HH Jayapataka Swami’s letter to Bangalore devotees
Dear Devotees of Hare Krsna Movement ,
We managed to get this letter (written on or about August 25, 2012) that His Holiness Jayapataka Swami had written to you all. It was given to Madhu Pandit Dasa. We hear that none of you were shown this letter. So here it is:
______________________________
My dear Madhu Pandit Das and group members,
Please accept my best wishes. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
I know that if we discuss philosophy then you may have lots of things to say and I may also have many different things to say. In this letter, I am just trying to go beyond these philosophical disagreements to seek a way in which we could work to integrate you back to ISKCON. So please just consider this proposal calmly although your first knee jerk reaction maybe that my presentation in this letter is not what you want. Please deliberate and consider what would be more pleasing to Srila Prabhupada.
There is definitely agreement between both you and me and the GBC that Srila Prabhupada holds the most prominent/pre-eminent position in every ISKCON devotee’s life since he is our Founder-Acarya. Let us use this common and most essential understanding to forge unity. I remember that you were very concerned that you wanted a direct relationship with Srila Prabhupada and if somehow that can be obtained by maximizing your shelter of Srila Prabhupada as your primary spiritual authority and minimizing the role of the diksha guru, that could be something that could be worked with immediately. A physically living person that doesn’t really have a role more than the fact that he is imparting the initiation or mantra as diksa guru or mantra guru but you really take shelter in Srila Prabhupada as your primary spiritual authority and as ISKCON’s Founder-Acarya. Somehow in this way if you adjust then there is no reason that you cannot be a part of ISKCON. Of course as I said, philosophically you may have others things to say but practically you can achieve so much and I am sure that your influence in ISKCON would be a positive one if you accept these guidelines.
If you want establish Srila Prabhupada’s position as the ultimate spiritual authority in ISKCON and take maximum shelter of him, that is very similar to the system of Bhagavat parampara presented by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur. But if you say that Srila Prabhupada is your diksa guru although he is not physically present then this a big obstacle in finding a solution. You are asking the Bureau to stand against a world wide movement and against the GBC which is a difficult thing. You are saying that you will give the properties to the Bureau but asking what is the safe guard? I am looking a step further that Srila Prabhupada wanted Unity in Diversity. Srila Prabhupada told the GBC that this Unity in Diversity should be the first agenda in their list. There is however a limit. The ISKCON GBC obviously has to stay with the tradition of the Guru Parampara, Sastra and Sadhu. At this point, the possibility of Srila Prabhupada giving initiations after his departure may not be something that the GBC is considering but as I said this is not at all an obstacle for you to have a direct relationship with Srila Prabhupada as your primary spiritual authority, as ISKCON’s Founder-Acarya. You can call yourselves Prabhupadanugas or whatever you want.
You can really show how to present yourselves, how to surrender to Prabhupada and so on. You could worship Prabhupada, and follow Srila Prabhupada, and that would be very inspiring to have somebody completely sold out to Srila Prabhupada. Maybe some people want a diksa guru in a regular sense and to say that is wrong is not approved by Prabhupada either. To say that someone wants to take maximum shelter of Srila Prabhupada as their primary spiritual authority, as ISKCON’s Founder-Acarya or as the pre-eminent Siksha Guru and they want to minimize the role of the Diksa guru as monitor guru or the like, that is also not wrong. In this way by accommodating both these scenarios simultaneously we can achieve Unity in Diversity. Of course if you want to discuss your points further, the GBC may be willing to send a person or a team of persons to discuss with you,maybe even non-guru members of GBC, but as you know,they probably won’t be convinced and you wont be convinced either.
The bureau has already offered in the mediation that whatever your beliefs are, no one will be penalized or persecuted. So, in view of all this the proposal that I have presented in this letter would allow you to be a part of ISKCON in a full sense and not just namesake. This would be akin to the situation within the catholic church where there are certain orders, such as the Benedictine, Franciscans, Cistercian (Trappist), Opus de, etc., similarly you could be one type of Prabhupadanugas in ISKCON who take more shelter of Srila Prabhupada than anyone else. So let this be your vaisistya or specialty.
There is a GBC resolution that says that one can be a member of ISKCON without accepting a Diksha Guru. But this GBC resolution is not comprehensive or all encompassing because it does not address questions such as how to go on the altar, etc., So the present proposal covers all these different aspects.
I don’t really know what more to say. This is just an attempt to bring peace between us.
I have proposed something similar to the bureau and they have accepted it. So there will be no problem from the bureau side. Since the GBC has accepted Srila Prabhupada as founder acharya, pre-eminent Siksha Guru and primary spiritual authority and is only against portraying Srila Prabhupada as Diksha Guru of disciples initiated after his departure there should not be any problem from them either. Through this adjustment you can achieve all your spiritual objectives.
