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Apasampradāyas Deviations from Discipular Succesion
<< 11. Challenge: Questioning authority >>
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| The Challenge of Management
| | In a letter of 22 December 1972, Srila Prahupada brilliantly marked out a plan of management, outlined below, to protect ISKCON from deviation from the sampradaya.
| | I. To avoid the creation of "mad false devotees or pretenders:"
- A. Recognize that bad habits are difficult to overcome.
- B. New devotees should therefore be carefully educated,
- first by getting them to chant the holy name
- and then by getting them to follow the regulative principles.
- Unless one is prepared to follow the principles, he cannot live in the temple.
- Attention should be paid to train a class of men, not a mass of men.
| | II. To avoid the defection of older devotees from the ISKCON camp:
- A. The leaders must strictly set the example, and be vigilant to insure that everyone is
- chanting 16 rounds daily,
- rising by 4:00 AM daily,
- and attending mangala arotika.
- B. The "art of management" is to draw out the spontaneous loving spirit of sacrifice for Krishna.
- Leaders should be careful not to kill the spirit of enthusiastic service, which is: a. individual, b. spontaneous, c. voluntary.
- Leaders should always try to generate an atmosphere of fresh challenge to the devotees so that they will agree to enthusiastically rise and meet it.
- C. As long as the regulative principles are followed by one and all, the future of the Krishna Consciousness Movement is very bright.
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- "Otherwise their enthusiasm dwindles and they again think of sex and become rascals and so many problems are there."
- In order to maintain their enthusiasm to follow the principles, the devotees must be engaged in satisfying occupations.
- They should understand the principles to be part of the occupation; they will thus follow them automatically, realizing the "happier side of regulative principles."
- D. The mood of tapasya is vital to the health of ISKCON. "We should not be very much after comforts and become complacent and self-contented."
| | The challenge of faith
| | Individually, every member of ISKCON must be prepared to meet the challenge of surrendering fully to Krishna. "Therefore faith is the first thing. Adau sraddha. If he has got intelligence, he'll see: 'So many big, big... Lord Brahma accepts. Lord Shiva accepts. Vyasadeva accepts. Narada accepts. The acaryas accept. So am I more than them? No. I will accept." (SP conversation, May 2, 1976)
| | Faith is defined by Lord Caitanya (Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya 22.62) as the conviction that all needs are fulfilled and all desires satisfied simply by serving Krishna. This conviction is born from the full acceptance of Krishna's supremacy. Material lust attacks one who thinks that there is something desirable outside of Krishna consciousness. But desire arises from the soul; because it is originally spiritual, desire can only be satisfied on the spiritual platform in service to Krishna. Devotional service is compared to watering the root of a tree: since we are Krishna's spiritual parts and parcels, if we satisfy Him we are naturally likewise satisfied, just as the leaves of a tree are satisfied when the root is watered. Pouring water on the leaves is just like sense gratification -- though in illusion we may think, "Now the leaves will also enjoy," they suffer for want of nourishment, which comes only from the root. Acceptance of Krishna alone as the root of happiness in all affairs is the proof of real faith.
| | Sensual, mental, intellectual and even spiritual affairs that have no connection to Krishna are called anartha, "valueless." At every moment, each devotee is faced with the challenge of discriminating between things favorable for Krishna consciousness and things that are illusion. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.7.6 informs us that most people lack this power of discrimination (lokasyajanato). Therefore we must take help of the satvata-samhitam, the Vedic literature. "If you go to school and if you don't read books," Srila Prabhupada once said, "you'll fail in the examination."
| | The challenge of pride
| | As the Kathopanisad declares, "Like a sharpened razor, the path of spiritual life is difficult to traverse, for it is said to be strewn with thorns." And of all difficulties on the path, pratisthasa (pride associated with spiritual life) is one of the most formidable. For instance, one who considers himself spiritually advanced may think that a simple devotee's unquestioning dependence upon Krishna for everything is impractical. But Srila Prabhupada said, "Practical means it will be done by Krishna. Your only business is to surrender to Krishna. You cannot do anything. And as soon as you think that 'I shall be able to do it,' then you are a rascal. Immediately you are a rascal."
