Srila Prabhupada, His Movement & You

Leaving Prabhupada

From Bhakta das, Bangkok, Thailand
10 December 1993

Dear Rama das Prabhu (formerly Rahugana das):

Please accept my most humble obeisances at your feet. All glories to His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada!

Thank you very much for visiting my home during your very brief visit to Bangkok. I apologize for perhaps being over emotional and ask your forgiveness if I have offended you at all.

I will not attempt to change your realizations. You must follow your own heart and try to save yourself from the cycle of birth and death.

Still, I am convinced that you received the bhakti-lata-bija in an authorised way from Hansadutta Prabhu so many years back. What you received was Prabhupada’s mercy coming through him. He was potent at that time, and you know as well as I that you got a deep taste for the Holy Name. I remember dancing in the kirtan with you, and the ecstasy you felt cannot be imitated or expressed by any pretender.

Now you have taken diksha from one of Srila Prabhupada’s god-brothers, but was the necessity really there? You already had a very nice spiritual name, and you already had received all the instructions needed to fly yourself back to home. What is a new spiritual master going to give you that you have not already received from Srila Prabhupada?

I can understand the need to take association with pure devotees, to get their blessings, etc. But why take another initiation?

Does your new initiator instruct you to hear from Srila Prabhupada, to read Prabhupada’s books and follow the instructions contained therein? If so, then what new gift has he given you that you had not previously received?

After Prabhupada’s disappearance, suddenly so many god-brothers stepped forward to glorify him and utilize his disciples. Yet when Prabhupada was begging them for their help in the middle 1960’s and early 1970’s, all they could do was find fault with him and try to destroy his work and his relationship with his disciples.

In my search of all the records, I find that Prabhupada only took his disciples to live with Srila B.V. Puri Goswami in Visakhapatnam in February, 1971. prior to that, on December 12, 1970, he wrote to Srila Puri Maharaja, “You are my only god-brother who is not envious of me. This I understand by the actions of all the others.” You can look up this letter yourself. Now, you told me that others claim that Puri Maharaja is not Bhaktisiddhanta’s disciple? Why would they say this? Why do they now want to discredit another pure devotee? Had he not been a disciple of Bhaktisiddhanta Thakur, why would Srila Prabhupada address him as such? Why did Srila Prabhupada go to him and remain with him when he first left his wife in the 1950’s? To repeat these offensive words regarding Srila Puri Maharaja is quite dangerous….

… I tried to express to you my deepest desire: to see the sankirtan movement united as one, as it was in the days prior to Srila Prabhupada’s physical disappearance. For only this reason I see the great necessity of non-perfected souls giving up their position as absolute and come down to a platform of being teacher on behalf of the greatest acharya to ever step on this planet, His Divine Grace, Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. The more we give the population at large the chance to hear directly from Srila Prabhupada and to worship him directly, the faster the HARI NAMA will be established as the YUGA-DHARMA. I know this is the truth, and it is not a mental concoction based upon speculation and word jugglery. It is “reality, distinguished from illusion for the welfare of all”. I cannot change what has been realized by the grace of Prabhupada and all the Vaishnavas. It is the absolute truth. Whether anyone else chooses to accept it or not is not my concern. That is Krishna’s will. When He wants to reveal Himself and His supremely perfect devotee, then He will do it within the heart of the sincere truth seeker. It is not in my power.

I still firmly believe that you should help Hansadutta’s preaching on behalf of Srila Prabhupada. I am doing it, and I feel the flow of mercy from Srila Prabhupada increasing daily. Whether Hansadutta is well situated in sadhana or has been faithful for long enough is not a concern. He is following his vows, he has been reinstated in devotional service by the Supreme Lord and Srila Prabhupada, so who are we to have doubts? If Krishna and Prabhupada have accepted him, how can we not? As long as he preaches the message of Prabhupada on behalf of Prabhupada, what is the difficulty? He admits to being not free of false ego, as do I. But neither of us is claiming to be the savior. Only we are trying to bring others to the lotus feet of Srila Prabhupada. That is real.

What preaching mission does your new acharya have? How will you serve the sankirtan movement now?

During our talks, I heard repeatedly you use the words “I think.” These words are not the words of certainty. They are words of speculation. You are thinking about Krishna and going back to Godhead, that is very nice. But we should not speculate upon the order of the acharya. His orders are clear, and there is no room for speculation. Either we accept them, or we don’t. Prabhupada did make clear final instructions. There is not any question of it, if one reads them with an open heart, free of guru ambition. Just his leading secretaries violated his instructions and concocted their own way. That does not mean that the instruction is not valid. It still stands, and whoever follows it will at once have Prabhupada’s full mercy, which is manifested by the complete loss of interest in material enjoyment (vairagya ) and simultaneous enlightenment with perfect knowledge (vidya).

I may not be expert in expressing my realizations, but they are real and factual, and anyone who desires to live with me 24 hours a day can judge for themselves. I just say that the proof of the pudding is in the tasting, and no one who does not surrender their entire mind, body, words and heart to Srila Prabhupada will get a full understanding of Prabhupada’s message. Ye yatha mam prapadyante: “As they surrender unto Me, I reward them accordingly.”…

… Hoping this greets you in perfect health and blissful spirits, I beg to always remain,

Your well-wishing brother,
Bhakta das