GBC guru admits Great Guru Hoax, Part 3

Back to Prabhupada, Issue 20, Summer 2008

Following the revelation in our last issue of the Great Guru Hoax, Part 3 (where the position of diksa [initiating] guru is re-defined like a ritvik [officiating priest], or someone uses a ritvik position to get benefits like a diksa guru), we present herein another example of this phenomenon in action. The following is an explanation of “guru-tattwa” from GBC voted-in guru HH Hanumatpresaka Swami (“HPS”), taken from his website at http://www.jayarama.us/archives/guru-tattwa.txt [rev. 19 April 2008], archived May 4th, 2008:

“Who is the Diksa-guru, you or Prabahupada?
Answer depends on what you mean by Diksa guru. If you mean the person who chants on the beads and gives the name and makes the promise with his own lips that by chanting your prescribed number of rounds you are guaranteed to advance to the highest platform of Uttama-adhikari, then we are the Diksa-guru.”

Here HPS re-defines a diksa Guru as basically being a ritvik, a person who helps conduct the initiation ceremony on behalf of the diksa Guru.
Many of Srila Prabhupada’s disciples were initiated having never even met Srila Prabhupada, but rather had a ritvik representative chant on their beads, and after July 9th, 1977, also give them a name. And at the initiation fire yajna (ceremony), usually conducted by the temple president, a vow was made to chant 16 rounds and follow the 4 regulative principles, and in this way the person would advance spiritually. Paradoxically, in the same article, HPS also gives the correct definition of a diksa guru:

Srila Prabhupada: The real diksa guru HH Hanumatpresaka Swami: Pretending to be a diksa guru

“When we are serious and want to formally make a commitment to Krsna, then Diksa-gurus makes that link. […]. If you take Diksa-guru as that person who makes the contract with Krsna, then it is Prabhupada.” This is what Srila Prabhupada teaches: “It is a basic principle that one must accept a bona fide spiritual master in order to achieve the highest perfection of life, love of God. I thank all of you very much for accepting me as your spiritual master, and I promise that I will take you back to home, back to Godhead.” (Letter from Srila Prabhupada to initiated disciple, November 12th, 1971) This was the standard understanding every Srila Prabhupada disciple had when they got initiated by Srila Prabhupada, that he was the person taking them back to Krishna. Not that he was an officiator at the ceremony. That role was played by, not surprisingly, the officiators at the ceremony, such as the temple president and ritvik representatives. HPS has now turned everything on its head, claiming that a ritvik is the same as a diksa guru, just so he can justify himself and all the other ISKCON gurus taking the position of diksa guru, and having all their “disciples” worship them as such. Cheating par excellence - ‘We are not diksa gurus, so let’s just change the definition of a diksa guru, so that we can still usurp Srila Prabhupada’s position and take disciples for ourselves.’ The Great Guru Hoax has thus evolved from the Great Guru Hoax, Part 1, where 11 zonal “successors” at least pretended they were real diksa gurus, to the Great Guru Hoax, Part 3, where the ISKCON “gurus” have now just thrown in the towel, and admitted they are not diksa gurus at all, just ritviks, BUT who still want to keep all the benefits of being a diksa guru by insisting they take disciples who must continue to worship and accept them as if they were real diksa gurus.