Back To Prabhupada, Issue 40, Summer 2013
n the article on Techniques of Mass Deception ("TMDs") on page 3, one of the techniques featured was "TMD4: Phantom Quote", whereby quotes are attributed to Srila Prabhupada, for which there exists no recorded evidence. Though this technique is widely used by ISKCON's leadership, we detail here how it can be ruled out as invalid by a rule they themselves support.
The following is an exampleof the Phantom Quote:
"In your transcendental literatures you repeatedly mention how you hope for the day when all your followers will be initiating spiritual masters initiating even 10,000 or more disciples into the guru parampara."
(Jayapataka Swami, Vyasa-puja offering to Srila Prabhupada, 1998)
The general practice in ISKCON's "parallel world" (please see BTP 35) of the "cheaters and cheated" is to simply accept such false claims without making any attempt at verification. Yet, a simple check will show that Srila Prabhupada never stated even once in his "transcendental literatures", or anywhere else for that matter, that his disciples "will be initiating spiritual masters initiating even 10,000 or more disciples", never mind "repeatedly". Call this "projection" or simply "lying", but this is an egregious example of "wishful thinking". Jayapataka Swami wishes to be an initiating spiritual master who initiates "10,000 or more disciples", and so he just pretends that Srila Prabhupada has stated this in his books! Actually, this "10,000" disciples idea comes not from Srila Prabhupada's books but the "diary" of a prominent GBC guru hoax supporter, who claims:
"In the evening, when the GBC men filed into his room [...] He told them that just as he had made thousands of disciples he wants each one of them to make ten thousand each."
(Hari-sauri Dasa, A Transcendental Diary, Vol.1, "7/3/1976")
Subsequent events illustrate the unreliabilty of depending on such "Prabhupada said" stories as an alternative to Srila Prabhupada's actual recorded words.
"3) In the absence of Srila Prabhupada what is the procedure for first, second, and sannyasa initiations?
4) What is the relationship of the person who gives this initiation to the person he give it to?"
The above questions are from the GBC Minutes Book ("MB"), which was presented in the GBC's "ISKCON Journal", 1990. This MB states that the above questions were to be submitted to Srila Prabhupada by the GBC as the result of an extraordinary GBC meeting held in Vrndavana, India, on May 28th, 1977.
Clearly, if Srila Prabhupada had already told all the same GBC men asking these questions to initiate 10,000 of their own disciples in 1976 as claimed, there would be no need for them to ask how initiations were to continue and to whom the disciples belonged!
The MB further states that Srila Prabhupada gave the following answer to the above questions:
"2) Srila Prabhupada said he will appoint several devotees who shall perform initiaton in the future, even after his disappearance. The disciples they accept shall be their disciples and Srila Prabhupada will be their grand spiritual master."
Subsequently, the GBC admitted that this answer is false. GBC resolution 409/2004 ditched the GBC's paper "On my Order" Understood which claimed Srila Prabhupada said he will "appoint", "select", "choose" and "designate" devotees to be diksa gurus. (Please see BTP 17, "GBC bombshell: 'We have no guru order'"). Therefore, the devotees had simply ended up hearing what they wanted to hear Srila Prabhupada saying, rather than what Srila Prabhupada actually said!
The previous sections highlighted that to be certain of Srila Prabhupada's orders, we need to rely on Srila Prabhupada's own recorded orders, and not the "wishful thinking and hearing" of others. A "rule" supported by ISKCON's leadership also calls for Srila Prabhupada's recorded orders, rather than such "Prabhupada said" stories. HH Jayadvaita Swami ("JAS")'s paper Where the Rtvik People are Wrong is routinely promoted by other ISKCON leaders as an authoritative "rebuttal" against the IRM's position, and has been translated into various languages. The paper's underlying reasoning is given in its introduction and conclusion, in the form of the following "rule of thumb":
"If Srila Prabhupada didn't clearly and definitely say it, and if it first came up after 1977, whatever it is, don't trust it."
This "rule of thumb" immediately rules out as invalid the TMD of claiming what Srila Prabhupada "said" without offering any recorded evidence from Srila Prabhupada. Because only if a statement exists in either writing or on tape from Srila Prabhupada, can one claim that Srila Prabhupada "clearly and definitely" said it! Thus, ISKCON's leaders are caught in a trap of their own making, and must jettison their reliance on wishful thinking and hearing, which is not documented with recorded evidence from Srila Prabhupada.
It appears that ISKCON's leadership does not in any case really believe the claim that Srila Prabhupada "wants" all of his disciples to initiate 10,000 disciples. Otherwise they would not have permitted a number of their gurus to voluntarily "retire" from initiating disciples before the gurus had reached "10,000" disciples. One prominent example of such a guru is JAS himself, who was allowed to stop initiating after initiating just 3 disciples. Rather, having no evidence in the form of actual orders from Srila Prabhupada with which to support their guru hoax, such "Prabhupada said" claims are used instead by the GBC as a substitute.
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a) By their acceptance of JAS's "anti-rtvik" paper and its "rule of thumb", ISKCON's leadership have unwittingly accepted an argument which can be used against them to eliminate various "Prabhupada said" stories that they rely on. Thus, their own standard can be used to always demand recorded evidence directly from Srila Prabhupada on tape or in writing, and hence one of their TMDs is countered.
b) If the GBC had evidence in the form of actual recorded orders from Srila Prabhupada, there would be no need for them to take shelter of such "wishful thinking" or what others supposedly either "understood", or "heard" from Srila Prabhupada. They could simply produce Srila Prabhupada directly stating what they claim, and that would be that! |
HH Jayapataka Swami:
10,000 imagination |
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