krishna1008: Gopal Krishna Goofs / Why I Left ISKCON / S Dasa Writes

[PADA: OK except, the classroom monitor is giving instructions, which is also called shiksha. All of the disciples are supposed to preach to others and help the other conditioned souls with instructions how to reach Krishna. This is splitting hairs. The more advanced sadhaka is giving shiksha to the conditioned souls and newer neophyte devotees, so he is acting as a class of teacher or shiksha guru, but they are the same thing. It looks like now the GBC wants to legislate who is authorized to preach (shiksha) and who is not?]

But Srila Prabhupada says otherwise.

cintāmaṇir jayati somagirir gurur meśikṣā-guruś ca bhagavān śikhi-piñcha-mauliḥ
yat-pāda-kalpataru-pallava-śekhareṣu
līlā-svayaṁvara-rasaṁ labhate jayaśrīḥ

Synonyms

cintāmaṇiḥ jayati — all glory to Cintāmaṇi; soma-giriḥ — Somagiri (the initiating guru); guruḥ — spiritual master; me — my; śikṣā-guruḥ — instructing spiritual master; ca — and; bhagavān — the Supreme Personality of Godhead; śikhi-piñcha — with peacock feathers; mauliḥ — whose head; yat — whose; pāda — of the lotus feet; kalpa-taru — like desire trees; pallava — like new leaves; śekhareṣu — at the toe nails; līlā-svayam-vara — of conjugal pastimes; rasam — the mellow; labhate — obtains; jaya-śrīḥ — Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī.

Translation

“All glories to Cintāmaṇi and my initiating spiritual master, Somagiri. All glories to my instructing spiritual master, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who wears peacock feathers in His crown. Under the shade of His lotus feet, which are like desire trees, Jayaśrī [Rādhārāṇī] enjoys the transcendental mellow of an eternal consort.”

Purport

This verse is from the Kṛṣṇa-karṇāmṛta, which was written by a great Vaiṣṇava sannyāsī named Bilvamaṅgala Ṭhākura, who is also known as Līlāśuka. He intensely desired to enter into the eternal pastimes of the Lord, and he lived at Vṛndāvana for seven hundred years in the vicinity of Brahma-kuṇḍa, a still-existing bathing tank in Vṛndāvana. The history of Bilvamaṅgala Ṭhākura is given in a book called Śrī-vallabha-digvijaya. He appeared in the eighth century of the Śaka Era in the province of Draviḍa and was the chief disciple of Viṣṇu Svāmī.

In a list of temples and monasteries kept in Śaṅkarācārya’s monastery in Dvārakā, Bilvamaṅgala is mentioned as the founder of the Dvārakādhīśa temple there. He entrusted the service of his Deity to Hari Brahmacārī, a disciple of Vallabha Bhaṭṭa.

Bilvamaṅgala Ṭhākura actually entered into the transcendental pastimes of Lord Kṛṣṇa. He has recorded his transcendental experiences and appreciation in the book known as Kṛṣṇa-karṇāmṛta. In the beginning of that book he has offered his obeisances to his different gurus, and it is to be noted that he has adored them all equally.

The first spiritual master mentioned is Cintāmaṇi, who was one of his instructing spiritual masters because she first showed him the spiritual path. Cintāmaṇi was a prostitute with whom Bilvamaṅgala was intimate earlier in his life. She gave him the inspiration to begin on the path of devotional service, and because she convinced him to give up material existence to try for perfection by loving Kṛṣṇa, he has first offered his respects to her.

Next he offers his respects to his initiating spiritual master, Somagiri, and then to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who was also his instructing spiritual master. He explicitly mentions Bhagavān, who has peacock feathers on His crown, because the Lord of Vṛndāvana, Kṛṣṇa the cowherd boy, used to come to Bilvamaṅgala to talk with him and supply him with milk.

In his adoration of Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the Personality of Godhead, he states that Jayaśrī, the goddess of fortune, Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī, takes shelter in the shade of His lotus feet to enjoy the transcendental rasa of nuptial love. The complete treatise Kṛṣṇa-karṇāmṛta is dedicated to the transcendental pastimes of Śrī Kṛṣṇa and Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī. It is a book to be read and understood by the most elevated devotees of Śrī Kṛṣṇa.

A devotee must have only one initiating spiritual master because in the scriptures acceptance of more than one is always forbidden. There is no limit, however, to the number of instructing spiritual masters one may accept. Generally a spiritual master who constantly instructs a disciple in spiritual science becomes his initiating spiritual master later on.

One should always remember that a person who is reluctant to accept a spiritual master and be initiated is sure to be baffled in his endeavor to go back to Godhead. One who is not properly initiated may present himself as a great devotee, but in fact he is sure to encounter many stumbling blocks on his path of progress toward spiritual realization, with the result that he must continue his term of material existence without relief. Such a helpless person is compared to a ship without a rudder, for such a ship can never reach its destination.

It is imperative, therefore, that one accept a spiritual master if he at all desires to gain the favor of the Lord. The service of the spiritual master is essential. If there is no chance to serve the spiritual master directly, a devotee should serve him by remembering his instructions. There is no difference between the spiritual master’s instructions and the spiritual master himself. In his absence, therefore, his words of direction should be the pride of the disciple.

