Back To Prabhupada, Issue 54, Winter 2016/17
he article in BTP Issue 52 titled "The Danger of Following the PFP (Prabhupada-Free Paradigm)", addressed the claim that the guru hoax could provide spiritual progress -- a claim made by an opponent of the guru hoax, Madhu Pandit Dasa ("MPD"). With many thousands of devotees having once followed guru hoaxers, the subject matter of following false gurus was of great interest, and we therefore received many requests for further elaboration.
While referring to the guru hoaxers and why one allegedly makes spiritual progress following them, an argument made by MPD not covered in the previous article was that:
"somebody who is not very qualified can teach someone, and take someone, make someone progress up to his level."
(MPD Interview, published 29/6/16)
This assumes that a guru hoaxer must have already achieved a certain high level of spiritual advancement that his disciple could progress to. However, the guru hoaxers have made it their life's mission to usurp Srila Prabhupada's position and oppose him. Since they were not authorised by Srila Prabhupada to become diksa gurus, they have therefore taken up their "guru business" purely for self-aggrandisement. Srila Prabhupada describes such persons in these terms:
"Sri Isopanisad confirms that these pseudo religionists are heading toward the most obnoxious place in the universe after the completion of their spiritual master business, which they conduct simply for sense gratification."
(Sri Isopanisad, Mantra 12)
MPD himself states that the result of this guru hoaxer program is that "all of Prabhupada's wealth and assets, meant for Krishna's service, have been looted and stolen", and that it was the "greatest disservice to the movement", "spiritual poison" (MPD, Srila Prabhupada Vyasa-puja Offering 2006), and so on. Thus, "progressing" to the level of the guru hoaxers would actually mean going backwards spiritually, rather than progressing.
Additionally, if the argument from MPD we just quoted was correct, a major self-defeating contradiction arises.
As detailed in the previous BTP 52 article, MPD had agreed that spiritual progress is made by the disciple of a guru hoaxer due to a combination of the guru hoaxer's "guruship" acting and the chanting of Hare Krishna. However, the guru hoaxers are also supposedly chanting Hare Krishna, and thus, by this argument they would also be making spiritual progress due to the chanting, just as their disciples are. After all, it is their bona fide "guruship" that is supposedly making this spiritual progress even possible. Thus, a disciple will progress up to the guru hoaxer's supposedly higher spiritual level, which by virtue of the guru hoaxer chanting Hare Krishna would also be increasing. Which would mean, that by MPD's argument, the disciple of the guru hoaxer will actually make unlimited spiritual progress by following the guru hoaxer, since he keeps moving up to the guru hoaxer's continually advancing spiritual level, and hence there is no reason to ever reject him!
A challenge was made that even though the guru hoaxers may be disobeying Srila Prabhupada, their disciples are not, as they are sincerely and strictly following their gurus. However, as the guru hoaxer was not authorised by Srila Prabhupada, he was never a guru to begin with:
"Guru cannot be self-made. No. There is no such single instance throughout the whole Vedic literature. And nowadays, so many rascals, they are becoming guru without any authority. That is not guru. You must be authorized. [...] As soon as the parampara is lost [...] immediately finished. The spiritual potency finished."
(Srila Prabhupada Lecture, 27/2/77)
Thus, we are dealing with "rascals" who have no spiritual potency, not bona fide gurus. Which means that no spiritual advancement is possible, because spiritual advancement can only come by the grace of the guru:
"yasyaprasadan na gatih kuto ‘pi
"Without the grace of the spiritual master one cannot make any advancement." "
(Perfect Questions, Perfect Answers)
Grace of the guru, which, by definition, cannot even arise if you have no bona fide guru!
"more than fifty percent of the gurus appointed by GBC have fallen down. [...] This is the real issue. There is betrayal of faith. Faith is extremely important for spiritual life, and that is why Gaudiya Vaishnava Siddhanta says one should have implicit faith in the spiritual master, as much as he has in God."
(MPD Interview, published 29/6/16)
MPD states this as the answer to what the "risk" is in following the guru hoax -- that the risk is a guru "falling-down", because it leads to loss of faith. But when the guru "falls down", he is exposed as being the false guru that he is. Then the faith of the disciple in this false guru is broken, his unauthorised relationship with the guru hoaxer is broken, and most importantly, the disciple now has the opportunity to come to the correct path by accepting Srila Prabhupada as his guru, which has actually happened in many cases. At the very least, the disciple will have stopped being on a deviant path. Otherwise, his faith in the guru hoaxer would remain intact, and he could continue to follow the guru hoaxer for life, and thus go to hell:
"if he is a pure devotee he can deliver others, he can become spiritual master. But unless he is on that platform he should not attempt it. Then both of them will to go to hell, like blind men leading the blind."
(Srila Prabhupada Letter, 14/12/72)
Or, to quote MPD, his whole life would be "lost in the course of following a deviant path" (MPD, Srila Prabhupada Vyasa-puja Offering 2010).
So, yes, guru falldowns can have a devastating effect, but more devastating are the consequences of continuing to follow the guru hoaxers. Thus, MPD is actually saying that the great risk with the guru hoax is not that it will continue, but that it may end up being stopped!
These extra examples demonstrate that, just as we saw in BTP 52's article, the PFP is so dangerous that it will lead even one who claims to oppose the guru hoax to unwittingly support it! The solution is simply to always quote Srila Prabhupada, rather than offer one's own arguments.
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