Do You Live in an ISKCON Ashram? Ask Your Leaders the Hard Questions!
Have you given up your life—sacrificed everything—to serve the mission of Shrila Prabhupada by living in one of his ashrams? Then you have the right to speak up and talk things over with your temple president. In other words, ask him the hard questions. Shrila Prabhupada instituted once-a-week meetings called Ishtagoshtis wherein all temple members could express themselves. Shrila Prabhupada was very democratic in that way and he liked to see every devotee feeling satisfied with the presentation of pure and unadulterated Krishna consciousness—bhakti-yoga. Ask your temple President to begin this programme of Ishtagoshtis once again so the voice of everyone who contributes their very life, heart and soul to serving the great cause of Krishna consciousness can be allowed to speak up.
During Ishtagoshti discuss what sort of service pleases Shrila Prabhupada and which ones are manufactured “mental speculations.” Devotees need to discuss the various deviations that have been given a big boost since the publication of The Journey Home, and which are being pawned off as bona fide in ISKCON centers worldwide. Specifically teaching yoga exercises in the Prabhupada’s ashrams is an obvious digression from the teachings of ISKCON’s Founder-Acharya.
If you have any doubts think over this quote from Shrila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati’s Sajjana Tosani (18.2.13-14) to objectively consider the situation in today’s ISKCON:
“After the time of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, those faithful to Him kept apart from nondevotees, to avoid contamination. Seeing this, the personality of Kali sent his representatives in disguise to pollute the Vaisnava sampradaya. Posing as Vaisnavas, they spread their wicked doctrines, and appeared so intelligent and devoted that only pure devotees could detect their real identity. Most devotees—not only the most neophyte—were enchanted by their tricks. In this way Kali's agents expertly introduced karma, jnana, and anyābhilāṣa in the Vaisnava sampradaya and caused suddha-bhakti to vanish from the world.”
Regarding anyābhilāsa (or material desires) Shrila Prabhupada explains, “If you have got a pinch of anyābhilāṣa, then you cannot become a pure devotee. That is not possible. Then Kṛṣṇa will give you chance to fulfill your anyābhilāṣa, not Kṛṣṇa bhakti. He can give you even mukti, but He will not give you bhakti. This is Kṛṣṇa's principle. Bhakti can be awarded to a person who is fully surrendering, one who does not know anything but Kṛṣṇa. This is the way.” (Lecture on Shri Chaitanya Charitamrita, Adi 7.91-2, Vrindavana, 13 March 1974)
Think these things over and then discuss these points among yourselves in the ashram. Put these questions before your temple President. After all, as a devotee in the ashram, you must follow the rules as laid down by the GBC and temple President. Therefore, should they not also follow their authority, Shrila Prabhupada and the previous acharyas of our Shri Gaudiya sampradaya? The Founder-Acharya never authorized that elevated rank and position in ISKCON should grant any select individuals the permission to violate the Gaudiya principles and become blatant hypocrites while posing as Vaishnavas. Rather, the leaders are supposed to be the best examples and never change the rules to suit their little whims and fancies.
When discussing these points and asking these questions, you are likely to be told that you should not be concerned with things that do not directly affect your particular service. This typical condescension from the “leaders” to the so-called “rank and file” is tantamount to saying “just shut up and get back to work because who are you to have an opinion, anyway?” It is a way of saying that your ideas and feelings towards the Society that you have dedicated everything—your very life and existence—have no real value. It is a way of saying that you are essentially disposable.
ISKCON ashrams were never intended to be boot camps for new draftees or greenhorn recruits who are ordered onto battlefields to die for some cause they are not allowed to understand. The ashram is meant for elevating all residents of the temple to the post of sadhus, not blind and dumb followers who are basically useless as preachers. With hundreds of thousands of devotees and only a handful of GBC members, a simple reality check reveals where the real value in ISKCON membership lies.
To get the dialogue going with your GBC, temple President and other “authorities,” I have given some suggested conversation starters below.
Below are a few questions you might consider presenting before your fellow Prabhus, your temple President, your GBC and visiting sannyasis …
-There are so many divine lilas of the Supreme Lord to learn about in Shrila Prabhupada’s Shrimad-Bhagavatam and Shri Chaitanya Charitamrita. Why then are we being distracted by the pre-devotee adventures of Richard Slavin aka Radhanatha? And why does Radhanatha have GBC approval to institute programmes that violate the instructions of the Founder-Acharya?
-As we have seen in our Bhagavad-gita As It Is classes, the system of hatha yoga is basically useless in Kali Yuga. Besides, what is being taught in ISKCON’s yoga classes is not really yoga. Yoga ultimately means to link with Krishna. Teaching mere yoga postures is a form of cheating the gullible public. Substituting physical exercises and deceptively calling that yoga is only depriving potential candidates for bhakti the true meaning of Krishna consciousness. Therefore, why is the public being swindled with mundane yoga exercises now taught in ISKCON temples when the Founder-Acharya neither sanctioned nor approved of this?
