You do not have to find Guru, he will find you” Prabhupada

[gauragopala dasa]

 

 

 

 

An interesting ISKCON pastime I heard recently in Vrndavana about a hippie in 1966 that used to travel around in Ken Kesey’s psychodelic bus dance group, travelling around <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region> handing out Kool-Aid drink laced with LSD. Somehow one of Srila Prabhupada’s original Srimad Bhagavatam’s was in a small library section on the bus and read by such future devotee’s like Mohanananda dasa. One young hippie on that bus however, was not satisfied in just reading the book; he was determined to find the author of this wonderful Srimad Bhagavatam and was prepared to travel all around <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">India</st1:place></st1:country-region> until he found this amazing Sadhu. When they reached <st1:State w:st="on">New York</st1:State>, Kesey and the Pranksters visited Leary in <st1:City w:st="on">Millbrook</st1:City>, <st1:State w:st="on">NY</st1:State>, at his psychedelic retreat called "The International Federation for Internal Freedom.", it was founded when Leary was fired from <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Harvard</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">University</st1:PlaceType></st1:place> for doing research with his students on the hallucinogenic drugs LSD-25 and Psilocybin. This young hippie had had enough of LSD and realized God can NEVER be found in a pill and decided to go on a spiritual quest to India in search of the ‘swami’ who wrote the Srimad Bhagavatam.

He then decided to leave the merry pranksters and leave for <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">India</st1:place></st1:country-region>; he bought a ticket and was on his way to the Kennedy airport. On the way however, he had sometime to spare and went by <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Tompkins</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Square</st1:PlaceType> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Park</st1:PlaceType></st1:place> to see what the acid head hippies were up to. As he went by in the taxi he saw this big crowd and all the hippies dancing, he was curious and told the taxi driver to stop, then went over, investigated, and found an elderly sadu leading the chanting of Hare Krishna. He watched with some curiosity and wondered if the Sadhu he would eventually find in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">India</st1:place></st1:country-region>, who wrote the Srimad Bhagavatam, would be like this Sadhu. Anyway the kirtan stopped and this Sadu began reading from the same book he was reading on ken Kesey’s Bus.

 

Now this young hippie just was even more determined to seek out the writer of the Srimad Bhagavatam seeing this Sadu also reading it. Eventually the reading stopped and this young hippie went over to the Sadhu and said ‘I am also reading this book and I am now just on my way to the airport to fly out to <st1:country-region w:st="on">India</st1:country-region>, I am determined to look all over <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">India</st1:country-region></st1:place> for this Sadhu’. The elderly gentlemen Sadhu chuckled to himself and said to the young hippie ‘I am the translator of this book the beautiful Srimad Bhagavatam, you do not have to go to <st1:country-region w:st="on">India</st1:country-region>, I am here in <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">New York</st1:place></st1:State>” The young hippie was ecstatic and had tears in his eyes. Then Srila Prabhupada, the elderly sadu said ‘Just see, if you are completely sincere and genuine, then you do not have to find Guru, he will find you”

Hare Krishna All glorious to Srila Prabhupada!

[theist]

Wonderful!

[mahak]

your title is guru tattwa, plain and simple. No rocket science here, it is covered completely in the books Srila Prabhupada brought to america, the first canto of bhagavatam. In this wonderful nectar, we see gurus appearing to disciples, inspired by krsna to make such appearancesw. Srila Prabhupada appears to us in the same manner.

 

If we were left to our own devices, we would choose hendrix, velvet underground, jefferson airplane.

 

Guru tattwa is not a search engine, guru does not have trouble finding sincere candidates for devotional service.

 

Descending process is the phrase describing guru tattwa. Krsna dewscends thru the via medium. We dont build towers of babel to reach him, our endeavors are indeed useless.

