Prabhupada on the Gaudiya Matha

By Candrasekhar Acarya Dasa - 2.8 2023

"regarding the Gaudiya Matha, our position has nothing to do with them." Srila Prabhupada, letter to Yamuna devi dasi, November 18th, 1970-
Srila Prabhupada is the Founder Acarya of ISKCON. He said that his books would be the lawbooks for humankind for the next 10 000 years. It is the duty of every ISKCON member to learn and imbibe the teachings of Srila Prabhupada. The following excerpts from his letters (found in the Siksamrta volume 3) give us a clear indication of the attitude that Srila Prabhupada wanted us to have in regards to other Gaudiya Vaisnava groups. These excerpts are not the sole statements by Srila Prabhupada on the subject, and it is therefore accepted that they may be one-sided. Nonetheless, these statements are in fact historical and authoritative. It therefore behooves us to study them carefully and act accordingly.
Your servant,?Candrasekhar Acarya dasa
 
"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." (SPL to Visvakarma dasa, 9th November, 1975)

"Why is there this politics? This is not good. If politics come, then the preaching will be stopped. That is the difficulty. As soon as politics come, everthing is spoiled. In the Gaudiya Matha the politics is still going on. My Guru Maharja left in 1936, and now it is 1976, so after 40 years the litigation is still going on. Do not come to this." (SPL to Gurukripa Swami, 30th September, 1975)
"I thank you for following the order of your spiritual master. This is the motto of our spiritual life: yasya prasadad bhagavata-prasado. My other Godbrothers, they are concerned with litigations, politics, and diplomacy, so what is their pracara? As far as I am concerned, I have the blessings of my Guru Maharaja. I do not need anything else. By his blessings it has come out successful." (SPL to Subala Swami, 15th October, 1974)

"(...)their policy has been all along to suppress me and take credit for himself. Their proposal for cooperation is a myth. They have not done anything which is cooperative. You know in a recent article they managed to write in such a way that Madhava (Maharaja) is doing the world movement and we are his subordinate. From the beginning that has been their mentality. So there is no possibility of cooperation with them. Rather you should avoid strictly meeting with them. They are not after preaching but material gain and reputation and adoration. Otherwise why they are noncooperating with me? So no cooperation is possible. Do not think or indulge in loose talks. Be careful always. Let us do the duty of propagation sincerely and seriously on our own principles. Krishna and Srila Prabhupada Bhaktisidhanta Sarasvati Thakura are our only hope and they are helping us. If anything has to be done it is to be talked on the higher level between Madhava Maharaja and myself, but I know his mentality is different and there is no possibility of cooperation." (SPL to Acyutananda Swami, 8th June, 1974.)

"Regarding the Gaudiya Matha books being circulated there, who is distributing? Who is sending these books? The Gaudiya Matha does not sell our books, why should we sell their books? Who has introduced these books? Let me know. These books should not at all be circulated in our Society. Bhakti Vilasa Tirtha is very much antagonistic to our Society that 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." (SPL to Sukadeva dasa, November 14th, 1973.)
"Our big, big Godbrothers in India, they could not preach Lord Gauranga's name all over India. They are simply inclined to criticize me, that my students call me Prabhupada. They could not do anything practical and tangible. They are satisfied with a temple and a few disciples begging alms for the maintenance of the temple. So we can understand that they have all become sudras. (...) (SPL to Niranjana, 21st may, 1973)

"Do not get depressed. All along my godbrothers gave me only depression, repression, compression-but I continued strong in my duty. So never mind there is some discouragement, continue with your work in full enthusiastic Krishna consciousness attitude of service." (SPL to Gurudasa, 29th August, 1972)

"regarding the Gaudiya Matha, our position has nothing to do with them. They cannot do anything and if somebody does something, they will be envious. That is the nature of third-class men. My Guru Maharaja once told a story: one friend informed another that one man has become the high court judge. "Oh, no," he replied, "No, that cannot be right." "Yes, he is now judge," said the first friend. "I have seen him sitting on the bench." The second man replied, "Maybe, but I don't think he is getting any salary." Such envious men will find out some fault anywhere. There is no fault actually, but they will manufacture some fault. That is their business. So many persons were envious of my Guru Maharaja, but he was preaching and did not care for them. (SPL to Yamuna devi, November 18th, 1970)