knowledge from guru, sadhu, and sastra

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Caitanya Mahaprabhu advises that a guru is one who strictly follows the

instructions of Bhagavad-gita: yare dekha, tare kaha, 'krsna'-upadesa (Cc.

Madhya 7.128). A juggler, a magician or one who speaks nonsense as an

academic career is not a guru. Rather, a guru is one who presents

Bhagavad-gita, Krsna's instructions, as it is. Sravana is very important;

one must hear from the Vaisnava sadhu, guru and sastra.

 

>>> Ref. VedaBase => SB 10.2.37

 

 

When an ISKCON guru states that his "information(?) was made available

through contact with a level of cosmic attunement as well as a connection

from a previous life," he attempts to negate and place himself above the

system of receiving knowledge from guru, sadhu, and sastra. He thus

establishes within ISKCON a personality cult based on blind faith in

himself.

 

Such a charismatic leader can at any time walk out of ISKCON along with his

mesmerized flunkeys, who do not to the principle of accepting

Srila Prabhupada's words as the ultimate authority, because their "guru" has

taught them something "more." Or if their "guru" suffers a gross falldown

they will not seek shelter within ISKCON because they consider all others in

ISKCON less realized than their "guru," for he is the only one with such

"special insights."

 

The GBC's allowing such a person to act as a guru within ISKCON indicates

their de facto minimization of Srila Prabhupada, sastra, and the parampara,

for they are in effect accepting that it is not necessary to adhere to guru,

sadhu, and sastra to be a guru in ISKCON; one merely has to get the approval

of the GBC body and then he can say anything he likes. Charisma and the

hoodwinking of innocent newcomers into becoming one's "disciples" become the

main characteristics of a "guru." His neophyte followers ever remain

neophytes who by back to front reasoning consider that what their guru says

must be correct, because he is their guru. They never learn that the

qualification to be a guru is to faithfully repeat that which is ascertained

as correct by sastra and previous acaryas, and thus think that if their

"guru" says something different to sastra, sastra must be wrong.

 

Thus ISKCON, which is meant to kick out cheating religion from the world,

itself degrades into a cheap cult, an apasampradaya, a laughing stock, and a

disgrace to Srila Prabhupada and the parampara.