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Sunday, May 01, 2005 2:08 AM

Somaka's last letter

.... who left his body a few years ago in ITALY asSomaka Prabhu.08/11/98 - Please

Give Us Back Srila Prabhupada's Iskcon An open letter to the GBC, by Somaka

SwamiDear Maharajas and PrabhusPlease accept my most humble dandavat

pranams.All glories to our beloved Srila Prabhupada.Before starting this letter

let me beg forgiveness forany involuntary offences that I may commit

byexpressing my feelings, it is not my intention tooffend, my desire is to see

Srila Prabhupada'smovement be again the nice house where everyone canlive

peacefully.I think most of you know about a letter sent last yearto all the

devotees that had accepted me as theirguru. There I expressed my feeling of not

beingqualified for occupying such important position asinitiating spiritual

master, position that is to beoccupied only by someone in the mahabhagavata

stage,as I realized through Srila Prabhupada's books. Inaddition to that, for

us, followers of His DivineGrace Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada to accept

thatposition is against Srila Prabhupada's Final Order. Hopefully you also

remember a letter sent severalyears ago complaining for some problems that

weretroubling our society. Considering that my letter to the devotees in

someplaces was not allowed to be distributed by the localGBC secretary and

considering that this year myVyasa-puja offering to Srila Prabhupada

wasmysteriously lost in the editors files, I am sendingthis as an open letter

through VNN, it looks liketheir computer works better that the one of

SrimanDravida Prabhu because they do not loose files soeasily.First of all I

wish to inform you and the community ofdevotees that this is the last time I

trouble youGBC's with my letters, because I have no more hope. Iam convinced

that you will never accept SrilaPrabhupada's Final Order, and that you will

never giveup the mood of pride and dictatorship that caused somany of Srila

Prabhupada's disciples to leave themovement.Personally I am not interested to

leave the movementand join some other Vaisnava institution, I am anISKCON man

and will remain so, being so attached tothe mood and standards set by Srila

Prabhupada. I amalso not interested on leaving and becoming the headof a

separate group. I am going to seclude myself inJharikhanda and do service there

in the association ofsome devotees and try to atone from my many sins

andoffences trough chanting and serving Krishna and Hisdevotees. It is going to

be very difficult for me todo that because by nature I have always been

atravelling preacher, but I can not be a hypocrite, norto be a disturbance or

to disturb the faith of thedevotees. If I go around preaching avoiding

hypocrisyI will preach things contrary to your standard laws,becoming a

troublemaker and disturbing the faith ofmany innocent, or -better to say- naive

devotees. Ihave completely lost hope that you will accept so manyevident

mistakes, and due to my fiery nature if Idiscuss with you the matter I will

become veryirritated by so many years of frustration. After the Mayapur

festival one devotee from Italy sentme a letter telling how much her pilgrimage

to Indiainspired her, and mentioned to me that from now and onshe will only

associate with devotees for KrishnaKatha and will not listen to any

dissatisfied andcritical devotees. I fully agree with this propositionand that

is the reason that I am secluding myself,following the principle that you can

sacrifice theworld to save yourself. I know that if I go onlistening to

dissatisfied devotees - and there are somany aoround the world - I will end up

in totalfrustration especially contemplating how naivedevotees are mislead. The

letter above mentionedcontinued telling how impressed she was from astatement by

H.H. Bhakti Caru Maharaja in a Bhagavatamclass: "many devotees would like to see

a differentISKCON but to make an ISKCON it takes a special personas Srila

Prabhupada". I was not present in Mayapur butI guess that at this statement the

whole audience ofnaive devotees had shouted "Jaaaaayyyyy......HariiiBoooool...."

