To Our Precious Gurukulis: Karmic Speculation Cannot Build a Dharmic Nation

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Karmic Speculation Cannot Build a Dharmic Nation

Bhakti Ananda Goswami Repudiates the ‘Bad Karma’ Framing, Blaming, Shaming and

Intimidating of Abused Gurukulis and Other Devotees.

 

This is part of a letter written by Bhakti Ananda Goswami to an advocate of the

gurukulis’ cause.

 

Hare Krishna! Sri Sri Guru and Gauranga ki jaya !

Dear Gurukuli,

 

Please accept my humble obeisances.

....

My mood is to encourage and support the gurukulis (and their parents) in any way

that I can, to assert themselves as a dharmic corrective to the sins and crimes

committed against Srila Prabhupada, and so many of his sincere devotee

followers and their children, in ISKCON / the movement. The perpetrators of

these evils have had the audacity to try to guilt-trip their victims with ‘bad

karma’ indoctrination! They have abused the doctrine of ‘bad karma’ to try to

modify their own culpability and to intimidate their victims into shame and

silence. Like most ‘battered wives’ or victims of child abuse, the abused may

already feel responsible for their own abuse. So, the abusers in the movement

have been very effective for decades in further shaming and silencing their

victims with the additional religious astra / tool of ‘bad karma’ reasoning

(‘you only got a token of what you deserved’). Thus it has taken so long for

these crimes and sins to be exposed and addressed. All the while, the movement

has been polluted and crippled by these festering evils. To purge the movement

it is therefore necessary that devotees overcome their ‘battered wife’-like

syndrome, to escape the idea that it was their own fault that they were abused,

and that they ‘deserved’ it.

When God manifests himself in the saha world of birth, death, disease and old

age, ‘demons’ try to destroy him! Demonic persons (those beings with an

envious and adversarial or hateful attitude) attack his devotees as well. The

scriptures of the world describe this conflict. “Wolves in sheep’s clothing”

try to destroy the work of God by corrupting it, and devotees are tortured and

martyred for their faith from age to age.

When my children and I were first at Dallas gurukula, I repeatedly heard that

Srila Prabhupada was saying that the demigods were standing in line to take

birth in the Hare Krishna movement. He said that every child in the movement

was very precious, and that these children were pious souls who could help to

save the world. Is this picture consistent with the idea that some huge

percentage of the gurukulis were such monsters in a pervious life, that they

karmically received such horrific abuse in the gurukulas, as only a ‘token’ of

what they really deserved? And how could they carry on Sri Chaitanya

Mahaprabhu’s world-saving mission if they were so traumatized in ‘devotee’

care, that they became ‘shell-shocked’ and left the movement in fear and

loathing of Krishna, Srila Prabhupada and anything to do with them? So how

insane is it for us to be expected to believe that child abuse and wife

beating, drug dealing, murders, threats and intimidation, etc. were part of

Srila Prabhupada’s and Krishna’s plan?

These things were not Sri Krishna’s positive will for his beloved devotees!

They were allowed because of God’s permissive will, in that we all have

free-will, and thus the demoniac are even facilitated by nature to carry out

their malevolent desires in this material world. Atrocities committed against

the Lord’s devotees are not his positive will, but he permits those of the

demoniac mentality to commit them, and in fact will ultimately bring good from

such abuse, just as he brought the greatest good (universal salvation) from the

greatest evil (dei-cide) of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ Purusha yupa dhvaja

(as the cosmic guru and intercessor). “All things work together for the good

for those who love the Lord”. In fact, the Lord is so merciful, that he will

save not only his abused devotees, but their abusers as well! His devotees are

so magnanimous and forgiving, that they will even intercede on the behalf of

their abusers for their abusers’ salvation! Thus Jesus prayed “Father forgive

them, for they know not what they do” as he was being crucified.

The Apostolic (Catholic) Church teaches that this forgiveness saves souls from

eternal separation from God, but it does not necessarily save them from the

temporal reaction for a particular sin. In the cosmic intercessory

self-sacrifice of Purusha as the original spiritual master, all things have

been reconciled to God the ‘Father’ through, with, in and by Lord Baladeva as

the Rig Vedic Purusha yupa dhvaja. This is why the Vedic (like the related

Jewish, Greek, Egyptian etc.) sacrificial system was one of vicarious atonement

for the sins of the individual, the community or nation. However, the

‘material’ working-out of the temporal reaction or punishment for sin was

understood as taking place in the corporeal ‘mystical body’ of the sacrificed

cosmic Purusha, who ‘takes away the sins of the world.’ This is where divine

law, dharma and justice enter the picture.

