At AllFaith.com I share numerous studies into the world's religions based on my personal quest for Truth. Over the years this research has led me to embrace Judaism. That is now the main focus of the domain.
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So... What caused Srila Prabhupada to leave his body? We may never know for sure.
Our Guru Maharaja (Srila Prabhupada) left clear instructions on how the Movement was to be maintained/managed after his departure. The GBC (the Governing Body Commission) however -- along with at first 11 men (now numbering over a hundred) -- directly disobeyed his instructions and instituted the very system of leadership Prabhupada had specifically forbidden. The original eleven were appointed by Srila Prabhupada to act as ritviks (to initiate Srila Prabhupada's disciples in his name) however these men, along with the GBC, created the "Zonal Acarya" system that began the apostasy the GBC continues to follows. For more information on the abuses of the original Eleven Bogi Yogis see my: A Note of Accusation From a "long time friend". ISKCON still operates under this unauthorized system and so, according to Srila Prabhupada's own words they are no longer his authorized representatives. Those of the eleven, like Hansadutta dasa who are now representing themselves as Ritvik Acaryas are seeking to initiate but at this late date their authority to do so is questionable at best. If their previous actions and ongoing failure to implement Srila Prabhupada's instructions have disqualified them, then our branch of the Brahma/Madhva Gaudiya math ended with Srila Prabhupada as he left no authorized successors.
BUT Prabhupada lives on in his books and through them he will always be ready to assist those who sincerely wish to take up this Path.
Because of the many abuses and the absence of the previous spiritual atmosphere that so permeated the early days of the Movement, the vast majority of Srila Prabhupada's disciples long ago left the Movement. Some joined other mathas, some converted to other religions, some held to Srila Prabhupada without the association of temples and sanga, and most just drifted off into the greater materialistic society. Today there are very few "Prabhupada devotees" left in ISKCON. The majority of current members joined after Prabhupada's disappearance and many know little or nothing about these issues I am sharing here. Others know the truth of these of things but become angry when they are brought up. They'd rather bury these issues along with Srila Prabhupada and move on. In my opinion unless ISKCON restores integrity to its foundation the Movement will die. The GBC needs to come clean and confess its many wrong doings. They need to formally apologize to all of Srila Prabhupada's disciples as well as to their current deceived followers. They need to strip all of their diksha (initiating) gurus of their illegitimate authority and embrace the ritvik system ordered by Srila Prabhupada.
But I'm not holding my breath.
AFTER Prabhupada left, there were accusations of child and adult sexual abuses, of weapons running and drug sales, of ordered prostitution, of rape, incest, pedophilia and even murders (including of my friend Solocana dasa who was murdered, in part because he wrote a revealing book exposing "The Guru Business." You can read this book for free here.
Some of this abuse was published in the mainly accurate book "Monkey on a Stick"
Today things have calmed down quite a bit. The ISKCON GBC remains in a state of disobedience to Srila Prabhupada's final instructions but they have developed a system that restored the peace for the most part and some of their temples are doing fairly well all things considered. Sunday programs, festivals and so on are usually nice to attend and Srila Prabhupada's presence can still be felt in many of them. He is so merciful.
The majority of ISKCON's "initiating gurus" who have been appointed by the GBC have fallen into various sins and scandals etc. and frankly it is doubtful if ANY ISKCON guru meets even the minimum qualifications for that post as established by Srila Prabhupada and Gaudiya Vaisnava standards. There are now a few accepted ritvik acaryas in ISKCON who are initiating "Prabhupada disciples" and at least two "Ritvik Temples" while Some 22 of 26 ISKCON temple presidents in India are said to have passed resolutions to adopt the Ritvik system of initiations. So who knows, maybe ISKCON will one day return to Srila Prabhupada.
There absolutely were serious abuses done from the late seventies into the late eighties but ISKCON has, to my knowledge, grown beyond those dark days. If the temple is a member of ISKCON proper you should be able to attend services there without any fear of forced attendance, "brainwashing" etc. Be mindful however that blind obedience to ANY spiritual group or teacher is never a good idea.
