Same Old Brave New “ISKCON”

Article Three, Section Two: After the Bust Out

Last of a Six-Part Series

by Kailäsa Candra däsa

“. . . pretentious religion is a form of nescience that artificially covers a living entity’s pure consciousness under certain unfavorable conditions. Real religion lies dormant when artificial religion dominates from the mental plane.”
– Caitanya-caritämåta, Ädi, 1.91, purport

“There will be a . . . method of making people love their servitude and producing dictatorship without tears, so to speak, producing a kind of painless concentration camp for entire societies, so that people will in fact have their liberties taken from them. But (they) will rather enjoy it, because they will be distracted from any desire to rebel by propaganda or brainwashing . . . ”
– Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

“None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe that they are free.”
– Wolfgang Von Goethe

Dominating the upper echelons of their soul-killing cult, the pernicious and subtle influence of pretentious “ISKCON” leaders can only be overcome by understanding where they are actually at, as well as where their organization is likely heading. They represent the domineering mentality conducive to personal sense gratification via an organized religion that internationally dominates the exoteric arena of so-called devotion. This Kali-yuga religion must also be understood for not only what it is but where it may be heading—particularly if it is not confronted, exposed, and checked at this time by the disciples and followers of Çréla Prabhupäda.

All emphases added for your edification and realization

The real issue is legitimacy of guru, not any “reform” of a vitiated oligarchy, one in which no rejuvenation will ever be possible. The real need at this time is what it has always been: To provide people coming to Kåñëa consciousness the right philosophy by which they can achieve freedom from all forms of entanglement, especially psychic slavery.

That kind of bondage was what Aldous Huxley warned about in Brave New World. The chance for spiritual freedom is lost when a misguided person allows himself or herself to become initiated into “ISKCON” and thus receives the maleficent “ISKCON” béja. However, if and/or when that ”ISKCON” imposition is exposed in a widespread manner–and the initiation fetish it pushes is thus rejected–there could to be a widespread awakening as to what has been the real issue all along.

That Mind Game Guerrilla

“There are many so-called followers of the Vaiñëava cult in the line of Caitanya Mahäprabhu who do not scrupulously follow the conclusions of the çästras, and therefore they are considered to be apa-sampradäya, which means ‘outside of the sampradäya.’ . . . one should not associate with these apa-sampradäya communities.”
– Caitanya-caritämåta, Ädi, 7.48, purport

“Men are only free when they are doing what the deepest self likes. And there is the getting down to that deepest self. It takes some diving, because the deepest self is way down–and the conscious self is an obstinate monkey.”
– D. H. Lawrence, Studies in Classic American Literature

“Each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”
– Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

Having tasted Kåñëa consciousness and having experienced the benedictions of knowledge and bliss that automatically accompany bona fide seva, any authentic initiate of His Divine Grace Çréla Prabhupäda (1966-1977) cannot find real happiness within the current covering principle known as the fabricated, so-called “ISKCON” confederation. That pretentious religion is a manifestation of avidyä. It is covering bhakti-seva, having created an institutional roof that, once a person is caught under its confines, is almost impossible to overcome. Such an unfavorable condition thus has created a new variety of the living dead, so-called devotees who enjoy being distracted by “ISKCON” propaganda, who mistake enslavement to that organization as service to the guru-paramparä.

Post-November 1977, none of them has been genuinely initiated; not a one (still linked to the institutional delusion and the “ISKCON” béja) has come close to transcending the influence of the conscious self, which is always permeated by false ego. They all falsely believe that their link to “ISKCON” has freed them from the bondage of the material world. In point of fact, they have simply jumped from the proverbial frying pan into the fire and are hopelessly enslaved by psychic larva they are unable to recognize.

The domineering mentality of their leaders holds complete sway over them, mostly because these misguided individuals buy into the institution’s long con and are thus infected by various “ISKCON” viruses, such as the aforementioned institutional béja–along with whatever psychic seeds their “guru” of choice has honed, perfected, and thus spontaneously projected into them. These béjas constitute their psychic slavery.

In this post-modern version of “the Society,” at all of its levels, there are a great many mind games constantly in play. At their own level, artificially attained and fully undeserved, the “ISKCON” commissioners and gurus always win these mind games—at least, ultimately—because the dice are loaded to their advantage. They always hold the trump card, and it is so potent that they rarely, if ever, are even forced to play it: The cheated wanted to be cheated, so it’s on them.

The core issues are never really discussed in that corporate milieu, because those issues represent the unspoken, i.e., a member in good standing is supposed to know the answers to them already. Such apa-sampradäyas never stress spiritual knowledge and personal detachment. Instead, they are all about “experience,” along with egoistic ploys engaged in for the sake of attainments, personal and institutional (“the best of both worlds”). The mind games add to the excitement, especially for the winners. Core issues are a drag; they create doubts. The cult member who doubts is never able to gain an edge, and you had better know how to play the angles to advantage if you want recognition and power in “ISKCON.”

Party men and institutional hacks serve as rent-äcäryas in this third-order simulacrum. They are easily replaced when they (quite often) fall down, i.e., when some kind of scandal—be it financial or sexual or both—engaged in by them meets the light of day (which is not always the case, of course). In this international “big-love” family, a steady state of anxiety and unhappiness is masked by an artificial bliss felt by the living dead who comprise it.

In such a dumbed-down atmosphere of cheap gurus and cheap disciples, any fool (and, in just a few months, women also) can submit an application for the coveted No Objection Certificate . . . to become dékñä-guru of “ISKCON.” If they keep their noses clean for whatever time period they are sequestered in queue, then—presto, chango!—they are accepted as spiritual “masters” (or would that be “mistresses” in the case of the feminists?)

Despite the ephemeral buzz of perverted enjoyment that automatically accompanies “ISKCON” devotees as they play their mind games forever with one another, the whole show-bottle is nothing more than a disturbance–except it has the potential to become a very big disturbance, if, somehow or other, its rapacious leaders are able to capture political power. Such an accomplishment could only be by pretence, of course, but it has happened before in the West in the form of “Christianity.”

That topic is going to be touched upon in this final segment of our series. However, in order to better anticipate it, we should glean a better understanding of how the “ISKCON” apa-sampradäya creates a disturbance in society at large and how it took over Çréla Prabhupäda’s movement in the first place. We must also explore just how (and this is subtle, having gone mostly unnoticed) the initial stage of that takeover destroyed the very essence of Kåñëa consciousness. History has shown that these kinds of cults can worm their way into political power in due course.

You are enjoined not to associate with the fabricated, so-called “ISKCON” confederation, but that does not mean you must ignore or misunderstand how it was formed and how it functions (and, potentially, in the foreseeable future). A simulation of devotional service and transcendental attitude should never be accepted as the real thing. An unauthorized devotee should never be recognized as a pure devotee.

Smoke Disturbs, Fire Serves

“When a sentimental devotee takes the part of becoming representative of Krishna, there is simply havoc. Çréla Rüpa Goswämé therefore said in his Bhakti-rasämåta-sindhu that devotion to Krishna without reference to authoritative scriptures is simply a disturbance.”
– Letter to Guru däs, May 15, 1969

“That is the first proposition. A layman cannot be a spiritual master, and, if he becomes so, then he will simply create disturbance.”
– Letter to Mukunda, Jun. 10, 1969

“It is a question of substituting the signs of the real for the real (itself). That is to say (to substitute) an operation of deterring every real process via its operational double. . . a confusion of the fact with its model . . . ”
– Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation

Disturbance is caused by avidyä, which flourishes in Kali-yuga. When an unqualified devotee, an “ISKCON” sahajiyä, or an “ISKCON” party man (all ultimately one and the same—and all ultimately laymen from the higher transcendental perspective) exploits an opportunity to take the part of initiating spiritual master, he straddles the razor’s edge. There is going to be some kind of chaos underlying everything connected to his pretense, even if a semblance of order is maintained by his group.

Never underestimate how power and money can combine with egoism, resentment, ignorance, enmity, and envy to produce wrecking-ball machines in the form of institutional religions. Western history is loaded with examples of this, but the means and methods by which “ISKCON” is now repeating the syndrome are certainly unique. This is due to the fact that His Divine Grace Çréla Prabhupäda founded something cent-per-cent spiritually bona fide, which is always a very rare event.

In Kali-yuga, image is everything, especially in the Western world. In the Fifties in America, the self-image was discovered and soon thereafter exploited. Of course, from the Vedic standpoint, it was nothing new, as the self-image is but the changed reflection of the physical self projecting the internal ahaìkara of the astral body into the outer world. Yet, when unqualified men (and soon, women) decide to project the image of being qualified and realized dékñä-gurus, the result will be a thick and powerful fog of disturbing and degrading ignorance.

You cannot successfully ignite the spiritual fire of intense devotional service (in pure sädhana-bhakti) wherever such smoke predominates. Every sincere person still connected to “ISKCON” finds himself in this situation. Steps must be taken to escape the choking atmosphere, and that requires both knowledge and spiritual courage. That requirement can be met without external help in some special circumstances. When such an exception is not the case, however, then associating with, and accepting direction from, knowledgeable yogis and great thinkers is enjoined.

Differentiating the real from the unreal is intrinsic to all systems of yoga, whether personalist or impersonalist. For those unfortunate enough to be deluded by the make-show of devotional service–the fabricated, so-called “ISKCON”–higher intelligence is rarely actuated. Genuine yoga activity will be difficult to find in them, and thus, for the zombies caught in that network, there is no real emergence of spiritual fire

Bogus gurus represent a false model of reality; “ISKCON” is chock full of them. You have to be serious about spiritual life in order to actually make progress in it; you cannot afford to be careless. Associating yourself with imitations, seeped as they are in a cavalier attitude of feigned spontaneity, will keep you in the confines of their saffron haze. That will turn out to be a kind of havoc for you in due course of time.

