Guruvani

Even this young lady has spoken with more wisdom. Why? How? Because she has no agenda to push. She has no image to promote. She has no desire for followers or prestige. She only wants the truth. She only wants Krishna consciousness. She has no ulterior motive that has slinked into her heart because of the corruption of prestige and authority. The more we want to become an authority the more we become unqualified to be an authority. Let the simple, the humble and the powerless lead. Power corrupts. Prestige is the final obstacle. Institutional authority is the playground of desire. Let the children lead!

His words speak the truth: he says: Hindusim MISUNDERSTANDS homosexuality to be a bad choice instead of something they have no control over because they were born with homosexual tendencies. He says that if Hinduism does not come to understand that homosexuality is not a choice but an overpowering innate tendency acquired from birth, that it will not remain vital as a religion. I am simply saying it in my own words according to the message I got from reading his opinions published on VNN today. If he is not willing to get some feedback on controversial issues then he should not get involved in controversial issues. In fact Tripuari Maharaja jumps on every controversial issue that comes up, like "sannyasa for women" and accepting homosexual behaviour as civilized. If he does not like feedback and opposition on these issues then he should not be publishing his opinions about them on international web sites.

I happen to believe that there are no special devotees amongst the disciples of Srila Prabhupada. Being aggressive to accept disciples and become prominent with a leadership position is probably a disqualification for being guru in ISKCON. I think that there are many obscure, humble and sincere disciples of Prabhupada just as deserving as those that have some charisma to attract disciples out of some aggressive nature to be so-called leaders. The real leaders are the humble, the timid and the self-deprecating. ISKCON leaders in the past have all had some problems with seeking power and position as a form of ego-gratification and they are actually unfit to be gurus really. I don't beleive that some elite click of disciples should take over the guruship of ISKCON. It should be open to all and not dictated by GBC politics or popular vote.

If I could just get one wealthy homo to become my disciple i would be set up financially to jet-set around the world continuosly, running from my sexual agitation that has been dogging me to no end!

In his recent sanga, Tripurari Swami says that Hinduism is losing it's relevance and vitality because it does not embrace the homosexual lifestyle and gay liberation movement. He says that Hinduism is suffering from misconceptions that homosexual conduct is an abuse of personal volition and not a psychophysical condition inherited by birth. Does anybody have any views to share on this subject? Here is his exact statement. It appeared today on VNN. "Modern Hinduism for the most part condemns homosexuality yet misunderstands it to be an improper choice rather than psycho-physical reality that some people are born with, rendering them as attracted to the same sex as heterosexuals are attracted to the opposite sex. As modern society has come to better understand this phenomenon, it is also imperative that Hindu spiritual traditions do the same if they are to remain vital". I would like to hear some of your views on this subject.

In my vision of the second coming of ISKCON, everybody will be guru and nobody will be disciple. At the festivals there will be thousands of Vyasasans for all of us to set on in front of Srila Prabhupada. We will all have our hoards of disciples and they will happily and harmoniously embrace each other in a spirit of brotherhood. When they offer the premadvani prayers it will take 48 hours to get through the list of gurus present and there will be no chanting of Hare Krishna because of the time constraints for everyone to get their Jaya this guru, Jaya that guru in. Oh yes, one big happy family of gurus and their disciples. All chiefs and no Indians, that is the way it should be!

I'm not so sure about the great ISKCON revival, but that is what I have been fighting for over the last several years. ISKCON was a great society at one time and I would love to see it come back. It might be damaged beyond repair. I am happy as a family man anyway. I don't really like institutional situations if they get too large and unmanagable. If I can get the finances together, I want to develope a retirement home for devotees(me in particular) here in Florida near my favorite beach. That is my real dream. I hope I can make it happen some day. I think we need a Jagannatha temple on the East coast of Florida just like there is in India. And, then enjoy the ocean and the waves as Mahaprabhu did in Puri. OK, so I am a beach bum trying to justify my sense gratification!

however, since you inquired, I will give a little background of my devotee life. I joined ISKCON in March of 1975 in L.A. I saw Prabhupada there that year as well as at the San Francisco Rathyatra and the San Diego summer festival. I revieved harinama initiation later that year in L.A. I left there and spent a few years at the Chicago temple and the Tennessee Farm. I recieved brahminical initiation in 1977 a few weeks befor Prabhupada passed away. I left ISKCON in 1981 and joined the camp of Sridhar Maharaja. I spent eight good years in the movement following the princples and trying to become purified. Since then I got married, divorced ten years later and have been raising three children alone for over 7 years. I am a working class citizen. I recently started a web site with my son's help and we are making a lot of money fast. I should be a wealthy person in the next couple of years. I will not reveal my faults in detail, following the advice of Chanakya Pundit.

click here for pure nectar. it don't get any better than this........ http://krishna.org/RealAudio/2000/07/HareKrishnaMantra.ram

I have covered the rtvik issue on a website dedicated to the issue. I hope the moderator will not ban me for posting the link. The website deals with information and does not promote any alternative movement or society apart from ISCKON. If you read through this web site you might be able to understand something about the rtvik controversy. click here to read about rtvik and ISKCON; http://go_rtvik.tripod.com/