 

haribol, ys, mahaksadasa

[realist]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tompkins </ST1:P<ST1:PSquare </ST1:P<ST1:PPark NY City, Srila Prabhupada leading the chanting of Hare Krishna</ST1:P

 

 

An interesting ISKCON pastime I heard recently in Vrndavana about a hippie in 1966 that used to travel around in Ken Kesey’s psychodelic bus dance group, travelling around America handing out Kool-Aid drink laced with LSD. Somehow one of Srila Prabhupada’s original Srimad Bhagavatam’s was in a small library section on the bus and read by such future devotee’s like Mohanananda dasa. One young hippie on that bus however, was not satisfied in just reading the book; he was determined to find the author of this wonderful Srimad Bhagavatam and was prepared to travel all around <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com<st1:place w:st=" /><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">India</st1:place></st1:country-region> until he found this amazing Sadhu. When they reached <st1:State w:st="on">New York</st1:State>, Kesey and the Pranksters visited Leary in <st1:City w:st="on">Millbrook</st1:City>, <st1:State w:st="on">NY</st1:State>, at his psychedelic retreat called "The International Federation for Internal Freedom.", it was founded when Leary was fired from <st1:place w:st="on"><ST1:PHarvard </ST1:PUniversity</ST1:Place </st1:place>for doing research with his students on the hallucinogenic drugs LSD-25 and Psilocybin. This young hippie had had enough of LSD and realized God can NEVER be found in a pill and decided to go on a spiritual quest to India in search of the ‘swami’ who wrote the Srimad Bhagavatam.

He then decided to leave the merry pranksters and leave for <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">India</st1:place></st1:country-region>; he bought a ticket and was on his way to the Kennedy airport. On the way however, he had sometime to spare and went by <st1:place w:st="on"><ST1:PTompkins </ST1:P<ST1:PSquare </ST1:P<ST1:PPark </ST1:P</st1:place>to see what the acid head hippies were up to. As he went by in the taxi he saw this big crowd and all the hippies dancing, he was curious and told the taxi driver to stop, then went over, investigated, and found an elderly sadu . He watched with some curiosity and wondered if the Sadhu he would eventually find in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">India</st1:place></st1:country-region>, who wrote the Srimad Bhagavatam, would be like this Sadhu. Anyway the kirtan stopped and this Sadu began reading from the same book he was reading on ken Kesey’s Bus.

 

Now this young hippie just was even more determined to seek out the writer of the Srimad Bhagavatam seeing this Sadu also reading it. Eventually the reading stopped and this young hippie went over to the Sadhu and said ‘I am also reading this book and I am now just on my way to the airport to fly out to <st1:country-region w:st="on">India</st1:country-region>, I am determined to look all over <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">India</st1:country-region></st1:place> for this Sadhu’. The elderly gentlemen Sadhu chuckled to himself and said to the young hippie ‘I am the translator of this book the beautiful Srimad Bhagavatam, you do not have to go to <st1:country-region w:st="on">India</st1:country-region>, I am here in <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">New York</st1:place></st1:State>” The young hippie was ecstatic and had tears in his eyes. Then Srila Prabhupada, the elderly sadu said ‘Just see, if you are completely sincere and genuine, then you do not have to find Guru, he will find you”

Hare Krishna All glorious to Srila Prabhupada!

 

When you think about it, Srila Prabhupada came to the West because there was a deep longing among the 50s and 60s LOST youth for answers to what in the hell is going on within the material world. Why are we here? Where did we come from? where are we going? I Know I had that desire to find the answers. One evening while listening to George Harrison singing 'My Sweet Lord', I happened to watch Srila Prabhupada arriving at an airport surrounded by loving devotees on TV, I new at that moment that this holy man is my Spiritual Master. The fact is he came to the West because we all were desperately seeking the truth.

[Sarva gattah]

 

 

 

 

SRILA PRABHUPADA: "God is within your heart. Isvarah sarva-bhutanam. God is not far away. If you are sincere, God sends you a spiritual master. Therefore God is also called caitya-guru, the spiritual master within the heart. God helps from within and from without. Everything is thus described in Bhagavad-gita.

 

This material body is like a machine, but within the heart is the soul, and with the soul is the Supersoul, Krsna, who gives directions. The Lord says, "You wanted to do this; now here is the chance. Go and do it." If you are sincere, you say, "Now, God, I want You." Then He will give you directions. "Yes, now you come and get Me like this."

