Short Discussion on "Criticize or Not"?

AD: This does not mean what some people think this means. Hint: it starts by looking in the mirror.

MP: Why can't you do both...?

AD: Just saying don't do it unless first looking in the mirror. Some people miss this point. That being said, once we reach a certain level of Bhakti, we will feel compelled to remain silent and to not challenge the faith of other devotees, because we will be engaged in higher pursuits. This does not invalidate the role we may play up to that point, particularly if we or our family or loved ones are victims of the offender.

V Dasa: In realizing we can't even know ourselves without help, we confirm we are not a saint, and then must seek out who is a saint, for only the self realized can see who anyone else truly is.

PADA: Yes I was talking recently to my friend's son (who is a younger policeman). I told him how I was whistle blowing on the banning, beating, molesting, and sometimes assassinations going on under the GBC's "guru regime," and I was getting severe push back for doing that, including death threats, was called a liar, was being chased with baseball bats and so on. And I still am getting push back to some extent. 

He said that is almost exactly what happens to him in the "rough neighborhood" areas the police patrol. He called these areas "the untouchable's zones" because its almost impossible to find eye-witnesses. Worse, sometimes the witnesses they do find seem to lie and create contrary accounts -- to help cover up for the bad guys. Even worse, many actual victims do not want to press charges etc. Some people are brave enough to tell the police exactly what happened, but they do not want to go to the station to make a formal complaint statement, what to speak of testify in court, which renders their testimony not very helpful.   

So! Its usually almost impossible to find out what really happened, or press any actual charges. And therefore its very rare they can actually prosecute anyone, even for crimes that are committed in broad daylight with many witnesses. He said my experience and his experience are similar. There are crimes going on, and the people in the untouchable's zone won't help contain them. That makes the residents of these zones either willing or unwilling facilitators, enablers, help-mates and assistants to the criminals. 

(Sulochana called the GBC's enabling hand maidens "Zombies").

My policeman friend said a lot of the resident people in these zones are honest and good people, but they are too afraid to go up against the criminals who run their neighborhood on their own. I said wow that is what happened in ISKCON, most of the people are good people, but they do not want to speak up, make waves and so forth. Even the eye-witnesses often would not speak up. 

I said only now, decades later, there are more people writing expose articles and using their names. We had to deal with usually anonymous testimony for many years because most people simply did not want to come out and say anything, and have their name attached to any forms of complaints.

Of course, we often were told "prabhu I have to chant my rounds now" when we asked people to assist us. And that is how all these crimes have been empowered and enabled. Yep, he was amazed at the parallel stories we both had. ys pd

MKP: THEY SAY: 'WHY YOU CRITICIZE OTHERS?

"Giriraja: [reading from Krsna book] "Krsna, who advented Himself just to kill all undesirable elements in the world..."

Prabhupāda: [aside:] Hare Krsna. Who is this boy?

Giriraja: "...just to kill all the..."

Prabhupada: Yes. Similarly, this movement is advented to kill all the so-called yogis, svamis, avataras, rascals, philosophers, commentators. We have to kill. Kill means... Where is your tilaka? You did not have tilaka in the morning?

Devotee: [indistinct]

Prabhupada: Ah. So this is our, one of our items, to vanquish all these rascals, so-called svamīs. They say that "Why you criticize others also?" Because we have to vanquish them. Now these people cannot rise. When there is sunrise, there is no use of these glowworms. So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is Kṛṣṇa Himself. Therefore they must be finished, all over the world. So-called religionists, so-called philosophers, so-called avatāras, svāmīs, yogīs---finished. Our program should be like that."

Bombay, 1975

https://prabhupadavani.org/transcriptions/740501mwbom/

PRABHUPADAVANI.ORG

Here is one real quote, something that Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati really said regarding exposing deviations and criticising nonsense people:

A chanter of Hari-kirtana is necessarily the uncompromising enemy of worldliness and hypocrisy. It is his constant function to dispel all misconceptions by preaching the truth in its most unambiguous form, without any consideration of person, place, or time. The form to be adopted is that which is least likely to be misunderstood. It is his bounden duty to clearly and frankly oppose any person who tries to deceive and harm himself and others by misrepresenting the truth, whether due to malice or genuine misunderstanding.

