The Fire Of Sati

[Guest guest]

To All The Assembled Vaishnavs:

 

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to the causeless mercy of Srila Prabhupad.

 

Mother Madhusudani Radha devi dasi wrote:

 

"Since Ameyatma has seen fit to make public excerpts from his correspondence with me…" What ever was published recently on VNN was not my doing. I posted those letters to a mini-GBC forum that was setup to discuss this issue. Someone else took the liberty to publicize them on VNN. However, that does not bother me as Srila Prabhupad has written letter, Nov 25, 72):

 

Only the GBC man shall be able to make these changes, not any so-called secret meeting of devotees. Why they have misunderstood these things? If they have objection they must lodge it with their GBC, and differences must be discussed openly amongst ourselves, not secret meetings. We are Vaisnava devotees, not politicians. So these things must be stopped, plotting.

 

Why do the GBC hold so many private secret discussions anyway, and some are so concerned if their private statements are made public? Srila Prabhupad advises that differences must be discussed openly amount the devotees, not in secret meetings. After all, are we politicians or Vaishnavas?

 

Now that others have published some exchanges I made with the GBC and mother Madhu…Radha dd, let me make my own public statement.

 

As many of you know, there has been an ongoing controversy with regard to what constitutes proper respect for pure devotees like Srila Prabhupad, and what is considered improper, or offensive. This controversy is a most serious concern for many devotees. Several of our leaders have also taken this issue very seriously because the authority, respect and honor of our acharyas, specifically Srila Prabhupad’s, is being questioned. All other controversies we have experienced to date are quite minor in comparison because they never precluded discussion on the basis of Srila Prabhupad’s teachings, thus leaving open the possibility of debate. But when Srila Prabhupad’s authority itself is derided, and shastra is minimized, then there is no question of a debate–everything is finished as the discussion no longer has a fixed absolute basis, such discussion becomes mental masturbation and speculation.

 

About 5 months ago, a discussion on a COM conference named Topical Discussions was held wherein statements many senior devotees considered to be offensive took place. I would prefer not to publicly display the following statements made by Mother Dhyanakunda dd. because, for the most part, her offenses were made partly due to serious doubts that she had held for years and obviously had never been properly dispelled. She was in need of better guidance. But, since it was her comments that seemed to climax the agitation, we are forced to refer to them. She had posted a number of texts that bordered on being offensive for some time. Then, on Oct 19, 1999, she posted a list of ‘contradictions’ in Srila Prabhupad’s books. Materially perceived contradictions, we do not care. Those who know the transcendental nature of the Ganges, even if some foam, even dead bodies, are floating on the river, we brush aside all those material things and take bath and drink the Ganga water, because we know it is transcendent and all purifying. The same is with the teachings of the pure devotee. The Ganga water originates from the toes of Krsna, it is all purifying. Yet, if one simply points to the froth and foam and only finds fault proclaiming the Ganges is not pure because of all the foam, that person is most unfortunate, his mind is in hell and his words are like thorns to the saintly persons. The same is true with the teachings of the pure devotee. The words of the pure devotees emanate from the lips of Govinda, because the pure devotee only repeats Krsna’s message as Krsna directs him to do so. To find fault with some mundane seeming contradictions amounts to nothing but offensive fault finding. It will only drag down those who have such a fault finding attitude and pollutes the consciousness of those who hear such fault finding yet do not try to stop it.

 

EXAMPLE 6.

 

IS THE WHOLE WORLD FULL OF GIRL CHILDREN (STATISTICS)?

 

Srila Prabhupad: The whole world is full of girls, girl children. Why? There is no potency. Potency finished. Or impotent. And if you keep one boy brahmacari, no sex life, and get him married, the first child must be a boy, must be, without any doubt.

(Morning walk, March 19th, 1976 Mayapura)

 

Dhyanakunda dd: Jagannatha Misra, Lord Caitanya's father, had eight daughters before he got his two sons. He must have had lots of illicit sex before, or...? Kardama had nine daughters before he got his son. How about Prabhupada's own father? in Bhakti Caru Maharaja's film it looks like Prabhupada has many elder sisters but no brothers.

