Srila Prabhupada, His Movement & You

Jumping Over the Sampradaya Acharya

Adau shraddha sadhu sangha. They do not even exhibit faith in their spiritual master. Thus they commit guru avajña and sadhu ninda, which renders them adrift from the shelter of the spiritual master, on the sea of endless mental speculation. Thus they concoct a patchwork or smorgasbord of contradictory philosophical speculations and offer these concoctions as RAGANUGA BHAKTI, daring to say that their spiritual master (the SAMPRADAYA ACHARYA) had little time and could not teach the higher truths of bhakti. Self conceited, impudent and ungrateful, they create a mockery of the science of devotional service as it was taught by Lord Chaitanya and the six Goswamis. The Lord never discussed RAGANUGA BHAKTI, save and except for Swarup Damodar, Ramananda Raya and a select one or two other devotees. Even with Raghunath das Goswami he would not discuss rasatattva or raganuga. Raganuga is never discussed by any acharya, because unless one has actually attained the platform of bhava bhakti (preliminary to PREMA), there can be no question of RAGANUGA. We can talk of honey, but by that process we cannot get the taste. We can see the honey through the glass, but we cannot get the taste.

We find that the so-called RAGANUGA BHAKTI enthusiasts cannot or have not even come to the platform of anartha nivritti. They have no taste for namam. They have therefore not realized yet the absolute nature of the Holy Name of Krishna, form, qualities, pastimes. They give hari nama initiation, but they personally have not realized what is the Holy Name and thus have no name to give. The sign of a devotee who is actually situated in the Holy Name is he has an exclusive taste for chanting and is always absorbed and eager to chant such name uninterruptedly.

To TALK of RAGANUGA has no value, because unless one has performed the preliminary renunciation, austerity and rigid purification by perfecting his practice of sadhana bhakti up to the stage of bhava, he cannot possibly enter into the TASTE of raganuga bhakti. It will, of course, have some charm and attraction, because it appears like the male and female matters of the material world, but he will get no spiritual taste and after some time such immature dabblers in raganuga rasatattva will reject everything as worthless and waste of time and leave the spiritual endeavor altogether, like the FOX who could not reach the GRAPES by jumping and declared, “THE GRAPES WERE SOUR ANYWAY.” One may have the bottle of honey in his hand, and one may see the honey through the glass, but seeing the honey and tasting the honey are worlds apart. So hearing and speaking about raganuga rasatattva is exactly like that.

The process for removing the lid from the bottle of honey is to “have full faith in the words of the spiritual master and the Supreme Lord—to such persons all imports of Vedic knowledge are revealed.” And simply put, this means first of all do the basic preliminary TRAINING, SADHANA BHAKTI—rising early, sixteen rounds minimum, four regulative principles, and one must please the spiritual master by INQUIRY, SUBMISSION and SERVICE. If he is pleased and gives blessings, everything will come, as water comes gushing out of an Artesian well.

Such raganuga, rasatattva persons have no FAITH in their GURU, Srila Prabhupada. They have abandoned their own guru and proclaim another guru is higher. Their guru Srila Prabhupada, was inferior or incapable. So what position do such faithless ingrates hold?

As for myself, I am not independent. After a long, trying and humiliating ordeal, I have found my way back to the lotus feet of my spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada, and I intend to remain firmly fixed there, proclaiming his glories and pre-eminence over all others in the world Vaishnava community. Also, I shall do what I can to convince you and others of the ABSOLUTE necessity to surrender at the lotus feet of Srila Prabhupada, thereby having his blessings and shelter, making all into one “house the whole world can live in.”

According to Srila Prabhupada, one of his god-brothers was the cause of destruction of the Gaudiya Math, and he also planted the seeds of destruction of Srila Prabhupada’s movement when from the beginning the unsuspecting leaders of ISKCON went to him for advice regarding the GURU ISSUE. Instead of instructing ISKCON’s leaders to follow Srila Prabhupada’s explicit order, namely to act as rittviks of the Acharya (as per his July 9th, 1977 letter) and continue to INITIATE disciples on behalf of Srila Prabhupada, as they had been doing all along,, Srila Prabhupada’s god-brother fanned the fire of ambition in their hearts (ISKCON GBCs and gurus) to be gurus by advising them in a way contrary to Srila Prabhupada’s actual instructions. Thus everything is now in chaos and confusion, and this chaos and confusion will only increase with time, except for those fortunate enough to simply come back to the lotus feet of Srila Prabhupada and ADOPT the process he outlined for his disciples and those disciples they may initiate in the future.

I hope you are well.

Your humble servant,
Hansadutta das