Challenging the Zonal Acarya System, Part 10

BY: SUN EDITORS - 18.5 2023

Page twenty

MOOD OF PRABHUPADA DURING APPOINTMENTS

Before the disappearance of His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada, he organized and planned the entire future of the Krsna Consciousness movement by delegating the responsibility of management to the GBC, and appointing eleven senior Godbrothers in the position of initiating spiritual masters. It was quite clear at that time that His Divine Grace did not appoint one successor or acarya.

Srila Prabhupada, in July of 1977, appointed eleven rttvik acaryas in different zones and areas of the world for the continuation of the practice of initiation (diksa) all over the Krsna consciousness movement. At that time, no one expected that His Divine Grace would depart so soon afterward. We maintain that Prabhupada did not put any emphasis on a conclusion that these eleven persons would be the next undisputed acaryas of the Krsna consciousness movement. The fact is, originally His Divine Grace did not make such a big issue out of it, although he definitely delegated the authority. Srila Prabhupada is perfect. His system is perfect. But it is currently being regarded imperfectly by this overemphasis. [..>]

Previous to Prabhupada's disappearance, in a letter dated July 21, 1977, the first paragraph mentions, "an important letter having Srila Prabhupada's initial list of disciples appointed to perform initiations for His Divine Grace." It is quite clear that Srila Prabhupada did not intend a privileged class of chosen ones as now advertised. The term "initial" indicates that Prabhupada wanted to make more. As a matter of fact, Prabhupada's personal secretary at the time showed one sannyasi the first copy of Prabhupada's letter. He himself mentioned that their only function would be to initiate disciples, and there would be no major changes in the structure of the Krsna consciousness movement. He also mentioned that Prabhupada would also select more persons for the future. Srila Prabhupada obviously wanted the Krsna consciousness movement to keep running as one united front with no separate categories of devotees.

It is also well-known that once, when His Divine Grace was asked the question whose disciples would the future initiates be, Prabhupada's reply was that those disciples would be the disciples of the initiating gurus. They would be considered grand-disciples of Prabhupada. And their basis of spiritual life would be Srila Prabhupada's books. It was quite clear at that time that His Divine Grace gave the initiating spiritual masters facility to increase the number of followers for the purpose of spreading the Krsna consciousness movement.

On one occasion, one ex-sannyasi, along with one of the present initiation gurus, approached Prabhupada's secretary and requested to be allowed to see Srila Prabhupada and get the situation clarified more fully. Both of them were told that Srila Prabhupada was very sick and very busy, and, as such, was not to be disturbed. On another occasion, Prabhupada specifically told one sannyasi, who is neither GBC or guru, that he could also initiate.

Prabhupada did not indicate at any time that he wanted a separation of consideration for the initiating gurus over the non-initiating guru body of ISKCON. This can be shown in the words of

Page twenty-one

"Remembering Srila Prabhupada." On page 25 it reads,

"When asked who would succeed him as the leader of the Krsna consciousness movement, Srila Prabhupada replied: 'All of my disciples will take the legacy. If you want, you can also take it. Sacrifice everything. I, one, may soon pass away. But they are hundreds, and this movement will increase. Anyone who follows the previous leadership is a leader. All my disciples are leaders… as much as they follow purely. Leader means one who is first-class disciple… To become leader is not very difficult, provided one is prepared to follow the instructions of his bonafide guru."

This clearly indicated the spirit of His Divine Grace. Not that he created a special class of representatives on account of their grand superiority above all others. Prabhupada chose these disciples in a mood to continue the entire system of Krsna consciousness. Prabhupada chose these disciples on account of their sincere qualifications (this is our feeling, at any rate) but not because he felt that these are the best devotees and everyone else is of the lower quality.

As a matter of fact, we may remind ourselves that the Sanskrit term used by His Divine Grace is "rttvik acarya." Never the term acarya was used exclusively. The term rttvik acarya indicates one who performs sacrifice for another person, as confirmed in the Manu-samhita, "rttvik ka laksana agnistomadikanmakhan."

As such, this was the mood of Srila Prabhupada as long as he was with us. For the period between the 15th November, 1977, to the 22nd March, 1978, this mood seemed to also remain ISKCON's mood. But it is no longer, which cannot be denied by anyone.

Commentary on Part 10
by Rocana dasa

Any devotee familiar with the arguments for and against Ritvik-vada will recognize the great significance of this section of the 1979 paper challenging the Zonal Acaryas. Here, we have an historical footprint of what devotees understood, in the years immediately after Srila Prabhupada accepted maha-samadhi, about the July 9th Letter and his instructions for continuation of diksa initiations into ISKCON's long future.

As a great many devotees have known all along, the July 9th Letter was never understood at the time of its writing, or for many years thereafter, to be even remotely similar to what would eventually become the Ritvik-vadi's interpretation of it.

