His Divine Grace in Krishna Culture

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The latest catalogue from Krishna Culture arrived recently, sent from their offices in Texas. Also known as Art & Culture, this impressive catalogue is run by a disciple of an ISKCON ex-“zonal acharya” of well-known past and of dubious future. The Krishna Culture catalogue contains an interesting mix of devotional literature, spiritual paraphernalia and books written by devotees and non-devotees, some good, some terrible. Mixed in with the bona fide stuff is a not-so-well disguised potpourri of quasi-Vedic hodge-podge, new age mumbo jumbo, yoga for physical rewards, mental speculation as well as books right out of the insipid school of mayavadism.

Pavan’s Press believes that vending non-devotional items in a catalogue that calls itself “Krishna Culture” is simply counter-productive to the cause of Krishna consciousness. If there is a need to vend non-devotional literature and paraphernalia on the part of Krishna Culture, we find ourselves wondering if the genuine articles in the catalogue are there to attract devotees to the false philosophies that reek of mayavadism. Why would bogus literatures be placed on equal footing with those scribed by a direct representative of Shrila Vyasadeva?

For the sake of my three readers, honesty demands that I make a confession. Krishna Culture told me a couple of years back that the catalogue’s selection would not include my own book Motorcycle Yoga because “devotees wouldn’t buy it.”

Hmmm, I haven’t seen too many devotees worshipping Sai Baba, either. And “Krishna Culture” carries among their “Devotional Statues” (would Prabhupada ever use this offensive terminology?) section, images of Sai Baba seated next to Shrila Prabhupada, who is positioned on the page under a “statue” of Buddha. Further, Krishna Culture identifies Shrila Prabhupada as “A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami”, which is a highly inappropriate over-familiarization with the spiritual master.

And, incidentally, my book Motorcycle Yoga is indeed a repository of progressively advancing Vaishnava thought all wrapped up in a series of very slow motorcycle rides. Motorcycle Yoga is Krishna conscious pure and simple aimed at preaching to a huge, previously-untapped group of non-devotees.

Motorcycle Yoga seeks to convey through the media of true roadside adventures the devotee’s all-encompassing vision of the Lord as the constant companion along the solitary roads of life. Sure, Motorcycle Yoga may be accused of being a big vague at times, but that is understandable considering the audience for whom it was written. It is aimed at an audience that wants to come to its own conclusions after examining the facts. It stands as an example of the softest type of preaching, yet it gives the philosophy in a straight-forward way without compromise. Motorcycle Yoga discusses hundreds of aspects of Krishna consciousness, or the eternal Vedic culture that is the birthright of every part and parcel of Lord Shri Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. For the Krishna conscious rider, Krishna is there around every turn of the road.

From Motorcycle Yoga: “My Guru Maharaja, a Vaishnava who left this world in Vrindavana in 1977, did not deny that the all-transcendent Supreme Lord is the source of the brahmajyoti or ‘white light.’ He urged his disciples to go beyond merely merging with that spiritual light to the lotus feet of the Person Godhead. Above the act of merging the self into an ocean of light is discovering our eternal and reciprocal relationship with the Supreme Lord based upon our willingness to serve Him.”—Motorcycle Yoga p. 57

It is arrogance of egoism alone that keeps the living entity aloof from the instructions of Lord Krishna’s pure devotee. Do those who miss this opportunity of escaping material encumbrances through offending the pure devotee have a prayer of salvation? If Krishna Culture feels that words such as the quote above from Motorcycle Yoga are something “devotees won’t read,” then we wonder if they’ll take out a moment to ponder over the bona fides of this quote from the Lawbook of Manu:

“That disciple who offends his Guru Maharaja becomes an insect in his next life, a member of the larger species.” (Shri Manu Samhita)

The Discovery Channel is having a special on dung beetles of Africa, so those “disciples” who think that the path of Krishna Consciousness as a cheap catalogue item may tune in and learn about the mom and pop of their next lives! He who offends his guru has the choice of either learning to enjoy an armor-plated beetle body in the jungle of his next life, or learn here and now just how respect is properly offered at the lotus feet of a genuine pure devotee of the supremely powerful Lord Shri Krishna. As Shrila Prabhupada used to continually counsel his disciples, “Be very careful, you are dealing with Krishna.”

