Read also: ISKCON’s GBC members release a statement on their meeting with ritvik leader Madhu Pandit Prabhu
On Friday, Dec 6, 2019, Madhu Pandit Prabhu was at the ISKCON Temple in Delhi, East of Kailash, to discuss with Gopal Krishna Maharaja, Anuttama and Bhakti Charu Swami about the possibility of coming back to ISKCON. Bhakti Vaibhava Maharaja was also present.
Madhu Pandit Prabhu was received with great respect. In the temple, he received a garland at the altar of each of the Deities in Delhi (Sri Sri Gaura Nitai, Sri Sri Radha Partha Sarathi Lalita-Vishakha, and Sri Sri Sita Rama Laxman Hanuman). And he was given the honor of offering a special garland to Srila Prabhupada. He was also given the honor or performing a special arati for Sri Sri Radha-Partha Sarathi. Madhu Pandit Prabhu was accompanied by five or six of his own associates, which included one sannyasi from his own mission.
It is known that ISKCON leaders and Madhu Pandit Prabhu have been in recent talks to bring Madhu Pandit Prabhu’s mission based in Hare Krishna Hill, Bengaluru, back into ISKCON. The grand reception of Madhu Pandit Prabhu suggests that the Hare Krishna Hill mission will be soon rejoining ISKCON.
It is also an open question as to whether bringing the Sri Radha Krishna Temple in Hare Krishna Hill, Bengaluru, back into ISKCON will mean accommodating the so-called “ritvik” system initiations within ISKCON. This system is based on an interpretation of a letter dated July 9th, 1977, from Srila Prabhupada authorizing eleven of his leading disciples to give initiation to others on Srila Prabhupada’s behalf without first obtaining Srila Prabhupada’s persmission.
The followers of this system today believe that Srila Prabhupada intended it to supersede any prior systems and should be practiced indefinitely after Srila Prabhupada’s disappearance. Mainstream ISKCON however continues to follow the convention that the passing of the spiritual master gives implicit permission for disciples to begin accepting their own disciples. Accepting the Hare Krishna Hill mission back into ISKCON would likely mean that the GBC would allow devotees to follow either system.
It is also likely that Madhu Pandit Prabhu will be made a full GBC member, just as Radhanatha Swami was made a GBC member in 1994 on bringing his League of Devotees Temples into ISKCON.
As per the GBC resolutions of that year, “13. That the GBC Body unanimously welcomes HH Radhanatha Swami and the League of Devotees Temples back to ISKCON. 14. That HH Radhanatha Swami is appointed as an assistant GBC and initiating guru, provided the United States Government does not indict him in its case now pending against Kirtananda Swami.”
It is expected that the GBC will enact similar legislation in their coming Annual General Meeting in 2020 to welcome Madhu Pandit Prabhu’s network of temples and projects into ISKCON.
Note: An earlier version of this article had stated that accommodating the ritvik system of initiations had been part of the discussions in Delhi, but a source has since informed us that accommodating the ritvik system of initiations had up to now not been a part of their discussions.
Pictures
The pictures below were taken from the Facebook page of Gopal Krishna Maharaja.
One doesn’t have to look much further than the official GBC resolutions of 1978, (https://gbc.iskcon.org/1978-2/ ), just a few short months after Srila Prabhupada physically left the planet, to see how ISKCON has been captured by a group of senior devotees, and everything is being divided up amongst themselves. This one will retain this zone, and this one will retain that zone. They will decide how initiations will take place in ISKCON. We start to see new members being added to the GBC, like Bali Mardan, who, like so many others, fell spectacularly from grace by being utterly bewildered by his new found power and control.
These “senior devotees” are already deciding the process of initiation. They’ve illegally set themselves up as diksa gurus, they’ve divided the planet up, and now they are going to decide how initiations will take place. All totally against the instructions given by Srila Prabhupada.
