Russian / Ukraine Devotees Meltdown (Update)

 

(Russia News): Ukrainian ISKCON leaders fled the temple during the first days of the war. Radha-Madhava and Gaura-Nitai are buried in the ground. This is primarily about Kyiv. Acyutapriya and other senior devotees fled Kyiv in the early days of the war. Large Deities were buried in the temple courtyard in a metal box. In general, Ukrainian devotees condemned their actions and called them cowards. The GBC will have to change local leaders or they will lose control of Ukraine, if they have not lost control already.

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The position of a Vaisnava, according to Bhakti Vijnana, is to support Ukraine, while Caitanya Candra Caran supposedly advised to be neutral and tolerate.

In short, Bhakti Vijnana (one of the Russian GBC gurus) said the following:

Vaisnavas should not take sides in political disputes, but this does not mean that they should remain neutral in matters of morality: dharma and adharma. He quoted the first canto of the Srimad-Bhagavatam, about the bull of dharma, his attitude to the situation. But Maharaja Parikshit did otherwise, as befits a ksatriya.

In general, people perceived his position as pro-Ukrainian, go fight for dharma, because he made it sound like remaining neutral is not a good option. 

After that, fighting began in the video's comments - Russian devotees against Ukrainian ones. The Ukrainians wrote that Russia is the aggressor, so it needs to be destroyed, while the Russians wrote about the attacks for 8 years in Donbass and so on. 

Then there were comments that were trying to make everything diplomatic, to please everyone. The Ukrainians were not happy with that move, and wanted clarity. The Russians wrote that everything is clear and so, each devotee should be clear in his personal choice, but this did not suit the Ukrainians. They wanted more direct confirmation of their understanding of events from their guru. 

But you can’t ask the guru like that! The Russians admonished and reproached them. Then, no one was able to clearly explain where is dharma and where is adharma. This caused a split among the Russian - speaking devotees of ISKCON. It is quite a large split, so it is not clear how they will hold festivals together in future. There will be conflicts, skirmishes, arguments, fights and so on. They will not be able to listen to lectures together, do harinama etc., because there is now a big rift of contradiction statements from these ISKCON leaders. 

Bhakti Vijnana's sincerity was undermined yet again, apparently he just wants to please the masses with a so-called neutral position, while also saying we should fight for dharma. More and more people understand this as an agreement to have devotees fight for Ukraine, and fight for supposed dharma, and are therefore upset.

Two months have already passed since the beginning of the "special operation" in Ukraine, and Bhakti Vijnana has not decided whose side he is on. At least, this may be how he looks outwardly, publicly, but when Ukrainian disciples ask Maharaja personally what to do if a devotee is drafted into the army, he replies that one must do one's duty, and for this reason, some of his disciples are already fighting on the side of Ukraine against Russia. Several of them have already died in battle, and some are engaged in the battle right now.

Then! The comments under their video reached 1,500, but were suddenly blocked and commenting posters were banned. In another video about responsibility, he did not specifically say anything about Ukraine, but made it clear that he could not get rid of his disciples who unleashed their Internet war. 

Then, they just went crazy, filled with aggression towards the Russian devotees. In essence, Bhakti Vijnana stated: "I have said what needed to be said, those who do not understand this and refuse to follow my advice are left to themselves." Meanwhile he has not said clearly what he advises, and the comments have been removed.

ISKCON GBC has now showed their vision of the spiritual world, where everyone is ready to kill each other, because one is Russian, and the other is Ukrainian, the third is Hindu, and the fourth is American or Jewish. Just imagine that suddenly all these people get into the spiritual world, which their leaders "guaranteed" to them, with their current consciousness, they simply kill each other in Vaikuntha. This means that no one will let them in there until they give up their false ego.

Caitanya Candra Caran (another of the Russian GBC gurus) spoke about karma, that it is impossible to find the true cause of any suffering and that we should just endure. He was against the performance of military duty, that we can refuse it, which contradicts the instructions of Bhakti Vijnana. He advised people to raise their consciousness, to perceive everything as the plan of the Lord and to do their work with a sense of duty and detachment. 

In other words, it is not looking good for the future unity of the Russian and Ukrainian devotees, or for ISKCON, in this region. And blocking people's comments has only made more of them angry, feeling betrayed ... and feeling that they are being ignored and marginalized, at a time they should be given clear instruction during the crisis. 

It really shows how shallow and thoughtless these leaders are. First of all, the GBC should have held a meeting long ago -- to decide what policy is going to be the unified response to the crisis, but they do not respond to any crisis properly all along. This is more evidence that ISKCON is currently in a free fall ... melt down status, with more and more parts spinning off to separate from the core. 

They already lost so many people to Sridhara, Narayana, BV Puri, Babajis, Hindus etc., so this will take more people away from their society. And they have no one to look to but themselves. 

Meanwhile the Russia House devotees have been arrested in India and it looks like even Gopal Krishna cannot get them out. So all of this exploiting of all these devotees in Russia and Ukraine is starting to come apart. They have misrepresented Krishna's message, and this is the result. 

[PADA: Some devotees wrote to chastise me for "taking the side of Ukraine." I am not on anyone's side, but I do believe that targeting civilians is wrong and is against Vedic principles. ys pd]