Back To Prabhupada, Issue 58, Vol 2, 2018
elcome to Issue 58 of Back To Prabhupada (BTP).
Srila Prabhupada stated that a very important mission of ISKCON was to smash false ‘gurus':
"Similarly, this movement is advented to kill all the so-called yogis, svamis, avataras, rascals, philosophers, commentators. We have to kill."
(Morning Walk, 1/5/74)
He then continues to explain that by "kill", he means the use of criticism, rather than murder! (emphasis added):
"Kill means [...] So this is our one of the items, to vanquish all these rascals, so-called svamis. They say that "Why you criticize others also?" Because we have to vanquish them. Now these people cannot rise. When there is sunrise, there is no use of these glowworms. So this Krsna consciousness movement is Krsna Himself. Therefore they must be finished, all over the world. So-called religionists, so-called philosophers, so-called avataras, svamis, yogis – finished. Our program should be like that."
a) When Srila Prabhupada made this statement, he was specifically speaking of various false gurus outside ISKCON, and he states that this vanquishing of false gurus was only one of ISKCON's programs.
b) However, if these false gurus are inside ISKCON itself, the very movement that is supposed to be smashing the false gurus, then ISKCON would no longer be "Krishna Himself". And then vanquishing these false gurus would need to become the program for those who care about ISKCON. Because unless ISKCON itself is first saved, it cannot save anyone else.
c) And in this issue (please see pages 4 and 5), we provide evidence of this need from ISKCON's own leaders, who now accept what the IRM has been saying about ISKCON deviating, with an actual call for ISKCON to be saved!
d) Also in this issue, in the very next article, we provide evidence of just how grave the deviant situation in ISKCON is becoming, with an ISKCON leader openly discussing the need to change what Srila Prabhupada has given in the name of "innovation".
Therefore, we see both Srila Prabhupada and ISKCON's own leaders providing support for the IRM's program of finishing the false teachings within ISKCON.
The IRM is criticised that, by spreading our literatures such as BTP, our books and papers which expose the false gurus, we are just "criticising others". Our Interactive section usually provides evidence of this criticism in most issues! However, in the underlined part of the quotation from Srila Prabhupada just provided, it is interesting to note that he states that his ISKCON was also criticised in exactly the same way.
Thus, what matters is not the act of criticising, but whether those being criticised are actually false "so-called" gurus – because they actually do need to be finished, as Srila Prabhupada states. Which brings us to the following point. Every group usually claims that others may be on the false path. There is nothing unusual about that. However, what distinguishes the IRM is that it does not just claim anything, but actually proves what it states with its aforementioned literatures. Thus, though people may criticise that we are spreading "critical" literatures, if we did not do this, then those same people would claim that whatever we say is only "claimed" and not proven! Therefore, we must continue providing proof.
Hence, the IRM's program of combating the false gurus is both authorised and necessary. Indeed, the only way one could oppose the IRM's mission would be to claim that there are no false gurus in ISKCON, and therefore our actions are not just unnecessary but also offensive. However, we have been challenging since Day 1 for someone to show how what we present is untrue, and no one has been able to do this. On the contrary, the evidence and proofs continue to mount with every new BTP issue, IRM book and paper – with even ISKCON's leadership being forced to agree with us. Read inside and see for yourself!
Thank you and Hare Krishna.
In Srila Prabhupada's service,
Krishnakant
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