Eternal separation from God (damnation) and temporal punishment (or the

reaction) for sin are two different issues. The guru may save our soul,

without saving us from some reaction that we need to learn from. God desires

our salvation, but he may still require us to obey his laws. It is not that we

can commit sins and crimes, and because God wants us to come home, ‘back to

Godhead,’ that we do not have to be corrected and purged of those evils and the

tendency towards them that we have acquired. Thus law is needed and dharma

protectors are required to enforce God’s law. But the strange thing that has

occurred in Hinduism, is that due to impersonalism and related abuse of the

doctrine of karma, dharma has been neglected. Impersonal traditions like

Mayavada, Jainism and Theravadin Buddhism have corrupted the doctrines of karma

and dharma, leading to a kind of pacifism that causes the victims of a-dharmic

demonic behavior to accept demonic attack and abuse without resistance, revolt

or requiring restitution. The role of the dharma protector, and even the clear

sense of dharma itself, has been lost in the impersonalist corruption of the

doctrine of karma.

As a result, kshatriya dharma has become almost non-existent and the

perpetrators of evil have confused the masses, teaching them that they should

accept abuse as God’s positive will for them! Thus over centuries, the long

abuse of the doctrine of karma has been used to create the ‘Hindu’ abominations

of the birth caste system, and the oppression of women and other classes of

dis-empowered persons within ‘Hinduism.’ Not only in Hinduism but globally,

abusers / oppressors have long abused doctrines of karma and divine favor or

condemnation to justify such evils as birth caste-ism, racism, chattel slavery

and sexism, etc. ‘Hinduism’ is not Vaishnavism, which is about the

dispensation of Godhead’s love and grace, set within a morally benevolent

social framework of dharma, which is protected by clear-headed, moral ‘dharma

protectors’. The abuse of children in the Hare Krishna movement is an

extension of the adharmic impersonalism problem within so-called Hinduism.

Women, children and humble gentle devotees did not experience that they lived

in a protective, dharmic, sattvic Vaishnava society, where sins and crimes

against them were not tolerated. Instead they were taught that they were

suffering due to their ‘bad karma’ for being born as women, or ‘karmically’

deserving child abuse or wife battery!!!

As long as this perverse kind of corrupt a-dharmic ‘Hindu’ thinking is a

controlling factor in the Hare Krishna movement, the movement will be crippled

by it, and the establishment of varnashrama dharma will be impossible.

Properly educated kshatriyas (dharma protectors) are not paralyzed by

speculation about remote causation or karmic analysis paralysis. They know the

clear law of God and are able to act immediately to enforce it. Their job is

not to ferret-out the remote causes of suffering (the ‘original sin’ or ‘bad

karma’ of a soul). Their job is to identify the recent and present victims of

crimes, and those immediately responsible and guilty of perpetrating those

crimes. God’s law as dharma looks at the immediate proximate causes of

suffering in the social body. The man who beats his wife is guilty of a sin

and a crime. The person who abuses a child is guilty of a sin and a crime.

Period. It is that simple. These perpetrators are the immediate, close-up

proximate causes of their victims’ suffering, and the law / dharma is not

concerned (nor can it be) with any more remote causes. Exoteric law and

justice in a dharmic society functions only due to the cause and immediate

effect of ‘karma.’ Philosophers and theologians may be concerned with remote

or even ‘original’ sin as causation, but the law of the state dharma protectors

is concerned with present crime prevention, crime identification and punishment.

Dharma protectors are also concerned with criminals making restitution to

injured society and individuals for the sufferings caused by their crimes.

Before the law, there are definitiely innocent and guilty parties, victims and

perpetrators.

 

By immediately dealing with the perpetrators of sins and crimes, dharma

protectors address the immediate causes of suffering in Purusha’s varnashrama

dharma sacramental (mystical, incarnate) social body. This is called

‘justice.’ The brahmins and kshatriyas are supposed to define and enforce

God’s law / dharma. They are not supposed to philosophically justify and excuse

evildoers, or protect the perpetrators of sins and crimes from their victims!

They are supposed to protect (by both the pen and the sword) the most

vulnerable, and all other members of the varnashrama dharma social body from

a-dharmic sins and crimes. How can there be varnashrama dharma without such

justice? “Justice delayed is justice denied.” Thus God sends his law in the

form of dharma shastras and dharma protectors to establish varnashrama dharmic

civilization. Without identifying the immediately guilty and innocent, dharmic

civilization is impossible. The laws of a theocentric civilization cannot

consider remote causation. Nor are they intended to take effect years only

after the crime has been committed. To be effective in both compensation (to

victims) and correction, the law needs to act swiftly and impartially,

providing both timely relief to the abused and timely correction to the

criminals. Thus it is God whose law requires us to consider immediate acts,

not remote causation! God does not say ‘ignore sins and crimes because the

victims all deserved it’. No, the opposite is true. God does not say ‘get

rid of all the laws, because I am going to directly punish everyone myself.’

