BhaktiK

You are the one who started this.

I never criticized Srila Prabhupada, who you call A.C. Bhativedanta Swami.

Well, At This moment I have read alot about Anti Sridhar Maharaj and Pro Sridhar Maharaj

 

My conclusion in this issue about Srila Prabhupada's Godbrothers is that I have to read carefully the books translated by Srila Prabhupada and then compare them with the teachings of Sridhar Maharaj....

Compare and examine. Go right ahead and do that. Look at both sides.

And as well as that just take note of the fact Srila Prabhupada wrote this:

SB 2.7.8 purp.

Prince Dhruva was initiated by Narada into chanting the hymn composed of eighteen letters, namely om namo bhagavate vasudevaya

 

AND

SB 4.8.58 purp.

One can meditate upon offering and chant the twelve-syllable mantra, om namo bhagavate vasudevaya.

 

You find some differences between the teachings of Srila Sridhar Maharaj and Srila Prabhupada.

You will also find Srila Prabhupada wrote things that contradict what Srila Prabhupada wrote elsewhere:

"The conclusion is that no one falls from the spiritual world, or Vaikuntha planet, for it is the eternal abode" (Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.16.26, purport)

AND

"The original home of the living entity and the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the spiritual world. In the spiritual world both the Lord and the living entities live together very peacefully. Since the living entity remains engaged in the service of the Lord, they both share a blissful life in the spiritual world. However, when the living entity, misusing his tiny independence, wants to enjoy himself, he falls down into the material world." (Srimad-Bhagavatam 4.28.54, purport)

What are you supposed to think when you read this sort of anomoly?

Srila Sridhar Maharaj gave the example that in the beginning a child is told the earth moves around the sun and that the sun is stationary. Then when the child is more learned he is told that the sun is also moving inside a galaxy.

To give another example, in Bhagavad gita we see Krishna teaching different kinds of yogas and that Krishna says if you cannot follow the highest path then try to folllow an easier path:

"My dear Arjuna, O winner of wealth, if you cannot fix your mind upon Me without deviation, then follow the regulative principles of bhakti-yoga. In this way develop a desire to attain Me." BHAKTI-YOGA

 

"If you cannot practice the regulations of bhakti-yoga, then just try to work for Me, because by working for Me you will come to the perfect stage." KARMA-YOGA

 

According to a person's intelligence he will accept whatever path seems best to himself.

If you cannot follow one path youself, don't criticize the path. Realize that your intelligence is limited but that God's grace is unlimited and that through many Gurus the One God is revealing himself to humankind.

If you criticize a real Vaishnava such as Srila Sridhar Maharaj then you may end up suffering a similar fate to other people who attacked him such as Kirtananda, Bhavananda and Harikesa.

Do you want to end up as a mentally ill drug addict taking sedatives, like Satsvarupa? Satsvarupa wrote an article attacking Srila Sridhar Maharaj and some people imagined Satsvarupa's article was very clever and that he was a big scholar. But look and see the sort of person that Satsvarupa has become now! The man has to go to a psychiatrist to get counselling for his mental illness!

Yes Kulapavana.

Srila Prabhupada's Room Conversation, February 3, 1976, Mayapur

Prabhupada: "At least historically it be proved. (break) ...cause of envy of my Godbrothers. I was known. Although they knew that Prabhupada liked me very much, because I am grhastha, I was known as paca-grhastha. PACA-GRHASTHA MEANS A ROTTEN GRHASTHA. And now they say, "This grhastha has come out more than us? What is this?" (break) Sridhara Maharaja's chief disciple...?

Bhavananda: Gaura.

Prabhupada: HE ALWAYS USED TO SAY TO SRIDHARA MAHARAJA THAT "YOU ARE SEEING ABHAY BABU AS GRHASTHA, BUT HE IS MORE THAN MANY YOGIS." HE WAS TELLING."