Would Motorcycle Yoga’s position as persona non grata at Krishna Culture have anything to do with my telephone call years back to them explaining that their catalogue had begun carrying texts influenced by Mayavada alongside Shrila Prabhupada’s pure Vaishnava literatures? “Oh, that is just astrology,” the company’s owner told me.

History verifies that Shrila Prabhupada alone created the interest in true Vedic culture and the sankirtan movement in the Western World. Real knowledge of Mahaprabhu’s divine path to transcendence did not exist here in the Western Hemisphere until His Divine Grace stepped off the good ship Jaladutta in Boston. Yet by refusing to acknowledge the spiritual master’s position as fully meriting the title “His Divine Grace,” the Krishna Culture Catalogue makes it appear as though our perfected Shrila Acharyadeva Shrila Prabhupada was just one amongst any number of other “masters,” yogis and “mystics” whose books are sold on equal footing with the genuine shastra of Guru Maharaja.

Pavan’s Press does not suggest that the baby be thrown out with the bath water. To rectify their offenses, future Krishna Culture catalogues should display a full page photo of Shrila Prabhupada as a “frontispiece” in each issue. Prabhupada’s books should be grouped together in the front of the catalogue out of respect for the true selfless pioneer who brought Krishna Consciousness to the west on the order of his own spiritual master. As well, all non-sampradayic literatures which will certainly confuse neophyte devotees should be removed from the pages of Krishna Culture. Books written by so-called “devotees” who do not explain the identity of the Supreme Personality of Godhead but rather wish to be known as famous authors who have learned to become expert at rewriting retellings they’ve read or heard and those books that do not reveal the living entity’s duty as servant of God, must be eliminated as worthless. Neither will calling the catalogue Art & Culture free the Krishna Culture folks from the devotee’s responsibility of accurately representing the path of Krishna consciousness as prescribed by Shrila Prabhupada. As is the duty of all Gaudiya Vaishnava literature, the Krishna Culture catalogue must be focused upon preaching the absolute necessity of public chanting of the holy names of God and going back to home, back to Godhead. Otherwise it will be nothing but a useless for-profit endeavor resulting in further material entanglement—more entanglement, and not the liberation of Krishna consciousness that the Founder-Acharya of ISKCON gave out so freely, the real purpose of a catalogue that prides itself upon the culture of Bhagavad Gita, the Culture of Krishna.

To look at the culture of Krishna, just see from the KRSNA Book how the Lord loved repaying His beloved Guru Maharaja Sandipani Muni. Or the Supreme Lord Chaitanya’s ecstasy in service to His Guru Maharaja Ishwara Puri. Or the great devotion that Shrila Prabhupada had for his own Shrila Prabhupada by coming West, alone, aged and penniless, and then changing the history of the Earth as the lightning rod for the next Sattwa Yuga.

Our beloved spiritual master, His Divine Grace Shrila Prabhupada, would never approve of members of ISKCON dealing in the murtis of unauthorized panths (temporary disciplic lines) not philosophically aligned with our own sampradaya.

The ex-zonal acharya who initiated the businessman and owner of Krishna Culture (and whose rambling musings are sold therein) knows this very well. Apparently he applies a different set of rules to his Godbrothers who are preaching Krishna consciousness, than to his own “disciples” who, like him, write useless, offensive books and send out misleading catalogues. Why these offenses at Krishna Culture have been going on for a number of years under the noses of the GBC without a whimper of protest raised at their elitist yearly summits is not so hard to understand once a cursory look at the track record of ISKCON’s so-called gurus and acharyas is scrutinized. Some Godbrothers have left a very pathetic legacy indeed, one that was based upon a small group of ordinary men trying to become equal with the shaktyavesh-avatar. Neither by rubber stamping another group of ordinary men as “gurus” will the day be saved. The tact of creating new less powerful gurus in the face of those who leave the mission only serves to exacerbate the problems. A house should not be constructed upon a sandy foundation in a flood zone.

But for those who have been left adrift in the sea of confused gurus, there is hope in sight. As Prabhupada used to say, “Anyone who reads and follows my books is initiated.”

