Genetically Modified Vaishnavism?

July 5, 2003

"...It is utterly absurd to postulate that Srila Prabhupada ever for one moment intended to hand down full responsibility for maintaining, protecting and perpetuating Gaudiya Vaishnava siddhanta exclusively into the hands of his neophyte disciples..."

Dear VNN readers, Please accept my dandavat pranams. All glories to Sri Guru and Gauranga!

Srila Prabhupada's first and foremost instruction is to always take full, direct shelter at the lotus feet of a pure Vaishnava guru. Any activities performed in the name of bhakti without first adopting this essential procedure are mere speculation.

Modern scientists are misguidedly trying to "improve" the already perfect design of material nature through genetic modification. In their proclaimed wisdom they describe the 97% of DNA they don't understand as "junk".

Humanity is now far more heavily burdened with the effect of speculative attempts to modify and improve upon the eternal truths of Vedanta, which have been revealed to the highest degree through the teachings of the acaryas in the Gaudiya Vaishnava line.

The post-1977 "revised and enlarged" version of Srila Prabhupada's Bhagavad Gita As It Is contains 5,000 unauthorized changes to the original text from which Srila Prabhupada gave daily classes. The post-1977 version of Sri Isopanisad includes 125 unauthorized changes. Undoubtedly, many similar instances of such "improvements" remain to be exposed.

However attractive and inspiring these books are, they can no longer be considered the definitive sastra and authentic Gaudiya Vaishnava commentary his books constituted while Srila Prabhupada remained physically present to direct his disciples in their editing and printing.

It is hardly surprising that 23 years later the prominent philosophy taught and practised under the pretext of being Srila Prabhupada's true teachings proves to be diametrically opposed to the basic tenets of Gaudiya Vaishnavism.

Proper Vaishnava etiquette requires us to presume, at some level, the good intentions of all jivas, regardless of how wayward or reckless their behaviour may appear to be. But correct Vaishnava sadacara also obliges aspiring sadhakas to recognize, identify and defeat all philosophy that misrepresents the teachings of the acaryas in our line. We all have a joint responsibility to make every effort to protect and maintain the integrity of the priceless treasures of Gaudiya Vaishnava siddhanta and tattva to the best of our ability. That constitutes true loyalty to all the gurus in our line.

One of the current fashions in pseudo-Vaishnava circles is to speak and act independently while proclaiming "loyalty" to a particular guru whose teachings are woefully misinterpreted and misrepresented. The most popular post-1977 trend is the self-promotion of intermediaries as fully-qualified authorities in the matter of practising and disseminating the teachings of Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami and all the acaryas in the Gaudiya Vaishnava line.

The bottom line - when the smokescreen of modified books, selective interpretations, emotional blackmail and sentimental word jugglery is dissipated - is that these self-proclaimed intermediaries are misguidedly devoting their lives to actively preventing conditioned souls from taking direct shelter at the lotus feet of pure Vaishnavas. Presumably, they mean well.

Nonetheless, such activity constitutes the biggest obstacle in our time to preaching true Gaudiya Vaishnava philosophy and simply increases the already massive burden of Kali-yuga. Any philosophies outrightly challenging or opposing Gaudiya Vaishnavism can be easily defeated wherever the infallible cross-checks of guru, sadhu, sastra are accepted as the criteria by which the highest truth is established.

100 years ago Srila Bhaktivinode Thakura was fighting the scourge of sahajiyism, whereby misguided individuals dressed up as gopis, claimed to be genuine sadhus and horribly misrepresented Gaudiya Vaishnavism. Today's acaryas have to face the far more insidious tide of sahajiyism in the form of misguided individuals dressing up as Gaudiya Vaishnava gurus and proclaiming themselves to be bona fide representatives of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Weeding out corrupted ideas taught in the name and guise of Gaudiya Vaishnavism is a much more difficult but nonetheless absolutely essential task to be confronted by all sincere aspiring sadhakas on the path of Krishna-bhakti.

Accepting Sri Harinama, Gaudiya Vaishnava siddhanta and pure Gaudiya Vaishnava gurus to be the greatest forces of pure goodness in this world, it naturally follows that namaparadha, speculative interpretations of Gaudiya Vaishnava philosophy, Vaishnava aparadha and imitation gurus constitute the antithesis of Gaudiya Vaishnavism, the combined forces of "the enemy within" the worldwide family of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

Srila Prabhupada's Iskcon was formed for no higher purpose than to facilitate pure sadhu-sanga, the single and only means by which the ultimate goal of developing Krishna prema can be attained. Anyone using the names of Srila Prabhupada and Iskcon while simultaneously preaching against and preventing sadhu sanga is clearly not a true representative of Srila Prabhupada, however well-meaning such a misguided person may be.

