Watch out for the Gaudiya Math and ISKCON GBC

Taken from: http://www.harekrsna.org/gbc/themes/gopimania.htm

Narayana Maharaja - Iskcon - Gopimania !

The Gopi Bhava Club is as we know a group of senior leaders of ISKCON who took shelter of Narayana Maharaja and sought to infiltrate ISKCON with key members who secretly took siksa and disksa from Narayana Maharaja in the eighties and early nineties. Such as Bhurijan Dasa; who was the president of the Narayana Maharaja organization, and still held a position as an ISKCON guru and GBC member.

Initially they attempted to merge into ISKCON and influence it to accept Narayana Maharaja as the next Acharya and then when that failed they attempted to spilt with ISKCON. This was headed by Tamal Krsna Goswami who failed due to having his plan revealed by devotees and so lost impetus.

Presently the Gopi Bhava Club is working behind the scenes to merge the existing members of the Narayana Maharaja Camp into ISKCON when Narayana Maharaja finally leaves his body.

The history of this deviation needs to be carefully detailed so please provide your testimonies and any evidence in your possession so that this very serious deviation can be recorded for the sake of future posterity.

Hansadutta Prabhu wrote the following paper, Gopimaini in response to reports of an attempt by Narayan Maharaja to win over ISKCON in 1993. Almost immediately after this paper was published, Tamal Krishna Gosvami and Giriraj Swami were hauled before the GBC and ordered to have nothing further to do with Narayan Maharaja. Those two backed off, but in the meantime, Narayan continued to attract disenchanted ISKCON devotees. Hansadutta dasa with introduction by Das (05-11-02)

Since that time, however, Narayan has advanced his ambitions to take over Srila Prabhupada's disciples and grand disciples and sit as Acharya in Srila Prabhupada's place. His following has grown considerably in number, and his close band of reinitiates (former disciples of Srila Prabhupada or grand disciples) have become bolder and resort to all means to recruit from within ISKCON's poorly defended walls.

We have seen that Narayan and the other Gaudiya Math "acharyas" fail to seduce the devotees who have firm faith in Srila Prabhupada and appreciation for his place in the disciplic succession as Sampradaya Acharya. Unfortunately, many newcomers to Krishna consciousness have not read Srila Prabhupada's books and do not understand what it means to be a disciple, let alone a guru, and they fall for a "spiritual master" on the basis of sentiment.

Indeed, Narayan's recruiters deliberately play on the sentiments of devotees, citing the supposed friendship between Srila Prabhupada and Narayan. Hansadutta Prabhu slices through this illusion with the one question: "TAKE SRILA PRABHUPADA OUT OF THE EQUATION, AND WHAT DO YOU HAVE?"

Before Srila Prabhupada brought Krishna to the West, no one outside India (practically) had ever heard of the Gaudiya Math, and even in India, the Gaudiya Math was in ruins, lost to obscurity--a far cry from the once prominent Vaishnava preaching mission it was in the time of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur. Immediately after Srila Bhaktisiddhanta's disappearance, the disobedient disciples fought over successorship and took it to the courts to decide. Forty years later, court cases were still going on, but in the meantime, the disciples had taken it into their own hands to name themselves acharyas. Srila Prabhupada kept himself away from these useless people, who anyway regarded him as a lowly householder. When at last Srila Prabhupada came to America, he had no help from his godbrothers; in fact they discouraged him--either with their silence or with their counsel that he should return to Vrindaban and admit failure in his mission. When Srila Prabhupada brought back his first disciples to India, he put Vrindaban on the map. It is Srila Prabhupada who gave life to Vrindaban. Before that time, Vrindaban had scarcely any trade; it was a humble little village, just one of so many thousands of pilgrimage sites. Now Vrindaban is a thriving, bustling town, the streets lined with merchants, pilgrims arriving by bus loads and train loads, and property prices have soared. Whereas Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur's once glorious Gaudiya Math had crumbled to pieces, now came Srila Prabhupada with a whole new blood line under the standard of ISKCON. Srila Prabhupada's movement brought life and prosperity to everyone in Vrindaban, materially and spiritually. It is only since the departure of Srila Prabhupada and the disintegration of the institutional ISKCON that the Gaudiya Math acharyas like Narayan have appeared on the scene, like the vultures that adorn the tops of their temples in Mathura.

