… In spite of what the ritviks say, Srila Prabhupada does in fact want his disciples to become qualified diksa gurus and go on to initiate disciples, etc. And the ritviks are lying when they say he does not want this. At the same time Srila Prabhupada is still living in sound and if a sincere follower surrenders to him and makes Srila Prabhupada’s orders his life and soul Prabhupada is still completely potent and powerful and will initiate him into the chanting of the Hare Krishna maha mantra. And ISKCON are lying when they say that Srila Prabhupada can not do this.

 

So as I said we have two groups here and they are both mixing lies with the truth to push forward their own agendas.

 

For the practical preaching work of Krishna consciousness guru is necessary. The real question is the qualification of the gurus. Because ISKCON has presented so many unqualified gurus who have caused so much grief and suffering for the unfortunate disciples so many have become disgusted at the very idea of guru. Just thinking of “guru” brings pain to the hearts of the victims of these bogus gurus. So it is understandable that the ritviks preach “Prabhupada says there should be no more gurus…” But actually Srila Prabhupada does not say this… It is a lie, but I guess an understandable lie.

 

In reality the guru is required. Guru is a teacher, a leader, and nothing can be organized, nothing can go forward without a qualified leader. So without the leader, without the guru, there can be no preaching, nothing can go forward. We can sit down and read Srila Prabhupada’s books by ourselves and become Krishna conscious. But if we want to follow Prabhupada’s instructions and preach then there is a limit to how much one can do by himself. So if there is to be a group then there has to be a leader and the people in the group have to accept the authority of that leader. Otherwise it can not be managed. And no matter what you want to call that person, he is the guru, he is the teacher.

 

And we can not say “Prabhupada is the guru” so we don’t need a leader. Srila Prabhupada is the guru of course but as we are discussing the nature of Kali-yuga is people are very dishonest and they only hear what they want to hear from Srila Prabhupada. So even though Srila Prabhupada’s preaching is very clear and very unambiguous, still there will be so many disagreements and arguments as we see daily on the Sampradaya Sun. In this way nothing can be achieved in the practical preaching field. The people will just disagree and argue forever and nothing will get done.

 

Therefore leader is required and leader is guru. Without the guru and some followers who accept the leader’s authority nothing can be achieved in the practical preaching field.

 

Many ritviks are just as hostile to the concept of a leader as they are to the concept of a guru. They do not want to surrender to anyone. They do not want to accept any authority. Except Prabhupada… But only the things that Prabhupada says that they like… It is of course understandable. We have been burnt so badly by the leaders and gurus in ISKCON that we are still feeling the pain of those burns and we don’t ever want to go through that agony again. “Once bitten twice shy…”

 

Although the ritviks have this aversion to leaders and gurus it is Srila Prabhupada’s mission to create gurus, to create leaders, therefore the ritvik preaching that Prabhupada does not want his disciples to become gurus is a great offense and a great misrepresentation of the teachings of Srila Prabhupada.

 

Ritvik does not work from a practical preaching point of view unless there is a group of devotees who are surrendered to a leader and who accept that leader as the ultimate authority. With the example of ISKCON Bangalore it is going on because there is a group of devotees and they accept Madhu Pandit Prabhu as their leader and ultimately he is the final authority and if there is any dispute his word is final. Without the leader and without the surrender to the leader nothing can be achieved in the practical field.

 

So this process of guru and disciples is an eternal process and it can not be stopped and nothing can be managed in the practical sense without leaders who in effect are living gurus. It sounds like a terrible thing to say from the point of view of the ritviks. But it is the reality. If we want to serve Srila Prabhupada by spreading the Krishna consciousness movement all over the world then like he says we need so many qualified gurus. And they have to have disciples who accept them as the authority… Otherwise nothing can be managed and there can be no preaching.

 

I know the ritviks will hate me for this but they can not do anything because they have no leader and will not accept anyone as their leader [except Prabhupada but they disagree about what Prabhupada says…]. If they are not arguing with ISKCON they are arguing among themselves. There is no respect, there is no trust, there is no cooperation. Nothing can be done. There is no future in this…

 

ISKCON’s crime in this regard is presenting so many completely unqualified persons as guru. So many bogus rascals cheating the disciples in so many ways has really made the whole guru concept disgusting for so many people… But the ritvik’s answer “No more Gurus!” is also wrong.