GBC RESOLUTIONS 1978
MARCH 19, 1978 2 pm
1. A committee of Tamal Krsna Goswami, Harikesh Swami, Kirtanananda Swami, Satsvarupa Goswami, Rupanuga Prabhu, and Jayapataka Swami will report to the GBC as soon as possible regarding the six questions on the GBC agenda concerning the initiations. Definite statements on this subject will be made available to all the devotees after the GBC considers this committee’s report.
So we see the principle of “honour amongst thieves” as they use an authorised format, the GBC meetings, to introduce their plot to take over the world. And not in a good way.
They begin awarding themselves titles and positions to garner respect from all the “lower” devotees.
3. Sannyasa candidates for 1978 are as follows:
Kirtanananda Swami – Dulal Chandra, Jagadish.
Hrydayananda Goswami- Alanath, BirKrsna, Ambujaksha.
Satsvarupa Goswami – Jayadvaita, Ghanashyama.
Jayapataka Swami – Prabha visnu, Ananda Swarupa.
Panchadravida Swami- Madan Manohar, Jagajivana.
Jayatirtha – Ranchor, Sivarama.
Tamal Krsna Goswami- Gopijanaballabha, Kavichandra, Kesava Bharati, Ganapati.
Bhavananda – Hiranyagarbha.
Gopal Krsna – Tribhuvanath.
Harikesh Swami – Dheera Krsna.
Bhagavan Das – Somaka, Indradyumna.”
4. Any GBC can propose a devotee for immediate sannyasa initiation at Mayapura GBC meetings, with approval of GBC provided there are extraordinary circumstances. ???
(Extraordinary circumstances? The need to feel in control? The need to sexually abuse women and children? The need to accumulate wealth?)
5. Sannyasis, GBC or, presidents that fall down or leave the society immediately loose their post and title and are welcomed back in the status of a devotee and can work for advancement. The GBC will decide on their reinstatement.
(Don’t worry prabhu, we got your back)
6. A committee of Satsvarupa Goswami, Hansaduta Swami, Rameswar Swami and Jayatirtha will correct any difficulties in regard to women’s sankirtan party in Los Angeles and Berkeley in three months time. On the East Coast, Kirtanananda Swami (or Kaladri), Rupanuga and Balavanta will correct any possible discrepancy in New Vrndavana’s party. These committees are given full power of the GBC to implement disciplinary action.
(Full power to implement disciplinary action. Gotta love that one)
RESOLUTIONS MARCH 20,1978. 9:30 am
2. Jayadwaita shall take sannyasa immediately.
(He needs to quickly start working on re-editing Srila Prabhupada’s books)
RESOLUTIONS MARCH 21, 1978 9:30 am
1. A GBC committee will be formed consisting of GBC members who are initiating Gurus. They will choose new gurus once per year in Mayapur. This is an amendment to resolution # 16 of March 19,1978 9.30 am
(Here we see that the existing “gurus” will themselves appoint “new gurus)
3. Nanda Kumar no longer considered to be a devotee.
(Pot calling the kettle black)
21. No GBC can knowingly or unknowingly permit his men or himself to engage in illicit, illegal activities.
(Unless this can be kept hidden, at least for the time being)
22. GBC does not condone going to professional or non devotee astrologers.
(No more reading the Saturday newspapers)
23. Execution of Prabhupada’s will must see that his will is being carried out.
(Yeh right, that’s going to happen)
RESOLUTIONS MARCH 22, 1978
1. Where as the North American temple Presidents have already agreed to exhibit a spirit of cooperation and the practice of consultation in regard to travelling Sankirtan Parties, and where as the New Vrndavana mother’s travelling party is specifically noted to be a great offender in this regard, it is resolved that the continued violation of this principle should be swiftly dealt with by a group of three GBC men.
(Those damn women!!!)
I am forever disturbed by the infantile argument by the less than neophytes that ” Anyone should be allowed to initiate others into the parampara ” due to the consideration that anyone can be qualified.
This appears to be an argument but factually is not. It is merely a statement.
Why?
It is merely a statement because no particular person is under a microscope nor is any knowledge criteria being applied or suggested by such a statement.
The statement is blatantly meaningless yet passed off as something well-reasoned.
