HE WAS A MAHABHAGAVAT, THEREFORE HE CANNOT MAKE ANY MISTAKE (?)
Part 2 – Guru Nistha, Nama Nistha, Sampradaya Nistha
Now, let’s discuss another aspect of the character of a pure devotee: A Mahabhagavata is decorated with guru-nistha, nama-nistha, and sampradaya nistha (he has unflinching and absolute faith in his Gurudeva, in Harinama Prabhu, and in his Sampradaya).
Our seventh Gosvāmī Śrīla Saccidananda Bhaktivinod Ṭhākura used to say that— “A path cannot be manufactured. Whatever path is there should be accepted by sadhus. Those who are proud and want fame try vigorously to discover new paths. Those who have good fortune from past lives give up pride and respect the established path. Those who are unfortunate walk on a new path and thus cheat the world.”
(Excerpt from ‘The Harmonist’ or ‘Sajjan Toshani’)
Śrīla Saccidananda Bhaktivinod Ṭhākura also quote the following— “Unfortunately, we love to read our own writing or the writing of some new modern authors. But when we deeply absorb ourselves in the compositions of the mahājanas, we no longer like the modern compositions. The point is that we think we can compose better than the mahājanas, but when this illusion is destroyed we no longer like the modern compositions. Great personalities and poets are not always coming to the material world. They are rare. Therefore, it is very difficult to find great poets after Jayadev Goswami and Sri Rupa Goswami. Only when some recipients of Sri Krishna’s mercy appear in this world will we again see books like Śrī Gīta-govinda and Śrī Bhāgavatāmṛta. To feel happy by reading the work of modern authors and poets is like imagining one is relishing milk by drinking buttermilk because there is an absence of milk. We do not find any writing sweeter than the writing of the mahājanas.”
— Śrī Sajjana-toṣaṇī 10.5, quoted in Śrī Bhaktivinoda Vāṇī Vaibhava, chapter 39
All our great Gauḍīya guru-varga such as Śrīla Bhakti Pramod Puri Gosvāmī Maharaj, Śrīla Bhakti Rakshak Śrīdhar Gosvāmī Maharaj, Śrīla Bhakti Prajnana Kesava Gosvāmī Maharaj, Śrīla Sadananda Svami etc. they all told that— “First of all we must realize that our very existence is to be totally subservient to the teachings given by Śrīla Prabhupāda and Śrīla Bhaktivinod Ṭhākura, who are pure devotees of Śrī Gaurasundara—it is only then that all the darkness and fog of illusion will be vanished like a momentary storm. One thing is sure that by rejecting this advice, one will only learn enmity towards those pure devotees by finding all kind of faults in their pure and divine character. Everything in our spiritual life depends on how much love and strong belief we have in our sampradāya. If we are not always ready to point out our previous ācāryas, our Gauḍīya guru-varga, then slowly slowly all the vitals of our bhajana life will dry up. It is only when one’s roots regarding guru niṣṭhā and sampradāya niṣṭhā have grown so deep that one’s heart will be touched by the actual kṛpā of Śrī Gaura and only then one will be inspired to know where the transcendental abode is and one can determine whose abode it is; one will believe the words of the pure devotees and understand what the atheistic Māyāvādīs say about Gaura and guru-varga.”
“The Vaiṣṇava Philosophy has spoken about true wisdom. True wisdom is not subject to an attack from any rival camp like the changeable and fluctuating knowledge of the empiricists; this is the special feature of the Vaiṣṇava Philosophy. The philosophies that have been, are being and will be built on the foundation of empiricism and will be abandoned, enlarged and altered along with the increase and decrease of experience. Before the civilization five-thousand years old, the three-thousand-year-old civilisation is imperfect; and the seven-thousand-year-old one is more enlarged; and in ten thousand years it will be still further changed and enlarged. The Vaiṣṇava Philosophy built, as it is, upon the strong unalterable foundation, of true and perfect wisdom is not fit for change and reformation through scuffling and disputes even like the foot-ball being kicked to and fro.”
