BY: ROCANA DASA
Oct 06, CANADA (SUN) — A weekly response to Dandavats editorials. It appears that Akruranath das, a Srila Prabhupada disciple, was so inspired by the class given by HH Radhanath Swami in San Jose, California on August 22nd, 2007, that he went to the effort to have it transcribed and submitted to Dandavats. The class was so long that it was broken down into two parts (Part One and Part Two).
Today I will begin to critique Radhanath's lecture, which will take several installments in the Obeisances series because there is a great deal of content that requires commentary. The regular readers of Sampradaya Sun know that I have made many previous comments on Radhanath, although not so much on his lectures because we have seldom had access to transcriptions of them. Thanks to Akruranath prabhu's efforts, we now have an opportunity to get further insight into who Radhanath Swami is today and what his current mood and message are.
Radhanath Swami is obviously one of modern-day ISKCON's maha-successful guru/GBC/sannyasis, and as such he has earned himself a fairly unassailable position in the institution. Negative comments made against him are generally considered to be unequivocal offenses made against an advanced Vaisnava. The one offering criticism of the Swami is instantly considered to be an envious blasphemer -- a proverbial black snake.
Radhanath's tentacles are far-reaching, going way beyond the bounds of Chowpatty, Mumbai, or even India. His name and fame have now traveled around the world. Even here in the proverbial ISKCON backwaters of British Columbia, Canada, we find die-hard supporters of Radhanath amongst not only his disciples, but among my own godbrothers. Some of my godbrothers and sisters have children who have now taken initiation from Radhanath. Some are keeping their rice bowl filled thanks to donations from Radhanath's wealthy Mumbai followers. A large number of second generation devotees are now completely enamored by Radhanath. Many Srila Prabhupada disciples accept and glorify Radhanath just because he's so in vogue with the younger generation. In this way, the Radhanath phenomenon has steadily grown in recent years. In fact, Radhanath is now essentially an evolving product of his followers. By their increasing support and encouragement, he is continuing to advance his personal agenda. In this way, his disciples and supporters will be responsible in part for whatever Radhanath's legacy ultimately is in ISKCON.
Because of the groundswell of support for Radhanath, anyone who chooses to criticize the Swami can expect to be get a fair amount of backlash for doing so. Unfortunately, I find myself in just such a position. While it's not a comfortable or popular position to take, I have a very strong inclination to challenge Radhanath Swami.
In my opinion, Radhanath Swami personifies ISKCON's deviation from the Sampradaya Acarya's vision, which we should all be strictly following. His preaching methodology is so far from Srila Prabhupada's that I would say it's practically the antithesis, and this is one of the aspects of his lecture that I'll be making commentary on. In fact, I'm certain that if Srila Prabhupada had heard this particular lecture, he would have stopped it. If Srila Prabhupada had been in attendance at other devotee gatherings where Radhanatha was holding court, he would have stopped him. I will attempt to provide examples and more detailed explanations in the segments to follow.
To me, the most amazing thing is that so many of my friends and godbrothers -- persons that I had considered to be Srila Prabhupada-conscious, brahminical and intelligent -- are now unquestioningly supporting Radhanath. They're listening to his classes and in this case, even transcribing and publishing his lecture. They're demonstrating that they have unquestioning support for Radhanath's mood, his message, and his particular process, all of which are so much different from the mood and message of our Spiritual Master, the Founder/Acarya of ISKCON.
I find Radhanath to be very reminiscent of the person who was the founder of the Zonal Acarya system, and who created so much trouble and problems in ISKCON, namely Kirtanananda. Kirtanananda was Radhanath's long-time mentor, and Radhanath supported and defended him for so many years. Kirtanananda basically set-up the foundation for Radhanath's seemingly boundless success, in that Radhanath took over Kirtanananda's temples and supporters in India. This gave him a great kick-start in growing his personal movement.
With today's introductory comments, I would like to invite the reader to carefully study this two-part lecture by Radhanath. If there's an opportunity to listen to the class, please do so. Even without the audio, however, anyone who has heard Radhanath speak in the past can easily pick-up on his preaching techniques.
In future segments, I'll present a sequential commentary and detailed analysis of Radhanath's San Jose lecture. In general, we find that Radhanath is honing his skills at being the quintessential entertainer/lecturer, something that is very well-known in India among the non-Gaudiya Vaisnava preachers. This was certainly not a technique or mood demonstrated by Srila Prabhupada or Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur. Rather than following their style, Radhanath lectures often rely on storytelling and over-dramatizations, and they lack the elements always present in Srila Prabhupada's lectures: scriptural references, quotations, and emphasis on the actual philosophical aspects of whatever material is being presented.
There was a reason why the successive Sampradaya Acaryas, Srila Prabhupada and Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur, chose to comment on the Caitanya-caritamrta rather than the Caitanya-Bhagavat. There is a reason why the Srimad-Bhagavatam was spoken by Srila Vyasadeva for its philosophical message, not for the historical context that these pastimes were presented in within other Puranas. For the same reasons, the Bhagavad-gita was emphasized rather than the whole Mahabharata, which presents the whole story of what happened on the Battlefield of Kurukshetra. In other words, the Acaryas of our Sampradaya emphasized philosophy and truth rather than storytelling.