To end stress, find new joy in life and realize spiritual peace you do not need foolish yoga exercises. You need bhakti-yoga and sankirtana. Do you long for those days, Prabhus, when there was no yoga, no “improvements” and no book like The Journey Home?
-The Krishna consciousness movement was created to save fallen souls from the hellish situation of Maya—from repeated birth and death, all the while suffering in this material world. How are souls being saved by teaching them to lower their stress level, or to improve their physical health and sex life, or to find their own “yoga tribe” as advertised in ISKCON today?
-Shrila Prabhupada directly identified many of the so-called swamis, avataras and incarnations featured in Radhanatha’s The Journey Home as rascals, cheaters, demons and fools. Why are ISKCON devotees selling a book that has pictures of many of the phony gurus—especially when many of them have been identified as criminal serial rapists dressed in saffron to exploit the public?
-Why are we expected to glorify as spiritual leaders the Dalai Lama and Mother Teresa—as seen in The Journey Home—who were cow eaters?
-The Dalai Lama is a shunyavadi Buddhist and Shrila Prabhupada came to wipe out shunyavada. His popularity is not based upon spiritual assets, but upon being an asset to the government. Did you know that the Dalai Lama has been reported in the mainstream news media such as the LA Times as a CIA asset?
-And why is ISKCON avidly promoting a book—The Journey Home—that glorifies one of the greatest 1960’s proponents of LSD, Dr Richard Alpert, the so-called Baba Ram Dass? Shrila Prabhupada came to get the public to stop taking LSD and other drugs. Yet Radhanatha writes about this “LSD guru” very affectionately in many pages of his book, and this imposter’s review appears on the rear cover. Did you know that in fact this so called “Ram Dass” was likely another US government operative who assisted in a mass social experiement? https://belhistory.weebly.com/timeline.html
-How is it that the rules of sannyasa ashram forbid renunciates from writing books about their pre-sannyasa days, but when Radhanatha Swami writes his memoirs his version is accepted as shastra in ISKCON and distributed by devotees in over a dozen languages?
-Why is The Journey Home being sold worldwide when street distribution of Back to Godhead has been stopped?
-The Krishna Consciousness Society pays for its sannyasis to travel and preach the Supreme Absolute Truth, so why are the ISKCON swamis merely toeing the party line instead of revealing the essence of Krishna consciousness? Why are the preachers not speaking out against this blasphemous and offence to Shrila Prabhupada?
-Isn’t the over-idolization of a member of ISKCON a means of distraction from the position of the Founder-Acharya His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada? Isn’t this practice as seen in the video below merely repeating the zonal acharya fiasco wherein mere disciples posed as enjoying an equal status with the spiritual master—right in the ashram of the guru?
http://www.mayapur.com/2017/hearty-welcome-hh-radhanath-swami
As the blunt questions: “Since this yoga nonsense and The Journey Home are not actual Gaudiya parampara, why on earth are they being promoted in Prabhupada’s centers?
-Does the introduction of yoga exercises into Prabhupada’s centers mean that Shrila Prabhupada’s instructions were meant only for a certain time and to a particular social climate—and now his message needs to be revised, upgraded, changed and improved? Or was Shrila Prabhupada wrong or maybe too strict so that it is no longer necessary to follow all his instructions—just the ones we prefer? Has today’s GBC come up with something better and more advanced than the eternal message of the Gaudiya sampradaya?
-Where is it stated that advancement in Krishna consciousness entitles the leaders to “rise above” the rules of the ashram. Doe the principles of bhakti-yoga no longer apply to a certain select group?
-Why does the GBC promote mundane videos with mundane messages such as “life coach” relationship diatribes from Radhanatha, Shivaram and Gaura Gopal? Shouldn’t the internet be used for preaching Krishna consciousness instead of re-inventing ISKCON’s so-called gurus into “motivational gurus”?
There was a time when the emphasis in a Hare Krishna Temple was only the dissemination of the Absolute Truth in the form of sankirtana and book distribution. When will that day return?
-Therefore, what will happen when the gullible yoga clients wake up and see the light? What will the GBC tell them when they realize that the practice of physical yoga exercises is nowhere found in the scriptures that the Hare Krishna devotees follow?
-How will ISKCON’s yoga clientele feel when they realize they have been sold a false bill of goods that the sellers themselves do not believe in? What happens when the Mayavadi vegan New Agers ISKCON is attracting realize that they have been cheated by another sleazy con game to separate the easy to fool public from their money?
-ISKCON should have learned its lessons when exposed for false claims during sankirtana collections; or pretender acharyas stealing the Vyasa Asans; or staffing gurukulas with child molesters; or changing Prabhupada’s books and spending millions to defend those changes. Now what will happen with the leaders putting on a false front that yoga is part of our sampradaya? In short