KCD’s Monthly Podcast – June 2024

Podcast transcription:

The Story of “ISKCON”

(Institutional Elitism Replaces Zonal Megalomania)

Second of a Two-Part Series

by Kailäsa Candra däsa

HARIÙ OÀ NAMAÙ

A root illegitimacy haunts “ISKCON,” and that specter has forced it to rely upon a warped narrative, mixed with stupid slogans, in order to bind its acolytes. It is confident that most of them will not confront its illegitimacy. Knowing the Story of “ISKCON”–understanding where it is going and where it may go up the road—requires personal intelligence transcending the mode of ignorance via confrontation within yourself.

Intelligence must be in the mode of ignorance in order to believe that institution’s fanatical bromides. “ISKCON is One” or “ISKCON is the Hare Kåñëa movement” are two examples of such hackneyed slogans. Thesetrite mottos cover reality. Even if there was some sliver of truth to them (and that only during the brief period that Prabhupäda’s institution ran well and was bona fide), they have no legitimacy now.

They are nothing more than a component of Mäyä’s arsenal of unlimited deception. As pointed out in Part One, the fabricated, so-called “ISKCON” confederation is in its third transformation, which entails bureaucracy, as was the case in the previous change. These layers of bureaucracy serve as buffers in order to protect its core, which, in point of fact, is incredibly weak. The foundation of “ISKCON” is figuratively built on sand.

His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedänta Swämi Prabhupäda was the founder and spiritual master of his branch of the Hare Kåñëa movement. He incorporated it in the mid-Sixties, and it received the moniker of ISKCON. His movement was bona fide and ran reasonably well for about a decade, although there were some serious speed bumps even during his presence, particularly near the end.

The Story of “ISKCON” is the story of three transformations that went down after the disappearance of Çréla Prabhupäda from physical manifestation. It is also the story of three deviant entities, only one of which is “ISKCON” itself. The First Transformation was the sudden and diabolical takeover of the movement by eleven “zonal äcäryas.”

Less than a decade later, The Second Transformation was the result of a brewing backlash against the imitation Prabhupädas. The backlash is also called (by your host speaker) the collegiate compromise. It went down inside an already unauthorized movement, and it was just as deviated as the initial takeover . . . but in a different way.

In due course, it had to transform into the Hindoo Hodge-podge. That change—despite being a major transformation and different from the collegiate compromise in both pulse and tone—was NOT a change in paradigm, however. The First Transformation actually changed the movement’s paradigm in the late Seventies. The Second Transformation replaced the zonal scheme with another one in the mid-Eighties. We are still in that bureaucratic paradigm at this time, although The Fourth Transformation has got its camel nose under the tent.

Returning to stage two, the collegiate compromise of The Second Transformation had fatal flaws embedded in it: First, it could not keep the grifters out in the field fired up enough. Secondly, many of the leftover newcomers (initiated by the eleven new gurus) were aggressively pushed into what became known as “re-initiation.”

Unlike the fatal flaws in The First Transformation (and those were pointed out last month), the primary flaw of The Second Transformation was a cataclysmic drop in revenue. The newcomers received IMPROPER initiations from bogus gurus, but they WERE initiated; not in the right way but via bogus béjas. Initiated nevertheless. However, those seeds were received from men who mostly were charismatic. In other words, they did not at all rely upon either the vitiated G.B.C. or any bureaucracy in order to create their own set of dedicated followers.

Stockholm Syndrome set in within the mental quantum of hundreds of new young men and women: They came to love and dedicate their lives to the guru at their center (read, prison house of their choice), invariably, a center within their guru’s zone. The newcomers were willing to do whatever their master wanted, and all of those despots wanted them to COLLECT MONEY for the “äcärya of the zone.” This was not at all discouraged by the various presidents of the centers in those zones for reasons that require no explanation.

This most of the newcomers did on a daily basis—for many hours of every day of every week—and accordingly, capital inflow was never an issue during the heady days of the zonal era. With the collegiate compromise, however, the “ISKCON” gurus was busted down to madhyam-adhikäré, although in actuality, none of them were anywhere near that stage of advancement. Instead, they all remained the sahajiyäs that they always were but now forced to function in a lower octave.