To the contrary, God says ‘obey my laws.’ God may be working behind the

scenes to make ‘all things work together for the good,’ but exoterically he

works through brahmins and kshatriyas to give and enforce law.

 

God even says he is dharma and dharma raja. From age to age he sends his law

makers and law enforcers to deal with the immediate causes of suffering in his

sacramental social body. Violence, lying, cheating, stealing, unfaithfulness,

etc. all have natural consequences, which destroy the health of the social

body. As preventative medicine, God’s law forbids such sins and crimes and

attaches curative penalties and restitutions / penances to them. Thus God

disciplines his people to create and maintain a dharmic society based on just

and benevolent laws. The doctrine of reincarnation or karma should never be

used perversely to modify culpability or excuse sins and crimes and thus

subvert dharma. ‘Original sin’ or past-life ‘karma’ does not nullify the

existence of present law, dharma or justice. The long unrelieved abuse of

children, women, humble and gentle devotees, the pervasive lying /

untruthfulness, brutality, greed / theft, drug use and dealing, all of the sins

and crimes of the corrupt leaders and other powerful abusers in ISKCON and the

movement were only possible because of an adharmic reign of the corrupt abuse

of the doctrine of reincarnation and karma. ISKCON / the movement became a

microcosm of everything that is wrong with ‘Hinduism.’ It did not become a

model of dharmic civilization, a culture of justice and compassion that can

save the world. Instead it became a case study in adharmic pseudo-brahminical

tyranny enforced by bogus kshatriya thugs who were evil-doers protecting other

oppressors and evil doers. Like the corrupt ‘Hindus’, the corrupt ISKCON /

movement leaders used ‘karmic’ framing and blaming to guilt-trip and thus

oppress their victims.

As in corrupt ‘Hinduism,’ real dharma was not defined in the movement by its

real brahmin leaders, who had an authentic vision of the sacramental social

body of Purusha. Nor was it protected by real moral dharma protectors. Srila

Prabhupada gave us the ideal of sattvic Vaishnava varnashrama dharma. He gave

us Purusha Sukta and its theocentric vision of cooperative high civilization

through-with-and-in the mystical social body of

God-who-is-self-sacrificing-love (Lord Baladeva as the Servitor Lord and

original cosmic spiritual master). He gave his disciples everything that they

needed, except their realization. No one can give us what we must gain for

ourselves. Self-realization is a function of our free will, and even God will

not violate our free will. Srila Prabhupada gave the highest to the lowest,

not even considering our qualifications. Because God sometimes calls the

qualified, but can also qualify the called, Srila Prabhupada, in his great

love, called all, both qualified and unqualified, to the non-sectarian mission

of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Sri Nityananda Rama.

This was not a fault on his part. It was our responsibility to become qualified

in answering his magnanimous call. Some of us sincerely tried to become

qualified, and others put on a big show of trying. Mundane ambition and

duplicity drove pseudo-brahmins and pseudo-khastriyas who assumed positions of

power in the movement. These promoted each other in a mutual appreciation of

their impressive pseudo-religiosity. The end result was an adharmic society

ruled from the top by some ambitious impersonalists, who lacked authentic

humility and self-realization, or any realization of the vision of the social

body of Purusha. They masked their impersonalism as ‘holy detachment’ while

reigning over a depersonalizing society that was pervasively adharmic and

abusive. They covered their autistic egomania in the guise of deserving

holiness. Thus they enjoyed the undeserved veneration, and even in some cases

the idolatrous worship, of their cheated followers. These same hypocritical

abusers ‘karmically’ framed and blamed their victims for their own sufferings,

and considered themselves and their abusive co-conspirators to be above God’s

law. Thus they turned dharma upside-down and imagined themselves to be

innocent holy beings, while their oppressed, abused devotees were the evildoers

expiating ‘bad karma’! Thus by invoking their corrupt idea of ‘karma,’ they

absolved themselves of sins and crimes, and made their immediate victims into

remote perpetrators, receiving the fruit of their bad karma!

But I ask you, how reasonable is it to assert that a divinely inspired movement

to save the world would be led by either an appointed cadre of child abusers,

or a second generation of devotee children who were previously child abusers?

This is not a reasonable proposition. However, it is reasonable to assert that

such an inspired movement could be attacked, hijacked and crippled from within

by Judas-like betrayers, ‘false prophets and false disciples and other

wolves-in-sheeps-clothing,’ who abused the children of the movement, thus

destroying its present community development and its future potential.

