Pradyumna das Today

[PADA: This is Pradyumna das (Paul Sherbow) today. He was one of the best scholars ISKCON had in 1977. He wrote a nice letter to the GBC in 1978 pointing out the hazards of their "appointed guru" system, saying in essence, that the GBC had no authority to claim that they are acharyas. He also predicted that ISKCON would be engaged in all sorts guru aparadha by the 11 artificially posing as acharyas, and he further predicted ISKCON would descend into chaos with these 11 GBC gurus, which is what happened.

Unfortunately, he was booted out of ISKCON (like the rest of us dissenters) for objecting to their bogus guru system. And he sort of lost his enthusiasm to combat the GBC's gurus for all kinds of reasons. And according to different reports, Pradyumna sort of drifted off into other yoga societies and etc. and he basically lost his primary connection with ISKCON.

His son Aniruddha was recently arrested for making apparent death threats to a congress woman, since Aniruddha had become a sort of stalker of this woman. Many other ex-kulis ALSO ended up having all sorts of mental problems as well because, as some of them tell PADA, "we had no secure place in either ISKCON or the material society. We were outcasts everywhere."

Thus many ex-kulis felt mentally un-stable due to being unable to find a resting place in the ISKCON society, where they are basically not entirely welcome, and many were not really prepared very well for the material society, so they were having no secure resting place in either realm. Aniruddha drifted around ISKCON for years, but was never really able to "fit in," just like thousands of his contemporaries. And we think this has aided and abetted his ultimate downfall. He apparently became a very frustrated person due to having no place in either realm, and so we sympathize with his troubles. So this was all due to the bogus GBC's guru program, and Pradyumna was correct to point out these potential "chaos" problems.

At least some of the kulis credit PADA with helping them and they tell us, "no one else even tried to help us." So this was the second wave of disaster, first the parents were purged out, and then their children were purged out, causing mental distress all around, and the physical stress of having no secure place in either ISKCON or the material society which has taken a severe toll on a number of these ex-kulis.

Of course, we all recall how Srila Prabhupada had so much hope for these children like Aniruddha, and yet many of these children ALSO fell into a state of calamity due to the guru crisis. Thus, Pradyumna was a victim, his wife was a victim, his child was a victim, and so on. We heard that Pradyumna had drifted off to other programs other than Krishna consciousness, probably because he was tired of all the victimization the GBC was generating.

So this is very sad, the people Srila Prabhupada had wanted to become the brahmanas and scholars of ISKCON were basically -- booted out -- and replaced with a crew of low class criminals, who were then invited to take the scholar's places. And then ISKCON descended into criminal chaos, just as Pradyumna predicted it would. Nowadays some folks are arguing that "no one protested until much later." Nope! Myself, Pradyumna, Yasodanandan, Mahamsa, Veda Vyasa, Jadurani, Mrgendra, and many others protested, and basically we were all driven out, and made to walk the plank. That some of us survived at all is a sort of miracle, since objecting was basically a potential death warrant.

What is odd for us nowadays is that there are still some folks clinging to the notion that myself, Pradyumna, Yasodananda and others should NOT have protested because by our doing that we created controversies, confusion and this "ruined ISKCON" etc. Really? Maybe the people who allowed ISKCON to descend into this state of calamity by not helping our protest caused the calamity? Srimate Draupadi said that, you need to speak up or you are helping my attackers.

Even more odd to us is that we still see some die hard GBC sympathizer folks -- such as -- GBC guru followers / Gaura Govinda maharaja followers / Gaudiya Matha followers / Bhakta das and Hari Sauri and their HKC Jaipur disciples etc. are STILL saying that PADA's idea of protesting false acharyas for the past 35 years has caused all the chaos, controversy, contention and confusion since 1977. Nope, we say exactly what Pradyumna says, these 11 are not authorized to be acharyas.

We have the backing of the scholar sector. Its amazing to us that after seeing all the victimization, there are still a few die hard GBC folks and their hangers on like Bhakta das and his HKC Jaipur friends, who are still saying we are wrong to protest their illicit sex acharyas. That means there are people who still wanted to see their illicit sex program worshiped in ISKCON as their messiahs. Problem for these folks is, that we are turning this around and the number of PADA style protesters is growing while the number of GBC faithful is dwindling. Some of the ex-kulis said we did not protest boldly enough!

Of course, we also have the backing of the Berkeley Police, FBI, mass media, and so forth.