Dear Devotees of Hare Krsna Movement ,
We managed to get this letter (written on or about August 25, 2012) that His Holiness Jayapataka Swami had written to you all. It was given to Madhu Pandit Dasa. We hear that none of you were shown this letter. So here it is:
______________________________
My dear Madhu Pandit Das and group members,
Please accept my best wishes. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
I know that if we discuss philosophy then you may have lots of things to say and I may also have many different things to say. In this letter, I am just trying to go beyond these philosophical disagreements to seek a way in which we could work to integrate you back to ISKCON. So please just consider this proposal calmly although your first knee jerk reaction maybe that my presentation in this letter is not what you want. Please deliberate and consider what would be more pleasing to Srila Prabhupada.
There is definitely agreement between both you and me and the GBC that Srila Prabhupada holds the most prominent/pre-eminent position in every ISKCON devotee’s life since he is our Founder-Acarya. Let us use this common and most essential understanding to forge unity. I remember that you were very concerned that you wanted a direct relationship with Srila Prabhupada and if somehow that can be obtained by maximizing your shelter of Srila Prabhupada as your primary spiritual authority and minimizing the role of the diksha guru, that could be something that could be worked with immediately. A physically living person that doesn’t really have a role more than the fact that he is imparting the initiation or mantra as diksa guru or mantra guru but you really take shelter in Srila Prabhupada as your primary spiritual authority and as ISKCON’s Founder-Acarya. Somehow in this way if you adjust then there is no reason that you cannot be a part of ISKCON. Of course as I said, philosophically you may have others things to say but practically you can achieve so much and I am sure that your influence in ISKCON would be a positive one if you accept these guidelines.
If you want establish Srila Prabhupada’s position as the ultimate spiritual authority in ISKCON and take maximum shelter of him, that is very similar to the system of Bhagavat parampara presented by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur. But if you say that Srila Prabhupada is your diksa guru although he is not physically present then this a big obstacle in finding a solution. You are asking the Bureau to stand against a world wide movement and against the GBC which is a difficult thing. You are saying that you will give the properties to the Bureau but asking what is the safe guard? I am looking a step further that Srila Prabhupada wanted Unity in Diversity. Srila Prabhupada told the GBC that this Unity in Diversity should be the first agenda in their list. There is however a limit. The ISKCON GBC obviously has to stay with the tradition of the Guru Parampara, Sastra and Sadhu. At this point, the possibility of Srila Prabhupada giving initiations after his departure may not be something that the GBC is considering but as I said this is not at all an obstacle for you to have a direct relationship with Srila Prabhupada as your primary spiritual authority, as ISKCON’s Founder-Acarya. You can call yourselves Prabhupadanugas or whatever you want.
You can really show how to present yourselves, how to surrender to Prabhupada and so on. You could worship Prabhupada, and follow Srila Prabhupada, and that would be very inspiring to have somebody completely sold out to Srila Prabhupada. Maybe some people want a diksa guru in a regular sense and to say that is wrong is not approved by Prabhupada either. To say that someone wants to take maximum shelter of Srila Prabhupada as their primary spiritual authority, as ISKCON’s Founder-Acarya or as the pre-eminent Siksha Guru and they want to minimize the role of the Diksa guru as monitor guru or the like, that is also not wrong. In this way by accommodating both these scenarios simultaneously we can achieve Unity in Diversity. Of course if you want to discuss your points further, the GBC may be willing to send a person or a team of persons to discuss with you,maybe even non-guru members of GBC, but as you know,they probably won’t be convinced and you wont be convinced either.
The bureau has already offered in the mediation that whatever your beliefs are, no one will be penalized or persecuted. So, in view of all this the proposal that I have presented in this letter would allow you to be a part of ISKCON in a full sense and not just namesake. This would be akin to the situation within the catholic church where there are certain orders, such as the Benedictine, Franciscans, Cistercian (Trappist), Opus de, etc., similarly you could be one type of Prabhupadanugas in ISKCON who take more shelter of Srila Prabhupada than anyone else. So let this be your vaisistya or specialty.
There is a GBC resolution that says that one can be a member of ISKCON without accepting a Diksha Guru. But this GBC resolution is not comprehensive or all encompassing because it does not address questions such as how to go on the altar, etc., So the present proposal covers all these different aspects.
I don’t really know what more to say. This is just an attempt to bring peace between us.
I have proposed something similar to the bureau and they have accepted it. So there will be no problem from the bureau side. Since the GBC has accepted Srila Prabhupada as founder acharya, pre-eminent Siksha Guru and primary spiritual authority and is only against portraying Srila Prabhupada as Diksha Guru of disciples initiated after his departure there should not be any problem from them either. Through this adjustment you can achieve all your spiritual objectives.
How does the GBC accept Srila Prabhupada as the pre-eminent Siksha Guru and primary spiritual authority when they are disobeying His explicit instructions to the society? The GBC are not even disciples of Srila Prabhupada having disobeyed His orders, and this is the main issue here. Bangalore wants to follow Srila Prabhupada's instructions, the GBC does not. And this so-called letter for peace does not address this issue.
ReplyDeleteYes. JPS calls the disagreement over whether or not to obey Srila Prabhupada's signed order in the form of the July 9th, 1977 letter to all temple presidents and to all members of the GBC body, a "philosophical disagreement." What an unrepentant rascal!
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