If you must ponder “ISKCON,” better that you utilize your valuable time in understanding just how its leaders secured the power they now wield. The G.B.C. mystique is ultimately not that mysterious, and every “ISKCON” guru is under the final control of the vitiated G.B.C., which either appointed them or allowed them to operate in some way. In one sense, although psychic entanglements abound, it is not too difficult to superficially escape “ISKCON.” Unlike in its early years, the scam is so watered down and distracted now–by an all-pervading sentimental and careless attitude–that, in most cases, its heavyweights will not even recognize that you now know where they’re at and have decided to break from them.

Smash and Grab

Prabhupäda: A devotee has no ambition. He simply wants to do some humble service for Kåñëa. He is not trying to do anything big. A devotee is not ambitious. We have no ambition.
Kirtanänanda: What Prabhupäda means to say is that the devotees have no material ambition.
Prabhupäda: No! We have no ambition. The devotee is not at all ambitious.
– May 24, 1972, Los Angeles [1]

“They were careless people . . . they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money . . . and let other people clean up the mess they had made.”
– F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

“The principle architects of policy are those who own the country, and they design policy so that their interests are most peculiarly attended to, however grievous the impact on others. ‘All for ourselves and nothing for other people’ seems, in every age of the world, to be the vile maxim of mankind.”
– Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations

“The servicemen were yellow, and the gasoline was green. Although I knew I couldn’t, I thought that I was gonna scream.”
– Neil Young, “The Last Trip to Tulsa”

While the real workers were engaged in severe tapasya, in preaching and collecting and making new devotees, another sector of Çréla Prabhupäda’s then thriving movement was thinking differently. They were thinking Machiavellian. Prabhupäda said that one of them was regularly praying that he, the founder-äcärya, would leave the scene as soon as possible. Instead of living in a spirit of humble servitorship, these men were already covertly imitating Prabhupäda, even while he was still present.

The vast majority of Prabhupäda’s disciples were sincere and serious men and women who were attempting to change their characters, to remain fixed in the mode of goodness within the rules and regulations he had given them. They were seva oriented, and they followed the principle of chain of command. They were sometimes accused (by outsiders) as having adopted a slave mentality, of even having been brainwashed. However, in point of fact, they had all realized that any conditioned soul is a slave anyway, until he or she transcends the modes of nature.

Although a bit compulsive at times, and although they often blindly followed the directives of their temple presidents, sannyäsés, or governing commissioners, they were good souls and not harmful to others. They wanted spiritual authority, and they accepted the fact that Prabhupäda wanted them to stay within the structure of his movement. In other words, once he departed, most of them were ripe for fleecing, and that’s exactly what went down. Prabhupäda’s movement was a money machine, particularly after plainclothes book distribution was introduced in 1973. Per capita, it was the richest religious institution in the world at that time, due to fantastic collections made daily by hundred of devotees fully engaged in book distribution and “the pick.”

The power structure was either authoritarian (at the more liberal temples) or totalitarian, because Kåñëa consciousness is the one true system of totalism, the Absolute Truth, the all-pervading reality. The servants in the temples were sometimes even called inmates by the leaders of those temples or zones. The chain of command in most of the temples was rigid; there was no democracy to be found in them. There may have been an iñöaghoñöé once per month, but, even then, the temple president dominated it. The devotees, almost to the man, believed that whatever your spiritual authority said must be true and whatever he ordered must be followed, as if in military discipline. Those who did not think and feel like this were termed fringies; very few of them were ever approved, by a temple president or sannyäsé, for initiation, even at the Harer Näma level.

There were regular rumors circulating in all of the temples, and the devotees in various centers became enthralled by these rumors; an atmosphere similar to a small high school, along with a rigid pecking order (and, often, an in-group and an out-group) buttressed this ambiance. The devotees were more enamored by a specific leader at their temple (if it be a temple), then by an attitude of worship, service, and allegiance to Prabhupäda—this in defiance of the fact that he was their initiator. Despite these rumors, there was virtually no transparency in the cult, i.e., the real workers did not know what was actually going on at the higher levels of power. In particular, they did not know what the G.B.C. was doing, what the characters of those commissioners actually was, nor were they aware of all the intrigue and treachery that existed within it.

“One of my disciples is simply waiting, ‘When will the old man die, so that I can become guru?’ . . . This illness is because eighty percent of the leaders are not following the rules and regulations.”
– Aug. 31, 1974, Vrndavan, India [2]

By the time His Divine Grace departed, the majority of the devotees– those who were the real workers in devotional service–were more sentimentally attached, with awe, reverence, and fear, to their given godbrother-leader than they were to him. Surrender was a key concept in this movement, as well it should have been. When the vitiated G.B.C. came up with its self-interested concoction in the spring of 1978, they figured they would face little resistance in implementing it. They figured right.

What they then did amounted to a kind of bust out. They already had much of the power, and now these eleven men grabbed all of it. The temples in the newly-configured zones became theirs to do with as each of them wished, according to his whim and fancy. The devotees soon learned, wrongly, that Prabhupäda had appointed eleven men to be guru. They learned, wrongly, that each of these eleven was to be worshipped as an uttama-adhikäré. They learned, wrongly, that they were to now surrender themselves to the guru of the zone in which they served. Just as would have been expected, most of them were smashed more or less immediately.

It remains a bit surprising how so many bold and courageous souls could allow themselves to be so quickly and completely run over by the concoction. For the women devotees, that would be forgivable–but for the others? These were young men engaged in intense devotional service, and almost all of them should have had enough acumen to question the thing. Alas, very few of them did–and those who did paid for it!

The fuel that ran the operation was not really the pomp and power of the new gurus. Instead, it continued to be what it had been for the previous five years: The money. Collections did not instantly dry up when the “new gurus” took over; a fan does not immediately stop spinning when unplugged. All that money was consolidated under the aegis of the new gurus, and there were enough sycophants, lackeys, and hatchet men to immediately jump on board and act as strongmen to enforce the new regime. For their service to the new guru, they all got plenty of it to work with, while the guru was able to open up big bank accounts almost anywhere and everywhere (usually in his zone, of course).

The poison is personal ambition. The pretender mahäbhägavats were loaded with it. They came, they saw, and they knew that they could conquer. They smashed, and they grabbed. Somewhat ironically, intrinsic to their overall plan was a desire to utilize their “surrendered” godbrothers in the short-term, only until the new gurus could establish, in every temple, initiates of their own. This part of the plan was kept hidden just long enough to pull it off. That was also accomplished, and the shock continued for the sheepish godbrothers who allowed themselves to be so easily shorn.

Their silent scream still reverberates today.

The Greatest Irony

“. . . not that one can independently manufacture some idea of what should be accepted or rejected. The spiritual master, as the visible manifestation of Kåñëa, is necessary, therefore, to direct the devotee on behalf of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.”
– Nectar of Devotion, “Devotional Qualifications”

“The guru is essential, but why go to a bogus guru? . . Then you’ll be cheated. The guru is necessary. That’s a fact.”
– Civilization and Transcendence

For one by one and two by two,
He tossed them human hearts to chew,
Which from his wide cloak he drew.
Shelley

We have all heard the institutional pabulum that the zonal äcärya era should simply be dismissed as a necessary stage in the movement’s learning curve. According to this rationalization, a new and improved bhakti cult (with Prabhupäda no longer externally manifest to correct it) was figuring out how to go it alone. They thus had to learn lessons the hard way. Its new gurus had to learn how to actually be gurus, as if that makes any sense. The party men, who advocate that it’s best to not take seriously that wayward period of the high profile zonals, similarly urge us to cavalierly dismiss it as a brief moment in time, one wrought with inevitable “growing pains,” which should be munificently forgiven.

“Within the heart of every living being the Lord Himself as the Supersoul becomes the spiritual master, and from without He becomes the spiritual master in the shape of scriptures, saints, and the initiator spiritual master.”
– Çrémad Bhägavatam, 1.7.5, purport

Unfortunate spiritual seekers who approached that new and improved movement were pushed hard by it to accept an externally manifest guru. The vitiated G.B.C. oligarchy, of which the so-called mahäbhägavat äcäryas were both key and powerful members, dictated that all eleven of them were just that external media—and the only ones! Pick any world zone. There you would find your guru and thus your initiation, in flesh and blood, all laid out neatly in advance for you by the G.B.C.

“The so-called äcäryas of the Age of Kali are more concerned with exploiting the resources of their followers than in mitigating their miseries . . . “
– Caitanya-caritämåta, Ädi, 3.98, purport

The pretender mahäbhägavats, having carved out eleven world zones in order to lord it over—and to especially lord over the temples within their zones—all became pseudo-spiritual dictators. The exploited new initiates of these institutional gurus (as well as almost all of the godbrothers choosing to remain in the thing) had precious little spiritual knowledge. By their foolish submission to the eleven rogues, they proved themselves to have had meager (if any) connection to Paramätmä within, and, one by one and two by two, they all surrendered to the new “uttama” crew.

There was profound damage done to all of them. The newcomers became particularly changed entities, having imbibed both the “ISKCON” béja and the specific béja(s) possessed by their sahajiyä mahäbhägavat of choice. The list of negative ramifications and repercussions from these adulterated béjas is practically endless. However, both the genuine initiates of His Divine Grace (1966-1977) and the vast majority of those newcomers (those who even remained devotees, that is) have, up to this day, failed to recognize the greatest damage of all. What is that? It is that the principle of spiritual master, particularly as it applies to dékñä-guru in relation to his bona fide çiñya, has been smashed and lost.

