Jan 06, 2017 — FRANCE (SUN) —
On this day of New Year 2017, Dravida das, Jayadvaita Swami's close associate, made his appearance on a video posted on Dandavats, on the subject of anarthas.
If you want to hear something about football (soccer), the best is, of course, to hear it from the lips of a real good football player who exactly knows what he is speaking about. So, this video appeared to me as being very appropriate and a real good idea!
Apart from this very positive point, what choked me was his personal very impersonal mood and voice. So, why does this frozen and a little robotic mood have a place in a spiritual Movement which is supposed to destroy nihilism and impersonalism? And why is that very often confirmed by very impersonal behaviour towards individuals in ISKCON? Just ask the Belfast temple devotees and congregation what they think about this subject... It's just one example among thousands.
Jayapataka Swami's past article on Dandavats about "caring devotees" was, in my opinion, just words... and an attempt from him to maybe get rid of his personal guilty feelings. On another side, what is amazing is that this kind of articles or report of classes are immediately read by thousands and thousands of devotees, when Jayapataka's classes always appeared to me to be spiritually very very poor... Well... Virata Rupa Syndrome...
Jnana has a place in Krsna Consciousness, of course! But it has a very relative value if it does not become vijnana. No matter if this jnana is about Krsna!
This particularity to be related to Krsna does not change jnana in vijnana! And with no doubt, real knowledge is vijnana! A little of vijnana is much superior to any big amount of jnana. That's the reason Srila Prabhupada in a purport of Bhagavad-gita says that our faith can be disturbed if we have only academic knowledge, but that vijnana makes us unshakeable!
In this field of strict academic knowledge, Narayana Maharaja may have thought he was "superior" to Srila Prabhupada, but in my opinion, about vijnana, Narayana Maharaja did not reach Prabhupada's toe! And that is the most important! What's the value of being very strong in a field which is not the good one? Narayana Maharaja was a very big intellectual devotee but was obviously thinking he could reach Radha-Krsna through intellect. And was really thinking that he reached Radha-Krsna through it... Out of curiosity, I sometimes went on the Internet to read one of his classes and after 5 minutes, I started to have headache and nauseua. His speaking was not sane (or spiritually healthy, if you want) because it was completely above his real personal spiritual level...
This lack of vijnana resulted in his saying so many stupid things! Omniscient guru... necessity to have a rasa guru... he did not worry what Krsna was thinking about him for he had Radha's friendship and mercy... etc... etc... Amazing! Only brainless devotees could think he was a real pure devotee!
And if you watch this video where he says that those who want money go to ISKCON, and others, who want bhakti, go to him, you can see very clearly that he was at this moment very much in raja-guna! It was not about any spiritual anger about Krsna! He was very much personally agitated and we cannot imagine and we never saw Srila Prabhupada like that!
I also wonder if he made three devotees among westerners, when Srila Prabhupada had an average ratio of 3 devotees made/day!
So ultimately, jnana does not help so much because we go to Krsna and the spiritual world through vijnana, which goes with devotion. We can not have real pure devotion at the highest level without vijnana.
Gaurakisora Das Babaji was illiterate and so, was not considered a scholar. But he was far above all the ISKCON and non-ISKCON pandits put together! No doubt about it! Some materialistic and academic scholars know the Sastras better than devotees. It does not make them particularly dear to Krsna and certainly not pure devotees! Srila Prabhupada speaks at length about this subject in his books and even Krsna Himself told us His opinion about this point. We just have to read our books!
The brahmanas' wives who fed Krsna and Balarama were not pandits but they caught the right point while their erudite husbands missed the train!
Nobody really cares about jnana in the spiritual world! So, we have to know and to choose what world we want to belong to... and which association we want to have.
All the Sastras tell us that Krsna is not very much impressed by erudition but it looks like this repeated information does not print in many devotees' heart, mind and intelligence.
Jnana and big displays of jnana participate in this necessary, for many, Virata Rupa Syndrome, which serves their mixed ambitions. And that can be an explanation... Most devotees are very much impressed by sastric erudition. So, for devotees who generally are very much concerned about the image they give to others (telling, at the same time, things about humility, their own fallen condition, etc.) it became very necessary to prove their own sastric knowledge in order to get some respect, image and position in ISKCON... and to be able to speak about trnad api sunicena from the best possible ISKCON social situation seat.