 

This is His kindness. However, if we want something else, that is all right. We can have it. God is very kind. When I want something, He is in my heart directing me and telling me how to have it. So why should He not give directions on how to have a spiritual master? First of all we must again be eager to revive our God consciousness. Then God will give us a spiritual master". Back to Godhead #67, 1974: "An Awareness of What is Best and Most Beautiful

[Beggar]

This is the experience of Sripad Lalit Akincan Maharaj of the Sri Caitanya Saraswat Math,

 

Johannesburg, South Africa — Saturday, November 10th

Srila Prabhupad's compassion

My life changed completely after I read Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaj Prabhupad's Bhagavad Gita – As It Is in 1981. When I read Krishna's succinct explanation of the transmigration of the soul, I had an epiphany: I was going to try to live my life according to the principles of Krishna consciousness.

All the questions I had about Krishna consciousness were answered in The Science of Self-Realization, the next book I read by Srila Prabhupad. Eager to know more about this great Vaishnava saint, I began reading his biography, Srila Prabhupad Lilamrita. This one paragraph, from the last chapter of Volume I, A Lifetime In Preparation, affected me deeply:

Mr. Choksi [remembers]: I asked him [srila Prabhupad], "Why couldn't you go earlier? Why do you want to go to the States now, at this age?" He replied, "I will be able to do something good, I am sure." His idea was that someone should be there who would be able to go near people who were lost in life, and teach them, and tell them what the correct thing is.

Srila Prabhupad was so merciful, so concerned for the suffering and the misfortune of others. He gave me so much hope! I felt so alone in South Africa. I wanted to be good, I wanted to love God, but there was nobody to show me how. And here was this old man who seemed to hear my cry, who seemed to understand my necessity, who wanted to come to show me how to love God, how to devote my life to Krishna...

After reading the biography of this incredibly kind and compassionate old man who tried so desperately to come to the West, "to go near people who were lost in life, and teach them, and tell them what the correct thing is," I could have no doubt: "Here is my guru!"

But alas! As I was to discover, Srila Prabhupad was dead. What was I to do? Why did Krishna make me read these books — why did He make me all excited about Krishna consciousness? — for nothing? It seemed like such a cruel trick.

But all was not lost. In The Bhagavat, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur says:

God gives us truth... when we earnestly seek for it.... The soul receives a revelation when it is anxious for it. The souls of the great thinkers of the bygone ages, who now live spiritually, often approach our inquiring spirit and assist it in its development.

And so it was that a few months later I met Yudhamanyu Prabhu, who gave me a tattered, xeroxed copy of Bhakti Sudhir Goswami Maharaj's seventeen-page pamphlet (later published as the booklet, Guardian of Devotion) — and there was Srila Prabhupad to guide me, to tell me:

"For spiritual advancement of life, we must go to someone who is actually practicing spiritual life. So, if you are actually serious to take instructions from a siksha-guru, I can refer you to the most competent of all my godbrothers, B.R. Sridhar Maharaj, whom I consider to be even my siksha-guru, so what to speak of the benefit that you can have by his association."

Krishna had not played a cruel trick on me! Srila Prabhupad was not dead! Srila Prabhupad was so compassionate and so determined to bring everybody to Krishna consciousness that even after he left this world, he still came back "to go near people who were lost in life, and teach them, and tell them what the correct thing is" — to show latecomers like me the way.

Thank you Srila Prabhupad!

[Sarva gattah]

Inspirational pastime time Beggar, I may be old but my spiritual life is young and just neginning and maybe in the past I have been narrow minded. For my immaturity, I apologise

[Beggar]

 

Inspirational pastime time Beggar, I may be old but my spiritual life is young and just neginning and maybe in the past I have been narrow minded. For my immaturity, I apologise

At least you can change. I am mired in my own black heartedness.

[Inedible]

Wherever you are, you must be there for a reason. It helps to learn what that reason is before running away and saying you are just looking for a teacher. I think a lot of people who go around the world in hopes of finding something they think they can't find at home are just lying to themselves.