Indeed, the followers of the particular mystic yogi whose “devotional statue” is depicted with Prabhupada in Krishna Culture generally worship him not for the blessings of the Divine Name or bhakti-yoga, but for cars, houses, wealth, etc. It is quite simple common sense that to indiscriminately sell the murtis and writings of non-sampradayic swamis and mystics only opens the door to impersonalism for our neophyte devotees. Also, it is general Vaishnava etiquette for any disciple to never and under any circumstances place some other swami’s image or murti, whether in the form of ink and paper, brass, wood, jewels, pancha-dhatu, etc., above or alongside one’s own Guru Maharaja or Grand Guru Maharaja.

The disciple’s true and righteous duty begins with full-fledged self-surrender at the holy lotus feet of his Guru Maharaja. For the disciple, the guru is the all-and-all. Period. What Krishna Culture engages in is nothing less than a blasphemy tolerated by an impotent body that has itself failed to understand the basic tenets of Krishna consciousness.

Sitting at Shrila Prabhupada’s lotus feet decades ago, I used to wonder at how the soles Prabhupada’s beautiful feet were actually the color of a reddish lotus or inside of a conch shell. The color on Prabhupada’s lotus feet denoted all that is auspicious, spreading over us the warmth of divine protection from a hostile world. Any catalogue that purports to represent “Krishna Culture” must offer homage to those two lotus feet of Shrila Prabhupada, and beg forgiveness for the neglect carried on for so many years under the noses of ex-zonal so-called “gurus” and “acharyas”.

The greatest mistake for the devotee is to doubt the word of his Guru Maharaja, who is none other than the divine grace of God in apparent human embodiment. So I am openly asking Krishna Culture to ponder this: Prabhupada said, “When Krishna Consciousness is perfect, is there any need to add anything?”

While I should expect ISKCON’s swamis, presidents, gurus, ministers, GBCs, teachers, New Age counselors, past life regressors, psychological advisers, Vedic astrologers and other highly-placed souls opening their hundreds and hundreds of collective mouths to protest this direct offense at the lotus feet of His Divine Grace, I hear only the deafening roar of silence, and this is plenty dismaying. It is the policy at Pavan’s to avoid unnecessary confrontations, but it is the duty of a true disciple to defend his Guru Maharaja from offensive on all fronts, from within and without the camp.

Devotees of ISKCON should insist that from now on the Krishna Culture catalogue must write “His Divine Grace” before the name of author of the Bhagavad Gita As It Is, Nectar of Devotion, etc. Also neither Prabhupada’s divine murti, nor his books should be lumped in with others. The spiritual master must be respected, and the new devotees must not be misled. The “ex-zonal acharya” who initiated the founder of Krishna Culture has allowed a potpourri of offenses to fester in the name of Krishna Culture. A public apology for the offenses that he has allowed his “disciples” to commit must be forthcoming as well as a general housecleaning at the catalogue.

Today, the matter of “zonal acharyism” may have been swept under the rug by the God Brother Council, who bring up the subject with poorly-concealed longing for their good old days when they were absolute and adored upon their thrones installed in the very house of the Guru Maharaja. Some have admitted that the acceptance of the Vyasa Asan in the house of the Guru was a grave offense, one for which a little much-needed atonement has been sorely lacking. Pavan’s Press shall not attempt to preach to a King Paundraka who seats himself upon the master’s Vyas Asan, for this would be either preaching to a plank of wood or to a dead body that has been strangled by its own asphyxiating offenses to a pure devotee. The closed ears of the arrogant destroyers ride with a cavalier spirit. Frankly, when a person who once printed letterhead calling himself “the Acharya of ISKCON” allows Prabhupada to be disgraced in his own “disciple’s” catalogue, I have to wonder where truth and leadership are to be found anymore. It’s a total disgrace to all the good work of Shrila Prabhupada to lump Bhagavad Gita As It Is, a book that fights Mayavidism as hard as Arjuna himself fought on Kurukshetra, with quasi-spiritual nonsense apashastras by “masters” discussing “Krishna conscious mice,” “the goddess within” and other suchlike rubbish.