Apart from its relative non-efficiency to reach a real spiritual level, the problem with too much investment in jnana is that you automatically develop pride. Which is logical, for this jnana makes you think that you know, when actually you know nothing. So, Maya catches you! That's maybe the reason Jayadvaita Swami and Dravida das feel that they have the right to change Srila Prabhupada's books. I was informed that they even changed this verse "tad viddhi pranipatena" from singular to plural! Which goes of course with the fact that I can not find any more this sentence of Prabhupada's in the Bhagavad-gita Introduction, where His Divine Grace said that if even only one soul becomes a pure devotee thanks to his work, he will consider that his mission will have been a success. I suggest to Jayadvaita and the GBC that we could give more symbolic sense to this verse by saying: "the 108 realized souls can impart knowledge into you for those 108 have seen the Truth" if they think that 108 ISKCON gurus are enough for the planet and if they agree that 108 is a good symbolic number... this version looks pretty and sounds nicely. And could fully satisfy their fancy and whimsical tendancies...
So, if Jayavaita Swami even changes Krsna Himself's words, there are only two possibilities:
1) He is, or became, mad; or
2) He does not really believe in Krsna. His whole life was just theater! He found, 50 years ago, a Movement which suited to his character for different reasons and made his career in this Movement. Nothing more...
So it's a fact that basic devotees are generally very much impressed by erudition, which of course, for a conditioned soul who still lives in Virata Rupa Syndrome world, is more visible than vijnana. And unfortunately, it looks like even their own personal jnana has sometimes no real effect in their life…
In the year 1999, a Gaudiya Math "acarya" (officially said) was visiting France. One Prabhupada disciple who was following him insisted to me: "You must absolutely see him!" I was not very favorable to this idea but he added and warned me: "He is not from this world..." So, who knows...? I became a little curious to see the person from another world. So, I went to the place and immediately I saw that actually, yes, he had the two most important criterion to be considered as a real pure devotee by many French devotees of this time. He was Indian and old. Great!
He gave a really-of-this-world very ordinary class and at the end, became very agitated and angry because he saw that the devotees did not plan to do anything, except listen to his classes. He did not know the South France devotees!!!! To do something is absolutely not in their agenda! What a very strange idea! Why? For what purpose?
So, the guru was right, of course! What is the meaning of sravanam if it does not draw us to do some service, soon or later? But to fly into such a temper is not a good way to get some results in this field. So, I already lost my illusions about him... After the class, the person-from-another-world gave a darshan. In the right beginning, in front of the guru and all the devotees, the "disciple" announced that I will, from this moment, distribute the guru's books! I was very surprised! I did not know that! Well... after this completely-respected-free-will-totally voluntary-very-enthusiastic decision through unilateral third party resolution, I decided to test the acarya:
"I believe that you could help ISKCON very much!"
Ouf! What did I say!!!???
I never saw a person change so much within such a short lap of time! He displayed a kind of bodily dilatation, to the point where I suddenly became afraid of a possible implosion or explosion which could endanger the assembly. But fortunately, the next sequence was only a wonderful and inoffensive display of different successive bodily change of colours, chosen among the rainbow ones... and even some further colours which I did not identify. That could have interested Science. When, at last, he landed, he went on his darshan, of course not without some difficulties... there was some very short moments of lapse of reason but the essential was safe. And I knew his secret desire!
Later, we all went out and let Maharaja alone. Some minutes later, the disciple informed us and warned us that Maharaja has just (at the moment) "entered in samadhi"... so, we should not disturb him! Immediately this information ran among the devotees... "My God! Maharaja has entered in samadhi! Well... better not to disturb someone who is in samadhi!!!! Prabhu! Maharaja has entered in samadhi! Yes???!!! Possible? Prabhus!!! Maharaja has entered in samadhi!"
I don't speak about young new devotees! Most of those devotees were senior devotees and some, Prabhupada's disciples!
So, take Bhagavad-gita verse 6.20-23...
Where is it said that samadhi is a personal spiritual state from which you go out and come into and go out and come into, etc... And where in Gita does Srila Prabhupada or Krsna Himself say that samadhi is something artificial where you must stop action and where you can be disturbed?!!! On the contrary, Krsna (6.20-23) explains that when samadhi is attained, it is a permanent condition, from which you can never fall down or go out of, whatever can happen!
And Prabhupada spent his whole time explaining to us the difference between impersonalism and personalism! To explain to us that we must not stop action but transfer our natural tendency for action to devotional service. That there is full action in the spiritual world etc., etc. Even Krsna does that! Full chapters are about this subject! Inaction within action and action within inaction... And not only in Bhagavad-gita!
