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| A High RISK CON Game |
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Third
of a Three-Part Series “Because there is some similarity of the word Jew and Yadu, so some historian or scholar (so called) created this notion. I have read it also in some paper, but, even it is true, we have nothing to do with it. Lord Krishna killed his own dynasty under His personal supervision. So certainly Krishna didn't like the idea that future dynasties would be able to identify having Krishna's blood.” Letter to Nayanabhirama, Aug. 22, 1971 “Chutzpah is when a shyster, having murdered both of his parents, throws himself at the mercy of the judge on the grounds that he’s now an orphan.”Yiddish aphorism History is littered with the detritus of pseudo-religious conspiracies--inner cores, cliques, or secret societies making outlandish claims based upon fragments of dubious evidence and worn clichés—imposing their own hierarchical pyramid in order to invest power and aggrandizement to themselves at the top of it. Today’s vitiated GBC oligarchy, the energetic node continuously promoting strife and corruption within the fabricated, so-called “ISKCON” confederation, is but one such example. The members of this self-styled elite group have all forgotten that it is not their Society, but that it actually belongs to Guru-Gauranga, viz., Prabhupada and Krishna. They simulate themselves as directors of the Society and being initiator gurus, when, in point of fact, they are anything but. Instead, they are all guru-bhogis, enjoying the property and personnel that Prabhupada created by collectively imitating him as a simulacra of sakshad-dhari. In the post-modern world, this network can and does easily bewilder, often by outrageous assertions, two-legged animals who have little knowledge of what constitutes religion. Its projection of being the only link to the parampara has now morphed into a mind-boggling claim that it is “the ultimate ecclesiastical authority” of everyone initiated by His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada. None of this should be shocking; on the contrary, it should have been expected, because the chutzpah of this oligarchy has for decades stretched the rubber band in a high risk con game for all the chips. On Corruption and Destruction “This age is called Kali. Kali means the age of quarrel. On minor things, we are prepared to fight with one another. That is the system of this age, and if you open the newspaper in the morning, you will find so many news of fighting. So, this is called the age of fighting and corruption.” Lecture on Bhagavad-gita, 3.16, New York, May 25, 1966 (emphasis added) “The whole world is Krishna’s property. The material world is a field of activities for the corrupt conditioned souls, who desire to enjoy in imitation of the Supreme.” Letter to Dr. Ghosh, 3-29-74 (emphasis added) “You see, corruption is part of us, all of us, the very heart of us.” Jack Osborne, Gorky Park The material world functions via creation, maintenance, and annihilation, but there are six manifestations to consider here. There are creative, security, and destructive activities; the mode governing each of these is rather obvious. There are also, within those three portfolios, inventive activities, corrupt actions, and activities constituting rejuvenation (such as art). Krishna consciousness, in its transcendental manifestation, is meant for rejuvenation, both individually and for humanity at large, viz., it is genuine spiritual life culminating in devotional ecstasy. By expert direction from the spiritual master, all of the other manifestations can be brought into the service of the Supreme Lord, but corruption cannot be dovetailed within the Krishna consciousness movement itself. Corruption perverts Krishna consciousness when it takes place within a structure that is (allegedly) promoting godly activities. Once corruption becomes endemic in such an institution, it is very, very difficult to eradicate it. As applied to the fabricated, so-called “ISKCON” confederation, this is the fallen situation now--and has been for some time. Conditioned souls have an innate tendency to fear destruction, but they usually do not feel this same way when it comes to corruption. That is a Kali yuga trait, of course, because men and women of wisdom know well that corruption is far more dangerous than annihilation. The hope against hope that increasing strife between the pro-DOM and anti-DOM forces will not have a destructive aspect to it (as the process plays out) is pure fantasy. Of course it will. It must. The Direction of Management (DOM) document has surfaced, confronting one dimension of this corruption; it challenges the validity of the current GBC simulacrum. It appears to be instigating a revolt. This fight is not in the category of a minor skirmish, however. It is about something very big connected