This did not apply to all of them, because some left the movement while others were removed. Uncooperative gurus kept cutting high profiles of self-apotheosis like they previously projected, but all the manipulators who remained in the good graces (one exception was allowed for a spurious reason) with “ISKCON” and the vitiated G.B.C. no longer could project that illusoryuttamataste to their followers.

Institutional charisma is inferior to personal charisma. By 1987, all remaining “ISKCON” gurus were of the institutional variety. Previously, they had only depended upon G.B.C. imprimatur for their appointments and zones, and, after that, they neglected bureaucracy. This caught up with them in the mid-Eighties. The Story of “ISKCON” is the story of three groups of bogus initiators, improper initiates, skewered teachings, concocted processes, and a bogus narrative. We are certainly not going to ignore the later massive bureaucracy, but some primary background, along with foundational facts and history, must be laid out first.

Concerning Genuine Kåñëa Consciousness

Kåñëa consciousness is not an artificial imposition on the mind. It is not a concoction. It is, by far, the best yogic vehicle for everyone on Earth—and, for that matter, everywhere in the universe—to perfect the human opportunity and become liberated from the cycle of birth and death, samsara. It does not matter who you are in terms of conditioning (guëa-karma). Gender does not matter. Your age does not matter. Your financial situation does not matter.

As long as you are in the body of one of the 400,000 species of human life—which includes all of the demigods, who are vastly more powerful than any human—you are eligible to relieve yourself permanently from suffering and return to the eternal realm of form and activity in the spiritual world. You can do this through the teachings and processes known as Kåñëa consciousness.

You cannot do this through institutions, teachings, processes, and warped histories which are perverted reflections of Kåñëa consciousness. There are so many neophytes throughout the world who were eventually forced to wake up (to some extent) due to the ways they were mistreated, mostly by “ISKCON.” Yet, they only partially awaken. They still think that they can attain Kåñëa consciousness through some kind of concoction that legitimizes their initiations from bogus gurus. This they cannot do, but they are nevertheless convinced that they can.

You cannot enter the spiritual realm simply by A-B-C-D knowledge and processes supplementing based upon by concoction. Your initiations are not at all helpful; on the contrary, they are major stumbling blocks. Worse than this, you are not only misleading yourselves: You’re misleading others by bringing them into your centers. You may be Prabhupäda-centered—and that is commendable—but such sentiment is not enough.

You have to genuinely confront the situation for what it is. He brought a perfect process here. The tattva and siddhanta connected to guru and initiation must be expertly attuned to the transcendental fruit which was perfectly passed down from the top of the tree until it reached those who needed it in order to attain siddha.

However, the burnt, fried, and deep fried people—in most cases, misled by actual Prabhupäda initiates—are flooding the world with either sentimental or fanatical so-called Kåñëa consciousness, and THIS IS NOT WHAT Prabhupäda WANTS! Deviations of any sort will not help us. These are all disqualifications for reaching the goal of siddha (which means mukti) and then reaching samsiddha, which means vimukti in the spiritual world of form and activity.

Group think perversions of so-called bhakti cults—many of which are backlash reactions formulated and formed by devotees who foolishly cooperated with “ISKCON” during the stages of its transformations—such cults are not where you should be placing allegiance, focus, and energies. Instead, CONFRONT. Dig down deep to the roots which caused all of this deviation to transpire. Insist upon putting the pieces of the puzzle together in the right way in as much detail as you can.

Understand The Story of “ISKCON” for what it is, not merely as a tragedy. Understand its first inimical backlash, Neo-Mutt, for what that is and how it was responsible—in a very big way—for attacking Prabhupäda’s branch of the Hare Kåñëa movement immediately after he left. See all of yesteryear’s and today’s Neo-Mutt gurus for just what they were and are:

See them as TRAITORS!

See the Rittvik backlash for what it is: HERESY! Rittvik has nothing to do with the Vaiñëava process. It is an Eastern version of “Christianity.” Dedication to Prabhupäda in the here and now does not entail receiving initiation from him after he has departed physical manifestation. The leaders of Rittvik are misleading thousands of innocent (or semi-innocent) people into an unauthorized phantasmagoria.