To say ” Anyone can teach music ”
is a false statement. Obviously the knowledge of music is required in order that one teach it therefore not anyone can teach music.
There must needs be a test to determine if a particular candidate possesses musical knowledge.
( Musical knowledge is sudra business. We simply use it as an example here. )
Similarly, our objection against women diksa gurus is grounded in the reality of guru, sastra and sadhu and in the reality of subtle laws determining birth–ultimately we are concerned that women being neophytes acting on the mental platform should be artificially accepted as liberated souls thereby cheapening the bhakti process.
The false assumption implied by the nebulous statement ” Anyone should be allowed to initiate others into the parampara ” is that anyone objecting has bigoted or sexist views.
Thus from the very beginning of this so-called argument we note a bias. The bias is that guru, sastra and sadhu are biased against our modern Kali yuga sensibilities.
In the end by any one of us accepting this infantile statement as an argument reveals our lack of self realization. By instituting Female Diksa Guru we merely surrender to Maya.
–Mayesa dasa ACBSP
Let’s make ISKCON like other religions like muslims becomes Muhammadan disciple of muhammed , one who joins church i.e. christians are disciples of Jesus , in Sikhism their last guru (10th guru gobind singh ) ordered that their Scriptures will be living guru forever, so all who joins Sikhism are disciples of the book or all 10 gurus . Similarly , we can make srila prabhupada as our Main sampradaya acharya and his unedited books as authority . So all will be SP followers /disciples . No more fall downs , No more money laundering , No more blasphemy to our sampradaya . Let all be happy. Let GBC control the management only .
We just knew a stupid Rtvik had to make a comment. This is why MPD will not be allowed back in. Fools like you would also come.
Ahh… You have not suffered what we had suffered prabhu . My uncle was initiated by jayatirtha maharaj in nepal , after his fall down he got reinitiated by bhagawan maharaj and then after his fall down he again got his initiation from harikesha maharaj . Again after harikesha fall down he was depressed and killed himself by taking overdose of sleeping pills . He donated almost 90 %of wealth and monies to these iskcon swamis . Only 10 % was left over to his wife and kids. No iskcon member came to his funeral no support from any of his iskcon friends . His family and we have full faith in srila prabhupada that’s why my answer was that . We are neither Iskcon gbc chela’s not even supporter of Ritivik system . But we love prabhupada , because he is the only Master and true acharya.
And your point is? Rtvik is worse than the disease. In any case this is why we do not want have anything to do with you. And why these meetings with MPD will fail.
My point is that both rritvik system and iskcon guru system is a failure . Only srila prabhupada is the spiritual master of iskcon .
And you really proved that you can not do anything as you guys do not want to do anything with sufferers like us because you all want to sit on prabhupadas throne . And you all aant your disciples monies , their wife’s and kids as sex servants , you all are follower of pedophile , molestors , criminal minded gurus .
I can block you.
HH Bhakti Brhad Bhagavat Maharaja of ISKCON also had three gurus. The first two fell down. He is still a full member and supporter of ISKCON and its systems.
We are also connected with Iskcon and we have never left it because we love Iskcon and SP. But what we want is that Iskcon Guru system should be made more stronger so that no one should loose faith because of few rascals . We want to see a better iskcon as SP wanted to do. That’s why we do not support ritivik system and neither loose guru choosing system . We are living in Iskcon and will die in Iskcon only .
“Mainstream ISKCON however continues to follow the convention that the passing of the spiritual master gives implicit permission for disciples to begin accepting their own disciples.” But ISKCON doesn’t do only this. ISKCON regulates by vote/endorsements who can or by default can’t be a guru. There are extra ecclesiastical standards not mentioned in the scriptures that ISKCON has established for allowing someone to take disciples or a guru, which of course perverts and cheapens the entire process for both guru and disciple –what to speak of the rivik speculation. So in the end of course the two parties will get together and appreciate each other since both have a system based on speculation. Guru is Krishna’s pure representative, being as good as Krishna, he can not be regulated or selected by anyone but Krishna. To assume that a collection of ordinary souls grants guruship is silly, only Krishna can give that. A pure devotee may point out another pure devotee among his disciples but that is only because the disciple has fully purified him self by following the instructions of Guru and become recognized. Only by constant sincere practice as directed by the Spiritual Master and then by Krishna’s blessings in reciprocation can one be fully self realized, then guru — and no one has anything thing to say about that accept the Lord.