The Editor of Pavan’s Press may be a mere householder, but he is a steady one because of a sincere faith in the dharma of duties and in sanatan-dharma, the eternal duty. The grihastha ashram is also sacred because it, too, is goes without saying that it too is an ashram, as much as brahmachari or sannyasa ashram. An ashram, that is, as long as the husband and wife are faithful to the tenets of the ashram. That wife who is true to her vow as a dharma-patni does not deserve abandonment to the wolves. Protection of the wife, daughter, mother, etc. is a sacred duty of men. Today, however sinful men slaughter their mothers in the McAbatoirs and Murder Kings. And what they do to the cows, they likewise do to their own womenfolk through seduction into illicit sex, another grave social evil and sin. As members of the grihasta ashram, we are also part and parcel of Prabhupada’s plan for world Krishna consciousness. To put this into focus, an imperfect execution of grihastha ashram, one that is sincerely dedicated before the lotus feet of Guru and Gauranga, is superior to making a show of the renounced order of life by becoming a sexy swami in the saffron dress of sannyasa-ashram. We are all entitled to preach; rather, it is our duty to speak the truth, but preaching Krishna consciousness should be free from a desire to be worshipped while committing offenses upon the strength of the holy name.

Feigning freedom from desire and then engaging in sexual intercourse with various married women “disciples,” as has been repeatedly performed by dozens of ISKCON’s so-called swamis and gurus is not only a personal disgrace, but a deliberate means of allowing criticism of our pure devotee spiritual master whose example was ever above approach. While one hundred disgraced men of the cloth have fizzled out without a whimper, the Krishna Culture continues to roll off the printing press still. “Sannyasis” enjoying illicit sex have allowed terrible offenses to run rampant within the Krishna camp. Guru Maharaja, whose desires were aimed at our salvation alone, left this world without making footprints, yet he left behind the biggest footprint ever made in the Western Hemisphere. How can Krishna Culture and the impotent body that oversees ISKCON continue to offend His Divine Grace in this way?

Even though I am the most fallen of all, a mere householder accused of being a grihamedhi as discussed above, I cannot remain silent, for the line must be drawn when it comes to direct insults at the lotus feet of our Guru Maharaja, His Divine Grace Shrila Prabhupada, by those who pretend to be his disciples and grand-disciples. Once again: Remember, Prabhus, there was no Gaudiya Vaishnavism in Europe, neither in North or South America, nor in any part of Europe or even in India’s neighbor, the Soviet Union, until Shrila Prabhupada stepped off the Jaladutta. Trying to minimize Shrila Prabhupada’s place as the Founder-Acharya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness is the greatest rascaldom:

“Just as a man walking on the beach can tolerate the burning Sun on his head, but cannot bear the scorching sand against the soles of his feet, so Lord Shri Krishna tolerates an offense to Himself. But the Supreme Personality of Godhead cannot tolerate any offense whatsoever to His pure devotee.”—Shrimad Bhagavatam

The spiritual master is the life and soul of the disciple. It was Shrila Prabhupada who taught each of us, his devotees, through his every thought, word and deed; how a disciple must respect his own guru and guide. The spiritual master is nothing less than a sturdy rope-ladder out of the cold, swirling whirlpool of maya. The Guru Maharaja is the vessel across the great sea of samsara. He is the highway to heaven, the path to liberation, the personal friend of Krishna who can certainly obtain tickets for us on the Back to Godhead Express through the power of the mahamantra:

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

In 1967 when Shrila Prabhupada was planning the cover of the MacMillan edition of Bhagavad Gita As It Is with Brahmananada Prabhu, he told Brahmananada to print his name on the cover thusly: “His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Founder-Acharya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness.” And from then on, this is how the blessed name of our Guru Maharaja appeared on the cover of every subsequent book published by the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust. As disciples, our only duty is to follow the single-minded will of the pure devotee, whose mind is constantly focused upon the lotus feet of the Lord. That is the duty of parampara, to obey the spiritual master and not concoct some unnecessary novelty like a Krishna conscious mouse that makes a joke out of dharma.

It is not that just ordinary man can put on saffron and wear the title “His Divine Grace.” Shrila Prabhupada talked the talk because he walked the walk. Unless one is a pure devotee, he must not accept such titles as “His Divine Grace” or “Zonal Acharya (?)” for the pleasure of his own sense gratification. Or he will be doomed to face horrible repercussions as offenses mount on top of each other due to the egoism and vanity worn by a false renunciate “writer/artist.” Prabhupada was known as “His Divine Grace” because he was indeed a pure ray of divine grace. Let not ordinary men try to duplicate his feats prematurely, but let them one and all honor our Guru Maharaja’s contribution of introducing the sankirtan movement to the Western World, by continuing to spread the chanting of:

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

Prabhupada knew well how to separate the posers from the genuine devotees. He taught us that a true mahatma is one whose every breath is dedicated to inhaling and exhaling the divine name of Krishna. One who accepts this title “His Divine Grace” must be pure in every thought, word and deed—as demonstrated by Shrila Prabhupada. He must never allow his mind to dwell on objects of the senses as personified by the illusory form of the woman’s body in this mundane jagat, a place of continuous attraction and repulsion. A towering post based upon a false platform can only lead to a top-heavy fall-down. These are the “relative worlds,” and only those who have their heads buried in the lotus stems at Krishna’s lotus feet can escape maya’s steamroller of attraction and repulsion. Those who pretend to have achieved the platform of the paramhamsa while thinking like a turkey on Thanksgiving may face serious repercussions due to their public deception.

Over the years we have come to realize the boldness and courage shown by His Divine Grace Shrila Prabhupada when he took a pen into his lotus hand and wrote “His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.” The poet may contemplate whatever became of that pen. If only I had that pen, how I would worship it as though it was the very tusk instrument that Lord Ganeshji used to scribe Mahabharata under dictation from Shrila Veda Vyasadeva. His Divine Grace was (is) a ray of Vishnu and he was introducing himself with straight-forward honesty and without any sense of material attachment to name, fame, fortune egoism, etc.—unlike those amongst us who wanted the benefits of the post without earning them, as did our beloved spiritual master.

In summary, there is no doubt that our Shrila Prabhupada was indeed “His Divine Grace” because no other sage in the Western World—in the five centuries since the Divine Appearance of Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu—brought West the illuminating philosophy of the power of the holy names of God. For the only panacea for Kali’s dark age, by the will the Supreme Lord Shri Krishna, is the Back to Godhead treatment brought by Dr. Prabhupada, the constant recitation of:

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

Sure, anybody can rip off an honorific title. If there are degree mills from where you can purchase Post Graduate degrees, then there are churches that will sell you your very own certificates of divinity and sainthood. But when it comes to insulting Krishna’s pure devotees through foolish imitation and minimization of his own potency to enhance one’s own, the subtle laws are very strict.

In Old Bombay I once was accosted by a crazy American “yogi” who claimed to have the world’s highest initiation. His very name rhymed in chaste Sanskrit, a name-poem consisting of so many prestige titles that he needed a four-sided business card with which to sing and broadcast his own glories. This American chanted like a Vedic mantra the many verses of his own “sacred name.” Sacred, that is, in the sense of the ahangrahopasana, “an ordinary man who worships himself in a vainglorious attempt to imitate a real acharya.”

Yet, worse than such guru-posing; whether within or without ISKCON, is a deliberately false representation of the pure and original message of Krishna consciousness that Shrila Prabhupada gave us. Naturally, one cannot preach with potency in Krishna consciousness without full surrender unto the holy lotus feet of the Spiritual Master. One thousand times have we witnessed with no glee whatsoever the loathsome fate that has befallen the spiritual pretenders. He who without due qualifications usurps the gadhi of an acharya—especially the acharya of the Age—who is not only a paramhamsa but who is also an intimate associate of the Supreme Lord, sends himself and his followers to hell. This fate should be avoided by those who are sincere about spiritual life.

But there is salvation for those who having been misled astray wish to come back to Shrila Prabhupada. At any time we may crack open His Divine Grace’s supreme instructions and submit ourselves to the shower of life-saving mercy that overflow from his divine writings. Prabhupada was strongly in possession of a rare planetary combination (graha-yoga) that grants a sort of multi-generational power of mysticism down through seeming generations of the sampradaya. For the faithful the living guru is the lifeblood of his very existence, and the Guru Maharaja remains forever in his instructions. This is the most confidential of all realized wisdom.

Even today anyone who wholeheartedly and without guile surrenders to the airtight instructions of His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada becomes his disciple, achieves liberation in this lifetime and goes back to home, back to Godhead, back to Krishna consciousness, the final goal. This may not be true of other so-called “gurus” of lesser potency. But it is our personal realization that Prabhupada still lives with us if only we can make the effort to reach him. For the guru and his message are both eternal. And to “link up” with that message we must take it “as it is” without pretension or offenses.

Patita Pavana das Adhikary
Editor, Pavan’s Press

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