Although never advertised in this connection and only in one particular way, “ISKCON” is pleased by these two inimical splinters, although it is not pleased when it loses people to either Neo-Mutt or Rittvik. However, Neo-Mutt and Rittvik serve a purpose for “ISKCON,” because the institution uses its own fanaticism in order to inject a particular fear into its followers. What is that fear? It is the fear that, if you don’t surrender yourself completely to “ISKCON” and its vitiated governing body, then Mäyä will arrange to lead you into Neo-Mutt or Rittvik.

As alluded to previously, these three groups are the chief deviations. There is no spiritual shelter in any of them; there is only temporary, illusory shelter provided. They are not conduits to spiritual perfection, which must be your goal in coming to any yogic group.

They are, instead, conduits to sentimentalism, fanaticism, and sahajiyäism. Later backlash offshoots from them—some of which cooperate with the deviation of their original connection and some which go completely independent—all of those have nogenuine spiritual and devotional underpinnings. They cannot take advantage of the gateway to the eternal world provided by the guru-paramparä.

ISKCON was fully converted into its perverted reflection in the Spring of 1978. This was pointed out previously, as well as the fact that it was a gradual process (to some extent) and had been going on even while the Founder-Äcärya was still materially manifest. Four months after he departed, everything exploded.

As could only be expected, some things appeared to be the same as that new transformation took over—although there were egregious differences. A bit later, there was a backlash against The First Transformation, in no small part because it was so restrictive and despotic concerning guru. The world was divided into zones for eleven pretender maha-bhagavats. There was not enough room for even a pin to be driven into it for any other gurus—and by “gurus,” we mean so-called äcäryas.

This bred frustration within the hearts of senior men who considered themselves entitled to also be spiritual masters, although it is dubious that any of them actually were. That developing situation of the backlash, however, was itself a major event slowly brewing, and the slow horses made trouble for the big boys.

The new gurus made mistakes in setting up their transformation, and two of those were more prominent than the others. Besides exclusivity, they took malefic advice from a godbrother of Prabhupäda’s, one who knew just how to manipulate them so that their effort would eventually fail. It would take some time, but only after the seeds of their desires to become worshiped as great devotees reached fulfillment was the descending octave of The First Transformation set into motion.

The eleven great pretenders chose to depend upon the vitiated G.B.C.—which, to some significant extent, they controlled—in order to create those concocted zones of exclusivity and thus become the only devotees authorized to initiate. Both of these mistakes would come back to bite them big-time. This backlash would culminate in the bureaucratization of the movement via The Second Transformation of the mid-Eighties.

We find the following dialogue by a bishop representing a Christian cult, in which he attempts to suppress the doubts of one of his parishioners, a peace officer investigating a double-murder in that congregation:

“I’m not an academic nor am I an historian, so I never concern myself with such deep dives . . . I don’t go digging in the past and neither should you. You place your trust in today’s prophet (and) you leave the things you do not understand on a shelf.”1

When damage control is required, this is also how Eastern (or semi-Eastern) abhäsa-dharmas and cala-dharmas function. Mystery, secrecy, and authority lurks within an atmosphere of fear, and it comes out whenever there is doubt. If he experiences a shock connected to the scandalous topic, especially when some belief controversy also surfaces, it creates doubt. Ultimate legitimacyof the institution is certainly within the category of an integral topic. The leaders of such religions or cults have their claim to legitimacy pinned upon some source code supposedly representing perfect, unassailable authority. All the followers are enjoined to never question that conduit on penalty of excommunication, ostracism, hell, and possible death (read, murder).

Indeed, it is invariably found in all of these cults or religions that the claim to each of them being the only way to heaven or the spiritual world (although these destinations are not one and the same) is through strict adherence to the authority intrinsic to its so-called source code of legitimacy. However, actually it is all about power.

That source code is rarely discussed. It hovers both above and behind everything, but its power to create fear of becoming a reprobate and being condemned by the religion is not supposed to be subject to analysis. We do discuss a particular source code here, however.

