What About ISKCON's Bhakti Raghava Swami?

 

PADA: Thanks ******** prabhu, 

Yes I agree, he has some nice things going on where he is helping some rural projects in India. And he says he wants to establish Varnashrama. Sounds good so far. Except, he is himself claiming to be the next Vyasadeva and he requires his own Vyasapuja festival. And so I wonder about your claim that "he is the most humble of all the GBC's gurus."

In his Vyas pooja festival video he is looking sort of confused, sheepish and embarrassed. Evidently, he knows he is foolish to be promoting himself as the sum total of the demigods / next messiah of the Jagat / successor to God Almighty. Unfortunately, I see ZERO amounts of humility in people who think they are now the next -- God's successor messiahs of the Jagat. 

Rather I see incredible amounts of arrogance, ignorance and no small amount of "puffed up" attitude. "My manure does not stink." "Yes as a matter of fact, I am God's successor. Any questions"?    

Worse, he is also claiming to be another Jesus, and thus he can give diksha and absorb the sins of others. Sorry he is neither another Vyasa or Jesus. This is another version of Bhakti Vikas swami, we are building something rural somewhere, but not where Srila Prabhupada wanted rural things to be built -- in the West. 

This artificial acharya process is destroying the Varna and Ashrama system because it it attacking and chopping off the centralized head of the VEDIC system -- namely the authority of the acharya. If there is no head, then there is no system of organization for the rest of the body. Then the rest of the body falls into a state of chaos and disintegration, which has been happening to ISKCON. 

Various people write that question to me on a regular basis, "who do I write to -- to address the GBC with a problem"? I dunno. You might try writing: "To Santa Claus, North Pole," and have better luck. And Bhakti Raghava's site says he does not answer things personally, the site is run by his followers. 

Where are these guys? 

And that is why someone told me these people are like "The Wizards of Oz-con," because they are not really wizards -- they are bluffing. And so when the citizens come to complain about various problems, the citizens get lots of smoke and mirrors, a lot of talking in an authoritative manner, but there is no actual person in charge who ever appears from behind the curtain.   

So -- first of all -- the head of all the Varnas and ashramas, and the head of all Vedic social systems, is the acharya. And unfortunately their program misdirects people to be part of the GBC's false acharya's system, where there is illicit sex with men, women and children contained in their acharya's lineage program. 

That effectively nullifies the authority of the acharya. Then these conditioned soul messiahs are going to take our sins -- only to have many of them become overloaded with these sins -- and then become further entangled and degraded. And he is encouraging his peers to take sins, so he is taking them ALL down with him -- to the lower planets -- to suffer the reactions of taking all these sins. However, even most materialistic sudras already know that worship of deviants as gurus is a bogus idea, so they worship someone like Jesus. 

Sorry. The maharaja has no authority to claim to be an equal to Jesus who can absorb sins. It is also somewhat amazing that members of his guru parampara seem to know what their future destination is:

Harikesh at one point also talked about Varnashrama, and other GBC gurus have discussed it theoretically from time to time, but there is little wide scale practical plan to implement the idea. And it cannot and will not be implemented -- until the system is organized in the proper line of authority. And that is: (A) there is the acharya, then (B) there are brahmanas who promote the acharya to the other levels of the society. 

We cannot have the sudras -- or really much less than sudras -- in sum -- their illicit sex with men, women and children guru parampara -- at the head of the society. First of all, they need to get freed of their illicit sex with men, women and children acharya's process -- and the myriad problems entailed in their bogus system. They need to first be elevated to the bona fide sudra platform, where everyone worships the pure devotee and not sexual predators, pedophiles, deviants and crooks. 

Once they master the sudra platform, they can try to elevate from there. If they are promoting less than sudras as their acharyas, they have effectively chopped the legs of any Varna and Ashrama process. There is no worship of the village drunk, or sudras, or less than sudras, in the actual Vedic system. 

Anyway, as we see from Satvarupa's art above, they are producing various insane, dysfunctional and often lusty fools being advertised as God's successors. And that is ruining the whole foundation of the Vedic society before Varna and Ashrama can even be discussed. 

