Rocana attacks HDG's worship as "poisonous"

Ritviks and ISKCON: The Line is Beginning to Blur

BY: SUN STAFF (Rocana dasa)

Nov 12, 2012 — CANADA (SUN) — Over the years, the Ritvik-vada adherents have always made an effort to boldly differentiate themselves from the GBC-run ISKCON. Pointing to the many ways in which ISKCON is compromising Srila Prabhupada's standards, they have tirelessly preached the notion that bogus guru-tattva philosophy is at the bottom of all the problems, and if ISKCON would just get on board with their Ritvik-vada, everything would come right.

[PADA: No one ever said "everything will be all right"? When Srila Prabhupada was being worshiped in the 1970s -- that means everything was all right? No! Rocana is dreaming in colors? Sorry! It is a well known fact -- that EVEN when Srila Prabhupada was here AND he was being worshiped, there were STILL major problems manifesting all the time. Hence: we never said his worship would end all "the troubles"? What we are doing is converting individuals to worship HDG, but we are not telling them "all the troubles will end" thereby? This is Rocana's foolish speculation.   

What we ALWAYS said was -- even when Srila Prabhupada was here -- there were problems. HOWEVER, unless people worship a pure devotee they will not go back to Godhead. That is all we ever said. Re-establishing HDG's worship is simply a start to get things on track, we never said -- this will  "make everything all right." What we are discussing is: establishing the right siddhanta, that we have to worship a pure devotee as our guru namely HDG, ... not whether or not devotees have "troubles"? For that matter, the Pandavas, Prahlad maharaja, Mother Sita and of course people like Lord Jesus had all kinds of "troubles" despite being nice devotees, are we better than they are, that we can expect no troubles at all?]

RD: But in fact, as the poisonous influence coming from ISKCON Bangalore spreads, forming little pockets of asiddhantic Ritvikism around the world, we can now see that just the opposite is true: the problems in ISKCON are not being solved by the Ritviks, but rather are being replicated.

[PADA: OK, so now Rocana says that the worship of Srila Prabhupada is "poisonous apa-siddhantic." That is what the GBC gurus say, -- as does the Gaudiya Matha etc. Worship of pure devotees is poison? Yes, Narayana Maharaja ALSO said the ritviks are poison. Rocana is just a disciple of the Gaudiya Matha. That means Rocana wants us to worship -- Rocana? He thinks he is the higher authority since he claims -- the process of worship of the pure devotee is bogus. Rocana wants us to worship his idea and not HDG's idea. Clearly Rocana is just as envious of Srila Prabhupada as are the bogus GBC's gurus, many of them ALSO say that worship of the pure devotee is poison. NOTICE: Rocana repeats some of the GBC guru's and NM's slogans, hence -- they are birds of a feather.]

RD: Climbing onto the Ritvik platform was apparently seen by Madhu Pandit das and the Bangalore leaders as a move of political expediency, and it did serve to temporarily get them out from under the fist of ISKCON leaders.

[PADA: Worship of the pure devotee is good for "political expediency"? Rocana is making Srila Prabhupada's worship into a mundane political issue. Of course, that is also what Tamal said, the Prabhupadanuga worship idea is "politics." Rocana is a disciple of Tamal. Also notice that Rocana admits his living guru idea is "living under an iron fist"? Why is Rocana promoting the main theme of the iron fisted folks against our devotees, the living guru idea? That means, Rocana is part of the iron fisted process himself.]

RD: (Except, of course, for the very costly lawsuit they've been saddled with.) But there are other drivers behind the Bangalore Ritvik phenomenon besides just guru-tattva, and two of these are Hindu Culture and Money. These two popular catalysts have been well known in the devotee community for many years.

[PADA: OK, so the ritviks are at times organizing the Hindus to help their program of worship of the pure devotee, this might be every bad -- except Rocana has no program at all? We have nothing to compare the ritvik program vs Rocana's program because --  Rocana has no temples, no devotees, no programs, no nothing. At least the ritviks have something to show for their preaching? Rocana's idea is clear, he wants to have no programs, no temples, no preaching, no books going out, nothingness? This is sunnyavada (atheist), "nothingness" is the highest ideal. The ritviks have some program at least, whereas Rocana has never had any, and that is why most of the people posting articles on his site are concocted made up names, he has no followers so he has to make their names up.]  

RD: Nowhere is the proliferation of Hinduism in ISKCON more regularly criticized than here in the Sun.

[PADA: Rocana's living guru idea is itself coming from Hinduism?]

RD: Fortunately, many devotees are moved to write about the manifestation of this blight on Srila Prabhupada's movement, and thousands of readers appreciate hearing what these writers have to say. And what they say is something we all know very well… money is the honey, and in ISKCON, the Indian community is where the honey comes from.

[PADA: True, except right now -- the Western devotees are mostly gone, and thus there is hardly anyone collecting money from selling books. Thus, most current temples are running on Hindu donations. Agreed. Yet Rocana does not say, where is the money to maintain the temples going to come from instead? Rocana has no better plan? Rocana de facto says, stop making money altogether and shut down all the temples. OK, then the deities will have no temples, no garlands, no food offerings, no money to support the preaching etc., Nothingness is better than something? Sour grapes! Rocana just wants everything to stop. What kind of plan is this, just stop the whole program that is going on now and have no income at all? Shut the whole thing down and have nothing like Rocana does, what kind of plan is that? Rocana wants no temples, no deities, no books, no devotees being made, nothing at all, that is his better plan?]

RD: So despite all the efforts the Bangalore Ritviks make to put themselves above the rest of ISKCON, by watching the programs that go on in their local centers, one can see that the very same problems are there.

[PADA: Corporate ISKCON worship the molester messiahs program, no, we do not have that problem at all?] 

RD: Take for example the recent invitation featured on the Ritvik website, Prabhupadanugas.eu, for an upcoming program at the Sri Krishna Balaram Mandir in Sunnyvale, California. This was the first Bangalore-supported Ritvik temple to be launched in the U.S. In photos of the temple's early days, e.g., at the inauguration festivities, we saw local Ritvik granddaddy, Yasodanandana dasa, standing benignly behind a beaming crowd of Indian-bodied devotees. What we didn't see, however, were pictures of Yasodanandana actually preaching from the asana. Given that Yasodanandana is California's governor of Ritvik-vada, we were surprised not to see him promoted as one of the key preachers.

If one keeps an eye on the periodically advertised activities going on at the Sunnyvale temple, they will see a slate of activities very reminiscent of Hari Vilasa's ISKCON Seattle temple: one Hindu festival after another, after another, punctuated by non-Gaudiya Vaisnava Indian cultural events, Mayavadi and New Age preaching, and all manner of offensive goings-on in front of the Deities.

We have long taken great exception to ISKCON Seattle's style of advertising promo pieces, which devotees in their congregation regularly send to us. The devotees are appalled by the grossness of disregard temple management shows for Srila Prabhupada's standards. Over and over, we have seen flyers for temple events that combine a festival Srila Prabhupada established, along with whatever Hindu event was falling close to that date on the calendar. Repeatedly we have seen Seattle posters that give prominence to the Hindu festival, putting the Vaisnava event at the bottom of the page, where a tiny picture of Lord Caitanya and Srila Prabhupada is found, dwarfed by some other Hindu figure or symbol.

[PADA: Rocana has no documents advertising anything to send out to anyone, he has nothing at all going on. Zero.]

RD: Today we read the promo piece from the Sunnyvale Ritvik temple event -- not billed as Deepotsava or the Festival of Lord Damodar, but rather as Deevali. And tacked onto the agenda after the offering of lamps and arati to Damodar is "Rama Taraka Yajna". But when did Srila Prabhupada include the chanting of Rama mantras during a festival in honor Lord Damodar?

[PADA: OK again, Rocana's program has no temples, no deities, no programs at all, no chanting to either Lord Damodara or Lord Rama or anyone else, no nothing. Why is nothing better than some non-standard "chanting to Lord Rama"? At least these people are chanting to Lord Rama, whereas in Rocana's program -- no one is chanting anything to anyone? At least chanting to Lord Rama is better than no chanting whatsoever?]

RD: Last month's workshop offering at Sunnyvale was also similar to typical ISKCON temple fare these days. A seminar called "Art of Mind Control" made reference to Arjuna and the Upanishads, but promised to deliver a solution that doesn't come from Bhagavad-gita or Srila Prabhupada's instructions. Instead, they are selling "never-before-heard-of strategies and never-before-used applications". But what was wrong with the techniques and strategies Sri Krsna provided to Arjuna for controlling the mind and senses, which are ageless and perfect?

[PADA: Well for the record, the Sunnyvale temple tells people to chant Hare Krishna as a means of mind control. Not sure what is the harm of that? Rocana has no program to help anyone, he is not helping one single person do anything of value whatsoever. At least we have some program where we tell people to control the mind by chanting HARE KRISHNA, we have something going on at least, Rocana has nothing at all going on.]

Sunnyvale's 'Art of Mind Control' Workshop: "The Upanishads say that for one who has conquered the mind, the mind is the best of friends; but for one who has failed to do so, his mind will remain the greatest enemy. Arjuna characterized the mind to be restless, turbulent, obstinate and very strong, and thought subduing it would be more difficult than controlling the wind.

Be trained in making this powerful phenomenon as a friend to achieve inconceivable feats. Take charge of this subtle weapon at one's disposal waiting to be unleashed. Discover never-before-heard-of strategies and never-before-used applications."

[PADA: Right, the never heard before process is to chant Hare Krishna. Apparently, Rocana has never heard of this either. ys pd]