[Sarva gattah]

Reporter: How can a person tell he has a genuine guru?

 

Srila Prabhupada: Can any of my students answer this question?

 

Disciple: Once I remember John Lennon asked you, "How will I know who is the genuine guru?" And you answered, "Just find out the one who is most addicted to Krsna. He is genuine."

 

Srila Prabhupada: Yes. The genuine guru is God's representative, and he speaks about God and nothing else. The genuine guru is he who has no interest in materialistic life. He is after God, and God only. That is one of the tests of a genuine guru: brahma-nistham. He is absorbed in the Absolute Truth.

 

In the Mundaka Upanisad it is stated, srotriyam brahma-nistham: [MU 1.2.12] "The genuine guru is well versed in the scriptures and Vedic knowledge, and he is completely dependent on Brahman." He should know what Brahman [spirit] is and how to become situated in Brahman.

 

These signs are given in the Vedic literature. As I said before, the real guru is God's representative. He represents the Supreme Lord, just as a viceroy represents a king. The real guru will not manufacture anything.

 

Everything he says is in accordance with the scriptures and the previous acaryas. He will not give you a mantra and tell you that you will become God in six months. This is not a guru's business.

 

A guru's business is to canvass everyone to become a devotee of God. That is the sum and substance of a real guru's business. Indeed, he has no other business. He tells whomever he sees, "Please become God conscious." If he canvasses somehow or other on behalf of God and tries to get everyone to become a devotee of God, he is a genuine guru".

[Vigraha]

 

A guru's business is to canvass everyone to become a devotee of God. That is the sum and substance of a real guru's business. Indeed, he has no other business. He tells whomever he sees, "Please become God conscious." If he canvasses somehow or other on behalf of God and tries to get everyone to become a devotee of God, he is a genuine guru".

[cbrahma]

Everything Prabhupada says adds up to the guru being a pure devotee. No such guru since Prabhupada has found me.

[Shakti-Fan]

 

The Song Remains the Same

 

BY: JAGABANDHU DASA

 

 

Apr 28, FORT WHITE, FLORIDA (SUN) —

When I first tried to join ISKCON in May of 1976 at the age of seventeen, among the first things I unfortunately learned was to think ill of women, the meat-eating demon "karmis," people of other spiritual traditions (especially Srila Prabhupada's Godbrothers) and the demigods themselves. To this day I wonder how any such ideas or feelings can be substantiated in terms of Real Krishna Consciousness and hopeful genuine internal upliftment towards Divine Love. Or to borrow from Srila Bhaktivinoda's vernacular, "O, to be rid of the prejudices borne of unripe years!"

 

 

Not much more than a year later, Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada departed, causing a great sadness to fall upon the world. Shortly thereafter, in early 1978, as a young uninitiate, I was unanimously encouraged by the disciples of His Divine Grace whom I had always looked up to and trusted without question, to seek shelter from our new Zonal Acharya who was one of Srila Prabhupada's supposedly chosen successors.

 

 

During that first year after Srila Prabhupada's departure, the new Zonal Acharya had his own Sri Vyasa-puja event with a fancy gold embossed Vyasa-puja book, mostly filled with flowery praises by his own godbrothers since there were as yet hardly any second generation or grand-disciples to write offerings in what would have been a book of blank pages. Since this Zonal Acharya was one of the first to manifest difficulties, the same godbrothers who formerly freely gave written accolades were quick to deny that they had ever done so, and the books containing record of this were eventually destroyed.

 

 

In late spring of 1980, I was asked by my Temple President on short notice to quickly compose that year's already overdue Sri Vyasa-puja offering for the Detroit temple. Because I completely trusted my seniors, Srila Prabhupada's disciples, as to the veracity of the reputed Divine succession of the chosen eleven, what I wrote emphasized the alleged truth about how wonderful Srila Prabhupada was to give us the gift of his supposed successor acharyas. Not long after this our local Zonal Acharya began to demonstrate serious deviations from Srila Prabhupada's Beautiful Teachings and I was sent with the then Radhanatha dasa to New Vrindaban as his assistant bhakta leader, as well as tour guide at the Palace of Gold and the managing editor of Brijbasi Spirit. This was during the spring of 1981.

