Jump to content
IndiaDivine.org
Sign in to follow this  
KISHORESINGH

jai srila prabhupada

Rate this topic

Recommended Posts

<TABLE id=HB_Mail_Container height="100%" cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0 UNSELECTABLE="on"><TBODY><TR height="100%" UNSELECTABLE="on" width="100%"><TD id=HB_Focus_Element vAlign=top width="100%" background="" height=250 UNSELECTABLE="off">hare krsihna prabhuji,

to whom ever it conserns,

prabhu i am following prabhupada's movement from nearly about 3 years an d i have really noticed the changes in my life pratically, all because of the devine teachings of our beloved spiritual master srila prabhupada but i have now confused adn disturbed and my faith in iskcon is becoming weak when i came to about btp & irm ,gbc,bin,and many devotees in iskcon fighting each other for the post of spritual master and shaking the standerds what srila prabhupada has bought in iskcon 30 years back

can you please make me know the facts what is really going on know and what i should do to stick on prabhupada's instructions and advance in krishna consciousness.

harekrishna,

your servent kishore singh

</TD></TR><TR UNSELECTABLE="on" hb_tag="1"><TD style="FONT-SIZE: 1pt" height=1 UNSELECTABLE="on">

</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Spiritual Realisation is not a group work. When you'll know your own self, you'll realise all the living entities as well.

 

In Gita it has been stated that for spiritual advancement, we need to be in a solitary place, Satsang is something different.

 

To follow the path laid down by SP, does not necessarily mean doing it with a group of people.

 

Infact, you'll better understand things when you are alone in your quest, with SP (via his books) and Krishna as your internal friend.

 

Read the Gita deeply, it's enough.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

<TABLE id=HB_Mail_Container height="100%" cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0 UNSELECTABLE="on"><TBODY><TR height="100%" UNSELECTABLE="on" width="100%"><TD id=HB_Focus_Element vAlign=top width="100%" background="" height=250 UNSELECTABLE="off">hare krsihna,

thanks for your concern,hear i am sending one of my favorate incidence of prabhupada.

By Rod Davis

Srila Prabhupada: “If you are completely sincere and genuine, then you do not have to find Guru, he will find you”.

An interesting ISKCON pastime I heard recently in Vrndavana about a hippie in 1966 that used to travel around in Ken Kesey’s psychodelic bus dance group, travelling around America handing out Kool-Aid drink laced with LSD and putting on plays in colourful hippie gear that set a trend among the 60’s youth. Somehow one of Srila Prabhupada’s original Srimad Bhagavatam’s was in a small library section on the Kesey bus and read by such future devotee’s like Mohanananda dasa. One young hippie on that bus however, was not satisfied in just reading the amazing book Srimad Bhagavatam; he was determined to find the author of this wonderful Vedic text and was prepared to travel all around India until he found this amazing Sadhu if he has too.

When the Bus reached New York, Kesey and the Pranksters visited Leary in Millbrook, NY, at his psychedelic retreat called “The International Federation for Internal Freedom.”, it was founded when Leary was fired from Harvard University for doing research with his students on the hallucinogenic drugs LSD-25 and Psilocybin. This young hippie however, stayed on the bus, kept reading the Srimad Bhagavatam, and never did met Leary at that time. Frankly he did not really care, he had had enough of LSD and realized God can NEVER be found in a pill and decided to go on a spiritual quest to India in search of the ’swami’ who wrote the Srimad Bhagavatam.

He then decided to leave the merry pranksters and leave for India; he bought a ticket and was on his way to the Kennedy Airport. On the way however, he had sometime to spare and went by Tompkins Square Park to see what the ‘acid head hippies’ were up to. As he went by in the taxi he saw this big crowd of hippies dancing, he was curious and told the taxi driver to stop, then went over, investigated, and found an elderly sadu leading the chanting of Hare Krishna. He watched with some curiosity as he danced with the other hippies and wondered if the Sadhu he would eventually find in India, who wrote the Srimad Bhagavatam, would be like this Sadhu. Anyway the kirtan stopped and this Sadu began reading from the same book he was reading on ken Kesey’s Bus.

Now this young hippie just was even more determined to seek out the writer of the Srimad Bhagavatam seeing this Sadu also reading it. Eventually the reading stopped and this young hippie went over to the Sadhu and said

‘Sir, I am also reading this book also and I am now just on my way to the airport to fly out to India, I am determined to search all over India for this Sadhu’.

