DM Das "Bent Rules and Broken Trust" 02 11 24

DM Das

Bent Rules and Broken Trust

I went there resolved that I wouldn't be leaving until he removed his saffron cloth and put on white. I was nervous and apprehensive because he was on the sannyas list, a Srila Prabhupada disciple, and someone who I'd developed an affectionate bond with over the last few years.

At the end of the 2.5 hour conversation he gave me a gift, a brand new, warm and elegant silk chadar he didn't have much need for. With misty eyes he was thanking me and remarking 'I never wanted to put saffron on. It was like I was being forced, like they didn't see who I was, just how they wanted me to be. It's not where I belong, thank you for accepting me for who I am.'

PADA: We hear this all the time from ISKCON folks, especially leaders. We really didn't want to promote the worship of illicit sex with men, women and children as Krishna's guru successors, but since it has been the GBC's policy, the GBC made me do it. Well actually no, you do not have to help them. And you should speak up now and admit this was all -- a mistake at best -- a giant deviation at worse. 

After the GBC told Jayatirtha to take sannyasa he kept saying, "the GBC forced me to do it." No, you can just walk away from their table and tell them to shut up, like we did. "I was forced to promote the worship of illicit sex with men, women and children -- as God's acharyas" -- is also not going to work in Yamaraja's court house. You were not forced, no one placed a gun at your head, you volunteered to be part of their system. 

We have to be responsible for our own actions, and that is Krishna's system. "Everyone else was doing it" is also not an excuse also for eating hamburgers or anything else. Devotees need to start to take responsibility for their own actions, and the results of their actions, such as their society's deteriorating into a mass of banning, beating, molesting, lawsuits and murders, which subsequently resulted from their acquiescing and compliance with the false guru's regime. The sin of omission is not as bad as commission, but it is also bad.

What I learned that day is most people who do 'bad' things are more often in the wrong context than bad themselves. We and others are much more creatures of environment than we like to admit. Our habits tend to come from our habitat. Though a small part of me really wanted to rip into this 'charlatan' - only a few minutes in I could see that along with a dangerous tendency to flirt and draw attention to himself - he was also cajoled into a completely incompatible lifestyle via the same religious guilt narratives that wreck most practitioners lives. The people he'd trusted to protect him with good advice and guidance had instead sent him over the cliff of their own idealism and denial.

PADA: OK that is also true. Lots of bad advice was being handed out left, right and center. But we have to be aware that bad advice leads to bad results. Srila Prabhupada gave us -- thousands and thousands -- of warnings of what happens with false sannyasas, false gurus, false gurus by rubber stamp, self appointed gurus and so on and etc. -- and we all knew ALL ALONG about all of these warnings. They were not heeded, self evidently. In fact, many devotees ran off to the Gaudiya Matha and Narayan Maharaja programs -- folks who have been boosting the false gurus, and their vicious regime.  

The memory feels fresh as another clergy wearing cloth he didn't belong in has recently been reconfirmed as a sex offender in our bhakti community. At this point the only surprise in these situations is that our leadership continues to think that the rug of religiosity is heavy enough to sweep this kind of dirt under. While we will sit in Srimad Bhagavatam classes and hear of honesty as the pillar of dharma in the iron age again and again - again and again we come to find cover ups and cronyism fueling nearly every scandal in the society.

PADA: Cover ups and cronysim, sounds like how the Church got into so many scandals. Of course that begs the question we get from the media folks on a regular basis, "how can gurus be involved in so many scandals"? Guru -- and scandal? OK they never were gurus, the emperor never had any clothes, the whole thing was based on deceit, lies and illusion the whole time. 

Because of these continued lapses, and no clear or sufficient admission of negligence from senior leaders, when chiding comes to the younger generations from elders - 'You aren't dedicated like we were! You don't take your practice seriously. That's not the standard Prabhupada gave us...' It fuels indignation as much or more than introspection.