| | Observing the defects of the sahajiyas, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur has sung:
| | amī ta vaiṣṇava e-buddhi ha-ile
amani na haba ami pratisṭhasa asi
hṛdaya dusibe, hai-ba niraya-gamia
| | "If I think 'I am a vaishnava,' I shall look forward to receiving respect from others. And if the desire for fame and reputation pollute my heart, certainly I shall go to hell."
| | What amounts to a purport by Srila Prabhupada to these lines is found in a letter of 31 December 1972. "You have got some desire to become a famous preacher and famous vaishnava singer and also jagad-guru. This is a spiritual desire, so it is not like any material desire and it is all right for Krishna in this way, but great vaishnava or famous vaishnava means that you have no sex desire. Whether you can be like that? First of all you be like that, without any sex desire, then you think famous vaishnava. Vaishnava means he has no material desire, what to speak of sex desire. All material desires become zero, even he has no desire for jnana, karma, like that."
| | "And from where does one get the strength to rise above material desire? "That is not your business, that is Krishna's business. You follow Krishna. If you cheat Krishna, then you'll be cheated. That's all. Krishna does not cheat you, but you create a situation to cheat yourself, and maya will make an arrangment so that you are cheated. This is maya's business."
(SP conversation, June 3, 1976)
| | The challenge of vaidhi-sadhana bhakti
| | One who is subject to material desire must surrender to Krishna as a vaidhi-sadhana-bhakta and not presume to enter the confidential moods of the perfect devotees.
| | "Regarding the songs by Jayadeva, 'Srita Kamala' is not approved. Sometimes our Krishnadas Babaji sings, but it is not approved by Prabhupad. Those songs are for siddha-bhaktas, not for us who are sadha-bhaktas or learning bhaktas. Lord Caitanya never divulged in public, he enjoyed them in the company of his selected three or four devotees. There is one song by Jayadeva, 'Worshipping the Ten Incarnations', that song is all right."
(Letter of 15 July 1972)
| | Similarly, vaidhi-bhakti-sadhakas should avoid literatures not approved by the spiritual master. "...regarding the students there reading other books. I request you to stop this practice. Our students have no time to read our own books, but they have time to read other's books, and the money to purchase them? Why this mentality is there? You are a serious student, therefore you have correctly found out the defect in these books. We don't want babaji class. We want active preachers." (Letter of 13 October 1973)
| | Those who transgress the above directives and pry into subject matters not meant for them court certain spiritual disaster.
| | "So far your question about the gopis, in the beginning there is no such question. In the beginning we have to follow the principles of devotional service rigidly, like chanting 16 rounds, regularly following the instructions of the Spiritual Master, which includes study, temple worship, sankirtan, like that. ...Going to girls and making them pregnant, then talking of gopis, that is going on, that is nonsense. Without coming to the perfectional stage, if anyone tries to understand the gopis he becomes a sahajiya."
(Letter of 14 December 1972)
| | To meet all these challenges successfully and traverse the path back home, back to Godhead, one must ultimately have love for the spiritual master; honoring the principles he has laid down is the proof of the disciple's love.
| | "I have built the skyscraper skeleton, now you all intelligent American and European boys and girls fill in the spaces nicely in good taste. Do not deviate from our high standard. That will mean great dishonor to me."
(Letter of 22 December 1971)
| | The greatest offense a devotee can commit against the spiritual master is the hati mata or "mad elephant" vaishnava-aparadha; whether one is in danger of committing this offense is essentially a question of association, as explained by Srila Prabhupada in his purport to Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya 19.157
| | "The first business of a vaishnava is to give up the company of nondevotees. A so-called mature devotee, however, commits a great offense by giving up the company of pure devotees. The living entity is a social animal, and if one gives up the society of pure devotees, he must associate with nondevotees (asat-sanga). By contacting nondevotees and engaging in nondevotional activities, a so-called mature devotee will fall victim to the mad elephant offense. Whatever growth has taken place is quickly uprooted by such an offense. One should therefore be very careful to defend the creeper by fencing it in -- that is, by following the regulative principles and associating with pure devotees."