For most of the last 40 years since my initiation, I was confused by all the fuzz about this situation. I left ISKCON, came back, and left again and came back again. I read a lot, even books unauthorized by ISKCON. In Lord Caitanya’s time, all devotees, Sri Advaita’s disciples, Sri Nityananda’s disciples. Sri Gadadhara’s disciples, were perfoming sankirtan together. One day, I stumbled upon a little gem called “Sri Shyamananda Prakash”. This is basically a biography of Srila Shyamananda Thakura. In that book, I found out that Srila Syamananda had three living gurus including Srila Jiva Goswami. Also, one can learn from Srila Gaurakisora Das Babaji. He received Diksa from Srila Bhagavat Das Babaji, a prominent disciple of Srila Jagannath Das Babaji. Our sampradaya is not exclusively “diksa”. Siksa guru is as important as Diksa, if not more. I could elaborate, but I will stop here, I let you meditate and draw your own conclusion. Here is a link to Sri Shyamananda Prakash: https://www.dropbox.com/home/ISTAVRATA/ISTA/BOOKS/NECTAR%20BOOKS/acharyas?preview=SHRI_SHYAMANANDA_PRAKASH.pdf
Will the GBC Except a Criminal into the GBC????
The bottom line of the [ISKCON guru] issue is whether or not any guru is subjected to the dictates and discipline of the GBC. The fact that Prabhupāda established the GBC as the Governing Authority for ISKCON rules out the possibility of any diksha gurus in ISKCON except him. Prabhupāda ruled out the diksha guru system in ISKCON by saying that a bona-fide spiritual master is never subjected to the discipline or restrictions of a GBC or anyone else. The fact that the GBC is in the position of having to regulate and restrict the activities of the ISKCON gurus shows that indeed there can be no gurus in ISKCON except Prabhupāda. A real guru is never subjected to the control and discipline of any committee, Godbrother, disciple or anyone else. Śrī Guru is a free agent independent of committee regulation or control. ISKCON clearly has a whole set of rules and laws that regulate, discipline and restrict all the diksha gurus in ISKCON. This situation is clearly in violation of the teachings of Śrīla Prabhupāda. We find his instructions in the matter in the Nectar of Instruction text 6 purport:
“It is also an offense to consider an empowered Vaishnava an object of disciplinary action. It is offensive to try to give him advice or to correct him…The spiritual master must not be subjected to the advice of a disciple, nor should a spiritual master be obliged to take instructions from those who are not his disciples. This is the sum and substance of Śrīla Rūpa Goswami’s advice in this sixth verse.”
Śrīla Prabhupāda is saying here that in the Rūpānuga sampradāya a spiritual master should not be subjected to the discipline or regulations of any committee, individual or group of individuals. A real spiritual master is not subject to such regulation.
Therefore, by establishing the GBC as the managing authority of ISKCON, Śrīla Prabhupāda ruled out the possibility of a multiplicity of gurus in ISKCON by making the GBC the functioning authority over all ISKCON affairs. In ISKCON today there is a class of spiritual masters who are all subjected to the regulation and discipline of the GBC. This is totally incongruent with the concept of a traditional spiritual master who is above and beyond all such committee regulation.
Prabhupāda said it is an offense to try and discipline or regulate a spiritual master. Therefore either the regulating of ISKCON spiritual masters by the GBC must stop or [the ISKCON] diksha guru system must stop. Refusing to do so results in offenses which will destroy devotional service and make [devotional service] fruitless and futile.
https://prabhupadabooks.com/conversations/1977/may/gbc_meets_with_srila_prabhupada/vrndavana/may/28/1977
Satsvarūpa: ……. Then our next question concerns initiations in the future, particularly at that time when you’re no longer with us. We want to know how first and second initiation would be conducted.