(Excerpt from The Harmonist or Sajjan Toshani)
Śrīla Baba Maharaj also many times told that— “Those devotees who all neglect the writings of The Prabhupāda, and try to spend their time creating their own imaginative philosophies and claim those to be perfect siddhānta vichars, they all can be sooner or later get afflicted by enviousness and in that way can start to criticize those pure Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavas (it is quite natural).
We can understand from the above quotations that a genuine Sad-Guru-Vaishnava will always stick to the exact same teachings given by his own Gurudeva and Guru-varga—without even an inch of deviation. In this way, we guarantee that the same teachings given by Chaitanya Deva Himself are to be passed on generation after generation. This is called śrauta-panthā, and this is the utility of our Guruparampara:
śruto ’nupaṭhito dhyāta
ādṛto vānumoditaḥ
sadyaḥ punāti sad-dharmo
deva-viśva-druho ’pi hi (ŚB 11.2.12)
“The bhagavat-dharma is so excellent and powerful that simply by hearing or reciting It in the same way of śrauta-panthā, can purify all those fallen souls.”
Gauḍīya Goṣṭhīpati Śrī Śrīla Bhakti Siddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Thākura Prabhupāda Paramhamsa Jagadguru very often used to say that— “Harikatha is that aprākṛta vāṇī which is only coming out of the lotus mouth of those pure devotees who are 100% established in śrauta panthā.” He also used to say that— “Slightest deviation from the track of Guru-pādapadma (who is exactly in the line of srauta-panthā) can make you fall down from Hari-bhajana.”
In this way, the strong instruction of Srila Swami Maharaj to his followers to avoid his exalted Godbrothers and to stop reading the books of Gaudiya Math—the eternal mission brought from the spiritual world into this material world by his own Gurudeva—means that he has given direct instructions to his followers to avoid the Lotus feet of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu (or Śrīman Nityānanda Prabhu) to go to hell:
“Regarding the Gaudiya Math books being circulated there, who is distributing? Who is sending these books? The Gaudiya Math does not sell our books, why we should sell their books. Who has introduced these books? Let me know. These books should not at all be circulated in our Society. Bhakti Vilas Tirtha is very much antagonistic to our society and he has no clear conception of devotional service. He is contaminated. Anyway, who has introduced these books? You say that you would read only one book if that was all that I had written, so you teach others to do like that. You have very good determination.” (Letter of A.C. Bhaktivedanta Svami to Sukadeva written from Delhi)
“So I have now issued orders that all my disciples should avoid all of my godbrothers. They should not have any dealings with them nor even correspondence, nor should they give them any of my books or should they purchase any of their books, neither should you visit any of their temples. Please avoid them.” (Letter of A.C. Bhaktivedanta Svami to Visvakarma written from Bombay)
"If you are serious to be an important assistant in our Society you should fully engage yourself in translation work, and do not mix yourself with my so-called Godbrothers. As there are in Vrindaban some residents like monkeys and hogs, similarly there are many rascals in the name of Vaisnavas, be careful of them. And do not dare to question imprudently before your Spiritual Master. Further talks we may discuss when we meet." (Letter of A.C. Bhaktivedanta Svami Maharaj to Niranjana)
“If you make it a first-class temple, there will be no lack of visitors for preaching, you will never even have to leave that place for preaching. And if you serve nice prasadam, the whole of India will come. So stick to our principles very rigidly, and everyone will come to see these American vaisnavas. I want that we shall excel the Chaitanya Math. They have been struggling for the last 50 years, and we shall surpass them in two years. We are working two shifts of labor: that is American style of doing things. I am very pleased if you can continue in this manner of American style. But if you do not, then I shall remain on the same level, then it is a great discredit to the Americans. But if I defeat my godbrothers, then I am worthy to be called the guru of the Americans.” (Letter to Jayapataka written from Amsterdam - Jul 1972)
“Prabhupāda [Swami Maharaj]: Bon Mahārāja published a portion of the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu—eleven hundred books. Still lying for the last ten years.
Hari-śauri: Bon Mahārāja.