 

 

During the fall of 1981, I was at Kirtanananda Swami's house while the now departed ISKCON sannyasi, Sripada Sridhar Swami was visiting and it was from him I first heard of Srila Prabhupada's Godbrother, Srila Bhakti Rakshaka Sridhar Dev Goswami Maharaj. By the end of the year, I had traveled to California where, after spending time with Sripada Atreya Rsi Prabhu at his Bhaktivedanta Fellowship in San Francisco, I soon found myself associating with devotees from Bhakti Sudhir (the former Dhira Krishna dasa) Goswami's new temple on behalf of Srila Sridhar Maharaj in San Jose.

 

 

As one changes, thoughts grow deeper. If I had not been initiated by one of the first Zonal Acharyas to experience personal difficulty in their practicing life, I don't know if I would have been compelled to soul-search for answers to my initiation dilemma. As a younger man, yet unmarried, I had found the time to make an extensive study of Srila Prabhupada's Beautiful books and I had also already had many dreams of His Divine Grace. I knew that he had spoken strongly about his Godbrothers, but had also said that he could say like that, but his followers could not. And that all his Godbrothers were great souls and that they should not be ill-thought of even in the minds of his followers.

 

 

Many thanks to my old and dear friend Sripad Raghavendu Prabhu and Sripada Bhakti Sudhir Goswami, I felt inspired to make a careful study of what Srila Saraswati Thakur and our own Srila Prabhupada had to say about Srila Sridhar Maharaj's extremely illuminatory guidance along with listening carefully to Srila Sridhar Maharaj's own words about real Krishna Consciousness.

 

 

I cannot speak for others, but for me personally Srila Sridhar Maharaj's guidance has been of inestimable benefit to my inner development without me feeling the need to abandon ISKCON or proselytize for other missions. Srila Govinda Maharaj is equally important to my inner life, but I also do not proselytize on his behalf either, while I hold fast to impartiality regarding my own inspirations, mainly quoting from Srila Prabhupada, Srila Saraswati Thakur and Srila Bhaktivinoda, thereby trying to respect the ISKCON audience of the Sun. ISKCON is where I first got the seeds of Krishna Consciousness in this lifetime and both Srila Sridhar Maharaj and Srila Govinda Maharaj have been of inestimably beneficial assistance to the cultivation of these seeds, after Srila Prabhupada's departure. But my own primary dedication has always been to Srila Prabhupada, who still comes to me in dreams asking for me to help him, which to me means the reformation of His Divine Grace's Sacred Mission, with thoughts, ideas and real Krishna Consciousness.

 

 

Also, my own personal circumstances having to caregive for an extremely autistic daughter have prevented me from having hardly any formal contact with any spiritual sangam since the 1980's. And a large part of my reticence in pursuing formal associations has been because of what happened as a result of my being misled by my superiors to take shelter of my Zonal Acharya in the first place. After all the acrimony, arguments, quarrels and visceral disagreements beginning to manifest in the 1980's, between concerned parties ostensibly officially representing the Krishna Consciousness movement at that time and not liking to argue or quarrel myself I felt compelled to withdraw nearly entirely from any official association. If it had not been for the great influence of Srila Sridhar Maharaj upon my soul and consciousness, I may well have felt justifiably compelled to throw the baby out with the bathwater and completely reject Krishna Consciousness out of hand, especially after all the nonsense which had been falsely represented as true Krishna consciousness. If that was Krishna Consciousness, I wanted no part of it and was very nearly on the verge of rejecting it wholesale in the same way I had done to the Presbyterianism of my youth. I cannot emphasize enough how hearing from Srila Sridhar Maharaj saved me from completely rejecting Krishna Consciousness. His Divine guidance has also had a profoundly similar effect on my good wife, Krishnaashrita dasi.

