How Sridhara Maharaja / Tripurari Swami (Tom Beaudry) Ruined ISKCON

Among my God brothers, no one is qualified to be acharya.

http://www.harekrsna.org/gbc/black/tripura.htm

BY: CHITRAKETU DAS (ACBSP)

I want to address an issue that has become somewhat of a burning issue within ISKCON. This issue is whether or not it’s okay for a neophyte devotee to become a spiritual master. Obviously, it is not ideal that a neophyte devotee becomes a spiritual master. Anybody in their right mind would want to have a pure devotee as a spiritual master.

[PADA: First of all, Srila Prabhupada says in a 1974 letter to Rupanuga that BR Sridhara Maharaja is not qualified to be an acharya, and that he can cause all sorts of problems for ISKCON. Therefore -- he should not be consulted. And this was confirmed in 1977 when Srila Prabhupada said Sridhara Maharaja is the leader of the "severe offenders" Bagh Bazaar party. 

Yet, despite so many warnings from Srila Prabhupada about Sridhara Maharaja's defective understandings, Tripurari swami and others have made him their "shiksha guru authority." So this is the first problem, Srila Prabhupada says Sridhara Maharaja is NOT an acharya, that his advice can cause havoc for ISKCON, and yet Tripurari swami says SM is an acharya and he should be consulted, because Tripurari swami knows better than Srila Prabhupada? 

And thus BR Sridhara Maharaja caused so much damage by his saying that the eleven ISKCON GBC neophytes have to be viewed as "absolute monarchs," and as "rati keli siddhas" (assisting the gopis) and so on. Worse, SM said his bogus monarchs should be allowed unquestioned authority since "none should protest." 

Satsvarupa Das Goswami even admits in his "Journals" that a lot of his "guru" God brothers "went mad" with absolute authority. And this is one of the main reasons that madness continued, we God brothers were not allowed to protest and correct things, because we were being checked by Sridhara Maharaja's declaration that we should not interfere and protest these "mad" guru God brothers. This policy means -- there has been little or no checks and balances for their madness thanks to Sridhara Maharaja's "none should protest" policy. 

However, as Chitraketu das says above, anyone in their right mind would promote only a pure devotee as the spiritual master, and not conditioned souls, like Sridhara Maharaja's and Tripurari's program has been doing. Apparently, this means Sridhara Maharaja is not in his right mind to be promoting conditioned souls as his acharyas?  

BR Sridhara Maharaja says that the God brothers of his alleged monarch -- guru -- messiahs should not try to correct them -- or else this will "disturb the sraddha of the sisyas." OK the emperor has no clothes -- and no one can point that out? Then again, neither can anyone "protest" the resultant other problems created by SM's bogus acharya's such as -- women abuse, child abuse, beatings and murders, amid an ocean of other problems that SM's and Tripurari's guru program generated, in both post 1936 and post 1977. Again -- none should protest. And this is what SM's guru program did after 1936, dissenters who protested Sridhara's bi-sexual guru were -- banished, if not beaten and killed.

Of course this begs the question, who authorized Sridhara Maharaja and Tripurari swami and ilk to promote, cheer lead and encourage these false guru programs that are banning, beating, molesting and assassinating the Lord's Vaishnavas? And worse, they order us not to correct these problems so we "do not disturb the faith" of the worship of Sridhara Maharaja's false gurus? We cannot even protest as an endless line of victims goes into their wood chipper? Apparently, we have to just roll over and die. In other words, Sridhara Maharaja's program is -- to appoint his "pet fellow" conditioned souls as his acharyas -- and then he protects their false reign by empowering them as absolute monarchs (dictators) and unquestioned authorities. 

Yes its a fact, after the abuse and crimes start to happen, then the next step is -- "none should protest." Thus, according to the policy of Sridhara Maharaja / Tripurari swami / et al. -- we have to worship the people who are banning, beating, molesting and killing the Vaishnavas, because we are not allowed to protest. Why can't we protest? Sridhara Maharaja and Tripurari swami's program started a sort of North Korea dictatorship, all sorts of abuses are going on, but anyone who protests is shipped off to the concentration camp. Protest is not allowed in their "absolute rule" regime.   

