Sitting on the Siksa Branch
BY: ROCANA DASA
Oct 24, 2011 — CANADA (SUN) — This article will address two seemingly different issues that have come to our attention in recent days. The first is about comments recently circulating on the Net about an ISKCON Swami who, in lectures to his followers, has given voice to his concerns about Radhanath Swami's approach to preaching. We look forward to offering some detailed commentary on those lectures soon. In the meantime, we would like to offer some thoughts that might help the Swami and the readers to understand why Radhanath is pursuing the direction he is, which is of concern to many devotees both inside and outside the institution.
The second issue is about the Vyasapuja offering also appearing in today's Sun, by Muralidhar das to HH Srila B.R. Sridhar Swami on the day of his Disappearance. These two issues are seemingly unconnected, but I am addressing them together because they allow me to speak on the subject of Srila Prabhupada as being a Sampradaya Acarya. This is one of the foundation stones of my presentation on how we should fall in line with the Sampradaya Acaryas and their presentation of guru-tattva.
As this subject applies to both Radhanath and B.R. Sridhar Swamis, the similarities are found in the individuals who have taken shelter of these spiritual personalities, who have both gained some prominence. By prominence, I mean that they've both been attracting a number of followers. Some of these followers became diksa disciples, others became siksa disciples. Whether or not there has been any formality involved in the siksa disciple relationships, I don't know. But as I have pointed out in my Sampradaya Acarya presentations, within our sampradaya we find an appreciation and recognition of the position of the siksa guru. Today, however, we find the diksa relationship highlighted and elevated to the topmost platform. Diksa is given all prominence, both within ISKCON, the Gaudiya Math, and even among the Rtviks.
Gaudiya Math personalities like B.V. Narayana Swami and Srila Sridhar Swami have made followers who are attracted to their preaching and association, aware of the fact that siksa relationships are very significant and important within our tradition. In this way, they encourage recruits to treat them with the respect that is usually given to the diksa guru in the context of today's society, within the ISKCON institution and the Gaudiya Math, or the fragments of these institutions.
There is a lack of appreciation amongst practically everyone, to varying degrees, in terms of understanding Srila Prabhupada's exalted spiritual position. And not only his position, but the position of the most prominent pure devotees who make up our Sampradaya parampara. These prominent devotees have been listed by the Sampradaya Acaryas: Srila Prabhupada, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta, Srila Baladeva Vidyabhusana, and Srila Kavi Karnapura. They have all tried to educate their followers to the fact that our Sampradaya is carried forward, and is still intact on account of the fact that these Sampradaya Acaryas have advented themselves, along with Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, in our Brahma Madhva Gaudiya Vaisnava Sampradaya. And our Sampradaya's message is still being carried forward in this Age of Kali on account of their presence.
This Sampradaya is not simply a diksa sampradaya, obviously, because as Srila Prabhupada himself said, don't worry for the time gaps that may appear, and which may appear to be confusing. The Sampradaya Acaryas are delivering the pure transcendental message, which Lord Sri Krsna was speaking in the Bhagavad-gita to His disciple Arjuna. Even though that wasn't a diksa relationship, the message was lost and had to be re-stated, even though at the time Lord Sri Krsna spoke it there were many great personalities, sages and gurus present on the planet.
Today, we find in the case of Radhanath Swami an interesting phenomenon, which he has enshrined in his auto-biographical book. He lays out his perception of his status as a spiritual leader on account of his birth and his upbringing, his youthful pastimes, and to a certain degree has pastimes after he met Srila Prabhupada and came into contact with the Sankirtana movement. Of course, in his case it's very confusing because he likes us to believe that even before he met a representative of our Sampradaya – the pure, absolute representative, Srila Prabhupada – he was enlightened and prepared. He was special. Of course, if we read the book carefully, we find that he didn't spend much time with Srila Prabhupada in India, nor did he surrender to Srila Prabhupada when he met him. He had the opportunity to get directly initiated into diksa by Srila Prabhupada while he was in Vrindavan, but he chose instead to return to America, and in due course took shelter of Kirtanananda Swami. Then through Kirtanananda, he became a disciple of Srila Prabhupada.
