Back To Prabhupada, Issue 49, Autumn 2015
n page 3 we highlighted how prominent ISKCON guru and GBC HH Radhanath Swami ("RNS") usurps Srila Prabhupada's position as ISKCON's diksa guru by engaging in the guru hoax. In addition, RNS also runs his own mission which engages in deviant cheating activities. All emphases added.
Please see the invitation flyer opposite, issued by the ISKCON temple in Chowpatty, Mumbai, India. The website of this temple states that it operates "under the guidance of His Holiness Radhanath Swami", and indeed RNS is also the GBC for this temple. As the invitation makes clear, this temple is running "Regular Yoga Classes" inside the temple's own "Bhakti Vedant Hall", whose sole purpose is to "burn fat, tone up and get free from all mental and physical stress". Yet, Srila Prabhupada specifically condemns offering such material activities in the name of "Yoga" as cheating:
"It is not that one attends yoga classes to reduce fat or to keep the body fit for sense gratification. This is not the goal of yoga, but people are taught this way because they want to be cheated. [...] The real purpose for practicing yoga is to realize that I am not this body."
(The Path of Perfection, Chapter 8)
Yet, an ISKCON temple that is supposed to be used exclusively for preaching Srila Prabhupada's teachings, is being used instead to offer such cheating Yoga. And by allowing the use of ISKCON's name and temple, RNS is sanctioning offering these cheating activities in Srila Prabhupada's name.
On his website RNS promotes a regular government-sanctioned academic school:
"Gopal's Garden High School, guided by Radhanath Swami, aims to build that proper character. Located in suburban Mumbai, the school is affiliated with the University of Cambridge and has 178 students enrolled."
On his website RNS also promotes a statement which claims that this activity is based on the "vision of Srila Prabhupada" as given by RNS:
"Gopal's Garden School was established in July 2001. The vision of Srila Prabhupada was given to us by Radhanath Swami and based on this vision we framed our mission statement and school objectives."
- Principal, Gopal's Garden School
But such schools are not authorised by Srila Prabhupada:
"It is not sannyasi business. For starting a school, the government is there".
(Room Conversation, 30/7/73)
"Our school will not be government recognized because we cannot follow the government syllabus. We want to teach only Krishna Consciousness."
(Srila Prabhupada Letter, 12/4/72)
Thus, not only does RNS deviate from Srila Prabhupada's teachings, but he cheats by claiming that this deviation is authorised by Srila Prabhupada.
In addition to running a school, RNS also promotes a whole host of philanthropic projects, and in an interview he spoke about them as follows:
"We have a hospital. We do a lot of charitable eye camps and other such medical work [...] And for this purpose we started Bhaktivedanta Hospital, named after our beloved guru ACBSP, who taught us to be instruments of compassion for the body, mind and soul."
(RNS interview, 13/7/10)
He claims that such activities are based on Srila Prabhupada's teachings regarding "compassion for the body". But such activities are not authorised by Srila Prabhupada:
"They are very much puffed up, that "We are doing this, opening hospital and school, and philanthropism, nationalism." Is there any such thing in the Bhagavad-gita? Is there any advice that "You open hospital, school and do this philanthropic work"? No."
(Srila Prabhupada Lecture, 3/8/73)
Thus, again, not only does RNS deviate from Srila Prabhupada's teachings, but he cheats by claiming that this deviation is authorised by Srila Prabhupada.
RNS glorifies a number of non-Krishna consciousness teachers:
"Anandamayi Ma was like a mother to me. Neem Keroli Baba, his joyfulness, his enthusiasm to give God's love [...] Swami Rama, Swami Muktananda, J. Krishnamurti, Satyanarayan Goenka-ji of Vipassana meditation teaching, [...] I met with Swami Satchidananda and BKS Iyengar [...] I met His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada. [...] In his teachings I found a wisdom that included all that I had learned from these other teachers. I am still trying to share the precious gifts that he gave me and all of these other great saints, what they have given me".
(RNS interview, 13/7/10)
1) RNS calls these teachers "great saints", and their teachings "precious gifts" which he is trying to share along with Srila Prabhupada's teachings.
2) However, these teachers preach philosophies that are in contradiction to Srila Prabhupada's teachings and that do not accept that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Indeed, one of them does not even accept the guru:
Srila Prabhupada: "Nowadays, some of the rascals, they are preaching openly that you haven't got to go to a guru. Huh? Is it not?"
Indian man: "Krishnamurti is..."
Srila Prabhupada: "Yes, this rascal was speaking like that."
(Morning Walk, 20/12/75)
3) Thus, their teachings are not part of Srila Prabhupada's teachings, but RNS claims what he learned from them is "included" in the teachings of Srila Prabhupada.
Thus, RNS promotes a false equivalence between Srila Prabhupada and these teachers, whom he calls "great saints", as if they are on the same level: both are giving "precious gifts" which he is sharing, and the teachings he learned from them are included within Srila Prabhupada's teachings.
These deviations are based on compromising Srila Prabhupada's teachings in order to gain popularity by appealing to what pleases the general public. It is bad enough that RNS engages in these deviations. But he should at least have the honesty and integrity to completely separate these deviations from the pure teachings of Srila Prabhupada.
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