CHRIST AND THE INITIATIONS IN ISKCON ‒ Rūpānuga Dāsa (ACBSP) YouTube Interview 2026
Host: I know you brought this up. I was looking at some of your letters that you had written, that I gleaned from the last many years. And this, I guess, would bring us to the next subject, on initiations.
I do not know if you want to speak more on this subject. But, for instance, if their guru falls down, if they have lost faith in the system or whatnot — and there was a quote that you mentioned about Prabhupāda saying, devotees distributing books, and what if they never come in contact with devotees after that? And Prabhupāda stated, “If they have just read my books, I consider them initiated,” something like that.
Maybe you can expand on that. And again, I am not meaning to intentionally go away from the subject we were just speaking about, but it was kind of a segue based on what you said about Prabhupāda.
Rūpānuga Dāsa: It did not matter one way or the other. It is not affecting Prabhupāda’s position. He said, “If they are reading my books, they are initiated.”
PADA: OK this is the ritvik idea, the initiation comes from the higher plane, or the pure devotee. And the pure devotee is speaking through his vani, or words, or books. Moreover a conditioned soul cannot give pure divyam jnanam or destroy sins, that is not possible. So the divyam jnanam -- which destroys sins -- has to come from the higher plane.
Host: Wow.
Rūpānuga Dāsa: See, that has nothing to do with ISKCON, that statement.
PADA: Sorry -- this has everything to do with ISKCON since ISKCON, under Rupanuga's guidance and help, has been worshiping deviants, if not illicit sex with men, women and children debauchees -- as God's successors and diksha gurus. And in 1986 Rupanuga went against me and Sulochana and he sided with Kirtanananda being ISKCON's main prominent acharya.
Never mind me and Sulochana said Kirtanananda is a homosexual and apparently, a pedophile. Did I forget to mention Rupanuga's messiah from heaven was allegedly "rubbing his genitals on cats" -- when Rupanuga was defending Kirtanananda as a pure devotee? How were Rupanuga's acharyas pure devotees, when they could not even follow the basic sadhana program for a new bhakta?
Host: Yes.
Rūpānuga Dāsa: Because one can be initiated and not be a member of ISKCON. Especially these days, there are so many persons who are initiating. I think the best thing to deal with these kinds of controversies is to say what Śrīla Prabhupāda said himself: “Anyone who reads my books is initiated.”
That does not say that initiation must be there. Initiation is not required to read Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books. Initiation is a formal thing.
And my opinion is that the movement has moved beyond that. And my opinion is that the movement has become more of a localized affair — perfection at home.
People can reach perfection in their own homes, with their own families, without even belonging to ISKCON or belonging to an ISKCON temple, but simply by believing in Śrīla Prabhupāda’s words and associating with him through his books.
People can reach perfection in their own homes, with their own families, without even belonging to ISKCON or belonging to an ISKCON temple, but simply by believing in Śrīla Prabhupāda’s words and associating with him through his books.
PADA: OK Rupanuga's original plan was to make conditioned souls into institutionalized acharyas -- which created a giant backfired backlash of banning, beating, molesting, lawsuits and murders. But now all of a sudden -- there is no need for these figurehead conditioned souls gurus and falling down acharyas. Just read the books at home.
That means de facto -- Rupanuga's conditioned souls / if not pedophile gurus have made official ISKCON into a child molesting / dysfunctional / bankrupted / discredited / bad public image / ghost town. Oh well -- we did not need any official ISKCON organization after all, just read the books in your house.
Wait? Who will print and distribute the books once Rupanuga's bad guru's scheme dismantles the organization that prints and distributes the books? And who will train people in the process of devotional service without any formal structure.
And who will regulate the system of deity offerings, train people in deity worship, samkirtan, devotional standards, and so on, with no organized or functioning system to train folks in the process of deity pooja, offerings, samkirtana and etc.?
Host: So when you say “the movement,” you are talking about the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement as different from ISKCON?
Rūpānuga Dāsa: The Hare Kṛṣṇa movement was started by Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu five hundred years ago in India. That is the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement. ISKCON is not the beginning of the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement. It has been around for a long time. ISKCON was a way Śrīla Prabhupāda devised to get the books distributed. The whole point was to distribute the knowledge. He said, initiation or not, the real point is knowledge.
PADA: One of the main functions of ISKCON is to get the knowledge out, and train people in the knowledge. Yet now the process made by Srila Prabhupada -- of getting the knowledge out -- has been dismantled. What replaces his program? I fail to see any large scale book distribution, making devotees, deity program training and so on -- going on (except for the fledgling small scale ritviks).
ISKCON temples are ghost towns. And the standards of some of these Jayapataka Bengali poojaris and cooks is less than stellar -- or pretty abysmal -- lets just say. And now some of those Bengali poojari guys are having problems getting their Visas thanks to MAGA. This was never going to work long term, it is all duck tape and band aids. There was never any plan for what happens when ISKCON becomes a "dead zone" ghost town.
Host: In his— I think it is in the ten-point statements of his mission — to create an environment for people to come together and hear and chant the names of God, and hear the transcendental knowledge. So there was a purpose, there is a purpose to the society, and we cannot negate the fact that Prabhupāda said, “ISKCON is my body.”
But Prabhupāda also said in one of the purports — correct me if I am wrong — that if one has problems, and I am paraphrasing, with the institution, then one can fully take shelter of the spiritual master.
Rūpānuga Dāsa: Yes, he said that. One is not bound by the membership. They do not have to be a member of ISKCON to understand the books, or to follow Śrīla Prabhupāda’s instructions. And I think that is happening.