Obviously, the G.B.C. is integral to this claim of “ISKCON” legitimacy and connection to its alleged line of spiritual authority is supposed to be the only way to Vaikuntha or Goloka. First of all, the power intrinsic to secret claims of authority (and the mystery of why you must be in the good graces of that power at all times) must have some kind of evidence in order to endure. Realize this fact.

Even if the deviations of the cult—and, again, we are emphasizing “ISKCON” here—even if those deviations are readily apparent to the intelligence of clear deliberation and discrimination, “ISKCON” leaders must be able to present some evidence. It cannot keep loyal adherents if it cannot do that. Here are two examples of such evidence:

1. The Governing Body Commission (G.B.C.) will be the ultimate managing authority of the entire International Society for Krishna Consciousness.2

“We have therefore established the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. Anyone who is trying to be aloof from this Krishna Consciousness Society and yet engage in Kåñëa consciousness is living in a great hallucination, for this is not possible.”3

The first one is connected to the G.B.C., and the second one is connected to ISKCON. “ISKCON” is the glove, and the vitiated G.B.C. is the hand within that glove since the late Seventies. What the first excerpt seems to establish is that the G.B.C. is the ultimate authority.

The second one appears to establish that no one can become Kåñëa conscious except through approved association with and within ISKCON. There are other evidences besides these which could be sighted. However, in the opinion of your host speaker, there is no need to do so, as none of those is as provisionally potent as these two individually are.

In a court of law, when the jury gets its instructions and enters into deliberation, it will have evidence—often, quite powerful evidence—that separately seems to justify both the Prosecution and the Defense. When we confront the root of “ISKCON” and its claims, it is all about power. Although it may appear to be all about what is presented as evidence, it all comes down to power. You have to have the courage to confront that fact in order to free yourself from it.

A recent document or position paper circulated by a reformist faction in the former Yugoslavia centers upon two major “ISKCON” deviations. Although technically the vitiated G.B.C. is not directly involved in the book changes, it allows them. Indirectly it is culpable. If it has passed a rule which requires everyone in its movement to only read the edited books, then it becomes directly responsible at that point.

However, if we want to actually confront the root of all the superficial institutional problems, we have to go deeper than criticizing the symptoms. That means to recognize first the prakñepätmikä separating energy. We have been separated by it from what was our original motivation to join the Hare Kåñëa movement.

We have lost the plot if we have been so victimized, but it does not stop there. We must also consider the avaraëätmikä–çakti, which covers us over. Part of that is the illusion of reform. It also covers us with various pleasures derived from the deviated cult. After all, it is much easier to be “Kåñëa conscious” in this current warped manifestation than it was to be actually Kåñëa conscious when conducted in a bona fide way.

TATTVAMASI

As far as child molestation is concerned, it is a very horrific symptom, but nothing more. It is a symptom of the fact that the molesters–and there were and are many of them–take advantage of lax oversight (or no oversight at all), combined with material absorption, in order to engage in such nefarious pleasures.

With these two symptoms (edited books and molestation) the basis for the complaint in the position paper–it is conclusively evident that this position paper DOES NOT GET TO THE ROOTS OF THE PROBLEM. That is a major flaw. Indirectly, it is but another covering. However, the worst flaw in that document is that it is a REFORM APPEAL, which, as mentioned, is but another feature of the avaraëätmikä-çakti. These devotees (who are pushing this in their document) are, at best, wasting time. At this stage, there can be no reform of “ISKCON.”

You will not be able to transcend the covering potency that is “ISKCON” if you advocate reform. It means that you will continue to believe, you will continue to have faith, that the current “ISKCON” is non-different from Prabhupäda, but just needs reform.

The avaraëätmikä-çakti of that cult will cover you over with various society, friendship, and love entanglements unless and until doubt reaches a certain stage, both subliminally and consciously. At that time, the çakti will flip upon itself and cover you over with different emotions, headed by fear and, if applicable, guilt.