“Ädau gurväçrayam. That is the first business. Ädau, in the beginning, gurväçrayam, to take shelter of a bona fide mahätmä guru. That is the Vedic instruction: tad-vijïänärthaà sa gurum eva abhigacchet—‘must’–abhigacchet. This verb is used—‘must.’ It is not, ‘Oh, I can do without guru.’ No, that is not possible. That is not possible. If you want to understand the transcendental science, spiritual science, you must approach. Gacchet. This, this form of verb is used when there is the meaning ‘must.’”
– Lecture on Çrémad Bhägavatam, Aug. 10, 1974

You do not search out an institution in order to make advancement in spiritual life. You search out a guru. An institutional guru is not a guru; he is a bogus guru. A guru who pretends to be a mahäbhägavat is not a guru; he is a sahajiyä. A guru who is a covert impersonalist or demigod worshipper (backing and promoting the Hindu hodge-podge, for example) is not a guru; he is a watered down Mäyävädé. A guru who engages in sexual relations with his disciple is not a guru; he is a libertine. In the fabricated, so-called “ISKCON” confederation you will find examples of all of these, along with many different permutations of them.

You will not find any bona fide gurus there.

Before it was converted into “ISKCON,” there was a bona fide guru present in it, and he was of the topmost order. Since December of 1977, he has not been a dékñä-guru. All the so-called dékñä-gurus (since that time) are just that, so-called—only those who want to be cheated accept them.

You receive genuine spiritual initiation only from a genuine guru, a genuine spiritual master. This is the principle. That principle has been lost. It has been lost courtesy of “ISKCON,” and it has been lost courtesy of the rittviks. The eleven pretender mahäbhägavats did incredible damage to the spiritual life of this planet at large. That they effectively destroyed this principle is the greatest irony, in the sense that they acted as gurus, to some limited and contaminated extent. When the caprice came crashing down, it generated faithlessness in the hearts of the followers. That faithlessness has thus spawned wrong schools, such as Rittvik and Solar Smorgasbord. It has spawned an imitation school in the form of Neo-Mutt.

All such apa-sampradäyas must be unreservedly and thoroughly rejected. They cannot help us. The order of the guru means everything to the disciple. In this sense, the guru is everything to the disciple. The uninitiated are enjoined—as they always have been by çästra—to seek out, contact, recognize, and surrender themselves to a bona fide spiritual master in the line of the Vaiñëava sampradäya.

The principle of the spiritual master–he being the sole source of genuine initiation in Kåñëa consciousness—has been completely lost as a result of the antics of the eleven pretender mahäbhägavats during the debacle of the late Seventies and early Eighties. That does not mean that you must also be a victim. Transcend the irony by accepting and following, with determination and confidence, the yoga process as it is.

The Past is Prologue

“ . . . it can be accepted, to a certain extent, to understand that history is changing and repeating at the same time.”
– Letter to Dayänanda, Aug. 24, 1968

“ . . .(ecclesiastical principalities) are sustained by ancient religious customs, which are so powerful and of such quality that they keep their princes in power in whatever manner they proceed and live. These princes alone have states without defending them, have subjects without governing them, and their states . . . are not taken from them.“
– Niccoló Machiavelli, The Prince

“. . . history is always written by the winners. When two cultures clash, the loser is obliterated. The winners write the history books, books which glorify their own cause and disparage the conquered foe. As Napoleon once said, ‘What is history but a fable agreed upon?’”
– Dan Brown, The DaVinci Code

Inaugurated during the lifetime the Supreme Personality of Godhead Çré Caitanya Mahäprabhu, His Golden Age marked a new beginning. Its powerful spiritual aura spread from India to Western Europe, helping a fledgling Renaissance movement to flourish. Renaissance means rebirth. The Renaissance of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries was a secular, humanistic reaction to the prevailing Gothic era.

The Renaissance resisted the Roman Catholic Inquisition, but, besides that, as a lateral octave, it also helped to usher in the much more powerful and longer-lasting Age of Enlightenment. To understand how Lord Caitanya’s movement can flourish in Western culture, an understanding of the West’s actual history (from the devotional and occult perspective) can be more than a bit helpful. We shall attempt to do that here.

We interpret today’s trends, in terms of their likely outcomes, by realizing how similar trends played out in history, i.e., the past is prologue. Long gone powerful mindsets, movements, and eras still subtly influence egocentric individuals in the present; what was accomplished within the linear structure of time can serve as a reminder of what similar men of today (and their mentalities and movements) will likely manifest. Changed circumstances differ, of course, but the essence of any current initiative remains primed to play out in much the same way as it had in the past—unless, when malefic, it is exposed and effectively stopped.

In this section of our article, we learn, from a succinct study of Western culture and its history, how to upgrade our predictive powers within the current milieu. Assimilating historical trends and their lessons can bear transcendental fruit, especially in terms of how the host culture may now play a role in stifling or assisting the genuine Kåñëa consciousness movement—or, dreadfully, its perverted reflection.

The roots of Western culture were the Greek and Roman epochs; no one disputes this, and Prabhupäda has affirmed it. They were somewhat similar, although the Roman culture was more militant. These two civilizations differed from those of the Egyptians, Persians, Babylonians, Chaldeans, and Assyrians in a number of ways, and the Greco-Roman culture laid the groundwork for what would eventually become Western civilization in Europe and North America.

Into this culture, especially in the fourth century, entered an alien concoction known, both then and now, as “Christianity.” It was a so-called monotheistic movement based on envy and resentment of the prevalent warrior culture (as Europeans come from warrior stock). This should not be misinterpreted. We have no quarrel with Éça Kåñöos whatsoever, and we honor him as a çaktyäveça-avatära and a pure spiritual being. However, truth be told, an accurate understanding of the history of the West culminates in conclusion closer to Nietzsche then it does to prevailing misconceptions pushed by the representatives so-called Christianity. [3]

There is no need to go into great detail concerning the many centuries of horror that were spawned by Christianity in Europe, as, like a virus, it wove its way into the fabric of a culture in decline—a decline set in motion, in no small part, by that movement itself. During the Byzantine Era, the Dark Ages, and, worst of all, the Gothic Epoch, Papal Bull reigned supreme. By the fifth and sixth centuries, it insidiously had become the dominant substratum within European life.

Emperors and kings tried to resist it during the fourteen centuries in which it held sway, but these monarchs were mostly unsuccessful in doing so. That is a long story, but the serfs, kept in intentional darkness by the Church, remained in constant dread of any form of indictment or excommunication that could be hurled down upon them by corrupt Popes. As such, autocratic rule of the various kingdoms throughout Europe was more or less held in check under the threat of papal edict.

Although technically theistic—as it had to be—the actual pulse of the Renaissance entailed a new, humanistic, and secular view of the world. It rejected feudal loyalty and royal blood; the State was to replace that with a secular, strong, well-ordered rule. A tyrannical prince was only a temporary expedient when the republic, which was to be the chief form of this State, had broken down. The Renaissance considered the Gothic mindset to be divisive, unnatural, based on a fanatical faith, and quite grotesque. The State or republic, on the other hand, was meant to be autonomous, competent, binding in its particular geographic area, a source of law onto itself, and fully deserving the loyalty of the citizens who were protected by it. The leader of the State became indispensable by mastering diplomacy in the form of a centralized, sovereign power.

Renaissance politics was certainly neither Vedic nor Vaiñëava, but it was a step in the right direction compared to Gothic Christianity. Renaissance thought encouraged men to become self-conscious, multi-faceted, humanistic, urbane, mercantile, and to free themselves from theological traps. It utterly rejected Scholasticism. The printed book first emerged in the middle of the Fifteenth Century, and the Renaissance manifested soon afterwards; that was no coincidence. Although centered in the Italian peninsula, its liberating influence spread to all the nation-states of Europe, influencing great Western thinkers, scientists, and artists such as Petrarch, Erasmus, Michelangelo, Leonardo daVinci, Machiavelli, and Sir Thomas More (the man for all seasons). It also planted a seed for the discovery of the New World in North America.

More important than this, however, was its laying the groundwork for the Enlightenment, which would have been severely persecuted by the Church had not another lateral octave emerged in the third decade of the Sixteenth Century. The Renaissance considered all of medieval mindset and history to be steeped in ignorance and quasi-theistic barbarism. As such, it sought knowledge from a Western culture that prevailed previous to the alien Christian contamination, viz., the Greco-Roman civilization.

The Enlightenment did not follow the Renaissance in this. Instead, the Age of Enlightenment pushed for a clean sweep of the whole thing, a complete disregard of all the previous cultures that had thus culminated in the Inquisition of the Gothic Epoch. It had to do so most carefully and covertly (in the beginning), but then it took advantage of an opening that was, indirectly, provided at the fag end of the Renaissance.

Of course, we are referring to the Protestant Reformation. In 1527, Henry VIII of England divorced Catherine of Aragon in blatant defiance of the Roman Catholic Church. Luther, Zwingli, Huss, and Calvin had already made moderately successful attempts to establish a theistic alternative to Rome. Now the King of the Angles declared himself the head of the Church of England. Luther was protected by various German princes, but what took place on the British peninsula had more powerful repercussions.

The ecclesiastic episcopate of the Church was thus challenged by a powerful sovereign within a prominent nation-state, and Rome never recovered from that. This does not mean, however, that the Papacy did not fight Protestantism; most certainly it did, vigorously. That provided cover for the Enlightenment to gain influence, especially in intellectual circles, as the Church could not fight two fronts at the same time.

The Inquisition remained in effect throughout. Originally established by Gregory IX in 1233 and run by the Dominicans and Franciscans, it turned over obdurate heretics—after first torturing them in order to elicit confessions—to the monarchy, who would then carry out their executions, usually by burning those “non-believers” at the stake. Such pseudo-religious fanaticism reached its pinnacle during the Spanish Inquisition in and around 1481, when the Church worked hand-in-glove with King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella to establish a kind of theocratic rule there.

In 1542, two years after the creation of the Jesuit Order, the Roman Inquisition displaced that of the Spanish with the formation of the Congregation of the Holy Office (which was not disbanded until the fourth decade of the Twentieth Century). In the middle Sixteenth Century, the Papacy and its minions took over executions from the crown, and heretics were treated as both traitors and criminals. Book burning became rampant then, as well. Indeed, the Church effectively snuffed out Protestantism in Spain and Italy and put it strongly on the defensive in France. One of the most ruthless popes, Pius V (1565-1572), relied almost exclusively on the Jesuits to carry out this Roman Catholic restoration.

