When a Person with Good Vision Accepts a Blind Leader

Following the GBC

Yoga as Subtle Sex
Coming soon to an ISKCON near you? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRDabJNx_Ng

These days popular yoga is defined with women in strange seductive poses that they pass off as the means to enlightenment. These enticing positions of yoga are enhanced by loosely knit cotton see-through yoga garments. Since pornography has become dangerous, expensive and risky, yoga has become the new porno. Although Patanjali only specified five yoga position, today’s gymnastic yoga has more alluring poses than the Kama Sutra has positions.

For its part, ISKCON is supposed to be the leader of all the so-called “Vedic”, “bhakti”, or “yoga” movements in general. Prabhupada established his disciples in positions of undefeated preachers. His Divine Grace referred to his followers as “kings” because, he explained, “no one can defeat the devotee preacher fixed in Krishna consciousness.” Shrila Prabhupada preached in such a way that all the Mayavadi “yogis” feared his lion roar and gradually withdrew. Basically they were all scared away by the powerful acharya speaking the Supreme Absolute Truth.

But today things have changed. These days under the “leadership” of the spent bullets who sit on the GBC, ISKCON has become a beggar at the door of those who first learned some of the basics from the devotees. ISKCON spread kirtana only to have devotees now attending sahajiya kirtan festivals. ISKCON taught what it means to become guru only to have self-appointed gurus in ISKCON become bad copies of the hackneyed collection of today’s motivational “gurus” who teach materialistic goals. ISKCON preached the essence of dharma as bhakti-yoga only to see its leaders running to Bhakti Fests in their quest for cheap recognition. ISKCON popularized a vegetarian prasad diet only to see it morph into veganism with even some devotees becoming vegans. ISKCON taught the Hindus the essence of religion, and when they began joining en masse, the GBC decided that ISKCON is actually a Hindu organization. ISKCON preached the Mayavadis into oblivion until, lo and behold. Radhanatha published The Journey Home and made Mayavadi demons into worshipful figures for watered down disciples of ISKCON’s motivational gurus. The list goes on. 

All these are symptoms of poor leadership which prove that the GBC is afraid to preach straight-forward and truthful Krishna consciousness. It proves that there is no genuine leader, and that the GBC is unable to replicate the orders and instructions of the Founder-Acharya which is what they were meant to do. It means that the Society which Shrila Prabhupada envisioned is in danger of being lost—absorbed back into the three modes of material nature and utterly useless as a vehicle for delivering fallen souls.

Motivational Gurus or Gurus with Ulterior Motivations?

Shrila Prabhupada ordered his disciples must evolve to become gurus. Apparently some of them thought that becoming guru was an excuse to exploit others and get their daily free lunch to boot. Those who believed that guru simply means sitting on a giant throne and getting their tootsies washed saw the utter collapse of their imagined empires. While fallen ex-gurus have found themselves back at square one, some who came after them and who are more prone to compromise have turned to become ISKCON’s “motivational gurus.” They have made the appearance of succeeding in their new role of jolly compromisers by following in the footsteps of mundane You Tubers. 

Witness the Motivational Speeches all over Youtube by Shivaram, Radhanath, Gaura Gopal and many others. We have given the links to several of these motivators in previous parts of this series. We are seeing a phenomenon wherein the rubber stamped gurus of ISKCON have abandoned being Vaishnava gurus in order to imitate motivational gurus like Tony Robbins. For many newer devotees, initiation into ISKCON means getting a guru who is more like some Youtube blabbermouth than the example Shrila Prabhupada set for ISKCON members to follow. Why, then, should anyone beg initiation from an ISKCON motivational guru when the original is right here:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bV9sqhfvC4

“We are Not Hindus”

Prabhupada often instructed that “we are not Hindus”—as though His Divine Grace could see what was coming in his movement.  Through Prabhupada’s example the Hindus came running to join his movement by the tens of thousands because he offered them the essence of Vedic culture without the superstition and dogma of “Hinduism”. But then, wouldn’t you know it, ISKCON’s leaders like a dog chasing its own tail, turned around and declared themselves as “Hindus.”  

How far will the flimsy Hindu “leaders” of ISKCON go in their quest to deviate from the teachings of Shrila Prabhupada in the very centers that he created? Well, have a look at the authoritative “Educational Services Heart of Hinduism Resource Pack from ISKCON” here: https://iskconeducationalservices.org/HoH/ On that site there are thousands of Gems of Mayavada including this one:

You read that right, all the paths are aimed at union (errr… with God, that is). Like, this watered down drivel that equates pure devotion with karma is straight outta Radhanath his phantasmagorical study in Mayavada The Journey Home.