 

 

The end result of Srila Sridhar Maharaj's influence upon this lowly soul has been for me to want to make a closer study of Srila Prabhupada's books while also making a parallel examination of the awesome Teachings of the two affectionate Godbrothers, as if I were learning about Krishna Consciousness from Srila Rupa and Srila Sanatan Goswamis, who although different in subjective mood and vernacular are identical and harmonious in their flawless representation of Mahaprabhu's Teachings.

 

 

In the 1970's, one of Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada's disciples was annoying him with a barrage of questions about Christ and Krishna Consciousness, to which His Divine Grace finally responded with exasperation, "I am not your answer machine." Curiously, in 1983, this same disciple was pestering Srila Sridhar Maharaj with the same line of questions only to finally receive the very same annoyed response, "I am not your answer machine."

 

 

To this day, it breaks my heart to consider how rudely Srila Sridhar Maharaj was treated by Srila Prabhupada's reputed successors and even continues to be ill-thought of by some in the present time, under the presumed emotional notion of real devotion to Srila Prabhupada.

 

 

Regarding reading books written by other Vaishnavas besides Srila Prabhupada's own, it may be interesting to note how His Divine Grace within his Superexcellent commentary of Sri Chaitanya-caritamrta encourages the study of Sri Sanatan Goswamipada's Brhad-Bhagavatamrta, which was not a BBT publication in 1975, or during Srila Prabhupada's lifetime. On this note I might submit a humble plea before our esteemed international audience to please kindly segregate the mind from bias and the duality borne of party spirit, while not divesting oneself of mature intelligent discrimination when making impartial parallel comparisons between two affectionate Godbrothers who were both simultaneously held in highest regard by Srila Saraswati Thakur himself.

 

 

What follows has been printed before many times and many places, both on and off the internet. It represents a transcription of the last known recorded meeting between Srila Prabhupada and Srila Sridhar Maharaj in March of 1977, just a few months before Srila Prabhupada's departure. In it, we find His Divine Grace imploring Srila Sridhar Maharaj to take up residence at his beloved ISKCON temple in Sridham Mayapur, even expressing that, "If you stay, then it will be helpful to me also. Sometimes I need to consult with someone, but there is no one. There is no one I can consult. I feel this deficiency very greatly." And also, "My disciples are telling me they will build a house for me. So, both of us will stay in that house. Most of the time I am traveling around, so if you are there, then they can get some guidance."

 

 

• Srila Prabhupada:
  I do not know for how long I will be able to carry on. So, I came to see Sridhar Maharaj.
  
  
  Devotee:
  If you all go away, then the world will become dark.
  
  
  Srila Sridhar Maharaj:
  [to Srila Prabhupada] It is so wonderful that the will of the Lord becomes manifest through someone.
  
  
  Srila Prabhupada:
  I want very much, Maharaj, that you come and stay at Mayapur. Because Prabhupad (Srila Saraswati Thakur) always desired that you preach. He told me quite a few times, "Why don't you pull him out?" [They both laugh.] You know, I also tried to some extent before, but somehow or other it did not work out. Now, why don't you come and stay at Mayapur? Srila Prabhupad (Srila Saraswati Thakur) told me also, "Sridhar Maharaj is one of the finest preachers." I want to take you everywhere. At least at the place we have in Mayapur, people are coming from all over the world. Why don't you come and stay there? If you just agree, then whatever kind of building you want, I will arrange it for you. They are trying to build a house for me. So both of us will stay there. And whenever you want, you can come here to your Math.
  
  
  Srila Sridhar Maharaj:
  Yes, as long as I am alive to fulfill Prabhupad's (Srila Saraswati Thakur's) desire.
  
  
  Srila Prabhupada:
  This is my earnest desire. Since you could not go around the world and preach, at least stay there and people will come to you. I shall make that arrangement. If you stay, then it will be helpful to me also. Sometimes I need to consult with someone but there is no one. There is no one that I can consult. I feel this deficiency very greatly.
  
  
  Devotee:
  If he stays in Mayapur, then, all kinds of people will get to hear from him.
  
  
  Srila Prabhupada:
  Yes, that's right.
  
  
  Srila Sridhar Maharaj:
  Yes, people from all kinds of cultural backgrounds will come there.
  