If one thinks that he is above consulting anyone else, including a spiritual master, he is at once an offender at the lotus feet of the Lord. Such an offender can never go back to Godhead. It is imperative that a serious person accept a bona fide spiritual master in terms of the śāstric injunctions. Śrī Jīva Gosvāmī advises that one not accept a spiritual master in terms of hereditary or customary social and ecclesiastical conventions. One should simply try to find a genuinely qualified spiritual master for actual advancement in spiritual understanding. CC Adi 1.35 purport

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I saw this comment on another page and thought it really summed up Iskcon, and the reason we have so much abuse. It’s also exactly what I saw.

**** DASA: I recently worked out I had been in the movement around 17 1/2 years before stepping away, and have now been practicing outside for about the same amount of time, as of 2023. It was around this time in January of 88 I ‘became a Hare Krishna.’

My reflection is the institution can turn good people into jerks, who then go on to say and do things they may have never once said or done. It makes otherwise intelligent people bow on the ground and give over all their power to some man they know nothing about other than the persona he projects from his saffron wrappings.

It makes people guilty, shameful, passive/aggressive and necrotic. Makes them believe feelings of love and kindness are for hippies, and that if you’re being mistreated or abused and you object, that you’re just being mental, it’s just your false ego, and that you need to learn tolerance. Conversely you’re trained that if you speak up against corruption or question the leaders you’re suddenly an offender in the eyes of God, and cruel punishment awaits you.

It elevates an unqualified but ambitious few to the topmost positions of God’s, lazing in the lap of luxury and service, (taking not giving) while keeping everyone else subjugated under the boot, with time, energy, money and daughters taken as tithes.

It teaches monistic life to young men, training them to be pujaris or book distributors, only to then kick them to the street when they want to get married. The monks feel themselves fallen, having failed to maintain their brahmacaria, with the grhasta asrama seen as a dangerous black well meant for Losers. The visiting Swamis confirm this notion as they emasculate ‘the Men in White’.

With their best years for study or obtaining employment or starting business behind them, husband and wife begin married life with nothing, an empty apartment and few if any transferable skills, while the Sannyasi’s and gurus they served may have several palatial residences.

The newlyweds are wracked with shame and guilt that they might want to have a sensual or even affectionate relationship, and their lives are shaped and influenced by the institutional temple model they desperately try to emulate in the home.

Their personal, individual relationship with Him, with Her (Srimati Radharani) and with the world, each other, and ultimately their true selves might be drowned out by the wail of institutionalised thinking, obscured or funnelled by rules and regs, shortcomings and status in the devotee community, and almost robot like they rise and begin their daily worship, steeling themselves against a wicked world and their own malicious minds and senses, cursing malfunctioning washing machines or spannering outdated cars.

In time they begin to look stressed and strained, and perhaps out of desperation finally reject the practices entirely, turning their backs on Krishna who they see as a demanding, relentless God, as they strive to break free of the brainwashing and mind control of institutional thinking and find normality in non-church activities.

Meanwhile Srila Prabhupada kindly tells us the process of KC is joyfully performed, that we can simply make our home a temple, earn independently, spend independently, that even our dog can take part, that there’s no need to wear dhoti or eat Indian food if it’s not something we want to do, and we are free to embrace the regulative principles when we’re ready, while still having the deity of Krishna in our home and chanting Hare Krishna with family and friends.

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S Dasa: Srila Prabhupada was poisoned, he told us so himself and there is no doubt about it. In Bhaktivedanta Manor I was sitting at Srila Prabhupada’s feet while we waited for the car to arrive and take him to the Airport. Srila Prabhupada was sitting quietly chanting and then said “There are Demons in our Movement. They dress like Devotees, but their business is to destroy this Movement. The Karmis and Atheists cannot stop this Movement, only from Within.”

I was shocked and didn’t understand who these Demons were, but Srila Prabhupada knew and he then requested that “When I am gone, when I have departed, you can show your Love for me by how you work together to continue to push forward this Sankirtana Movement of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.”

Since then it has become very clear who the Demons are and they have effectively destroyed, not Srila Prabhupada’s Movement, but the ISKCON Institution which he created to facilitate the worldwide development of his Movement.

ISKCON is Not Srila Prabhupada’s Movement, it’s simply a material facility which he utilised in his Service and now it is effectively defunct, no more than piles of bricks and sticks, an incorporated institution which the Demonic GBC and their Appointed Gurus utilise to obtain and maintain their Wealth, Status and Adoration. Devotees keep trying to Save ISKCON, but it’s beyond saving and in reality has nothing to do with the Mission of Srila Prabhupada other than as an obstacle and threat to it’s success. It should be Rejected along with everyone still associated with it.

Srila Prabhupada’s Mission is the propagation of the Sankirtana Movement of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and he never referred to ISKCON as his Mission or Movement. We are the Hare Krishna People, he said because we chant this Hare Krishna Mantra and we are the Hare Krishna People. Be happy and secure in such identification.

We are Not ISKCON. We are Vaisnavas and the ISKCON Institution is now officially registered as a Hindu Religious Institution which is completely against the principles of Vaisnava Philosophy as inculcated by our Acaryas.

So it’s just another Mundane Religious Sect and is of no use to anyone aspiring to advance in Krishna Consciousness. Just the opposite in fact. It’s business is to distract from the actual Mission of our Acaryas and the Krishna Consciousness of everyone associated with it is being effectively destroyed.

Please work together to fulfill Srila Prabhupada’s request that we continue to push forward Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s Sankirtana Movement and then the Demons will be Defeated.

If we don’t then they have Succeeded.