Which Level of Pooja for GBC's Gurus? (Sattvic Dasa)

Should ISKCON's Initiating Gurus Have Vyasa Puja Ceremonies?

Some months back I saw that some devotee had written a statement that only a mahabhagavata / uttama-adhikari should have an annual Vyasa Puja ceremony. I found that interesting and wondered if there was any sastric injunction about that in the Hari Bhakti Vilasa?

Other godbrothers have shared with me that a devotee on the neophyte level of devotional service, the kanistha adhikari, or even the madhhyama adhikari preacher of Krishna consciousness will become affected by the desire to be worshipped by an annual Vyasa Puja.

It is the view of some senior godbrothers that even if one is an uttama adhikari guru, he would only allow Vyasa Puja for Srila Prabhupada, and not to themselves. Some think it is a sign of incredible arrogance to see themselves as worshippable, putting themselves on the same level as Srila Prabhupada.

Srila Prabhupada's disciples went through the devastating Zonal Acarya Era, which began November 15th, 1977, the day after Srila Prabhupada departed, when eleven godbrothers took on the role of initiating thousands of disciples that were inspired by Srila Prabhupada.

Many of them demanded that they be worshipped on the same level as Srila Prabhupada, and this alienated and repulsed thousands of Srila Prabhupada's disciples because the new gurus were nowhere near the level of purity of Srila Prabhupada.

If anyone was not willing to worship the new gurus on the level of Srila Prabhupada, they were given one-way tickets out of the GBC guru's zone, or they were demeaned and harassed by the guru for not being one of their Yes Men. How much has that changed? There are almost no Prabhupada disciples remaining in ISKCON to chase away anymore. And no meaningful apologies ever given, or effort to reclaim the exiled ever conducted. In short, no effort to regain the thousands and thousands of lost souls from the huge exodus of devotees that left the ISKCON institution.

At least one of these gurus even ended the worship of Srila Prabhupada and had his Vyasasana replaced with his own, taking Srila Prabhupada's Vyasa seat out of the temple room, claiming to be the next in line in the disciplic sucession!?!

I was recruiting and training new bhaktas while Srila Prabhupada was physically with us, so I continued doing the same service of going on Harinam and book distribution inviting new people to prasadam dinner programs, and cultivating the newcomers. Whenever someone started to become a devotee, the Zonal Acarya would fly in, do the initiation, take the daksina (donations) and fly away.

I observed that when my godbrothers managing our Eastern Canada zone were not in agreement with our first and second "zonal acaryas", i.e. Kirtanananda and Gopal Krishna Maharaja, respectively, then they would be removed and replaced with one of the disciples of the new gurus, or else they would leave our temples to serve in New Vrndavana or some other "Zone" instead of staying loyal to the local temple and devotees that had first met them, and trained them in Krsna consciousness.

It was impossible to expand our sankirtan / book distribution teams because Kirtanananda would syphon off the newly made devotees, undermining our local management. He told me that New Vrndavana is the central temple, where according to Srila Prabhupada's "Seven Purposes of ISKCON" that "To erect for the members and for society at large a holy place of transcendental pastimes dedicated to the personality of Krishna" was -- his New Vrndavana.

Back in 1977, Kirtanananda told me personally in his Jeep, that all other ISKCON temples are satellites to serve New Vrndavana, and that they exist only to help N.V. flourish. I was bewildered by that statement because Srila Prabhupada had stated that every temple is supposed to be autonomous, and that beuracracy would spoil everything. I was afraid to challenge him and his ideas because in those days, some of us thought that to question our authorities was an offence.

Recently one initiating guru had a gigantic Vyasasana built for him, where he was center stage, receiving glorification, having his feet washed, while Srila Prabhupada was shoved off to the side of the stage on a baby sized much smaller vyasasana. One of the guru's disciples was leaning against Prabhupada's little Vyasanana like it was a piece of wood or a wall to lean on, while listening to the guru who was being presented in a pompous way. So Prabhupada's Vyasa seat is more like an furniture ornament to lean on, to witness the worship of the real guru.

A GBC told me that his disciples think that he is better than Srila Prabhupada and that he should not allow his disciples to worship him while minimising Srila Prabhupada.

Devotion to one's guru can be expressed in many different ways. Yearly Vyasa puja is falling into the problem of imitating Prabhupada rather than following in his footsteps. This is the essence of the Zonal acharya era fiasco. 

[PADA: I really cannot understand why Rocana and others refer to the "old Zonal acharya days" when each year at Mayapura (including 2021) the gurus are still assigned zones. Jayapataka was all along and still is the Zonal Acharya of Mayapur, and that has not changed whatsoever.]

GBC Zonal Guru for Mayapur

aka karma vacuum cleaner-pada.

He says he is going to take everyone's karma because:

he is another Jesus!

Maybe disciples can offer Vyasa puja offerings expressing devotion to their guru. But getting up on the big seat, having their feet washed, and going bananas over the "sacred charinamrita" just instills ahankara in the guru and the disciple. This is part of the lessons we were supposed to learn from the Zonal acharya disaster. ISKCON just keeps repeating the same mistakes like a broken record.

It is the view of some of Srila Prabhupada's disciples that singing the Guruvastakam Prayer is ONLY for the uttama mahabhagavata guru like Srila Prabhupada. Devotees chant guruvastakam at mangala arotik, but which ISKCON guru says those prayers only apply to Srila Prabhupada?

Which guru will publicly state that they are very expert at making tasteful arrangements for the perfection of Radha and Krishna's conjugal loving affairs in the Vrindavan forests? He will be laughed at all over ISKCON.

Is the disease known as DADS, the Dreaded Acarya Disease that was prevalent during the 80's Zonal Acarya System, still with us and is this Zonal Acarya Era Part 2?

[PADA: Yes, there has been no fundamental change to the 1978 system, where conditioned souls were declared to be gurus, either Zonal or not is not the root issue. ys pd]