical point of view, just like its important to understand the history of the Gita. In sum, there is no point in begrudging the compromisers with the bogus acharyas, just thank our lucky stars we are realizing the mistake of doing that for ourselves. ys pd
The Gaudiya Matha also had some annual bigger meetings for Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati’s Vyasa pooja ceremonies and so forth, and Srila Prabhupada called them simply “a festival of offering fruits and flowers” — ok, their members did not amount to much either, and after the big ceremony, they also went back into the wood work. Nothing changed.
So, it seems that there are / were a lot of sentimental people who joined the Gaudiya Matha and ISKCON. And when push came to shove, they got shoved out. I do not really see a need to attack these rank and file people on a regular basis however, because without those people, there never would have been any ISKCON at all, no temples, no books, no nothing. In sum, these folks did what they could, up to their level of capacity, and then many of them reached their limits of participation when — the manure hit the fan in 1977. And most of the Gaudiya Matha’s God brothers of Srila Prabhupada folks also jumped ship when the manure hit the fan there in 1936, this is simply history repeating.
Of course its also true that a lot of the devotees are ex-hippies. I live here in San Francisco, and we can see what happened to the “hippie zone” here. Initially, the hippies took over the Haight / Ashbury and Golden Gate park area. They flourished in the 1960s, but by the mid-1970s, the area became infested with dangerous crooks. Why?
The word got around in California’s jails that when you get out, make pretend you were a hippie, go to the Haight area, and you’d get free sex and drugs. Charles Manson did exactly that. So a big criminal element began to take over the area. Then there were: beatings, muggings, break-ins, robbery of all types, auto theft, rapes, etc. In sum, the place turned into a haven for crooks, so the city voted to put in 120 more police for the beat, and 20 new police patrol cars were purchased — to patrol the area, and its still like that, there are extra police in the area.
Basically, this is what happened in ISKCON as well, the hippies types were overwhelmed by the criminal element. Except, we had no police to check the situation? And that is what happened to the hippies themselves, their kingdom was ruined by the crooks, and I know its a very frustrating and aggravating situation, but the bottom line is, the hippies are no match for the criminals, whether in or out of ISKCON.
At the same time, there are some very heavy attachments for the criminals among some of my God brothers who are getting some sort of material benefits from acquiescing with the criminal’s acharya process, and they have attacked us in so many ways, shunning, banning, threatening and so forth. The reformers excommunicated Sulochana in 1986, knowing I was working with him. So there has been some compromise with the criminals, making the problem worse.
Even recently some of the bone head sector who eats “prasada” offered to the molester messiahs at the Watseka temple are harassing me, but they never harass the molester guru’s process the same way? So the criminals have something to offer to these compromisers, namely a post, a salary, free room and / or meals etc., and some of my brothers even told me if I paid them the same salary, they would work for me.
So the whole system has broken down due to material entanglements, but then again this happened at Kurushetra, many people went along with the Kauravas because they could give them: salary, post, benefits and so forth. So this is basically the way of the world.
At this point I think we need to simply understand these factors and realize this is all part of the material world, and move along doing the best we can to focus on getting others to worship the pure devotee and Krishna, and not let “the whirlpool of unfortunate events” — as Krsnadasa Kaviraja calls it, take us down the drain.
There was a lot of compromise, plain and simple, but that is also what happened in Kurushetra, its what happens all the time here, we need to realize that and move on. At the same time, we need to understand this process, and try to avoid it for ourselves. So its important we understand all this from historical point of view, just like its important to understand the history of the Gita. In sum, there is no point in begrudging the compromisers with the bogus acharyas, just thank our lucky stars we are realizing the mistake of doing that for ourselves. ys pd
Very well sais
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