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Taking Srila Prabhupada Straight
Taking Srila Prabhupada Straight
As Prabhupada's disciple, do you wonder what it would be like to stand before him and
explain why you promoted Narayana Maharaja as ISKCON's next acarya? And on whose
authority? Well, as it turns out on inspection, strictly on Narayana Maharaja's. Because you
blindly believe Narayana Maharaja when he proclaims, "I understand your Guru Maharaja
better than you do."
This is my doubt: That my God-brothers and -sisters who are following Narayana Maharaja
are doing so blindly, and they have been beguiled into accepting a pretender.
Narayana Maharaja as deviating from Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura
Prabhupada
Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura Prabhupada radically reformed the Gaudiya
Tradition, transforming it into a global preaching mission for the modern world. His work
was not much appreciated by many, prominent among them the babajis of Vraja, who felt that
he was deviating by his emphasis on vigorous preaching rather than the esoteric cultivation of
raga-marga. His disciples were constantly assailed by the charge that their Guru Maharaja
was a deviant who could not offer them the "real thing." As you know, a number of them
succumbed, most prominently the unauthorized "successor-acarya" Ananta Vasudeva dasa
(later reinitiated in the babaji community as Puri Goswami).
A number of our own God-brothers also fell prey to the same attack, even while Prabhupada
was present. And the attack continues to this day. My doubt here is whether Narayana
Maharaja has become an instrument of this attack against the mission of Bhaktisiddhanta
Sarasvati Thakura.
What he is now preaching and delivering clearly comes from outside the line of
Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura. He did not get this from Bhakti Prajnan Kesava
Maharaja, his diksa guru. Narayana Maharaja has acknowledged that there was no practice of
raga marga in that matha, no "rasa-katha" but rather discourse about Prahlada Maharaja,
Dhruva Maharaja, and so on.
Narayana Maharaja was apparently not satisfied with this, for, as he once confessed, he left
his spiritual master's temple without permission, and he went to Govardhana. In great
distress, crying, Bhakti Prajnan Kesava Maharaja came and brought him back.
But later, after the departure of his Guru Maharaja, Narayana Maharaja returned to the babajis
of Govardhana, and from among them he accepted a rasika guru, supposedly the one who
"pushed the switch" which made the "current of bhava flow."
It troubles me greatly that after his guru's departure Narayana Maharaja did something his
guru had forcibly prohibited in his presence.
This babaji, then, is Narayana Maharaja's siksa guru—a personage, as you yourself argue,
who often can be more prominent than the diksa guru. Whatever it is that Narayana Maharaja
is giving comes from this babaji. This is his lineage.
It is clearly not the lineage from Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura. I don't know anything
about this babaji, but given the judgment about Radha-Kunda babaji by our recent acaryas,
we have the obligation to be doubtful. Don't we have to ask a few questions about this babaji,
and whoever else in that community Narayana Maharaja may have learned from? What did
Narayana Maharaja actually get? Is it the real thing?
As you know, there is a shadow or simulacrum of authentic spiritual emotion that can fool
even an experienced devotee.
At any rate, we know that Narayana Maharaja, against the order of his spiritual master, went
to the babajis for spiritual instruction. (I am sure he can offer a clever rationalization for this.
Indeed, it is surely the same one he provides Prabhupada's disciples to justify our own
disobedience of Prabhupada's instructions in order to surrender to him. History repeats itself.)
My misgiving is that, in taking siksa from Vrindavan babajis, Narayana Maharaja is acting
contrary to the desires of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasavati Thakura, and as a result is
undermining the great acarya's achievements.
There are some particulars that support this misgiving. Let me present one glaring instance.
