Ananda Swarupa das Comments on ISKCON

[PADA: The bottom line is that more people are waking up. Had a nice long chat with some poor ISKCON attendee in India today, and he was not aware of all the troubles the GBC has created everywhere else in the world. He was told everything is expanding everywhere, hee hee, not really! 

And he was told that Bangalore devotees are on the verge of accepting the GBC's gurus in their temples, and working under the GBC guru's authority. OK also not really! 

So he is another person who is waking up, albeit slow but sure. So, one by one, people are getting off the wrong side and onto the right side. Ananda Swarupa das was one of the people who tried to rectify things inside ISKCON and he was evidently branded as a renegade and removed, just like the rest of us. Anyway, here is a recent exchange with another devotee and him:]     

C Dasi: 

Ananda Svarupa Dasa prabhu, my fear is that if indeed ISKCON's culture does not reflect the culture Srila Prabhupada wanted, then the aberrations will be passed down and possibly get worse in each generation. Devotees will accept as correct the current culture which is upheld and promoted by their initiating gurus.
Currently opposition to the ISKCON's culture is very malicious and thereby imho lacks credibility. 

[PADA: Not malicious enough according to some of the victims. Some victims have wrote to chastise me for "being too lenient" on the GBC guru process. Apparently they wanted me to take more drastic action. So malicious effort, or not malicious enough? I give up. You decide.]

On the other hand, mainstream ISKCON is imho still full of hype. I hope that devotees who know the facts (regarding how the majority of Prabhupada's disciples became disinherited, how an elite group was established, why this happened, the consequences, and what SP wanted) can document these things into a book along with serious suggestions how ISCKON can try to correct the errors of the past. If honest non-malicious SP disciples who know the history do not document these things then I don't know if future generations will be able to correct the culture.

I was skim reading Harikesh prabhu's blog, and it seems to me the emphasis is on defending himself. But I think the need of the hour is to defend and preserve ISKCON's cultural and spiritual credibility for future generations. For that, would it not help if devotees who held senior positions and either saw the problems occurring (like yourself) or contributed to the problems (like many of the ex-guru / sanyasi / gbc ) documented the history with neither malice nor hype.

I am really pleading that you not give up trying to assist ISKCON to align itself better with SP's desire. Have you considered writing a book: the facts as you saw them....no malice....and no hype. 

Ananda Svarupa Dasa: This is something I posted on my blog in 2008. I fear nothing has changed since and the forum for discussion does not exist in present day ISKCON.

Let them (the GBC body) call a general meeting of all devotees, including and especially all godbrothers and godsisters who left Iskcon but still honor and worship Srila Prabhupada, and together find some way to deconstruct the legal, corporate, religious labyrinth they have concocted and reconnect all sincere devotees to the original purpose Srila Prabhupada had in his pure heart when he brought Krishna consciousness from Vrindavan to a Second Avenue storefront.

What I recommended is for all of us to come together in Mayapur and put all we own on the table for the pleasure of Srila Prabhupada. This means our abilities, talents, money, disciples, followers, secret assets and, above all, truth. This will be the demonstrable proof that we love Prabhupada. 

This is the only truth that will unite us. This will sort out the pretentious from the real. The time is long overdue. We’ve had enough of spin and propaganda. Too many of us have experienced the truth up close and personal. For us, propaganda will not work. It is not possible to please Prabhupada by external endeavors, by bloated multi-million dollar projects and by writing and mouthing a whitewashed version of ISKCON history. 

Contemporary solutions depend to a large degree on an honest accounting of the past, which offers plenty of lessons for those willing to listen. The point is, do we want to become independently thoughtful devotees as per Prabhupada’s clear desire or do we want to cop out in the lazy mood of see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil and risk a birth in Vrindavan as the proverbial monkeys?