| | But what about an older initiated householder who lives outside of the temple, maintains himself with a 'karmi job', and therefore can't fully commit himself to temple service and association? Isn't the standard different for him? What if he has had bad experience with certain ISKCON leaders, and finds it impossible to associate with them?
| | Srila Prabhupada gave answers to all these doubts; one may refer to his letter of 29 January 1973 to Ksirodakasayi das and to the second paragraph of the same purport quoted above (Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya 19.157). In summary, there is no difference between the grhastha-ashrama and other ashramas in terms of responsibility to the spiritual master, except that the grhastha may live outside of the temple with his wife. The grhastha must follow the four regulative principles like any initiated disciple. About the theory that a grhastha may engage in a kind of "karma-yoga" that has a different spiritual standard than that of the temple devotees, Srila Prabhupada wrote, "this is all nonsense." He expected his householder disciples to "remain fully engaged in the temple activities" and to "assist the other devotees there as much as possible and cooperate very closely for helping me." This does not preclude their working outside; in one conversation, Srila Prabhupada cited his own purva-ashrama as an example: he lived and worked outside, but contributed to his spiritual master's mission in ways that were much appreciated by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati and the Gaudiya Matha devotees. If one mistrusts certain devotees because of unhappy past encounters, he should "keep direct company with the spiritual master, and if there is any doubt, one should consult the spiritual master." One keeps contact with the spiritual master either through vapuh-seva or vani-seva. Either way, his instructions and the regulative principles must be followed. "By mental concoction, one falls down. By associating with nondevotees, one breaks the regulative principles and is thereby lost."
| | Is this too demanding? Computer technology is certainly demanding, yet almost everybody acknowledges its benefit and tries to stay apace with it so as not to be left behind. Srila Prabhupada, answering a question put to him by the author in 1975, said, "Vedic technology means guru-parampara." Just as karmi society depends upon scientific technology for realizing its goals, the society of devotees must similarly depend up the guru-parampara for realization of the supreme goal of life, love of Godhead. If we think we can attain that goal by some "easier" means, we become sahajiyas. In the society of devotees, some serve as leaders and others serve as followers, but all must adhere to guru-parampara. If a leader believes himself transcendental to it, he creates havoc by misusing his influential position. And a follower who reacts to such misleadership by inventing something new in the name of reform similarly creates only havoc.
| | As certain unhappy events in the recent history of ISKCON clearly show, deviated leaders show symptoms of jati-gosani contamination: they tend to think of themselves as the unassailable inheritors of their spiritual master's position and power no matter what faults of character they exhibit, and they are easily provoked by real or imagined challenges to their authority. Deviated followers show symptoms of kartabhaja contamination: they decry all leaders as corrupt on the plea of the misdeeds of a few. Like the followers of Anukul Chandra, they advise newcomers to take initiation and instruction only from the founder-acarya, though he is no longer physically present.
| | Both classes -- deviated leaders and deviated followers -- are sahajiyas. They seem quite sure that their mental concoctions are lofty realizations and their emotional turmoils are states of ecstasy. So sure are they of themselves that any sudden inspiration is accepted as divine, even if it means that Srila Prabhupada's clear instructions are ignored or violated. A clear example of this is seen in modern trends of syncretism: just as the sahajiyas of old tried to blend mayavada, Islam and Buddhism with Mahaprabhu's teachings, so today Christianity is the foreign element of choice; one person formerly associated with ISKCON even claims he is reviving the lost parampara that descended from Jesus Christ.
| | We shall surely be confronted with newer and newer permutations of the apasampradaya phenomena as time goes on, but the pattern of deviation seen in the original thirteen remain the frame of reference for all latter-day perversions of krishna-bhakti. That people continue to fall victim to this pattern of deviation despite the explicit warnings of the acaryas shows the tenacity of Maya-devi in her service of weeding out the insincere from the community of devotees. The lesson is obvious -- we must become more tenacious than she in our service to the lotus feet of the spiritual master, the vaishnavas, and Lord Krishna. "Those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it."
