Authorisation v. Quantity

Back To Prabhupada, Issue 67, Vol 3, 2020, Interactive

"Srila Prabhupada states: **_"Caitanya Mahaprabhu has warned therefore that, "Don't make many disciples." There is risk. But for preaching work a devotee takes the risk."_** (Morning Walk, Melbourne, Australia, 1974) Now, ISKCON "gurus" could use this argument to justify their position of being "gurus". In other words, they could say, "See? Srila Prabhupada, has said this – that don't make **many** disciples." In other words, they could say that they can still make disciples but as long as it's not **many**! "Many" being the operative word here. I am fully aware of the July 9th letter wherein Srila Prabhupada specifically did not give such an order, but they could use the above argument to, like I said, justify their position. Why would Srila Prabhupada even say such a thing knowing well that he, being _tri-kala-jna_, (knowing past, present and future) knew that his disciples were not fit to become gurus? Would that not give them more ammunition to become gurus?" \- Raju Surti, Birmingham, UK

Editor replies:

1) Srila Prabhupada actually states the opposite: he states that although there is a warning from Caitanya Mahaprabhu to not take many disciples since there is a risk in doing this, the preacher actually takes such a risk, and thus takes many disciples. Hence, the current GBC ISKCON gurus cannot use this statement from Srila Prabhupada to claim he is stating do not take many disciples. Also, Srila Prabhupada is obviously here referring to himself, since he was the only preacher in ISKCON at that time who was actually taking many disciples.

2) Even if Srila Prabhupada was making such a statement, it still would not justify the position of the current GBC ISKCON gurus. Because the statement in question does not authorise them to become successor diksa gurus to Srila Prabhupada. The statement only refers to the number of disciples that an authorised diksa guru will take. Therefore, before the GBC gurus try to justify the number of disciples they are taking, they first need to justify that they are actually successor diksa gurus to Srila Prabhupada who should be taking disciples at all, whether many or not. Since they have no such authorisation for taking any disciples, the issue of them justifying the quantity of disciples they are taking does not even arise!

3) Hence, Srila Prabhupada is not providing any "ammunition" to unauthorised usurper gurus which they could use to prove they were actually authorised to take Srila Prabhupada's position as the diksa guru of ISKCON.

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