Apologist for the Avant-Garde
BY: ROCANA DASA
Nov 01, CANADA (SUN) — This is in response to the recent article by Candrabhanu das entitled "Dogs and Caravans". Candrabhanu das opens his dissertation by saying that the Sampradaya Sun is trafficking in Vaisnava aparadha. These emotionally surcharged words are, from a Krsna Conscious standpoint, basically like calling us terrorists. Under the guise of "free speech", he says we are really just allowing devotees to commit Vaisnava aparadha.
It took me quite a few paragraphs to realize that Candrabhanu das was actually referring to Hridayananda das. At first, I thought he meant that Vaisnava aparadha was being committed to Srila Prabhupada. When I discovered it was actually Hridayananda he was referring to, it came as a bit of a surprise.
Candrabhanu das is obviously a 100% sold-out ISKCON-ite who has honed his skills, probably over many years of being in the institution. As a Prabhupada disciple, he likely learned all about using the Vaisnava Aparadha Weapon during the Zonal Acarya period. He knows how to threaten offending devotees with the prospect of going down to the deepest hellish regions. In fact, this weapon has been used since before Srila Prabhupada's departure, to keep people from seeing the truth. Those who wield the weapon do not wish to allow the devotees to use the knowledge given to them by the actual Vaisnavas, and by the Sampradaya Acarya. They don't want us to apply that knowledge to those around us, and to the circumstances that directly effect our lives. So many ISKCON leaders, and those like Candrabhanu das who support them, aren't acting according to what we're being told by Sastra and Guru to be the truth. And for me, that's one of the most painful circumstances to be in.
Candrabhanu das believes that because there may be an off-chance that you're wrong, that the person your mind is finding fault with is a true bona fide Vaisnava, that you just can't run the risk of committing aparadha. But this is a cowardly position to take. You're forced to pick up your weapons, and the weapons are the Sastra that indicates to you, by the use of your common sense, what is the truth. Your common sense may tell you that the truth is, a person is falling down, they're in maya, they're succumbing to the influences of the modes of the material nature to anger, lust and greed and all the signs indicate it
it's what you hear coming out of their mouth, and it's confirmed by other godbrothers but according to Candrabhanu, this kind of thinking is wrong. This sort of analysis and appraisal, which is the great gift the Sampradaya Acaryas are offering us we can't use it. We can't use this gift because we might be committing Vaisnava aparadha. Candrabhanu das makes this point abundantly clear, Sanskrit and all, going right back to Srila Jiva Goswami. (Of course, Srila Prabhupada's comments on this matter would have been sufficient.) In fact, this is the very tactic Hridayananda is famous for pull out the Sanskrit and use it until your opponent is bewildered and gives up.
To accept Candrabhanu das's proposition, first of all you have to make the assumption that Hridayananda is a Vaisnava. But what those who have contributed to exposing this charlatan are pointing out is behaviour that is the antithesis of being a real Vaisnava. I'm not saying that in the past, Hridayananda didn't exhibit more sincerity, austerity, and so on, but even that doesn't mean he was a pure devotee who could withstand the influences of Maya Devi. Nor does it mean that he could never commit offenses to his Guru, the Sampradaya Acarya, in any number of circumstances that he's put himself in over the years, first of all by being a Zonal Acarya (and a very eccentric and extravagant one, to boot). In that capacity, he committed innumerable offenses not only to Srila Prabhupada, but to so many individual devotees. And it is automatic that if he treated these devotees in an unjust or uncalled for way, motivated by lust, anger and greed, then he has to suffer the reaction for those offenses.
So what we're observing is that Hridayananda has lost what he originally had, and has squandered what he could have been on account of making bad choices. In other words, he surrendered to Maya instead of to Krsna, through Srila Prabhupada.
We find so many personalities like Candrabhanu das, who are the watchdogs, henchmen, and chum chums of leaders like Hridayananda. They have earned their positions within the institution on account of writing articles like 'Dogs and Caravans'. And we expect such articles, each time one of the big leaders is called out. Someone had to defend Hridayananda Maharaja he certainly wasn't expected to personally defend himself, in anything but the most cursory fashion. Maybe Candrabhanu das got a call from Hridayananda, saying: "Hey, can you do me a favor here
write an article and send it off to the Sampradaya Sun?"
In his article, Candrabhanu das treats us to the same rhetoric we have heard so often in ISKCON when fallen leaders are being defended by their supporters. I'm talking from years and years of experience when I say that we heard the very same things when Hansadutta fell down, and the GBC left him in power for years because they didn't want to tell the truth. They didn't want to expose the society to the fact that right out of the starting gate, one of their horses in the race fell on his face. Consequently they put a complete muzzle on the media, based on the same arguments that Candrabhanu das presents here. Then it was Jayatirtha, then Bhavananda, Bhagavan, Rameswar, Kirtanananda, Harikesa, Satsvarupa, what to speak of the less prominent non-Zonal Acarya falldowns. I could give you a long dissertation on each one of these individuals, because I was personally involved with each one.
