I am requesting your vote either for Srila Prabhupada or for the

[Guest guest]

My Dear Vaisnavas,

Please accept my humble obeisances.

All glories to His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada.

 

As Krishna Priya Mataji has pointed out to us Srila

Prabhupada has ordered, "You become all acharya," with the

qualifier, "But the training must be complete." Although he

clearly did not want premature so-called acharyas who could

not control their senses, he also made it clear that he did

in fact want all us to become acharyas.

 

This is confirmed by the lecture he gave in Mayapur in 1975:

 

So we have to follow the acharya. Then, when we are

completely, cent per cent follower of acharya, then you

can also act as acharya. This is the process. Don't become

premature acharya. First of all follow the orders of acharya,

and you become mature. Then it is better to become acharya.

Because we are interested in preparing acharya, but the

etiquette is, at least for the period the guru is present,

one should not become acharya. Even if he is complete he

should not, because the etiquette is, if somebody comes

for becoming initiated, it is the duty of such person to

bring that prospective candidate to his acharya. Not that

"Now people are coming to me, so I can become acharya."

That is avamanya. Navamanyeta karhicit. Don't transgress

this etiquette. Navamanyeta. That will be falldown. Just

like during the lifetime of our Guru Maharaja, all our

Godbrothers now who are acting as acharya, they did not

do so. That is not etiquette.

 

Lecture, Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Adi-lila 1.13

-- Mayapur, April 6, 1975

 

Srila Prabhupada is instructing his disciples to follow

the acharya and become acharya. At the end of the lecture

Prabhupada expressed his desire that the number of acharyas

would grow to ten million and these ritviks tell us that

Prabhupada wanted himself to be the only acharya. Again it's a case

of whether we want to listen directly to Srila Prabhupada or

we prefer to listen to him through the interpretation of the ritviks.

 

>From the very first day I joined this movement in 1971 I have

never agreed to understand my spiritual master through someone

else's interpretation. My relationship with Srila Prabhupada

is my personal property. Nobody else has ever had the right

to mess with it. Srila Prabhupada personally encouraged me

that I could be a spiritual master, and when I gave him some

practical ideas how I could go about doing that he was pleased

with my proposals.

 

Sudama can reject as questionable the personal encouragement

I received from Srila Prabhupada. That is his prerogative.

He's assuming that I must be dishonest, i.e. twisting the truth

due to being materially motivated. But from my perspective I

have a choice. I can follow the encouragement I received from

Srila Prabhupada to be a spiritual master, or I can follow the

encouragement I am receiving from Sudama, Krishna Kant, and Krishna

Priya Dasi not to be a spiritual master. By following a pure devotee

I become a pure devotee. I am sure that Srila Prabhupada is a pure

devotee. I am not sure about Krishna Priya, Krishna Kanta or Sudama.

Maybe they are, maybe they're not. From my point of view the safest

bet is to follow Srila Prabhupada. In any case even if these three

ritviks are also pure devotees still Srila Prabhupada is my initiating guru

and I am duty bound to give preference to his instructions.

 

I am asking all of the participating Vaisnavas whose encouragement they

would be more likely to follow if they were in my position:

 

1. Srila Prabhupada

2. The Ritiks: Krishna Priya, Krishna Kant, Sudama, etc

 

I would be interested to see how the votes come in. I will tally

the votes and report back to the group who won, Srila Prabhupada or

the ritviks.

 

 

Hoping this meets you in good health,

Always your humble servant,

Sankarshan Das Adhikari

 

 

 

 

Krishna Priya (dasi) (Amsterdam - NL)

[Krishna.Priya (AT) pamho (DOT) net]

Saturday, February 14, 2004 7:30 AM

Sudama das; Initiations in ISKCON

Pure devotee

 

 

> Beside the simple fact that Prabhupada never authorized any of his

> disciples to become diksa gurus

 

Is that really a fact? Can you prove that? It may be a fact that Srila

Prabhupada has not given a personal written authorization (like a diploma).

What if the authorization was give privately and orally? (Did Narada Muni

get a written authorization from Brahma?)

 

ys Ramakanta dasa

 

 

May I try answering this?

 

If we look at the room conversation recording of April 22, 1977 in Bombay,

we can see that Srila Prabhupada had not authorised anyone to become guru.

 

SP: "You become guru, but you must be qualified first of all. Then you

become."..................

SP:"What is the use of producing some rascal guru?"

TKG: "Well, I have studied myself and * all of your disciples *, and it's a

clear fact that we are all conditioned souls, so we cannot be guru. Maybe

one day it may be possible."

SP: "Hmm!"

TKG: "...but not now."

SP: "Yes. * I shall produce some guru. I shall say who is guru *, 'Now you

become acarya. You become authorised."I am waiting for that. You become all

acharya. I retire completely. But the training must be complete."

 

Even here it appears that Srila Prabhupada is talking of Ritviks,

Officiating Acharyas......because he says: "I retire completely". We know

that Srila Prabhupada always said that his disciples should not initiate

their own disciples in his presence.....Right?

 

On July 7th he selected eleven of of his disciples to become "Officiating

Acharyas", and a directive was sent to all GBC and TP's to inform them of

this! Srila Prabupada being the head of an INSTITUTE would no doubt have

communicated that in the future these and other disciples were to become

gurus. That he had authorised them. Is it not???

 

I don't know if he told anyone privately that they should defenitely become

guru in the future. Somehow I doubt it.........Like to hear from others!

 

ys

KPdd