  
  Srila Prabhupada:
  Yes, and they are already coming. And in that house I will make arrangements for an elevator so that you won't have to go through the difficulty of walking up and down the stairs. You won't even have to move a step yourself. I'll make arrangements for a car and a lift. My disciples are telling me that they will build a house for me. So, both of us will stay in that house. Most of the time I am travelling around, so if you are there, then they can get some guidance. So, Maharaj, please, give me the order and I will make all the arrangements for you. That Planetarium [The "Temple of Understanding"] also will be built under your direction. My idea is to combine the Indian culture and the American money -- the lame man and the blind man policy. I tell them also that this will be very beneficial for the world.
  
  
  Srila Sridhar Maharaj:
  Yes, as long as I am alive to fulfill Prabhupad's (Srila Saraswati Thakur's) desire.
  
  
  Srila Prabhupada:
  This is my earnest desire. Since you could not go around the world and preach, at least stay there and people will come to you. I shall make that arrangement. If you stay, then it will be helpful to me also. Sometimes I need to consult with someone but there is no one. There is no one that I can consult. I feel this deficiency very greatly.
  
  
  Devotee:
  If he stays in Mayapur, then, all kinds of people will get to hear from him.
  
  
  Srila Prabhupada:
  Yes, that's right.
  
  
  Srila Sridhar Maharaj:
  Yes, people from all kinds of cultural backgrounds will come there.
  Srila Prabhupada:
  Yes, and they are already coming. And in that house I will make arrangements for an elevator so that you won't have to go through the difficulty of walking up and down the stairs. You won't even have to move a step yourself. I'll make arrangements for a car and a lift. My disciples are telling me that they will build a house for me. So, both of us will stay in that house. Most of the time I am travelling around, so if you are there, then they can get some guidance. So, Maharaj, please, give me the order and I will make all the arrangements for you. That Planetarium [The "Temple of Understanding"] also will be built under your direction. My idea is to combine the Indian culture and the American money -- the lame man and the blind man policy. I tell them also that this will be very beneficial for the world.
  
  

 

 

[realist]

Interesting reading but is it all karmically our fault because of our naivety to have a ‘hero’ to worship even if he is not qualified? But remember Sridar Maharaj not only supported the zonal Acharays in ISKCON, but encouraged it. I was at his Gaudiya math Temple in 1978 when he glorified the new zonal gurus in ISKCON

Also1 remember way back in 1981 (Ramai Swami, who was just elected the head of the GBC in 2008), got up and praised his sannyas guru Bhavananda at his Vysa Puj by saying he had specially come from Vaikuntha to save the fallen souls, Ramai had tears in his eyes as he spoke fondly of Bhavananda and was clearly very moved, this was video taped and I still have it in storage.

Clearly Ramai Swami had seen Bhavananda in the same light as Prabhupada, a pure devotee put in that position by Krsna. Ramai's mood set the ‘example’ that would last until 1986, when the whole ‘guru’ thing came crashing down on our heads

I never ever went that far to see him specially sent from Vaikuntha because to me he was a Godbrother who represented Prabhupada that I blindly followed. Bhavananda never saw himself as that either although, as years progressed, he became more and more intoxicated by the worship his Godbrothers set up, supported and strongly encouraged.

To have a ‘hero’ to worship as a pure devotee, even if he is not qualified, was more important at the time than having no hero at all. I was too stupid and very insecure at the time to say anything, so I just went along with the 'chosen guru' thing for the ride, most of us Prabhupada disciples did. It’s a shame many tried to imitate Prabhupada back then rather than follow him.

You know, the preaching on the streets back then was way better and more effective than it is today, the devotees back then were very dedicated selling books, even the paraphernalia selling by devotee back them, like oil paintings, was nessassary as it assisted preaching. Those who critize such selling are wrong, so many preaching programs where financed by such selling, including the campaign to free Soviet devotees from jails. In 1987-8 we collected 140,000 signatures around Australia on our Bus, along with the Krsna kids campaign, it helped secure the religious freedom in the Soviet Union, granted by the Soviet Government in 1988.

