Creating Envy 0.5
BY: MAHA MANTRA DAS
May 13, 2011 — PACIFICA (SUN) — Imagine a visit to your temple by a big ISKCON leader wherein they verbally and physically abuse the devotees. Now imagine someone speaks up forcefully in protest and the abuser simply turns around and says, "Oh you're just angry prabhu, just see the anger in his heart, everyone!" I hope we all agree this would be both laughable and sad.
And yet oddly enough in ‘real-life', when the 0.5% elite, who own and control 95% of ISKCON's resources and wealth, flaunt their aristocratic power and position and devotees say, "something's wrong with this picture", they tell us, "you're just envious prabhu". It is, of course, an old ruse meant to shame the dissenters into silence, but I don't think the Vaisnavas are buying it anymore.
To express a genuine concern about something seriously amiss - while acknowledging that one may still have envy in their own heart, having not yet become fully purified - does not in itself make the concern being raised null and void. Right is right, wrong is wrong, and gold and truth can both be found, even in a dirty place.
So this question, "Are you just envious prabhu?" is a two-way street which could (and probably should) be challenged with the equally valid inquiry: "Are your actions creating envy, prabhu?" Just like the above scenario of the abusive leader creating disturbance in the hearts and lives of the devotees, so to this issue of the alleged capture and exploitation of Srila Prabhupada's resources is creating a lot of resentment, anger, envy, confusion and difficulty within Prabhupada's family. At least in part, it seems responsible for killing off the enthusiasm and forward momentum of the Movement.
So the responsibility, as far as I can see, sits firm and heavy with those whose very actions have created this reaction/response. They are the powerbrokers and they have made these choices, and now they get to live with the consequences of their actions. It goes with the territory.
In the Srimad Bhagavatam on the life of Dhruva, it's hard to find anywhere in Srila Prabhupada's purports where he says angry Dhruva just became envious after he lost his rightful claim to his father's property. His Divine Grace does, however, point out that Suruci, who denied Dhruva, was very envious and even thought Dhruva should just die.
