GBC position paper concerning H.H Narayana Maharaja (part 1/3)

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KEEPING FAITH WITH SRILA PRABHUPADA (Part 1 of 3)

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June, 1996

 

This is an ISKCON Governing Body Commission position paper demonstrating

that those who keep faith with Srila Prabhupada cannot follow H. H.

Narayana Maharaja. Presented by the GBC Executive and Standing

Philosophical Committees.

 

His Holiness Bhaktivedanta Narayana Maharaja has recently begun his

preaching tour of the West. His itinerary takes him exclusively to ISKCON

temples, communities, and congregations. Before embarking from India,

Narayana Maharaja met with a representative of the GBC and made the

following statements regarding his tour:

 

1) He is a well-wisher of ISKCON. He is not ISKCON's enemy. He considers

Srila Prabhupada as his siksa-guru.

 

2) When Srila Prabhupada was preaching in the West, he sent letters to

Narayana Maharaja inviting him to preach there also. At that time

Narayana Maharaja had no interest. However, now this tour has come about

without his separate endeavor, and he considers it the arrangement of

Srila Prabhupada.

 

3) Out of respect and veneration to Srila Prabhupada, Narayana Maharaja

wants to visit the temples Srila Prabhupada established in the West.

They are tirthas. If the ISKCON devotees bar him from entering, he will

offer his respects from the gate and leave. But ISKCON allows everybody

to visit its temples, even debauches, so why not him? If we turn him

away, his own followers will take that as an offense.

 

4) When the question was raised whether Narayana Maharaja might voice

disagreements with ISKCON/GBC philosophical understanding, policies, and

so on, during talks to ISKCON temple devotees and congregation, he gave

his assurance that he will not do such things. He said whether or not he

speaks during his visits is up to us.

 

ISKCON's leaders do not doubt that many years ago Srila Prabhupada

invited Narayana Maharaja to visit. They also recognize that since then

Narayana Maharaja has often acted as ISKCON's well-wisher. Nevertheless,

ISKCON leaders are now certain that Srila Prabhupada would no longer be

willing to extend the same invitation to Narayana Maharaja. Further,

although Narayana Maharaja may have once received some siksa from Srila

Prabhupada, ISKCON leaders--the GBC and temple presidents--are convinced

that Narayana Maharaja cannot properly represent Srila Prabhupada.

Rather, Narayana Maharaja speaks and acts in ways directly contrary to

Srila Prabhupada's instructions and example. Even though Narayana

Maharaja may think of himself as a well-wisher of ISKCON, in fact his

behavior towards ISKCON is such that it could cause ISKCON great harm. In

short, ISKCON's leaders are thoroughly convinced that the differences

that set Narayana Maharaja apart from Srila Prabhupada are so significant

and bear such far-reaching implications as to make it impossible for

sincere and faithful followers of Srila Prabhupada to intimately

associate with him.

 

This conclusion has seemed strange to some followers of Narayana

Maharaja. They say it is contrary to the scriptural advice that there is

no better way to advance one's spiritual life than by association with

sadhus. Moreover, recent testimony from some former ISKCON devotees who

now associate with Narayana Maharaja seems to support his claim to be

Srila Prabhupada's admirer and ISKCON's supporter. Why, then, have the

leaders of ISKCON judged otherwise? They should provide the facts and,

most of all, the scriptural justification for such convictions.

 

The GBC recognizes it is not in a position to tell Narayana Maharaja he

cannot preach in the West. However, the GBC also recognizes that it has a

duty to Srila Prabhupada to decide whether Narayana Maharaja preaches

within ISKCON. Here lies the issue. If Narayana Maharaja were preaching

to persons with no ISKCON contact, although the GBC might not agree with

all he says or does, it would not object. However, someone who is not a

member of ISKCON has no prerogative to work within ISKCON unless invited

by its leaders to do so.

 

In Narayana Maharaja's own Gaudiya Matha organization--in any Gaudiya

Matha for that matter--it is considered an outrageous breach of etiquette

for an outsider to preach to the Matha's own members without the approval

and cooperation of the Matha's leadership. Yet Narayana Maharaja's entire

tour involves ISKCON: Arrangements are made by former ISKCON devotees at

ISKCON congregational members' homes. His audiences are ISKCON's

devotees, congregation, life members, and bhaktas. He is doing all this

without the sanction of the GBC.

 

Consequently, the GBC, as Srila Prabhupada's designated representa-

tives, has the right and the duty to inform ISKCON members of every sort

about the differences between Narayana Maharaja and Srila Prabhupada. All

who have taken shelter of ISKCON have the right to be protected from the

danger of offending Srila Prabhupada, and the GBC has the obligation to

protect them. They need to understand clearly that following Narayana

Maharaja will lead them away from, not bring them closer to, Srila

Prabhupada, ISKCON, and the progressive advancement of the sankirtan

movement. This paper will provide the facts and scriptural evidence to

support this conclusion.