There are also now other Gaudiya math groups operating in the West that many people have gone to such as the Sri Gopinath Gaudiya Math founded by Srila Prabhupada eldest godbrother His Divine Grace Srila Bhakti Pramode Puri Goswami Maharaj and now led by His Divine Grace Srila Bhakti Bibudha Bodhayan Maharaja.
I received second initiation from His Divine Grace Srila Bhakti Bibudha Bodhayan Maharaja and in my humble opinion he is teaching the same truth as Srila Prabhupada and Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati. It should be acknowledged however it should be noted that Prabhupada discouraged his disciples from going to the other Gaudiya maths. A few excerpts taken my friend Solocana dasa's Blog: Srila Prabhupada speaks about Gaudiya Math. Solocana dasa was a close associate and direct servant of Srila Prabhupada. He did much of the original type setting etc. on many of the books:
Regarding Bhakti Puri, Tirtha Maharaja, they are my God-brothers and should be shown respect. But you should not have any intimate connection with them as they have gone against the orders of my Guru Maharaja.
Letter to Pradyumna Feb 17 1968
Regarding the Gaudiya Math, our position has nothing to do with them. They cannot do anything and if somebody does something, they will be envious. That is the nature of third class men.
Letter to Yamuna Nov. 18, 1970
Finally, here Srila Prabhupada talks about what happened to the Gaudiya Math but he could just as easily been speaking about ISKCON:
You are right about Sridhara Maharaja's genuineness. (1) But in my opinion he is the best of the lot. He is my old friend, at least he executes the regulative principles of devotional service. I do not wish to discuss about activities of my Godbrothers but it is a fact they have no life for preaching work. All are satisfied with a place for residence in the name of a temple, they engage disciples to get foodstuff by transcendental devices and eat and sleep. They have no idea or brain how to broadcast the cult of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. My Guru Maharaja used to lament many times for this reason and he thought if one man at least had understood the principle of preaching then his mission would achieve success. In the latter days of my Guru Maharaja he was very disgusted. Actually, he left this world earlier, otherwise he would have continued to live for more years. Still he requested his disciples to form a strong Governing body for preaching the cult of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. He never recommended anyone to be acarya of the Gaudiya Math. But Sridhara Maharaja is responsible for disobeying this order of Guru Maharaja, and he and others who are already dead unnecessarily thought that there must be one acarya. If Guru Maharaja could have seen someone who was qualified at that time to be acarya he would have mentioned. Because on the night before he passed away he talked of so many things, but never mentioned an acarya. His idea was acarya was not to be nominated amongst the governing body. He said openly you make a GBC and conduct the mission. So his idea was amongst the members of GBC who would come out successful and self effulgent acarya would be automatically selected. So Sridhara Maharaja and his two associate gentlemen unauthorizedly selected one acarya and later it proved a failure. The result is now everyone is claiming to be acarya even though they may be kanistha adhikari with no ability to preach. In some of the camps the acarya is being changed three times a year. Therefore we may not commit the same mistake in our ISKCON camp. Actually amongst my Godbrothers no one is qualified to become acarya. So it is better not to mix with my Godbrothers very intimately because instead of inspiring our students and disciples they may sometimes pollute them. This attempt was made previously by them, especially Madhava Maharaja and Tirtha Maharaja and Bon Maharaja but somehow or other I saved the situation. This is going on. We shall be very careful about them and not mix with them. This is my instruction to you all. They cannot help us in our movement, but they are very competent to harm our natural progress. So we must be very careful about them.
Letter to Rupanuga 4/28/74
Chanting From The Lips of NONdevotees SHOULD BE AVOIDED
My best advice for those who wish to follow the Path advised by His Divine Grace AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada is to follow the instructions of Srila Prabhupada:
Read HIS books. Follow HIS instructions in HIS books (especially in his translations and commentaries of the "Bhagavad Gita As It Is" and "Srimad Bhagavatam"), tapes and letters. You can access his writings for free on the Internet.
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