If you read this lecture by Radhanath, you'll find that not only are many of the stories that Radhanath brings up not referenced to any particular sastra, they are also embellished upon far beyond what we read in Srila Prabhupada's books. Whether it's his story on Putana from the Srimad-Bhagavatam or the story of Pundarik Vidyanidhi from the Caitanya-caritamrta, what to speak of the ISKCON-related personalities he mentions like George Harrison and Hayagriva, there are so many details and dramatized facts woven into the lecture. And that's part of Radhanath's technique -- to dramatize and give arcane details that are above and beyond the familiar pastime stories. Radhanath loves to dramatize, giving all sorts of elaborate details, and giving the audience the impression that he is a very confidential and advanced devotee. But if one takes the time to study lecture transcripts like those referred to herein, you'll see that there is an abundance of Radhanath's personal, imaginary elaborations. There are elements not coming from any sastra or fact, which cannot be verified by citations. Radhanath simply includes them in his presentations for effect… for entertainment, and his own subtle self-glorification.
Of course, I know that so many of his supporters will find fault with me for saying these things, and I'm not claiming to be a perfect personality myself in this commentary. I'm taking this position because I believe it's important to support the premise that Srila Prabhupada is the Sampradaya Acarya -- and that doesn't simply mean that one should just accept the philosophical aspect of what it means to be a Sampradaya Acarya. It also means that we should be following Srila Prabhupada in every aspect of his lila. In other words, we should be trying our best to have the same mood and preach in the same way that he demonstrated, spreading Krsna consciousness by using the same techniques and focus. I believe that Srila Prabhupada embodied the same mood that was his Spiritual Master's, also a Sampradaya Acarya.
Radhanath exemplifies the opposite. He is busy creating his own overall persona, and by doing so he is not at all trying to follow in Srila Prabhupada's footsteps. And to me, this is so abundantly obvious. The same attitude that has now developed throughout ISKCON towards persons such as Radhanath was prevalent during the Zonal Acarya period, especially in regard to persons like Kirtanananda Swami. And Radhanath was born out of that fertile soil… he's a seed that comes from 'genetic stock' perpetuated by Kirtanananda. In other words, he's a New Vrindaban graduate and he is carrying on some of the techniques Kirtanananda drilled into his followers. And for the same reasons that back then, you couldn't criticize Kirtanananda, today you can't criticize Radhanath.
Just like Radhanath, Kirtanananda was very successful during his heyday. He had all sorts of followers and money, and he had total control over his situation. There was no outside influence whatsoever that could trump him. And that is exactly what Radhanath's situation is now in Mumbai. The way he runs things at Chowpatty is very similar to the ways in which Kirtanananda ran New Vrindaban. This is evidenced by the contents of Radhanath's "Simple Temple" booklet on Chowpatty.
Today, Radhanath is enjoying the same kind of notoriety and prestige as Kirtanananda did during the Zonal Acarya period, up until he went off the deep end. Will Radhanath go off the deep end? We hope not, but we have no way of knowing. But we do know that if he ever does, ISKCON will experience a body blow that will be far greater than the ones experienced even after the falls of Kirtanananda, Harikesh, Bhagavan, and Rameswar… all put together. So many people, as well as the movement itself, have placed so much faith in the notion that Radhanath is the purest devotee in the movement, that he's incapable of falling down, and that he's on a level and displaying a mood that everyone should aspire towards. Obviously, I totally disagree with that. In fact, I see all the symptoms of a person who appears to be very susceptible to falldown, who is not strictly following the previous Acaryas, and who is essentially leading Srila Prabhupada's ISKCON in the wrong direction.
I recently heard a lecture given by Srila Prabhupada in which he named all the deviant sects that were in existence at the time that the Sampradaya Acarya, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur, advented on the planet, and whom his Spiritual Master, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur, fought to expose. By the time these three great nitya-siddha Sampradaya Acaryas manifested their pastimes, the great potency of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu's Sankirtana Movement had deteriorated to such a great degree. It's my perception that the same kind of deterioration has already taken place today in ISKCON, and the Sampradaya Acarya is not personally present to prevent it. For those of us who see Srila Prabhupada in that light, and see the Sampradaya's "List of 32" as being composed of Sampradaya Acaryas such as Srila Prabhupada, it's our duty to fight against the situation prevailing in ISKCON today. It's a personal spiritual requirement that we follow these great Acaryas, rather than personalities such as Radhanath who does not himself follow. If you want to make genuine spiritual advancement in this lifetime and take advantage of Lord Caitanya's causeless mercy, you will do so by following the Sampradaya Acarya himself.
Next week, we'll begin to give detailed commentary on Part One of Radhanath's lecture, and I'll point out and analyze all the things Radhanath says that back-up the statements I've made in this introduction. In the meantime, I encourage the reader to study the first part of the lecture, and to consider it carefully. I would like to take this opportunity to get the Radhanath phenomenon fully out in the open and to discuss it as thoroughly as possible.
Obeisances to Dandavats and to HH Radhanath Swami.