and the not so naive may have thought "myGod, we are still at this point".Yes

Maharaja I completely agree 1.000.000 % with youthat to make an ISKCON it takes

a Shaktiavesa Avataraas Srila Prabhupada, I have no doubt about that, but Ihave

a very big hesitancy to believe that the nowadaysISKCON is the same that the

one that Srila Prabhupadaleft upon his departure. I will give yousome evidence

of this:1) Srila Prabhupada stated in his Will that managingshould go on as it

was, and no changes should be made.So what about the Final Order dictated by

SrilaPrabhupada in the July 9th 1977 letter? After so manyyears that the

question it is being raised no soundexplanation is being given to your

modification tothat. You have produced so many papers, contradictingeach other

to try to defeat the Final Order, but TheFinal Order Still Stands. (I think

there is no need toquote the many papers from Krishnakant Prabhudefeating all

counter-arguments and soundlyestablishing that Srila Prabhupada's final

orderstill stands) 2) In Srila Prabhupada's Will he stated that thetrustees for

the properties in India are for alifetime and after nominating them he said that

incase of demise the trustee should be replaced providedthat the new trustee is

selected between "my initiateddisciples". Could you kindly explain me how in

thenext 10000 years (if you do not terminate it before)will ISKCON enact this

instruction if we do not followthe Final Order?. Please do not reply with the

absurdtheory that was presented on Chakra that if one isinitiated, he

automatically becomes an initiateddisciple of Srila Prabhupada, of

SrilaBhaktisiddhanta, of Srila Goura Kisora Das Babajietc.. etc.. According to

this theory at the time ofinitiation one becomes automatically godbrother of

isguru, and also godbrother of is paramguru, as well asgodbrother of the guru

of his paramguru etc..etc...etc.3) Srila Prabhupada created ISKCON to

produceBrahmanas, and Brahmanas are thinkers, independentthinkers, and not

prisoners of a cult. We have now asan ISKCON law the prohibition for

associating withVaisnavas that are not ISKCON members, as well as toread

Vaisnava books that are not Srila Prabhupadasbooks. This extreme is taken with

the excuse of astatement by Srila Prabhupada to some neophytedisciples to not

associate with his godbrothers toavoid the risk of them becoming confused.Our

commitment and faith to Srila Prabhupada and hismovement should be based in a

very deep love andgratitude not in bureaucratic laws and prohibitions.

IPersonally read Srila Prabhupada's books as well asbooks by other Vaisnavas,

and that for no reason makesmy faith and commitment to Srila Prabhupada

decrease,on the contrary, it makes me realize more and more hisgreatness and my

faith and commitmentincreases more and more. Visiting Srila

Prabhupadagodbrothers causes my appreciation of Srila Prabhupadato increases

hundreds of times, and similar result Iget by reading. Looking at today's

ISKCON I loose enthusiasm everyday, but visiting some of Srila

Prabhupada'sgodbrothers gives me renewed enthusiasm.This prohibition is

offensive to the Vaisnavacommunity at large. It has motivated many devotees

tothink and speak in an offensive way of so many greatvaisnavas and is making

us separatist and proud as wethink to be the best or unique. This

prohibitionsconvert Srila Prabhupada's movement into a sectariancult. You are

accusing the Final Order proponents of tryingto convert our movement into a

Cult or a Church in theChristian taste, but actually you have succeeded

inmaking the movement as such. 4) Each one of the different Christian

churchesprohibits his followers to visit other churches and toread others

sacred books. The Catholic Church, is verybureaucratic, they make new lists of

sins and condemncontroversial books. They excommunicate members ifthey oppose

the bureaucratic power. The onlydifference with us is that they came to

theinquisition of the heretics 1500 year after Christ. Wewere much faster,

because in only 20 years after SrilaPrabhupada entered Samadhi we already

reached theexcommunication of heretics syndrome.ON THE FALL DOWN OF THE SOULThe

Christian present Christ as the only savior. Nowyou are making Srila Prabhupada

unique in sayingsomething different from all other Vaisnava Acaryas ason the

case of the fall down from Vaikuntha.This is another case where you are

presenting yourpersonal interpretations of Srila Prabhupada'steachings. There

are abundant quotes of Prabhupada's booksstating that Vaikuntha is a place from

where there isno fall down. Please notice the following:SB 3.16.26 PURPORT'The

conclusion is that no one falls from thespiritual world, or Vaikuntha planet,

for it is theeternal abode.' SB 5.11.12PURPORT'This ordinary living being is of

two kinds --nitya-baddha ornitya-mukta. One is eternally conditioned and

theother eternallyliberated. The eternally liberated living beings, arein the

Vaikunthajagat, the spiritual world, and they never fall intothe

materialworld.' SB 3.25.29PURPORT'Sometimes it is asked how the living entity

fallsdown from thespiritual world to the material world. Here is theanswer.

Unless oneis elevated to the Vaikuntha planets, directly intouch with

theSupreme Personality of Godhead, he is prone to falldown, either fromthe

impersonal Brahman realization or from an ecstatictrance ofmeditation.'

Madhya-lila 22.14-15PURPORT'The living entities are divided into two

categoriesthe eternally liberated and eternally conditioned.Those who are

ever-liberated never come in contactwith maya, the external energy. The

ever-conditionedare always under the clutches of the external energy.This is

described in Bhagavad-gita: daivi hy esa guna-mayi / mama maya duratyaya

...."This divine energy of Mine, consisting of the threemodes of material

nature, is difficult to overcome."(Bg. 7.14) The nitya-baddhas are always

conditioned by theexternal energy, and the nitya-muktas never come incontact

with the external energy.' Krishna Book, Chapter 28: Releasing Nanda

Maharajafrom the clutches of Varuna (p. 186)'The mature devotees, who have

completely executedKrishna consciousness, are immediately transferred tothe

universe where Krishna is appearing. In thatuniverse the devotees get their

FIRST opportunity toassociate with Krishna personally and directly.' SB

7.1.34TRANSLATION'Maharaja Yudhisthira inquired: "What kind of greatcurse could

affect even liberated vishnu-bhaktas, andwhat sort of person could curse even

the Lord'sassociates? For unflinching devotees of the Lord tofall again to this

material world is impossible. Icannot believe this." PURPORTIn Bhagavad-gita

(8.16) the Lord clearly states, mamupetya tukaunteya punar janma na vidyate:

one who is purifiedof materialcontamination and returns home, back to Godhead,

doesnot return tothis material world. Elsewhere in Bhagavad-gita (4.9)Krishna

says: janma karma ca me divyamevam yo vetti tattvatahtyaktva deham punar

janmanaiti mam eti so 'rjuna "One who knows the transcendental nature of

Myappearance andactivities does not, upon leaving the body, take hisbirth again

inthis material world, but attains My eternal abode, OArjuna."

MaharajaYudhisthira, therefore, was surprised that a puredevotee could returnto

this material world. This is certainly a veryimportant question.' (Quotations

Copyright © BBTI)So how you can wipe out so many conclusive statementsof

Srila Prabhupada and just focus on somewhimsically?. For example, there is a

very significantstatement regarding Jaya and Vijaya, but if we put ittogether

with others we will see that the meaning isnot the one you want to twist. Let

us get a try withthe first assumption:"So when I say Yes, there is eternal lila

with Krsna,that means on the evidence of Jaya-Vijaya."SB 7.1.35TRANSLATION'The

bodies of the inhabitants of Vaikuntha arecompletely spiritual, having nothing

to do with thematerial body, senses, or life air. Therefore, kindlyexplain how

associates of the Personality of Godheadwere cursed to descend in material

bodies likeordinary persons.PURPORTTherefore it is to be understood that when

Jaya andVijaya descended to this material world, they camebecause there was

something to be done for the SupremePersonality of Godhead. Otherwise it is a

factthat no one falls from Vaikuntha.'So the meaning is : there is eternal lila

withKrishna, the eternally liberated person never fallsdown; if there is

apparent fall it is to continue theeternal lila by coming to do something for

the Lord.Let us go into another assumption:"Formerly we were with Krsna in His

lila, or sport.""Because he falls down from Brahmasayujya, he thinksthat may be

his origin, but he does not remember thatbefore that even he was with

Krsna."Regarding your second question, have the conditionedsouls ever seen

Krsna? Were they with the Lord beforebeing conditioned by the desire to lord it

overmaterial nature? Yes, the conditioned souls are parts and parcels ofthe Lord

and thus they were with Krsna before beingconditioned. Just as the child must

have seen hisfather because the father places the child in the wombof the

mother, similarly each soul has seen Krsna orthe Supreme Father. But at that

time the conditionedsouls are resting in the condition called susuptiwhich is

exactly like deep sleep without dream, oranesthetized state, therefore they do

not rememberbeing with Krsna when they wake up in the materialworld and become

engaged in material affairs. (SrilaPrabhupada letter to Jagadish, 1970)Here

again yes, we were with Krishna, yes but in astate called susupti deep

sleep.What about "we were with Krishna in His lila" Krishna never works,

everything is his lila, also thecreation is part of his lila; susupti is also

includedin Krishna and is lila.Actually it is simple for the simple ones: if

theliving entities were coming from Krishna's abode thenKrishna in Bhagavad

gita 8-16 would have said: "butone who RETURNS to my abode will not take birth

again"but He says "but one who ATTAINS my abode"The most astonishing is that

you use theCrow-and-Fruit Tale essay to substantiate the falldownfrom Vaikunta

when actually this essay is just to tellus to forget about arguing on this

point. Let usexamine some excerpt from that essay:"What is the use of such

discussions? So whether youwere in the Brahmasayujya or with Krsna in His

lila,at the moment you are in neither, so the best policyis to develop your

Krsna consciousness and go there,never mind what is your origin." Later, "Just

likewith a diseased man, it is a waste of time to try tofind out how he has

become diseased, better to spendtime curing the disease.Material existence

isimpersonal because my real personality is covered. Butwe should think that

because I am now covered by thisclay, I am diseased, and we should think that I

mustget to business to get myself uncovered, not wonderhow I got this way. Now

the fruit is there, take itand enjoy, that is your first business. God is

notbound by cause. He can change, He is the Cause of allCauses. Now don't waste

your time with this "Kakataliya nyaya," crows and tal-fruit logic."I am not

interested in bringing back the matter if weare coming from Vaikuntha or from

Tatastha or if wewere eternally in the material world.My point is that Srila

Prabhupada stated clearly:"What is the use of such discussions, this

"Kakataliya nyaya," crows and tal-fruit logic."?But completely forgetting this

instruction from SrilaPrabhupada you have wasted so many hours of GBCmeetings,

printed a book supporting fall down fromVaikuntha, supporting ridiculously the

falldown fromKrishna-lila with the example of Subal. Devotes thatsupported

non-falldown from Vaikunta, on the base ofso many statement from Srila

Prabhupada's books weremistreated and ridiculed. Sometimes, out offrustration