OK that means the Sridhara Maharaja and Tripurari swami program has been promoting, shielding, aiding and abetting criminals and crimes, and not ordinary crimes, but crimes against Vaishnavas. Later on SM said the original deviants should "vote in" more like minded messiahs. What could go wrong here? The criminals in San Quentin should "vote in" more of themselves as the bank's security team's new leaders? Thus, when Tripurari swami was trying to get "voted in" as one of the GBC gurus, he explained to me that he needs to be "one of them" in order to keep his own followers -- since the GBC will siphon his followers off for themselves. 

It never seems to have occurred to folks like Tripurari swami that maybe the followers should not have been designated as the disciples / property of his deviant acharyas in the first place? At one time Badrinarayan das did say that the disciples should belong to Srila Prabhupada and ISKCON, and not these new gurus, begging the question, why can't Sridhara Maharaja and Tripurari swami recognize ISKCON's actual proprietor? 

Why not say, the followers do not belong to the GBC's gurus, they do not belong to Tripurari swami either, rather they belong to Krishna and Srila Prabhupada? This thought apparently never occurred to these people? Of course this is the whole reason for all of us being the material world in the first place, we failed to recognize -- who is the actual proprietor? 

And this is also why Sridhara Maharaja and Tripurari's "gurus" have had so many problems with things like illicit sex. Their "gurus" apparently think the temple's women "disciples" are "their" personal property -- and not Krishna's personal property, and so they think they are authorized to exploit and usurp Krishna's property. Why are Sridhara Maharaja and Tripurari swami promoting these self-evident exploiters and usurpers as their acharyas in the first place? 

Satsvarupa Das Goswami claims he cannot understand how things got so bad after Kirtanananda was indicted. Really? Well we all know how it got so bad for ISKCON, -- the leaders, the GBC, and their star writer Satsvarurupa, and their advisors, bucket boys, and cheer leading people like Sridhara Maharaja. Tripurari swami etc. and et al., they all promoted these false messiahs like Kirtanananda as "God's pure devotee successors." And the rest is history, and unfortunately for them, its their history. And now they are sort of saying -- all of this just happened by accident, or for some strange unknown reason. Nope, you folks are the reason all this happened! Its got your fingerprints all over the crime scene. 

Yep! Maybe the better idea would be -- to say the followers should be designated as the disciples and property of Srila Prabhupada, and his ISKCON, and they are thus KRISHNA's property, and not the disciples and property of the eleven gurus, or Tripurari swami etc? Why wasn't Tripurari swami trying to keep the manpower within ISKCON as his first priority? Instead SM and TS were -- trying first of all to siphon off and allocate almost all of the ISKCON manpower over to the eleven and away from Srila Prabhupada's ISKCON. Then later Tripurari swami wanted to siphon off and get a piece of the stolen pie for himself, so ISKCON would become an empty shell, as it has under his policy? How did these folks get to be the proprietors of one peanut of Srila Prabhupada's property? 

Why has Sridhara Maharaja and Tripurari and ilk been giving the GBC's self appointed gurus a license to siphon off ISKCON members to be "their disciples" -- at all? Why didn't SM know that this is what ruined the Gaudiya Matha, he gave a license to bogus people to declare that the Gaudiya Matha members are their own disciples, creating a huge exodus of manpower which emptied their temples, and which essentially bankrupted their society. Why wouldn't that same bogus 1936 program have the same results for ISKCON post-1977? 
   
Sridhara Maharaja's idea thus creates a very dangerous situation because he is mixing (A) material impurity with (B) absolute spiritual purity, and this artificial juxtaposing always creates confusion, chaos, and no small amount of potentially violent personality cults. And this problem is described (actually predicted) in the story of King Puranjan, after the master departs all sorts of bogus swamis, yogis and avatars try to fill the vacuum, and they will create a chaotic if not dangerous situation. And people like Sridhara Maharaja and his current spokesmen like Tripurari swami have been the head cheer leaders of all this chaos. 