We have to remember that Hridayananda is now a barely surviving member of this notorious group, and he's showing exactly the same symptoms all of them did. And the fact is, ISKCON's history just keeps repeating itself. For whatever reasons, the upper echelon members of the GBC purposely keep these individuals in power, even though they know they're fallen. They apparently think it's best for the institution, or they're showing the same kind of mercy that Srila Prabhupada did, forgiving and forgetting all the transgressions, time and time again. Of course, only the very advanced devotees have the ability to distribute such mercy, and they cannot imitate Srila Prabhupada in this regard.
Candrabhanu das says that Hridayananda belongs to "an avant-garde segment" of the ISKCON society". In other words, he's special. He's in a special category, and as such, he deserves special compensation, first of all for changing the entire tradition of sannyasa. Because he's supposedly so advanced, he can do what no one else should do: wearing shorts and T-shirts and baseball caps, hanging out alone with young women, and basically flaunting his karmi-like circumstances and appearance. But according to Candrabhanu das, it's OK, because Hridayananda is a special spiritual iconoclast. Of course, all the big men I just named, who fell down one after another, were all of the same ilk. They were all "special", the elite, the landed gentry, the royalty of ISKCON. But according to Candrabhanu, we have to apply the same principles to them as we would to an extremely advanced devotee who actually qualifies to be called a Vaisnava.
Candrabhanu das obviously identifies with and belongs to another echelon of devotees in ISKCON, which has always been there -- the right-hand men, the apologists, the aides to the king, servants of the elite. These individuals also see themselves as being special. Another personality in this category is Niscala devi dasi, whose article Candrabhanu das extensively quotes. She's also expressing bogus philosophy, which means she is not well trained in our philosophy. I won't get into a detailed appraisal of her remarks here, but the upshot is that it's the inability of the neophytes (which is everyone but people like she and Candrabhanu das) that's the real problem. We are all just too neophyte to see the truth of a great personality like Hridayananda.
As is typically the case, Candrabhanu das is fault-finding people for their fault-finding. He's ready to go to bat and make all sorts of accusations based on the principle that Hridayananda is far more advanced than anyone else more than any other writers, more than any of those pointing out the obvious and saying the king has no clothes. But we're saying that supporters and followers like Candrabhanu das -- those who are propping up charlatans like Hridayananda -- they're the ones who cannot see that Hridayananda is really not advanced, and the really advanced person is Srila Prabhupada, who Hridayananda foolishly criticizes.
There are many supporters like Candrabhanu das and Niscala dd, who are the sold-out faithful followers of these foolish so-called leaders. But if you take in total all the faithful followers of all those fallen Zonal Acaryas, and compare that number to the devotees who left the movement discouraged, disgusted and shocked, their faith shattered because they stuck it out with these gurus until they couldn't deny it anymore, or the guru just fell down and left them completely which number do you think would be larger?
I could recite so many stories about telling the GBC authorities, 'This is going on', and having them look back at me saying, 'We know, and we've known for a while, but we want you to keep it quiet.' That's how it went for Hansadutta, certainly for Jayatirtha, and Kirtanananda, and we were in the middle of it. And if there had actually been a free press at the time -- if we could have done then what we're doing today with the Sun if devotees had a chance to report on what they were observing, then I believe the pain and the anxiety, the fallout and severe repercussions of that era would have been greatly diminished. In fact, the fallen leaders may not even have been tempted to make the foolish moves that brought about their downfall. But because they had the Aparadha Stick and controlled the media, they managed to stay in power for 10 long years.
So Candrabhanu das is just a poster boy -- a perfect example of how ISKCON is functioning today. Of course, many corporations, countries, institutions and religions work on the same principle. You just have to be the type of person that Candrabhanu das and Niscala devi are in order to be part of ISKCON. Brahminical thought and free speech is just not part of their world. They can't even imagine it. They are comfortably ensconced in the society, and it benefits them to have people like Hridayananda stay protected. When their leaders are publicly criticized, it shakes up their world.
In the case of Hridayananda, the public criticism is especially serious because the credibility of his previous spiritual work -- namely the Srimad Bhagavatam purports gets called into question. He felt that he was qualified to do this work, and the GBC just assumed he was qualified. Those Bhagavatam purports are the biggest part of his legacy he purported some of the most confidential parts of the Srimad Bhagavatam. So if he is finally exposed in falling down, then ISKCON is put in the awkward position of deciding whether his purports are even of any value. All those Bhagavatams that they printed and distributed, that are on people's shelves and in libraries -- are they bona fide? Should they be burned, if Hridayananda proves not to have been qualified to write them?
That's the real repercussion of Hridayananda falling down. Like Satsvarupa, he is in a very precarious circumstance. Now that Satsvarupa has been exposed to the point he has, the Lilamrta should be considered the real banned material, the real garbage that has to be rooted out, not some comments made by truthful observers on the Sampradaya Sun. And it seems that we will now be facing the same situation with Hridayananda's Bhagavatams. At least in the case of the Bhagavatams, there were other researchers and writers involved with Hridayananda, which may help to dispel the concern.