As the Catholics and Protestants engaged in mind-boggling atrocities against one another, the Enlightenment, slowly but surely, gained traction. It was a new philosophy, an intellectual revolution, rooted in research, knowledge gained through logical and empiric methods, humane ideas for the improvement of the lot of man, culminating in what would eventually come to be known as the Western scientific method. It believed in a universal and single set of laws governing all things. Its discoveries were meant for the practical benefit and upliftment (or enlightenment) of all men.

It had utter contempt for the Church and its Gothic mindset and thus it engaged, within its own circles, in intense criticism of Rome; it was no friend of Protestantism, either. It believed that the inherent power of nature trumped all of these artificially constructed arrangements based on “faith,” a code word for the self-interest of ecclesiastic bodies.

Francis Bacon, a confirmed theist, inaugurated what he called “The New Learning,” which was meant to discover universal principles via the inductive method of reasoning. Scholasticism was considered by him to be a meaningless distraction, consisting of notions that could never be proved. Another theist, Rene Descartes, envisioned an eventual scientific utopia for mankind. He employed (mostly) deductive reasoning via a step-by-step logical progression. Both of these men were at the border of the Renaissance as it gave way to the Age of Enlightenment, and they both sought to remove idols fostered by the Church in the form of prejudices, wrong judgments, and vain quasi-theistic wrangling.

Soon afterwards followed the synthesis of Sir Isaac Newton, with the Enlightenment then in full bloom. He created the scientific system, and, later, his fellow leader of the Enlightenment, Voltaire, called Newton the greatest man who had ever lived. Newton was a Christian mystic but held no affiliation with any sect or cult of his time. He believed that science should be studied separately from philosophical pursuit, and he created a necessary scientific vocabulary extant today. Soon after Newton, Charles II of England, in 1662, chartered the Royal Society of London for the Improving of Natural Knowledge. The New Learning thus morphed into the New Philosophy. In France, a mere four years later, Louis XIV mixed theology and science by establishing the Academy of Royal Sciences.

By the end of the Seventeenth Century, the public at large accepted science, and the influence of the Church had waned to a considerable extent. Western culture had been substantially changed in this re-alignment. A mindset of discovery, self-correction, erudition, and oneness of knowledge coalesced into a widely-held worldview which more or less replaced “Christianity.” Protestantism had contributed to the permanent disruption of Christian unity. The combination of Protestant theologies, the scientific revolution, and a renewed interest in philosophical understanding effectively undermined the fanaticism pushed by the Jesuits. The authority of the Bible, now in widespread distribution, was considered higher than that of any of the denominations, including the Church of Rome.

Another man of the Enlightenment, Blaise Pascal, attacked Jesuit theology mercilessly. A believer in Jansenism (which the Church considered a form of heresy), Pascal attacked the casuistry and legalistic speculation of the Jesuits, their twisting of words and rationalizations, their empty observances of ceremonies and rituals, and the lax confessors they tolerated in order to readily justify the sins of their donors. Political Jansenism gave great satisfaction to the anti-clerical thinking of the philosophers who represented the Age of Enlightenment in Europe.

Protestantism continued its gains as well–at the expense of the Church of Rome. The Protestants professed that divine grace was not attained by good works but by faith alone. They considered all Christian believers to be priests and generally entertained the idea that revelation could also be an extension of reason. Nevertheless, great political philosophers, such as Thomas Hobbes, rejected all of these religions. He considered them to be rooted in fear of power invisible based upon imaginary tales. His philosophy allowed for religion in society but utterly rejected superstition connected to it. In his chief work, The Leviathan, he claimed that there were many textual contradictions to be found in the Bible.

Benedict Spinoza, an Enlightenment thinker, was excommunicated by the Church in 1656 for advocating intellectual love of God, claiming that man’s highest activity was to engage in constant search for knowledge and dignity. He also advocated that Biblical scriptures must be interpreted through the light of reason. Another of his contemporaries, Pierre Boyle, said that religious superstition was more dangerous than atheism. He emphasized that fact and secular principles trumped evil, irrational, and credulous beliefs pushed by various religious faiths, all of which were spiked through and through by a great many superstitions.

Thus emerged the idea of the social contract, which became the bedrock of Western civilization. It had its roots in the Enlightenment, and it became the preliminary doctrine for the emergence of the modern nation-state. Jean Bodin had introduced it at the end of the Sixteenth Century. The sovereign was duty-bound to carry out the laws of the secular state, considering it an obligation deputed to him by God. The consent of the governed was the foundation of his royal power. His legitimacy was based upon his power to protect the citizenry via state laws that were based upon natural laws. Hobbes was in complete agreement with Bodin on this.

As you may have noticed, there is a synchronicity between Machiavelli and Hobbes (or Bodin), i.e., all of these men accepted the principle of royal power, but they did not accept that it was based upon divine right. Thus, the linkage between Renaissance political thought and similar thinking in the Age of Enlightenment is well-established in history. All of these writers and philosophers believed that the State was necessary in order to keep mankind from devolving into perpetual civil war and anarchy. What they did not accept was that a secular State had, as its basis, any kind of tradition or hierarchy based upon divine right.

The social contract was, so to speak, perfected by John Locke. He affirmed that the social contract must be adhered to, and the society thus formed must invest it chosen authority with full power to implement that contract. The power of his authority was always provisional and rested on the consent of the governed. It was expressed through rational political institutions, and any degradation into tyranny must be overthrown by the citizenry, in whatever way possible, up to and including by violence.

The central task of such a government was to protect the person of a man, along with his property. No citizen could be arbitrarily deprived of life, liberty, or property except by due process when convicted of breaking established law. This was the introductory phase of European liberalism, libertarianism, and the emergence of liberal democracy.

Locke and Newton are generally considered to be the fathers of the Enlightenment, as one emphasized the political and the other emphasized the scientific. They both combined to break the back of quasi-religious power that had held sway throughout Europe for well over a millennium. Although neither Hobbes nor Locke advocated a Bill of Rights, it eventually surfaced as an integral element within the various constitutions created by nation-states in the modern (and now post-modern) Western eras.

Yet, the power of the government during the Roman Epoch, previous to Emperor Constantine, was just as unchallengeable as are today’s constitutional governments in the West. Nevertheless, it was overthrown by an obscure religious cult, one that had been unable to keep the teachings of its founder intact in the aftermath of his crucifixion. This we must ponder, and it is the crux of the topic that will be explored here in Part Six. As Prabhupäda said, history can repeat itself.

If the past is prologue, we must acknowledge that. When we do, we shall have revealed to us a horrifying realization of the potential for “ISKCON” to morph into a specter of something akin to “Christianity.” It would do so in a Western world degrading fast on every front–social, political, economic, financial, and religious. If this turns out to be the case, those “ISKCON” fanatics will re-write history in such a way that no one will be able to understand how they pulled it off. The Fresh Princes of “ISKCON” now govern their subjects and their fiefdoms without having to defend them. Perhaps they do not deserve to do so. If not, if their claim to authority is a fable, then those ecclesiastic principalities should be taken away from them before they can gain any political traction.

An Incipient Nationalist Backlash

“Your country is very much liked by me, and I am sure that, if your country takes to this Krishna consciousness movement, then nobody will be able to vanquish America at any time. . . That is my opinion. I like America very much.”
– Letter to Kuruçreñöha, 9-26-75

“(This movement) is not bogus, like communism, socialism and so many isms going on in the world today but is purely spiritual (and) authorized by the disciplic succession . . . “
– Letter to Kértiräj, Dec. 2, 1975

“The most serious problems of freedom of expression in our society today exist on our campuses. The assumption seems to be that the purpose of education is to induce correct opinion rather than to search for wisdom and to liberate the mind.”
– Benno Schmidt, President of Yale (retired), 1991

The founders of the United States were not modern men; they were men of the Enlightenment. His Divine Grace did not elect to found his movement in any Commonwealth country, such as Great Britain, Canada, or Australia. Instead, facing considerably more difficulty, especially in the matter of the visa, he chose to inaugurate his movement in the United States. After his fledgling League of Devotees foundered (and, for all practical purposes, merged into oblivion), Çréla Prabhupäda saw perfectly—as he always had—that his failed Indian program was meant to show that he must instead become “the spiritual master of the Americans.”

As such, we should concentrate our study of the future of the world, in terms of both its material and spiritual progress, on the United States. This nation-state’s culture currently represents the essence of Western civilization. Although in decline, it is still the sole remaining superpower. By its sheer size alone, what to speak of its advanced technologies, the U. S. maintains colossal military and economic strength. Its dollar, although not as strong as it once was, remains the international reserve currency.

Internally, it is somewhat dysfunctional politically (and we shall delve into that a bit), but its civilization maintains a high literacy rate, mostly in one English language. Its citizens also enjoy ready access to ample food, transportation, various amenities (including unprecedented advances in technology), libraries, entertainment, and its universities dominate the world-wide top twenty list every year.

These are secondary reasons. Mostly, we shall concentrate upon America because Çréla Prabhupäda, in founding his movement here, thus indicates that we are to do so. Most of his disciples, and especially his earliest initiates, were and are (if still alive) Americans. Kåñëa consciousness took off quickly and powerfully in the U. S., unlike elsewhere, because a significant sector of Americans were primed to readily accept it.

Conditioned personal activities, national initiatives, and pseudo-spiritual activities fall into the category of material actions. All such action creates reaction, which generates further action and reaction. This is the law of karma, and the principle of the backlash is integral to it. The original cause is generally still discernable in the ultimate effect. Stating this another way, businesses, teams, media empires, religions, and/or nation-states, despite undergoing permutations, tend to reflect the original motives of their founding in what they turn out to be.

Due to rampant sinful activities engaged here, both legally and illegally according to man-made law, the United States continuously generates a great deal of negative backlash. All transcendentalists will agree to this. At the same time, His Divine Grace liked America very much. He did not start his movement in any of the Communist countries, any of the Muslim countries, or any countries governed by military juntas.

