The Divine Leelas of Srila Gaurahari Dasa Avadhoot! (OK maybe)

PADA: Recently, a younger woman was asked if she wanted to join the "Srila Gaurahari Dasa Avadhoot" sangha for "ecstatic realizations of Krishna." She said, I am not interested in having a "touchy feely" session with a bunch of old people who belong in an old folks home! Hee hee! 

Now before we judge things too harshly here, is Gaurahari das fully to blame for all this? Well! Yes and no, the real root problem is -- that the ISKCON GBC creates an atmosphere of deviation and faithlessness, causing people to simply lose faith in any process of any authority, and this paves the way for independent maverick activity (like this one). Anarchy! Same things happened in the post-1936 Gaudiya Matha, people were declaring themselves to be the real successors -- and so on. "Self-appointed" authorities.

That is also why Tripurari swami, Pancadravida swami, Dheera Krishna swami, and a host of others, ran off to do their own independent thing from ISKCON. So now Gaura Hari is doing his own independent thing as well, because for starters, there is no real standard of checks and balances within the ISKCON Krishna society, and that makes other people decide to "free for all" on their own -- everywhere else. It opens the floodgates for all sorts of independent action.

At the same time, Gaurahari ought to know better, that what he is doing is deviation. Gaurahari is however right on one point, the GBC system has "drained the nectar" out of the Krishna religion. They have created a sort of "voted in caste guru monopoly," which is fighting over manpower, money and assets. No juice left in the dried mango skin. Agreed. Anyway, this is very sad. Mahanidhi swami, and so many others, have also drifted off into their own program to "get the nectar," but they have gone to the wrong sources to get that nectar as well. Basically, there are a lot of sahajiya deviations going on here, its that simple.    

Not so much a process conducted by the previous acharyas?

Feet kissing. Is this the way to preach? 

Can I get someone to lick my toes over here?

Hee hee!

Do not ever touch my wife! (Good advice from at least someone here).

This is how Jayatirtha got into trouble!

Its all love, and crying, jeepers gimme a kleenex already!

Warm and fuzzy feeling ki jaya!

Men kissing men, sheesh, this is what we have in San Francisco already!

Please don't try that on me, it won't end well! Hah hah!

Men touching the women. OK, it looks like Rajneesh style.

OSHO revisited?

So! We like the analysis of the younger woman -- who rejected these people. She says -- she is not interested in sitting in the laps of a bunch of old men who belong in the old folks home. Hah hah! At the same time, we agree, there is not much nectar left in the formal ISKCON process. So what to do? Well, we can do a lot of things, but concocting our own way forward is not going to ultimately help things. We need to at least TRY follow the footprints and examples of the acharyas, and this is not something they would approve of. 

At the same time, just like this young woman is feeling, their program is overall turning off a lot of people. Its making the Krishna religion look more than a little kooky and foolish, again! So! We wish them well, as Srila Prabhupada says -- the sahajiyas are on some sort road to Krishna, and he says -- maybe their sahajiya crying will eventually become real crying for Krishna. 

Yet! Srila Prabhupada also gives stern warnings against sahajiya tendencies producing ill effects in the next life. Or even, as we can see already, this can produce ill effects in this life -- if we consider Jayatritha was decapitated because a follower was convinced JT was having connection to a married woman.  

In short, their deviations are "creating troubles for the sincere devotees" says Rupa Goswami. Thus, these folks may find their road to Krishna is a bit lengthy and bumpy, because Krishna does not approve of people creating problems for His sincere devotees. 

ys pd