VAIKUNTHANATH DEPARTS HIS BODY
PADA: I had a sort of strange relationship with Vaikunthanath after 1978. He really did not like my "hatchet job" approach to dealing with the GBC's gurus. And he said I am "way too heavy." And so, when we would meet by chance, he would only discuss what was going on in 1973, and not the present. As soon as I brought up the present, he had to go somewhere else.
At one point, much later, he got very enthusiastic for me to tell him all about "the poison issue." And so I invited him to walk around the block as I summed it up, and he started off walking with me. He asked a few questions, and I could see he was very disappointed that I had such good answers. Finally, about half way around the block, he doubled over holding his stomach -- and said he could not discuss further because "my ulcer is bursting." OK he did not want to discuss it further, because he knew I had the goods on the issue.
Another time, a new devotee in Berkeley asked me if Srila Prabhupada can be his guru? I said sure, of course he is your guru. He said, but Vaikunthanath just told me Srila Prabhupada can NEVER be my guru, I need to go out and find my own guru somewhere else. Oh swell, everyone and anyone else can be the guru, as long as it is not Srila Prabhupada. What kind of loyalty to Srila Prabhupada is that? He is no longer the guru, go worship someone else, anyone else will do, go somewhere else to find another guru.
Yah, Prabhupada is my guru, and no one else's! I, me and mine! Go worship someone else, and do not bother to worship a pure devotee, that is my exclusive club!
Notice also that Vaikunthanath does not even name who this "other" guru is for this person to take shelter of -- just -- go out and find someone else to be your guru, could be anyone else -- as long as Srila Prabhupada is NOT your guru, you will be fine. So he bought into the GBC idea that we have to send people away from ISKCON to find another guru in another matha, or accept one of the GBC's homosexual and pedophile guru lineage gurus, or just go to India and start sorting out which of their 100,000 assorted "God men" is bona fide, but never take Srila Prabhupada as our guru. Then we wonder why the temples are empty ghost towns?
Yep, anyone and everyone else has to be your guru, except, the only person qualified to be your guru, he cannot be your guru. So these people are trying to block others from taking shelter of a pure devotee, and giving them I dunno what else as an alternative guru?
No wonder Vaikunthanath did not approve of my approach, that Srila Prabhupada IS THE GURU. Anyway, the whole thing is sad, he no longer wanted to promote Srila Prabhupada as the guru for all the people -- of the world -- to take shelter of, just go out and find some other guru, any other guru. And many or most people did in fact go away and find another guru. And yah, that has made ISKCON into an empty ghost town.
So they do not like my "Christian" idea, that the guru is not MINE, or YOURS, or anyone else's, he is the guru for EVERYONE in the Jagat. Jagat guru.
And thus -- many people do follow this "the guru is mine but not yours" idea. They stopped promoting worshiping Srila Prabhupada and began to promote worship of all sorts of contaminated people, with disasterous results. And rather unfortunately -- I believe that people like Vaikunthanath, who vociferously turn people away from worshiping the pure devotee -- evidently to get them to worship contaminated beings instead -- will be held accountable for the odious end results. Look at what happens when people worship "any other guru than Srila Prabhupada." Sheesh!
The guru is mine and not yours! Yeah so you can get credit for being "the senior devotee," and make yourself important. He tried to take people off the path to Krishna -- to worship someone or anyone else -- except the pure devotee, and we believe, this is very sinful. Yeah whatever you do, don't accept a pure devotee as your guru, go find someone else -- but I cannot recommend anyone else -- because I am speculating that there even is -- someone else. Worship someone else, but we have no "someone else," thus worship no one and nothing is better than worship of Srila Prabhupada!
The only good news is, this particular new guy listened to me, and he accepted Srila Prabhupada as his guru. But that is also very rare, most people follow the Vaikunthanath idea -- don't take a pure devotee as your guru. And then they just go off to worship contaminated beings and they suffer -- and are suffering -- the malefic results.
We can worship anyone else as our guru, as long as it is not Srila Prabhupada, and then we wonder how ISKCON fell into being a hellish planet. Because -- the idea that we can eliminate worship of the pure devotee is from the hellish planets.
And anyone who blocks others from worshiping the pure devotee will have to answer for doing that to Krishna's higher authorities eventually. And that is how all of these people collectively destroyed ISKCON -- and its inhabitants, and they created a situation where people are worshiping all sorts of contaminated beings -- with ill results, including -- banning, beating, molesting, suing and -- assassinating.
All that being said, Vaikunthanath was at least friendly with me, which makes him better than most of the rest of the lot. And in any case, he is no longer here, so he has to move on to another situation. Eventually he will have to learn we have to promote worshiping of the pure devotee to others, not just this guru or that guru, and telling me "worship of the pure is the bogus Christian idea" is not correct.