He did not start his movement in Japan, Korea, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Pakistan, the Soviet Union, Cuba, the Commonwealth, or even in any of the other liberal democracies of Western Europe; he began it in the mid-Sixties in New York City, in the United States of America. He saw the good side of the U.S., and that obliges us to at least give his vision some credence.

America thus deserves special consideration. Another way of saying this is that his authentically initiated disciples (those who received dékñä during the 1966-77 period) must see to it that America is never misled by bogus so-called spiritual propaganda, i.e., Americans need to understand the false movement now parading itself here for what it actually is, that it only appears to be Prabhupäda’s. They must be instructed to reject it. The United States should thus come to know just what kind of broken arrow the fabricated, so-called “ISKCON” confederation really is.

The U. S. nation-state was founded not by a modern mindset but upon Enlightenment principles; it is a mistake to consider that it was ever inaugurated as a “Christian” nation. Certainly, it was never at any time an extension of the Church of Rome, as only one of the thirteen colonies (primarily divided by religious affiliation) was Catholic. England initiated the era of modern thought. Circa 1840, America became a modern nation-state at the same time as England went that way.

The Enlightenment stressed freedom of thought and discovery. Especially after the American Revolution, it was, and continues to be, all about individual freedom. The Enlightenment emphasized intelligence, reason, and logic in search of universal principles, while modernism emphasizes reason and logic in pursuit of material development.

Before we delve into the essence of this section, we should disabuse the reader of some common misconceptions. First of all, there is no such thing as the White Race or the Great White Brotherhood. There are many light-skinned races (plural), and these races, although having skin pigmentation more or less in common, each represented and represent different attitudes, cultures, and lifestyles. America was a kind of melting pot for them, but, with some exceptions, the light-skinned races intermingled and produced offspring only with other light-skinned races.

That does not mean that the Black Race produced or produces offspring of the Black Race. There has been mixture of the light and darker-skinned races in America; that is more than obvious. Nevertheless, there remains a culture connected to the light-skinned races that differs in many (if not most) ways from the culture of the darker-skinned races. Even the American Indians did not and do not constitute a Red Race; all those indigenous tribes, with only a handful of exceptions, constituted and constitute separate races (plural); that is one of the reasons behind their often warring with one another both before and after the arrival of the Europeans in the New World.

It is even heavier than that, as Prabhupäda has affirmed that the terms “race” and “specie” are interchangeable, e.g., there are 400,000 different species (races) of humans in the universe. Many of those different species have almost identical skin color here on earth.

The second misconception is the wrong idea that there can ever be the emergence of fascism in the United States. No matter how dire the situation gets—and it will get very, very dire in the not-to-distant future—America will never resort of fascism. Why is that? Because fascism has as its pillar, at its very fulcrum, the claim of racial superiority possessed by one race in its own nation-state. That was manifested specifically in Germany, Italy, and Japan during the time in and around World War II.

The United States contains only small enclaves of nationals which are entirely, or even primarily, genetically of one racial background. Indeed, it is doubtful that more than a few families in this country qualify as one hundred percent belonging to but one racial stock. The United States can become quite nationalistic–even to the point of jingoism–but it can never become a fascist nation under any future scenario, however dire.

The third major misconception being passed around these days is the wrong idea that America will soon be left in the dust and some other country–be it a Brazil, or an India, or a Germany, or a resurgent Russia or China—will emerge as the next superpower. In the Eighties, Japan was considered to have the inside track to that status, and we now see how wrong that prediction turned out to be. Despite its economic decline and internal political difficulties, America will remain the pre-eminent country of the world for the foreseeable future. There are reasons for this, both material and spiritual; we shall not explain them here, however.

Spiritually, America remains blessed, because His Divine Grace Çréla Prabhupäda benedicted it when he started his great movement in the U.S. Indeed, if the U.S. and Canada join forces to become one nation—not at all a remote possibility—such a nation-state would become more predominant in the world than is the U.S. now.

As the American bard Jim Morrisson sang, “The future’s uncertain, and the end is always near.” [4] In predicting what might be expected for the future of the world, we first consider what is to be expected from and for the United States. As the saying goes, in terms of the world economy, when America catches a bad cold, the rest of the world comes down with pneumonia. The U.S. is a consumer society at this time, and much of the rest of the world, both in the developed countries and in the developing ones, is depended for revenue on this clear fact.

Currently, propaganda to the contrary, life in the United States, materially speaking, is quite good. The technological advantages in terms of communication, transportation, and law enforcement are unprecedented in history. As such, the political situation reflects this. What is often termed “hard right-wing” or “extreme left-wing” is, in actuality, anything but. In the current environment, no one can be elected to the presidency who is at all extreme, i.e., there can be a slight lean to the right or left, but not more than that. This is subject to change, however.

When extreme or dire events (within the overall national context) emerge, a nation-state’s politics will become destabilized. In order to understand our prediction, we must first assimilate the American political spectrum. Dire situations create ripe environments for the emergence of extreme political groups (and takeovers); modern history has proven this. Previous to such a development, the muddled center votes for the ever-compromised status quo; they will vote for the candidates (in all offices) who perpetuate that status quo. The muddled middle is all-powerful at this time, but that will almost certainly not remain the case for long. A liberal democracy is to the left of center, and traditional conservatism is to the right. This is relevant now, and this binary is strong in America, but neither of its representations is on the far end of the spectrum.

Left of liberal democracy is socialism, and right of traditional conservatism is plutocracy. Plutocracy must have influence in any capitalist country, but it was unable to buy the recent presidential election, i.e., it is limited, unless the overall situation of the country deteriorates dramatically. Socialism is also very strong in this country and has been growing exponentially since the mid-Sixties (some would opine since the New Deal of the Thirties, but there is a counter-argument to that idea).

Neither plutocracy nor socialism represents the extreme limit of politics, however. On the left, that is represented by Communism, which His Divine Grace absolutely abhorred. On the right, there is fascism, which, as explained hereinbefore, is impossible in America.

The financial situation in this country is not at all good, and the politicians have also created gridlock at the national level; thus they are unable to actually solve the looming, financial problem. In the late summer of 2008, this country literally came within six hours of a complete financial meltdown, as the international financial system was on the verge of seizing up due to extravagance and exotic financial instruments ruptured primarily by the American high-risk capitalist and corporate takeover culture. There has been some political tinkering with the financial system by Congress since then, but, in essence, the excesses of the former system, which left the world in peril less than five years ago, remain in place.

We predict a much more severe U. S. financial collapse, followed immediately by an all-encompassing economic collapse. We think that this will take place sooner rather than later. It will be followed by a much more severe devastation: The result of global heating. This will transpire when a significant swath of America submerges, mostly on the coastlines, creating unfathomable suffering and loss. The watered-down predictions (pun intended) of a three-to-four degree temperature advance at the end of the century fall far short of the looming reality, [5] viz. that extreme climate change is much more likely to lock in by the middle of the next decade. When it does, as per Nostradamus, the Northern Countries (his words) will undergo unprecedented degradation—and they will fully deserve to suffer like that for having spawned the conditions that created it.

Such a dire situation in America will result in an extreme change in its politics; the only question is whether this country will lurch to the right or to the left. Remember, it was the looming threat of a Civil War—which did emerge—that, to this date, marked the worst situation in American history. It was just about at that time, during the mid-Nineteenth Century, that a new political party (the Republicans) emerged. The Whigs, which had captured the Presidency (twice) previously, merged into oblivion. Something similar will transpire, but what that will be remains an unknown. Still, we can take a look at some current evidence pointing toward the outcome.

Remember, this is not a treatise concerned–at least, not primarily so– with politics, environmental or financial disaster, race, or national hegemony. We are concerned with Kåñëa consciousness and the Kåñëa consciousness movement, currently, and in terms of its future—particularly its future in the West. The essence of that must be, as already explained, centered around its future in the United States of America, the center of the West.

If the U.S.A. lurches leftward as a response to a financial crisis, economic crisis, and/or environmental crisis, it would, in all likelihood, impact the Kåñëa consciousness movement in one way. If America lurches rightward as a response to these crises, it would impact both genuine Kåñëa consciousness and its simulacra in a very different way. All things considered, it is a tough call, as there are, seemingly, unlimited options to ponder.

Still, let it be said from the outset that a rightward lurch in American culture and politics would be most devastating to the cause of—and, quite possibly, even the existence of—the fabricated, so-called “ISKCON.” The values promulgated by the American far right (well short of fascism, as aforementioned) are counter-productive to the polluted, quasi-spiritual values pushed today by “ISKCON.” And it should also be noted that “ISKCON” is already shriveling in America.

In the near future, we may produce an article explaining this in more detail; the length of Part Six is already too voluminous to encompass the full explanation here. Nevertheless, we believe that, when push comes to shove, America will lurch rightward in terms of its response.

America was based upon Northern European principles and lifestyles, and its original founders, leaders, and citizens at all levels (except for its slaves) were members of light-skinned races. These races, intermixed then to some extent, but heavily intertwined at this time, still constitute the majority of American voters. Vox populi is not going away any time soon in this country, and, when dire times come, Americans will resort to conservative and traditional principles. They will vote accordingly, and that vote will not be pro-socialist or pro-communist, in all likelihood.

There are already a number of conservative-traditionalist third party entities extant, and it is possible that either all of them or most of them would coalesce when the next great challenge comes down upon a country they acknowledge has currently lost its way, both socially and spiritually. Some of these political entities are the Libertarian Party, the Constitution Party, the American Party, the JRP, and A3P. They do not exactly have the same platforms, but they could all be considered part of the (newly-coined term) conservatarian movement. Although there will be difficulties in their forming a unity, it is not impossible that these and other freedom-oriented, nationalist parties could coalesce into one political entity. If so, that party would wield significant electoral clout. In the most recent presidential election, total votes cast for third party conservatives alone swung the electoral vote of Florida into the camp of the Democratic candidate. This will come to be recognized in due course of time.