All we have to do is look at various "absolute" "Jesus's new spokesman" and / or dictatorships like North Korea -- to see that when a person's ego is allowed to expand unlimitedly, without any checks and balances, he might do a lot of damage -- as Satsvarupa Das Goswami admits is what happened here. Sridhara Maharaja of course has an explanation, his neophyte acharyas may "go mad after money, women and followers" since he believes that Lord Krishna's successor acharyas are often mad criminals and skirt chasing debauchees. Why does Sridhara Maharaja's and Tripurari swami's group still promote their "Sri Guru" book that says -- acharyas are often mad fools (who orchestrate murders)?

Yep, God's successors are mad fools chasing money, women and followers, and maybe orchestrating murders. Who knew? Why has Sridhara Maharaja's and Tripurari swami's program said that the people they are orchestrating to be worshiped as another Jesus are in fact -- mad fools, chasing money, women, drugs and orchestrating assassinations? Why are they promoting such people as their messiahs in the first place? Doesn't the Isopanisad say that these false acharyas, and their cheer leaders and supporters, ok people like Sridhara Maharaja and Tripurari et al. -- are the most dangerous people in human society?   

At the same time, Sridhara Maharaja was ALREADY well aware that his rubber stamping of neophytes as messiahs usually ends up causing bogus (if not violent) personality cults. His 1936 guru cults ended up creating contrived banning, beatings, and murders, and he was well aware of the results of his premature messiahs. 

Why would Sridhara Maharaja create the same bogus acharya's programs again after 1977, knowing full well that dissenters can be beaten or killed -- as his bogus gurus program orchestrated after 1936? And why would people like Panchadravida, Jagat guru swami, Tripurari swami, Paramadvaiti swami and similar others adopt and promote the leading architect of these violent guru cult programs, namely -- Sridhara Maharaja? 

Sridhara Maharaja admits that he was known as "the form breaker" by his God brothers, because they all knew he is the person who broke down the Gaudiya Matha into teeny battling guru factions. He even admits he broke down his guru's mission. Why do we need that for ISKCON?]

The answer is completely obvious: only a pure devotee spiritual master can give the most expert guidance. The guidance of a neophyte devotee will naturally be imperfect and insufficient, due to the imperfect vision of such a neophyte spiritual master.

[PADA: "Insufficient guidance" is a nice way of polishing Sridhara Maharaja's rotten apple of illicit sex, drugs and murder "guru programs." Its not only insufficient guidance, its deviated guidance, where people are severely victimized and the name and reputation of the society deteriorates. Same thing happened when Sridhara Maharaja orchestrated a bogus guru program after 1936, his alleged messiah (Ananta Vasudeva) deviated severely, and dissenters were beaten and killed. And then this was eventually known in the public newspapers of India and it gave the Gaudiya Matha a horrible public image. Why would Sridhara Maharaja and Tripurari swami want to re-produce and re-live this sordid history and start this same identical process -- again? 

And since they already know people get killed in this process, who authorized them to have people killed? Ananta Vasudeva's son was killed with poison, then he died of suicide from the same poison. Then Jayatirtha was killed after Sridhara Maharaja insisted he remain in the guru post, and the number of dead bodies has piled up ever since. 

Who authorized Sridhara Maharaja and Tripurari swami to orchestrate these problems? Now Jayapataka is dying from listening to Sridhara's idea that he be a diksha guru and accept karma from thousands of people. Why does Sridhara Maharaja tell these people they are qualified to accept karma? 

His policy is killing us dissenters, simultaneously killing his hokey gurus by over loading them with karma, everyone gets to die under his scheme! Lets not forget all the brahmanas, women, children, cows and others who have suffered terribly under Sridhara's absolute rule acharyas? Who authorized him to cheer lead these absolute rule acharyas, and create all this death, destruction, molesting, and general chaos and havoc? 

