Srila Prabhupada

[Guest guest]

....Rebellion against ISKCON is another pit into which a number of devotees

fall.As we mature in spiritual life, we actually lose our cynicism toward

ISKCON, because we no longer mistake the institution for Krsna. Srila

Prabhupada established ISKCON, and he seemed to have bright hopes that

everything could be taken care of by living within it and following the

rules and regulations. One could say that ISKCON is a faded utopia, or even

that the movement has grown in such a direction as to require most devotees

to pursue their Krsna consciousness outside the original framework. But if

we are chanting Hare Krsna and serving Srila Prabhupada, we are not outside

Lord Caitanya's gift, the kind of Krsna consciousness that we can take with

us everywhere. It is moveable feast.

 

Although devotees are able to separate Krsna from ISKCON, however, they are

not always able to separate Prabhupada from ISKCON. Srila Prabhupada is more

than this institution, and he cannot be left frozen in 1977. Life has gone

on, and our institution has grown and changed. We do not need to interpret

Prabhupada now, but we do have to apply his teachings to the times that are

with us. As we learn to do that, we learn to live with Prabhupada, pray to

Prabhupada, beg Prabhupada for his mercy and guidance, and feel Prabhupada's

compassion toward us. We will learn to see how Prabhupada is responding to

us now.....

 

.....If we learn to live with Prabhupada in the present, we can be confident

that as our hearts become purified, he will speak to us - not only through

the institution, but directly.

 

(Vaisnava Compassion-HDG Satsvarupa Maharaja)