Freedom of religion will still be sanctioned under the rule of such American traditionalists or conservatarians, but “ISKCON” would never be able to get its foot in the American political door in such a political environment. As such, “ISKCON” would also not be able to gain political traction internationally, because America is far too important—and will remain so—for any of the less influential countries of the West to allow “ISKCON” a seat at its table or to become the power behind the throne.

During the coming depression, we shall likely not see hyper-inflation. It cannot take place in a country with a strong bond market and with most of its elderly citizens dependent upon a fixed income. They would vote the politicians out of office quickly, as the elderly, unlike some other demographics, are reliable voters. Instead, expect a combination of deflation, disinflation, and stagflation, not entirely unlike the Great Depression. That would favor an extreme response from the right, because too much socialism and related spending will be seen as the primary cause of a humongous national debt that triggers the coming depression.

The amalgamated U. S. culture, founded upon European rule of law and brought to America, came from the light-skinned races of Northern Europe, including (somewhat later) the Slavs, the Irish, the Italians, the Poles, the Russians, and the non-Talmudic Jews. Its culture is not intrinsically “Christian” per se, but the Protestant ethic was adopted, in no small measure, to resist the Papacy. America will return to its founding principles when the economic situation gets out of hand, and today’s trend toward multi-culturalism will not be favored during that response.

In summation, the likelihood of an emerging American Nationalism should be envisioned, one which is now in its incipient stage. The Supreme Personality of Godhead will bless it, primarily because He will, by doing so, check “ISKCON” from realizing its triumphalist hopes (these cannot be called designs—because “fix-it-as-you-go” does not have any strategy, ultimately). A return to nationalism—strong not long ago during World War II and in the Fifties–will be seen as a backlash to a failed socialism-cum-multi-culturalism that bankrupted America. Capitalism really has nothing to do with nationalism, as its founding fathers would abhor today’s vulture capitalism. Freedom of thought and freedom of worship will be strengthened under the new American nationalist regime.

We should do whatever is required in order to check “ISKCON” from gaining political power in the West. In order to secure that, the cult must first secure it in America. Nationalism should not be dreaded but should, instead, be seen as the Supreme Lord’s way, albeit indirectly, of keeping “ISKCON” (and all of its foils) on the outer margins of influence in this country. Seen in that light, U. S. nationalism will be, despite flaws, a good thing and a step in the right direction, as was the Age of Enlightenment.

The Long Con

“In this material world, everyone is always anxious, either in peace or war, it doesn’t matter. In peace, so-called peace, there is no peace.”
– Lecture on Çrémad Bhägavatam, 7.9.43 on Feb. 22, 1972

“On the outside, you will see nothing but charm, an engaging personality and swagger. On the inside lies a predator. There is no conscience . . . it’s every man for himself.“
– Doug Shadel, Confessions of a Con Artist

“They have made a desert and have called it peace.”
– Tacitus

As late as 1947, in a few small, remote islands around Okinawa, there were still Japanese soldiers bunkered in caves, fully prepared to fight and kill any non-Japanese peoples who set foot there. They did not accept that Japan had surrendered in August, 1945, ending World War II. They instead believed that there was a chain of command still functioning, culminating in the divine emperor, and that their cause was linked the highest reality, certain to prevail. They considered all propaganda that the war had ended in their defeat to be a ruse perpetrated by the enemy.

A similar limited situation operates today in “ISKCON.” There are still a handful of fanatics who fervently believe that the chain of the paramparä, unimpeded, works through the vitiated G.B.C.—working through the “ISKCON” gurus approved to initiate by the G.B.C. and through the temple presidents, who secure their posts by the blessing of the G.B.C.

For some time, this principle was viable (many decades ago); by the mid-Seventies, it was already breaking down, primarily due to deviations by the leaders (although some of them did not deviate—at least, not at that time). While it actually functioned, following orders received through the chain of command produced bona fide results, despite widespread abuse perpetuated on the foot soldiers (or the real workers) in the Kåñëa consciousness movement by some of those leaders. When you followed like that, during the time that the principle was actually pleasing to His Divine Grace, you got results, i.e., you secured increased freedom of action, increased spiritual power, and increased advancement in spiritual knowledge and understanding of the bhakti science.

However, there was—to use but one of many examples—the incident at the East Coast temple (concerning chicken being offered on the altar), wherein Prabhupäda confirmed that his initiated disciples, particularly the dvijas, should have disobeyed the leader. Your author experienced somewhat similar situations during the mid-Seventies and afterwards. In point of fact, those devotees who were developing their higher intelligences–following the process, engaging in austerities combined with bold, daring, and active seva—could not help but see, clearly, all kinds of unauthorized and self-motivated orders and behaviors on the part of many temple presidents, sannyäsés, and even commissioners (when they infrequently visited). Blind following never applies to anyone but the God-realized guru; except for rare circumstances, he will never encourage it.

Nevertheless, there is energy generated in blind following, because doubt is completely shut down by such true believers. “ISKCON” still has some of these fanatics, and they are generally found in the second and third echelons of that cult. They are the triumphalists, of course. They truly believe that anyone who has, at some point in the past, ceased to follow the “authority” he was under (at that time)—without having received sanction to accept another “authority” to work under—broke his or her link to the spiritual master. In doing so, he or she broke his or her link to the manifest paramparä, an organization sometimes called the Society.

They do not see that their fanaticism is itself a fallen state, but they instead see what they want to see, viz., that the fallen is everyone but them—and the great leaders they worship. Indeed, “ISKCON” depends upon this fanatical energy as part of its four-pillared foundation, in order to keep its long con going strong. These pillars are accepted as sacrosanct. They must be accepted as unimpeachable shibboleths for anyone to actually be a member in good standing within “ISKCON.” They are as follows:

1)  U.M.A., viz., the “ultimate managerial authority” of the vitiated G.B.C., the pseudo-authoritarian energy;

2)  Control of the Temple and the Temple Deity (opulent worship of the Deity), the religious energy;

3)  Western Hindu allegiance and contribution, the revenue or financial energy, and,

4)  The second and third echelon fanatics, as aforementioned, the emotional or enforcement energy.

As long as anyone believes in these pillars, looking at them in the way that the vested interests in the “ISKCON” hierarchy want them to be (mis)understood, there is no possibility for that devotee to develop his or her spiritual freedom. There is supposed to be freedom of activitiy in genuine Kåñëa consciousness, because there is no mäyä in it. Such a natural state, however, cannot develop when these pillars are given any credence, because they are all imbedded in heavy mäyä.

The “ISKCON” leaders know it well the fanaticism that has been present in their cult since its inception—whether you believe that to have been set into motion in 1972, 1975, or 1978—is based on big lies, and these four pillars constitute the foundations of those prevarications. There are subtleties involved, but the long con is dependent upon those subtleties not being exposed, knowing that such transparency would be a major threat to the corporate control by which the long con operates.

“ISKCON” requires that the devotees who help to keep it propped up remained numbed up and dumbed-down, easy prey for the predators (disguised as advanced transcendentalists) running the show and exploiting it to advantage. They are all sharp swords hidden within decorated sheaths. The “ISK-CON” long CON is a unique form of the bust out.

The bust out is intrinsic to how the underworld operates, and “ISKCON” certainly is a counter-cultural movement that utilizes underworld techniques on a regular basis. A vivid example of the bust out was enacted in Martin Scorsese’s cult classic, Goodfellas. There we find a poor sap whose restaurant and bar is being exploited by one of the capos, who has run up a bill in the thousands (and continues to do so, with intimidation), but never pays for anything. So, the owner jumps from the frying pan into the fire and approaches the don in order to solve his problem. He invites the don to become his minority business partner.

Now a part owner, the don has his newly-appointed manager purchase (on credit) a huge inventory of booze, but, by design, it will not become inventory. As soon as the company delivers the liquor through the front door, the goodfellas are loading it on their own trucks through the back for distribution on the black market. The owner goes deeper and deeper into debt, while the don gets his cut from those sales on the side. The majority owner is forced into bankruptcy, but the don gets one last payout when his goons burn the joint down late one night. His cut of the insurance money, along with the booze revenue, is all gained by completely breaking the company as a whole; this is known as a bust out.

In their own unique way, that is what the eleven pretender mahäbhägavats did in the late Seventies. They have, since that time, employed the long con in order to keep from being prosecuted, as well as to keep their kaitava-dharma functional. They grind down all the malcontents by maintaining illusions fostered by the long con. Along with this, they maintain a lateral octave of fix-it-as-you-go strategy in order to continue to buy time; the long con is dependent upon this principle.

The underworld modus operandi fits well with the “ISKCON” cult in so many ways, as long as all the members (those who remain in good standing) know their place within the corporate structure. The good old boys network only encourages freedom for themselves, their sycophants, and hatchetmen; basically, “ISKCON” is little more than a quasi-religious racket. It is an organized religion propped up by a self-appointed hierarchy within a paradigm of corporate bureaucracy and ritual.

We shall further discuss one of the aforementioned pillars as the article proceeds. After the heady days of the zonal äcäryas, there now appears to be a kind of peace that has descended upon “ISKCON.” However, it is nothing more than a smug complacency wherein time has effectively destroyed the thread of what really went down—and, just as importantly, how it went down—to the point that this new quasi-Hindu ambiance will be easily accepted as the real thing by lost souls.

The oligarchy thus remains confident that the corporate or systemic arrangement must prevail, and that the bust out—although they will certainly never call it that—was the exact right move at the exact right time. The long con requires an apparent milieu of individual and collective peace that hangs over all “ISKCON” centers like a dense fog. Still, if its four pillars of nescience are ever brought to light, on a widespread basis, for just what they actually are, the long con will weaken. The so-called peace in “ISKCON” will thus shatter, and another hot war will erupt.

And For What?

