This act of becoming acharyas or gurus on their
own, (by self-appointment) was in direct
violation of what Srila Prabhupada had taught.
He writes in one of the commentaries to a Bhagavatam verse:
- “One should take initiation from a bona
fide spiritual master coming in the
disciplic succession, who is authorized by
his predecessor spiritual master. This is
called diksha-vidhana.” (Srimad
Bhagavatam 4.8.54 purport)
Please note the words: who is authorized by his
predecessor spiritual master. And Srila
Prabhupada had not authorized any of them to
become the acharyas.
Thousands of disciples of Srila Prabhupada in
ISKCON temples all over the world who
witnessed this deviation opposed the act of
disobedience. But the self-proclaimed 'gurus'
would not relent.
These self-appointed 'gurus' have, for the past
three decades, disobeyed Srila Prabhupada's
instructions, taken hundreds of 'disciples' for
themselves and amassed power, wealth and
assets largely for themselves as 'guru dakshina'. In course of time, many ISKCON temples
were reduced to penury while the self-proclaimed 'gurus' rose to wealth. Some of
these ‘gurus’ became fabulously rich and lived
in opulence, served menially by meek, humble
and unquestioning ‘disciples’.
Hundreds of innocent souls fell into the trap of
these self-appointed ‘gurus’ and surrendered
their faith to them. But time proved, again and
again, the self-proclaimed guru system wrong.
Over the years many of these self-proclaimed 'gurus' have deviated from the spiritual path and fallen victims to the lowest of human
weaknesses – illicit connection with women,
drugs, etc. We are saddened to say this, however
it is the unfortunate fact. The `disciples' were
left confused, helpless and angry. Yet the
survivor `gurus' continue to doggedly convince
their followers to remain faithful to the flawed
guru system.
Websites abound with harrowing accounts of
misconduct and fall downs of these
ISKCON ‘gurus’ 2.
While this rampage has been going on for over thirty years, there have been thousands of
devotees of ISKCON all over the world who
raised their voices against these spiritual
deviations. But the powerful, rich gurus and
their fanatical followers have ruthlessly quelled
these protests by driving these devotees out of
the ISKCON temples. And have even
sometimes put an end to those who opposed
them, through criminal acts 3.
With time, the roots of the flawed guru system
took stronger and stronger hold in ISKCON.
Now there are as many as about 70 self-proclaimed 'gurus' in ISKCON worldwide.
Every year a few ‘gurus' or ‘acharyas' fall from
grace and a few new ones surface up.
These self-proclaimed ‘gurus’ have
unauthorisedly assumed the unquestionable
authority. Although they claim that ISKCON
is being run by an international body of
devotees, the Governing Body Commission,
the fact is that this Body consists mostly of
these self-proclaimed ‘gurus’ themselves since
March 1978. In effect, ISKCON is being run
by them, for them. There is no place in
ISKCON for sincere doubts, clarifications or
debates on Srila Prabhupada's plan for
succession. Any devotee seeking the truth is
silenced unscrupulously.
This, in brief, is the unfortunate, sad and
sordid state of affairs of the glorious movement
established by Srila Prabhupada, after his
passing away. Disobedience, deception,
corruption, philosophical deviations, fall down
from grace by the spiritual heads, compromise
of spiritual purity, politically motivated cover-up,
threats – all of this stemmed from the
flawed guru system. |
2 Click for details
3 Sulochana Dasa murdered in Los Angeles in
1986 as he was about to publish his book "Guru
Business" that was an expose of the ISKCON gurus. (Chapter 15 1986:The Year of Crisis,
"Betrayal of the Spirit" by Nori J. Muster, University
of Illinois Press).
Also see Chapter 17, "After the Absolute" by David
Gold. |
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