A devotee:
a) Sends out a letter regarding the very special appearance day of “our Spiritual Master His Divine Grace A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada”;
b) Subsequently urges other devotees to write Vyasa-Puja offerings to Srila Prabhupada as a way to “serve our eternal spiritual master”;
c) And states that a program celebrating Srila Prabhupada’s appearance will be an opportunity to “take advantage of his association”. *
If you thought this was a disciple of Srila Prabhupada communicating with other Srila Prabhupada disciples, you would be sorely mistaken. Rather, this is a letter from the chairman of ISKCON’s youth group, the Pandava Sena, to other youth members. These are the same members who are also steered away from accepting Srila Prabhupada as their eternal spiritual master, to instead take initiation from ISKCON’s physically present “living gurus” as their eternal spiritual masters. Such as, for example, HH Jayapataka Swami (“JPS”), who one must accept at initiation as being one’s guru eternally. The following is taken from the official initiation oath form for those who wish to take initiation from JPS:
“1. I HEREBY SOLEMNLY MAKE THE FOLLOWING VOWS:
I accept Srila Jayapataka Swami to be my initiating (diksa) and instructing (siksa) spiritual master (Guru) forever, even life after life.”
(“Initiation Acceptance Oath”, HH Jayapataka Swami)
Yet due to a combination of the IRM’s preaching and the deliberate confusion caused by ISKCON’s Great Guru Hoax, Part 3 (“GGH3”) program (wherein ISKCON leaders claim they are acting just like ritviks [officiating priests] but still take the benefits of being diksa gurus [initiating spiritual
masters] – see BTP Special issue 2 for full details), Srila Prabhupada has also now become everyone’s eternal spiritual master, whom one can associate with and must write Vyasa-Puja offerings to. Such confusion is exemplified by ISKCON GBC voted-in guru HH Sivarama Swami (“SRS”) who stated in his Vyasa-Puja offering to Srila Prabhupada earlier this year:
“How did Srila Prabhupada’s followers - especially the many who never met and will never get to meet him physically - come to know Srila Prabhupada? [...] In other words, complete knowledge of you is revealed to those devotees who worship you with exclusive devotion and uncompromised loyalty. [...] Everything devotees need to know about you, Srila Prabhupada, will be revealed to them through undeviating service to you.”
(Vyasa-Puja offering 2008, HH Sivarama Swami)
Having clearly stated that complete knowledge of Srila Prabhupada is revealed to anyone today who worships him with exclusive devotion and uncompromised loyalty; SRS ensures this can never happen by engaging the same ISKCON Pandava Sena youth group members who wish to accept Srila Prabhupada as their “eternal spiritual master”, in offering Vyasa-Puja homages to himself as their “Guru Maharaja” (as evidenced by his “Vyasa-Puja” book), thus ensuring their devotion and loyalty to Srila Prabhupada is automatically divided and compromised! Hopefully it will only be one more step before devotees will understand that acceptance of Srila Prabhupada as their “eternal spiritual master” does not require the intermediary of other “eternal spiritual masters”, and the IRM’s mission will have succeeded.
* Communications issued by ISKCON Pandava Sena Chairman, dated 9/9/08 and 15/9/08.
Iskcon Pandava Sena's youth group:
Promoting Srila Prabhupada as
"our eternal spiritual master"
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HH Jayapataka Swami:
Promoting himself as spiritual master "forever", "life after life"
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HH Sivarama Swami:
Promoting both himself and Srila Prabhupada as spiritual master
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