30^TH JUNE 2000

1. GBC Teaches That 'Living Gurus' NOT Required.

2. The Great Vision of Our GBC Chairman.
3. Media Campaign Continues. 

We had already pointed out in previous newsletters how the issue of the IRM needing to debate and defeat the GBC on their philosophy regarding the Guru does not arise since the GBC do not even have a position to defeat - please see newsletters # 16 & 19. This is because all their current position papers on this issue contradict each other on key points. Now we find that on inspecting recent GBC resolutions, the GBC are now actually teaching that there is no necessity for having a Diksa Guru who is 'living and physically present', since Srila Prabhupada is actually a better alternative!

The GBC have always argued that the reason we must support their bogus Guru program and thereby reject Srila Prabhupada, is because they offer us a 'living, physical' Guru, and that such a 'living' guru is an absolute necessity due to the nature of the Diksa Guru-Disciple interaction. 
There are certain functions present in the Guru-Disciple relationship that only a 'living' Diksa Guru can fulfil, they argue. Some of the key functions that are present between a Diksa Guru and a disciple are as follows:

a.       The Diksa Guru Transmits Divya-Jnana To The Disciple 

b.       The Diksa Guru Personally Engages Disciple in Service 

c.       The Diksa Guru Regularly Instructs The Disciple 

d.       The Diksa Guru Personally Inspires The Disciple 

e.       The Diksa Guru Acts As A Shelter In Whom The Disciple Can Repose His Faith 

f.         The Diksa Guru Receives Daily Worship From the Disciple 

g.       The Diksa Guru Receives Vyasa-Puja Offerings Annually Via His Vyasa-Puja Book 

h.       The Diksa Guru Accepts Guru-Daksina From The Disciple. 

It has been argued by the GBC that in order to fulfil these responsibilities within a Guru-Disciple relationship, the Diksa Guru needs to be 'living'.
For instance one needs a 'living, physically present' Guru to give the disciple personal instructions for his service, or to instruct him in his spiritual life and answer his questions etc. etc. And therefore it is not possible to accept Srila Prabhupada as our Diksa Guru, since he is not 'living'. However let us now see what the GBC resolutions actually state regarding how these functions should be carried out within a Guru-Disciple relationship, and whether they do actually require a 'living, physically present' Guru.

The GBC have stated that Divya-jnana is received via siksa:

But they also say that the 'pre-eminent', 'essential' and 'empowering' siksa is actually received from Srila Prabhupada:

So since the siksa we receive from Srila Prabhupada is far more vital, essential and superior to that we may receive from any 'living guru', it cannot be for the transmission of divya-jnana that we need to have a 'living guru'.

No luck here either since it is the Temple President who will engage the disciple, and the 'living diksa guru' is not even allowed to engage the disciple without first taking permission from the Temple President.

Please note that the term 'other devotees' includes one's own 'living diksa guru', and therefore the GBC is saying that we should only approach the 'living' guru for instruction if one can find the time to squeeze him in after having first received full instruction from Srila Prabhupada. 
Even if one does find time to approach the 'living diksa guru', any instruction received from him will in any case only be 'secondary and supplemental'.

We see that even for the essential function of receiving 'spiritual inspiration', again the 'living guru' is not necessary.

Again for this essential function, the disciple is directed to place his 'faith, trust and allegiance' 'first and foremost' in Srila Prabhupada, *not* his 'living' Diksa Guru.

We see that it is 'essential' to perform daily Guru-puja for Srila Prabhupada, whilst the Diksa Guru is restricted to receiving such worship only once a year.

Every ISKCON member is specifically instructed to write a Vyasa-Puja offering for Srila Prabhupada, and only Srila Prabhupada's Vyasa-Puja book is to be published.

Our poor 'living guru', he cannot even get to keep his daksina! (Of course in reality, there is little evidence that these funds are *actually* the property of ISKCON!)

We can see that the GBC have decreed that a living guru is not necessary to deliver these key functions. They have further decreed that these functions should and can actually be delivered by Srila Prabhupada. In their desire to reduce the 'worship' of the Gurus, the GBC have actually also eliminated the need for a 'living guru' at all!. Bearing in mind the above resolutions, where the GBC have systematically told us all the areas in which a 'living' diksa guru is *not* essential, could anyone please tell us the reason why we *do* need a 'living' diksa guru! Answers on a postcard please!

Indeed even the GBC only define a diksa Guru as follows:

And we have already seen that the main and 'essential' siksa guru is actually Srila Prabhuada. This therefore merely relegates the 'living' diksa guru to being someone who primarily performs the formal initiation ceremony.
And guess what Srila Prabhupada called those devotees who simply perform the formal initiation ceremony and do little else. That's right - you got it one 
- RITVIKS!