The position paper keeps calling the institution ISKCON, without utilizing necessary quotation marks. That moniker (free from quotation marks) is only applicable to corporate ISKCON. The current entity is the so-called “ISKCON” confederation controlled by the vitiated G.B.C.. There is no GREATER ISKCON, either.

Neither “ISKCON” nor the vitiated G.B.C. can be reformed . . . not at this late stage of their devolution. The position paper points out that a big part of the problem is that the devotees under the whammy of the abhäsa-dharma (“ISKCON”) keep sticking with it and not speaking up about its deviations. That is ultimately due to fear, as above-mentioned. Unfortunately, as long as the paper’s authors keep pushing reform, in effect they are in the same category–just a different division of it, that’s all.

They actually refer to ISKCON (read, “ISKCON “) as Prabhupäda’s movement and as the Hare Krishna movement. It is neither. It is a broken arrow, a deviation engaged in covering Krishna consciousness in the name of spreading it.

They claim that it is dying. What’s wrong with that? NOTHING! It should die. Why are they so adamant to insist that they are not against ISKCON but only against the corrupt G.B.C.? The G.B.C. is the hand and the institution is its glove. They are integrally linked. Does ISKCON even exist anymore? We know that its perverted reflection, an abhäsa-dharma, exists, but does even ISKCON exist? Prabhupäda wrote in 1972 that it could be killed. The document offers us that quote. Nice. And how about these?

“We have worked very hard and established a great institution, but if we think for our personal benefit then it will become ruined. This is my only concern.”4

“If you adulterate our sankirtana movement with some business motive, then it will be spoiled immediately. Be careful in that way.”5

“And I am surprised that none of the G.B.C. members detected the defects in the procedure. It was detected only when it came to me. What will happen when I am not here, shall everything be spoiled by G.B.C.?6

“ . . . become yourselves . . . free from all doubt. On this platform, you shall be able to carry on the work satisfactorily, but if there is lack of knowledge, or if there is forgetfulness, everything will be spoiled in time.”7

Prabhupäda said that his movement could be killed, ruined, and spoiled. There are direct excerpts from his letters. Why is it so incomprehensible that exactly that is what has gone down?

“Who needs the G.B.C.?,” the paper asks. At the same time, they want to reform the governing body in order for it to become ABC: Advisory Board Commission. One concoction after another. The evil intrinsic to that entity will not be eradicated by reform but will morph and remain integral to it via ANY “reform.”

Realize this before it’s too late!

Ironically, the author (and his favorite sannyäsé, whom he cites throughout) are also engaged in allowing everything to drag on, because they insist that ISKCON can be reformed. Although none of it will be acted upon, how many more reform proposals will continue to come down the pike? Simply put, valuable time is being wasted!

ISKCON is dead. It was killed decades ago.
Not dying: It is dead and gone. ITS-GONE.

The unauthorized entity that has killed and replaced it becomes more corrupt by the day, but it still has some momentum. Its influence is not terminated, but its legitimacyIS terminated . . . and has been terminated for decades.

Are these people REALLY exposing “ISKCON” and its vitiated G.B.C.? You cannot have as many flaws that are contained in their document in order for it to have any lasting effect. They will continue to accept the potential of an allegedly possible purification in ISKCON, but all of that is a pipe dream, no matter what goes down in the future. It means more and more hell is coming with more and more reform propaganda responding to it.

Expose, check, terminate: That is the only solution.

Terminate the influence of the perverted institution.

The Caitanya Golden Age will emerge only after this “ISKCON” abhäsa-dharma is cleared. We all know that Prabhupäda declared Gouòéya Mutt asära or useless in a purport to Chaitanya-caritamrita Ädi, 12.8. We should declare the same thing about the fabricated, so-called “ISKCON” confederation and its puppet master: The vitiated G.B.C. The governing body is a criminal entity allowing criminal activity to thrive.

Those who, out of fear combined with attachment, cling to the propaganda of “ISKCON” and the G.B.C. as the only way back to Godhead are all being sucked deeper into the “ISKCON” black hole. Taking radical action is what is ACTUALLY required. Without realization and radical action, the deck cannot be completely cleared for the emergence of the Golden Age, which is now stuck under the roof of a potent triple empire of the mind:

“ISKCON,” Neo-Mutt, and Rittvik.