Now, for those of us who participated in Srila Prabhupada's ISKCON lila, and especially those who were in the proximity of New Vrindaban or actually served there it's well known that if you were to be part of Kirtanananda's New Vrindaban community, you had to essentially become a siksa disciple of Kirtanananda. I could get into many of the reasons why, but the main point is that Kirtanananda pushed forward his own concepts of Krsna consciousness, regardless of whether they were inline with Srila Prabhupada and his programs. Kirtanananda demanded the same kind of loyalty, awe and reverence as Srila Prabhupada would expect from his disciples, even though prior to the Zonal Acarya period and the time Srila Prabhupada departed, due to the principles set down by Srila Prabhupada himself, Kirtanananda had to offer everyone as a diksa disciple of Srila Prabhupada's.
Especially those in the inner core of New Vrindaban, which included Radhanath, had to take shelter of Kirtanananda. Of course, Radhanath didn't include all that in his book, which tells the Swami's long life history, but suddenly falls short, and eliminates this very important history of Radhanath's spiritual development.
Those who are familiar with Kirtanananda's rise and fall and the history of New Vrindaban will understand Radhanath's part in that whole drama, without me having to re-state here what has already been documented very thoroughly. My point is that Srila Prabhupada is not Radhanath's principle guru. Kirtanananda is his principle guru. Radhanath's perceptions and conceptions of Krsna consciousness have been implanted – indelibly, no doubt – by Kirtanananda.
At a certain point in Kirtanananda's history, around the time he was asked to leave ISKCON, he launched into a whole New Age conception, integrating Krsna consciousness with Christianity. When he was expelled from the Society, he didn't have to deal with the GBC and his equals on an institutional level anymore, so he felt free to finally take all of his long-suppressed ideas out and put them into practice. We know that it turned out to be a disaster. From many people's perspective, including mine, Sri Krsna put a halt to that experiment. In fact, today marks the final ending, with the death of Kirtanananda on this 24th of October, 2011.
To me, it is completely obvious that Radhanath, as a disciple of Kirtanananda, has decided to do the very same thing his mentor and guru did. He has come to a point in his prominence, wealth and influence within ISKCON that basically makes him impervious. He no longer has to listen to anything that his associates say, whether it be the GBC or other ISKCON gurus, or anybody who could possibly influence him. He's gained so much power, both monetarily and by his great number of followers, that he can ignore any protests or any questions that might arise. In exactly the same way Kirtanananda did. And of course, his programs are very similar to Kirtanananda's… they just have a Radhanath flavor to them.
Going back to the other issue of B.R. Sridhar Swami, the Vyasapuja offering made by Muralidhar das brings up another huge chapter in ISKCON's history. That is, many of Srila Prabhupada's disciples went over to the Gaudiya Math and took shelter, first of Sridhar Swami, then after his departure, many of the same people took shelter of B.V. Narayana Swami. Some went directly to Narayana, both before and after Sridhar Swami's departure.
The reason I'm willing to publish Muralidhar's Vyasapuja offering in the Sun is because it demonstrates to the readers the same phenomenon as that described above, wherein diksa disciples of Srila Prabhupada took shelter of Prabhupada's godbrothers, or B.V. Narayana, who's a disciple of Srila Prabhupada's godbrother, and they adopted the same mentality as their siksa gurus. In other words, they took on all the characteristics, the mood and mentality of their siksa guru, shedding the perceptions, mood and direction of Srila Prabhupada, their diksa guru. They obviously made the freewill decision to look upon their siksa guru as their principle guru, rather than keeping their diksa guru, Srila Prabhupada, in that role.
In both cases, whether it be Radhanath with Kirtanananda, or the followers of Srila Sridhar or Narayana Maharaja, all these siksa gurus with their adopted siksa disciples did not understand or appreciate Srila Prabhupada's position as the Sampradaya Acarya. They adopted the notion that their principle guru – their siksa guru -- is as important and significant a via medium to the Sampradaya and to Krsna as their diksa, Srila Prabhupada.
