ne of the hardest points for devotees to grasp regarding such a monumental Guru hoax, is how so many people could have all got it wrong for so long. Indeed, this is another one of the main arguments used by the GBC to distract devotees from the 6 irrefutable proofs which have already been presented. However, trying to determine the truth on the strength of numbers is not valid, and instead we must simply go by the evidence. For a Guru hoax similar to what happened in ISKCON had already occurred, with the very institution which preceded ISKCON. This was the Gaudiya Matha, or the society founded by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Maharaja, the spiritual master of Srila Prabhupada. Here again, a society of many supposedly 'advanced devotees' deviated wholesale from the order of their Guru as soon as he departed. And on paper, these devotees from the Gaudiya Matha had much better credentials than the current ISKCON Gurus, with many of them having being trained as devotees of Krishna from birth, chanting 64 rounds of the Hare Krishna mahamantra every day etc. Though in this case Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Maharaja did not decree a permanent ritvik system, but rather declared that a self-effulgent acharya would emerge in the future, who, as it turned out, was Srila Prabhupada (who did decree a permanent ritvik system with only himself as the Guru for ISKCON). We shall see that a similar mechanism was used to cover up the truth and deny the real Guru - who in both hoaxes was to be Srila Prabhupada!
As we have noted, before his departure Srila Prabhupada nominated no one as a Guru to succeed him. However, his leading secretaries who had been appointed only as ritviks, or his representatives, made plans to unauthorisedly install themselves as successor acharyas (Gurus).
This was the Guru hoax part 1. The Gaudiya Matha did the same thing, except they installed one acharya for the world, whereas in ISKCON they divided the world up into 11 zones, and installed 11 acharyas:
"Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, at the time of his departure, requested all his disciples to form a governing body and conduct missionary activities cooperatively. He did not instruct a particular man to become the next acarya. But just after his passing away, his leading secretaries made plans, without authority, to occupy the post of acarya, and they split into two factions over who the next acarya would be. Consequently, both factions were asara, or useless, because they had no authority, having disobeyed the order of the spiritual master."
(Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Adi-lila, 12.8, purport)
"In the latter days of my Guru Maharaja he was very disgusted. [...] Still he requested his disciples to form a strong Governing body for preaching the cult of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. He never recommended anyone to be acarya of the Gaudiya Math. But Sridhara Maharaja is responsible for disobeying this order of Guru Maharaja, and he and others who are already dead unnecessarily thought that there must be one acarya. If Guru Maharaja could have seen some one who was qualified at that time to be acarya he would have mentioned. Because on the night before he passed away he talked of so many things, but never mentioned an acarya. His idea was acarya was not to be nominated amongst the governing body. He said openly you make a GBC and conduct the mission. So his idea was amongst the members of GBC who would come out successful and self effulgent acarya would be automatically selected [...] So Sridhara Maharaja and his two associate gentlemen unauthorisedly selected one acarya and later it proved a failure."
(Srila Prabhupada Letter to Rupanuga, 28/4/74)
Subsequently with the failure of foisting 11 acharyas on the movement, ISKCON responded by allowing many others to also have a shot at posing as unauthorised Gurus. So today we have over 70 different Guru cults all vying for a piece of the ISKCON pie. This was the great Guru hoax part 2.
Most of these Gurus are satisfied simply with expanding their own Guru cult. The Gaudiya Matha also split up into many different mathas, each with their own unauthorised Guru in charge, following the failure of their acharya programme, with all these mathas also simply being satisfied with strengthening their own Guru cult:
"Why this Gaudiya Matha failed? Because they tried to become more than Guru. […] They declared some unfit person to become acarya. Then another man came, then another acarya, another acarya."
(Srila Prabhupada Room Conversation, 16/8/76)
"The result is now everyone is claiming to be acarya even though they may be kanistha adhikari with no ability to preach. In some of the camps the acarya is being changed three times a year."
(Srila Prabhupada Letter to Rupanuga, 28/4/74)
"All are satisfied with a place for residence in the name of a temple, they engage disciples to get food stuff by transcendental devices and eat and sleep. They have no idea or brain how to broadcast the cult of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu."
(Srila Prabhupada Letter to Rupanuga, 28/4/74)
Like Srila Prabhupada, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta
was also betrayed by his leading secretaries.
So the idea that large numbers of devotees, who externally appear to be "fixed-up" and "following", cannot all be wrong and deviate from the order of the Guru, is not true, having happened not once, but twice. And both occasions coincided with the acharya in our line leaving the planet, i.e. two out of the last two times, or a 100% record of deviation! So we should only be guided by the actual orders of Srila Prabhupada, and not by what the majority appear to be following. Also, the fact that this Guru hoax happened previously in the Gaudiya Matha shows that taking shelter in that institution, as unfortunately many from ISKCON have done, is also not a guarantee against being misled. Rather, shelter must only be taken at the lotus feet of Srila Prabhupada, the true acharya for the predicted golden age (duration another 9500 years), via the ritvik system he set up.
Those who ignore the lessons of history are condemned to repeat the same mistakes. Hence, there is no need for us to again ignore the actual orders of the acharya, under force of following the opinion of the majority.
We must be guided by the truth and not the force of numbers.
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