Institutional Elitism Replaces Zonal Megalomania

Introduced in the mid-Eighties by the collegiate compromise, the paradigm of ever-increasing bureaucracy continued in The Third Transformation. It will continue to do so as the Hindoo Hodgepodge in “ISKCON” is about to be replaced by another change coming soon to a theater near you. Yet, none of this amounts to a paradigm shift.

The zonal äcärya imposition was certainly a paradigm shift from Prabhupäda’s prescriptive paradigm. There was virtually no bureaucracy in “ISKCON” during the big gun zonal äcärya era. The Second Transformation of the collegiate compromise was a paradigm shift from the zonal scam by introducing it into an already deviated movement.

Prabhupäda did not actually favor the big guns:

“Regarding your questions you say that amongst the elder disciples there are still symptoms of greed, anger, strife, bickering, etc., but you are one of them. You are one of the old students, so you fall in that group. So, the fighting is among that group, but not amongst the real workers.”8

The zonal imposition was all about big boy elitism. The disease of stratification and elitism is, in this age, always present in any organization of scale, and this, most unfortunately, is particularly the case when it comes to organized religion. It was present in ISKCON, but Prabhupäda did not approve of it. He had some pet disciples, granted, but the real ISKCON movement was supposed to be a spiritual meritocracy, which is the exact opposite of a bureaucracy.

The bureaucracy emerged with the damage control necessary for The Second Transformation in the mid-Eighties. Such bureaucracy needs to accelerate with the aid of buffers in order to keep from backsliding. In effect, it replaced one set of elites with another one. It consolidated and crystallized its power via mega-institutionalism. Power is where power is believed to be. Although not advertised as such, its challenge—not foreseen by its leaders—was revenue enhancement, which it did not create. It decreased it, instead.

Its power rested upon the vitiated G.B.C., especially during its emergence. That was one of the weaknesses of the eleven pretender mahä-bhägavats (and those who also were voted in in the early Eighties): They were all implicated in G.B.C. imprimatur. Even Kértanänanda made that mistake. He cooperated with the bogus appointment, allegedly from Prabhupäda (the appointment that never was) and accepted a zone.

In the beginning of The Second Transformation, it was a hard-core, limited bureaucracy in its primordial stage. Innovation and expansive trends or processes in the movement had to be stabilized and made compatible to the bureaucracy. If they were not, they could pose a threat to its eventual massive implementation.

As could have only been expected (when it attempted to gain traction), it was anything but a bureaucracy in 1987 at the time the new paradigm emerged. In order to perpetuate that new scam, there had to be a major emphasis on institutional form. In order to stabilize and morph into the soft power bureaucratic paradigm it is today, it needed to come up with institutional solutions to the new problems.

The Second Transformation created those, along with what it still had to deal with from the scandals generated by the zonal äcäryas, particularly amongst its most egregious sector. Its institutional solutions were, in essence, different from the innovations that emerged during the previous paradigm, most of which centered around “the pick.”

The program of “re-initiation” was integral to one such solution. This process worked for a short while, and it aided the development of bureaucracy, although indirectly. It had an intrinsic flaw to it, however, in that the replacement guru—who was basically a rent-äcärya—could himself experience an egregious falldown down the road. What would be the implication? It would necessitate another “re-initiation.” Indeed, once some of the newcomers were on their third so-called initiating guru, it would be impossible for them not to consider that they were entangled in a fix-it-as-you-go scheme.

However, this “re-initiation” supposed solution did accomplish something: It bought more time. “ISKCON” always has been, and continues to be, expert at kicking the can down the road via fix-it-as-you-go. It more or less had to deep-six the re-initiation due to the multiple-guru factor just described, along with the Black Swan event: The emergence of the Rittvik heresy in late 1989 and throughout the Nineties. This was certainly a threat to the “ISKCON” bureaucracy, and it remains so.