Even if we become a pure devotee ourselves, even then -- a pure devotee will always elevate other pure devotees above himself. For example, Mother Yasoda is considered as the Queen of Vrndavana. That means, the other devotees respect and elevate her position as higher than others. We don't just tell people "anyone we feel like can be worshiped as the Queen," that is not how the process works.
That is the spiritual principle. We should never tell anyone, do not bother to worship the pure devotee, go worship someone else, because even the mundane people worship the pure devotee Jesus as their guru principle.
Worshiping no named person is also mayavada etc. OK anyway Vaikunthanath dasa, good luck and God speed spirit soul. We wish you well in any case. Maybe -- by now -- you realized, you should have promoted the pure devotee as EVERYONE'S guru, and not told people Srila Prabhupada is NOT their guru, but no worries -- you will realize that eventually in time, because that is the absolute truth reality eternally.
The guru is not mine, yours, or anyone else's property, he is the representative of God FOR EVERYONE. So this is very sad, one by one -- our God brothers and sisters are departing, mostly without ever saying, hey maybe we shoulda / coulda / woulda made Srila Prabhupada the guru, and not just "someone else," maybe that would have produced a better outcome than the disaster we created by denying his place as the guru. Anyway, I still wish all of them good luck and God speed.
Yeah, when Gurudas was glorifying Radhanath on the stage, one of my friends pulled the plug out of his microphone. Hee hee!
ys pd
angel108b@yahoo.com
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TOM T: Just a note to update on my friend Jvara - Jim Steelman. Tiger Jim. Shot many, many years ago on book distribution in new orleans, hes been at my place for years. I came home today and he said- I'm dying-take me to the VA hospital. He got ready and off we went. I told him i had hoped he would pass away at home so we could have a kirtan party. I reassured him that he would be coming back, but he is 83.
Hare Krishna, loyal servant.
Last post! Jvara is home, just a nasal infection, but he asks that I stop with all the updates to you folks. I told him you all care, but you know, sometimes people just want to be alone. He doesn't answer the phone hardly ever, and he doesn't go on line, no FB or email, so snail mail a letter to
Jim Steelman 2011`4 nw 78th ave alachua fl 32615.
I dont think he wants any visitors. Hey- I tried!
PADA: Yeah, when I am 83 I might want to be left alone as well. At least he made it to 83, many do not. We are all getting on these days -- lets hope for the best for him.
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Just heard from Jason Monkey will air on AMC on 12/12/24.
BBT BOOK CHANGES
My Dear Vaishnava Gentlewomen and Gentlemen,
Please accept my heartfelt pranamas unto you all. Śrīla Pabhupāda kī jaya!
Here is the latest "Global BBT News" still stewing in their self-justifications of their editorial tamperings. We've gone over and over and over on this, in this group, and we've addressed these points and so many than what is mentioned here.
The fact is that the BBTII thinks that they can improve upon Prabhupāda's books, that they can know his transcendental desires, and they can treat Prabhupāda as if he really didn't know what he was doing. It's shameful.
Prabhupāda himself recognizes in a CC purport that the Lord can be referred to as "The Blessed Lord" or "The Supreme Personality of Godhead," both forms of divine address intertwined through his Bhagavad Gītā. Śrīla Prabhupāda himself happily lived with "The Blessed Lord for nine years, in both the 1968 and 1972 editions. He never complained about it. Never instructed anyone to change it. But the BBT knows the mind of our spiritual master? I don't think so. The BBT thinks it knows better than the spiritual master? So it seems so! The BBT thinks it can second guess the spiritual master and his desires for his books from drafts? Yes, they think they purify Prabhupāda's vāni of Hayagriva, who worked under Śrīla Prabhupāda, who apparently didn't know how bad an editor Hayagriva was? So it seems.
It's very simple, my friends. For any author, it is violating of the author's moral rights to change what an author left. To change what an author has written and published after they are deceased is not even conventionally, what to speak of someone of the status of our Śrīla Prabhupāda.
If we can second guess for editing Śrīla Prabhupāda's sacred vāni, then anything can go on in ISKCON. It is no wonder that the BBTII has fraudulently listed itself as the author of the Bhagavad-gītā As It Is with the US department of copyrights and trademarks and Śrīla Prabhupāda as merely a "worker for hire." And the BBTI has never recanted such an outrageous claim. I believe that such a claim genuinely expresses their position –– claiming Śrīla Prabhupāda's work as their own and not his.
This group has been quiet for some time, because there is much happening behind the scenes. As there are some milestones reached, I will report them here.
In the meantime, if anyone is interested in getting the full contents of the twelve chapter book, Posthumous Editing of a Great Master's Works: Special focus on the writings of A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda (Lexington Books, 2024), please send me a message.
Dāso 'smi premni,
Garuḍa Dāsa
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