Sep 27, 2017 — CANADA (SUN) —
Today we completed our presentation of the 1979 Vrindavan challenge paper delivered to the Zonal Acaryas. In the previous segment, Part 18, it was confirmed that Yasodanandana then-Swami and Pradyumna das were two of the key leaders responsible for writing this paper, as evidenced by the fact that they were to be its primary defenders in a debate with the GBC, should one have taken place.
As we mentioned in previous commentaries, this paper makes it very clear that among this group of senior devotees in 1979, there is no indication that the July 9th Letter was understood to represent an instruction for the post-samadhi diksa ritvik initiation of Srila Prabhupada disciples. Just the opposite.
Obviously, had the GBC deigned to give the Vrindavan devotees a floor for debating guru-tattva, Yasodanandana himself would have stood before them to assert the exact same understandings and arguments found in this paper. He would not have argued that the July 9th Letter was an instruction for post-samadhi ritvik diksa initiations, but rather, that it was understood that some of Srila Prabhupada's disciples would now serve as diksa gurus, and the disciples would be their own. And of course, that as diksa gurus, they were to be humble servants, not self-declared pure devotee Zonal Acaryas.
This 1979 paper is historically important for many reasons, one of which is that it documents the period prior to the start of the Ritvik-vada movement, and tells the story through one of the Ritvik-vadi's own founders, Yasodanandana dasa. After co-authorizing the 1979 challenge paper, he and a few associates went on to create – basically out of thin air – a Ritvik movement that relied upon the July 9th Letter as its key piece of evidence.
How is it that Yasodanandana came to adopt such a striking new realization years later, in the mid- to late-1980's, as he began to heavily politic for the newly launched Ritvik-vada philosophy? What convinced him to adopt a completely contrary understanding of the July 9th Letter, despite the fact that he and his close associates commonly shared an opposing understanding?
In the weeks ahead we will answer that question, using Yasodanandana's own written words. We'll begin next time with a document he wrote that enumerates many elements of guru-tattva as he understood it, circa 1979.
