| Bait-and-switch in action |
Spring 2007
In previous issues of BTP we have highlighted the ISKCON guru art of
“bait-and-switch”, whereby the gurus attract (or “bait”) people to
ISKCON by presenting them with ISKCON’s real Guru Srila Prabhupada; and
then when someone joins ISKCON, the ISKCON gurus switch the genuine
spiritual master Srila Prabhupada with themselves as the links to Lord
Krishna! In case anyone thought we might have been exaggerating, please
read the following report submitted by ISKCON Pandharpur submitted to
ISKCON’s Indian Continental Committee:
| From: IMPM Pandharpur,
Maharashtra - IN To: ICC (Indian Continental Committee) Sent: Sun 31/12/2006 15:51 For 7 nights - From 22 to 28 December His Holiness Lokanath Swami Maharaja narrated the full ten chapters of the 7th Canto of the Srimad Bhagavatam depicting the pastimes of Lord Nrsimhadeva, His devotee Prahlad Maharaja, and the king of the demons -Hiranyakasipu. The response was overwhelming After the Katha, Maharaja was signing books for hours. He was swarmed with fans - all reaching out with their books and pens for his autograph. The amount of Bhagavad Gitas and other books distributed far exceeded last year’s scores. |
(See attached photo) Lokanath Swami: Signing
Srila Prabhupada’s books
As we see from the report, HH Lokanath Swami speaks for a full 7 nights
from Srila Prabhupada’s magnum opus Srimad-Bhagavatam to a large
audience. By this activity he acquires a swarm of “fans”, who then buy
these same books. However, the catch is that rather than tell these
eager purchasers of Srila Prabhupada’s books about the literary glories
of the real author, Lokanath Swami does a daring switch and spends
several hours autographing the books HIMSELF!
Any publishing or bookselling organization will tell you that a book
signing session is done by the author, as the following definitions make
clear:
| “Book signing is the
affixing of a signature to the title page or flyleaf of a book
by its author.” “A book signing is an event, usually at a bookstore or library where an author sits and signs books for a period of time.” |
Being unable to write his own books with the
same potency as Srila Prabhupada, Lokanath Swami does the next best
thing; he rides on the coat-tails of Srila Prabhupada, using Srila
Prabhupada’s books to extract as much mileage and followers as he can,
and then signs the same books as if he were the author!
This seems to be a disturbing trend among ISKCON’s gurus, with HH
Indradyumna Swami also admitting to signing Srila Prabhupada’s books:
| “Many people were
approaching me to sign the Bhagavad-gita and other books they
had purchased at our book shops.” (Diary of a Traveling Preacher, HH Indradyumna Swami, Volume 3, Chapter 36) |
And thus the displacement of Srila Prabhupada as ISKCON’s initiating Guru via the GBC-instigated guru bait-and-switch scam continues.