 

ISKCON members first began to feel uneasy about Narayana Maharaja when he

declared his intention to introduce the practice of raganuga-bhakti to

ISKCON. He announced his intention at a number of ISKCON public functions

to which he had been invited. Towards this end, he began to

systematically instruct a number of senior ISKCON devotees who,

dismissing the misgivings of many of their peers, regularly went to hear

from him. Although Narayana Maharaja assured these devotees that the

topics under discussion were not for public dissemination, those

discourses were tape-recorded, and his followers eventually published

them. The "confidentiality" turned out to be an illusion. ISKCON's

leaders have now all come to recognize that Narayana Maharaja's

singular emphasis upon raganuga-sadhana is directly opposed to the

instructions given by Srila Prabhupada, who warns that such an emphasis

will result in sahajiyaism.

 

It is true of course that previous acaryas explicitly discuss the prac-

tices of raganuga-sadhana. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu imparted teachings on

this topic to Srila Rupa Gosvami and others. However, seeing the fallen

condition of human society in modern times, and understanding how raga-

nuga-bhakti could be--and indeed already has been--misunderstood and mis-

applied, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura and Srila Prabhupada

very strongly warned people against attempts to concentrate on the con-

fidential topics of Radha and Krsna and enter the practices of raganuga-

bhakti prematurely.

 

Some twenty years ago in ISKCON, a small group of Prabhupada's disciples

began to meet for the purpose of cultivating higher spiritual sentiments.

They became infamous as the "Gopi-bhava Club." Srila Prabhupada

intervened personally to halt their improper activities. Surprisingly,

the nearly identical phenomenon has been now reborn in the form of

Narayana Maharaja and his followers. It will benefit us to therefore hear

how Srila Prabhupada treated this matter. This account is taken from Hari

Sauri dasa's A Transcendental Diary, Vol. Two (pp. 268-269):

 

[The leader of the "Gopi-bhava Club"] tried to reassure him [srila

Prabhupada] that they were not attempting to imitate the gopis' love of

Krsna; they were simply studying the descriptions so they could develop

such desires. Prabhupada flushed, his top lip quivering. "First deserve,

then desire! There is a no question of desire unless one is actually

liberated. Until that point you simply do whatever service you are given.

So long as there is any pinch of material desire there is no question of

desiring on the spiritual platform!" He said the intimate gopi-lilas were

discussed by Lord Caitanya only among His three most confidential

associates--Svarupa Damodara, Ramananda Raya, Sikhi Mahiti. Siddha deha

is for liberated souls --no one else. [Another member of the group] said

that they had thought it was all right because it was in Prabhupada's

books, and they were only reading his books. Prabhupada told them that

just because the drugstore has every type of drug it does not mean that

one can get them without prescription. The doctor prescribes according

to the disease. He said that from the beginning stages of devotional

service up to the highest rasas, everything is there in his books, but

they are not all to be immediately studied.

 

This incident reveals a significant difference between the ways in which

Narayana Maharaja and Srila Prabhupada explain Gaudiya Vaisnava

philosophy. On his part, Narayana Maharaja contends that even though one

is still materially conditioned, one can hear advanced topics concerning

Krsna's conjugal pastimes. Srila Prabhupada, on the other hand, has

clearly emphasized that a devotee must be liberated from material

desires to be qualified to hear such topics. The overwhelmingly clear

understanding from Srila Prabhupada is that no one should delve into

these topics as long as anarthas remain in the heart.

 

If devotees prematurely take interest in topics of Krsna and the gopis,

what harm could come? Isn't Krsna-katha pure and purifying? Srila

Prabhupada has answered this doubt. He explains that since the loving

affairs between Krsna and the gopis resemble material exchanges between

boys and girls, one's own lust may actually increase by concentrating on

such topics, and thus one's spiritual advancement may be checked:

 

When one is liberated and hears of Lord Krsna's and Radha's loving

affairs, he is not inclined to have lusty desires. One mundane rogue once

said that when the Vaisnavas chant the name 'Radha, Radha,' he simply re-

members a barber's wife named Radha. This is a practical example. Unless

one is liberated, he should not try to hear about the loving affairs be-

tween Radha and Krsna. If one is not liberated and listens to a relation

of the rasa dance, he may remember his mundane activities and illicit

connections with some woman whose name may also be Radha. In the

conditioned stage one should not even try to remember such things. By

practicing the regulative principles, one should rise to the platform of

spontaneous attraction for Krsna. Then and only then should one hear

about the radhakrsna-lila. Although these affairs may be very pleasing

both to conditioned and to liberated souls, the conditioned soul should

not try to hear them. (Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya 8.255, purport)

 

In the light of these unequivocal statements by Srila Prabhupada, one

wonders how Narayana Maharaja can think it is his service to Srila Pra-

bhupada to propagate rasa-katha. How can he serve Srila Prabhupada in a

manner that violates Prabhupada's explicit instructions?