Popular myth presents Srila Prabhupada as a friendless loner who suddenly began a worldwide preaching mission in New York at the age of 70, with no help from any of his "envious" Gaudiya Math godbrothers. This fiction extends to the notion that his neophyte students - who had mostly never met a genuine sadhu of any kind before in their lives - acquired full understanding of his teachings and innermost intentions in just a few years and became fully qualified to represent him perfectly, thus empowered as the exclusive representatives of Sri Chaitanya Mahprabhu on planet Earth from 1977 onwards. From that time forth they would never need to take direct shelter of any other pure Vaishnava guru, having become sufficiently self-realized to receive direct instructions from Srila Prabhupada in their eternal siddha forms. They would go on to save the world.

The true fact is that Srila Prabhupada spent his whole life subsequent to meeting Om Visnupada Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura Prabhupada meticulously preparing his preaching work with considerable co-operation and assistance from many of his godrothers, including many affectionate and intimate friends, some of whom were his juniors, some his peers, while others were his siksa gurus. Most notably, he received sannyasa initiation from Om Visnupada Srila Bhakti Prajnana Keshava Gosvami Maharaja, with whom he and one other co-founded the Gaudiya Vedanta Samiti in Calcutta in 1941, thus protecting and perpetuating the mission of their supremely exalted Guru Maharaja. Srila Prabhupada maintained regular correspondence twice a month, mostly handwritten in Bengali, with his close friend Srila Bhaktivedanta Narayana Maharaja at Sri Keshavjee Gaudiya Math in Mathura, throughout his worldwide preaching activities right up until 1977.

I don't wish to appear ungrateful to Srila Prabhupada's sincere disciples and followers. I owe them a massive debt of gratitude. I personally found out about Krishna consciousness through the Iskcon temple in London back in 1984 and lived at Iskcon Leicester temple for 10 months in 1990/91. By the grace of Srila Prabhupada, I was brought very quickly to the lotus feet of his closest Gaudiya Vedanta Samiti associate and foremost siksa disciple, Om Visnupada Sri Srimad Bhaktivedanta Narayana Gosvami Maharaja. Like many hundreds of Srila Prabhupada's disciples and followers, I have come to recognize and accept my Guru Maharaja as a uniquely individual manifestation of the same guru-tattva, who practises and teaches the identical path of Gaudiya Vaishavism that Srila Prabhupada taught, albeit in his own unique, individual style.

Srila Prabhupada wants all his followers to progress in Krishna consciousness. He rescued countless thousands of us from the chaos of atheism, secular societies and false religions into the security of practising regulated bhakti-sadhana. Having become very comfortable with those daily rituals it comes as a great shock to many of us to learn that vaidhi bhakti doesn't actually culminate in pure Krishna-prema.

All the time we think of Krishna as God, we will only at best attain Him in His four-armed Narayana form in Vaikuntha. Srila Prabhupada wants us to develop pure love, which means to take direct, continous sanga of pure Vaishnavas who actually possess that Vraja-prema. This is confirmed in Nectar of Instruction as the "sum and substance" of the teachings of all the Gaudiya Vaishnava acaryas.

It is utterly absurd to postulate that Srila Prabhupada ever for one moment intended to hand down full responsibility for maintaining and protecting the integrity of the supremely sacred Gaudiya Vaishnava siddhanta exclusively into the hands of his neophyte disciples.

Obviously Srila Prabhupada never would have gambled in such a reckless manner with the precious treasures he received through the Gaudiya Vaishnava Bhagavat-guru parampara. The idea that only his formally initiated diksa disciples could receive and transmit his teachings is diametrically opposed to the basic tenet of pre-eminence of the siksa guru in the Gaudiya line. It is also painfully evident 23 years after Srila Prabhupada's physical departure that his disciples could not possibly even begin to carry such responsibility without first taking full shelter of fully-qualified senior Vaishnavas. It is self-evident that misinterpreting the guru's instructions leads to shunning pure sadhu-sanga and that shunning pure sadhu-sanga leads to misrepresenting the guru's teachings.

No group of conditioned souls was ever likely to perform the quantum leap from being hippies and students in the late 1960s/early 1970s to becoming the world's exclusive guardians and sole representatives of the sublime truths of Gaudiya Vedanta from 1977 onwards. Srila Prabhupada obviously wanted to give his disciples pure shelter while he was physically present, while also instilling in them the absolute necessity to remain under the direct shelter of pure Vaishnavas at all times after his departure.