| | It is said that the list of thirteen apasampradayas -- aula, baula, kartabhaja, neda, daravesa, sain, sahajiya, sakhi-bekhi, smarta, jati-gosani, ativadi, cudadhari and gauranga-nagari -- was first spoken by a great devotee named Tota Ram das Babaji, who lived before the time of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. He predicted that these groups would arise like weeds from the same earth from which grows the plant of pure devotion (that is, Lord Caitanya's movement). In Sri Harinama Cintamani, Lord Caitanya Himself declared to Haridas Thakur that in the future many pretenders would darken the world by perverting the pure teachings of the holy name. Bhaktivinoda Thakur comments that the Lord foresaw the rise of these apasampradayas when he made this statement.
| | The challenge of vaidhi-sadhana bhakti
| | The apasampradayas have steadily multiplied down to the present day. More than a hundred years ago, a researcher named Akoyakumar Datta compiled a list of fifty-six deviant Gaudiya Vaishnava sects. Among them are: guru-prasadi (gurus who are offered the brides of their disciples for sex enjoyment, and who return them to the disciples as guru-prasada), sisya-vilasi (gurus who keep female disciples for sex life), and even a group that believes one must accept one's mother-in-law as guru. Akoyakumar Datta admitted that his list of fifty-six was far from complete. A widespread fashion among the apasampradayas is the introduction of new "maha-mantras" to fit modern times. Caran Das Babaji lived at the same time as Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur; he popularized the chanting of bhaja nitai-gaura radhe-syama, japa hare krsna hare rama. Bhaktivinoda Thakur had a lenghty debate with him and forced Caran Das to admit that his mantra was a concoction and he had been wrong to preach it. Six months after this discussion Caran Das died, having lost his mind. His chief follower, Ram Das Babaji, continued to spread this bogus maha-mantra all over Orissa, West Bengal, Bangladesh and Vrindavan. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati called this group's chanting 'chuh-chuh kirtan,' after a kind of rodent that emits a bad smell when disturbed. In Puri, whenever a nagara-kirtan party of these people came down the road, he had his disciples stand at the gate of the Gaudiya Matha temple and beat gongs to drown it out so that he would not have to hear it. Such bogus mantras continue to be popular because the common people are uneducated and easily mislead, and because the propagators of the nonsense are often so enthusiastic and well organized. Both Caran Das and Ram Das travelled widely, preached, got land donated at holy places, built new temples, fixed up broken old temples, standardized Deity worship, established vegetarianism and organized nice festivals.
| | But their mantra is rasabhasa, for it equates Nityananda and Caitanya with Radha and Krishna. By preaching this concoction, they committed a great offense to the lotus feet of Lord Caitanya and His followers by telling people that Lord Caitanya didn't give the world the real maha-mantra for the deliverance of the fallen souls of Kali-yuga.
| | One very active sahajiya preacher holds a Ph.D. from an American university; he is therefore considered a great sage by the simple people of Bengal. He makes publicity for one Jagatbandhu Shorkar, now dead, whom he claims to be the reincarnation of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabu. This "avatar" used to walk naked and practice mauna (the vow of not speaking). His representative, the sahajiya preacher, claims Jagatbandhu was on the highest platform of God consciousness, higher than that of Lord Caitanya. He has invented a name for this exalted state: sisubhava (child-like ecstasy). He has also introduced a new maha-mantra: hari-purusa jagatbandhu maha-uddharana. When challenged by an ISKCON devotee to explain how he could advertise Jagatbandhu Shorkar as an incarnation of God, the preacher replied, "The name jagatbandhu is listed as one of the thousand names of Lord Vishnu." By this logic, any person in India who happen to be named Gopal or Ram could claim to be an incarnation.
| | The Haribol movement was started about one hundred years ago in the jungles of East Bengal by a person called Haricand. His followers are known by their keeping of very long hair, hookah smoking, and their shouting of haribol over and over while beating on big drums. They hope to attain a state they call matual, or "drunken madness." Then there is the sect of Kaivalyanath Ram Thakur, who told his followers to chant the Hare Krishna maha-mantra and nothing else. He never discussed philosophy -- his reply to questions was inevitably, "Just chant Hare Krishna." While he certainly cannot be accused of having invented a new mantra, Kaivalyanath Ram promoted a very wrong understanding of the genuine mantra. His followers chant to him in their kirtan, not to Krishna, because they think he is God.