some devotees went into seclusion or leftthe movement altogether. THE HOUSE

WHERE EVERYONE WILL LIVE IN PEACE5) Srila Prabhupada made the International

Society forKrishna Consciousness to be a loving society ofVaisnavas, to be the

house where everyone will live inpeace, but thousands of devotees have left due

tomistreatment by very ambitious leaders.With pride some advertise themselves as

associates ofLord Caitanya, so many use titles reserved tomahabhagavatas as this

or that pada or deva; in sometemples the daily Gurupuja to the ISKCON gurus

ismaking its way back to the temple room, just on theside of Srila Prabhupada

in complete defiance of theGBC rule; Santiago temple is one example of that.

Despite of the temples loosing so many devotes andreducing the standard of

service to the Deities stillthere is false propaganda that everything is

goingwell with statements as: "our GBC men are the mostfine intellect of the

planet" (by the way we need tospecify what planet) "many devotes will like to

see adifferent ISKCON but to make ISKCON it takes a specialperson as Srila

Prabhupada". On the case that we admit mistakes like the recentletter of the

chairman of the GBC, in which we read:"Focused on other priorities, we have

neglected ourchildren. We have hurt women. Widows in our societyhave been

particularly neglected". The chairman forgot to make the slightest mention

tothe thousands of devotees that left the movement dueto mistreatment. And also

the most importantdisservice that you have done to the movement bydisobeying

Srila Prabhupada Final Order, by puttingfirst the 11 zonal Acaryas in big seats

and with grandpomp and veneration, and then by concocting themultiple acarya

system, you transformed the originaljoyous brotherhood family of Srila

Prabhupada into avery ambitious, political, diplomatic society. Due tothe fact

that the gurus alone get so muchglorification, worship and facilities, better

to keepthe other devotees surrendered to their power. So manytitles, positions,

degrees and facilities were createdwith the result of a very unpalatable

situation ofpolitics, power struggle, diplomacy and concealing inthe form of I

support you and you support me.Let us go back to the old system all sitting on

thesame floor , all taking prasadam together, let us goback to the old family

of brotherhood, lets give upthe pride of big-brother, let us demostrate to

SrilaPrabhupada that we can go on serving with greatenthusiasm without a need

of big titles and positions,let us show to Srila Prabhupada and the whole

worldthat we can love our brothers, let us show that weactually can recognize

mistakes and rectify them, notjust by making some impersonal resolution but by

goingto the offended devotees and bowing down to begforgiveness. In the

beginning of the movement some ofthe devotees in India, by instructions from

SrilaPrabhupada where hosted and trained by some of hisgodbrothers but now we

have laws prohibitingassociation with them, this is very ungrateful and

isbreaking all Vaisnava etiquette. A LITTLE MORE SHAMERecently a current ISKCON

guru travelled from overseasjust to prevent H.H. Narayana Maharaj success in

hisvisit to an island. When H.H. Narayana Maharajaentered the ISKCON temple to

take darsan of theDeities, the ISKCON guru remained sitting therewithout

standing or offering any kind of respect tothe revered guest and continued his

lecture, evenaccepting a garland without acknowledging the presenceof HH

Narayana Maharaj, who took seat amongst thecrowd and listened patiently the

lecture, after whichthe ISKCON guru only paid attention to him with afeigned

courtesy and garlanded him with his ownremnants, when approached by the

vaisnava.Is this the way we teach our devotees the properrespect for senior

Vaisnavas?Usually when there is a complaint, the presenter isclassified as:

frustrated, disgruntled, but actually Iam very enthusiastic on my preaching.

Moreover, if youallow Srila Prabhupada's ISKCON to return to theoriginal

standard as started by Srila Prabhupada Iwill be 100 times more

enthusiastic.Personally I can go on chanting and serving SrilaPrabhupada,

preaching the message of Lord Caitanya,but my worry is for those young

devotees, still on thenaive platform, thinking that everything is perfect,for

the day will come when they will open their eyes,and will suffer so much and

will became disgruntled.Personally I made that mistake. I believed in the

11empowered acaryas, I also became proud and made sufferso many devotees, and

now I am suffering thereactions.I was very much displeased that my offering

ofVyasapuja to Srila Prabhupada was lost andunpublished, also because it is an

example of howdangerous is to be naive in spiritual life. I takeadvantage of

this open letter to present also openly,my simple offering to Srila Prabhupada,

as an end tothis letter Falling at the feet of all the Vaisnavasand begging

forgiveness for all my offences.Servant of the servant Somaka

SwamiTired of

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