That is why we need to first of all get them to get rid of their idea that God's gurus and successors are often debauchees, because if God's successors are often degraded fools, lusty dogs and debauchees, people will take that as the standard for behavior of the successors to God, and it will degrade and take the whole human society to hell. And their bogus ideas have already taken ISKCON to hell. ys pd  

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April 20 1974 Hyderabad conversations.

Prabhupāda: So we must know how to please Kṛṣṇa. Generally, the śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ [SB 7.5.23], that is pleasing. Therefore these rules and regulation for everyone. But when one becomes mature devotee, he knows how to please Kṛṣṇa. He knows.

Nitāi: One question came up the other day when I was talking with this clergyman.

Prabhupāda: Clergyman?

Nitāi: Yes, that man I was talking to was a clergyman.

Prabhupāda: Where he was?

Nitāi: He was on the airplane when we were coming here to Hyderabad. And he was asking what our program was. And I was telling him that first of all, in order to relieve the confusion of society, we wanted to establish the Vedic culture with this varṇāśrama system. And he asked me what would be the program that we would have for a man who works in the factory...

Prabhupāda: He is a śūdra.

Nitāi: Would we retrain him as a farmer?

Prabhupāda: No, if he is prepared. If not, let him remain. But we can utilize that śūdra also.

Nitāi: He can remain in the factory.

Prabhupāda: Yes. But he cannot do the work of a brāhmaṇa. He cannot be trained as a preacher. But he can help. Just like my legs. The legs cannot do the work of brain, but it can help me. I am walking. So leg is as important as the brain. Similarly, śūdra is as important as the brāhmaṇa, provided he helps the movement, Kṛṣṇa conscious. That is wanted, not that artificially a śūdra should be working as a brāhmaṇa, no. But everyone should be engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is required.

Nitāi: So in that case he is a śūdra, and he is also doing the work of a...

Prabhupāda: Then he is not a śūdra. One who is engaged in Kṛṣṇa's service, he is neither brāhmaṇa nor śūdra. He is devotee. He is brahma-bhūta [SB 4.30.20]. Brahma-bhūyāya kalpate [Bg. 14.26]. Apparently he looks like śūdra. Just like we have got so many men from different quarters, but we do not belong to that quarter any more. Vaiṣṇave jāti-buddhiḥ. Therefore anyone who takes, "Oh, here is an American Vaiṣṇava, here is an Indian Vaiṣṇava," that is nārakī. He is Vaiṣṇava. That understanding required.

Mahāṁsa: Just like that devotee who was making garlands for Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Mahāṁsa: He is a devotee. He is not a śūdra making garlands.

Prabhupāda: No. He is not a ordinary gardener.

Pañcadraviḍa: Or that devotee who was making leaf bowls for worshiping the Ganges.

Prabhupāda: Any engagement, any engagement for Kṛṣṇa, he is Vaiṣṇava. If he is under the guidance of his spiritual master and doing the business according to the direction, he is Vaiṣṇava. He is above all these.

Pañcadraviḍa: A śūdra, if he is working, he cannot take brāhmaṇa initiation, but he can take hari-nāma, is that it?

Prabhupāda: Just like sometimes our men, my devotee, they wash the cupboard. Does it mean he is a methar(?)? No. He can go to the Deity room also. He is not a methar(?) or sweeper. But sometimes we do that. So devotee is above all these consideration. But because there is management, they should appear as brāhmaṇa, as śūdra, as kṣatriya, like that.

sa guṇān samatītyaitān brahma-bhūyāya kalpate māṁ ca vyabhicariṇi bhakti-yogena yaḥ sevate

[Bg. 14.26]

A devotee, because he is working as a śūdra, he is not a śūdra; neither he is a brāhmaṇa. He is already in the spiritual platform. But for management we have to do that. One can do the śūdra's work nicely—let him be engaged in that way. Why he should imitate?

Mahāṁsa: Does he get second initiation?

Prabhupāda: Everything he will get.

Mahāṁsa: He gets.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Second initiation means recognized: "Now he has become fully competent Vaiṣṇava." Just like master is teaching the servant, "Now you give massage in this way, this way." But that does not mean he has become servant.