The elderly gentlemen Sadhu chuckled to himself and said to the young hippie ‘You do not have to go to India, I am here in New York, I am the translator of this book the beautiful Srimad Bhagavatam”

The young hippie was without words, he was ecstatic and had tears in his eyes and fell at his feet. Then Srila Prabhupada, the elderly sadu said to the young hippie

“Just see, if you are completely sincere and genuine then you do not have to find Guru, he will find you”

Hare Krishna All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

Srila Prabhupada explains that all of us are all looking for a way to establish our original eternal relationship with Krishna as follows - “Established means re-establish. It (our perpetual ’svarupa’) is already established. We have got different types of relationship. That is called svarupa-siddhi. When you are perfect in spiritual life, you will understand automatically. Nitya-siddha krishna-bhakti. When one becomes perfectly spiritually realised, then he understands what is his relationship is. This relationship is eternal”.

December 7, 1974, Bombay)

</TD></TR><TR UNSELECTABLE="on" hb_tag="1"><TD style="FONT-SIZE: 1pt" height=1 UNSELECTABLE="on">

</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

 

<table id="HB_Mail_Container" unselectable="on" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" height="100%" width="100%"><tbody><tr unselectable="on" width="100%" height="100%"><td id="HB_Focus_Element" unselectable="off" background="" height="250" valign="top" width="100%">hare krsihna prabhuji,

to whom ever it conserns,

prabhu i am following prabhupada's movement from nearly about 3 years an d i have really noticed the changes in my life pratically, all because of the devine teachings of our beloved spiritual master srila prabhupada but i have now confused adn disturbed and my faith in iskcon is becoming weak when i came to about btp & irm ,gbc,bin

</td></tr><tr unselectable="on" hb_tag="1"><td style="font-size: 1pt;" unselectable="on" height="1">

</td></tr></tbody></table>

Its best dealt with by live association with devotees who can understand your difficulty and can show you an example of how to adjust without being critical of each other. It takes maturity and best association is with mature devotees. JP

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

 

Hare Krishna, thanks for your concern, hear I am sending one of my favourite incidence of Prabhupada By Rod Davis

Srila Prabhupada: “If you are completely sincere and genuine, then you do not have to find Guru, he will find you”.

An interesting ISKCON pastime I heard recently in Vrndavana about a hippie in 1966 that used to travel around in Ken Kesey’s psychodelic bus dance group, travelling around America handing out Kool-Aid drink laced with LSD and putting on plays in colourful hippie gear that set a trend among the 60’s youth.

Somehow one of Srila Prabhupada’s original Srimad Bhagavatam’s was in a small library section on the Kesey bus and read by such future devotee’s like Mohanananda dasa. One young hippie on that bus however, was not satisfied in just reading the amazing book Srimad Bhagavatam; he was determined to find the author of this wonderful Vedic text and was prepared to travel all around India until he found this amazing Sadhu if he has too.

When the Bus reached New York, Kesey and the Pranksters visited Leary in Millbrook, NY, at his psychedelic retreat called “The International Federation for Internal Freedom.”, it was founded when Leary was fired from Harvard University for doing research with his students on the hallucinogenic drugs LSD-25 and Psilocybin.

This young hippie however, stayed on the bus, kept reading the Srimad Bhagavatam, and never did met Leary at that time. Frankly he did not really care, he had had enough of LSD and realized God can NEVER be found in a pill and decided to go on a spiritual quest to India in search of the ’swami’ who wrote the Srimad Bhagavatam.

He then decided to leave the merry pranksters and leave for India; he bought a ticket and was on his way to the Kennedy Airport. On the way however, he had sometime to spare and went by Tompkins Square Park to see what the ‘acid head hippies’ were up to. As he went by in the taxi he saw this big crowd of hippies dancing, he was curious and told the taxi driver to stop, then went over, investigated, and found an elderly Sadu leading the chanting of Hare Krishna. He watched with some curiosity as he danced with the other hippies and wondered if the Sadhu he would eventually find in India, who wrote the Srimad Bhagavatam, would be like this Sadhu. Anyway the kirtan stopped and this Sadu began reading from the same book he was reading on ken Kesey’s Bus.

Now this young hippie just was even more determined to seek out the writer of the Srimad Bhagavatam seeing this Sadu also reading it. Eventually the reading stopped and this young hippie went over to the Sadhu and said

‘Sir, I am also reading this book also and I am now just on my way to the airport to fly out to India, I am determined to search all over India for this Sadhu’.

The elderly gentlemen Sadhu chuckled to himself and said to the young hippie

‘You do not have to go to India, I am here in New York, I am the translator of this book the beautiful Srimad Bhagavatam” The young hippie was without words; he was ecstatic and had tears in his eyes and fell at his feet. Then Srila Prabhupada, the elderly Sadu said to the young hippie” Just see, if you are completely sincere and genuine then you do not have to find Guru, he will find you”

Hare Krishna! All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

Srila Prabhupada explains that all of us are all looking for a way to establish our original eternal relationship with Krishna as follows - “Established means re-establish. It (our perpetual ’svarupa’) is already established. We have got different types of relationship. That is called svarupa-siddhi. When you are perfect in spiritual life, you will understand automatically. Nitya-siddha krishna-bhakti. When one becomes perfectly spiritually realised, then he understands what is his relationship is. This relationship is eternal”. December 7, 1974, Bombay.