| | When the general population is constantly exposed to such nonsense, they gradually become twisted. They come to expect that a popular, successful preacher will one fine day declare himself to be God. In Bangladesh, there is a traveling preacher named Vivekananda Brahmacari whose followers have recently informed him, "It's time for you to become an incarnation." Because such a preacher completely depends upon the material support of such followers, he must be obliging. And so in the world of cheaters and cheated, ordinary men become God overnight. Among sahajiyas, everyone styles himself an uttama-adhikari or first-class devotee. There is no concern for the indications given in the sastra of higher and lower ranks of devotees; in sahajiya eyes, making such differentiations is offensive. Now, it only stands to reason that if such first-class devotees are moved to flock around a guru, that guru must be an avatar of God himself. The sahajiya community is thus dedicated to a program of collective reinforcement of each member's self-delusions: the guru is proclaimed to be God and is given money and women by his followers, and the followers get the satisfaction of belonging to some select group of exalted souls -- which in rural Bengali society is usually the only claim to fame one gets a chance at.
| | Srila Prabhupada's humble request: "don't deviate"
| | Just by considering what the acronym ISKCON stands for, we know clearly the difference between the sampradaya and the apasampradaya. Krishna is the absolute center of ISKCON. Even ISKCON's spiritual masters are the paraphernalia of Krishna, as are the temples, money and all properties. In Hawaii, Srila Prabhupada was asked, "Are you ISKCON?" He humbly answered, "I am a member of ISKCON." ISKCON is the society in which the members surrender their identities to Krishna's service and work together to please Him. The apasampradaya society is quite different. In it, the guru takes the forefront, and Krishna fades into a background role -- or fades out of any role whatsoever. The guru's disciples do not think of serving Krishna. They do not even necessarily think they are devotees of Krishna at all. But they very proudly boast, "I am a disciple of such and such guru." Thus the guru takes the place of God, if not in principle, then at least in practice. Since 1978, several modern apasampradayas have broken off from the main body of ISKCON. Each one exhibits total lack of faith in and appreciation for the institution that Srila Prabhupada started. But despite whatever faults these groups exhibit, we should keep in mind that Srila Prabhupada laid the burden or responsibility for keeping his movement whole upon the ISKCON leadership -- the GBC and the temple presidents.
| | "With our GBC and senior men present we should discuss how to make unity in diversity. But, if we fight on account of diversity, then it is simply the material platform. Please try to maintain the philosophy of unity in diversity. That will make our movement successful. One section of men have already gone out, therefore we must be very careful to maintain unity in diversity, and remember the story of Aesop's fables of the father of many children with the bundle of sticks. When the father asked the children to break the bundle of sticks wrapped in the bag, none of them could do it. But, when they removed the sticks from the bag, and tried one-by-one, the sticks were easily broken. So this is the strength of unity. If we are bunched up we can never be broken, but when divided, then we can become broken very easily."
(Letter of 18 October 1973)
| | And though ISKCON management may sometimes be perceived as imperfect, we should always try to satisfy Srila Prabhupada's desire, having faith that he will rectify any discrepancies.
| | "Of course, some of my authorities and so-called officers, they sometimes also order in such a way that everything becomes topsy-turvy. So you may write to me your grievance. What can I do? But meanwhile you must follow him exactly, whatever he says. If there is complaint, I can make adjustment later. But first of all you must without hesitation obey. It is something like the appealing to the higher court if one is not satisfied by decision of the lower court."
(Letter of 13 December 1972)
| | Finally, every devotee has a personal responsibility to always serve Krishna according to the engagements that Srila Prabhupada created for ISKCON.
| | "And because we are not at the stage where we can chant and do nothing else all day, there are so many other engagements. So you have sufficient engagement there? Because if we are not fulltime engaged then the mind is free to do its fickle business of rejection and acceptance for sense gratification. Maya will immediately enter -- we do not even have to call her -- the moment we are not absorbed in Krishna's devotional service."
(Letter of 20 July 1973)
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