Children are a society’s most vulnerable members. To destroy a society, only

one generation of its children must be destroyed. A civilization of thousands

of years only lives one generation at a time. It is the task of each

generation to civilize the next. If this task is not completed, or even begun,

then it may be back-to-the-stone-age and living like animals for an entire

people. The converse is also true. One successful generation can revive an

entire civilization. We disciples of Srila Prabhupada were supposed to raise

our children to revive an entire theocentric civilization. Instead our

unqualified self-appointed abusive ‘leaders’ reigned over a program that took

our children away from us, dehumanized and nearly destroyed them. Did they

really personally care about our children? Were they really concerned with

the future of humanity? Did they really have the required brahminical vision

of Purusha’s varnashrama dharma social body? No. They were interested in

personal name, fame and adoration. They were envious of their own guru,

wanting to be venerated like him.

 

He was worthy of veneration. They were not. They did not even have a realized

vision of Purusha. No dharmic society can form and function without a viable

vision of the sacramental social body of Purusha. Until the movement is led by

realized brahmins with this vision, and moral kshatriyas who are free of karmic

analysis paralysis, who are prepared to protect the proximately innocent,

especially the most helpless (children) and other segments of society, then

there will be no varnashrama dharma. Where is the varnashrama dharma in India?

‘Hinduism’ cannot create it. ‘Hinduism’ is profoundly corrupt and adharmic at

this point. Thus India has become a confused mass of people working at

cross-purposes against each other. India cannot save herself through the

love-less Mayavadi Hindutva movement, because loveless impersonal, impotent,

corrupt ‘Hinduism’ is the problem, not the solution. Loving non-sectarian

bhakti yoga, and sattvic Vaishnava varnashrama dharma is the solution. Unless

the devotees with this vision and mission take over the leadership of the

Hindutva movement, it will simply replace one bad dehumanizing situation with

another. It will simply replace the threat of one kind of oppressive religious

fanaticism with another. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s non-sectarian bhakti yoga

movement, flourishing within the cultural context of sattvic dhaiva varnashrama

dharma, is the only viable solution to the crisis facing India. If Sri

Chaitanya’s movement cannot flourish in India, it certainly cannot do its part

to ‘save the world.’

The gurukulis held great promise as future leaders in the Lord’s non-sectarian

bhakti yoga unity movement. But it seems that in India they were most

especially attacked! So I say that we should look at the facts and understand

that the gurukulis have been under attack by forces that sought to destroy them

and the movement, which would be in their future hands. They were the most

vulnerable members of the Lord’s Gaudiya Vaishnava sankirtana team. They also

had the greatest potential, and so they were targeted by the demonic beings who

wanted to destroy Sri Chaitanya’s mission.

So in conclusion, I will not indulge the crazy idea that the gurukulis were

former child abusers who were getting a ‘token’ of their ‘just desserts’ from

molesters and other evildoers in the movement.

Let the gurukulis take their place on the world stage of history. Let them

reclaim their birthright as world-saving heroes and heroines born to lead

humanity into a benevolent non-sectarian high civilization of

unity-in-diversity in the sacramental social body of Purusha! Let the

gurukulis teach the world, feed the world, heal the world. To own their

empowerment, they must first demand justice. They must throw-off the stigma of

their abusers’ ‘bad-karma’ charge against them, and declare themselves the Godly

servants that Srila Prabhupada said that they were! The truth is that we do not

need to swab the dregs of history to ‘karmically’ understand what happened to

the great promise of the Hare Krishna movement. Srila Prabhupada gave people

an opportunity to serve Godhead and humanity. Some used the opportunity and

some abused it for their own mundane reasons. Among the abusers were

impersonalists, who were depersonalizing beings, and these impersonalists

committed many sins and crimes against other real beings, who in no way

deserved such abuse. Let us get past the abuse of the doctrine of karma, to

the simple truth that dharma was not effectively taught or protected by Srila

Prabhupada’s ‘successors’ in ISKCON and the movement. To correct this tragedy

of past injustice, there must be a reckoning now, a coming to justice. The

movement must begin again with a clear vision of what a dharmic society is, and

how to attain that ideal. Let the gurukulis, who were ‘karmically’ framed,

blamed and shamed for their own abuse, let them stand up to this nonsense and

declare the difference between right and wrong!

By defining and demanding dharma and justice, they can reset the movement onto

the course of righteousness finally, and take their proper place in leading

humanity in a great revival of non-sectarian dharmic civilization!

May all the gurukulis recover their self-esteem and health! May they all prosper

and become powerful as devotees and dharma protectors! All glories to the

children of Srila Prabhupada! May they all be saved, and help to save all

other beings suffering in the saha worlds!

Wishing you empowerment, pax and prema,

Your aspiring servant,

 

Bhakti Ananda Goswami