 

Some people, however, may prefer to think that we are putting too much

emphasis on these statements of Srila Prabhupada. They may think that

ISKCON's leaders are following Srila Prabhupada too narrowly and in so

doing cutting ISKCON off from some Gaudiya "mainstream." To answer such

people, we would like to cite some recent remarks by a senior sannyasi in

the Gaudiya Matha, H. H. Bhaktipramoda Puri Maharaja, who is a Godbrother

of Srila Prabhupada:

 

Rasa-katha is to be held only among devotees who have the adhikara

[qualification] to discuss such topics. Before daring to indulge in free

discussions about Krsna's intimate pastimes with the gopis, we have to

honestly appraise the conditioning of our minds. Are we fully attentive

to the Nam Prabhu? Or when we see a parrot fly into a tree while chanting

japa, does our mind also fly into the tree? If that happens, the adhikara

is not there. If we see a beautiful woman, does an attraction arise in

the mind? If so, the adhikara is not there. If we hear that Krsna places

his hand upon the breast of a gopi, what is the nature of our interest in

that description? If there is the slightest taint, the adhikara is not

there.

 

The guru who speaks openly on such topics may think he is giving his

listeners the adhikara just by his association, but Puri Maharaja told a

story of a guru with a beard who was speaking publicly of Radharani's

love for Krsna. A woman gazing poignantly at the guru suddenly burst into

tears. The guru thought to himself, "Ah, now she has acquired the

adhikara." In reality, she was looking at the guru's beard as she

remembered the beard of a goat she once had, to whom she had become quite

attached. That goat, just recently deceased, was named Radha. Now, as

that woman heard the guru speak of Radha's love, and as she gazed at his

beard which resembled the beard of Radha the goat, she felt great

separation from four-legged Radha, and could not hold back her inner

lobha for Radha's association.

 

Puri Maharaja also remarked that he himself knew quite well the spiritual

master of Narayana Maharaja, H. H. Keshava Prajna Maharaja. He said that

Keshava Maharaja never spoke of such topics. "So," Puri Maharaja

remarked, "it is a mystery where Narayana Maharaja is bringing these

rasika topics in from."

 

Certainly not from Srila Prabhupada, as we have shown. Yet had there

perhaps been some confidential interchanges between Narayana Maharaja and

Srila Prabhupada? It seems not. When a senior ISKCON devotee asked

Narayana Maharaja whether he had ever discussed any "rasika topics" with

Srila Prabhupada, Narayana Maharaja confessed that they had never had

such an interchange. He said that it was the policy in his own

institution not to discuss such matters; they would instead speak of

Dhruva Maharaja, Prahlada Maharaja, and the like. Narayana Maharaja has

asserted to ISKCON leaders that he knows Srila Prabhupada better than

they do, hinting at a confidential relationship. Yet this is undercut

by his own admission that there were no confidential interchanges between

him and Srila Prabhupada. So Puri Maharaja's pertinent question remains.

 

The policy in Narayana Maharaja's own organization is the same now as it

was then. Even now, Narayana Maharaja's proclivity for openly discussing

such topics--which seems to be increasing as time goes on--is viewed with

disapproval and alarm by other senior leaders of his own institution.

 

We should, therefore, keep faith with Srila Prabhupada and follow his

example. Anyone who studies Srila Prabhupada's lectures and

conversations, especially those given in Vrndavana, will find that he

spoke of Krsna's intimate lila sparingly and carefully, keeping those

references within the context of basic philosophy. Furthermore, Srila

Prabhupada often criticized speakers who focus exclusively on the

rasa-lila, especially in presentations to neophyte audiences.

 

Narayana Maharaja's talks in Vrndavana present a study in contrast. He

gives extended discourses about the very confidential pastimes of

Radha-Krsna and the gopis (telling, for example, how Krsna dresses as a

gopi in order to see Radha, inserting large flowers under His sari to

make nice breasts, and so on). Such talks are given to anyone who may be

present, including bhaktas and bhaktins. Did Srila Prabhupada ever dwell

on these topics at length or make them the basis of his preaching? Quite

the contrary, Prabhupada stressed the fact that Lord Caitanya Himself

would discuss such subjects only behind closed doors and only with one or

two of His most advanced followers. Yet it is not uncommon to hear even

newly initiated followers of Narayana Maharaja speaking freely of these

topics. How can we expect them to do otherwise, given the example set by

their guru?