Hansadutta advised us not to get all bent out of shape, and not to go out of our way to broadcast the "evils" of Narayan, because actually his teachings have no substance, and the people who flock to him are faithless, but to call attention to him would give him credibility he does not deserve. yasya deve para bhaktir, yatha-deve tatha gurau: "To those who have implicit faith in the spiritual master, all the purports of the Vedas are revealed." (Svetashvatara Upanishad 6.38) They became doubtful that Srila Prabhupada could be their spiritual master.

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur departed from this world in 1936. Of all his disciples, Srila Prabhupada was the ONE who expanded Krishna consciousness beyond the shores of India to the far reaches of the globe and brought it back again to India. A few of the godbrothers who survived Srila Prabhupada have grasped at the chance to become known by grabbing some of Srila Prabhupada's disciples and grand disciples, but they have not accomplished anything more than this.

Srila Prabhupada lit a roaring fire. Everywhere he went, everyone he met caught on fire. Fire consumes everything--the good and the bad. Those whose motivations were not pure also became drawn to the fire, and were ignited. Sometimes sparks flying from the fire fall upon dry leaves and grass nearby, and these begin to smoke, then all of a sudden burst alight. But just as quickly as they light up, they burn out. So it is with Srila Prabhupada's godbrothers--all very small in comparison to the greatness of Srila Prabhupada. They will have their five minutes of fame, but they will be undone by it, and in the end, nothing will come of them, whereas Srila Prabhupada will continue to live on, forever in his teachings and in the hearts of the devotees.

Narayan makes much of his qualifications as guru, but Srila Prabhupada spoke of himself always that he was merely the humble servant of his spiritual master, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur wrote one song called "Sri-Guru-Parampara" in which he sings the glories of the disciplic succession. He sings not of gurus, but of disciples, who regard themselves as servants of each other, and exhorts us "In this way you should properly understand this disciplic succession." Servant of the servant of the servant. Now Srila Prabhupada is no longer among us. Many of us have never seen Srila Prabhupada, or came to the movement just when he was about to depart. We have his instructions, but we also want guidance from a person who can represent Srila Prabhupada to us. Narayan claims to be that representative, Srila Prabhupada's successor. But Narayan never served Srila Prabhupada when he was present, and now he serves him by belittling him and reinitiating his disciples?

Since Srila Prabhupada's departure in 1977, so many of his disciples and grand disciples have scattered to the wind, and ISKCON has broken up. What remains is quite unlike the ISKCON that we first joined . . . when Srila Prabhupada was indisputably the Founder-Acharya, the absolute authority. The current ISKCON leaders have done away with Srila Prabhupada. All that remains is some sentiment for Srila Prabhupada; his instructions are increasingly subjected to modifications and his books are all being revised.

When the BBT brought the courtcase against Hansadutta, ISKCON GBC signed declarations saying that Srila Prabhupada had never owned the copyrights to his books, because they were "works for hire", meaning that Srila Prabhupada was a hired worker, that ISKCON supplied him with board and room, pencil and paper, typists and so forth, and whatever Srila Prabhupada wrote actually belonged to ISKCON, not to him. This was their legal argument.

We are very grateful to Hansadutta Maharaja for keeping us safe in the shelter of Srila Prabhupada. Not to say that we are surrendered--we are fallen--but he inspires us and enlivens us to want to become Krishna conscious and serve Srila Prabhupada in some way. We were very lucky to have been trained up in kirtan and devotional service under Hansadutta Maharaja.

Hope you are well. --

Your servant, Das