Srila Prabhupada, His Movement & You

Falldown of the Gaudiya Math

In a lecture given on Chaitanya-charitamrita, 19 April 1967, Srila Prabhupada unmistakably rejects the appointment of successor acharyas:

Because, in our mission, my spiritual master never designated anybody acharya.

In 1969, Srila Prabhupada sent the following letter to one of his godbrothers:

I have also read specifically your articles on the matter of acharyas, wherein on the 14th Paragraph I see the acharya shall be entitled to nominate in writing his successive acharya. But we do not find any record where our Srila Prabhupada nominated any acharya after Him. Different persons have interpreted on this point, and every one of our godbrothers is acting as acharya, so this is a controversial point which I do not wish to enter into while we are proposing for co-operation.

And in 1974, Srila Prabhupada reiterates that his own spiritual master, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur, never appointed any disciple(s) to succeed him:

He did not instruct a particular man to become the next acharya, but just after his passing away, his leading secretaries made plans without authority to occupy the post of acharya, and they split into two factions over who the next acharya would be. Consequently both factions were asara, or useless, because they had no authority, having disobeyed the order of the spiritual master. (Chaitanya-charitamrita, Adi-lila, Volume Three (1st paragraph of p. 5)

Srila Prabhupada warned his disciples not to repeat the mistake of the Gaudiya Math and concoct an order which the spiritual master in fact never gave:

He [Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Goswami Maharaja] never recommended anyone to be acharya of the Gaudiya Math…. If Guru Maharaja could have seen someone who was qualified at that time to be acharya, he would have mentioned. Because on the night before he passed away he talked of so many things, but never mentioned an acharya….. Therefore we may not commit the same mistake in our ISKCON camp. (Srila Prabhupada’s letter to Rupanuga dasa, dated April 28, 1974)

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