And ironically in the same year that the GBC passed all these resolutions eliminating the need for a 'living' diksa guru, and instead simply relegating him to the role of a ritvik, it also passed the following resolution *against* the ritvik idea:

So the GBC wants to reject 'ritvikism' because they feel they must sustain a 'living tradition'. And they intend to do that passing resolutions that eliminate the need for a 'living' diksa Guru, by delegating those functions to Srila Prabhupada, and instead simply reducing the 'Living' Guru to being no more than a ritvik! Yes that makes perfect sense. So finally the GBC's bogus 'physically present, living' diksa guru theory is smashed by the GBC themselves. This must obviously be the result of either reading too many IRM papers, or more likely, simply the GBC's own self-imposed mass confusion.
Whatever arguments they wish to forward as to why we must reject Srila Prabhupada as ISKCON's diksa Guru, it is definitely no longer because the Diksa Guru *must* be 'living and physically present'.

The genius who presided over the passing of many of these resolutions was the current GBC Chairman, Ravindra Svarupa Das. We had reported in newsletter 21, the brilliance and vision of our GBC Chairman, who while ISKCON burned, told us that he did not actually know what to do, and that therefore all he could offer was to re-acquaint himself with his bead-bag, and go and fast and chant for a month in Vrindavana. We now have more evidence of the Chairman's great foresight and vision from a time when he was not even the GBC chairman. 2 years ago, when the Final Order was making huge penetrations in ISKCON temples in India, the GBC naturally turned to their master strategist Ravindra Svarupa to combat the problem. He had helped previously to dismantle the zonal acharya system, and therefore taking care of some ritviks would not be a problem. He immediately had a brainwave - he would set-up a task force that would go and preach to two ritvik temple presidents in particular, and this 'anti-ritvik' task-force would convince them of the error of their ways:

And guess who our visionary Chairman chose to head up this 'anti-ritvik' task-force:

Yes that's right - Madhu Pandit prabhu, the current IRM Secretary. It was less than a month following this master-stroke from Ravindra Svarupa that Madhu Pandit called the famous Bangalore meeting by getting together many of the leading Temple Presidents and Managers in India, who then proceeded on July 9th, 1998, to pass the famous Bangalore resolution that declared that Srila Prabhupada was the Current Link Diksa Guru for everyone in ISKCON for the next 10,000 years. A meeting which was to lead to the genesis of the IRM!

So if any of you wish to know which will be the next temple in ISKCON to join the IRM, the answer is simple - ask our GBC Chairman who he thinks should be selected to *fight and defeat* the IRM, and you will have your answer for the candidate most likely to join the IRM!
One cannot help wondering from all these actions of our esteemed Chairman, that either he is just plain incompetent, or more likely, a closet Ritvik, whose real aim is to gradually adjust the Guru system in ISKCON so that the 'Gurus' are made so impotent that they become non-different to Ritviks!
Either way I think we should be told! I am sure that H.H. Jayapataka Swami, the most 'high-profile' Guru in ISKCON, would be particularly interested to know what our Chairman's future plans for ISKCON's crumbling Guru system are!!

We had highlighted in our last newsletter how due to the inactivity of the official ISKCON leadership it had been left to the IRM to launch a media campaign to defend Srila Prabhupada from the horrendous claim made in the Gurukula Child Abuse law-suit that Srila Prabhupada was somehow implicated in the abuses. We gave some sample cuttings of the articles we had managed to get published. We are pleased to report that we are continuing to make progress in this campaign and we managed to get the following article published in the Times of India, which is the most prestigious newspaper in India. Please note how Srila Prabhupada is glorified in the final paragraph:

Thank you for taking the time to read this newsletter, and please keep your letters, and e-mail addresses of other devotees who should be added to our list, flowing in. 
A hard copy of our main position paper 'The Final Order' is available on request. 
If you would like to receive any of the back issues of the Newsletter please let me know.

No 1. Invitation to Srila Prabhupada's Vyasa Puja
No 2. GBC Lose First Round of Court Case 
No 3. The Story VNN Refused to Publish 
No 4. Poison Theorists Accuse Adri of Complicity 
No 5. Iskcon Continues to Promote Child Abusers 
No 6. Invitation to Malaysia 
No 7. United World Body Formed 
No 8. Does Srila Prabhupada Support Poisoning Theory?
No 9. PADA Attacks IRM Position 
No 10. PADA Continues to Present False Evidence 
No 11. GBC Funded Video says Ritvik Spiritual 
No 12. Child Rapist Selected by Gurus to Defend their Legitimacy 
No 13. GBC Facing Perjury Charge in Calcutta High Court 
No 14. Sahajiyaism Makes a Comeback in Iskcon.
No 15. Govt. Minister Inaugurates Bangalore Rathayatra 
No 16. Iskcon Calcutta Triumphs Following Arson Attack 
No 17. Fighting Lies with Truth Not More Lies
No 18. GBC Resolutions Continue to Provide Laughter
No 19. Indian Leaders Endorse IRM Position That GBC Confused 
No 20. Convicted Child Abuser Officially 'Returns' To Parampara
No 21. GBC Chairman Admits ISKCON 'Disintegrating' 
No 22. Krishna Confirms ISKCON Re-Birth
No 23. Hare Krishna Explosion Begins In New York as IRM Temple Opens 
No 24. IRM Launches Media Campaign to Defend Srila Prabhupada