Srila Prabhupada’s Living Relationship

Back To Prabhupada, Issue 71, Vol 4, 2021

All quotes in the shaded boxes are taken from an interview dated 4/9/21 with GBC member and voted-in guru HG Madhu Sevita Dasa ("MSD") wherein he agrees with the IRM. Emphases added.

Only living guru

MSD states that everyone in ISKCON must develop a direct relationship with Srila Prabhupada, otherwise we cannot develop Krsna consciousness or progress in spiritual life:

"‘Books are the basis' in my opinion means that the relationship with Prabhupada is the basis. If you don't have a relationship with Prabhupada, how will you be a member of ISKCON? How will you develop your spiritual consciousness? How will you develop your Krsna Consciousness and progress in spiritual life?"

He states this direct relationship is established through Srila Prabhupada's books, because Srila Prabhupada directly speaks to one through them:

**Interviewer:** "...he's present in his books." **MSD:** "Absolutely. \[...\] reading the books and becoming attached to the books is not a mechanical thing \[...\] These books are the person Prabhupada. \[...\] Prabhupada speaks to you through the books."

And, in this way, Srila Prabhupada gives direct personal instruction to the reader:

"You read the same thing that you had read, you know, one year ago, but it comes in differently. It's just like Prabhupada saying something smiling or Prabhupada saying something in a severe mood, and you get that if you are loving Prabhupada's books, if you are attached to him, because he comes through, you know, he appears through them."

1) MSD states that Srila Prabhupada delivers spiritual progress to us, thereby obviating the need for a GBC "living" guru in order to make spiritual progress.

2) MSD demolishes the need for a "living" (physically present) guru as an alternative to Srila Prabhupada, for MSD makes it clear that Srila Prabhupada functions as a personally present, and thus "living" guru, through his books.

Approach as _diksa_ guru

In Bhagavad-gita, 4.34, Lord Krsna states:

"Just try to learn the truth by approaching a spiritual master. Inquire from him submissively and render service unto him. The self-realized soul can impart knowledge unto you because he has seen the truth."

In their paper "Prabhupada's Order", the GBC quotes this verse as evidence of how one surrenders to a diksa guru. The purport to this verse states that, as a result of this humble inquiry and service, the disciple is blessed:

"with genuine spiritual understanding".

Thus, humble inquiry, service and resultant understanding is accepted by the GBC as the process involved in approaching the diksa guru. And MSD states that, in addition to reading Srila Prabhupada's books, this exact process needs to be applied to Srila Prabhupada:

"You may read 20 hours a day, but if the spirit is not serving and loving Prabhupada, is not humbly enquiring from him, \[...\] if you don't reach to become attached to Prabhupada and serve him eternally then that intelligence, that realisation in the heart doesn't become manifested."

Hence, MSD is teaching that we must interact with Srila Prabhupada in the same way that a disciple interacts with the diksa guru.

GBC gurus are a threat

MSD states that the GBC's multi-guru system, rather than being needed to offer "living" diksa gurus as an alternative to Srila Prabhupada, is actually a threat to ISKCON:

"I'll be frank here \[...\] it becomes an archipelagos, you know, oh, and different moods and different that, or I take from my guru, I take from the guru, you know, then the guru has a disciple he becomes guru, you know, the thing may become, you know, lost in a bunch of rivulets \[...\] ‘Oh, my Guru Maharaja writes so nicely, \[...\] I'll distribute the books of my Guru Maharaja.' No."

He states his clear opposition here to the mood of focusing on the books of the GBC gurus, and also adds that no other books should be considered on the level of Srila Prabhupada's books:

"It's not that a hundred years from now \[...\] the main books will be other books or there will be books that are on the same level of Prabhupada's books. That shouldn't happen. Should not happen."

Which would effectively mean that one should basically only read Srila Prabhupada's books, as all other books will be inferior to Srila Prabhupada's books (not on "the same level").

Indeed, it is notable that throughout the whole interview, MSD offers not a single reason why GBC gurus are needed, and instead only argues that Srila Prabhupada is needed. MSD states that the only way to counter the threat posed by GBC gurus is to forever keep Srila Prabhupada as everyone's Acarya:

"if we want this branch of the Chaitanya tree to go on and, you know, make flowers and bear fruits, the pre-eminent, fundamental guru has to remain Srila Prabhupada \[...\] the Founder-_Acarya_, the Founder and _Acarya_ of all the future generations devotees' spiritual life, it has to remain Prabhupada. \[...\] They have to develop a relationship with Prabhupada."

MSD here echoes the obvious point made by us in our book Srila Prabhupada: The Founder-Acarya of ISKCON – Presenting the Conclusions of the GBC Foundational Document, that Srila Prabhupada's "Founder-Acarya" title means that he alone will always be the Founder and Acarya of ISKCON. And in that book we further show, both from the statements of Srila Prabhupada and the GBC, that being the Acarya of ISKCON means acting as the diksa guru of ISKCON.

Conclusion

Thus, we have a GBC member and guru advocating that:

1) We must develop a relationship directly with Srila Prabhupada, because he is our personally present living guru.
2) We can only obtain everything that we need for our spiritual life directly from Srila Prabhupada.
3) We must approach Srila Prabhupada as we would approach the diksa guru.
4) GBC gurus such as himself are a threat to ISKCON.

Hence, as we have shown before, whenever an ISKCON leader speaks accurately about Srila Prabhupada and his teachings, he is forced to concede, albeit "unwittingly", that Srila Prabhupada should be the diksa guru in ISKCON, with no other intermediaries required.

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