to the rawest of raw nerve centers, viz., authority in Krishna consciousness. The issues are two-fold. One is the empowering charter of the Governing Body Commission and the procedural constitution for the GBC (DOM) detailed in it. The other issue is the principle of nullification. The discussion and struggle itself (which may or may not end up in court), includes the base fact that there is now an effort to expose and eradicate occult as well as gross corruption of a most obnoxious variety. That is very difficult to do. Exposition entails destruction, but false personality always defends itself. In other words, things are going to get nasty. The path of the easy and quick solution has already failed us before, so why buy into it again? The key consideration here is identification: Which group of devotees represents Prabhupada and Krishna? Which siddhanta represents Guru and Gauranga? There is no bloodline to Prabhupada amongst any of his initiates, but the struggle is playing out as if there were. If there are devotees connected to him in such a way that his authority is represented by them, we should be interested to discern this. Four qualities are required in order to help us understand the answer. Metanoia is Wanted "The path of spiritual realization is undoubtedly difficult.”Bhagavad-gita, 4.34, purport. “. . . but the difficulty is that our GBC men are falling victim to maya. Today I trust this GBC, and tomorrow he will fall down. That is the difficulty.”Letter to Jayatirtha, Dec. 16, 1974 “There is always an easy solution to every human problem—neat, plausible, and wrong.” H. L. Mencken If we, individually and collectively, actually want to get to the bottom of where and why things went so terribly wrong, we must first of all become sincere. Sincerity and honesty mean essentially the same thing, and both are represented by the Sanskrit word arjavam. This is one of the chief qualities of a brahmin, and, without this trait firmly in place, there will only be destruction in the end as the confrontation ensues. The historical facts of what actually went down must be honestly recognized and reported. Sincerity is integral to any real solution. Next, we must become serious. Frivolity and foppery have wormed their way into the movement at every level, including the topmost level (or, you could say, especially there). It was seriousness that spread the Krishna consciousness movement during its halcyon period of expansion in the late Sixties and early Seventies. The devotees who went out into the inimical arena in order to distribute books, collect money, conduct bhakti-yoga societies on campuses, and make new devotees had to be very serious in order to get results. What to speak of results, if they were not serious the mechanical laws at large would have instantly crushed them. Seriousness was forced upon the good devotees back in the day, and this helped to fix them up. It takes serious effort to become Krishna conscious; we must return to this. Seriousness of purpose is required in order to see just what has happened and why it has gone down. Then we come to the third essential quality: Knowledge. Jnana-vijnana-trptatma. You have to get knowledge about anything and everything connected to the Krishna consciousness movement: Knowledge of the philosophy, knowledge of the stages of development, knowledge of what constitutes guru, and knowledge of what constitutes initiation. You have to secure knowledge of what is rittvik, what constitutes a genuine governing body (including its limitations of power), knowledge of what Prabhupada has said about these things (along with all their corollaries), and knowledge of the historical facts. By pressing on with effort, such knowledge will automatically lead to the realization that is its higher octave (vijnana). This will also give the man of knowledge contentment. The fourth essential part of the formula, however, is not within the domain of the devotee to secure--at least, not on his or her own volition. It must be bestowed. By cultivating the other three qualities, chances of it being bestowed are increased--but the benediction is still not guaranteed. We must practice repentance for not having been adequately sincere, serious, and knowledgeable since the disappearance of His Divine Grace. Nothing can be guaranteed; free will is what it is, either here or in the spiritual world. This fourth component is transcendental luck, and we all sorely need it now. Manda-bhagya: We have been very unlucky since Prabhupada left us, and the result is that corruption has polluted the movement at every level, both horizontally and vertically. It is time to admit this, and there can be no garden-variety solution. After the imminent storm, it will take effort on our parts to solve the problem, dependent upon the benediction of spiritual luck. Metanoia is wanted. Miracle, Mystery, Authority, and Freedom Secretary: Should this be forced on people if they don't want
