ISKCON's Wikipedia Acaryas
BY: RAVANARI DAS
The successor in his own mind
May 19, 2012 — USA (SUN) —
Part 1 - Satsvarupa
So, Prabhu, do I hear you thinking that the days of ISKCON's Zonal Acaryas are a thing of the past? Is Zonalism relegated to long gone times? To days when false successorship was in vogue and anyone who did not agree with the instant acarya-hood of the self-elected was a demon worthy of being ground into the pavement?
Then think again.
Since the bad ol' days when several saffron hijackers declared themselves legends in their own minds, the mindless saga of self-styled guru dominion continues. And it keeps on trucking right up to the present day, despite constant presentation of sastric evidence, condemnation by devotee peers, GBC back-peddling and public opinion to the contrary.
The evidence is right here on the Internet, and in this article we'll show you where.
All it takes for a Zonal to continue with his claim of successorship is a grand dose of shamelessness. And with quite a quantity of heartlessness thrown in for good measure. And presto, you've got a Church of the Self-Proclaimed Successor, a House of Worship wherein you are excluded and excommunicated if you do not worship you-know-who and right on cue. Apparently ISKCON is a society of spiritual transcendence except when it comes to worshipping narcissistic ego-maniacs who are convinced that they are this body (and that their bodies are holy).
If you have any doubts about this sad state of affairs in ISKCON today just go to Wikipedia. With the click of a mouse you can go back thirty-five years to the dark days of Swami Tyranny. You'll discover how Zonalism is still alive and well, at least in the deluded minds of the last remaining dinosaur-gurus or "dinosaurus".
These ambitious dinosaurus have succeeded in setting themselves up as displays in a Museum of Speculative Spirituality where they sit like dust-gathering fossils behind roped off exhibits. They sit petrified on the shelves, laying in wait for the stares of the bewildered onloolers filing by. They have displayed themselves to the world as though they remain the current occupants of the throne of the Acaryas of ISKCON. They have done this without considering that fossilized mental speculators are merely the subjects of speculation by other speculators—and are little else. Ironically their path to becoming dead fossils has been to declare that the living, eternal Guru of ISKCON is himself dead, as this article will show.
Just go to Wikipedia and see for yourself.
Having a page in the "Encyclopedia that anyone can write" gives the vain subject a sense of importance. He has achieved his goal of recognition and renown now that the world can worship him in all the glory of online puja. With a page on Wikipedia, even an insect can wear the halo of being the biggest ant in the anthill. An arthropod becomes Srila Gurupada.
Whenever an article is seen about a relatively unknown entity written in third person on Wikipedia, it is usually safe to assume that the author is the subject himself. Such articles demonstrating absolute hero-worship are generally nothing more than someone's little exercise in self-glorification. What you read on Wiki about certain fossil gurus is evidence of a personal love affair that these special souls entertain with and for themselves. The Encyclopedia that anyone can write includes eternal self-love that could no longer remain contained within the dusty craniums of the self-appointed. All that is missing are the self-love sonnets scribed on a day in Spring.
On his very own Wiki page, Steven "Da Guru" Guarino claims (with a word imported from his Catholic upbringing) that he was "ordained" by Prabhupada in 1966. No wonder ISKCON's Would-be Finest still fancy themselves to be pope-like in their divinity. These Bishops of Interfaith have never divested themselves from their heirarchic orthodoxy and mundane church consciousness. They remain slaves of a sort of Bible As (They Think) It Is.
Instead of being issued walking papers, the GBC assigned Go Swami Satsvarupa the title "retired guru" ever since he was caught trying to seduce another man's wife (which Manu says merits the death penalty). Neither were the "Governers that Be, you C" much amused when he published a fanciful novel called Sanitorium about about the love affairs among a clique of nut house devotees.
The life of an ISKCON successor: nut house novel and nut case paintings
His title of "retired guru" is an open admission of his position on the shelf. It is GBC-speak for "Fossilized Zonal." Self-love never dies, even when it has been publicly humiliated and denounced and consigned to involuntary retirement. Amazingly Satsvarupa (Ret.)'s Wiki page blatantly claims that his "predecessor" is "A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada" and that he has "been in office" since 1972 (!) Is this man nuts? And it gets worse.
This elder Pope of ISKCON is one of those ism-addicts. He lists his "religion" as the "Gaudiya Vaishnavism tradition of Hinduism." It was not so long ago that Satsvarupa was parading around with the title 'His Divine Grace Shrila Gurupada', along with other purloined symbols of a paramhamsa. Yet now that he has been unmasked—or retired—his bio-data also denies that title "His Divine Grace" to the pure devotee who deserves to be addressed in that way. This is like a spoiled brat having a tantrum: "If I don't get to be ‘His Divine Grace' then nobody else does."