Even when the uttama-adhikari has to preach and so-called 'goes down' into madhyama level, he just adapts him(her)-self to the level of the people he is speaking to, to make himself understandable, but he stays in samadhi! It is just another aspect of the same samadhi! Samadhi is the normal state of consciousness of any jiva in the spiritual world and is completely related to action!
So, the question is: what is the use of a big amount of jnana if we don't make a synthesis of this jnana? Which is the first step to vijnana! You naturally make a synthesis of what you read, you digest it with time, and it becomes vijnana! Thanks to Krsna and to the sampradaya. Natural process...
But for those devotees, who, after 30 years or more of bhakti, are able to believe such Disneyland things like the one expressed in this story, it looks that their important jnana (they generally do not really know Bhagavad-gita but are expert in very further confidential scriptures...) is completely useless and scattered like a puzzle when you buy it!
They read a lot. They know a lot. But they understand very, very little! There is no real connection between what they read and know and their brain. That could interest Science too! So, what's the use of that? We go to Krsna, to pure devotional service and to the spiritual world through vijnana, which goes with pure devotion. Not through pretentious or illusory jnana.
My day with this Gaudiya Matha "acarya" ended when his follower openly proposed to take control of my bank accounts and of my financial life in order to help me! I knew enough! I gave some dandavats to all and left!
I very recently read an article on Dandavats.com about cooperation... About this need for cooperation which I don't deny, I was told hundreds of times this Prabhupada quote: "You will prove your love for me through your cooperation." At this time, I never paid attention to this quote because it sounded strange for me... certainly because Prabhupada was drawing things to himself instead of to Krsna! Which is never the mood of a pure devotee! So, my intuition was telling me not to accept this quote and I was feeling that it was made to enslave us and to drive us in a bad direction. A couple of days ago, I learned from a friend that there is absolutely no reference for this so-called Prabhupada quote! It was 100% invented by ex-Satsvarupa Goswami, just after Srila Prabhupada's departure! And of course was repeated and repeated by many other big leaders.
So, ISKCON leaders not only change books, but it looks like they also create some Prabhupada quotes! And I guess they certainly made others disappear or be changed!
So, in this article about cooperation there are also some words about "nobody knows better than others", we are all on the same boat, etc... It is the idea... and of course, everyone knows that this point touches a very sensitive chord in people, especially in Kali-yuga, where Democracy and egalitarian myths are very much in our DNA. It is not by chance that those arguments are used! So, I agree with that, and propose that the gurus and big leaders share with basic devotees their bank accounts, their personal facilities and also share the sometimes difficult services which the basic devotees are doing. Some gurus or high authorities never did those difficult services! All that, with the goal and in the spirit of cooperation.
As for us, we are not ready to cooperate for changing sastras, nor for driving devotees to brahmajyoti, nor for maintaining them in this material world! Sorry!
I suppose that if Srila Prabhupada would come back to this planet, they would tell him: Dear Prabhupada, times have changed, you know... so please, take our hand and merge yourself in our Unity. It is the best for you and everyone! Believe us!
The day after, another article named "Watering the root of love" was published. And the principle expressed in this article is right, of course! But sometimes, I am afraid that this idea "to love everyone" is contaminated with impersonalism. That is also very much in our DNA! Why is impersonalism really unbearable? Because it has no real meaning, is stupid and very destructive!
Krsna, for example, loves everyone, yes, but, at every precise moment, everyone is in a different situation according to the use he makes and made of his free-will. So, according to this situation, the same Krsna's love is expressed in different ways and sometimes through material energy. People who are, at the moment, in Bachar al Assat jails and are horribly tortured are also loved by Krsna. And, through this very very painful experience, will have a chance to progress and to understand the nature of this world. That is unfortunately only due to the use they made of their own free-will. So personally, there are some aspects of Krsna's love which I prefer to others. But of course, all that depends only on us!
Even Srila Prabhupada or other acaryas did not manifest their love in the same way with sincere persons and with cheaters. It is even said (I read) that Prabhupada cursed to death the person who was opposing him in ISKCON's purchase of the Juhu land.
To end, we are all very often told by ISKCON people when we express our feelings: "But, WHO ARE YOU? Are you a GBC, a national secretary, a guru? And what did you do?" That also participates in the Virata Rupa Syndrome world! And so, in arrogance, illusion and pride. Let's remember that materialists also do lot of things and have sometimes big positions. Does it give value to their actions and positions?