Since you base your judgements on vaidhi-sadhana principles you are therefore unqualified to understand anything beyond that. You want to pigeonhole devotees into a mechanistic judgement based upon formalities and showbottle devotion. When you mature in Krishna consciousness you will understand that the inconceivable must always be given consideration. It is impossible to judge a devotee by anything except the ideal that he s to. There are persons and principles that you cannot understand yet. You will have to begin by understanding that persons who have awakened their spontaneous love for Krishna are no longer bound by regulative principles. When you learn that basic truth, you will then be able to appreciate a devotee based upon his ideal instead of his external image or showbottle devotion. My life for the last two decades is something that you could never understand. I have suffered more than you can ever know. I have not enjoyed a cushy life in the movement. I have struggled hard and suffered greatly beyond anything you will ever know. The realizations that come from strife, struggle and suffering is something you cannot buy or attain living a cushy life in the movement. I have lived a hard life and suffered more than you can understand. My perspective is different than the overweight, lazy members of ISKCON who have lived cushy, comfortable lives in the temples. I am not a vyasasan potato or temple dwelling church mouse who lived a sheltered life in the movement. I have lived hard and harsh yet have tried to maintain my faith in Prabhupada and Krishna. You could not understand. I don't expect you to understand. I don't expect anyone to understand. You are right. I am not a real devotee at all. I am a pretend devotee. I am a lowly and degraded soul. Don't give any credibility to anything I say.

Besides, all these envious persons who are so proud to have a "living" guru are going to have a "dead" guru someday, so what will they do when their guru is dead? Maybe take re-initiation from a "living guru"? If the guru becomes useless at death then he is not guru.

It is better to have a pure real guru who is "dead" than to have an impure guru who is "alive". Prabhupada is doing more from his grave than all these so-called "living" gurus are doing alive.

actually, it is a spiritual disease of the heart caused by the ignorance of thinking that Prabhupada is dead and has abandoned the Krishna consciousness movement. After all that Prabhupada did to establish this movement, to think that he would just die and leave ISCKON forever is the most pathetic and miserable understanding of him that anyone could imagine. He is still very much alive and well in ISKCON and those that have the eyes to see can see that he is non-different from his murti, his books and his sincere followers. Prabhupada is NOT DEAD! He has full spiritual power to appear and disappear as he wishes and reveal himself to those whom he chooses. He has been seen alive in ISKCON by some of his disciples after his so-called death. "The Vaishnava dies to live, and living spreads the Holy Name around" Bhaktivinode

This is also the first time I have shared this revelation with anyone. All these years (about 10 or 11) I have kept this to myself and never even told it to my (ex)wife, children or anyone until now. I can't say that it is absolutely true. It is just an intuitive series of thoughts that came to me after Sudhama was seen at my house the day after his death. A friend who was my drummer in my band was staying at my house at that time. While me and my family were out shopping he said that he was playing his drums and he saw Sudhama appear at my house. After he told me that I sat down with my beads and tried to open myself up to anything I could intuitively understand about this situation and this series of thoughts came into my mind very vividly. I took it to be a revelation by the Paramatma, the Supersoul in the heart.

In the last few months of Sudhama's life I had come to know him as a friend. He was staying at the house of Radha Kunda prabhu who was a friend of mine. I spend some time trying to get to know Sudhama a little as he was a famous old Prabhupada disciple. The source of this information is a revelation that came to me intuitively as the result of a circumstance in which Sudhama was seen at my home in Badger after his death. I was a musician then and Sudhama came by to hear our Rock kirtans that we were well known for in that part of California.

Prabhupada does not have to take birth again to "come back". He appears in his spiritual form as the Vishnuduta to his disciples that die. When one of his disciples dies, Prabhupada comes to take them back to Godhead. For example; when his disciple Sudhama died from AIDS at the L.A. temple complex, Sudhama became in his subtle body for some time. After Sudhama left his physical body he was still lingering in his subtle body. As he rose up out of his dieing physical body he could see his Godbrothers around his body and he realized that he had died. In his subtle body he went to the temple room and bowed down before Srila Prabhupada. As he rose up from offering his obeisances to Prabhupada he saw that the murti of Prabhupada was no longer a murti but was alive. Prabhupada asked him if he was ready to go back to Godhead and Sudhama said "yes, Srila Prabhupada". Prabhupada then told him that according to his guru Maharaja anyone who does not chant 64 rounds in a day is considered fallen, so he handed Sudhama a set of beads and told him that after he chanted 64 rounds in one day that he would take him back home, back to Godhead. Sudhama sat down and started to chant his rounds. However, being the character that he was Sudhama got a little restless and did a little travelling. He left the temple in L.A. to come up to the mountains in Badger and see his deities that were at the house of his Godbrother Radhakunda prabhu. He also visited my house and some other friends in Badger. He also went to San Francisco maybe to see some old friend. After a couple of days of this he got his business finished up and he went back to L.A. temple to chant his 64 rounds in one day. After chanting his 64 rounds, Srila Prabhupada appeared again in his murti and Sudhama told Prabhupada that he had completed the 64 rounds. At that time Prabhupada took Sudhama by the hand and they flew through space towards Vrindavan, India. At the moment of entering the proximity of Vraja-mandal, Sudhama realized that it was not India they were entering but Goloka. As they entered Goloka, Sudhama shed his subtle body and was completely cleansed of his material existence and lost al memory of who he was in this world and all rememberances his past life. He realized his spiritual form and his rasa with Krishna and was assigned his service to Srimati Radharani under the guidance of Sri Rupa Manjari.