Whatever their individual understanding of the philosophy and all the reasons behind their adopting this mentality, they essentially abandoned Srila Prabhupada, not appreciating his position. Obviously, there are certain individual variations as to why this took place, but it is still a fairly widespread and common phenomenon.
Radhanath is not alone in this. There are other minor players in Kirtanananda's branch of the Sampradaya, just as there are many variations on the Sridhar Maharaja branch. From my perspective, whether or not these branches are healthy and bona fide depends upon the founders of these branches appreciating the concept of the Sampradaya Acarya – appreciating the fact that Srila Prabhupada is on that exalted level, and they are not. Their lack of appreciation, understanding, and teaching that understanding to their disciples is not there. Yes, there's a great deal of appreciation for Srila Prabhupada, yes, on the Gaudiya Math side they have so many arguments they all repeat, whether Narayana or Sridhar followers, or any one of the sub-branches, like Tripurari Swami. Every one of them comes up with the same arguments and positions that are found in Muralidhar prabhu's Vyasapuja offering.
The Sridhar people blame those who don't accept their perspective, calling them great offenders to a great personality. Thus every one of us is now put in a dilemma, in the sense of having to try and place these persons, or define their spiritual position in relationship to Srila Prabhupada. This is true whether it be Srila Sridhar, Narayana Swami, or even Kirtanananda.
It is politically difficult for devotees like Radhanath to trace their roots back to being siksa disciples of Kirtanananda. Bhaktipada's spiritual devolution and demise has essentially served to prevent them from admitting that their ideas, their mentalities, their moods and perspective on Krsna consciousness is rooted in their training at New Vrindavan under Kirtanananda.
And the same thing applies to Srila Sridhar Swami. Compared to Kirtanananda, he was far more advanced. Personally, I think that Srila Sridhar was a bona fide diksa guru, but not on the same level as Srila Prabhupada. Of course, o it's impossible for me to determine exactly what spiritual level he reached, whether he's uttama-adhikari, through sadhana. It appears that he reached a very high level of Krsna consciousness, through sadhana. Srila Prabhupada, on the other hand, was a nitya-siddha uttama-adhikari – a pure devotee from birth, directly deputed by Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and sent especially on his mission. According to the Sanskrit mantra of Srila Govinda Maharaj that was presented by Muralidhar das, the followers of Sridhar Swami seemingly present Srila Prabhupada in this way. But if you probe beneath the surface, you'll find that they believe Sridhar Swami also fits that definition – that he is on the very same level as A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada.
So in both of the cases we are discussing, if you want to understand the devotees, then try to understand why they think and do what they're doing. Whether it's a great leader, a GBC, a guru or a sannyasi, you must consider why they're presenting themselves in a certain way. In many cases, this means you have to look at who significantly influenced them, other than Srila Prabhupada. What was their association? And when you look, very often you'll find that they've been contaminated.
From the time Srila Prabhupada began preaching in the West, people all over the planet have had the opportunity to surrender directly to Srila Prabhupada, just as they do today. Appreciating and presenting Srila Prabhupada as the Sampradaya Acarya actually saves you a lot of confusion, because it immediately brings into focus who all the other spiritual personalities on the horizon are, in comparison or relationship to him.
Whether it be Radhanath, B.V. Narayana or Sridhar Swami, or some other ISKCON guru, if they do not appreciate Srila Prabhupada – if they are not able to philosophically present Prabhupada as a Sampradaya Acarya -- then my advice is that you should reject them. Perhaps from a distance, appreciate the service they're rendering, but understand that they're also passing on to their followers nuggets of contamination in all that they preach, teach, and do.
We can learn to appreciate Srila Prabhupada as the Sampradaya Acarya because he has demonstrated, by his own pastimes, what it means to be the follower of the Sampradaya Acarya, in the way that he followed Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur.