This will be possible if the chanter of kirtana is always prepared to submit to being trodden upon by thoughtless people, if such discomfort will enable him to benefit his persecutors by chanting of the truth in the most unambiguous manner.

If he is unwilling or afraid of considerations of self-respect or personal discomfort to chant kirtana under all circumstances, he is unfit to be a preacher of the absolute truth. Humility implies perfect submission to the truth and no sympathy for untruth. Those who entertain any partiality for untruth are unfit to chant Hari-kirtana. Any clinging to untruth is opposed to the principle of humility born of absolute submission to the truth. (Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur, Harmonist 26.249-50 (Apr 1929))

AD: This seems to be a very high standard, Prabhu.

MKP: Why did Srila Bhaktisidanta Saraswati Thakur create the Gaudiya Math?
Why did His Divine Grace AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada create ISKCON ... print millions of books ... and want us to preach... If one has to be perfect before one can preach...we should all pack our bags and go home ...

AD: Yet it seems that this fact has been turned into a loophole that is exploited by demons who turn Sri Guru’s mission into Guru Business.

MKP: Yes indeed ... and one has to be able to discriminate ... that requires intelligence ... or the ability to be critical ... otherwise one will definitely be cheated and abused. It's right there in Bhagavad Gita...

Chapter 16...the Divine and demoniac nature ... If one is not taught how to discriminate or cannot or is unable to discriminate ... ones future is not very bright.. Would I trust a 4 year old to drive my car...???

V Dasa: His message here carries radically different implications as one comes to understand the depth of Truth disseminated by Sriman Mahaprabhu—that of Its ultimately merciful nature. With respect to such nature of Truth, a message like this is about protecting our hearts from pride and shame, which swindlers use to control and exploit aspiring students of spirituality.

AD: The final paragraph does not seem to emphasize mercy at all. It seems to emphasize that a preacher should be uncompromising in their commitment and submission to the truth. Certainly, when Srila Prabhupada found out about deviations he was administered justice swiftly and authoritatively, while also showing mercy. What sort of mercy are you referring to in your comment?

"If he is unwilling or afraid of considerations of self-respect or personal discomfort to chant kirtana under all circumstances, he is unfit to be a preacher of the absolute truth.

Humility implies perfect submission to the truth and no sympathy for untruth. Those who entertain any partiality for untruth are unfit to chant Hari-kirtana. Any clinging to untruth is opposed to the principle of humility born of absolute submission to the truth."

(Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur, Harmonist 26.249-50 (Apr 1929))

V Dasa: The mercy to protect one's self and the general public from deception.
Point is, not only is it lacking humility to tolerate corruption of Divine Love's Truth, but also lacking compassion.

PADA: A devotee recently said we devotees were like the frogs in a pot. When the frog is put into a pot of hot water he jumps out right away. When the frog is put into a pot of cool water -- and the heat comes up gradually he stays there until he is dead. We should have taken action to stop the deviations in ISKCON right at the start, but we waited, and that killed ISKCON. In sum he said, criticism is sometimes required and its part of critical thinking, without which, its a blind following cult. ys pd

AD: When all the people who are complicit in the deviations finally leave their bodies an ISKCON revival may be possible.

PADA: Yes, some of the gurukuli victims said to me, they cannot think of any one person who is not complicit. Of course when I started complaining about the gurukula problem in 1978, then Sridhara Maharaja said "none should protest" and he was one of the regime's cheer leaders of what I called -- the enforced cult ritualistic worship of homosexual pedophiles as messiahs project. 

So there were the GBC, and their cheer leaders and enforcers, and the mass of sheeple who just did not want to criticize because they thought criticism is not vaishnava. That's just like the hippies, who did not want to call the police on the criminal activity in Haight Ashbury area. And so -- more and more crooks got out of jail and moved to the Haight, and then they basically took over the whole sector, and then the city had to hire 100 cops and buy 25 new cop cars, just to contain the Golden Gate area. 

Unfortunately, we did not have the cops come in to ISKCON, so the criminals just took over lock, stock and barrel. Yes it will take several generations to fix all this, agreed. In any case, the police folks almost always seem to have no problem understanding what I am reporting, its just the "greatly advanced devotees" who often do not. The good news? Eventually "the devotees" will figure out what the cops figured out a long time ago, this GBC guru program is a fraudulent / criminal operation posing as a spiritual society. ys pd