Sridhara Maharaja said he had to move away and be aloof after he started the Gaudiya Matha on fire. And now Satsvarupa says he has to stay aloof from all this because its too painful to deal with it, and Tripurari swami has done the same thing, he has moved to the Mendocino hills to also avoid dealing with the mess his program created. They start their guru's house on fire, and when all the citizens are suffering and dying inside the burning house, then these folks head for the hills to avoid being in the fire they started? 

After 1977, how did you guess, Sridhara Maharaja's bogus acharya's program started the same process of generating horrific publicity for ISKCON. Why is it that Sridhara Maharaja always likes to promote programs that create a horrible public image of Krishna and His religion? Why didn't Sridhara Maharaja learn from his 1936 violent homosexual's guru program, which created beatings and murders, that he should not promote more neophytes as acharyas as he did after 1977? That means, he learned nothing from his orchestrating violent and deadly guru cults after 1936. And why are so many of our God brothers like Tripurari swami still promoting Sridhara Maharaja, the founder father of the violent homosexual acharya's process?]  

A neophyte may become attracted to his female disciples, or he may be bewildered by monetary considerations.

[PADA: That is exactly what Sridhara Maharaja says, the acharyas are often overwhelmed by money, women and followers. Of course even the average Christian, or even billionaires like Bill Gates, are more advanced than SM's acharyas, since they are not overwhelmed by money and followers. That means SM is saying his acharyas are less spiritual than the ordinary citizens. Then again, Sridhara Maharaja's and Tripurari's acharyas are often engaged in illicit sex, drugs and crimes, which means, they like to see the modes of ignorance seated in their Vyasa seats, being worshiped as good as God. Why do they want the modes of ignorance to be worshiped as good as God? Even dogs are not worshiping illicit sex, they have more sense?]

He may have insufficient knowledge of the scriptures or be motivated by false prestige, desire for worship and adoration. Even so-called advanced devotees fall prey to these obstacles in devotional service, what to speak of neophyte devotees.

[PADA: That is why an actually advanced devotee will never imitate the acharyas, he knows better. Of course billions of Christians also would never dream of imitating Jesus, because they know this is dis-respecting Jesus. That means the average Christian is more advanced in this regard than SM's bogus messiahs.]

If such a neophyte spiritual master falls down, he brings discredit upon his own spiritual master and on the sampradaya in general, as well as causing a loss of faith amongst the general mass of devotees. Gradually devotees will become cynical about taking a spiritual master, and they will lose faith even in the great acharyas.

[PADA: Right, it almost seems like the aim and object of the Sridhara Maharaja and Tripurari swami program is to create debauchees as their messiahs, which then naturally creates horrible publicity, and then drown the spiritual mission of Lord Chaitanya in an ocean of infamy, which is of course what they are always doing left, right and center. Why don't they know this is wrong? 

Even the average USA 10 year old Christian child knows that the guru successors to God are not ever going to be "going mad after money, women and followers." Why doesn't SM and Tripurari swami know this? Sridhara Maharaja and Tripurari's program is saying that the successors to God are most all the time bogus debauchees, then they wonder why there is usually resulting -- banning, beating, molesting and murders -- due to their policy of promoting such deviant worship? Ummm, its because these folks are creating / supporting / aiding violent personality monarch / dictator /guru cults, duh!]

People often argue that in the absence of a great acharya, it’s okay or even necessary for a neophyte devotee to take on the role of spiritual master.

[PADA: Right, SM and Tripurari are saying that Srila Prabhupada would have to appoint some gurus so there will be "living guidance." So they kick out almost all the rank and file people who are giving the living guidance, empty the temples, and create violent guru cults, which guides people -- to hell.] 