it? “The coercive forcing of people . . . to join a religious movement, to leave a religious movement, to join a political movement, to leave one—is reprehensible, destructive to human personality, and in every way evil. . . I'm strongly opposed to it. It has, of course, its parallels in the history of religions. We've had our Star Chamber and the Inquisition and so on.” Dr. Harvey Cox Briefly touched upon in the second part of this series, “The Grand Inquistor” is the fifth chapter of Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov. That chapter tells of Christ (or someone empowered like him) being arrested during the Spanish Inquisition of the Sixteenth Century. The Grand Inquisitor visits him in jail to inform him that his way is no longer that of the Church, which now gives the congregation what it wants. People were forced to convert at that time in history, and those who did not, as well as those who the inquisitors thought either insincere or inimical, were publicly burned at the stake in a warped equivalent of a joyous, ceremonial ritual. The Inquisitor says to the incarcerated one: “You may not add to what has been said of old and may not take from men the freedom which you did exalt when you were on earth. Whatsoever you reveal anew will encroach on men's freedom of faith, for it will be manifest as a miracle . . . For fifteen centuries we have been wrestling with your freedom, but now it is ended and over for good. . . let me tell you that now, today, people are more persuaded than ever that they have perfect freedom. Yet they have brought their freedom to us and laid it humbly at our feet--but that has been our doing.” We find the equivalent today all throughout the “ISKCON” movement, especially at the top rung. The leaders encourage superficial freedom and push almost everyone out into the demoniac culture. This forces them to become moneymakers, but they also think that they have thus become free. However, they are strongly urged (or admonished) to donate to the temples (and the movement leaders) some of that hard-earned wealth. They are reassured that, by doing so, they will remain good members of the Society, automatically destined to go back to Godhead. Nothing can disturb this cozy arrangement, but the DOM portends a new revelation of something that was actually established of old. The “ISKCON” leaders have all of their initiated adherents brainwashed into a kind of “best of both worlds” mentality, and these followers are grateful to them (their esteemed leaders) for removing the burden by that dispensation. As such, they (in effect) surrender their free will at the feet of those leaders, who assure them that Prabhupada nullified all the procedural constitutional mandates contained in the DOM, rendering it nothing more than an arcane affidavit of no practical or legal significance. It simply appointed an original twelve Governing Body Commissioners, that’s all. The post-modern GBC simulacrum assures the flock that introducing the DOM now would encroach upon their faith, dissembling the amazing structural arrangement bureaucratically crafted over three decades. The Inquisitor went on: “There are three powers, three powers alone, able to conquer and to hold captive forever the conscience of these impotent rebels for their happiness: Those forces are miracle, mystery, and authority. You have rejected all three and have set the example for doing so. . . you did think too highly of men therein, for they are slaves, of course, though rebellious by nature. Look round and judge; fifteen centuries have passed . . . Whom have you raised up to yourself? I swear, man is weaker and baser by nature than you have believed him! Can he do what you did? By showing him so much respect, you did, as it were, cease to feel for him. For you did ask far too much from him--you who loved him more than yourself! Respecting him less, you would have asked less of him. That would have been more like love, for his burden would have been lighter.” No one in the rank-and-file of “ISKCON” is encouraged to become a shaktyavesh avatar, but he can sometimes be allowed to wait in queue for two or three years in order to receive the no-objection-certificate. The “ISKCON” leaders have no use for anyone attaining an elevated state of realization. Instead, the oligarchy glorifies those who believe in their concoction and who thus follow them, in this way assuring that these psychological slaves will never be any threat. There seems to be great power to this GBC mystique. It is a miracle how the commission is holding Prabhupada’s movement together. It is the ultimate ecclesiastical authority now—because it says it is so. There’s a great mystery behind that, also. Its followers have had their burdens lifted. They are now on autopilot, and the thin veneer of respect they receive for their loyalty is sufficient for them. They are