The Ritviks are attempting to operate on the foundation of a false construct -- their Ritvik-vada. Consequently, their small-group Ritvik leaders will never be able to agree and surrender to the leadership of one or a few 'big' leaders, because there will always be so much room for interpretation, thus disagreement. They cannot simply read and accept and agree upon Srila Prabhupada's instructions, because they are having to contrive interpretations of these instructions to fit the narrow, artificial confines of their Ritvik-vada. We see this played out over and over.
Some Ritviks take the July 9th Letter as carte blanche permission for practically any devotee to pose themselves as an officiating Ritvik priest, free to indiscriminately give out "diksa initiation" on Srila Prabhupada's behalf. Other Ritviks accept only the names listed in the July 9th Letter, which leaves them in the painful position of having to defend Hansadutta as their official representative.
Many Ritviks constantly preach "no change", and they say they want to re-create a 1970's atmosphere on that basis. But while passionately distributing the original books, they are changing the philosophy that lives within the covers of those books, by preaching asiddhantic Ritvik-vada to those they hand the books out to. It is an unbelievably hypocritical position to take. And it places many who are associated with the original books movement in a difficult and compromised position.
Meanwhile, other Ritviks are busy changing everything. The Bangalore temple has long been the great golden egg that the Ritviks point to as proof that they own the golden goose (their Ritvik-vada). But Madhu Pandit and the Bangalore leaders are changing so many things, diverting from Srila Prabhupada's own formula. Just look at the contrived Ashraya program they are now promoting (which will be the focus of a separate article.) This Ashraya program institutes all sorts of bureaucratic 'controls' that Srila Prabhupada never implemented or requested. It is simply a contrived institutional system, and it reeks of religiosity. While Mahatma dasa questions what the sadhana practices of most of the Ritviks/Prabhupadanugas are, Bangalore talks about biometric controls and having devotees scan themselves into the temple to prove they are performing sadhana. This is nothing but contrivance -- it has no basis in Srila Prabhupada's program.
Mahatma das refers to the Prabhupadanugas, who he evasively does not call Ritviks even though that's precisely their main identification. We have talked many times about this trend. It is nothing but public relations spin. The Ritvik stigma weighs heavily, so they try to keep a positive front by calling themselves something else… 'Prabhupadanugas' or 'Bhaktivedantas'. But no matter what alternative name they try on, they cannot get away from the Ritvik-vada that defines them. It is a terminal illness; it cannot be 'made nice' by changing names. Their apasiddhantic, contrived Ritvik position will always serve to divide and cleave them off from the main body of the devotee community. Their fanatic adherence to it ensures a long future in which Srila Prabhupada's spiritual society will remain fractured and broken.
Tomorrow we will continue our commentary on Mahatma and Nityananda das's analyses of the current state of Ritvik affairs.
Excerpts above edited very slightly for readability.
