ANALYZING EVERY JUSTIFICATION FOR THOSE OFFENSES

At the feet of Prabhu how can I offend the Vaiṣṇavas, who are His very heart?

 

nitāiyer caraṇa satya, tāhāra sevaka nitya
(Nitāi Pada Kamala, 4, Śrīla Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura)

 

“The lotus feet of Lord Nityānanda are eternal truth, and His servants are eternally present at His lotus feet.”

 

All Glories to Sri Sri Guru-Gauranga!

 

Why did we decide to create this section?

 

As you may know, one of the very sensitive issues afflicting the entire Gaudiya Samaj is the ongoing spread of criticism and offenses against Gaudiya Math and Gaudiya Math sadhus.

 

Srila Swami Maharaj, the Founder Acharya of ISKCON, in the later period of his life, unfortunately, criticized, insulted and defamed—through private letters, public and private talks, speeches, and his books—many sādhus of the Sarasvat Gauḍīya Sampradāya. Some of his statements are directed at all of his Godbrothers—such as ‘they are all śūdras by quality’, ‘they are not even human beings,’ ‘none of my Godbrothers is qualified to become ācārya’, ‘useless’, envious’, ‘failure’, and many others—while some are more personal. He also criticized the institution of his own Gurudeva (?), Gauḍīya Maṭha. To get more information about these remarks, please consult:

​​

​​​

​​​

​

So, all this contamination is now widely spread—both directly in the books, which are distributed in millions of copies throughout the world, including academic institutions, and online through various platforms.

 

For all Gauḍīya devotees who have a strong relationship with our beloved Guruvarga, and who are the true well-wishers of the conditioned souls, it is a source of deep pain to witness the current situation, which has arisen due to these severe offenses being committed, spread, and preserved.

 

Therefore, it is a standing commitment of Srila Baba Maharaj to dedicate his life to re-establish the glories of the Gauḍīya Maṭha sādhus and of the Gauḍīya Maṭha itself (the Gauḍīya Mission), which was invited by The Prabhupāda to come down from aprakṛta-jagat into this material world for the absolute benefit of all living beings.

​

Even though Śrīla Bābā Mahārāja has written numerous articles and delivered many Harikathās addressing this issue, still, the same questions keep coming over and over again.

​​

So, in this section we categorized all the answers to the different arguments and questions received from all of you, and presented them in a structured way: you will find everything brought together in one place.

 

We close this introduction with the following words of Gauḍīya Goṣṭhī Pati Śrī Śrīla Bhakti Siddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda:

"Do not try to discover the nature of truth by the exercise of your imagination. Do not endeavour to attain the truth through experience of this world. Do not try to manufacture truth in order to satisfy your erring inclinations, or hastily accept anything for the reason that it satisfies such inclinations. Do not regard as truth anything that has been "built up" or has the support of a majority of people like yourself, nor as untruth anything that is rejected by the overwhelming majority. According to the scriptures there will be found hardly one in a crore of human beings who really worships the truth. What is proclaimed by the united voices of all the people of this world as truth may turn out to be false. Therefore, cease to confront the truth in a challenging mood. The truth is not brought into existence by such arrogance. One has to approach the truth in the spirit of absolute submission. It is necessary to listen to truth. Truth is self-revealing, and only when it is pleased to reveal itself can its actual nature be known to us, and not otherwise."

(Lecture, 1926: Gaudiya 15.342; Nadia Prakash, 12.276.1127)

 

Gaura Hari Haribol