What is equally clear to any honest observer is that the teachings of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu are seen to be correctly practised and taught within several Gaudiya Vaishnava preaching institutions pre-dating and operating quite independently from Iskcon. By far the largest and most successful of those institutions, now expanding rapidly worldwide, is the very same Gaudiya Vedanta Samiti Srila Prabhupada co-founded nearly 60 years ago.

It is glaringly obvious that Srila Prabhupada placed the utmost trust in his fellow members of the Gaudiya Vedanta Samiti to continue the mission of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Prabhupada and never intended to depend exclusively on the ability and cooperation of his disciples and followers within his later Iskcon institution. Clearly, Srila Prabhupada taught his sincere students and followers to be able to recognize the pure sadhus whose association he so purposefully directed them to seek out and maintain after his departure.

So what if Srila Prabhupada made his eager new students competitive by telling them a few white lies? On a global scale he was the most fearless, radical and revolutionary leader this world has seen in modern times. So what if he adopted an aggressive, elitist preaching policy in order to awaken countless thousands of jivas to their highest potential in Krishna consciousness? In Srila Prabhupada's case, the ends always justified the means. He apologized for precisely this strategy at the time he left his body. No offense had been committed and forgiveness was not required, though Srila Prabhupada very humbly asked for it from the same seniormost siksa disciple whom he entrusted to place him into samadhi.

Srila Prabhupada was a master strategist, which is hardly surprising to anyone recognizing his actual status as Sri Guru, Krishna Himself descended in the form of guru-tattva. That he achieved much of what he did through the medium of the most fallen conditioned souls from every mleccha society in the world attests to his unflinching faith in Sri Harinama, his breathtaking audacity and his unlimited compassion.

Srila Prabhupada's "insurance policy" to ensure the treasure-house of pure bhakti remained properly guarded by his most exalted Gaudiya Vedanta Samiti co-founder and other associates has obviously paid dividends. This reflects the plain truth that Srila Prabhupada worked in continuous, full cooperation with certain trusted godbrothers and associates throughout the entire time since 1941 when he co-founded the Gaudiya Vedanta Samiti, whose members have always given him full honour and continue to represent him faithfully to this day. Gaudiya Vaishnavism also remains in the safe hands of fully-qualified guardians and acaryas within several other bona fide preaching institutions apart from Iskcon.

Notably, the auspicious anniversary of Srila Prabhupada's 1959 sannyasa initiation is celebrated annually with a festival at Sri Keshavjee Gaudiya Math in Mathura, while being conspicuously ignored at Sri Krishna Balarama Mandir in Vrndavan and most likely in every other Iskcon temple throughout the world.

Why is the holy tirtha where Srila Prabhupada accepted sannyasa, lived for many years, where he wrote "Easy Journey to Other Planets" and donated the beautiful full-size deity of Sri Gauranga "off limits"? Why is association with Srila Prabhupada's closest friend and from 1947 to 1977 so strenuously forbidden by Srila Prabhupada's proclaimed disciples? The contrast is not between the teachings of Srila Prabhupada and Srila BV Narayana Maharaja.

It is a mundane imposition to presume that the unlimited Supreme Person can only manifest his full mercy through one person or one institution. It is a similarly mundane imposition to presume that the continued success of Srila Prabhupada's preaching depends entirely on his formally initiated diksa disciples. It is also a mundane interpretation to presume that diksa refers only to a ceremonial event, when true diksa means the ongoing process of hearing Hari-katha directly from the lotus mouths of pure Vaishnavas. True hearing is reflected in actually acting upon those received instructions.

It is natural for loyal and grateful disciples to worship their own guru and saviour with special affection and attachment. But it displays an abysmal lack of understanding of guru-tattva and a total misrepresentation of Srila Prabhupada to refer to him - in the born-again Christian style - as the "greatest guru of all time" or "more" than all his "envious" godbrothers, the "only true authority", etc., etc. Srila Prabhupada never tolerated for one second anyone glorifying him above his own guru. Real guru-puja means to give equal honour to the entire Bhagavata-guru parampara.

Srila Prabhupada is in the highest category of akhanda-guru-tattva, Sri Krishna descended into this world as Sri Guru to deliver fallen conditioned souls to His very topmost abode. The unlimited Supreme Person can not be limited to one "best of all time" guru. Srila Prabhupada is not God, yet nor is he different from God as His pure representative and direct svarupa-shakti expansion. This inconceivable, simultaneous oneness and difference constitutes the essence of Gaudiya Vaishhnava philosophy, which can never possibly be understood by conditioned, tatastha-shakti jivas who shun association with pure Vaishnavas, the only means by which anyone can even begin to comprehend such unlimitedly profound concepts.

