Mark prabhu on "neophyte gurus"

In this verse Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī advises the devotee to be intelligent enough to distinguish between the kaniṣṭha-adhikārī, madhyama-adhikārī and uttama-adhikārī. The devotee should also know his own position and should not try to imitate a devotee situated on a higher platform. Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura has given some practical hints to the effect that an uttama-adhikārī Vaiṣṇava can be recognized by his ability to convert many fallen souls to Vaiṣṇavism. One should not become a spiritual master unless he has attained the platform of uttama-adhikārī. A neophyte Vaiṣṇava or a Vaiṣṇava situated on the intermediate platform can also accept disciples, but such disciples must be on the same platform, and it should be understood that they cannot advance very well toward the ultimate goal of life under his insufficient guidance. Therefore a disciple should be careful to accept an uttama-adhikārī as a spiritual master. NOI 5

Bhakta Mark prabhu: How is it that someone can imagine that Srila Prabhupada created a contextual circumstance in which neophytes would accept disciples and give them insufficient guidance? Srila Prabhupada’s Iskcon temples were fully complete. His books, the instructions therein, and his body personal instructions was fully complete. Yet somehow newcomers would be forced by circumstance to accept a neophyte’s insufficient guidance and not reach the ultimate goal of life?

How is it possible to conclude from that purport that Srila Prabhupada was only recommending that disciples accept an uttama? That he was giving permission for neophytes in his Iskcon temples to accept disciples and give them insufficient guidance as long as they warned the newcomer that they weren’t going to reach the goal? How absurd!!

Srila Prabhupada was so powerful that when he was physically absent, by his prior permission, his neophyte disciples whispered Diksa mantras into the ears of newcomers, and those mantras were instantly transmuted to carry the potency of a Advanced Mahabhagavat Acarya and link those new disciples to that uttama. And those neophytes were able to give perfect guidance to those new Bhaktas by repeating the guidance given by the Uttama Acarya.

Yet somehow, now that Srila Prabhupada is “MORE ABSENT” (hmmmm), yes now that he is MORE ABSENT those diksa mantras are suddenly worthless when coming from a neophyte and that neophytes guidance is insufficient to bring newcomers to the ultimate goal. So much so that they need to warn the newcomer of that fact, that they are going to settle for not reaching the goal. Of course George Smith provides that these neophyte gurus have the option to “recommend” that these newcomers find an uttama to accept as a spiritual master. So where do they send them? Rocana das? Kailash Utah Chandra das?

The simple fact is that Srila Prabhupada and Krsna arranged for this circumstance from the very beginning, empowering Srila Prabhupada to accept and guide disciples WHEN PHYSICALLY ABSENT from their lives through specific processes given to his neophyte disciples.

These disciples were not vedic scholars. They were not experts on Gauidya “tradition”. They only really knew what they were told to do, and what they were trained to do. But suddenly in 1977 they become so expert as to throw out the system they were trained in wholesale and do something based on their speculation as to what was PROPER? How did that work out? Hmmmmmm?

And now that they have had 35 years to do a little research they have continued to speculate on how to fix what they broke in the first place. Instituting concocted permutations of their original bogus idea of trying to imitate a level of advancement they do not possess. Justifying each experiment based on their so called scholarship. Forgetting that Guru aparadha has rendered all their mental processes subject to illusion. Whereas those who simply repeat that we should never have abandoned the system that was working, that was ordered to continue, and that we should return to it, are somehow the villians. Pure insanity.

The fact is that every senior brahminical leader had disciples. Every parent had disciples. Every Ksatryia had disciples. And they were all formally disciples of Srila Prabhupada. If those brahmanas, ksyatriyas, and parents guided Srila Prabhupada’s disciples according to Srila Prabhupada’s guidelines, then the disciples could advance to the ultimate goal of life. There was no guarantee that these Gurus would follow Srila Prabhupada’s guidelines in instructing their disciples, but there were safeguards put into place to gently persuade them to toe that line. Especially prominent was the safeguard that it was well known and established that every one was ALSO AND FOREMOST a disciple of Srila Prabhupada and entitled to equal treatment under HIS LAWS.

With the abandoning of the ritvik system, we saw IMMEDIATELY the result was that anyone and everyone could claim exclusive acaryaship and instruct their disciples as they saw fit, and adhering to Srila Prabhupada’s guidelines was relegated to a mere “recommendation”, not a mandatory requirement.

And now we have the mess we are in, and the false egos of those who have built their “Guru” careers based on ignoring Srila Prabhupada’s guidelines show no promise of getting the hint. Ritviks are the most demonized devotees on the planet, and the speculative Gurus are good as God.

These are indisputable facts.

Hare Krsna