Devotee Writings etc.
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An Honest ISKCON Part 2 of 4
By bhakta Eric Johanson What Really Happened!?!? – A Very Tangled Web The General Pattern By now many devotees know the events that followed Srila Prabhupada’s departure. Rather than implementing just some of his common-sense guidance above (see part 1), the GBC established a dangerous pattern of merely reacting after the fact to the independent actions of the most powerful (and often most audacious) movement leaders. In many regards this has continued into the present. And by independent we very much mean that the actions were (are) often dictated by false ego ambition and desire for distinction. Because these actions sometimes do not concur with Srila Prabhupada’s…
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An Honest ISKCON Part 1 of 4
By bhakta Eric Johanson What Should Have Been Done? It’s easy to complain, but the question remains, “What should have been done by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) after the disappearance of Srila Prabhupada, especially in regard to initiating new devotees?” He certainly left instructions, some detailed, and there were the examples in the scriptures and of the previous acaryas (gurus). The greater context, however, was his desire to have what he developed maintained: “Our philosophy is perfect, and we cannot be defeated by anyone. So it is up to you to learn it and be able to present it nicely. Now you have everything,…
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Only Experts in Forming Initiation Machines
by Kailāsa Candra dāsa HARIḤ OṀ NAMAḤ If you are attracted to Kṛṣṇa consciousnessand have begun research into it,that is most commendable; however, you are only at the beginning of your search into achieving perfection. Specific manifestations of what appear to be Kṛṣṇa conscious institutions require more than general knowledge of Vaiṣṇavism. As you actually enter into this next and difficult layer, to merely know about the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement will be seen to be not good enough. The primary manifestation (or the first manifestation of the movement, so to speak), has changed from what it once was . . . and, after that, it has changed in other ways.…
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Dons of the “ISKCON” Empire
by Kailāsa Candra dāsa HARIḤ OṀ NAMAḤ evaṁ paramparā-prāptam imaṁ rājarṣayo viduḥ sa kāleneha mahatā yogo naṣṭaḥ parantapa “Having thus been received by disciplic succession, this spiritual science was understood by the self-realized kings. That great science of yoga was scattered (destroyed) in this world by the influence of time.” Lines of spiritual and devotional disciplic succession are not maintained like organized religions. They require perfect men in an unbroken line of succession in order to continue them. They can be much more easily destroyed than the organized religions of Kali-yuga. The classic example is that Lord Kṛṣṇa reveals to Arjuna on the Battlefield of Kurukṣetra…
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ISKCON Authority: Where Did It Originally Come From?
(And Where Does “ISKCON” Power Come From?) By Kailāsa Candra dāsa HARIḤ OM NAMAḤ We find the following excerpt from an important room conversation between His Divine Grace Śrila Prabhupāda and members of his Governing Body Commission at the Krishna-Balaram temple on May 28, 1977 in Vṛndāvan, India: Leading Secretary (1): The people who they give dīkṣā to, whose disciple are they? Prabhupāda: They’re his disciple. Leading Secretary (1): They’re his disciple. Prabhupāda: Who is initiating. He is grand disciple. Leading Secretary (2): Yes. Leading Secretary (1): That’s clear. Leading Secretary (2): Then, we have a question . . . Prabhupāda (interrupting): When I order, “You…
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Review of Branding Bhakti
Pranams. Jaya Srila Prabhupada! Religious studies academics are prone to the same weakness in relation to the religious institutions they examine as media organizations covering government. It becomes far too easy to trade objectivity for ease of access to official information. At worst the reporter or academic becomes “embedded” and more or less acts as the mouthpiece of the state or institution. The journalist I.F. Stone said, “All governments lie,” and religious institutions are not that different. The author of Branding Bhakti, Nicole Karapanagiotis, PhD., is also relatively young and therefore more dependent on previous scholarship on the ISKCON institution (International Society for Krishna Consciousness) which was founded in 1966.…
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Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada in the 21st Century
(How the ISKCON Institution Came to Give Up Srila Prabhupada’s Absolute Authority) by bhakta Eric Johanson yanra citte krsna-prema karaye udaya tanra vakya, kriya, mudra vijneha na bujhaya “Even the most learned man cannot understand the words, activities and symptoms of a person situated in love of Godhead.” Sri Chaitanya Charitamrita Madhya-lila 23.39 The Bona Fide Spiritual Master In order to understand what is beyond our sense observation and realize the absolute truth we require to come in contact with a person who is already intimately familiar with them. Such a person is called a spiritual master: om ajnana-timirandhasya jnananjana-salakaya caksur unmilitam yena tasmai sri-gurave namah “I offer my respectful…
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Come Back!?!
Come back to the original Krishna consciousness given by Srila Prabhupada, the only cure for the disease of repeated birth and death. “So because this disease is called bhava-roga… Bhava-roga means again and again taking birth, bhava-roga. But if we take the medicine, bhavauṣadhi. Everything is there in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Bhava-roga, the disease of repeated birth and death in the material world, and the chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra is bhavauṣadhi, the medicine to cure this bhava-roga. Bhavauṣadhāc chrotra-mano-‘bhirāmāt ka uttamaśloka-guṇānuvādāt virajyeta pumān vinā paśughnāt (SB 10.1.4).” Lecture on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 2.3.15, Los Angeles, June 1, 1972 To truly cure the disease of material life Srila Prabhupada says one must follow…
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Srila Prabhupada’s Disappearance 2021
It’s All in a Name (A poem completed on Srila Prabhupada’s disappearance day 1989) This is the age of quarrel, and that’s not hard to show. We’re unlucky, misguided and spiritually slow. Life and memory are short, the surplus seems the pain, That behind what’s called love is just material gain. But one thing is so bright that it puts the sun to shame, And that’s the absolute pleasure in the Holy Name. Because though the names in this world will all become dim The identity of God’s Name is the same as Him. Races, creeds and countries come and raise up their borders. We’re separate behind our loyal skin…
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ISKCON, ISKCON 2.0 and Beyond, Eunuch “Gurus” and What Comes After. Part 5 of 5
By Nitya Krishna dasa Spiritual Walmart & What Comes After Another current institutional catch-all, save-all device is that no one is forced to follow any particular so-called guru, but can simply engage is services directed by Srila Prabhupada, seeing him as their pre-eminent siksa guru. ISKCON institution law says as much: “ISKCON devotees shall instruct new members to take shelter of Srila Prabhupada and to receive guidance, training and assistance from those who are practically and directly instructing them in Krishna consciousness. ISKCON members shall not compel or coerce new members to accept any particular siksa or diksa guru or to take diksa initiation at any particular point in time.…