There is only Krishna. One Supreme Absolute Truth, within Whom everything exists. There is only one true representation of Gaudiya Vaishnava siddhanta and tattva, namely that which Srila Prabhupada presented in all his pre-1977 books and teachings, identical to what every Gaudiya Vaishnava acarya has presented in the past and what all bona fide Gaudiya Vaishnava gurus in the present continue to practise and preach. The unbroken Bhagavata-guru parampara is stronger and more accessible now than at any other time in known history.

The idea of changing or "improving" the one Supreme Truth is as ludicrous as the notion of attempting to "genetically modify" the purely spiritual body of Sri Krishna Himself by material experimentation. The unauthorized modification and "revising and enlarging" of Srila Prabhupada's books constitutes just such an attempt.

As aspiring Gaudiya Vaishnava devotees, we should properly honour Srila Prabhupada with full credit for his perfect lifetime practice, exemplary guru-seva in his preaching and the highest intelligence in his strategies for spreading Krishna consciousness throughout the world.

We all owe it equally to Srila Prabhupada and all the acaryas past and present in this line to represent Gaudiya Vaishnavism as the Supreme Absolute Truth continuously presenting Himself through His most sublime teachings and pure representatives. There is no viable "almost", "nearly" or "genetically-modified" alternative to Gaudiya Vaishnavism.

Srila Prabhupada did not abdicate his responsibility as an acarya in the Gaudiya line by passing the entire future responsibility for Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's preaching mission into the hands of children, nor was he ever in a position to do so anyway. Srila Prabhupada protected his own earlier mission from the members of his later preaching institution by discouraging his own disciples from interfering there. The prospect of over-enthusiastic new devotees preaching to and "correcting" their vastly more experienced seniors and the bad feeling and embarrassment they would undoubtedly have caused was surely reason enough for Srila Prabhupada to create some artificial barriers. Even nowadays, many of Srila Prabhupada's disciples show scant respect for any Vaishnava not bearing the stamp of Iskcon from head to toe and often very little for those of their own ilk.

Srila Prabhupada created a "we're the best" mood in his own disciples, in much the same way a coach encourages and motivates a football team. The western mentality is primarily competitive, an attitude inbred throughout home, school and working life in all money-centred western societies. Srila Prabhupada knew exactly what he was dealing with. At a more mature stage, team members realize that they're just a few players in a very big league and they have to acknowledge that there are always other teams equally if not more capable of earning the highest accolades.

Under Srila Prabhupada, Iskcon was like a mirror reflecting the spiritual world, that could be seen from all over this planet. Since 1977 that mirror has become gradually covered by increasing layers of dust in the form of misinterpretations and misrepresentation arising entirely due to lack of sadhu sanga, i.e. the failiure of neophyte disciples to follow the single most important instruction given to them by their guru.

Since 1941 the mirror of the Gaudiya Vedanta Samiti has continued to perfectly reflect Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's teachings, firstly throughout India, then via Iskcon and now once again throughout the world. The teachings of the Gaudiya Vedanta Samiti and the Srila Prabhupada's Iskcon are identical, two mirrors reflecting the same eternal truths. To think otherwise is to impose the notion of fallibility onto Srila Prabhupada.

Some external adjustments were made by Srila Prabhupada to facilitate the needs and mentalities of his western disciples, but the teachings of both institutions remains the same in essence. Whether one or the other institution appears prominent, the end result can only be a win/win situation for the propagation of Krishna consciousness.

Spiritual competition is always healthy, whereby devotees enthuse, encourage and praise others in their various services, while always striving to increase the quality of their own service. Srila Prabhupada coached his Iskcon team to the top of the world league of preaching institutions and it is even more to his credit that he also co-founded the Gaudiya Vedanta Samiti, whose senior members are right now continuing to renew and expand those preaching activities in a mood of jubilation, excitement and enthusiasm that has not been witnessed on such a global scale since the mid 1970s.

Now those disciples and followers of Srila Prabhupada who have their eyes open can see very clearly that Sri Guru has never abandoned us, but has always manifested in unlimited different forms to continue the never-ending mission of awakening Krishna-prema in the hearts of all jivas who want it.

Your servant aspiring for the service of Sri Guru & Gauranga,

Madan Mohan dasa.