Anway, back then I new exactly what was going on and how behind the scene, Bhavananda was struggling to handle the high level of worship, he certainly wasn't the pure devotee we all made him out to be to his disciples, but I was just struggling along myself, who was I to point the fingure? So I just glorified him like Ramai and all of my Godbrothers did. Back then they thought they new everything, but we all had the 'frog in the well' mentality, puffed up with the little knowledge we had, especially Rama Swami, he thought he new everything and prabably still does, but now we can see he was blind back then, he had no idea how to lead and protect the lives of others. He did not know how to deal with so many basic issues he new about. I was too insecure to not go along with it all, after all, ISKCON was my only family.

 

Personally Bhavananda treated me fine, over all the years he was always kind and encouraging to me, he never ever demanded worship off me; in fact in all fairness to him, it was his Godbrothers, including myself, who saw him as a substitute 'Prabhupada' so to speak, and then treated him like Prabhupada, building him up to be a 'Prabhupada' we called 'Vishnupada'. His Godbrothers gave him that name, he certainly never gave it to himself.

 

People can say what ever they like about him, but as far as I am concerned, I saw his love for Prabhupada and his sincerity. We have to take some of the blame for it all, as the saying goes, 'It's not just the bad people who cause problems in the world, but rather it is all the good peeople who stand by and do nothing, letting bad things happen'. It is certainly not ‘all’ his fault, he was lavishly glorified by his Godbrothers first before he had any disciples.

He never ever demanded respect and worship off me, although that Ramai Swami always would DEMAND it with threats to kick you out of the Temple if you did not fall at his feet, he was very arrogent, demanding and secretive and no-one could ever get too close to him, he always treated me impersonally. On many occasions he would say “get down and bow when you see me coming’, he would say proudly on many occasions.

 

Anyway I never experienced that impersonalism with Bhavananda. It’s like Ramai had this invisible shield around him. I travelled with him for years like this and his 'coldness' was very frustrating. Even now he remains aloof from everyone even if his with them right in the middle of all the GBC men. Bhavananda was not like that. His Godbrothers, including myself, are to fault by taking his worship way over the top.

 

This was happening all over the world with all the appointed gurus

 

Once again, when Bhavananda was away from his disciples, he was a reasonable person; he never ever raised his voice in anger to me, even though he did to others.

I remember one time I became disturbed by what he did when I was Temple Commander of Vrndavana Temple in 1978. We used to go around to all the rooms in the Temple and Gurukula to see if they were clean in the morning, on this occasion, Bhavananda came for the inspection, all the Gurukulis were suppose to be in the Temple room chanting however, there was one room where two Gurukulis were still sleeping, Bhavananda went into a rage when he went into their room, picked one of the boys, Ananda Prabhu, who was 10 or 11 years old at the time, and threw him into the wall, then picked him up and did it a second time. I stood by and watched in surprise as I did not know nor experience that side of Bhavananda, after all his role as Guru had only just begun

What could I do, that’s just how it was in those days because that how we were treated when we went to school in the 50s and 60s. (I was 17 when I first went to the Temple in 1971, Initiated 72) Bhavananda then turned to me and said “these boys need discipline, this place is not a free motel, make sure no one is in any of these rooms during the morning program”

In my mind I was thinking I should have warned the boys that Bhavananda was inspecting the rooms with us as I new they were resting. Afterwards I went back to see if Ananda was alright, he had a hobby of reading books on airplanes and jets, which he was reading when I went into see him, he just carried on like nothing had happened, he had a gash to his head that I treated and bandaged and some bruises on his body, I told him what had happened to him shocked me because I did not know Bhavananda could get so violent, as I was talking to him, Danavir, his school teacher, came in and yelled at him more for not attending the morning program.

 

All this kid wanted to do was read his books on planes. Other Gurukulis at the time would remember this, they where terrified of Bhavananda after this and so was I back then, why? Because I had nothing else. I was only a teenager myself when I joined ISKCON. The movement was everything to me and still is.

[harishh]

Thanks for nice article