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Originally Posted by Beggar
But now many of them (the first and second wave of ISKCON gurus) are no longer young, being in their late 50s and early 60s. Some like like K-Swami and SDG are 70 or close. But the well was poisoned, so to speak when they began taking disciples at an immature stage. Even if he is somewhat sincere an ISKCON Western, "rock star" guru appears to the public like a glorified used car salesman. To make matters worse this "rock star" style is now an ingrained tradition, just calling gurus, rtvik gurus and not regular gurus might help a little but not that much.
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In Iskcon most people were trained to accept everything on faith and that is why we have this tremendous imbalance between the form and the content, between the show and the real thing. Just slapping another label on it will not help. Devotees need to learn to think for themselves instead of blindly repeating what their guru says, or what other people say their guru said. Their critical thinking ability was simply amputated when they joined, and often even a feeble attempt of critical thinking is seen by them as a lack of surrender, or worse yet, an aparadha.
For better or worse, it was Srila Prabhupada who introduced guru worship on a grand scale in Iskcon (like the daily guru-puja in front of the Deities, while Tulasi is being worshipped with the Deity curtains closed, for example), and who elevated the position of a guru to a super-hero status. Of course that these changes had a profound impact on our movement - they practically defined it! But if you mention it in general conversation you are seen as much worse then a heretic. So much for rational thinking.
Now the same people who worship Prabhupada to a point of personal histeria insist that all other gurus must be cut down to size 1, and at best turned into religious clerics. They are no better then the folks who still think Satswarupa is a Vaishnava guru in good standing, and their thinking is equally biased and emotional.
Jayapataka Swami and other Iskcon gurus emulate behavior which they have learned from Prabhupada. Plain and simple. In his case there was a real substance behind the show, in their case... well, you be the judge, but in my opinion mostly it was just a show.
Today some of Iskcon gurus inspire a lot of new people in a very positive way and deserve the respect they get, but some do not, and that is why we have this sweet rice and sand combination that is present day Iskcon.