Srila Bhakti Rakshak Sridhar Dev Goswami Maharaj's "chief" disciples:

Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev Goswami (his chosen successor) initiated 1947

Sripad Bhakti Prasun Aranya Maharaj (Krishnasharan brahmacari, previously) initiated 1942

Sri Haricharan Brahmacari initiated circa 1950

Sri Bhakti Kiran Giri Maharaj (an initiated disciple of B.S.Goswami) initiated circa 1950

Sripad B.D. Damodar Maharaj (Subal Sakha) initiated circa 1960

Sripad B.P. Tirtha Maharaj (Prappana Krishna) initiated circa 1970

Nimaisundar Brahmacari (B.Nandan Swami) born 1960 in the family of a disciple

Krishnamayi dasi (very old bengali brahmin lady) 1943

There were thousands of disciples who were initiated between 1942 and 1970, but these people listed above were the "chief" disciples who lived with Guru Maharaj at the temple in Nabadwip.

Srila Bhakti Rakshak Sridhar Dev Goswami Maharaj never had any prominent disciple whose name is Gaura.

And aside from this, Thakur Bhaktivinode was a grhasta and if Srila Sridhar Maharaj considered A.C. Bhaktivedanta Das to be a grhasta when A.C. Bhaktivedanta Das was living with his wife in Kolkata, what is the mistake in that?

Also, cbrahma, you are giving this quote by Srila Prabhupada about how bad it is that a homosexual became a guru in the Gaudiya Math.

But in your another quote you have quoted Prabhupada talking with Bhavananda, a homosexual who became a Guru in ISKCON. How ironic!

In one quote Prabhupada is telling it is bad that Srila Sridhar Maharaj supported a homosexual such as Vasudeva. But Prabhupada himself gave a powerful position in ISKCON to Bhavananda and Kirtananda - both of whom are homosexuals.

In the Turley legal action against child abusers in ISKCON, the following information about Bhavananda was presented to the court.

Bhavananda was a member of the GBC, Governing Body Commission, and was one of the original eleven zonal gurus assigned a region after Prabhupada left in 1977. Bhavananda's region included the India gurukulas of Vrindavan and Mayapur - two of the worst gurukulas for child abuse.

 

When he took power as a guru, he had people address him as Vishnupada, or at whose feet Vishnu serves, a title of dietification and reverence.

 

Prior to joining the ISKCON movement, he was known to be bi-sexual. There is ample evidence that he carried on homosexual activity throughout his time in the movement and that the GBC knew of his sexual activities.

 

As a guru and sanyasa, he was known to engage in sexual acts with children.

 

Bhavananda was in charge of the zone which included both Vrindavan and Mayapur. Most of the Bengali boys were his disciples and so was Ananta Rupa. When Bhavananda would come to Vrindavan, his disciples and others who were in the gurukula would be sent to his quarters. Sometimes they would go over to Bhavananda's suite in the guest house and spend days there with him, serving him, and I presume in sexual ways as well.

 

Many of these boys who were Bhavananda's disciples were known to be having sex with each other and molesting other younger children.

 

Since these boys were Brahmana initiated, they performed aratis, they led kirtans and they were looked on by Dhanurdar and the teachers, as our superiors, and role models.

 

Bhavananda and Dhanurdar would insist on inspections of us children during his visits. We were to line up with only a loin-cloth, and then he would go through the showers while we were naked in the shower. He then, with a corn scrubber in hand, would look at our bodies and arbitrarily scrub some 'dirt' off.

 

I was standing in the line up, naked and scared. When he came to my turn for inspection, Bhavananda told me to go to the initiates bathroom because I didn't have to be inspected. He was trying to act as though he was being benevolent to me, but this was their way of getting you to feel special so you would become initiated and join the clique. Of course I felt really relieved that I wasn't inspected. At the same time, I felt horrible for my friends that were forced to stay and go through this abuse and humiliation. He was also just trying to protect his hide by not torturing me.

 

Bhavananda did not excuse me out of compassion, but rather because my father was a member of the GBC. He did not want to compromise his position by risking having me tell my father.

