Charlatanry

December 30, 1999

---------- Forwarded Message ----------

Dear devotees,

I offer my humble obeisances to you all. My dear godbrother

Shyamasundar das prabhu has written an essay beginning:

"Ananda the Rascal (to differentiate him from Ananda the Good

who lives in New Talavan) writes on CHAKRA [see "Erroneous Data

of the Colourful Eccentric", posted on Christmas Eve, 1999] ...."

He has posted the essay to four ISKCON forums and 36 other devotees.

He did not send a copy to me, but Viraja dasi prabhu kindly remedied

what was no doubt an accidental omission. I was thinking of whether

I ought to add my name to the list of people to be expelled from ISKCON,

as the courageous Madhava Gosh das prabhu has already done with his bold

demand that whatever actions the GHQ clique are able to take against

Madhusudani Radha devi dasi prabhu and Dhyanakunda devi dasi prabhu

they must equally take against him (I weep with admiration for his

nobility), but it sounds like Shyamasundar prabhu will take care of it

for me automatically. Following the shining example of the Lord High

Executioner in Gilbert and Sullivan's Mikado, he has "made a little list"

of people who "never will be missed." And I have finally made the list!

Isn't it exciting?

"Not content with belittling Srila Prabhupada, Ananda the Rascal

and his friends like Madhusudhani Radha dd and Vipramukhya Swami

(who published his text) are intent on attacking any aspect of

Vedic culture (they despise the Manu Samhita) which lies outside

their miniscule capacity to understand."

I do not wish ever to belittle the accomplishments of my guru maharaj,

the dearmost servant of Sri Sri Radha Krsna, and I am surprised that

prabhuji makes this unusual claim. I do hope that I will have the

continued friendship not only of Madhusudani Radha prabhu and His

Holiness Vipramukhya Maharaj, but also that of Shyamasundar das prabhu.

Whatever I write is not meant to attack him as a person. I am sure

that, aside from a rather lamentable tendency occasionally to offer

impudent, derisive and unnecessary insults to sannyasis like Srila

Vipramukhya Maharaj and Srila Jayapataka Maharaj, he is otherwise a

sterling and exemplary devotee who has offered many years of good

service to Krsna consciousness. I do not know or accept that anyone

in ISKCON is "intent on attacking any aspect of Vedic culture" or that

they "despise" the Manu Samhita; if this is so, my friend Shyamasundara

das prabhu has failed to provide evidence for this contention. When he

uses the idiologism "miniscule," I think he may mean "minuscule". While

no devotee in the current age would personally think of his or her

capacity to understand as anything other than minuscule, certainly

in comparison to the vast ocean of Brahma-Madhva-Gaudiya siddhanta,

many devotees might feel that Shyamasundara prabhu is slighting the

not inconsiderable accomplishments of Vipramukhya Maharaj and

Madhusudani Radha dasi.

Shyamasundara Prabhu continues:

"And, sadly this is now being tolerated, nay it is protected

'free speech'. Protected by the GBC EC. After being tolerated,

blasphemy and minimization of Srila Prabhupada and Vedic culture

will be encouraged more and more in ISKCON, until ISKCON is dead."

What a sad characterisation of free and vigourous debate that is.

So far as I have read, NOTHING posted to Topical Discussions could

be construed in any way as remotely "blasphemous" or as "minimization

of Srila Prabhupada". If Vedic culture is PERCEIVED as having been

minimised, it is not because of a desire to offend, but out of a desire

to discern what is truly Vedic and what is simply local or customary.

And because all of us may still be subject to the occasional failure of

imperfect senses, it is entirely possible that some motivated devotees

have incorrectly PERCEIVED a threat to Srila Prabhupada's movement that

never existed. The whole thing may possibly be only a tempest in a

tea-kettle, stirred up by people who wish to see ISKCON forever frozen

at some arbitrary point in time, unable to adapt to changing time,

place and circumstance in any meaningful way. If they are successful in

turning ISKCON into a stone construct unable to adapt to changing

future circumstances, then they may possibly be able to kill ISKCON.

But I think ISKCON will endure for as long as any devotee can freely

express his or her love for Krsna on his or her own terms without

fear of heavy-handed attempts at censorship or expulsion. ISKCON will

endure for as long as people still draw inspiration and enthusiasm

from the examples set by our acharyas, and as long as devotees will

still come together and joyfully chant and dance in ecstasy. ISKCON

will endure for as long as it is relevant to each new generation.

If ISKCON becomes a mere shell dedicated to indoctrination

of recruits into ossified concepts incapable of aadaptation or

restatement in new, fresh and vigourous ways, then ISKCON will have

died in every meaningful sense. If people can no longer feel joy

and if any original expression of thought has become anathema,

then ISKCON will have died. If the universe of possible discourse

shrinks to a mere shadow in which we debate trivial minutiae

only, where narrow-minded bigotry holds free, unchallenged rein,

and where ideas of substance are considered banned topics, then

ISKCON will have died. But I do not believe that ISKCON will die,

because our beloved Srila Prabhupada boldly stated, "ISKCON am I."

Srila Prabhupada has passed from our material vision, but his guidance

is available still to all his sincere disciples and followers, now

and into the future, just as we still draw inspiration and guidance

from the writings of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati, Srila Bhakti-

vinoda Thakur, Srila Narottama das Thakur, Srila Baladeva Vidyabhusana,

Sri Viswanath Cakravarti Thakur, the Six Goswamis of Vrndavan, and

many other eminent Vaishnavas within our own line and outside it.

No doubt Shyamsundar prabhu is correct that I am a rascal.

To complete the ISKCON parlour game, let me declare that I am also

an unmitigated fool. It is because I have these faults that I took

shelter of Srila Prabhupada, and he promised to deliver me from this

material world if I would only agree to chant my rounds, read his

books and write books in turn, and adhere to the four regulative

principles. My direct order from His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada

was, "You have a good brain, Ananda. You must use it in the service

of Krsna." I understood that if I executed this order from my spiritual

master, he would bless my service, small and limited though it may be,

with all success.

I am confident that while my writings may have provoked thought

and discussion, none of them were factually opposed to Krsna

consciousness, which is still, as it has been for over 30 years,

the central guiding principle of my life.

All glories to Srila Prabhupada, to his many pure devotee disciples

and to Lord Gauranga!

Best regards,

Ananda das

(Text COM:2894081) --------

December 30, 1999