 

Qualified gurus are required. Srila Prabhupada spent his whole time and energy trying to train up qualified gurus. And I just read yesterday his preface to Bhagavad-gita As It Is and he says there:

 

“By the spell of illusion one tries to be happy by serving his personal sense gratification in different forms which will never make him happy. Instead of satisfying his own personal material senses, he has to satisfy the senses of the Lord. That is the highest perfection of life. The Lord wants this and He demands it. One has to understand this central point of Bhagavad-gita. Our Krishna Consciousness Movement is teaching the whole world this central point, and because we are not polluting the theme of Bhagavad-gita As It Is, anyone seriously interested in deriving benefit by studying the Bhagavad-gita must take help from our Krishna Consciousness Movement for practical understanding of Bhagavad-gita under the direct guidance of the Lord. We hope, therefore, that people will derive the greatest benefit by studying Bhagavad-gita As It Is as we have presented it here, and if even one man becomes a pure devotee of the Lord we shall consider our attempt a success.”

 

So that one man [or hopefully many] who become pure devotees of the Lord by studying Srila Prabhupada’s Bhagavad-gita As It Is and his other books and putting his teachings into practice in their lives and by their surrender to Srila Prabhupada and Krishna, they will be the qualified gurus who will be empowered to push on Srila Prabhupada’s movement.

 

As we have seen in ISKCON it is useless to pretend to be a qualified guru and end up exploiting the disciples for so many material purposes. That destroys the guru and destroys the disciples… The spiritual master has to be a real mature pure devotee of the Lord. Otherwise he will just create a great disturbance. There are unlimited instructions from Srila Prabhupada as to the qualities of a bona fide guru and there is no question—he has to be a pure devotee of Krishna, otherwise it is impossible for him to elevate his disciples to the status of pure devotees of Krishna? This is a very basic point but is another discussion.

 

Of course in one sense anyone can be a guru but unless he is a pure devotee of Krishna he will not have the potency to elevate his disciples to the platform of pure devotional service so from the disciples point of view he is useless. He can not deliver Krishna to them. So what is the point of accepting him as guru? It is useless and will end in disaster for both the disciples and the guru as we have seen time and time again. Therefore one must accept an uttama-adikari, a pure unalloyed devotee of Krishna as his spiritual master.

 

But because there is a lot of counterfeit money in circulation that does not mean there can be no real money. Now as far as the gurus go it seems that practically all the money is counterfeit. And really, what can we expect in Kali-yuga—it is after all the age of quarrel and hypocrisy. So I guess it should not come as a surprise that most gurus are completely bogus. This also shows us how rare and how special Srila Prabhupada is and should encourage us to take shelter of Srila Prabhupada more and more and to take advantage of the unlimited opportunities we have to associate with him through his books and audio recordings and the video recordings. (Which you can get from http://krishnastore.com)

 

I think that sometimes people have misunderstood that I am a ‘ritvik’. That has never been true. I have always protested these lies of the ritviks that Srila Prabhupada never intended his disciples to go on to become qualified diksa gurus, that Srila Prabhupada did not want any more gurus for the next 10,000 years, that all the quotes in Srila Prabhupada’s teachings regarding his disciples going on to become qualified gurus only refer to siksha guru, never diksa guru. These things are complete lies and I have always protested them.

 

So the “ritviks” have really done a great disservice to Srila Prabhupada by propagating these lies. Still, inspite of the ritviks and inspite of ISKCON, Srila Prabhupada continues to live on in his transcendental books and audio and video recordings and any sincere soul can take advantage of Srila Prabhupada’s personal association in this way and surrender to Srila Prabhupada and surrender to Krishna and Srila Prabhupada will initiate him. This will go on and no one can stop it!!!

 

All glories to Srila Prabhupada who continues to live and preach through transcendental sound…

 

Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!