 

At times some of us were singled out and treated in what may seem to be preferencial treatment. This was actually another form of control and torture. I think that this tactic was to break our solidarity, and to get us to become like them. To ensure that we were totally alone. When these type of situations happened, I would just look at the boys who were having to undergo the mistreatment, and feel for them. To me it was the same as if they had done it to me.

Srila Sridhar Maharaj is criticized for giving passive support to the new Acharya Anantavasudeva, who was chosen by the Gaudiya Math GBC. But Srila Sridhar Maharaj was not a member of the committee and he never in fact voted for Anantavasudeva. Nevertheless, Srila Sridhar Maharaj is criticized for the fact he was affiliated with Anantavasudeva. The question then arises, what about the affiliation of Bhavananda with Srila Prabhupada? Srila Sridhar Maharaj is criticized for living in the same temple as Anantavasudev (Bagh Bazaar). But what about the fact that Srila Prabhupada put Bhavananda in the powerful position that Bhavananda used to have in ISKCON?

Srila Prabhupada said some positive and some negative things about Srila Sridhar Dev Goswami Maharaj.

He said other contradictory things too.

For instance whether the soul comes from Brahman or Goloka-lila.

Or, how many syllables are in the mantra om namo bhagavate vasudevaya?

SB 2.7.8 purp.

Prince Dhruva was initiated by Narada into chanting the hymn composed of eighteen letters, namely om namo bhagavate vasudevaya,

 

SB 4.8.58 purp.

One can meditate upon offering and chant the twelve-syllable mantra, om namo bhagavate vasudevaya.

 

SB 6.8.7 verse translation:

Then one should chant the mantra composed of twelve syllables [om namo bhagavate vasudevaya].

 

When we are confronted with this sort of anomoly we have to use our intelligence and decide which of the statements we choose to believe.

Another contradiction:

purport to Adi-lila Chapter Twelve, Text 8:

 

In the beginning, during the presence of Oḿ Viṣṇupāda Paramahaḿsa Parivrājakācārya Aṣṭottara-śata Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda, all the disciples worked in agreement; but just after his disappearance, they disagreed. One party strictly followed the instructions of Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, but another group created their own concoction about executing his desires. Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, at the time of his departure, requested all his disciples to form a governing body and conduct missionary activities cooperatively. He did not instruct a particular man to become the next ācārya. But just after his passing away, his leading secretaries made plans, without authority, to occupy the post of ācārya, and they split into two factions over who the next ācārya would be. Consequently, both factions were asāra, or useless, because they had no authority, having disobeyed the order of the spiritual master. Despite the spiritual master's order to form a governing body and execute the missionary activities of the Gauḍīya Maṭha, the two unauthorized factions began litigation that is still going on after forty years with no decision.

 

This quote from CC contradicts what is written in the letter to Rupanuga.

Here in CC, Srila Prabhupada is blaming the secretaries for the break up of the Gaudiya Math. The secretaries he is blaming are people who "wanted to occupy the post of Acarya". Clearly this is a reference to Anantavasudeva and Bhaktivilasa Tirtha.

Anantavasudeva, Bhaktivilasa Tirtha and Paramananda Vidyaratna were the secretaries. Srila Sridhar Maharaj was never a secretary to Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura. Nor was he ever, at any time, a member of the Gaudiya Math GBC.

Srila Sridhar Maharaj was not present at the meeting of the Gaudiya Math GBC when the GBC members began the break up of the Gaudiya Math. So why should he be blamed for something other people did?

Another contradiction:

After the breakdown of the Gaudiya Matha I wanted to organize another organization making Sridhara Maharaja as the head. (SP Conversation, March 17, 1973)

If Srila Prabhupada really considered Srila Sridhar Dev Goswami Maharaj to be the cause of the breakup of the Gaudiya Math, then why did he try to set up another organization with Srila Sridhar Dev Goswami Maharaj as the head? Why also did he ask Srila Sridhar Dev Goswami Maharaj to sit beside him on the Vyasasana, the seat that Srila Prabhupada said is reserved for the real Guru, at the opening of the Candrodaya Mandir?

Anomolies and contradictions.

Intelligent people (sumedhasah) will see what is right and true.