THE BUCK STOPS HERE

This is from another forum...
Please brace yourself and try to understand that these are the challenges for disciples of Srila Prabhupada. A spiritual master is known by His disciples. We have a problem. People will judge Srila Prabhupada like this. As His disciples and followers we need to understand who He is and what His mission is.

Tapasya Tyaga8:
I read all of his [Srila Prabhupada] books. Maybe I know them better than you. I don't have a quarrel with his books. I have a quarrel with his judgment.

If a Four Star General hand picked his senior leadership after careful evaluation and continually chose extremely substandard soldiers such that the battles would be lost what would we think of this "great" general? A mark of a great general is not merely his knowledge of the martial arts but his judgment of men, character and integrity.

Can you name me one of the eleven "gurus" after Prabhupada left his body that you admire. All of them were highly regarded by Srila Prabhupada. I take it you know what happened to them. I am referring to Kirtananda, Hansadutta, Bhavananda, and the like.

It was not just that his chosen leaders were poor, they were horrendous, a rogues gallery of miscreants and some were probably sociopaths. Some say Prabhupada was poisoned by some of his own hand picked leaders. If so, what could show poorer judgment than choosing your murderer.

Who is perfect? When there is so much objective indicia of imperfection how could we lionze the man "as good as God?"

Is it heresy recognize these flaws? I think not! I think it more likely to be naievete and denial to do otherwise.

I admire and respect Srila Prabhupada. But he was not the only guru worthy of admiration. We are in Kali Yuga. All men and women fall short, even the very best of us.

How old were you when you first came into his orbit? When ideas become fixed in our mind at a young age we tend to adopt them throughout our life. Then confirmation bias kicks in.

When we are real young our parents are godlike. As we grow into young adults we realize they are nit. But often it takes many years of reflection to really recognize how flawed and substandard they may have been. We love them nonetheless realizing our earlier pedestalizing of them was the result of lack of maturity, experience, and cognitive infantilism.

The issue is not that ISKCON is corrup. The issue is Prabhupada's judgment and what that flawed judgment implies. And the issue is us and the human minds' penchant for self deception.

Moreover was it his sense of "ego" that he initiated so many "unqualified disciples" what to speak of unqualified Sannyassis.

Henri Jolicouer (Hanuman Das) was made a Sannyassi at 22 .... REALLY! He spoke on videos about Prabhupada's irresponsibility in making him Sannyasi at that age. Who can disagree?

How many other Sannyasi were banging their female disciples what to speak of being alone with them in a room. Oh! We know their names.

What other Sannyassis were an anally raping children or engaging in homosexual pedophilia with Sanyassis. Kirtanananda? Oh! We know at least some of them. The full scope of spiritual depravity may never be known.

Many of these children committed suicide or were emotionally scarred for life. Can we say that Prabhupada has some responsibility for this.

I am held responsible by the county authorities if I don't mow my grass what to speak of a Guru's (as good as God) responsibility? You cannot pass the blame to the "organization".

THE BUCK STOPS WITH SRILA PRABHUPADA.


Meena devi dasi:
His words... "If I have done anything wrong, it is that I initiated too many unqualified people, but what could I do, it was an emergency." I accept that. 

I agree with you this far... That it is our personal responsibility to use our intelligence. Yes there is idiotic idol worship in ISKCON. I do not fault Srila Prabhupada on anything. He had a mandate. To spread as far and wide as possible the books and the chanting. He had to use whatever Krishna sent to him. In this He has been phenomenally successful. On top of it all He has been able to establish temples all over the world. The actual movement is simply hearing and chanting Hare Krishna but the temple worship is helpful. In Australia after installing Radha Krishna Deities He prayed... the people here may not be able to take care of you properly... please take care of yourself.... He was very bold and wild in a lot of ways. But that was what was needed at the time. This is Lord Chaitanya's movement. So maybe you will have to blame and find fault with Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. 

Concerning "sannyasi" He explained in a room conversation that He didn't actually give anyone sannyasi. Just like He created "brahmacarini" for women living in a temple and practicing like brahmacaris. He created something like sannyasi in order to free up some of the more enthusiastic young men from other duties so they could travel and preach. Over time it will all become clear. He has said it will take at least three generations to come up to some sort of reasonable standard. I hope that helps. Hare Krishna..

By the way you are not conversing with an ISKCON clone...