My Blood is Boiling
BY: CHAKRESHWARA GOSWAMI
Jul 20, 2010 — INDIA (SUN) — This is a response to Nanda Kishore's diatribe about my challenge to the offensive poster in which Srila Prabhupada is disdainfully minimized. In his article he asks, "Why So Vicious?" Perhaps even Hiranyakashipu, Duryodhana or Kartavirya Arjuna might have asked the same question? But genuine rationality exists for a devotee's anger when Sri Gurudeva is offended.
Nanda Kumar's limp-wristed defense is typical of those lilly-livered "preachers" who spoon feed the watery pabulum of compromise at Interfaith Gatherings and New Age Expositions. He displays his unabridged deficiency of faith in the empowered Shaktyavesh Avatara when he bluntly asks, "What does C. Goswami expect -- for the devotees to print a huge poster of Srila Prabhupada saying we are now going to give you the truth? Who would come." Duh! The block-headed impudence with which he dares to strut this question is admission of an intention to further minimize the Global Teacher.
Observing such prejudice, the GBC should immediately cancel ISKCON's participation in the conference if the participants can't muster the golis to preach Bhagavad Gita As It Is.
Neither do I feel that the position stated by Mr. Nanda Kishore das is shared by other members, like Sriman Drutakarma das, who is respected worldwide as a tireless and dedicated representative of Srila Prabhupada. However, as long as the webpage remains unchanged, real Vaishnavas should unplug themselves from the event in short order.
And, Mr. Nanda Kishore das, if you can't print a poster that suitably honors the Saviour of Mankind, then at least do not degrade a Paramhamsa Sannyasi by placing his most holy likeness next to a creek and lotus flower underneath a towel-wrapped woman on her back, breasts half-exposed! Your rhubarb falls very short of the mark when considering that the acarya-like picture of His Holiness Bhakti Caru Maharaja on another page of the same web advertisement is posed many times larger than Srila Prabhupada's diminished depiction. This indicates that the participants like you think more people will come if Bhakti Caru is exalted over Srila Prabhupada. This proves that there is a serious defect in the logic and motivation of the organizers.
If the organizers can be taught to properly glorify the pure devotee, then let me educate you as to who will come to your Expo. The eternal spaceman Narada Muni will fly in. Shri Krishna Dwaipayana Vyasadeva will arrive by his mystic potency. The entire disciplic chain of the glorious Brahma-Madhva-Gaudiya Sampradaya will be pleased to arrive in their spiritual resplendence. Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu will personally bless your kirtan. That is who will come. Do you wish for more than that?
To further answer your most impudent inquiry, Nanda Kishore das Prabhu, you should indeed print the biggest possible poster of the likeness of the World Acarya, who appeared within our midst as the sole saving grace for mankind. Hire every damn billboard in Durban. The people of South Africa are very favorable to Krishna consciousness after a generation of preaching by stalwart and uncompromising devotees. Do not undo their colossal efforts with this singly nauseating act of compromise.
Mr. Nanda Kishore tacitly admits that the participants under Bhakti Caru Maharaja will be hiding the essence of Krishna Consciousness from the public, by his explanation that His Divine Grace Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur was willing to "deny the literal meaning of certain parts of the Bhagavat." Naturally, we are not expecting you to preach the divine lilas of Sri Radha and Krishna, but for the attendees to adapt the regulations and practices of Krishna consciousness to their daily activities is the only hope for a New Age. Your mention of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur in this context is therefore offensive, since it was The Thakur who re-formed Lord Chaitanya's movement with songs and programmes so that people from all over the world can partake of this divine nectar, over a century after his discovery of Yogapith. Only he who can act on the level of Bhaktivinoda Thakur can claim to understand the modus operandi of an empowered Acarya. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur is non-different from the energy of Lord Chaitanya Himself.
Regarding your argument that His Divine Grace Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati was prepared to serve meat, then why don't you serve meat at the festival, since you seem favorable to unnecessary adjustments? His Divine Grace made that suggestion to his ineffectual sannyasis in London who were complaining that no one but a few old hags showed up to their "Gaudiya Math". It was a form of chastisement, spoken in rebuke. Again, you have not understood, therefore I remind you that the neophyte can not suddenly rise to an acarya's level by citing a few examples.
Furthermore, what do your examples of past acaryas have to do with printing Srila Prabhupada's photo smaller than a postage stamp underneath a woman wrapped in a towel? Did Prabhupada ever say to wrap women in towels to attract the karmis? Any tenderfoot who believes your examples needs his head examined and does not belong in the holy ranks of ISKCON. Junior Haridas was ejected from the company of Mahaprabhu for merely gazing at a woman, who was likely dressed in a full sari. This poster is a disgrace and any arguments in favour of it are befitting a blockhead.
Your contention that you are 'preaching to Westerners' is another game of shadow boxing. Examine your demographics in Durban, South Africa. 95% of the people at the conference will be Hindus of Indian extraction and culture, a huge majority of whom already know and love ISKCON. So why all this smoke-and-mirrors stagecraft aimed at confusing them by undoing a generation of honest preaching? What they need are sankirtana yagna and the sound of the Holy Names.
So, Mr. Nanda Kishore das, that is my answer to this impudent challenge, "Why So Vicious?" I hope I have been more than clear. It is because my blood boils when I see the deprecation of Srila Prabhupada by pedestrians who would use His Divine Grace for their own social advancement while obscuring the import of Krishna consciousness.