(Message to Topical Discussions October 19, 1999)

 

The above was only a mild criticism of Srila Prabhupad, and our philosophy. Mother Dhyanakunda dd, on the same discussion, also wrote:

 

I have singled out this example [the ‘example’ she refers to is not the one I gave above, but an incident that she related in which she perceives that Srila Prabhupad was making contradictory assessments of one devotee who had gone astray] since it's a different kind of contradiction. Not a logical one but rather psychological. Prabhupada first exhibits a very negative attitude toward one Richard, and a few sentences later, he becomes quite positive about him and sees good qualities in him. What has changed?

 

This kind is what bothers me, personally, perhaps more than the simpler

kinds. I just have a big problem trusting persons who label others so

easily and so unpredictably.

 

Mahananda Prabhu, myself, and numerous others who read these things were disturbed. We all felt that this poor soul was in desperate need of good instruction. We also understood the spiritually diseased state these words were made, and how dangerous they are, as they can contaminate the whole atmosphere and the minds of others. In her own words she is saying that she has "a big problem trusting" people like Srila Prabhupad. These exclamations you might expect from some mundane scholar who has not had any real contact with devotees and with the teachings of Srila Prabhupad. But, it was shocking to read them from an initiated ISKCON devotee.

 

Such infirm faith in the words of our Founder Acharya needs proper and immediate attention. To express such doubts on public forums is not the authorized system to deal with such things, yet this seemed to be encouraged and welcomed by a number of devotees who thought it was just great that there was a forum where such devotees could openly express their ‘doubts’ (criticisms and fault findings) concerning Srila Prabhupad and shastra.

 

Later Dhynkund concludes:

 

Another things that bothers me is that Srila Prabhupada is always so sure

of himself. He is fully confident in his own judgment. He is fully

confident that the world is full of girls, that in certain places all

people are rascals, that "Bad things means Western type of civilization,"

etc. Very strong, super simple black-and-white general statements. Where

ordinary people would soften their statements by saying, "as far as I

know,I am convinced that,to some degree,in this respect,from my

experience,most probably,at present it looks like..." etc., Srila

Prabhupada passes absolute judgemnts, and he is not even consistent in them.

 

I am ready to believe the source of his certainty is direct link with

Krsna's absolute knowledge, *if* it can be proven he was absolutely right

each time.

 

Up till then, I will rather suppose Prabhupada's absolute self-confidence

was a feature of his own individual character.

 

Ys Dhkdd

 

 

This devotee obviously either lost her faith in Srila Prabhupad, or she had never developed proper faith. If the later be the case, then she should never had been given initiation - period - and it is the system and those who gave her initiation that is at fault. One takes initiation after one has developed such firm faith and is prepared to fully surrender to the guru. It was obvious that this poor girl was in need of better and proper guidance in her spiritual life.

 

For those who have full faith (or aspire to gain such full faith) in Srila Prabhupad, her statements were like poisoned offensive rods flung on our Srila Prabhupad and our Vaishnav philosophy. Mahananda Prabhu, myself and others wrote in objection and to point out that those statements were indeed offensive and that the reaction for making such offenses to the pure devotee is very serious and severe. That is when mother Madhusudani Radha dd defended mother Dhyanakund’s right to free speech while attacking those who (rightfully) preached that those who offend the pure devotee will suffer hellish results for their offenses. For all her so-called accredited Phd intelligence, Madhusudani Radha never referred to any guru-sadhu-shastra to back up her concocted views on this matter.

 

Mahananda wrote (to MRdd) (in response to a devotee who asked to be removed from the forum due to those statements and due to the fact no action was being taken by the forum organizers to deal with the offensive nature of the remarks):

 

You do your job so well. May I make a humble request? Why don't you

moderate the blasphemous comments of those who would dare to make the

remarks about Srila Prabhupada in the first place that would cause sincere

souls to vacate such a condemned environment? Why don't you have in your

rules "no criticizing the pure devotees"? Then your moderation would

actually serve the highest good, rather than making sure no one quotes

Srila Prabhupada too extensively, etc.

 

I request that devotees that think that this permissive attitude that

allows this blatant depicting of our founding acarya [in] such an offensive

light--write to the overseers of COM itself, in the hopes that bringing it

to their attention will end this great slap in our beloved guru's face. To

hear from several devotees in protest will get their attention.

 

I am afraid the poor girl who was concerned that her postings getting out

to the wrong persons is going to realize her worst fears because these

words, now posted publicly about our beloved master, may very well become

the topic of concern in many quarters of our movement,

 

regretfully,

 

Mahananda dasa

 

Somehow mother Madhusudani Radha dd sees the phrase ‘poor girl’ as a sexist put down. Poor soul, poor guy, poor girl. I see absolutely nothing derivative in those remarks, at least not made in the way Mahananda stated it. Mahananda was not being condescending, rather he referred to her as ‘poor girl’ out of compassion for the poor soul, mother Dhynkund, who was in need of proper guidance.

 

Tue, 19 Oct 99 10:09 -0800

"COM: Madhusudani Radha (dd) JPS (Mill Valley - USA)"

Topical Discussions

 

re. Maha

 

Just wanted to let you both know that I'm going to make Mahananda

"distrusted". His constant threats and put downs are getting old and he's

received plenty of warnings. Below he is threatening Dhy with ISKCON

sanctions *and* manages to put her down "poor girl" in one fell swoop.

 

It's obvious that this is not the correct forum for him. I guess he'll

still be able to have these discussions on com.org, but at least he won't

be able to intimidate the bbt.se members. Texts like his can have a

chilling effect on free speech.

 

Madhu

 

Tue, 19 Oct 99 10:22 -0800

"COM: Madhusudani Radha (dd) JPS (Mill Valley - USA)"

Mahananda1, Discussions <topical.discussions@bbt.se>

decision

 

> I request that devotees that think that this permissive attitude that

> allows this blatant depicting of our founding acarya is such an offensive

>light--write to the > overseers of COM itself, in the hopes that bringing

>it to their attention will end this great > slap in our beloved guru's

>face. To hear from several devotees in protest will get their

> attention.

 

This is a threat

 

[it is a threat? To challenge the authority of Srila Prabhupad and speak offensively about him did not phase this mataji, that she did not see as a threat. But for a devotee to ask others to approach the authorities and bring these offensive statements to their attention, somehow she perceives that as a threat, as something so obnoxious that she sees fit to censure this senior and sincere devotee. Obviously this mataji has no spiritual intelligence and was not qualified to hold the position she was in]

 

>I am afraid the poor girl

 

Dhyanakunda Prabhu is a gorwn woman. Don't belittle her. (this is not

necessarily a rule violation, just wanted to let you know)

 

 

[so overly sensitive. Obviously brought up in a world of strict mundane political correctness. My vocabulary is totally different, as I see nothing deriding in an older senior devotee referring to a junior female as ‘girl’, or in this case, poor girl, unfortunate girl any more then poor soul, or poor guy. I know Mahananda Prabhu, and I know that he said this in a compassionate concerned way, not in a condescending derision. What is also obvious is that MRdd was not at all sensitive to the words that belittled Srila Prabhupad’s purity and position, but she is soooo sensitive (and mistakenly so) to such benign terms]

 

>I am afraid the poor girl who was concerned that her postings getting out

>to the wrong >persons is going to realize her worst fears because these

>words, now posted publicly about >our beloved master, may very well become

>the topic of concern in many quarters of our >movement,

 

>regretfully, Mahananda dasa

 

This is an intimidation attempt.

 

[Wow, here we go again. Mahananda expresses his concern that these statements, made public by Dhynkund dd herself, will become a concern for many devotees all over our movement. So overly sensitive is mthr Madhusudani Radha in defense of the offender that she views this benign prophetic statement as intimidation. Mahananda was not intimidating anyone, he simply made a prophetic statement, which has now in fact come true.]

 

Taken together with your many recent texts in which you have put down or

threatened other members (telling them they're offensive, that they're

ruining their spiritual lives, requesting others not to associate with

them etc), your position is becoming very clear. You can not tolerate other

people's having opinions that are different from yours or their using their

own brains. You do not even want them to have a forum or voice where they

can discuss their understanding with each other. This is called

intolerance.

 

 

[ Again, by these statements of mthr MRdd it is obvious that she has no proper understanding of our Krsna Conscious philosophy. Here, so-called ‘devotees’ are making offensive remarks about the pure devotee, and senior and sincere devotees rightfully and properly object, and point out the seriousness and hellish results of such offenses, and this she considers as intimidation and threatening. The offenses made to Prabhupad did not phase her, she did not address that issue at all, but she only went after those who acted to defend Srila Prabhupad’s honor. Many of us felt that by informing her guru and the GBC about all this that they would also see things proper and take proper action. Instead her guru and several other GBC have only risen up in defense of Madhusudani Radha. Over and over a number of them kept referring to her as an intelligent woman, even after all these posts were presented to them. These GBC men did not rise to defend Srila Prabhupad, they did not rise to come to the defense of those who were trying to defend Srila Prabhupad. Thus, these same GBC men are all exposed as having lost all their good intelligence and must step down, be removed by the other GBC, or Krsna will have to directly intervine]

 

Although other people may see Prabhupada as more of a human being and less

"God-like" than you do and they may feel that he has made mistakes about

material matters, without feeling that this detracts from his ability to

give us Krsna, *you* have taken it upon yourself to judge that this

constitutes an offense, that your view of Prabhupada is the only right one

and that everyone else is a blasphemer.

 

 

[Mahananda was expressing the view of guru-sadhu-shastra, not some concocted idea of his own. There is an absolute right view in these matters, but if one does not accept the absolute authority of shastra and the absolute authority of Krsna’s pure representative, then one will foolishly harbor this insane idea that since they do not know what is right, no one else can possibly know either. So, no one has any right to cast judgement (based on shastra) on anyone else, no matter what offensive things they say about our Founder-Acharya. Yet, at the same time MRdd and others saw nothing wrong with casting judgement on the pure devotee. The fact that she is comfortable with the idea that some ISKCON devotees may see Srila Prabhupad as more of a human being then "God-like" shows that this mataji has no spiritual intelligence and does not understand at all the true position of the pure devotee. He is the embodiment of all the demi-gods, and is to be worshiped and honored ‘as good as God’. It is a total disservice to Srila Prabhupad for her to be chastising and instructing a senior devotee. We would have thought our GBC leaders has the minimal brain substance and spiritual intelligence to understand these simple basic spiritual truths. Instead, it was a shock to see how so many of them only defended these actions by this ‘intelligent woman’]

 

Regretfully, you leave me no other option but to remove you from this

conference. You have received numerous warnings and been given the benefit

of the doubt more times than any other member. You know what the conference

rules are, and in spite of your assurances to the contrary, it appears

obvious that you have no intention of following them. It's obvious that

this is not an appropriate forum for you. Fortunately, there are many

other forums where you will feel more comfortable. Best wishes.

 

Ys,

Madhusudani dasi

 

Mahananda Prabhu is a senior Vaishnav devotee, a Prabhupad man, having come to ISKCON in the late 1960’s It is completely improper for such a junior devotee as mthr Madhusudani Radha to be so instructive toward and chastising of her much more senior God-Unlce’s like Mahananda. The offense that mthr Dhyanakund dd made toward Srila Prabhupad was only a symptom of a much larger disease in our society. A total misplacement of many devotees faith in fallible men, rather then in the infallible pure devotee. But, we will leave that for another discussion.

 

Srila Prabhupad was belittled, his character attacked, his purity and position called into question. A senior Vaishnav, Mahananda, attempts to defend Srila Prabhupad and properly preach on the basis of guru-sadhu-shastra that this is offensive and that there will be hellish results for offending the pure devotee. Madhusudani Radha only defends Dhyanakund dd and attacks Mahananda as being intimidating and threatening.

 

This incident warranted swift decisive action on the part of our leaders to boldly and loudly and publicly speak out, like angered lions, in the defense of our Founder-Acharya, and in the defense of those who were defending him. Instead, after 5 months of discussing this topic the GBC has taken no action. No action to defend Srila Prabhupad’s honor and no action to defend those who were defending him. Rather, a core bunch of the GBC have only written in defense of Madhusudani Radha, and then turn around and made derogatory remarks about myself, Pragosh, Shyamasundar and others who have been urging the GBC to get up off their ass-ons and do something. It seems the only action these GBC men are interested in taking is some action against us, who are simplyt the messengers of what took place. These few men are only glorifying the ‘intelligence

 

of this woman, Madhusudani Radha, while ridiculing us for demanding they stand up and defend Srila Prabhupad’s position. Bhaktitirtha Swami exclaimed about MRdd that she is such an intelligent woman, she even has a Phd. As if that was the end all and be all of spiritual knowledge. That her Phd (in mundane social psychology ? Something like that) makes her qualified to chastise and disrespect senior Vaishnav’s who preach to defend Srila Prabhupad’s honor. The fact that she only defended the offender, and attacked those who defended Srila Prabhupad, these GBC men still consider her as ‘intelligent’? We can only question the so-called intelligence (or lack of it) by our so-called leaders. It is obvious that they have totally lost their spiritual intelligence despite their chanting. That is possible if they make offenses toward the pure devotee. You judge a thing by it’s results.

 

The proper thing for her guru, Jayapataka Maharaj, to have done is to have chastised her that she is not qualified to, nor is it her position to be so instructive and chastising of senior Vaishnav’s. Imagine how Srila Prabhupad would have reacted if one of his disciples were to have spoke to one of his own God brothers the way that this mataji chastisingly spoke to Mahananda? Imagine how Srila Prabhupad would have reacted if one of us spoke out about Srila Bhaktisiddhanta the same way as Dhyanakund spoke of Srila Prabhupad? But, our current GBC have become so weak and impotent they cannot even get upset about this. Rather one GBC wrote to the GBC forum patting himself on the back for being so advanced that he did not say anything or take any action out of anger on this topic. While we will shortly read that Sati devi, a woman, became as angry as allgetout and was ready to kill her own father due to his offensive words against a pure devotee.

 

Mahananda was giving proper and good Krsna Conscious advice based on shastra and Srila Prabhupad’s teachings. JPS should have encouraged his disciple to accept that good advice. At this point, mother Madhusudani Radha not only owes Srila Prabhupad an apology for not defending his position, but she owes Mahananda a public apology for wrongly chastising him. And JPS as well as the whole GBC body also owe the same apologies since they have improperly acted in this situation.

 

The Fire Of Sati:

 

SB 4.4.17

Sati continued: If one hears an irresponsible person blaspheme the master

and controller of religion, one should block his ears and go away if unable

to punish him. But if one is able to kill, then one should by force cut out

the blasphemer's tongue and kill the offender, and after that one should

give up his own life.

 

PURPORT

The argument offered by Sati is that a person who vilifies a great personality is the lowest of all creatures. … …The instruction set forth here in Srimad-Bhägavatam is that one should not tolerate at any cost the activities of a person who vilifies or blasphemes an authority. If one is a brahmana he should not give up his body because by doing so he would be responsible for killing a brähmana; therefore a brähmana should leave the place or block his ears so that he will not hear the blasphemy. If one happens to be a ksatriya he has the power to punish any man; therefore a ksatriya should at once cut out the tongue of the vilifier and kill him. But as far as the vaisyas and südras are concerned, they should immediately give up their bodies.

 

I am in no way insinuating that mother Dhyanakund dd’s statements where made in any attempt to vilify Srila Prabhupad as Daksha did toward Lord Siva. However, her words are still very offensive and so appropriate action was totally called for.

 

Because Srila Prabhupad was being offended on COM forums I and others had to leave those forums, which is the correct action of the brahmans. However, it was very disturbing to us that COM was, at the time, technically an ISKCON asset and set up to serve the ISKCON community, and was being funded by Srila Prabhupad’s BBT funds, yet on the forum Srila Prabhupad was being attacked, and those who tried to defend his position were either censored as ‘distrusted’ or we had to flee due to the offenses. This whole incident was screaming for proper, swift and decisive action to be taken. All our GBC could do is absolutely nothing. Great show, guys.

 

I realized that one of my weaknesses is that I write letters that are simply too long (like this one), the GBC would not read, so I asked some other devotees to write to the GBC and complain. Shyamasundar took that up and so he brought this to the attention of the GBC.

 

The GBC should have acted as mad out raged lions springing to their feet to defend Srila Prabhupad, as we see here how Sati devi, a woman, was ready to kill her own father and tear out his tongue, then give up her own body (which she did do) because of offenses made to the pure devotee.

 

 

But, our GBC did essentially nothing. Then, in December and January, JPS was writing how MRdd had asked for forgiveness and so he considered the whole problem finished. No action to defend Srila Prabhupad, no public apology or retractment of statements. Yet, MRdd never changed her views on this at all. She never publicly admitted she was wrong or apologized to Srila Prabhupad publicly or to Mahananda and others.

 

The lack of proper action has only brought more disrespect to the office of the GBC, as they have become exposed as being too weak and infirm to act. Srila Prabhupad points out that Sati’s anger toward her father was not offensive because Sati was only defending the honor of the pure devotee. Myself, Pragosh Prabhu and others also expressed our great (and proper) anger toward the GBC. Because our anger was not to vilify them, but was done to defend the honor of Srila Prabhupad, that anger expressed toward such so-called authority for such a just cause is not to be construed as an offense.

 

One of the complaints was that COM was an ISKCON asset, funded by the BBT. Seeing this, the ‘ex(?)’ Harikesh disciples who run BBT NE COM then maneuvered to ‘technically’ remove COM from directly being a BBT project, thus trying to remove it entirely from GBC authority. But COM still runs on the BBT computers. This is simply rebelliousness on their part. It is simply more disgrace toward Srila Prabhupad and more evidence that the GBC has become totally impotent and useless. Like a diseased person, it needs to be purged with strong medicine in the form of proper glorification of the true position of Srila Prabhupad as not only our Founder-Acharya, but the Savior of this whole world for the next 10,000 +++ years.

 

From mthr MRdd’s email and article:

 

(ameyatma das wrote)

 

"but an official ISKCON forum cannot have non-Vedic rules which fly in the face of shastra and Vaishnav etiquette."

 

Mthr Madhusudani Radha dd wrote:

 

That's fine. See above. COM is not an ISKCON forum. They're independent.

 

 

This is a very telling response. I had stated that the rules she had established for the forum were non-Vedic and flew in the face of shastra and Vaishnav etiquette. Her response? "That’s fine". It is very telling how she views shastra and Vedic dharma, Vaishnav etiquette. If she felt my accusations were improper she could have tried to argue them on the basis of shastra, but no, instead, she says that is fine with her.

 

Our leadership has done the greatest disservice to Srila Prabhupada. It is their duty to act swiftly to curb such offenses. Although it is now 5 months since the GBC was amply informed, nothing was done to rectify the situation. This inaction, or deliberate attempt to squelch the protests, gave further impetus for others to make such offensive statements.

 

And, in the midst of this debate going on by the GBC several of the co-editors of CHAKRA (Vipramukhya Swami and Madhusudani-radha dd.) published or allowed to be published several articles wherein further criticism of Srila Prabhupada ensued and an attempt was made to justify it:

 

Still, some may think that I am disparaging Srila Prabhupada, because I placed what I considered an apt description as a "colorful eccentric" in apposition to a clause in which I posited that he held occasional "obviously wrong opinions." Those who think the words "colorful eccentric" to have been ill-chosen are probably motivated by their rigid a priori opinion that Srila Prabhupada was right about absolutely everything, and therefore read into my chosen description an imagined antipathy towards Srila Prabhupada which I do not in fact hold.

(Erroneous Data of the Colourful Eccentric, (by Ananda das) CHAKRA, Dec. 27th, 1999)

 

To attribute "obviously wrong opinions" to a pure devotee just demonstrates how shallow the author’s understanding of scripture is, because according to scripture, a liberated person does not commit mistakes. Once one pushes in the thin part of the wedge of doubt, establishing that Srila Prabhupad held wrong opinions on this or that (astrology, women’s issues, space flight, etc), then it becomes easy to push the wider edge of the wedge in and discount at will whatever one does not like about what Srila Prabhupad taught, saying, well, he had wrong opinions about this or that, since I don’t agree with what he says about something else, then it must be that he was wrong on that also.

 

Such statements are most dangerous to our progress in spiritual life. Rather then attempting to dissect Srila Prabhupad’s teachings to find the seeming faults therein, one should instead endeavor to develop unflinching faith in the words of the pure devotees.

 

The difference between a conditioned soul and a liberated soul is that the conditioned soul has four kinds of defects.

(Sri Isopanisad, Introduction)

 

A person who is liberated acharya and guru cannot commit any mistake. . .

(Letter to Janardana, 26 April, 1968 New York)

 

[Please refer to A Pure Devotee Cannot Commit Mistakes for further discussion.]

 

Why did Chakra publish these articles that deliberate on Srila Prabhupada’s ‘mistakes’ during the midst of this debate over Srila Prabhupad honor or disrespect shown toward him (of which both MRdd and Vipra Maharaj had knowledge of and to some extent participated in)? What was the intention of the editors of chakra?

 

In the Caitanya-caritamrita, we see that Lord Caitanya did not tollerate such talk:

 

The next day when he [Vallabhacarya] came to the assembly of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, he sat down after offering obeisances to the Lord and said something with great pride.

 

"In my commentary on Srimad-Bhagavatam," he said, "I have refuted the explanations of Sridhara Svami. I cannot accept his explanations.

 

"Whatever Sridhara Svami reads he explains according to the circumstances. Therefore he is inconsistent in his explanations and cannot be accepted as an authority."

 

Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu smilingly replied, "One who does not accept the svami [husband] as an authority I consider a prostitute."

(Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Antya-lila, 7.112 — 116)

 

The intelligent readers can draw their own parallels between the talk of mthr Dhyanakunda dd., mthr Madhusudani-radha dd., Ananda (of Canada), etc., and talk of Sri Vallabhacarya in the above pastime.

 

Your servant, ameyatma das

 

Post Script:

 

Since Ravindra Svarup’s post to the GBC (his reply to Pragosh Prabhu) was published on VNN (http://vnn.org/editorials/ET0002/ET23-5539.html) and in that reply he took a swipe toward me, I will respond to that here.

 

Ravindra Swarup said:

 

"It seems that our Trivikrama Swami may have become the victim of some bad association, in that he is keeping loose company with the likes of Praghosa dasa (ACBSP), Shyamasundara dasa, Ameyatma dasa, and others, and even puts one of them forward as his spokesman. "

 

Ravindra is accusing myself, Shyamasundar and Pragosh as being ‘bad association’, ‘with the likes of’ devotees like ourselves. And how did he substantiate that I or my God Brothers are to be seen as ‘bad association’? There was no evidence put forth. Only his personal opinion.

 

All I can say for myself is that my involvement in this whole episode began when a devotee forwarded me snips that were offensive toward Srila Prabhupad from a post by this Ananda from Canada. At the same time this Topical Discussion forum was being formed. I got involved just to write a response in defense of Srila Prabhupad’s transcendental position and the need for talking full shelter in and faith in his words. When Dhyanakund’s posts hit and Mahananda was under attack for defending Srila Prabhupad I also wrote in protest to mother MRdd, and eventually had to ask to be removed from the forum. I then encouraged others to bring this matter to the GBC. I also posted 4-5 letters of my own to the GBC forum on this matter. And I expressed some anger, disgust and frustration toward the GBC for taking no real action all this time.

 

For these things, all of which were only motivated to defend Srila Prabhupad’s respect and honor, for this, and I can see nothing more, Ravindra Svarup has stated that my association is ‘bad’. I think Ravindra Svarup owes my God brothers an apology (for me, I accept that I am very fallen and will not protest him calling my association as bad - so no apology to me is warranted, but for my God brothers, he owes them a public apology).