Spring 2007
In this page our story highlights the amazing impact BTP has had in such
a short time, from being a supposedly unknown renegade magazine to a
journal which is recognised as being essential to ISKCON’s intellectual
vitality (please see page 12).
In the Srimad-Bhagavatam, Srila Prabhupada states:
 |
“The mass of people follow the example of
a leader in society and imitate his behaviour. They accept as
evidence whatever the leader accepts. People in general are not very advanced in knowledge by which to discriminate between religion and irreligion. The innocent, unenlightened citizen is like an ignorant animal sleeping in peace with its head on the lap of its master, faithfully believing in the master’s protection.” (Srimad-Bhagavatam 6.2.4-5) |
ISKCON devotees, of course, will preach on the
basis of this and other statements to point out how Godless society is,
and therefore the general populace must accept Krishna consciousness for
enlightenment. But the above statement today applies most accurately not
to the Godless society outside ISKCON’s walls, but actually to ISKCON
itself. For it is ISKCON which is claiming more than anyone else to be
able to “discriminate between religion and irreligion”, but which is
actually following the examples and imitating the behaviour of its
unauthorised guru leaders by blindly accepting as evidence whatever its
members are told, faithfully believing in the protection of these
unauthorised, fallible gurus.
BTP has demonstrated, and continues to demonstrate with each issue, that
ISKCON today is unable to discriminate between truth (religion) and
illusion (irreligion). BTP continues to present mountains of documented
evidence of how badly ISKCON has strayed from Srila Prabhupada’s
instructions, as the original deviation of perpetrating the Great Guru
Hoax has expanded into other deviations of commercialisation,
secularisation, Hinduisation, demigod worship, offending Srila
Prabhupada, lying, cheating etc, all mired in and based on mass
contradiction.
And nothing we have stated has ever been refuted. On the contrary, as we
saw from the statements of HH Prahladananda
Swami in the last issue, and now His Grace Kripamoya prabhu in this
issue (p. 12), our conclusions are being confirmed more and more.
If ISKCON itself is in illusion, then there is no point preaching,
otherwise we run the risk of misleading everyone else. Unless we are
firmly and completely established in the truth ourselves, there is no
use to just going on ‘preaching’:
“Yes, you have got the right idea when you say that your preaching work shall be directed toward the children and the devotees and not so much to the Dallas public. We may thin the milk till it becomes useless, or we may boil it until it becomes thick and sweet, so now we have got enough followers, let us train them up perfectly in the philosophy and activities of Krsna Consciousness way of life. Unless all of my students become very much fixed up in their spiritual progress, what is the use of so many programs for expansion?”
(Srila Prabhupada Letter, June 20th, 1972)
Thus the issues raised by The
Final Order and BTP are not simply “fault-finding”, but rather go to
the very heart of what the Krishna consciousness movement is supposed to
stand for, and as Professor Kim Knott states in her Foreword to The
Final Order, “every devotee has a real stake in the matter”. These
issues need to be settled before one can consider oneself as faithfully
carrying on Srila Prabhupada’s mission.
Indeed, the IRM contends that a movement which claims to be following
the teachings of Srila Prabhupada but which at the same time outlaws
Srila Prabhupada as the Guru to whom one exclusively surrenders, is not
actually Srila Prabhupada’s mission at all! ISKCON is supposed to be
preaching the truth to others, and yet by its own admission its leaders
do not have the foggiest idea of the truth themselves on the most
fundamental of issues.
What is Srila Prabhupada’s position?
| “Er, we are still ‘researching’ this,
and have set up a ‘committee’ to examine the issue!” (see BTP Issue 13, “GBC debates Srila Prabhupada’s position – 30 years on”). |
Does a person have to get re-initiated if their guru falls?
| “Er, we are still ‘researching’ this,
and have set up a ‘committee’ to examine the issue! (see BTP Issue 11, “GBC Resolutions 2006 fiasco”). |
How are initiations supposed to go on?
| “Er, we do not currently even have a
position paper, good or bad, regarding this, since we had to
ignominiously withdraw the paper we did have, since it was full
of “lies”, and instead replace it with a statement of belief
which simply said ‘we are gurus because we believe we are’”! (see BTP Special Summary Issue, “GBC defeated by The Final Order”). |
And so on and so on (see all previous BTP issues!). As Srila Prabhupada so wonderfully sums up:
“You cannot teach your own people, and you are going to teach others. “Physician heal thyself.” ”
(Srila Prabhupada Morning Walk, April 7th, 1975).