The correspondence found below represents the Hare Krishna Society's official response to my paper, "The Church of Rtvik". This exchange comes as the result of a long-standing agreement between myself and Yasoda nandana dasa, who is the architect of the Hare Krishna Society. Yasoda nandana and I had agreed to debate the Rtvik issue once both of us had articulated our positions in the form of published papers. Given that we had both recently accomplished that goal, I invited Yasoda nandana, as a representatives of the Hare Krishna Society, to a formal debate on Rtvik.

As noted throughout the exchange of emails between myself and representatives of the HKS, Yasoda nandana and his organization are refusing to fulfill the previous agreement to debate. Within my "Church of Rtvik" paper, I expressed the conclusion that the manifestation of Rtvik-ism is a symptom of the Sampradaya Acarya's spiritual movement digressing into religiosity. In fact, the HKS is just one of many such manifestations. The responses I received from members of the Hare Krishna Society confirm that my assumptions were correct. Sadly, many of the members of this group were once my friends, but because I disagree with their philosophical conclusions, it seems I have now become their avowed enemy.

The Rtvik position has been established based on the pretext that there are only two alternative solutions one may consider on the question of initiation: the Rtvik solution or the ISKCON diksa solution. Because my position is based on a totally different conclusion, the Hare Krishna Society seems to be incapable of applying their philosophy to deal with my concerns. They appear to be paralyzed by this conundrum, and I feel it is the main reason they refuse to debate with me.

By Rocana dasa
November 16, 2003