Dec 23, 2013 — USA (SUN) —
The poster for the Vancouver ISKCON center that was recently featured in the Sun tells it all. Some wise "devotee" has lifted the cartoon-ish "Krishna" from the ridiculous Little Krishna video series created by the Bangalore Ritviks and has photo-shopped this image with a statue of Santa Claus in one of the most egregious slaps in the face of the Founder-Acharya imaginable. This Santa Claus is nothing less than a symbol of uselessly forcing impoverished "Christians" into more hopeless debt. It is the perpetuation of the guilt trip that "God gifted his only son in a blood sacrifice, so you have to buy me a bottle of whiskey or a video game about killing." Nothing about this Santa Claus has anything to do with the teachings of Lord Jesus Christ (whose date of birth is certainly not on the 25th of December).
ISKCON can only be destroyed from the inside, Shrila Prabhupada said, and this outrage of marrying Santa Claus to a cartoon Krishna invented through the collaboration of karmis and Ritviks is getting very close to the last straw. Our Guru Maharaja said that to chop down a tree you need to take a limb of the tree you wish to fell and create an axe handle out of it. Roger that, ISKCON Vancouver.
Thus the once-great ISKCON continues its slippery slope down the chute to Never-Never Land by continuously seeking out new middle ground with the imitation of real religion. Where are ISKCON Canada's GBC when this unthinkable Mayavadic outrage of compromise is being perpetuated in the sacred ashram of Shrila Prabhupada? Or maybe the GBC's all took a hike?
Shrila Prabhupada warned very strictly against this portraying of the Supreme Personality of Godhead as an ootsy-cutsie cartoon and where the fatal blow to genuine philosophy would lead. And this "Christmas Festival" at ISKCON Vancouver is the actual fulfillment of the Pure Devotee's grim prophecy. When we feel the chilling wind that philosophical concession can't get worse than this, some fool in the dress of a Vaishnava concocts a new low. Perhaps some of today's ISKCON members would be surprised to know that when Prabhupada referred to "a devotee is expert" it did not mean "expert at putting the last nail in the coffin of genuine spiritual understanding."
Letter to: Caruhasa
New Vrindaban
20 July, 1974
74-07-20
Los Angeles
My Dear Caruhasa das;
Please accept my blessings. I have received your letter undated and also seen the picture book. You should know it that Krsna is not a plaything. These things should strictly not be done.* If you do this, then Krsna will become a fairy tale. Please drop this matter.
I hope this meets you in good health.
Your ever well wisher,
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
ACBS:bs
*About trying to have karmis make a movie on Krsna Book
And this:
Letter to: Caruhasa
Vrindaban
20 August, 1974
74-08-20
Los Angeles
My dear Caruhasa das,
Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated July 26th 1974 with the enclosed slides. I appreciate your interest in making the Krishna book film but it is not important for now. I therefore think that you could use your talent better if you work with Yadubara. In Hawaii I understand that he is making TV programs. So you can go and help with him. I do not care very much for these filmings because by presenting Krishna in this way it makes it something like fantasy. It is better to have people to read my Krishna books what I have written so that they can understand Krishna fully. I think you can understand this.
I hope this meets you in good health.
Your ever well wisher,
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
ACBS/bs/ps
Exactly as Lord Krishna's Divine Seer has predicted, now Krishna has become a cartoon plaything for a snow bound Santa Claus statue. Wake up! Placing Krishna in the snow with a figure of a fat spokesperson for a so-called religious holiday that is all about sense gratification by breaking every regulative principle to "celebrate" the Divine Appearance Day of their Savior is a horrible offense. This outrage only goes to show that ISKCON is being turned into a cheap ploy for the maintenance of the leaders. If you wish to "harken to the voices of angels" this Christmas, then listen carefully to the sincere devotees who have some faith in the actual teaching of Shrila Prabhupada. Open your ears when they tell you frankly that there will be hell to pay for this one. I mean, would you want some old fat man breaking into your house while you are asleep and plying your children with free gifts? In real time such a predator would be locked up and has nothing to do with religion. And this has become the new Krishna consciousness.