Prabhupāda: Yes. I shall recommend some of you. After this is settled up, I shall recommend some of you to act as officiating ācāryas.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Is that called ṛtvik-ācārya?
Prabhupāda: Ṛtvik, yes.
If you read the above interaction between the GBC and Srila Prabhupada, with the mentality of the following verse of Rupa Gosvami in mind, (quoted above by Jamadagni) things become surprisingly clear.
Nectar of Instruction text 6 purport:
“It is also an offense to consider an empowered Vaishnava an object of disciplinary action. It is offensive to try to give him advice or to correct him…The spiritual master must not be subjected to the advice of a disciple, nor should a spiritual master be obliged to take instructions from those who are not his disciples. This is the sum and substance of Śrīla Rūpa Goswami’s advice in this sixth verse.”
Dear Maharajas and Prabhus,
Dandavat pranams. Jaya Srila Prabhupada.
Please find below a report on yesterday’s meeting that was held in ISKCON, East of Kailash, New Delhi with Madhu Pandit Prabhu and his team .
Your servant,
Yudhistir Govinda Das
—–
Bhakti Vaibhava Maharaja (GBC Chairman), Gopal Krishna Maharaja, Bhakti Charu Maharaja, Anuttama dasa and Muralishyam dasa met with Madhu Pandit dasa, Stoka Krishna Maharaja, Chanchalapati dasa and Jai Chaitanya dasa yesterday at the ISKCON Temple in East of Kailash, New Delhi.
The meeting was a result of a cordial meeting that Jayapataka Maharaja and Madhu Pandit dasa had in Bangalore in October of this year. After the meeting, Jayapataka Swami reported the cordial nature of his interactions to the GBC body, and suggested that the GBC re-open the dialogue process with Madhu Pandit dasa and his team.
A committee, headed by the GBC Chairman Bhakti Vaibhava Swami, was formed during the Mid-year GBC meeting to discuss the possibilities of such a meeting. Maharaja reached out to the devotees in Bangalore and a meeting was set for December 6th.
In the meeting there was a discussion on the difference between principles and details. Reference was made to Srila Prabhupada’s discussion on this topic at the beginning of Chapter 6 of the Nectar of Devotion. There was also an extensive discussion on where the two parties agree philosophically and/or in practice, as well as where the differences are clear.
The mood in the meeting was conducive to dialogue. The discussions were frank. All agreed that it is a very good idea to keep the communications line open and so a follow up meeting was scheduled.
While there were unfounded speculation about the purpose and outcome of this meeting, this report should serve as a factual and authentic source of what transpired in yesterday’s meeting.
*Sd/-
Participants of the meeting
Wild speculations and sensationalizing by the author. This is just one of a series of meetings that MPD has had with the GBC over the years to resolve their issues and never amounting to anything. It is a just a “get to know you” meeting, nothing substantial was discussed, what to speak of agree upon.
It’s all about him getting old and making an offer (lots of money) that ISKCON can’t refuse.
this unity will be great. Everyone instead of using their energy to belittle the opposing side will use their energy and strength to push forward SP movement. there will be cooperation and the movement will grow very quickly. everything will depend upon the discussions and agree points. One party putting SP at the centre and the other one putting GBC elected gurus at the centre. Let us hope at least for a unity. Hare Krishna.
Of course it was discussed I don’t think he would have come if that was already agreed upon .it will be interesting how both systems co exist in srila prabhupada global body of iskcon .I commend the the effort to bring our movement together all glories to your service prabhu all glories to srila prabhupada and Lord caitanyas mission to bestowing benidictions upon all haribol.please view the as it was page on fb in February 2020 there will be a symposium at uc Berkeley California garuda prabhuGraham PhD buttatma PhD and 15 scholars will discuss the changes to srila prabhupada 72macilliam bhagavad gita as it is and all his other books and the writer for hire status given to srila prabhupada by bbti this will be a very powerful analysis by the top minds in academia please contact .as it was on fb
Is this only a cheap yellow press speculation, or is there a statement of Gopal Krishna Gosvami, that substantially covers the allegations af this article ??