The Company We Keep Reviewing Bad Association

Radhanath has gone out of his way to obtain glowing reviews from Mayavadis for his book about Mayavadis. Naturally the Mayavadis love The Journey Home since Mayavada avoids conflict and seeks compromise through erasing the Supreme Absolute Truth as the Personality of Godhead Shri Krishna. Some of the reviews are even heavier B.S. than the book itself. One review says that The American Swami’s “spiritual memoir is a model of modesty and candidness.” Wow! Since when are braggarts who make up biographies modest?

Another review stated that Radhanath’s language avoids “ambiguity.” Well there is some truth to this one because when “it is all one” then where is the question of ambiguity? Case closed.

David Frawley states in his review that The Journey Home provides “the reader the opportunity for a similar transformation.” Actually this is something we should all be aware of—because the transformation provided by Mayavadi literature is akin to the transformation one faces after being bitten by a cobra.

There is a review from B.K.S. Iyengar, the late yoga millionaire who many devotees think was a Vaishnava. He says that Radhanath’s “quest to reach the spiritual kingdom of India is awe-inspiring.” One wonders how India can be described as “a spiritual kingdom” when literally millions of Indians are queued up to get Green Cards and flee the place like rats from a sinking ship. Each year India boasts tens of thousands of “bride burnings” and female infanticides. Abortions and slaughtered cows yearly number in the millions and millions. There are “Eve teasers” at every chai stall who insult every chaste woman who walks by. Pickpockets lurk on every train. Beggars are everywhere ready to thrust their leprous hands in your face. The so-called ashrams are full of gurus who claim to purify women by raping them, or who encourage men to become celibate by having their testicles amputated. What “spiritual kingdom” of India is Shri Iyengar talking about?—apparently the fairy tale described in The Journey Home.

One review inadvertently tells it like it is. Yoga teacher Sharon Gannon writes:

Sharon Gannon at the “sannyasa initiation” of her partner David Life, This picture is found on her website https://jivamuktiyoga.com/about-sharon-david/about-sharon-david/. They have been together ever since.

Bridge yoga and bridge preaching today with Sharon and David

“Books like The Journey Home provide us with a profound opportunity to enter into the presence—to have satsang—with spiritual seekers, saints and holy beings through reading about their lives. This can cause a transformation of our whole being because we become like the company we keep.” 

Well said, Sharon, you have hit the nail on the head. Association is the key to either success or failure in life. This is confirmed in Shrila Prabhupada’s Nectar of Devotion:

“Lord Chaitanya was once asked by one of His householder devotees what the general behavior of a Vaiṣhṇava should be. In this connection, Lord Chaitanya replied that a Vaiṣhṇava should always give up the company of nondevotees. Then He explained that there are two kinds of nondevotees: one class is against the supremacy of Krishna, and another class is too materialistic. In other words, those who are after material enjoyment and those who are against the supremacy of the Lord are called avaiṣṇava, and their company should be strictly avoided.

“In the Kātyāyana-saṁhitā it is stated that even if one is forced to live within a cage of iron or in the midst of a blazing fire, he should accept this position rather than live with nondevotees who are through and through against the supremacy of the Lord. Similarly, in Viṣṇu-rahasya, there is a statement to the effect that one should prefer to embrace a snake, a tiger or an alligator rather than associate with persons who are worshipers of various demigods and who are impelled by material desire.”

Scene from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest: Collective madness in  ISKCON’s highest spiritual authority, its so-called leaders are no different. ISKCON and its leaders are  promoting Mayavadi literature in the form of The Journey Home.

But, anyway, when does a Vaishnava sannyasi accept reviews for his book from a woman who is partnered to a “sannyasi.

It is clear that the GBC has fallen off its collective rocker by supporting a book that glorifies known rapists and con men posing as swamis. There could be no greater disrespect towards the Founder-Acharya of ISKCON than promoting this treacherous treatise of half-truths, misinformation and open deceit. 

The Author’s Notes and Acknowledgements at the end of The Journey Home reads like a Who’s Who of Mayavadis and/or compromisers in and around ISKCON—many of whom are either members of the current or past GBC committees, or ISKCON gurus. These include Tamal Krishna Goswami, Satswarupa dasa Goswami, Niranjana Swami, Bhaktivijnana Swami, Sacinandana Swami, Devamrita Swami and Giriraja Swami.