Pañcadraviḍa: What if the person working as śūdra says, "I can do so much. I can...,"

Prabhupāda: First of all, try to understand. A devotee is neither brāhmaṇa nor śūdra. He may act like a śūdra, but he is not śūdra. He may act like a brāhmaṇa; he is not brāhmaṇa. He is Vaiṣṇava. Just like gopīs. The gopīs, they are village cowherds women. They are, according to social construction, they are not very high class. They did not belong to the brāhmaṇa class. But their worship, method of worship, has been taken the highest. Ramyā kācid upāsanā vrajavadhū-vargeṇa. They were village girls, and practically their character was also not good. Because at dead of night they are going to Kṛṣṇa. But why they have been taken as the most topmost devotee of Kṛṣṇa? Because the love was so high class. It is the test, how much one has learned to love Kṛṣṇa. That is wanted. Apparently he may appear as a brāhmaṇa, a śūdra or vaiśya. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. The only business is to see: sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmo yato bhaktir adho... [SB 1.2.6]. Aiye. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Jaya. That is wanted.

Pañcadraviḍa: What if the person cannot chant sixteen rounds a day. He says, "I can't..."

Prabhupāda: Then he is not even a human being. He is a rascal. That's all. He is not a human being. What to consider of talking...? Don't talk about him if he cannot chant sixteen rounds. He is not even a human. He is animal. [break]

Pañcadraviḍa: ...even he may be employed as factory worker or something.

Prabhupāda: Well, if you take factory workers are better than animals, that is another thing.

Pañcadraviḍa: ...such devotees that they do service, they may be very big, they attract so many people, they are successful, kīrtana and everything, but we know they are not chanting japa. What can we do in that situation? Are we...

Prabhupāda: Situation, he is doing some service. He is doing some service.

Pañcadraviḍa: Yes.

Prabhupāda: So because on account of that service, if he could not, that can be excused. But not that practice should be taken as permanent business. The regulation is that if you cannot finish your chanting that day, then next day you should forget sleeping and eating and must finish it.

Pañcadraviḍa: Some persons we encounter they don't even chant at all, and yet we are in association with them, and they are...

Prabhupāda: No, if you miss on account of busy-ness, then next day you must finish it. You should not go to sleep. You should not... Yes, that day you should forget all other business. First of all compensate this.

Satsvarūpa: Some devotees have it as a chronic condition, though.

Prabhupāda: Then he is animal.

Satsvarūpa: But still, he's doing lots of good devotional service.

Pañcadraviḍa: He may even be manager.

Prabhupāda: Then they will get some chance later on. What is that devotee, if you do not follow the regulative principles? The business is that if one day you cannot, but finish. The next day you must finish. Now, for eating, he is very eager, and for sleeping, he is very eager, and for finishing chanting, he has no eagerness. Then he is animal. It is simply an excuse. Yesterday you had no time? You were very busy? All right. Today you forget your sleeping and eating. Finish it. That is wanted. [break] And only for chanting, you have no time. This is not allowed. This is not allowed. This is cheating, that "I am so busy."

Pañcadraviḍa: Most of these devotees in Hyderabad, they are chanting twenty-five rounds a day or more.

Prabhupāda: That's all right. If you can chant more, that is good. [break]

Pañcadraviḍa: ...must associate with them, that is difficult.

Prabhupāda: But you do your business. You don't follow them. That's all. You remain perfect. There are many imperfects, admitting, but you try to remain perfect so that they may see you, your behavior, and they may follow you.

Some Conclusions--Srila Prabhupada sums up the entire conversation with these words.... 

Any engagement, any engagement for Kṛṣṇa, he is Vaiṣṇava. If he is under the guidance of his spiritual master and doing the business according to the direction, he is Vaiṣṇava. He is above all these.

Prabhupada also gave another nice example of an apprentice learning how to become a master electrician . The master would say do this, and don't do that and if the apprentice follows his instructions he learns how to master the art of electricity. If he doesn't follow, he gets electrocuted ! So this student  of bhakti must be working under the instructions of a bona fide guru, otherwise his work is all karma khanda. If he works under the bona fide gurus instructions with a motive to please Krsna, that is pure devotional service.

SB 3.29.8 purport...To act under the direction of a bona fide spiritual master with a motive to satisfy the Supreme Personality of Godhead is pure devotional service. But if one has a motive for personal sense gratification, his devotional service is manifested differently. Such a man may be violent, proud, envious and angry, and his interests are separate from the Lord’s.

Hare Krsna

damaghosa das