PADA: First of all Rupanuga never explains how these books will magically appear in people's houses. And how will they will be inspired to read and follow these books. Almost every devotee -- who became a devotee -- either: saw the samkirtana party program, got a book placed into their hands by a devotee, were preached to by a devotee, knew a devotee, visited a temple -- and so on.
The main process of making other people into devotees was being done by the devotees of ISKCON. If we dismantle ISKCON, we kill off, choke off, if not fully eliminate, the main process of spreading the teachings. Or as one devotee tells PADA, "they poisoned the founder, and then ISKCON, and made it into a dead zone, so the preaching could be erased from the planet, because they do not want people to worship Krishna. They are asuras."
Host: So you were saying that by reading Prabhupāda’s books, Śrīla Prabhupāda said that those who read his books were initiated. So it is a little different from the nomenclature of dīkṣā initiation, but it means their spiritual life has started. Is that what you are saying?
Rūpānuga Dāsa: Yes.
Host: Okay. Now, you were there in 1977, and you were there at the May 28th conversation. So if you can share your realizations from that time — how Prabhupāda wanted initiations to continue in his absence — because you were there at that time.
Rūpānuga Dāsa: Śrīla Prabhupāda said initiation is not the point. It is reading the books, believing in the books — that is initiation. He emphasized books because he knew he was not going to be here forever. So he wrote a tremendous number of books. I mean, I was just counting; I cannot even— There is a long list of books. And they were all published, and they were distributed.
In the course of time, in my opinion, they may have been overly edited as a pastime — just to keep people busy, whatever it is. But I think that happened.
Host: That is a nice way to put it — the nicest way you can put it.
Rūpānuga Dāsa: That is.
Host: But at the same time, you were there when Prabhupāda was asked by Satsvarūpa — Swami at the time, still Swami — “We have some questions to ask about how initiations will continue in your absence, specifically when you are no longer with us.”
Prabhupāda gave some specific instructions. They have been seen from different vantage points since that time. But you were there. In other words, one is not dependent on the institution for these things, but Prabhupāda did give some specific guidelines. And you were there at that time. You were very fortunate to be there.
Because I remember you telling me — we have talked about this a few times — were you in the room when Satsvarūpa was asking? Or were you outside the room when he came out during that time, that May 28th?
Rūpānuga Dāsa: I do not remember.
Host: You were in the room.
Rūpānuga Dāsa: I was in the room.
Host: We have spoken about this, and you were relating how Prabhupāda covered the answers to these questions, and how initiations will go on — “disciple of my disciple,” “grand disciple,” etc. So what is your understanding of that?
Rūpānuga Dāsa: My understanding is that the ritvik thing is nonsense.
Host: Okay.
Rūpānuga Dāsa: Because ritvik says that someone can actually believe or assume that they can initiate someone to Śrīla Prabhupāda, and he is a past ācārya.
He taught us in the very beginning: you cannot be initiated to a past ācārya. Bas, finished. And now he is a past ācārya.
He taught us in the very beginning: you cannot be initiated to a past ācārya. Bas, finished. And now he is a past ācārya.
PADA: Srila Prabhupada never said we cannot worship him as acharya now or later on. We made murtis of him to be worshiped after he departed. The May tape also says initiations in the future, when he is not here, will be conducted BY RITVIKS. Oddly, Rupanuga says "I don't remember" this conversation. Handy!
But evidently, at least according to Rupanuga, Srila Prahbupada always said we can only worship Rupanuga's Mott Street boy / homosexual / pedophile pals who will orchestrate banning, beating, molesting, suing and killing us. Rupanuga never explains why he thought his Mott Street boy pals were going to be worshiped as acharyas? Did he not know that homosexual pedophiles and Srila Prabhupada are not equals? He never explains.
Unfortunately, what happened is -- Rupanuga said -- Srila Prabhupada is no longer the acharya, so Rupanuga annointed his homosexual and pedophile pals as the acharyas. Where was the order to do that? Rupanuga's homosexual and pedophile guru scheme created thousands of cases of child molesting, crimes of all types, including murders, because he juxtaposed pedophiles with Krishna's successors.
Meanwhile Rupanuga says a book is the initiation, but we cannot connect others to a past acharya. Thus no one can give another person a book, because that would connect them to a past acharya. So now, we cannot even give books to people, because that connects them to a past acharya, and that cannot be done. So now there is no system in place to save fallen souls.
Notice how all this has shifted: first of all, we needed to connect people to Rupanuga's homosexual pedophile pal acharyas;
then we needed to connect people to the books;
but now no one can give other people books because that connects them to a past acharya.
OK so we just need to stop everything. Of course that is a vast improvement from the previous plan to get people to worship Rupanuga's homosexual pedophile pals.
1) Rupanuga's Mott Street boy pal homosexual pedophiles are the connection to Krishna.
2) Ooops! Books are the connection.
3) Ooops! But no one can connect others to a past acharya, so stop all book distribution.
4) Ooops! Therefore, after we stop all book distribution and connecting people to a past acharya. Thus! We are left with the GBC's homosexual and pedophile guru process doing all the preaching and representing of ISKCON. So it is always about preserving the homosexual and pedophile messiah's club in the end, and suppressing us -- the opposition.
And thus stopping Prabhupada from being worshiped AT ALL, is it not? Yeah stop giving people books, that connects them to a departed acharya, it is a waste of time. I think this is also called atheist.
Rupanuga has gone around in a big circle, he first of all promoted his homosexual and pedophile pals as acharyas, then he said we should just give people books, then he said, giving people books is a a waste of time since it connects people to a past acharya. That means the pedophile acharyas program wins by default since there is no alternate.
Great, so now we are down to: sit down in a corner and stop, so the pedophile messiah's club goes forward with no opposition. Told ya! ys pd angel108b@yahoo.com







