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 SRILA PRABHUPADA OUR DIKSA GURU

His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada Founder-Acarya of the Hare Krishna Movement

By Nalinikanta das

Respected Prabhus,

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. Thank you for the opportunity to speak before you today.

It is a privilege of devotees and initiated brahmanas to discuss philosophical and religious tenets with knowledge, faith and hopefully, good heart.

Attempting this positive spirit, I will review briefly some of the beliefs held by those adherent to the idea of Srila Prabhupada as current initiating acharya within ISKCON.

In Vrndavan Dhama, in May l977, Srila Prabhupada was asked by Satsvarupa Maharaj as to the system of initiations to be followed, especially in the days ahead when Srila Prabhupada would no longer be physically with us.

Srila Prabhupada replied that he would recommend some of us as "officiating acharya" to fulfill those duties. Tamal Krsna Goswami asked "Is that called rittvik?"

His Divine Grace replied, "Rittvik -- Yes."

This conception was re-iterated in Srila Prabhupada's will dated June of l977, in which he states that "In the event of the death or failure to act for any reason of any of the said (GBC) directors, a successor director may be appointed...provided the new director is my initiated disciple." This anticipates that future GBC's would be Srila Prabhupada's disciples.

Subsequently, in a letter dated July 9, l977, which was signed by Srila Prabhupada and Tamal Maharaj, and which was sent to all GBC's and Temple Presidents of ISKCON, Srila Prabhupada did as he said he would, authorizing a rittvik system of initiations within ISKCON. This is the "Final Order" referred to in the writings of the followers of this authorized system. That document establishes the rittviks as "representatives" of Srila Prabhupada, not as independent gurus themselves.

There are more evidences that make this conception more clear, including letters to Hamsadutta Swami and Kirtanananda Maharaj using terminology such as "continue to act as rittvik," etc. There are NO SIGNED DOCUMENTS OR ORDERS in the last six months of Srila Prabhupada's life which would change the already- in-existence rittvik system to create new acharyas or initiating gurus who would succeed Srila Prabhupada upon his disappearance. It would have been easy for His Divine Grace to say so when questioned on this topic, and if the current GBC had any evidence of this nature, it certainly would be made available to counteract the propaganda of the rittviks that they consider heresy. In spite of these clear facts, unfortunately the current GBC policy is that even the idea of Srila Prabhupada as initiating guru may not be discussed in Srila Prabhupada's Temples at all –except perhaps for the progressive and appreciable spirit you are showing today in allowing this presentation.

Relevant to these matters, Srila Prabhupada's books clearly define the position of a bonafide, initiating guru as an uttama-adhikari soul who is fixed in Brahman, Paramatma and Bhagavan realization. As such, many of us were hesitant to accept the changes instituted by the GBC which granted acharya and pure devotee status to new initiating gurus. Such distrust has been proven accurate in many cases over the last years, since 65% or more of the original ll appointed acharyas have fallen from their guru status. Besides this, we now have thousands of Prabhupada disciples who are alientated from ISKCON, and we have thousands of abandoned "new"disciples. This is not just past history -- problems continue, to the point where Harikesa Swami, the recent manager of an important GBC committee meant to manage the affairs of ISKCON, has recently said that the whole "new guru" procedures were "disgusting," and were more or less the cause of ISKCON's ruin, being a concoction created by a group of "total materialists."

Harsh words indeed. On both sides of the fence, there are demeaning exchanges. I personally wonder how the term used by Srila Prabhupada, and clearly signed into law by him, namely "rittvik," has become equated with demons out to destroy Srila Prabhupada's ISKCON. On the other hand, I often hear stories regarding possible misbehavior by managers and gurus in our society, which are unbearable to listen to, spread by the critics of our imperfect management. We have come to a situation where there is distrust, threats, insinuation and litigation abounding, amidst all the good service that devotees do.

Perhaps we can consider building a bridge between the two banks of this guru issue. Despite the philosophical dichotomy of the two parties, the rittvik representatives here today do not wish to insult new disciples and their gurus; nor do we feel that our faith in Srila Prabhupada's orders warrants their criticisms of us. We ask only that we be allowed to practice and preach our faith in Srila Prabhupada as an available guru, within the church of ISKCON. We should be beholden not to offend other devotees' beliefs; in fact, we hold sacred anyone who is chanting the Holy Name -- and we decry the separation of the many camps of Vaisnavas in the world today. Srila Prabhupada asked us all to cooperate. Thus, we should allow each other to discuss, debate and tolerate the different manifestations of our somewhat mixed faiths, under the banner and society of the one of supremely pure faith,

His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada. Hare Krishna, and thank you very much.

From 11/6/98 

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