Srila Prabhupada..."Sometimes the unintelligent put hindrances in the path of chanting this mahā-mantra, but one who is situated on the platform of love of Godhead chants the holy name loudly for all concerned. As a result, everyone becomes initiated in the chanting of the holy names-Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. By chanting and hearing the holy names of Kṛṣṇa, a person can remember the forms and qualities of Kṛṣṇa."
Srila Prabhupada's book, Teachings of Lord Caitanya - 1968 Edition : TLC 18:

First, however, one must check to make fully sure that there aren’t senior devotees who are actually qualified to be spiritual masters. Before the neophyte devotee jumps in, he must make fully sure that he is not committing the offence of maryada-vyatikrama, or being insolent in front of a senior personality. Being a spiritual master is not a game for everyone to play. It is not something that everyone gets a turn at. “Now it’s my turn.” This is not the mentality in which one becomes a spiritual master. On the contrary, such a competitive mentality leads one to becoming a spiritual monster.

[PADA: Right, the whole concept that the neophyte should be worshiped as an acharya is creating spiritual monsters. Well stated. When Jayatirtha was taking drugs and having illicit sex, SM said he has to stay in the Vyasa. When Ramesvara resigned in June 1980, SM said he has to go back and sit in the Vyasa. 

When Hansadutta's farm was raided, SM said he has to stay in the Vyasa. When Tamal said he had the guru shakti and only he was the guru of ISKCON, and the GBC suspended him, SM said, he has to be given back his seat in the Vyasa. When Hansadutta told SM he was taking drugs and having illicit sex, SM said, you have to continue to sit in the Vyasa. 

Tripurari has become a sort of recluse like Satsvarupa Das Goswami, living on a remote farm in Philo California. After he had exploited many young people selling his T-shirts and records, Tripurari and his business partner purchased expensive properties in Philo and retreated there. His ex- secretary told me Tripurari had initiated "a lot of gays" because others were not stepping forward. And now Hrdayananda is promoting gay marriage and gay speakers on his web site (which is an official ISKCON site) saying Srila Prabhupada was making a mistake criticizing the homosexual lifestyle.

Meanwhile, we have to all leave because we do not want to worship SM's illicit sex acharyas, and we can get beaten or killed in the process. Who authorized these people to have us beaten and killed? And lets not forget that SM says Srila Prabhupada's jeeva tattva is bogus. Anyway, this is simply a summary of a few points about the results of the SM and Tripurari program of promoting bogus messiahs, we could write an encyclopedia of the mess they created, this is simply a short summary. ys pd]

There are numerous references in scriptures to the importance of accepting a pure devotee as a spiritual master, such as in Kapiladeva’s instructions on devotional service, Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 3, Ch. 28, Text 2, wherein Kapiladeva instructs His mother Devahuti. Lord Kapila says:
“One should execute his prescribed duties to the best of his ability and avoid performing duties not allotted to him. One should be satisfied with as much gain as he achieves by the grace of the Lord, and one should worship the lotus feet of a spiritual master.”

In the purport Srila Prabhupada writes:

“In this verse there are many important words which could be very elaborately explained, but we shall briefly discuss the important aspects of each. The final statement is atmavic-caranarcanam. Atma-vit means a self-realized soul or bona fide spiritual master. Unless one is self-realized and knows what his relationship with the Supersoul is, he cannot be a bona fide spiritual master. Here it is recommended that one should seek out a bona fide spiritual master and surrender unto him (arcanam), for by enquiring from and worshipping him one can learn spiritual activities.”

Srila Prabhupada clearly says here that one cannot be a spiritual master without being self-realized and knowing one’s relationship with the Supersoul. These are very high qualifications indeed, but Srila Vishvanatha Chakravarti Thakur gives even higher qualifications for the spiritual master in the Gurvastakam, which we sing every day. According to the Gurvastakam, the spiritual master is the assistant of the gopis. A neophyte spiritual master obviously cannot claim such a qualification, even by association, and to imagine that such prayers as the Gurvastakamor Sri-guru-carana-padma, which is sung at guru-puja, can also be addressed to neophyte devotees is a great mistake. It is clear that such neophyte spiritual masters cannot be ranked on an equal level with genuine, or as Srila Prabhupada refers to them, bona fide atma-vits.