Oh yes, the Joy of sects. How much we love to have illicit sects to please our senses and mind. We are the enjoyer of sects life. When we cant get what we want out of ISKCON we opt for illicit sects to Lord over and accept worship through. Did Prabhupada ever say that giving up on ISKCON and having illicit sects was an option? If the ship goes adrift in the Sea, is jumping ship and trying to swim to shore the best option? Maybe staying aboard the ship to help the captain get the ship back on course would have been a good option. What a failure I am. I jumped ship when the going got a little rough and now I am adrift in the sea in a little boat with a handful of followers. Will I ever find the way back, back to Prabhupada's ship bound for Goloka? Or, will I someday paddle my little lifeboat back home, back to Godhead?

Should the devotee really be concerned that much about going back to Godhead in this lifetime? It seems that if his goal was to execute the orders of his spiritual master in this lifetime that going back to Godhead would be a given? If one can please his spiritual master in this lifetime, then going back home should be of no concern.

I heard a story one that Prabhupada was walking through Balboa Park in San Diego with some disciples and they passed by some person doing hatha-yoga and standing on his head. As they passed by some disciples started to snicker as if the person was being foolish and Prabhupada supposedly said "no, this is good health". Some devotees suffer ill health because of being in the mode of ignorance regarding their health. That has nothing to do with being transcendental to the body. It is about ignorance and laziness to take care of their health. Prabhupada suffered some childhood disease that caused permanent damage to his body and there is nothing he could do about that. When his disciples suffer ill health because of being in the mode of ignorance physically, that is not the same as Prabhupada's health condition.

"So this is parampara system. You cannot imagine what my spiritual master said. Or even if you read some books, you cannot understand unless you understand it from me. This is called parampara system. You cannot jump over to the superior guru, neglecting the next acarya, immediate next acarya." (Lecture 8/12/73) "Whatever is to be learned of the teachings of Srila Bhaktivinode Thakura can be learned from our books. There is no need whatsoever for any outside instruction. So I hope that you have understood these matters and I pray to Krsna always for your protection and advancement in Krsna consciousness." This is what Prabhupada has said. If his disciples obey these instructions they will not be out making propaganda that Krishna lila must be understood allegorically in order to advance from neophyte position.

However, Prabhupada did say this about trying to read the books of Bhaktivinode etc. ""So this is parampara system. You cannot imagine what my spiritual master said. Or even if you read some books, you cannot understand unless you understand it from me. This is called parampara system. You cannot jump over to the superior guru, neglecting the next acarya, immediate next acarya." (Lecture 8/12/73) "Whatever is to be learned of the teachings of Srila Bhaktivinode Thakura can be learned from our books. There is no need whatsoever for any outside instruction. So I hope that you have understood these matters and I pray to Krsna always for your protection and advancement in Krsna consciousness." Prabhupada letter to disciples

I am all for devotees speaking about Krishna consciousness in their own words. I do it all the time. I think it shows some realization of the original meaning. However, I am against devotees manufacturing ideas or concepts that have not been given by Srila Prabhupada. It is one thing to paraphrase his words in common vernacular and anothing thing altogether to manufacture a concept which has not been taught by Srila Prabhupada for example: ""It is important for neophytes to advance from a literal understanding of Krsna lila to one that acquaints them with its philosophical underpinning and practical insight intended to nourish their practice. This may be disconcerting to them because they must move from black and white to many shades of gray." My question is, where does Prabhupada say this in other terms or words? Where did Prabhupada ever say that neophytes must advance from a literal understanding of Krishna lila to this allegorical understanding that the author is claiming in the above statement? Where does Srila Prabhupada ever say that Krishna lila is allegorical at all?(apart from some demons he killed representing some material desires etc.) Where does Prabhupada say that there is an allegorical side to Krishna lila? Please show me how the above quoted statement is a paraphrase of anything PRABHUPADA has ever said and I will accept defeat on this point. I don't want to hear something from Bhaktivinode or so forth, but I want to hear your evidence that Prabhupada ever said anything about Krishna lila being an allegorical example of something else apart from actual events that occured as Krishna's pastimes on this planet.

Didn't Srila Prabhupada say that the real acharya would be recognized by his ability to create many devotees and bring them to Krishna consciousness? So, why should some minor guru with a handful of disciples scattered about try to imitate an acharya by making changes and being controversial? Does accepting a few sycophant disciples immediatly make one an acharya?

There could be no greater abuse of the words of Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami than to use them to minimize the accomplishments of his disciple Srila Prabhupada whom he appointed to preach Krishna conciousness to the English speaking people. So, making Krishna consciousness a worldwide religion is not a success? Staying in India and ringing a bell is the real success?