Next we’ll try to make it through a video of the GBC’s sputtering spokesperson, Anuttama dasa—complete with mystical Hindu sitar music—posing as self-styled “Hindu Vaishnava teacher.” Try to stay awake as he mumbles on about “God.” He quotes Krishna but, like a good Hindu Schmindu, he leaves it up to you to figure out who God really is. It is The Journey Home Mayavadi change-up gimmick wherein Krishna appears to be speaking about some God who is beyond Himself. In this classic Mayavadi video, Anuttama actually places a Bhagavad-gita on a public chair where people put their arses! What sort of lamebrain “Hindu Vaishnava Teacher” does not respect the book he claims to be preaching from?

As if this wasn’t enough, the “Hindu teacher” from the GBC quotes Bhagavad-gita 4.34 and shares with us the Hinduized version. But first let us see the original 4.34 from Shrila Prabhupada pre-1978 Bhagavad-gita As It Is: 

tad viddhi praṇipātena paripraśnena sevayā
upadekṣyanti te jñānaṁ jñāninas tattva-darśinaḥ

tat—that knowledge of different sacrifices; viddhi—try to understand; praṇipātena—by approaching a spiritual master; paripraśnena—by submissive inquiries; sevayā—by the rendering of service; upadekṣyanti—initiate; te—unto you; jñānam—knowledge; jñāninaḥ—the self-realized; tattva—truth; darśinaḥ—the seers.

“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.”

Now in the Hindu teacher’s version, the words “he has seen the truth” have morphed into “they have seen the truth.” This is one of the most egregious posthumous editing by the BBT-I’s rascal editors. It is an obvious conspiracy that was created to accommodate the eleven zonal acharyas, all of whom who “had seen the truth” (namely, that it is very true that exploiting the innocent in the name of religion is dead simple). 

Now, in person, here is ISKCON’s GBC Hindu Vaishnava Teacher:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkkiSqa5XDA

Did you catch Anuttama dasa informing us that God wants us to serve “others”? Well, there is the story of a disciple of a zonal acharya who was so moved by this Hindu teacher’s video that he opened a restaurant with a sign, “Free service to anyone who can prove his name is ‘Others.’ Everyone else has to bus their own dishes.” 

Sorry for that one—I could not resist a little comic relief after the drudgery of Anuttama’s diatribe about how his music tracher challenged him. Along the way the video has people hugging, an African lady teacher with her class, a Hidndu sitting on the street, some flowers, the ocean with a sunset and a herd of wildebeasts. Real serious stuff. The video ends on a cheery note with the words, “Brought to you by your friends at ISKCON.” 

Well, I’ll tell you and your GBC cronies something, Mr Hindu teacher. You are not my friend because only demons change the teachings of their pure devotee Vaishnava spiritual master into Mayavadi slop to suit their own need for adulation and free sense gratification—which pretty much describes the situation of the GBC these days.

As a final note, the good news is that in the seven or eight years since this toxic video was created, it has less than 800 hits on Youtube, which just might be the number of the Hindu teacher’s extended family members and yoga friends.

Bhakti Fest or Bhukti Fester?

No one had even heard of bhakti-yoga when Shrila Prabhupada stepped foot on American soil. Now bhakti is so popular that there are huge fairs called Bhakti Fests in the West. This has all come from Prabhupada but the rub is that the ISKCON of today provides no leadership for such people. Without any understanding of bona fide devotional service, these festivals are merely nuvo hippie gatherings. However, that does not stop a certain segment of ISKCON’s leadership from running to them to drink the milk touched by the lips of Mayavadi serpents—and to offer some of their own.

ISKCON devotees on a video made at California’s bhakti fest. (L) Gaura Vani Buchwald and (R) Radhanatha, author of The Journey Home.

We’ve shown it before in this series, but here is the link once again to this ridiculous “Stay Strong” video replete withMayavadi tripe: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=10154799835882164

 

Yoga with Leela is advertised as a “women’s power gathering” within ISKCON.

Source: https://www.facebook.com/DurbanKrishna/photos/women%E2%80%99s-power-gathering-this-is/10157510777030968

Yoga or Schmoga? Yogis or Schmogis?

Shrila Prabhupada presented Bhagavad-gita As It Is in which the Supreme Lord Shri Krishna Himself gives the actual definition of yoga. It was expected that all practitioners of yoga should learn the genuine meaning of yoga—union in loving devotional service with the Supreme Lord. But this detail has not deterred ISKCON’s GBC from approving baseless gymnastic yoga exercises in Shrila Prabhuada’s Radha-Krishna Temples all over the world in direct violation of the orders of the Founder-Acharya. But, hey, when there is need for “women’s empowerment through yoga” then who needs to pay attention to a few instructions of the Founder-Acharya?

Let us hope that there is a change in the winds coming soon. Interestingly, well known devotional journalist Steven Rosen, aka Satyaraja dasa, has written an article ever so gently denouncing the yoga baloney now going on in ISKCON. Interesting indeed, since  his book Yoga of Kirtan helped kick start the bogus yoga trend. So, we end with the link to his article “Does Asana Equal Yoga?” https://iskcondesiretree.com/profiles/blogs/does-asana-equal-yoga