PADA: Yeah, there is nothing more hypocritical than telling people to follow the standards when simultaneously promoting the worship of illicit sex with men, women and children as gurus. And a religion that promotes hypocrisy will lose members, especially the children. Same reason we rejected our parents and their religion, we did not like the hypocrisy.  

This is exacerbated by a rapidly aging senior generation who is eager to feel reassured by evidence that what they worked so hard to establish will be maintained after their time ends. Thus, seeing young bhakti folks drinking coffee, watching Netflix and going on dates is often the stuff of nightmares for them. But the anxious elders are so often unwilling to see the connection between the bending of all the relative rules today by many contemporary practitioners and the decades of broken trust that rests with the first generation and their continued poor choices.

PADA: True. Like Bhakti Vikas is now all of a sudden alarmed at all the mission drift. First -- he promotes the worship of illicit sex with men, women and children as God's messiahs and successors process, THEN he wonders how the mission got drifted? 

And why are the children mass alienated? Because your policies and deviations created the mass deviation and subsequent alienation. And making pretend all your program's banning, beating, molesting, lawsuits and murders is some minor mission drift is simply creating a bigger wedge among the already alienated. 

It makes it sound like you are unaware of the problems you created, or how severe those problems are; and / or how badly your bad choices and bad policies have victimized so many / if not most of the ISKCON citizens, especially the children. 

Ironically, young people today love nothing more than a messy back story. The problem is not that there have been problems, that makes us relatable and human. Our communities profound trauma could be one of its strongest assets in establishing relevance in the present social discourse if only we'd own it honestly. But nothing screams 'mundane religion' to the modern mind more than a pernicious culture of politics, cover ups and rules that are 'inviolable' for everyone except those in charge.

PADA: Hee hee, yep all the rules apply to everyone else, except the leaders. No one wants to participate in such a bogus religion because it would be supporting cheating and hypocrisy, never mind supporting a mass child mistreatment regime and other -- all too numerous -- crimes that spin off from these leaders. 

Like it or not, the age of appeal to orthodoxy is over. It likely would be no matter what given the post-modern bent of society at large. But especially given the history of management misadventure in the Gaudiya movement, no rules for rules sake will stand anymore except in the lives of those who are too scared and codependent to think for themselves. In contemporary society those with orders to give should be wary of those seemingly eager to listen to them.

What works today for what's actually wanted is personal and measured guidance. One step at a time; encourage, adjust, introspect, integrate - and repeat. Slow but steady produces what's real and lasting.

This has mostly always been the case; but novelty, charisma and purity all conspired to cast a spell of fantasy over the Gaudiya community for some years. It was hoped in (mostly) naïve sincerity that conformity to a holy host of conventions would one day miraculously yield pure consciousness. But Krishna wields a flute, not a magic wand. Each person must take their own steps on the path as preparation for their moves in the eternal dance.

We now owe it to our Guardians to give up on that fairytale of fastidiousness. Fables work for children for a little while, but are dangerous if maintained as truth into maturity. As Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Prabhupada writes in his famous Putana essay:

"The original purpose of the established churches of the world may not always be objectionable. But no stable religious arrangement for instructing the masses has yet been successful. The Supreme Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, in pursuance of the teachings of the scriptures enjoins all absence of conventionalism for the teachers of the eternal religion."

PADA: Yep. The idea that conditioned souls can be worshiped as pure devotees is an illusion. No amount of subsequent enforced banning, beating, child molesting, lawsuits and murders will ever make such an illusion a real program either. Enforcing such deviations with banning, shunning if not violent goonda thug-ism is just making things worse.

False guru projects do not work, have not worked, will not work, and never have worked -- at least long term -- anywhere. So many senior devotees told me "but prabhu, worship of departed gurus is a deviation, we need to worship the living person." OK but your living persons are engaged in deviations, so that was not a good idea, and you should just admit that already so we can move on.  