 “I also understand that immediate actions are going to take place even prior to my permission, and that also ‘without divulging to the devotees(!)’’ I do not follow exactly what is the motive of the so-called GBC meeting. . . Under these circumstances, I AUTHORIZE YOU TO DISREGARD . . . ANY DECISION FROM THE GBC MEN UNTIL MY FURTHER INSTRUCTION.”
– Letter to all Temple Presidents, Apr. 8, 1972

Pete Verrill: And for what? To commit a crime, to kill one of the noblest creatures that roams this crummy earth. And, in order to commit this crime, you’re willing to forget about all of us and let this whole thing go down the drain.
John Wilson: You’re wrong, kid, it’s not a crime to kill an elephant, it’s bigger than all of that. It’s a sin to kill an elephant. You understand? It’s a sin. It’s the only sin that you can buy a license and go out and commit. That’s why I want to do it before I do anything else in this world. Do you understand me? Of course you don’t. How could you? I don’t understand myself.”
– White Hunter, Black Heart

There are various bluffs subtly perpetrated by “ISKCON” misleaders and their henchmen in order to keep the aforementioned energetic pillars functioning. These bluffs, combined with an all-pervasive diversion, serve as buffers to protect “ISKCON” from being exposed for just what it actually is. We now have over thirty-five years of results to judge its devolving octave by, but one of the big bluffs is still maintained, mostly by vibration, viz., that the vikarmi world is going to soon crack, and a glorious “ISKCON” movement, blessed by the Lord, will then capture political power.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

The real motives behind “ISKCON” should not be difficult to figure out: Judge by the results. Those results clearly show that a small cadre of men (with a few dragon ladies sprinkled in)—“gurus,” presidents, and commissioners enjoying unauthorized freedoms and extravagant lifestyles–benefit at the expense of the superstructure and the many fools who keep it going. Is there actually a master plan behind all of this?

If you answer in the affirmative, guess again.

You may say that all the compromises with Hinduism, feminism, New Age (the fringe astrologers, mostly), corporatism, vulture capitalism and the like are paving the way for “ISKCON” being readily accepted, in the near future, by the host Western culture. If you think this, you think wrongly. That is but part of the bluff. The “ISKCON” paradigm, although certainly contaminated in many ways, is not really attractive to the demoniac leaders of Western culture. They may use it in a forthcoming emergency situation for their own purposes, but an “ISKCON” counter-culture will not be able to replace Western culture under any circumstances.

The cult could gain a limited and targeted amount of political power under martial law in America (and elsewhere), but that power, if granted, could only be secured under certain political conditions. If the incipient, nationalist backlash turns out to be the governing politics of that time—particularly in America—even under martial law, “ISKCON” would be given no political power whatsoever. If socialism were the dominant political power during martial law, then it could be possible. Real freedom for genuine devotees does not mix at all well with “ISKCON.” It is a threat to the very existence of that apa-sampradäya:

“The city is very clean, but the socialistic government is not very good. Only you can take what the state supplies. There is very little freedom there.”
– Letter to Guru das, July 13, 1971

In America, as elsewhere in the West, there is a significant degree of religious freedom afforded to the citizenry. In the United States, this freedom is guaranteed by the First Amendment to the Constitution. Devotees caught in the fever swamp of “ISKCON” are not very aware of this reality, for the most part. Instead, their weak minds remain caught in a hype-reality network of information and rumor that swirls as grist for the “ISKCON” mill; this information serves to only distract them from the real issues. Indeed, this information, sometimes considered equivalent to knowledge, simply works to destroy substance. It is full of hope and opinion, but there is no actual freedom to be gained in it.

They all thus live in their own insular world, prisoners of their own device, mistaking various forms of “ISKCON” propaganda to be absolute, when, in point of fact, the whole milieu is suffused with passion and ignorance, particularly the latter. The power of distraction (prakñepätmikä-çakti) is all-pervading in “ISKCON,” and none of its inmates is able to recognize what a great sin it was to convert a once pure and powerful spiritual movement into the third-order simulacrum it now has become.

The conversion of Prabhupäda’s Hare Kåñëa movement of Kåñëa consciousness into “ISKCON” is certainly in the category of a great sin, even an ati-päpam, but it is not considered a crime against the State. It will not be prosecuted by the State, either in America or in India (although it should be, as the evidence is overwhelming as to what was actually done to the person of His Divine Grace in his last months of his external manifestation on earth). It was the crime of the century, and it will be recorded as such.

And what was the purpose for all of these transformations? Was there any real purpose of substance behind the initial conversion? Has anything spiritual really been accomplished?

The motive behind the manifestation of “ISKCON” cannot be good, what to speak of spiritual. Intelligent transcendentalists are advised not to fall for its bluff. The Supreme Lord is not going to allow this small cult of quasi-Talmudists to capture political power in any major state, what to speak of capturing it from the host culture at large. He deplores it. “ISKCON” is an emblem of dishonor to His Divine Grace Çréla Prabhupäda.

If you are caught in the stream of its hyper-reality, step out of that darkness and into the light. Understanding its motives is not very difficult to do once you get over the shock of what will be divulged to you by the Parameçvara in the core of your heart. You are eligible to receive that knowledge only if and when you are actually prepared to pay the price and demonstrate that you want to accept and act upon it in true freedom.

Maybe . . . Maybe Not

“These foolish creatures do not know that they are nothing but play dolls in the hands of material nature and that, at any moment, material nature’s pitiless intrigues can crush to dust all their plans for godless activities.”
– Caitanya-caritämåta, Ädi, 3.98, purport

Joan (imprisoned): I fell off my horse and onto the field–and there was the sword, lying right there! That was a sign!
Inquisitor: No, Joan. That was a sword.
– Joan of Arc

In the film Joe Kidd, Clint Eastwood plays a bounty hunter during the Gilded Age. We find him in a makeshift courtroom, having just been released from jail for hunting on a reservation. It is the small New Mexico town of Sinola, where the indigenous people are being systematically driven from their property by wealthy white men. Except for the judge, almost everyone in the town, including the local sheriff, has been bought off. As Joe Kidd watches, the judge rules in favor of the Mexican organizer of local resistance. His original property title is ruled valid, and this is a major setback for the new powers that be, whose enforcers are armed to the teeth.

The judge knows what this means, so he immediately retires, with Kidd following him, to his chambers. Kidd advises him that he stands a better chance of staying alive over at the saloon; they can set up a defense there. Both, however, will have to cross the dust-laden main street, making them open targets. The judge thinks they will be killed if they try to cross it, to which Kidd replies, “Maybe. Maybe Not.”

There was much exuberance back in the day of the eleven pretender mahäbhägavats, the “zonal äcäryas.” One of them even went so far as to proclaim that there had only been one heartbeat (Prabhupäda), but now there were eleven. Those great hopes were soon dashed, however, against the wall of reality. Devotees who did not buy into the scheme [6] had cause to feel trepidation back in 1978. There was no room for their perspective in this new movement, and it soon became obvious that they would have no choice but to leave it (or to be driven out).

Much has changed since then, but, paradoxically, at its base, nothing has changed—it is the same old brave new “ISKCON” at the deepest level. “ISKCON” true believers and genuine devotees of Çréla Prabhupäda have not only a different set of fears and hopes, but are diametrically opposed in these, to be sure. Despite the hope that their “ISKCON” movement will soon spread what they believe to be Kåñëa consciousness to every town and village of the world, the fanatic triumphalists need evidence in order to remain encouraged. After all, a promise that, up to this time, has amounted to little more than a post-dated blank check does not bode well for any kind of tangible formulation working behind it. Fix-it-as-you-go is also a plan of sorts, just as those who elect not to take a course of action (but to instead float) have decided to float.

Is there any real sign today that “ISKCON” is on the verge, socially and politically, of a major breakthrough? Some may come up with a kind of sign, but, if they deeply examine the premise underlying that so-called sign, it turns out to be anything but. Horizontal expansion of loose satellite centers does not prove anything. There may be more names and addresses in the back of the books—which are not selling anywhere near as well as they did in the Seventies—but that list is not a sign of vertical solidarity, the real source of social and spiritual power.

A sign of advancement in transcendental realization is manifested in the freedom that accompanies it. The followers of “ISKCON” are anything but free. These foolish creatures are like bulls with nose rings, going around in circles, tethered to a central pole (the vitiated G.B.C.) by the ropes of their material attachments to the “ISKCON” version of society, friendship, and love. The need of the spirit soul is to transcend such a limited sphere of bondage and fulfill his or her desire for complete freedom. A show-bottle of the Deities via an institutional delusion does not produce this.

Instead, the true believers are satisfied to yuk it up, especially at Sunday feasts, when the scheduled speaker (an “advanced devotee”) acts as emcee, delivering anecdotes and hackneyed jokes. This is not an immutable sign that “ISKCON” is on the verge of becoming the one-world religion its triumphalists would have us believe. Instead, they find themselves prone to subconscious doubts and fears. Shallow as these people are, they never confront any of that within themselves.

Instead, they remain blissfully embroiled in the sense gratificatory and binding atmosphere of their “ISKCON” cult, laden as it is with the ever-present pressure of intrigue, treachery, and betrayal. The coin of the realm remains what it has always been since the Seventies: A constant effort by climbers to expose deviations or scandals in others in order to move up the turtle tank. This goes on as well in Rittvik, Neo-Mutt, and Solar Smorgasbord, but those foils have formed their own agendas of competition in their own ways, although a bit similar to “ISKCON.”

Within a major Western nation-state such as America, is there a chance that “ISKCON” will gain some kind of political foothold in the future? Maybe. However, it is just as likely that this deviant offshoot will have all of its loose plans crushed to dust. It could wind up going the way of the Goudéya Mutt, universally perceived as a laughingstock.

When the true historical record of this apa-sampradäya becomes better known, and the status of what is to be gained from its affiliation is seen to be not only limited but worthless, the triumphalists are going to have a difficult time reconciling the slippery slope of its trajectory. When they finally then ask themselves whether or not their cult of choice is going to end up spreading Kåñëa consciousness to every town and village of the world, they will have to admit to themselves maybe not.