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

 

This explanation will hopefully make it clear to the honest seekers of Krsna Consciousness about the actual situation with the ISKCON institution. What is presented here is not a distortion but the actual facts. It is indeed a painful reality to face and we are not proud of it but the truth must be spoken to benefit others who may not be in awareness of the true happenings.

SKCON (International Society for Krsna Consciousness) a worldwide organisation meant for the propagation of Krsna Consciousness was founded by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (Srila Prabhupada) in 1966 in America. In simply a short period of 11 years it grew to international recognition and was revered as the movement where its members practise what they actually preach. Srila Prabhupada's vision is certainly universal and oceanic and out of compassion for suffering humanity he wanted that the pure process of Krsna Consciousness be spread all over the globe. He was, is and will continue to be the pure and direct representative of Krsna. A few months prior to the physical departure of Srila Prabhupada he made an official policy document to the entire institution wherein he had appointed 11 representatives who were to act in the capacity of performing initiation ceremonies on his behalf for the acceptance of future disciples of Srila Prabhupada. They were designated as Rittviks. A Rittvik is the Vedic term for a priest or proxy whose specific function is to act on the behalf of the person they were appointed by and not in their own right. Thus in the context of ISKCON Srila Prabhupada in fact authorised a system of initiation for his acceptance of new disciples in the movement. The specific purpose of this system was that it could run without his physical intervention in anyway. In standard initiation ceremonies where a qualified candidate is accepted as an initiated disciple the new disciple is awarded a spiritual name with the title Dasa (at the end signifying that this person is an eternal servant of Krsna) he/she is also given a set of chanting beads (consisting of 108 beads) in which they vow to chant the Hare Krsna Maha-mantra a minimum of 16 rounds per day (16 x108 beads) at the ceremony the beads are chanted on by the guru or his representative thus making them sanctified. The new disciple makes vows to also observe the four prohibitions (no meat eating, no gambling, no intoxication and no illicit-sex).

"The word purah means "before," and carya means "activities." Due to the necessity of these activities, we do not immediately initiate disciples in the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. For six months, a candidate for initiation must first attend arati and classes in the sastras, practice the regulative principles and associate with other devotees . When one is actually advanced in the purascarya-vidhi, he is recommended by the local temple president for initiation. It is not that anyone can be suddenly initiated without meeting the requirements . When one is further advanced by chanting the Hare Krsna mantra sixteen rounds daily, following the regulative principles and attending

These formalities in effect constitute only a single element in the process of initiation( Sanskrit term Diksa) the most essential part being that the disciple receives transcendental knowledge from the Guru by aural reception of transcendental sound passed down by the supreme lord Krsna himself ultimately coming through a chain of authorised predecessor spiritual masters.

"Diksa is the process by which one can awaken his transcendental knowledge and vanquish all reactions caused by sinful activity. A person expert in the study of the revealed scriptures knows this process as diksa." (C.C madhya chp 15.108)

Bearing these things all in mind it is self-evident truth that Srila Prabhupada initiating disciples in the future could run smoothly even after his physical departure from this world. As is usual in most organisations the tiger of material ambition unfortunately tends to creeper in and poison spiritually weak souls. What was not well known and even to this very day is that a group of Srila Prabhupada's leading "disciples" of which a major portion consisted of the 11 Rittviks formed a conspiracy to hijack the ISKCON organisation and claim disciples for themselves, only for the purpose of material satisfaction.

"Unfortunately, when the acarya disappears, rogues and nondevotees take advantage and immediately begin to introduce unauthorized principles in the name of so-called swamis, yogis, philanthropists, welfare workers and so on…The acarya(spiritual master), the authorized representative of the Supreme Lord, establishes these principles, but when he disappears, things once again become disordered. The perfect disciples of the acarya try to relieve the situation by sincerely following the instructions of the spiritual master" (Srimad-Bhagavatam chp 4.28.48)

In the manner of business men these 11 Rittviks violated their roles as representatives and declared to the whole movement that they were the successors to Srila Prabhupada in this way they gathered their own rubber-stamped brand of cheap disciples. Thus within a few short years the ISKCON movement managed to kick out the majority of its sincere devotees and replace them with their fanatical sycophant "disciples" as a result it has completely degenerated into a society of cheaters and cheated.

