Guru Issues, Part 17, The Zonal Acarya Era 

Hare Krishna. I am honored and humbled by His Holiness who mentions my name and my book about the zonal-acharya era of ISKCON, "Eleven Naked Emperors" (and admits he has read my book) in this video. He notes that I also "lived through" that time when "things became unhinged" in ISKCON. I learned a lot while researching this book, and interviewing other devotees who also lived through the zonal-acharya era of ISKCON. I also learned something new from listening to Maharaja's video. I am curious, however, that Maharaja says that by book "Eleven Naked Emperors" "is influenced by my adherence to the ritvik doctrine." Perhaps that is the impression he got after reading my book, but for the record, I profess neither adherence to the ritvik doctrine nor the current ISKCON guru system. Thank you again, Bhakti Vikasa Maharaja, and for whatever it may be worth, I wish you (and all who follow in the footsteps of Srila Prabhupada) all the best.

😨😢☁️🌥️⛅☀️😊All respect to Bakta Vikash Swami Maharaj

Hare Krishna Hari Hari bol aapke shree charno me dandwat pranam guru ji

Please accept my humble obeisances Gurumaharaj. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. I appreciate being informed by the very best trusted source how things were, activities that had given me pause in the beginning, wondering if I was indeed going down the right path after all. I have since put those thoughts away from me, as difficulties experienced in the teething stage of the movement, but still for me, good to hear of these matters from your lotus mouth, and to know that as all things must pass, they are of no concern anymore except as a lesson and a warning .🙏🙏🙏🌺🌺🌺

Dandavat Maharaj ! I have no words to describe, how your mercy sustains the breathings of hundreds of aspiring and non aspiring Krishna conscious enthusiasts worldwide. As a tiny ant bodied and a sin dinosaur subtle bodied, running away from committing myself is my only refuge.

Hare Krishna pranams to guru Maharaja

Krishna has a plan because he predicted the sankirtan movement will spread in the whole world. The changes in the world will lead to a change in our movement as well. Haribol

Harekrishna

Every year the GBC gets together and make new resolutions for ISKCON to implement and force upon the members who live in the temples. These resolutions were all brainstormed by the select few who thought they had been given direct authority to rule and control those who have taken shelter of ISKCON. When actually it has crippled the movement. So many offenses and mistakes made by these 1 percenters of ISKCON. I would like to know what is going to be done to correct this situation in the movement?

I think the GBC greatly contributed to the development of rtvikism in different ways. First, when instituting the zonal acarya system by reinforcing the idea that these gurus were on the level of Prabhupada, because maybe they thought, this is what it takes to be a guru, so even if we don’t believe it, that’s the idea we need to propagate, otherwise they can’t take the position. This combines with elitism, because if you don’t need to be a mahabhagavat to be a guru, there would be no excuse to restrict guruship to a small group. Secondly, it seems, after dismantling the zonal acarya system, instead of correcting the concept of guruship, they made moves to minimize the role of diksha gurus. Even though, of course, it’s inquestionable the role of Prabhupada as siksha guru for everyone, it seems for many it isn’t clear the need of a guru who is physically present. Being frustrated with their current living gurus, they want to accept only Prabhupada as their guru, but then they go on to make interpretations of Prabhupada in their own way. Unfortunately feels like there is still a great influence of a zonal system and many people, specially in the Americas, may not even be aware of the existence of other types of gurus who remain in India today. Language may be an obstacle, but probably the bigger obstacle is the power games. I’m even aware of seemingly minor authorities, for instance, local temple president, who don’t allow the bhaktas under him to have time to listen to lectures of other iskcon gurus, even if there is an intention to get him initiated by such guru, “just read Prabhupada’s books and do what I tell you”. Ultimately, even though posing as very humble, they concentrate too much power over those who are serving in their temple or Yatra. They end up micro managing every aspect of the disciples lives according to their own mind and manipulate everyone to satisfy their ego, it’s a very dangerous situation.

The GBC: we decide theses gurus will have honorific titles. The GBC some time later: we decide honorific titles are forbidden. Does this sound like someone who knows what they are doing? No. This is exactly what we see now with the FDG issue. They decide it’s going to happen. Then they decide it’s not going to happen. Then they change their mind again, it’s definitely going to happen. Actually no, we will pause it. I’m pretty sure the reason why they wanted to approve it wasn’t a very good reason, and the reason why they stopped was probably also not a very good reason. Who will take them seriously? How can any intelligent devotee respect the resolutions they make? They abuse their so called absolute power to a point where they will become totally useless as a governing body.

What seems to be a recurrent theme in this story… the GBC has some idea, it is not wrong per se, but the application is incorrect. For example, honorific titles, they may be given, but I think the honorific is given by disciples to their guru (just see Prabhupada, the title was not given to him by his godbrothers, it was given by his disciples). So, if the godbrothers get together and give each other honorifics (which seems to have been the case), it’s not the same thing. Another instance, the leaders who wanted to submit their godbrothers, it is correct that the GBC should be respected, but it is not proper etiquette that the elder brother usurp the place of the father, we see that even Caitanya Mahaprabhu hesitated in having a godbrother serve Him and only accepted it on the ground that it was an order from His spiritual master. We see this type of thing happen often in families, after the father passes, the elder brother thinks he has taken the place of the father and everyone else is below him and he can do whatever nonsense he wants and no one can question him. It’s disrespectful, artificial and disastrous. I wonder how much of the way the GBC works is actually according to what Prabhupada wanted. It’s very convenient to just demand respect on the ground that this is what Prabhupada wanted, what about everything else Prabhupada wanted?

With all due respect, Maharaja is skirting around the issue. The root of the whole problem is that the so-called zonal acharyas disobeyed the order of Srila Prabhupada, a mahabahgavata. That is why they fell down. Prabhupada has used the analogy of when the first calculation is incorrect, every calculation after that is incorrect. The result is what you have today. Mistrust.