Narayana Maharaja, of course, finds a great difference between preaching activities of the
sankirtana movement on the one hand and activities of solitary bhajana on the other. He
dismisses book distribution as an inferior activity, as karma-yoga (at best). It is not actual
bhakti, but bhaktyabhasa, bhaktyaropya. On one occasion, when the accomplishments of a
great ISKCON book distributor were extolled, Narayana Maharaja was quite dismissive, and
he said that the result would be that in his next life the book distributor might qualify for
advanced association (of a rasika bhakta), but that was all. Yet Srila Prabhupada, as you may
still recall, did not recognize such a dichotomy between Gauranga's seva and
Gopijanavallabha's seva, for, as he famously commented: "Book distribution is in the mood
of the gopis." Srila Prabhupada tells us that he attained this realization from his Guru
Maharaja:
In Vrndavana there are prakrta-sahajiyas who say that writing books or even touching books
is taboo. For them, devotional service means being relieved from these activities. Whenever
they are asked to hear a recitation of Vedic literature, they refuse, saying, "What business do
we have reading or hearing transcendental literatures? They are meant for neophytes." They
pose themselves to be too elevated to exert energy for reading, writing and hearing. However,
pure devotees under the guidance of Srila Rupa Gosvami reject this sahajiya philosophy. It is
certainly not good to write literature for money or reputation, but to write books and publish
them for the enlightenment of the general populace is real service to the Lord. That was Srila
Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati's opinion, and he specifically told his disciples to write books. He
actually preferred to publish books rather than establish temples. Temple construction is
meant for the general populace and neophyte devotees, but the business of advanced and
empowered devotees is to write books, publish them and distribute them widely. According to
Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, distributing literature is like playing on a great mrdanga.
Consequently we always request members of the International Society for Krishna
Consciousness to publish as many books as possible and distribute them widely throughout
the world. By thus following in the footsteps of Srila Rupa Gosvami, one can become a
rupanuga devotee.
Madhya 19.133, purport
This understanding of the unity of Lord Caitanya and Lord Krsna, and their seva—so fully
realized and implemented by Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura to form his revolutionary,
dynamic sankirtana movement—seems to have eluded Narayana Maharaja. Why should
service to the sankirtana mission of Lord Caitanya be seen by Narayana Maharaja as
something quite different from service to Krishna in Vraja? How has that happened? Has
some contamination entered?
In this connection, I am enclosing an exact (unedited) typescript of Prabhupada's preface to
the original edition of the second volume of Srimad Bhagavatam (1964). Here, Prabhupada
replies to criticisms of his activity. These very same criticisms of "brhat-mrdanga preaching,"
voiced by the sahajiya babajis of Vraja, are unfortunately being recycled by Narayana
Maharaja.
Prabhupada begins by saying:
The path of fruitive activities i.e. to say the path of earn money and enjoy life as it is going on
generally, — appears to have become also our profession although we have renounced the
order of worldly life! They see that we are moving in the cities, in the Government offices,
banks and other business places for promoting the publication of Srimad Bhagwatam. They
also see that we are moving in the press, paper market and amongst the book binders also
away from our residence at Vrindaban and thus they conclude sometimes mistakenly that we
are also doing the same business in the dress of a mendicant!
And Srila Prabhupada winds up by voicing his heart-felt conviction:
So even though we are not in the Himalayas, even though we talk of business, even though
we deal in rupees and n.P. still, simply because we are 100 per cent servants of the Lord and
are engaged in the service of broadcasting the message of His glories, — certainly we shall
transcend and get through the invincible impasse of Maya and reach the effulgent kingdom of
God to render Him face to face eternal service, in full bliss and knowledge. We are confident
of this factual position and we may also assure to our numerous readers that they will also
achieve the same result simply by hearing the glories of the Lord. (Jannama sruti matrena
puman bhavati nirmala.)
Narayana Maharaja explains Prabhupada's high praise for book distribution and book
distributors a mere tactic to encourage those of us without the samskara for raga-marga.
Therefore it is worth noting that this preface was written about his own activities and some
years before he had any neophytes to encourage.
To recapitulate: In differing from Srila Prabhupada's teachings, Narayana Maharaja also
differs from Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura's teachings. As it turns out, Narayana
Maharaja went outside the Sarasvata community to take instructions from babajis, and now
he brings back into that community opinions that are characteristic of sahajiya babajis and
that are anathema to Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura Prabhupada.
This misgiving leads me to a fuller explication of a related doubt.
Narayana Maharaja and certain sahajiya symptoms
Lord Caitanya says (CC. Madhya. 156-157):
bahya, antara,——ihara dui ta' sadhana
'bahye' sadhaka-dehe kare Sravana-kirtana
'mane' nija-siddha-deha kariya bhavana
ratri-dine kare vraje krsnera sevana
"There are two processes by which one may execute this raganuga bhakti– external and
internal. When self-realized, the advanced devotee externally remains like a neophyte and
executes all the Sastric injunctions, especially hearing and chanting. However, within his
mind, in his original purified self-realized position, he serves Krsna in Vrndavana in his
particular way. He serves Krsna twenty-four hours, all day and night."