Prabhupāda: Yes. And he's the rectum of such a big institute. (laughs) He can pass stool very nice. (laughter)
(Conversation D – Bombay, 1977)
Also, we can find the following resolutions regarding Gaudiya Math, available in the official ISKCON GBC website:
“In obedience to the instruction of His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the GBC directs that the members of ISKCON should respect all senior Gaudiya Vaishnavas outside ISKCON, but should not intimately associate with them, personally or through printed or recorded media, for guidance, teaching, instruction, or initiation as their presentation of Krishna consciousness often differs from that of Srila Prabhupada in emphasis, balance and other aspects of both teaching and practice.”
“Srila Prabhupada is the foundational siksa guru for all ISKCON devotees because he has realized and presented the teachings of the previous acharyas of the Brahma Madhva Gaudiya sampradaya appropriately for the modern age.”
So, we can easily understand—both from the instructions of Srila Swami Maharaj himself and from the subsequent activities of the Governing Body Committee which was in charge of representing and preserving his teachings—that: (i) the institution founded by Srila Swami Maharaj is clearly independent and separate from Gaudiya Math—thus being automatically independent and separate from the mission of his own Gurudeva; (ii) Swami Maharaj expressed his desire for his followers to stick to his own books and stop reading the books of Gaudiya Math (automatically rejecting any link with his Godbrothers and the previous Mahajanas); (iii) he not only created a separate institution, but also started a fierce competition with the mission of his own Gurudeva; and (iv) he has made changes and adaptations of the teachings of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur Prabhupada and our Guru-varga to “adjust them for the modern age” (thus abandoning the way of srauta-pantha and rejecting the statement of his own Gurudeva quoted above regarding the eternity and immutability of the Vaishnava philosophy).
You might think for a moment that all the blame for this divisive attitude and for all problems regarding the relationship between the International Society and Gaudiya Math lies in the hand of the appointed GBC members who took over after the departure of Srila Swami Maharaj—as if they were all born out of nowhere as soon as Swami Maharaj left this world and he has never had any participation in anything connected to that. To this reasoning, we ask you to go over and over again through Swami Maharaj’s own instructions during his lifetime (as some of the ones highlighted above) and ask yourself if the activities of the Governing Body concerning this specific topic are not actually pretty much in line with the intimate desire of their Founder Acharya. If this was not the case, then why after having verbally asked apologies for his offenses, he didn’t consider it necessary to issue any official note of apology or retraction, with formal and direct instructions to his followers and disciples to (i) ignore all his previous comments about avoiding association with Gaudiya Math and Gaudiya Math sadhus and (ii) remove all the negative comments already printed in books and distributed around the world, and immediately stop their further propagation?
Śrīla Prabhupāda Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī said: "Śrī Gauḍīya Maṭha is Bhagavata-dhāma; the sevā of Śrī Gauḍīya Maṭha is dhāma-sevā. To reside in Śrī Gauḍīya Maṭha is the same as residing in dhāma (Śrī Vṛndāvana-dhāma)."
We know that Pancha tattva and Gauḍīya guru-varga appeared in front of Śrīla Prabhupāda during the time of his sata koti nama yajña (at Śrī Dham Mayapur Vrajapattan, at present where we can see Śrī Chaitanya Maṭha already appeared) they ordered him to go for preaching and promised him to send all man power and money power etc. to back his gaura vāṇī preaching. If those divine messengers (Gauḍīya guru-varga) are sent by Pancha tattva, then how one can pass this kind of dirty remarks about them?
"Śrī Gauḍīya Maṭh cannot have and actually does not have anything in common with those, who duplicitously join Gauḍīya Maṭh with a motive to misuse Divine knowledge for the service of their own selfish ends. Feigned dīkṣā and obtainment of Divine Knowledge are never one and the same. Śrī Caitanya and His sincere devotees are eternally present in Śrī Gauḍīya Maṭh. All those owlish persons who are incapable of seeing the light are called māyāvādīs, karmmīs and wayward nondevotees." (from the letter by Śrīla Prabhupād Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī October 20, 1928)
“Only devotees who possess full knowledge of pure devotional service and who relish the mellows of offenseless chanting of the Lord’s holy names are qualified to preach.” (Sajjana toshan, 10/11)
“The responsibility of preaching is better entrusted to those who are engaged in performing bhajana. Simply being an expert speaker does not qualify one to preach the teachings of Gauranga.”