This section of the 1979 paper is specifically about how arrangements were made by Srila Prabhupada for ongoing diksa initiations. There is not one word, not one statement implying the notion of post-samadhi Ritvik diksa initiations. Yes, the term "rttvik" is used throughout this section of text, but only and very specifically in the context of diksa initiations to be carried about by Srila Prabhupada's disciples, who would give diksa initiation to disciples who would be their own diksa disciples – not Srila Prabhupada's diksa disciples.

There are so many fascinating points one could make about this section of the Zonal Acarya challenge paper, but we will cover just a few of them.

First, it's interesting to note that one of the personalities very involved in the Vrindavan situation out of which this paper emerged was Yasodanandana dasa. He was famously (and unfortunately) kicked out of the movement, and out of his position as headmaster of the Vrindavan gurukula, along with Pradyumna dasa. Pradyumna prabhu had also written a letter to the GBC (at bottom) challenging the Zonal Acarya system (his paper is mentioned in this 1979 article), but in fact, the 1979 paper had an even greater impact in the movement.

Yasodanandana was undoubtedly one of the key personalities involved in formulating the positions expressed in this 1979 paper. And as history has shown, he has also gained the reputation of being one of the grandfathers of the asiddhantic Ritvik-vada philosophy.

Clearly, Yasodanandana dasa knew perfectly well what this 1979 paper said. He knew, as so many of us did, what our godbrothers and sisters were saying and understanding about the meaning and intent of the July 9th Letter – and that it never had any connotation related to post-samadhi rttvik diksa initiations. In later years, when Yasodanandana gathered his tribe of distraught and disenfranchised devotees, and with the help of a few other godbrothers began to fashion the planks of Ritvik-vada, he never propagated the references found in this section of the 1979 paper. For obvious reasons.

Yasodanandana dasa is well known as an archivist. He has perhaps reproduced and distributed more pages of letters, papers, and reams of compiled quotations having to do with guru-tattva, the GBC, ISKCON management, etc., than any other devotee on the planet. Yet we have never known him to promote this particular paper. Nor has the paper been promoted, to our knowledge, by Krishna Kant Desai, author of 'The Final Order', or any of the other prominent Ritviks or Prabhupadanugas.

Yet strangely enough, it was Yasodanandana himself who gave us a copy of this paper, many years ago, along with countless other documents in our archives.

Coming back to the text of the paper, it's important to note the time referents. That before his disappearance, Srila Prabhupada organized and planned ISKCON's future, including the appointment of eleven senior Godbrothers who would give diksa initiation to their own direct disciples. "At that time, no one expected that His Divine Grace would depart so soon afterward." Nor did Srila Prabhupada refer in the July 9th Letter to arrangements for after his departure. There was absolutely no reason to consider the July 9th Letter to be a 'post-samadhi instruction' – although that is exactly how the Ritvik-vadis doggedly mischaracterize the letter to this very day.

"It is also well-known that once, when His Divine Grace was asked the question whose disciples would the future initiates be, Prabhupada's reply was that those disciples would be the disciples of the initiating gurus. They would be considered grand-disciples of Prabhupada. And their basis of spiritual life would be Srila Prabhupada's books. It was quite clear at that time that His Divine Grace gave the initiating spiritual masters facility to increase the number of followers for the purpose of spreading the Krsna consciousness movement." (emphasis added)

There is one more key point we would like to make. The 1979 paper states:

"As a matter of fact, we may remind ourselves that the Sanskrit term used by His Divine Grace is "rttvik acarya." Never the term acarya was used exclusively. The term rttvik acarya indicates one who performs sacrifice for another person, as confirmed in the Manu-samhita, "rttvik ka laksana agnistomadikanmakhan.'"

Over the long years of arguing against Ritvik-vada, including the explicit arguments presented in our "Defeat of Ritvik-vada" paper, we have always made this point: the language of the July 9th Letter does NOT contain the term, "ritvik acarya", nor any derivation thereof ("rttvik acarya", or "rittik acarya"). Nor does this term appear anywhere else in an instruction from Srila Prabhupada. So it is fascinating that the term appears here, in this 1979 paper, claiming that Srila Prabhupada used the term "rttvik acarya". While all devotees should by now know the text by heart, here it is, quoted verbatim from the July 9th Letter:

"Recently when all of the GBC members were with His Divine Grace in Vrndavana, Srila Prabhupad indicated that soon He would appoint some of His senior disciples to act as "rittik" -- representative of the acarya, for the purpose of performing initiations, both first initiation and second initiation."

There is a vast difference between the concept of a "rittik acarya" and a rittik "representative of the acarya". Although no evidence has ever been produced of Srila Prabhupada referring to a rttvik acarya, still the misconception lives on. The most likely seed of origination is the May 28th Room Conversation, in which Tamal Krishna used the term, and the misattribution of the term to Srila Prabhupada was reinforced in the 1979 paper.

While we won't present further discussion on the point today, for the sake of brevity, at the conclusion of our serial presentation of the Zonal Acarya challenge paper we will re-visit this issue and discuss it in more detail.