After the Bust Out

“When the living entity is given a chance in the process to become a human being, he has to decide which way he wants to go. . . Unless we make our program in an authorized, perfect way, anything we try to do will be a failure.”
– Letter to Sri K. K. Joshi, May 9, 1976

“In our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls, drop by drop, upon the heart, until, in our own despair and against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.”
– Aeschylus

“You know why you woke up all of a sudden like that? It’s because you just got your throat cut.”
– Tom Logan, The Missouri Breaks

Virtually all of the unfortunate people in and around “ISKCON” have been lulled to sleep now. Remaining in good standing within “ISKCON” guarantees nothing as far as spiritual power and realization are concerned. Entanglement in that cult’s hierarchy, along with allowing oneself to imbibe its béjas, is neither recommended nor authorized. “ISKCON” represents a failure in spiritual life, and the evidence of how its current manifestation came into being proves this unmistakably—unless you are so fast asleep that you’re unable to recognize the facts and signs pointing this out.

Yes, for those so entangled who want to escape, a period of despair, wherein they must experience the dark night of the soul, is required. Even if the mind wills otherwise, higher intelligence beckons the spirit soul to come to grips with his situation. If contaminated by “ISKCON” association, such wisdom will not be a pleasant experience, not at first.

By the painful grace of Paramätmä and the paramparä, the time has come to confront the unpleasant reality that “ISKCON” has devolved into an organized religion run by pseudo-devotional rogues for their own enjoyment. To get out of its clutches, a proactive response is required; mere reaction to them will never be enough to escape. We are experiencing the aftermath of its unauthorized attempt—which was more or less successful–in taking over Prabhupäda’s Hare Kåñëa movement of Kåñëa consciousness. Engineered in no small measure by the Machiavellian Manipulator, T.K.G., it was its own version of a bust out.

How did it go down? In a nutshell, Prabhupäda started to become ill immediately after T.K.G. wormed his way into becoming his personal secretary. This was in Honolulu in the spring of 1976, when Paramahaàsa Swami and Çruta Kérté däs left to jointly take over the presidency of that center during Prabhupäda’s stay there. That they did not last long in the post is of little relevance. When the illness Prabhupäda was experiencing became chronic, it seemed that nothing could cure him. As such, soon after he left Hawaii, initiations throughout the movement ceased.

Such remained the case until July, 1977, when the rittvik system of initiation was re-installed. On July 9^th, nine rittviks were appointed by Prabhupäda to once again perform the initiation ceremony on his behalf. One or two days later (there is a difference of opinion concerning the exact date), two more rittviks were added to the list. Thus, eleven rittviks in different areas of the world, along with (potentially) His Divine Grace, were now deputed by Prabhupäda to perform the ceremony of initiation on his behalf. These newly-initiated disciples were Prabhupäda’s, and everyone at that time clearly understood this.

In the middle of November, 1977, under nefarious circumstances which only came to light many years later, His Divine Grace left external manifestation. He did so without naming a successor. Indeed, he did not appoint any of his disciples to become initiating guru after his departure, what to speak of becoming his successor. Only an uttama-adhikäré (mahäbhägavat) could have been a successor to Çréla Prabhupäda, but he did not recognize any of his disciples—at least, not publicly or officially—to even be on the platform of guru, what to speak of uttama. Indeed, in a room conversation with one of his godbrothers, a month before he disappeared, he told that godbrother that none of his disciples was qualified to be guru.

There were the abovementioned eleven rittviks, and one of them, a notorious wildcard, began accepting uttama-adhikäré worship from his own godbrothers and godsisters in Appalachia in the aftermath of Prabhupäda’s departure. Near the very end of 1977, he began initiating new disciples, who also worshipped that so-called dékñä-guru as mahäbhägavat, the successor to His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedänta Swämé Prabhupäda. This put pressure on the other “ten little Indian boys” (as he sarcastically referred to them). Of course, as we all know, the eleven rittviks were Americans by birth, with six of them genetically linked to the race of the Talmudists. In spring of 1978, at the Mäyäpur meetings, the catastrophe proceeded.

Rittvik ended in November, 1977. Some of the former rittviks (and others) visited Swämé B. R. Çrédhar in nearby Navadvépa. He asked them to explain the basis (of their assertion) that their movement now had eleven initiating spiritual masters. Their answer was that these men were appointed by Prabhupäda to be rittviks while he was still alive. Swämé B. R. Çrédhar then gave his stamp of approval to the arrangement, helping to empower it (“rittvik-äcärya, then it becomes as good as äcärya”). That was only the beginning. He also repeated the Bengali slogan mat-guru si jagat guru (“my guru is jagad-guru”). Through convoluted and self-serving logic, the Scholar, one of the eleven former rittviks, came up with some quasi-çästric backing for them being worshipped as mahäbhägavats.

Soon thereafter came the bust out.

The world was divided into eleven zones, all controlled by each of the eleven new gurus, worshipped as non-different from Prabhupäda. The G.B.C., already heavily vitiated since 1975 (at the latest), became even more so, as these eleven formed an Äcärya Board within it, which was not subject to the legislation or votes of the other members of the commission.

A movement meant to facilitate spiritual freedom and empowerment for all of its members was thus converted into an institutional delusion, the exact opposite of what it was meant to be. Worship of unqualified men is not at all conducive to the development of knowledge, spiritual power, and genuine freedom in Kåñëa consciousness; instead, it produces a type of psychic bondage difficult to escape. Particularly problematic is the astral imprisonment and larva experienced by newcomers, who were heavily conditioned in material life prior to this. They were unable to make any advancement—especially if and/or when they received both the “ISKCON” béja and the guru’s personal béja(s), which all of them (who got initiated in 1978 and beyond) did. Such misguided souls remain helpless due to a reliance on material intelligence, bad logic, mistaken sentiment, and bad association, particularly within the cult itself. Figuratively, they all had their spiritual throats cut by the pernicious arrangement of a new and allegedly improved “ISKCON.” They continue to bleed today.

Over and above this, the godbrothers responded in either a wrong or an apathetic way. Most of them failed entirely to respond to the illicit takeover. Over the years, there have been motivated and unauthorized responses to the G.B.C. oligarchy in the form of Neo-Mutt (1981), Rittvik (late 1989), and Solar Smorgasbord (circa, 2007). All of these groups float apa-siddhäntas in combination with unauthorized agendas, viz., all of them are also at war with the genuine devotees of Çréla Prabhupäda. The leading members of these much smaller cults, although initiated during the period of 1966-1977, have also had their spiritual throats effectively cut.

For the rest of us who are still interested in spiritual life and bhakti-yoga, the path remains shrouded when we are unable to get past the fog pumped out primarily by “ISKCON.” The four pillars of nescience, aforementioned, can only delude those whose vision is covered over by its propaganda. For example, there is the idea that, since “ISKCON” maintains Deities installed by His Divine Grace, then it must be bona fide. In the same vein, since “ISKCON” controls temples started and developed by Prabhupäda, then it must be bona fide. This is nothing but pragmatism, and we discussed pragmatism earlier in our six-part series. Their logic is pragmatic, i.e., the result proves something by its mere existence.

It can easily be defeated by asking one simple question: Did Prabhupäda, after his spiritual master’s disappearance, take charge of any of the Deities his guru had installed? Did Prabhupäda take charge of any of the Mutts his guru had inaugurated? Just because various Goudéya leaders took those positions and decorated all of those Deities does not mean their operation received the blessings of the Supreme Lord.

Indeed, we know that, with but one or two exceptions, the Mutt was against Prabhupäda, vehemently protesting his actions during the time he carried out his mission to the West. That his guru did not bestow upon him the bricks and mortar did not and does not prove anything. The leaders of “ISKCON” know well that they must worship the Deities in an opulent manner (especially to please their Hindu donors), but that does not make the cult’s unauthorized activities and processes bona fide.

The bust out proceeded, and the first transformation of the movement (1978) was eventually replaced by another one (mid-Eighties) and now another one (still current). They may be thinking that all of this will be lost in the fog of time, but they are sorely mistaken, because it will not. This article is but one testament to the fact that some of us will never forget.

His Divine Grace started his movement in America at the beginning of the hippie era. His primary customers indeed were those hippies—not all of them, but the best of them. They were naturally detached to some extent, and they were seeking freedom from so many isms, so many organized religions, so many governments and related military conscriptions, and so many wrong fields of education. The need of the spirit soul is that he wants to get out of the limited sphere of material bondage and fulfill his desire for complete freedom. He wants to get out of the covered walls of the greater universe. He wants to see the free light and the spirit. This desire is still present within the hearts of many sincere and serious souls.

Real religion now lies mostly dormant, because the deviations cover it quite effectively under the current circumstances. The brave, new “ISKCON” initiative maintains the same old envy that it has always represented, a very contagious epidemic that only a few of Prabhupäda’s initiated disciples were immune from constitutionally. The new people who came to the cult and received the “ISKCON” béja are all loaded with this envy; for most of them, it operates subconsciously, allowing it full play while they still think, falsely, that they are good devotees. They love their servitude dearly and they are hopelessly enslaved by it, despite the misconception, held by each and every one of them, that they are spiritual reformers—which they most certainly are not. They have no real psychic or spiritual freedom whatsoever, and their humility is nothing but a false display of humiliation, utilized by the rogues, who subtly encourage their puffed up words and actions.

On the other hand, some of today’s seekers will, in time, come to know that there is an alternative to “ISKCON,” to Rittvik, to Neo-Mutt, and to Solar Smorgasbord. Kåñëa consciousness, and the spiritual freedom accompanying that consciousness, is still available. You have to wake up in time, awaken before the sahajiyäs cut your throat. You have to decide which way you want to go. You need to make that decision now, before it’s too late.

“Everything was lost that I’ve found.
People run, come ride with me.
Let’s find another place that’s free.”
The Moody Blues, “Ride My Seesaw”

OM TAT SAT

 

Endnotes