(Sajjana toshan, 10/11)
On the other hand, in the opinion of Swami Maharaj, material qualification is a prerequisite for someone to become a preacher, and he apparently does not understand the purpose for why Sri Gaudiya Math has appeared in this plane:
“So unless one is materially not ordinary, he cannot preach. All the Gosvāmīs, they were coming from respectable . . . and why Gauḍīya Maṭha came? These are third-class men, no position in their past life.” (Morning Walk – Perth, 1975).
So, from his Siddhanta vichar, we can come to the conclusion that Srila Gaura Kishora das Babaji Maharaj, Srila Jagannath das Babaji Maharaj, Srila Vamsi das Babaji Maharaj were all useless in the preaching field, because it is known that they had no material qualification (such as wealth, formal education, etc).
You are free to decide in whose siddhanta you want to believe.
Srila Baba Maharaj said that— “Our Gaudiya Math is so high, so excellent—if anybody going to pass any negative remark about our Gaudiya devotees and Gaudiya Math, 100% he is going to die. He has to go to hell, again take birth, again he will have to do bhajan. Whatever preaching he has done in his life—it matters little. Napoleon Bonaparte can do so many things. Napoleon Bonaparte can show his power. That doesn't mean he has spiritual power. Spiritual power we can realize by seeing how much that devotee is in line with previous Guruvarga. Be careful about that! Always try to preach this point! This is the only point on the basis of which you can understand the gravity of a devotee. Who is following his Gurudeva and Guruvarga—How much? Which way? The only point on the basis of which you yourself can understand. No need of going to anybody. Then automatically you can understand—'he is a false guru’... So, external power, external preaching—so many things I can show. Prabhupad told we need not show our capacity. We need not show our efficiency. Preaching can automatically be done if one devotee is found in line of Prabhupad and Bhaktivinod Thakur. Be sure. If at all he is not going to any foreign country, in near future you can find that the whole world is going to accept him, they can accept. Those who are lucky, they can accept. Those who are not lucky, they cannot accept.
So, you can find external symptoms of devotion. That doesn't mean he has spiritual power. It depends on one thing—you will have to watch his Harikata, his writings, everything. Whatever he is doing, is he doing in line of Gaudiya Guruvarga or not? Then, you can understand. If he is not doing, if he is passing false and wrong siddhanta, if he wants to make a separate society, if he likes to cut connection with Gaudiya Math and with Gaudiya devotees—be sure he's a fallen soul 100%. I can touch the lotus feet of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Thakur Prabhupada and speak. That much power I have. I'm less interested to fight with anybody. I'm speaking about siddhanta. This is the siddhanta I learned from Guruvarga. So, automatically I can realize.
This is not a matter of advertisement. I am not a platform speaker that can stand on a platform and go on speaking. Preaching can never be done in that way. Maybe I'm very clever. I know some technique. I can engage some ladies, this, that—but this is not actually preaching. Our Guruvarga never applied this procedure. Not possible. How possible? In material world, it is possible. To catch mad elephants, I can put one female elephant, and I can catch. But one Sadhu, his darshan itself is powerful, then I need not take help of beautiful ladies. Why? By the power of Guruvarga—darshane pavitra koro ei tomara guna—they can purify me. This is the power of Guru-Vaishnava—by their darsan, they can purify me.”
So, those who are deviated from the main stream of Bhaktiviond dhārā (or Śrī Gauḍīya Maṭha), surely, they are all fallen souls, no doubt in it. Those who left the path of śrauta-panthā, those who left the Guru-paramparā, those who are less interested in serving Caitanya Maṭh and Yogapith are surely out of Guru-paramparā and we should not hear Hari-kathā from them, even we cannot get in touch with them at all.