Today’s “ISKCON” bubble has mostly replaced high-flying mega-charismatic gurus with institutional gurus via a bureaucratic paradigm. Sure, it has a couple or three big profile gurus, but there are reasons for that. They accept the G.B.C. and, when it suits them, they take advantage of also climbing the latticework of the bureaucracy.

Things are intentionally made complex in “ISKCON.” It has well-established committees, such as the ones which are required to rubber stamp a candidate for becoming a new guru in the organization and then determining how many years he has to remain in queue before final approval. Call these standing committees. It has steering committees and temporary sub-committees. It has a complaint committee. Bureaucratic committees act as effective buffers in order to protect the vitiated G.B.C.:

“. . . and if I did not interfere, the whole thing would have been killed. Do not think in this way of big corporation, big credits, centralization—these are all nonsense proposals. . . management, everything, should be done locally by local men. Accounts must be kept, things must be in order and lawfully done, but that should be each temple’s concern, not yours. Krishna consciousness movement is for training men to be independently thoughtful and competent in all types of departments of knowledge and action, not for making bureaucracy. Once there is bureaucracy the whole thing will be spoiled.”9

Complexity is inevitably followed by shallow expansion. The hard power bureaucratic approach of the Eighties has now morphed into the soft power, loose expansion of the Twenty-First Century in “ISKCON.” Everything is getting watered down, but, as long as there are numbers, then the argument can be made that the movement is successful.

You can become neither self-realized nor God-realized in such an environment. This should be self-evident to one who is sincere and serious in spiritual life, and thus you will not find such people in “ISKCON.”

A big bureaucracy is a ticket for acceptance by the host culture, and “ISKCON” recognizes this fact. It is also an insurance policy for the cult not to be easily destroyed by forces from without. The Western world is still functioning according to the nation-state paradigm established at the Peace of Westphalia. The kings have been mostly replaced in that paradigm by congresses and parliaments. Most of these nation-states in are considered to be democracies or democratic republics, but that is only a superficial consideration, ultimately.

Bureaucracy pervades the whole of their interrelationships both within and without. Many of them are plutocratic, pseudo-democracies within the nation-state paradigm. “ISKCON” has found acceptability, a niche within that paradigm. The cult’s massive, soft-power bureaucracy of today meets with unexpressed approval by the host culture.

The nation-state paradigm is going to crater. What exactly its replacement will be is known only to the higher demigods and the Paramesvara. However, we can see symptoms: Massive technology is present in our lives in almost every action we take. The postulated thesis would therefore be the emergence of THE TECHNOCRACY as the next paradigm shift in the Western world in particular.

It will take over in a tyrannical fashion. It will have to do so in order to prevent the impending chaos which gave it the opportunity to triumph in the first place. Besides a one-world government, will it choose to also have a one-world religion advising it? Would “ISKCON”–with its international presence, Hindoo constituency, and sprawling, bureaucratic network–be a prime candidate for attaining power behind the curtain?

The colossal hoax known as the fabricated, so-called “ISKCON” confederation is a pseudo-spiritual scam. The Story of “ISKCON” is the story of one concoction after another. It is only dangerous now if you enter into its wheelhouse. Such might not be the case in the future, as its bureaucracy—which was specifically condemned by Prabhupäda—represents a future threat to the world at large.

“ISKCON” is an illegitimate entity, and it fears being exposed as such. It needs to be exposed now, and we are doing that. It needs to have its momentum checked and reversed, and it needs to have its influence terminated. If that is accomplished, the next paradigm shift of the Western world’s superstructure, THE TECHNOCRACY, won’t risk affiliating with “ISKCON” as a backdrop advisory board to its new world order.

SAD EVA SAUMYA

ENDNOTES

1 Bishop Low, “Under the Banner of Heaven”

2 Prabhupada, Final Will and Testament

3 Çrémad-Bhägavatam, 4.9.11, purport

4 Letter to leading secretary, 11-1-74

5 Letter to early initiated disciple, 7-1-69

6 Letter to governing body commissioner, 4-11-72

7 Letter to governing body commissioner, 6-22-72

8 Letter to early initiated disciple, 9-9-72

9 Letter to governing body commissioner, 12-22-72