When the sage uttered punar musika bhava the tiger at once became a mouse. What is evident is that the mouse began thinking that the sage was also a mouse. This is the mentality of the narcissist who never believes that another can surpass himself. Satsvarupa should realize that minimizing a pure devotee is a very slippery slope indeed, and it is a long slide to the bottom. And the name of that slope as it slip-slides away from pure Krishna consciousness is "Hinduism."
On the Wiki site, Satwarupa takes much of the credit that "the Hare Krishna movement today is viewed by the academics as ‘the most genuinely Hindu of all the many Indian movements in the West'." What a nerve! Well, that is certainly an accomplishment for the Go Swami if—that is—selling the work of the pure down the river through blatant misrepresentation is considered an accomplishment! But that is the result when Narcissism rots away at those who perch themselves at the very top. Just ask any visitor to the Guru Museuem where the fossils are kept.
The Go Swami's Wiki page says that a "number of his poetical works were published in modern American idiom." Maybe that should read "in modern American idiocy" instead. Another interesting claim is that, "Satsvarupa dasa Goswami was a pioneer in the early days of the movement, and is the senior most member of the movement at present. He was appointed as a guru by his perceptor. …Satsvarupa dasa Goswami was selected a trusty in the will of A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada for the management of ISKCON."
Errr, he was appointed a "trusty"…? Coming from an ex-Editor of BTG, this is certainly a bizarre confabulation, like everything else on this wannabe-acharya's Wiki page. I mean, who is to be trusted anyway?
His Wiki page also bald-facedly boasts, "(Sats) is sometimes listed among active promoters of ahimsa among other eastern religious teachers." Just ask some of the thousands of disenfranchised devotees who were forced out of the hallowed halls of ISKCON by Guru Narcissism—whether the Zonals represented non-violence or not. Devotees who were thrown out into the cold, bereft of the family they gave their lives, for might not fall for the propaganda that Zonals represent ahimsa. Violence against Vaishnavas is a very sinful act indeed.
A few years ago, Sats was ordered to carry on in a "low key" by the GBC. "Low Key" should be interpreted to mean
NO WIKI SELF-GLORIFICATION, SATS. HEY, SATS. ARE YOU LISTENING, MAN? THIS MEANS Y-O-U.
This man's Wiki page is a disgrace and it is nothing less than a slap in the face of the Founder-Acarya of ISKCON. It is an offensive attempt at idle bragadacio born out of self-love at the expense of the Founder-Acarya, who is loved by the genuine disciples as the empowered representative of the Supreme Personality Lord Sri Krishna. Satsvarupa's Wiki page should be taken down at once.
The worst offense is right there in the first paragraph. If you ever had a thought that Sats is a representative of Srila Prabhupada, then read these words for yourself: "After Prabhupada's death, Satsvarupa dasa Goswami was one of the eleven disciples selected to become an initiating guru in ISKCON."
Does the GBC need to be reminded that the pure devotee never dies? ISKCON itself is supposed to be the living representative of the empowered pure devotee himself. Well, if the GBC does not know these things, then ISKCON needs a new GBC. And pronto.
When are we, the voiceless rank and file going to rise up and put an end to this Internet tyranny that so blatantly misrepresents the Founder-Acarya? Wikipedia is the Encyclopedia that anyone can write. What is required is that computer-savvy devotees who are fed up with these con jobs should go to that site with a dose of truth. The torchlight of knowledge must burn down the fabrications that these false acaryas propagandize.
Let Krishna consciousness be properly and honestly represented on Wikipedia, or not at all. Certainly we who are invested with the responsibility as preachers of the Absolute Truth should not sit idly on the sidelines while they usurp the Internet the way they usurped the Vyasa Assans. The Internet is democratic, even if ISKCON today is not. The Net was not created for the tinsel glory of ISKCON's remaining dinosaur Zonals. Someone who has the know-how should put the GBC letter up there on Sats' page along with a few tidbits of what this man is really like. Remember that this slimy swami shamelessly accepted an all-expense paid vacation lasting decades, and carried on an eight-year Internet affair with another man's wife. He is the Nero who fiddled while ISKCON burned, except he made thousands of mad suclptures instead of fiddling. And when he was exposed, he called his eight-year affair a "bump in the road." Apparently, along with self-love, comes an incredible capacity for self-forgiveness.
Readers of Wikipedia, those who research the history of ISKCON and who go to his page, deserve to know the truth.