impotent, and they like it that way. The vitiated GBC oligarchy also likes it that way. Master of the Arcanes About a year ago, as the DOM controversy was heating up, somebody wrote a rather scholarly article the gist of which was that both the DOM and the Topmost Urgency (TU) document were nothing more than affidavits. To wit, these documents would thus have virtually no power in any court of law, because they were never directly connected to either the incorporation documents of ISKCON or its By-Laws. The TU specifically ordered the GBC to have all the ISKCON temple presidents insert the DOM into their temple By-Laws. In point of fact, not one temple president did this, although it is not clear how many of them (the temple presidents) were even informed of this fiduciary duty. In 1974, one year after the GBC was duty-bound (according to its founding charter, the DOM) to hold elections for most of its positions—another order was completely ignored by them. Prabhupada dictated and signed this urgent affidavit, the TU, that the DOM must be made part of the By-Laws. So, one would superficially conclude that both of these documents must have remained impotent vehicles, in terms of having legal teeth. Well, the Topmost Urgency document remains an affidavit, but something unexpected happened on the way to November, 1977: Practically out of the blue, the DOM was empowered. Prabhupada (at least, as far as we know) did not order this. Even more ironically, the chief man spearheading it was none other than Jayatirtha das Adhikari (“Mr. Centralization”). In Part One, we mentioned that there was an arcane factor in the DOM resurgence that could give it legal potency if the struggle ever reached the courtroom. Well, this is it. The DOM made it into two ISKCON incorporation docs, viz., into their Articles of Incorporation. This took place in 1975 and 1976. These two corporations were, and remain, legal ISKCON entities. Their official temples, i.e., the temples governed by the corporation and its Articles of Incorporation, have been continuously listed in Back to Godhead magazines, as well as at the end of the corporate ISKCON books and paperbacks (both BBT and BBT(I)). One tangential note: Both of these corporations are registered in the State of California. This state has strict injunctions concerning Articles of Incorporation. Once filed and endorsed, they cannot be changed; not one word in the endorsed Articles of Incorporation can be altered. They remain on file technically forever, as submitted and stamped. Only if the corporation is dissolved—and that is a very cumbersome, expensive, and time-consuming process—can the Articles no longer be considered the ruling documents of a (formerly) incorporated entity. Here are some of the particulars, in case you are interested. ISKCON of the Bay Area Incorporation Document with State of California; excerpt of Articles of Incorporation: FOURTH: The corporation is organized and shall be operated exclusively for the religious, charitable, literary and educational purposes, within the meaning of Section 501 (c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954, and the regulations promulgated thereunder, and particularly for the following purposes: I(i) to recognize the Founder-Acarya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, as the supreme authority in all matters of the Corporation, or Society: His personal representatives, the Governing Body Commission, as his authorized agents or executors, appointed by him according to the document Direction of Management, dated July 28, 1970. Signed by: James Immel (Jayatirtha), William Benedict (Bhakta das) and William Duryea (Bahulasva) for ISKCON of the Bay Area. Notarized on January 6, 1976 in Alameda Co., CA; endorsed/filed with March Fong Eu, the California Secretary of State, on July 6, 1976. ISKCON of California: Notarized on Nov. 5, 1975 in Los Angeles Co., CA. Endorsed/filed with March Fong Eu, the Calfornia Secretary of State on Nov. 14, 1975. Signed by: James Immel (Jayatirtha), Robert Grant (Ramesvara), and John T. West (Tulsi das). The Articles of Incorporation for these two entities were identical. All emphases added. The Illusion of the End “Therefore, God is called caitya-guru, the spiritual master within the heart. And the physical spiritual master is God's mercy. If God sees that you are sincere, He will give you a spiritual master who can give you protection. He will help you from within and without, without in the physical form of spiritual master . . .”Conversation with Desmond O’Grady, May 23, 1974 in Rome, Italy “Within the heart of every living being, the Lord Himself as the Supersoul becomes the spiritual master, and from without He becomes the spiritual master in the shape of scriptures, saints and the initiator spiritual master.”Srimad-Bhagavatam, 1.7.5, purport As we have stated previously, implementation of the DOM in and of itself is not a