The Bhagavad-gita is also clear as to the qualification of the spiritual master: he must have seen the truth. Lord Krishna Himself does not recommend that we enquire from or surrender to anyone with
lesser qualifications than that:

tad viddhi praṇipātena / paripraśnena sevayā
upadekṣyanti te jñānaṁ / jñāninas tattva-darśinaḥ
(Bg. 4.34)

Again in the scriptures, Lord Krishna Himself declares that

ācāryaṁ māṁ vijānīyān / nāvamanyeta karhicit
na martya-buddhyāsūyeta / sarva-deva-mayo guruḥ
(CC Adi 1.46)

“One should know the ācārya as Myself and never disrespect him in any way. One should not envy him, thinking him an ordinary man, for he is the representative of all the demigods.”

Conversely, an ordinary human being should not impersonate a bona fide spiritual master, for such is merely cheating. If a spiritual master cannot direct his disciples to become free of sinful activities, he becomes responsible for their sinful acts. These subtle laws of nature are obviously unknown to the present leaders of ISKCON who wantonly encourage neophyte devotees to become spiritual masters, as if it were some kind of promotional step in the management of the society.

The spiritual master is a representative of Narayana, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Can a representative of God be chosen by a mundane body made up of speculative individuals who are not self-realized? The answer to that is “No!” The representative of Narayana is chosen by Narayana Himself. Such is as it should be, and no amount of material wrangling will change things. God chooses his own representatives, and to imagine that a representative of God can be chosen by a mundane body is another form of atheism.

Currently the GBC maintain, so I am led to believe, that their rubber-stamp of approval is not actually a stamp of authorization but more of a “we have no objection”, in other words “take him at your own risk.” Such a stance is not only irresponsible, but also relativistic. In other words, the GBC are saying that the spiritual master may be an ordinary man, we can’t guarantee that you won’t be cheated. What then, we may ask, is the value of their stamp of approval? And, what has been the success rate of those who have been officially approved by them? If your spiritual master steals your money or rapes your wife, you cannot come back to the GBC for redress, because they have conveniently sidestepped any real responsibility.

This kind of guru-lottery makes a mockery of the divine sampradaya consisting of such great and inimitable spiritual personalities as the Six Goswamis, Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakur, Srila Narottama dasa Thakura, Baladeva Vidyabhusana, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati and His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the mere mention of whose names purifies one’s very existence.

Since I entitled this paper a “brief” expose, I shall keep it brief, but there is sufficient scriptural evidence to completely demolish the GBC standpoint, which is evasive and unclear. Their arguments shift from year to year, indicating that they have no foundation. Srila Prabhupada often makes it clear that institutionalized spiritual masters, who become spiritual masters on the basis of convention alone, such as Sukracarya, should be rejected in favour of genuine self-realized souls. If you happen to be in the unfortunate position of having been rubber stamped without possessing the requisite qualifications, my suggestion to you is as follows: don’t try to kid your students that you are what you are not, and refer them to the genuine guidance and instruction of those who are genuinely qualified. Otherwise, your fate will definitely be to hit the ground, which is Krishna’s supreme mercy upon you, since the ground is the most sobering place to be.

So all you would-be gurus, be warned!!

gurur na sa syāt sva-jano na sa syāt
pitā na sa syāj jananī na sā syāt
daivaṁ na tat syān na patiś ca sa syān
na mocayed yaḥ samupeta-mṛtyum

One who cannot deliver his dependants from the path of repeated birth and death should never become a spiritual master… (Bhag.5.5.18)

Adi 7.115 In this connection the Padma Purana states, arcye visnau sila-dhir gurusu nara-matir vaisnave jati-buddhih: “One who considers the arca-murti, the worshipable Deity of Lord Visnu, to be stone, THE SPIRITUAL MASTER TO BE AN ORDINARY HUMAN BEING, and a Vaisnava to belong to a particular caste or creed, is possessed of HELLISH INTELLIGENCE.” One who follows such conclusions is doomed.

Srila Prabhupada: Who is guru?
750716pc.sf Conversations
Reporter (2): What will happen to the movement in the United States when you die?
Prabhupada: I WILL NEVER DIE.
Devotees: Jaya! Hari bol! (laughter)
Prabhupada: I SHALL LIVE From MY BOOKS, AND YOU WILL UTILIZE.
Reporter (2): Are you training a successor?
Prabhupada: Yes, my Guru Maharaja is there. Where is my photo of Guru Maharaja? I think… Here is.

He reasons ill who tells that Vaishnavas die
When thou are living still in sound.
The Vaishnavas die to live
and living try to Spread a holy life around!
Indian Lady: … is that spiritual master still guiding after death?
Srila Prabhupada: Yes, yes. Just like Krsna is guiding us, similarly spiritual master will guide us. (General lectures, 69/09/23)
Devotee: Srila Prabhupada when you’re not present with us , how is it possible to receive instructions? For example in questions that may arise…

SRILA PRABHUPADA: Well the questions are answered there in my books.
(Morning Walk, Los Angeles, 13/5/73)

So utilise whatever time you find to make a thorough study of my books. Then all your questions will be answered. (Letter to Upendra, 7/1/76)

Every one of you must regularly read our books at least twice, in the morning and evening, and automatically all questions will be answered. ( Letter to Randhira, 24/01/70)

If I depart there is no cause for lamentation. I will always be with you through my books and orders. I will always remain with you in that way. (BTG 13:1-2, December 1977)

74-11-22 Letter: Bahurupa
In my books the philosophy of Krishna Consciousness is EXPLAINED FULLY so if there is anything which you do not understand, then you simply have to read again and again. By reading daily THE KNOWLEDGE WILL BE REVEALED TO YOU AND BY THIS PROCESS YOUR SPIRITUAL LIFE WILL DEVELOP.

Note: This clearly indicates that Srila Prabhupada’s books are understood through their own potency, and that there is therefore no need for a physically present guru to understand the books. Our Srimad Bhagavatam is unique because the verses of the Bhagavatam are directly complemented with the purports of Srila Prabhupada, who is the bonafide maha-bhagavata ; therefore, the book Bhagavata and the person Bhagavata are combined in Srila Prabhupada’s Srimad Bhagavatam. Therefore, there is no need for a third party, “the so called current Iskcon links” to (mis)interpret what Srila Prabhupada “really means to say”. sic

770517ar.vrn Conversations
Prabhupada: So I cannot speak. I am feeling very weak. I was to go to other places like Chandigarh program, but I cancelled the program because the condition of my health is very deteriorating. So I preferred to come to Vrndavana. If death takes place, let it take here. So there is nothing to be said new. Whatever I have to speak, I have spoken in my books. Now you try to understand it and continue your endeavor. Whether I am present or not present, it doesn’t matter.

73-11-25. Letter: Cidananda
I should be returning to Los Angeles the last week of November and I should be more than happy to see you there. Please always try to remember me by my teachings and we shall always be together. Just like I have written in the first publications of Srimad-Bhagavatam, “THE SPIRITUAL MASTER LIVES FOREVER BY HIS DIVINE INSTRUCTION AND THE DISCIPLE LIVES WITH HIM.”, because I have always served my Guru Maharaja and followed His teachings I am now even never separated from Him. Sometimes Maya may come and try to interfere but we must not falter, we must always follow the chalked out path layed down by the great acharya’s and in the end you will see.

770517ar.vrn Conversations
Prabhupada: So there is nothing to be said new. Whatever I have to speak, I have spoken in my books. Now you try to understand it and continue your endeavor. Whether I am present or not present, it doesn’t matter.

“I shall remain your personal guidance, physically present or not physically, as I am getting personal guidance from my guru maharaja” (Srila Prabhupada to Tamal Krishna, 14 July 1977)