Guest guest Posted November 18, 1999 Report Share Posted November 18, 1999 On Wed, 17 Nov 1999, WWW: Sthita-dhi-muni (Dasa) SDG (Alachua FL - USA) wrote: > [Text 2787557 from COM] > > On 17 Nov 1999, Hare Krsna dasi wrote: > > > Yes, news of the latest alleged falldown of an ISKCON spiritual leader is > quite relevant to the establishment of varnasrama. To establish varnasrama > requires that devotees be able to have a high degree of legitimate trust in > their leaders. > > > > > This seems more an asharam problem, someone posing as a sanyassi yet acting > like an irresponsible grhasta. > > Unfortunately, there were also many persons of substandard behaviour even in > the glory days of Vedic Culture. Welcome to the material world. > > Still, ISKCON should take great pains not to establish this sort of behaviour > as the standard -- it makes a mockery of our sincere efforts and encourages > those who have nothing positive to offer philosophically speaking. Having 2 or 3 girlfriends and cursing and intimidating disciples is not just a case of wrong asrama -- if these charges are true -- it sounds much more like the case of a mentally imbalanced person becoming a cult leader. Unfortunately, this type of thing is reported so frequently in ISKCON these days, that as soon as one sees saffron cloth and a danda, there is immediate suspicion -- is this person actually renounced? Who is he trying to manipulate? Who is he trying to exploit? Is he sane? This is a most unfortunate state of affairs that due to so many bad experiences even legitimate and sincere sannyasis in ISKCON are automatically suspected. It should be just the opposite: Devotees should be so accustomed to experiencing sincere, humble and knowledgeable and honest spiritual guidance from sannyasis that we automatically trust them. At present that trust has been largely eroded due to a number of very bad experiences. We need to take effective steps to help that trust grow again. One basic step is to encourage each other to reject cult leaders. your servant, Hare Krsna dasi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted November 18, 1999 Report Share Posted November 18, 1999 On 18 Nov 1999, Hare Krsna dasi wrote: > > At present that trust has been largely eroded due to a number of very bad experiences. We need to take effective steps to help that trust grow again. One basic step is to encourage each other to reject cult leaders. > > Yes, there are actual standards of behaviour for sanyass and for offering spiritual shelter, and so on. The standard isn't just capturing an institutional position and then developing a cult of personality. It is true, though, that Prabhupada was very able to successfully engage such things in Krsna's service. We may do better to concentrate on a more basic approach for a variety of reasons. Even in Prabhupada's life, externally speaking he didn't begin to display activities that we might consider as 'founder/acarya' until he was past seventy in years. That's not to say one can't offer spiritual shelter as a spiritual master in a spiritual institution, but thinking one can do it by imitating the externals is not the essence. Certainly, one must have the spiritual where-with-all to successfully display the basic practices with regular consistency. One might also be expected to be inclined to behave brahminically -- which is, I suppose, Hare Krsna dd's lead-in for promoting VAD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted November 18, 1999 Report Share Posted November 18, 1999 It seems to me the most important step in protecting ISKCON from negative cult situations is to educate potential "cult followers". False sannyasi's and gurus can only come about if there are naive people willing to help prop them up to that position. It is also a mistake to assume that anyone in the role of sannyasi or guru needs to be suspected. Let there behaivior be the criterion according to guru, shastra and sadhu. If they display the proper example they should be given all respect minus the mindless fanaticism that some "cult followers" tend to exhibit. I personally have faith that there are many worthy recipients of the devotee's faith in ISKCON, both leaders as well as followers. There are also some who may be making grave mistakes which Krishna and the watchful devotees will help to rectify down the line. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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