BB Dasa:

It’s funny, I know a lot of senior devotees who are great devotees and live outside the temple paradigm … they work mundane jobs, watch tv, obviously have things like Facebook and Netflix. They even own pets! But yet we all have this weird habit of being afraid to reveal that we do these things for fear of being called out. I know I personally refrain from sharing some mundane thought, joke or activity for fear of being seen as a poser.

I’ve also noticed that this mindset seems to apply exclusively to western born devotees (at least in America). My temple congregation is 90% Indian, most are probably Hindus … they are doctors, lawyers and businessmen … they have families and tons of kids, and nice cars and fancy clothes … they don’t walk around in shame, or fear, and no one tells them they are in maya.

Are they not devotees? Do they not believe that Krishna is the Lord of the universe? Was George Harrison, who certainly did not follow the four regs not a devotee?

What I’ve come to realize, and this mostly from reading our most sacred text, is that this is a process, a practice … we do our best, we try to serve in whatever capacity we can, and we should recognize that as Krishna states in BG, there is no lose in this endeavor.

DM Das: Really well said prabhu; thank you for sharing. I especially appreciate the point about many indian families being more naturally integrated in this way. We in the west don't give them enough credit for that; probably in part out of envy.

BB Dasa: I always hear a lot of talk about moving towards varn ashram system, but how can that be accomplished if the entire society are Brahmins?

I have a family, I work in a mine, before that I worked in refining … I chant my rounds at work and eat prasad at lunch, I go to the temple when able and reach out to devotees daily … but I’ve literally had devotees tell me I should just quit. All societies need ditch diggers, and cops, and trash men, and doctors, etc…

A dream for me would be to live in an American town that had a huge devotee population. Not a commune or a farm, an actual town.

M Dasi: Alachua!

PADA: Alachua's temple has many of the leaders of the homosexual and pedophile messiah's club acting as leaders there. The problem exists there as well.

M Das: Very well written. 

TL: I'm not a devotee but from the little bit I know about the rules, there are more than a few devotees who break a lot of rules. He who ... cast the first stone. I think everyone needs to chill and just love where you are, and not focus on slamming the gavel. Just my little opinion from the outside in. I'd like to bring my kids around a true Hare Krishna experience

TP: Great:)!

L Das: I find it utterly amazing that so-called advanced devotees and so many others are unable to understand how the iskcon society is unable to help the 2nd and 3rd generation cure child abuse and other forms of impersonalistic behavior.

Why?

1) the gbc and other leaders have authorized the rewriting of Srila Prabhupada's transcendental literatures.

2) the gbc and other leaders allow changes to the chanting of the Hare Krsna Maha-Mantra given to us by Srila Prabhupada and won't correct this mis-pronouncing.

3) The gbc and other leaders have changed the way diety offerings are now made - offering bhoga first to Sri Sri Radha and Govinda then offering remnants to Srila Prabhupada.

We can't expect that devotees who support the above 3 problems can ever solve the continuing problems of birth, old age, disease, and death and ultimately become happy.

PADA: When Satsvarupa said that Kirtanananda is the heart and soul of ISKCON, he was REALLY saying that a bogus Jesus who is giving blow jobs to young men in his motorhome is a pure representation of God. Then we wonder why the society fell into illusion? 

Because illusion was being promoted everywhere and especially by the leaders. And then BVKS says this is a "slight drift in the mission." Any society that says oral sex with boys in the motorhome is the pure representation of God will fail, and it will deserve to fail. And anyone who says all this is a slight drift in the mission is still covering for the severity of these deviations.

So it should fail, and will fail. And in fact, we pray that it fails as soon as possible to save more people from being its victims. None of this will be fixed until more folks come clean and admit -- this whole guru thing is -- a scam and a big fat lie. And the legacy will be, they promoted a big lie and then never came clean. Doubled down on the wrongs, if they do nothing now. 

As for the Hindus saving things, well maybe. But Hindus in the ICC of ISKCON India are telling me I cannot understand that worshiping illicit sex with men, women and children is bona fide -- because I am a mleccha. That is not going to fix anything.    

ys pd

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