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Spring 2007

In previous issues of BTP we have highlighted the ISKCON guru art of “bait-and-switch”, whereby the gurus attract (or “bait”) people to ISKCON by presenting them with ISKCON’s real Guru Srila Prabhupada; and then when someone joins ISKCON, the ISKCON gurus switch the genuine spiritual master Srila Prabhupada with themselves as the links to Lord Krishna! In case anyone thought we might have been exaggerating, please read the following report submitted by ISKCON Pandharpur submitted to ISKCON’s Indian Continental Committee:

From: IMPM Pandharpur, Maharashtra - IN
To: ICC (Indian Continental Committee)
Sent: Sun 31/12/2006 15:51

For 7 nights - From 22 to 28 December His Holiness Lokanath Swami Maharaja narrated the full ten chapters of the 7th Canto of the Srimad Bhagavatam depicting the pastimes of Lord Nrsimhadeva, His devotee Prahlad Maharaja, and the king of the demons -Hiranyakasipu.
The response was overwhelming After the Katha, Maharaja was signing books for hours. He was swarmed with fans - all reaching out with their books and pens for his autograph. The amount of Bhagavad Gitas and other books distributed far exceeded last year’s scores.
lokLokanath Swami:
Signing Srila Prabhupada’s books

As we see from the report, HH Lokanath Swami speaks for a full 7 nights from Srila Prabhupada’s magnum opus Srimad-Bhagavatam to a large audience. By this activity he acquires a swarm of “fans”, who then buy these same books. However, the catch is that rather than tell these eager purchasers of Srila Prabhupada’s books about the literary glories of the real author, Lokanath Swami does a daring switch and spends several hours autographing the books HIMSELF!

Any publishing or bookselling organization will tell you that a book signing session is done by the author, as the following definitions make clear:

“Book signing is the affixing of a signature to the title page or flyleaf of a book by its author.”
 
“A book signing is an event, usually at a bookstore or library where an author sits and signs books for a period of time.”

Being unable to write his own books with the same potency as Srila Prabhupada, Lokanath Swami does the next best thing; he rides on the coat-tails of Srila Prabhupada, using Srila Prabhupada’s books to extract as much mileage and followers as he can, and then signs the same books as if he were the author!

This seems to be a disturbing trend among ISKCON’s gurus, with HH Indradyumna Swami also admitting to signing Srila Prabhupada’s books:

“Many people were approaching me to sign the Bhagavad-gita and other books they had purchased at our book shops.”
(Diary of a Traveling Preacher, HH Indradyumna Swami, Volume 3, Chapter 36)

And thus the displacement of Srila Prabhupada as ISKCON’s initiating Guru via the GBC-instigated guru bait-and-switch scam continues.