And if we would ask ANY group of teen-age students leaving a high school, ANYWHERE in the USA, "Are criminals, deviants, sexual predators, drug addicts, and debauchees part of a -- chain of God's pure guru successors," they will probably first of all slap us in the head for insulting their intelligence, then state -- "No! Categorically not! Debauchees are NOT EVER God's guru successors."

OK they would all agree with PADA, and they are not confused either? How come the average USA student is not confused about this issue, while many GBC sympathizer folks still are?

The fact that some so-called ISKCON folks are still "confused" about all this means simply, the average USA high school student could defeat all these GBC / Gaudiya Matha / Bhakta das / HKC Jaipur people in two seconds. Worse, even the village drunk is not confused about this, he agrees with PADA as well, deviants are not messiahs. How come the village drunk is not confused, even he knows deviants are not messiahs, while some "devotees" are sitting around in a state of confusion on this issue? Sulochana said the people who are confused about whether or not deviants can be gurus are "mindless zombies."

So while the GBC's groupies / Gaura Govinda Maharaja's groupies / Bhakta das and Hari Sauri's groupies over at HKC Jaipur are STILL complaining we "created confusion," meanwhile 99999999.9999999 percent of the rest of the world is not confused about this at all. After all, how many people believe that illicit sex is found in God's messiahs? The general mass of public ALL know that PADA is correct, deviants are not God's successors. Why are some people still drooling on themselves in a catatonic state unable to figure this out, especially at this state of affairs? Because they are in sympathy with the evil doers, otherwise what other explanation makes any sense? successors,

And since any teen age high school student can defeat all these assembled GBC's Groupies / GGM's groupies/ Gaudiya Matha's groupies / Bhakta das and his HKC Jaipur groupie disciples etc., we no longer even need the big scholars like Pradyumna to back us up. because its common PUBLIC knowledge in human society that debauchees are not messiahs, and that means we have the backing of almost cent percent of the general population.

Are we going to win on this issue? We already have won a long time ago, 9999999.99999 percent already agree! So when the GBC says we created confusion, it means we spoiled their illicit sex guru program. And now the HKC Jaipur is trying to revive the GBC's illicit sex messiahs program by helping and promoting its cheer leaders like Bhakta das and Hari Sauri, they do not get it, any high school child knows its wrong to worship illicit sex, this program is going down, they cannot revive it. The good news is that at least Bangalore devotees know that the worship of deviants is bogus and they are challenging this bogus program.

We hope the little clique that is still supporting the bogus messiahs will give it up, but whether they do or do not, we will continue to "cause confusion" by stating that deviants are not messiahs. OK you big India scholars! Not so fast! Over in India Radhanath has become the darling of the upper echelons, and he is preaching the debauchee guru program idea over there.

Sorry! Our saying that debauchees are not Lord Krishna's messiahs is what Pradyumna says, its what PADA affiliates say, its what almost every single USA high school student says, its also what Krishna says, ad infinitum! The solution for all this confusion? People need to stop listening to the GBC/ GGM / Gaudiya Matha / Bhakta das / Hari Sauri / and start listening to Srila Prabhupada!

Anyway, thanks for trying Pradyumna prabhu, you did more than most! ys pd]

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A person who cannot keep his faith in the words of his spiritual master but acts independently never receives the authority to chant the holy name of the Lord. It is said in the Vedas (Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 6.23):


yasya deve parā bhaktir
yathā deve tathā gurau
tasyaite kathitā hy arthāḥ
prakāśante mahātmanaḥ


"Only unto those great souls who have implicit faith in both the Lord and the spiritual master are all the imports of Vedic knowledge automatically revealed." This Vedic injunction is very important, and Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu supported it by His personal behavior. Believing in the words of His spiritual master, He introduced the saṅkīrtana movement, just as the present Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement was started with belief in the words of our spiritual master. He wanted to preach, we believed in his words and tried somehow or other to fulfill them, and now this movement has become successful all over the world. Therefore faith in the words of the spiritual master and in the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the secret of success. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu never disobeyed the orders of His spiritual master and stopped propagating the saṅkīrtana movement. Śrī Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī, at the time of his passing away, ordered all his disciples to work conjointly to preach the mission of Caitanya Mahāprabhu all over the world. Later, however, some self-interested, foolish disciples disobeyed his orders. Each one of them wanted to become head of the mission, and they fought in the courts, neglecting the order of the spiritual master, and the entire mission was defeated. We are not proud of this; however, the truth must be explained. We believed in the words of our spiritual master and started in a humble way-in a helpless way-but due to the spiritual force of the order of the supreme authority, this movement has become successful.


C.C. Adi-lila 7.95-96
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