panacea. The DOM has been completely ignored for almost a generation; this constitutes guror-avajna. However, if this Direction of Management initiative, currently in a fledgling state, becomes DOM-inated by the rittvik camp, then everything is completely defeated. Rittvik is absurd. It is also anti-Vedic and anti-Vaishnava. Rittvik in relationship to Prabhupada permanently came to a complete termination on Nov. 15, 1977, the first day of the post-modern era in Western civilization. That is where the principle of nullification could come into play. It is an illusion to think that all the controversies and deviations will come to an end simply if the DOM, somehow or other, is reinstalled as the procedural constitution of the Governing Body Commission. There will be no end to the fratricidal war at all if rittvik is manifested by the implementation of the DOM; as a matter of fact, the strife will increase. The rittvik camp is just another version of “ISKCON,” and these two deviant cults, although at each other’s throats on superficial levels, are actually united at the penultimate and ultimate levels. At the penultimate level, they are both completely absorbed in the delusion of change, change, change according to time, place, and circumstance rationalizations. At the ultimate level, they are both powerful agents of Maya. The rittviks are pseudo-Vaishnava deviant concoctors, and Neo-Mutt consists of the traitors to His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Prabhupada. The rittviks in India (and Long Island) have already established their own shadow DOM, and they also use argument-from-results to prove to everyone that they are bona fide. Nevertheless, siddhanta is not established by the number of plates of food . . . err, “prasadam” . . . distributed according to governmental subsidy. Rittvik is constitutionally apa-siddhanta, and if it DOM-inates the current initiative—and there is already evidence that it is doing so—then whatever so-called “DOM” emerges will be fit for rejection according to the principle of nullification. That the fledgling initiative is already in the air, there is no question. Movements start like that. The hippie movement started like that. The new DOM movement is gaining some momentum, and we have to approve of it if for no other reason than, in and of itself, it is trying to reinstate the order of the spiritual master. However, if rittvik pre-DOM-inates this initiative—because the chief promulgators are seduced by numbers rather than quality—there is another subtle principle that will come into play. The GBC oligarchy has used rittvik as a whipping boy, as a foil, for two decades. If the DOM is composed of rittviks, if the DOM then convenes and approves rittvik initiations, paradoxically, the men atop the “ISKCON” pyramid will become energized and more powerful. In all likelihood, they will crush the DOM in a very short span of time. Why? Because there is an occult principle connected to this kind of thing. When a completely deviant movement is challenged by a movement that is also deviant--but adopts something provisionally transcendental--Maya arranges to give victory to the most rascal group of the two. Think about these things. “ . . . searching for something positive in something evil is an exercise in futility.” Michael Hoffman II, Judaism Discovered Epilogue “There is laughter in hell when human beings succumb once more to the temptation (to) put themselves in the place of God . . .”Denis Fahey, The Mystical Body of Christ The DOM seems to have emerged out of nowhere now, providing in an aura of anticipation. Will it overcome a momentum encrusted on top of and within the “ISKCON” movement for decades? We shall see. The vitiated GBC oligarchy actually instigated this whole mess by ignoring Prabhupada’s orders for management of his Society from the very beginning. There should have been elections held no later than the summer of 1973, but they were not convened. The cabal that tried to centralize everything in the late winter of 1972 proved that most of those men were not fit to be leaders--not in terms of what Prabhupada expected and required from them or what the Direction of Management stipulated. With today’s emergence of new By-Laws--a document that would make even a hardened Communist green with envy--weak temple presidents (who have signed on to it) can now easily be removed—or so it would appear. The current leader of the GBC transformation, which took root in the mid-Eighties, has posted a diatribe against the DOM. We shall consider the new By-Laws and that screed next month. We shall also discuss the principle of nullification at that time. In the meantime, call out the instigator, because there’s something in the air. OM TAT SAT To
Be Continued Quotes from the books of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada are copyright by the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust |
