Purity Is the Force!

Srila Prabhupada was convinced the problems within ISKCON could not be solved until every devotee was chanting sixteen rounds of the Hare Krishna mantra daily, rising early to attend the 4:30am Mangal Arati ceremony, following strictly the four regulative principles and being fully engaged 24 hours a day in serving Krishna. He was so convinced of this that he made it the prime duty of all GBC members to see in their respective zones all devotees in all temples came to this standard.

"As GBC you must see to it that the highest standards of routine work are maintained throughout all the centres, and that chanting, rising early, cleansing, and all other aspects of our regular program may not be neglected. That is our first business. GBC man should not dictate very much, simply supervise and see that the standards are maintained." (to Hansadutta, 14 Feb, 1972)

Srila Prabhupada sometimes used an analogy common in Bengal; it is said that it is better to maintain an empty barn than to keep many cows who are not giving milk. He said, therefore, that it is far better to have a few serious devotees than to have many neophyte devotees.

The GBC members, for one reason or another, didn’t make a serious attempt to encourage devotees to come to the standard Srila Prabhupada required and, as a result, the problems within ISKCON were never solved. They just became worse.

Currently ISKCON is not presenting Krishna consciousness in a pure way, and it is certainly not representing Srila Prabhupada’s dynamic preaching mood and great compassion for the fallen conditioned souls. The movement has been contaminated with the poison of Mayavadi philosophy introduced in 1970 to such an extent that most ISKCON devotees today have either never tasted the transcendental ecstasy of serving Krishna or they have forgotten what it is like. ISKCON has become an organization of the cheaters and the cheated who are trying to exploit each other for sense gratification, both gross and subtle. Still, a few sincere young people join the movement after reading Srila Prabhupada’s books, but they are soon contaminated by the poisonous atmosphere and generally either leave or become materialists within ISKCON hankering after position, fame, power, profit, etc.

ISKCON is misrepresenting Srila Prabhupada and Krishna and it is doing great damage. ISKCON has become a mundane organization exploiting the public and the devotees by collecting funds and utilizing them for eating and sleeping under the plea of serving Srila Prabhupada and Krishna. This is a great pity as everybody is suffering and rotting in this world simply due to a lack of Krishna consciousness. Because ISKCON is currently unable to deliver Krishna consciousness there is little hope for the suffering world at the moment.

"I do not wish to discuss about the activities of my godbrothers, but it is a fact that they have no life for preaching work. All are satisfied with a place for residence in the name of a temple, they engage disciples to get foodstuffs by transcendental devices and eat and sleep. "They have no idea or brain how to broadcast the cult of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. My Guru Maharaja used to lament many times for this reason and he thought that if one man at least had understood the principle of preaching then his mission would achieve success. In the later days of my Guru Maharaja he was very disturbed. Actually, he left this world earlier, otherwise he would have continued to live for many years. "Still he requested his disciples to form a strong governing body for preaching the cult of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. He never recommended anyone to be acarya of the Gaudiya Math. But Sridhara Maharaja is responsible for disobeying this order of Guru Maharaja, and he and two others who are already dead unnecessarily thought there must be one acarya. If Guru Maharaja could have seen someone who was qualified at that time to be acarya he would have mentioned. Because on the night before he passed away he talked of so many things, but never mentioned an acarya. "His idea was that acarya was not to be nominated amongst the governing body. He said openly that you make a GBC and conduct the mission. So his idea was that amongst the members of the GBC who would be successful a self-effulgent acarya would be automatically selected.

"So Sridhara Maharaja and his two associate gentlemen unauthorizedly selected one acarya and later on it proved to be a failure. The result is that now everyone is claiming to be acarya even though they may be kanistha adihikary with no ability to preach. In some of the camps the acarya is being changed three times a year. Therefore we may not commit the same mistake in our ISKCON camp.

"Actually amongst my godbrothers no one is qualified to become acarya. So it is better not to mix with my godbrothers very intimately because instead of inspiring our students and disciples they may sometimes pollute them... They cannot help us in our movement, but they are very competent to harm our natural progress." (to Rupanuga 28 Apr, 1974)

Srila Prabhupada said we need devotees like Prahlada Maharaja to defeat the demonic, Mayavadi mentality in ISKCON. Therefore it is our responsibility to Srila Prabhupada to take Krishna consciousness very seriously, avoid poisonous association, chant the Hare Krishna maha mantra and read Srila Prabhupada’s books incessantly and simultaneously distribute Srila Prabhupada’s books and preach Krishna consciousness loudly all over the world. If we do this to the best of our ability we will please Srila Prabhupada and get his mercy.

All glories to His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada who has come to the Western countries to defeat the philosophies of impersonalism and voidism and in their place establish pure devotional service to Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.