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ISKCON, and its silent history , a story that probably needs telling officially..
Aug 6th, 2024
So far, an accurate and objective account has not been fully written or any official acknowledgement of any mistakes that were made during the late 70s and 80s with those difficult early days of ISKCON, when Prabhupāda finished his services, externally, having established ISKCON. Directing Guru Tattva independently of traditions of Gaudia Vaisnavism is a serious charge , and was not what the founder acarya of ISKCON His Divine Grace AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada wanted to happen , this has to be acknowledged officially.
Every historical account written by our Gaudia acaryas that are contained in the Sruti will differ from what ISKCON did in 1979 . So why was a zonal acarya system set up , How did it come about ? or who instigated it ? We are left with a silent history or at most vague hints at what happened and why or who did it .
Of course, they were difficult days, the men and ladies were young , inexperienced, unfamiliar with Vedic culture , so we are not particularly laying any personal blame , we should give the benefit of the doubt , but history has to be told in clear ways and admittance to mistakes should be acknowledged and how they came about .
Questions will follow , such as who insisted those giving initiations had to be in a Sannyasa ashram. It appears that in order to keep the management body strong in ISKCON, guru tattva and management of the society were linked hand in hand , at that time, the majority of GBC men were sannyasa and as the GBC appointed themselves as exclusive gurus , extrapolated from one breif conversation , with Prabhupada, as to Ritvics becoming regular Gurus , but those GBC in the room then extrapolated something that was not there, that that was an exclusive order , and Prabhupada there and then appointed them the Diksa Gurus of ISKCON.
In doing so, they thought that the balance of grhasta GBC men must be ordered to take sannyasa in order to function as a Initiating Diksa Guru .
Other Questions, who insisted that to understand Tattva and practical application of sastra devotees could not approach Srila Sridhar Swami, although Prabhupada told them to ? And who later declared Srila Sridhar Swami an enemy of ISKCON , because he had clearly told the GBC not to exclusively have a limited guru system, but rather , applying sastra , anyone able and reasonably qualified could initiate , if prospective students requested them to do so , The GBC , at that time became belligerent and head strong , but Srila Sridhar Swami advised disgruntled disciples to be patient with them , and if they didn’t change , form a body to approach them for significant change to reflect the proper application of scripture , I believe this was the beginnings of a guru reform movement . Also, unfortunately, many good devotees like HH Tripurari swami , because they wanted Siksa from Srila Sridhar Swami and to their credit would not give him up , were told to leave ISKCON.
Srila Sridhar Swami was sincerely helping Srila Prabhupada and only doing what Prabhupada asked of him to assist with matters of philosophies and traditions of Gaudia Vaisnavism.
When Gurus fell away , reinitiation was made practically compulsory, , no discussion of Dika and Siksa tatttva was offered, which is the proper way of dealing with those who needed more mature spiritual guidance , after it became clear their Diksa Gurus could not sufficiently guide them , Diksa took prominence , that is an incorrect understanding of applications of Sastra , although reinitiation is recommended if the guru becomes a complete non devotee .
One thing , to all the early devotees credit, even though mistakes were made , that jeopardised the faith of spiritual lives of many , ISKCON stayed together as a society and is still functioning world wide in wonderful ways . Its my belief that this is due to many reasons, including and primarily because Prabhupada wanted it to , and also its the desire of Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur and Srila Bhaktisiddanta Sarasvati Goswami Maharaja, its also my belief that over the many years the so called enemies of ISKCON, Srila Sridhar Swami and Srila Narayana Maharaja, have greatly helped ISKSON, to stabalise and to advance Prabhupada’s movement. Indeed, they were great friends of Prabhupada.
I would also like to see official acknowledgement of these events , to record its history and to make sure misunderstandings are cleared up and Tattva is understood clearly and always understood. Currently its my understanding , that there is still an over emphasise on the position of Diksa , and also a misunderstanding of the need of devotees of studying our acaryas literatures and also still misunderstanding of our origins , which is with Krishna in His expansion as Balarama, Ultimately we came from a spirtual world, because Balarama is in the Spiritual world , but He is offering us service there , those that did not take the offer , experienced the Mahavishnu aspect of Balarama, through the three Visnu forms overseeing the independent jivas within the material worlds .
Aug 6, 2024
steveneuroart
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