"If a so-called spiritual master accepts a disciple for his personal benefit or for material gain, the relationship between the spiritual master and the disciple turns into a material affair, and the spiritual master becomes like a smarta-guru. There are many caste gosvamis who professionally create some disciples who do not care for them or their instructions. Such spiritual masters are satisfied simply to get some material benefits from their disciples. Such a relationship is condemned by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, who calls such spiritual masters and disciples a society of cheaters and cheated. They are also called baulas or prakrta-sahajiyas. Their aim is to make the connection between the spiritual master and the disciple into a very cheap thing. They are not serious in wanting to understand spiritual life." (Caitanya-Caritamrta Madhya Lila Chp 24. text 330)

As is always the case when individuals take on the role of spiritual masters without the necessary qualification ( Maha-Bhagavata-being a perfectly self-realised soul) and specific authorisation (coming from one's spiritual master) they fall down deep into the darkest regions of immoral conduct.

"Indeed, the advanced uttama-adhikari ( maha-Bhagavata) Vaisnava devotee should be accepted as a spiritual master. Everything one possesses should be offered to him, for it is enjoined that one should deliver whatever he has to the spiritual master. The brahmacari (celibate student) in particular is supposed to beg alms from others and offer them to the spiritual master. However, one should not imitate the behavior of an advanced devotee or maha-bhagavata without being self-realized, for by such imitation one will eventually become degraded ." (Nectar of Instruction Mantra 5)

"The spiritual master must never be carried away

by an accumulation of wealth or a large number of followers . A bona fide spiritual master will never become like that. But sometimes, if a spiritual master is not properly authorized and only on his own initiative becomes a spiritual master, he may be carried away by an accumulation of wealth and large numbers of disciples . His is not a very high grade of devotional service. If a person is carried away by such achievements, then his devotional service becomes slackened. One should therefore strictly adhere to the principles of disciplic succession ." (Nectar of Devotion chp14)

"One should, therefore, follow the path of Bhagavad-gita as it is expressed in the Gita itself and beware of self-interested people after personal aggrandizement who deviate others from the actual path." (Bhagavad-gita chp4.43 purport)

"Therefore a disciple should be careful to accept an uttama-adhikari as a spiritual master ." (Nectar of Instruction mantra 5)

Soon enough the lack of spiritual purity amongst Srila Prabhupada's so-called successors became embarrassingly visible to the vast majority of the movement. Sadly ISKCON didn't revert to the Rittvik system as sanctioned by Srila Prabhupada to continue indefinitely in the future even after his physical departure. Rather they made a further compromise and concoction. They declared to their followers that the post of Guru could be awarded to anyone who was simply rubber-stamped by ISKCON'S GBC(Governing Body Committee) at an annual meeting wherein the aspiring "guru" would need a 2/3 majority vote to certify his so-called right to accept disciples.

"Mundane votes have no jurisdiction to elect a Vaisnava acarya (spiritual master)" (Caitanya-Caritamrta Madhya lilä chp 1.220)

"Sri Jiva Gosvami advises that one not accept a spiritual master in terms of hereditary or customary social and ecclesiastical conventions. One should simply try to find a genuinely qualified spiritual master for actual advancement in spiritual understanding" (C.C Adi lilä chp1.35)

"A devotee's attention is concentrated only upon the eternal loving service of the Lord, and therefore the power of death has no influence over him. In such a devotional state, a perfect yogi can attain the status of immortal knowledge and bliss."(SB 3.27.30)

"People with a poor fund of knowledge do not know the difference between the death of a devotee and the death of a nondevotee . In this connection, an example can be given: a cat carries its kittens in its mouth, and it also catches a rat in its mouth. Superficially, the catching of the rat and the kitten appear to be one and the same, but actually they are not. When the cat catches the rat in its mouth it means death for the rat, whereas when the cat catches the kitten, the kitten enjoys it ." (SB4.12.30)

"If there is no chance to serve the spiritual master directly, a devotee should serve him by remembering his instructions. There is no difference between the spiritual master's instructions and the spiritual master himself. In his absence, therefore, his words of direction should be the pride of the disciple" ( C.C Adi lilä chp 1.35)

 

So Kishoresing. Take this instruction from Srila Prabhupada: If one thinks that there are many pseudo devotees or nondevotees in the Krsna Consciousness Society, one can keep direct company with the spiritual master, and if there is any doubt, one should consult the spiritual master . However, unless one follows the spiritual master's instructions concerning the

regulative principles and chanting and hearing the holy name of the Lord, one cannot become a pure

devotee. By one's mental concoctions, one falls down. ( C.C Madhya lilä chp 19.157)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
Sign in to follow this  

×
×
  • Create New...