 

To summarize: Narayana Maharaja acts in opposition to Srila Prabhupada's

direction by advocating the practice of extensive hearing about Krsna's

conjugal pastimes by those who are still in the conditioned state.

Increasingly, he is making such topics the focus of public discourse.

Srila Prabhupada explicitly opposed these practices, and, whenever they

began to occur in ISKCON, he smashed them. Therefore, one who wishes to

remain faithful to Srila Prabhupada and to safeguard his legacy will not

follow Narayana Maharaja.

 

There is another notable difference between the presentation of Narayana

Maharaja and that of Srila Prabhupada. Narayana Maharaja hints at his

spiritual identity in relationship with Krishna. He says that to be in

the line of Sri Rupa and Sri Raghunatha, one must be situated in

madhurya-bhava. Narayana Maharaja has commissioned a set of paintings,

one of which depicts Radha and Krishna together in a grove. Each of four

companion paintings depict an attendant manjari. Narayana Maharaja's

followers meditate upon him as one of these manjari maidservants--a copy

of the painting that is supposed to picture Narayana Maharja's manjari

form is seen on their altars--and they cultivate their desire to join him

in a similar mood.

 

Furthermore, Narayana Maharaja has publicly announced his opinion that

Srila Prabhupada is also a paliya-dasi (maidservant) of Srimati Radhika.

There is an implication here that Prabhupada's followers can qualify to

serve their own guru in his eternal form only if they are trained by a

proper guide (such as Narayana Maharaja).

 

Srila Prabhupada, in contrast, neither made nor permitted any such pub-

lic statement about himself. Rather, in a reserved mood, Srila Prabhupada

presented himself simply as the humble servant of his spiritual master

and Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, although in Sri Caitanya-caritamrta (Adi

1.46, purport) he instructs, "The spiritual master is always considered

either one of the confidential associates of Srimati Radharani or a

manifested representation of Srila Nityananda Prabhu." On appearance

days and other celebrations, some Gaudiya Vaisnavas may refer to their

spiritual master or to previous acaryas in terms of their eternal

relationship with Krsna, but it was rare for Srila Prabhupada to do so.

In fact, when one disciple questioned Srila Prabhupada concerning

Prabhupada's own eternal relationship with Krsna, Srila Prabhupada

replied that it is not proper for a disciple to ask such questions. We

should be reserved in discussing such matters, just as Srila Prabhupada

was.

 

This issue brings to light two fundamental differences. The first, as we

have seen, is that Narayana Maharaja hints at his rasa with Krishna,

something Srila Prabhupada never did. The second is that Narayana

Maharaja stresses that only one situated in madhurya-bhava can ultimately

be considered a true follower of Sri Rupa and Sri Raghunatha.

Prabhupada, on the other hand, emphasizes that anyone who gives his life

to Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu's mission is a follower of Sri Rupa and Sri

Raghunatha, regardless of his rasa.

 

Srila Prabhupada has encouraged all of us to hope that, in spite of our

present disqualifications, we will one day be worthy of being called

"Rupanugas," genuine followers of Sri Rupa and Sri Raghunatha. Narayana

Maharaja not only says that to be a real Rupanuga, one must be in

madhurya-bhava, but he also teaches that one must have the guidance of a

"rasika Vaisnava" to cultivate that state of bhava. Thus formula for

becoming a follower of Sri Rupa and Sri Raghunatha, as given by Narayana

Maharaja, contains two main ingredients: One must be situated in

madhurya-bhava, and one must have the association of a rasika Vaisnava.

 

In the first place, Srila Prabhupada would not have devotees spend time

contemplating such matters as their rasa with Krsna until they were first

qualified to do so. "First deserve; then desire." Moreover, according to

Srila Prabhupada, becoming a preacher of Krishna consciousness is both

the meaning and the method of becoming a follower of Sri Rupa and Sri

Raghunatha. Only by preaching Krishna consciousness can we enter the mood

of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Nityananda Prabhu, and only by Their

causeless mercy, given in reciprocation with our service, do our hearts

become purified of anarthas. This is what we learn from association with

Srila Prabhupada. By associating with Narayana Maharaja, on the other

hand, one is led to believe that real spiritual advancement is based not

on preaching but rather on the practice of raganuga-sadhana.

 

Narayana Maharaja expounds on these themes in his book Sri Prabandha-

vali:

 

Because Swamiji [srila Prabhupada] had little time, he mostly empha-

sized vaidhi-bhakti. There are so many stages of bhakti, but ultimately

bhakti means only raganuga-bhakti. He also wanted to preach in Western

countries that which Rupa Gosvami has given in the Ujjvala-nilamani, and

that which has been written by acaryas like Raghunatha dasa Gosvami and

Krsna dasa Kaviraja Gosvami, but he could not do it at that time. (p. 12)