Protector of the Sampradāya

Sometime after the court case, several ISKCON sannyāsīs came to see Śrīla Gurudeva at the Śrī Keshavaji Gauḍīya Māṭha in Mathurā. Śrīla Gurudeva received them warmly. They thanked Śrīla Gurudevā for helping them with the court case. After several minutes of discussion they presented him with a proposition.

“Śrīla Mahārāja,” they started, “We want to invite you to the West. We have a few rules or conditions but we will take you everywhere, to England, to America–all over the world.”

To invite Śrīla Gurudeva to preach in their temples all around the world was a major breakthrough in their stance. Most of the ISKCON leaders had isolated themselves from the association of advanced bona fide Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavas and were not interested in practicing the process of bhajana as it had been presented by Śrīla Bhaktivinode Ṭhākura, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda and Śrīla Bhakti Prajñāna Keśava Gosvāmī Maharaia. If their Gurudeva, Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Swāmī Mahārāja didn’t want them to practice bhajana, why did he want all these Ācāryas’ pictures in all his prominent centres?

They even indicated that their process was different by saying, “We don’t preach Gauḍīya” even though their spiritual master comes from the Gauḍīya sampradāya and was one of the three founders of the Gauḍīya Vedānta Śamīti.

The court case showed them that they could have lost everything and it was a Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava who came to their rescue and saved them, so now, most probably feeling obliged to him, they wanted to reciprocate.

At that time Śrīla Gurudeva was not initiating any disciples. He had been a sannyāsī for more than forty years and shared his vast knowledge, insights and experiences with all who approached him. The ISKCON guru-sannyāsīs however were younger, both in age and experience in Kṛṣṇa consciousness compared to him, yet they were sadly insinuating that he was not as “qualified” as them and that he accept the free ticket to the West and comply with their rules.

Śāstra declares that all types of anarthas (material desires), aparādhas (offenses) and abhimānas (false identifications) can only be eradicated by good association (sat-saṅga). As long as a devotee identifies himself with the material body, he cannot enter the kingdom of bhajana which all the ācāryas have come to give. Śrīla Gurudeva said we have to reject all kinds of false identities pertaining to the body, such as, “I am a brāhmaṇa”, “I am a kṣatriya”, and pertaining to character, such as, “I am so qualified”, “I am rich”, “I am a scholar” etc. Śrīla Gurudeva says that only when we become more humble than a blade of grass (tṛṇād āpi sunīca) and pray in extreme distress with an intense desire to obtain Lord Caitanya’s mercy is it then possible to attain that mercy.

Although some leaders had taken the position of initiating guru, they wasted valuable years in not taking proper shelter of advanced Vaiṣṇavas (sādhu-saṅga) after the departure of Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Swāmī Mahārāja. The result was that many failed to drive extraneous desires from their hearts which presented numerous deterrents to their remaining on the path of śuddha-bhakti. Thus many of the leaders, after some time, left their vows and responsibilities to the institution behind and some became materially ambitious and attached to their positions. This lack of pure sādhu-saṅga also led to their failure to understand the proper conclusions of the Vaiṣṇava siddhānta. One such glaring example was their gross misunderstanding or their unfortunate inability to understand the true origin of the jīva. Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Swāmī Mahārāja had plainly written the conclusion that no one falls from Vaikunta in his purport in Śrīmad-bhāgavatam which is the essence of the Vedas: “The conclusion is that no one falls from the spiritual world, or Vaikuṇṭha planet, for it is the eternal abode.” S.B. 3.16.26 purport. Yet still they remained confused.

Their Gurudeva, Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Swāmī Mahārāja is a nitya-siddha, an eternal associate of the Lord. He is an instrument of the Lord and of the previous Gauḍīya Sampradāya Ācāryas. He came to fulfill Lord Caitanya’s prophecy to spread Kṛṣṇa consciousness all over the world. These sannyāsīs assumed they had automatically inherited the mission of their guru, and thus had come to Śrīla Gurudeva’s māṭha with a proposition that he join them.

So it was on that fateful day that they approached Śrīla Gurudeva. They did not seem intent to take shelter of a sādhu’s lotus feet and humbly hear hari-kathā from him. Knowing his influence and ability to preach the Vaiṣṇava philosophy, they wanted him inside their institution to speak and attract people all over the world. However they had an agenda attached to that offer—they wanted to control Śrīla Gurudeva’s speech by having him give support to their way of preaching and to their apasiddhāntic conclusions in regards to the soul.

One cannot cheat Śrīla Gurudeva or charm him with a display of external emotions, gestures and official procedure.

“We will take you to the West and give you opulent facilities,” they continued, “but there is a condition—you just have to tell that the jīva soul has fallen down from Vaikuṇṭha, not otherwise, and comply with some other formalities.”

Śrīla Gurudeva was sad to hear them speak these words. I had never seen him so stern. Fully cognizant of the nature of transcendental reality and knowing the imports of all śāstras, he rejected their absurd offer with a resounding instantaneous, “No!”

Their behavior toward him portrayed a lack of knowledge of proper Vaiṣṇava etiquette and their failure to clearly understand the siddhāntic teachings of their own guru.

He at once chastised them, “How can I ever speak like this? Go away from my māṭha and don’t come again with this nonsense proposal! Don’t think that I am greedy to go to the West.”

Śrīla Gurudeva further cautioned them from making offences, “You think you are going to show me opulence there in the West. In our Braja, there is so much opulence that the whole opulence of the material world cannot compare to even the most tiny fraction of the opulence of Vṛndāvana. Even though that opulence is covered by the unparalled sweetness of mādhurya bhāva, one who has seen that opulence of Vṛndāvana dhāma has no need to see anything else in this material world.

“When the pious Muslim Emperor Akbar went to Sanātana Gosvāmī asking for some service, he humbly replied that he didn’t need anything. Still requesting again and again, finally Sanātana Gosvāmī told him he could fix a broken corner of a stair on the bank of the River Yamunā. Akbar felt offended thinking, ‘Why has he asked me to do this insignificant service. He knows very well my position as Emperor and my immense power. Knowing everything why is he requesting me in this way? Anyway, let me carry out the order of the saintly person.’

“Thinking in this way, Akbar went to the Yamunā. By the mercy of Sanātana Gosvāmī, he was able to see the great opulence of Vṛndāvana dhāma. He ran back to Sanātana Gosvāmī and fully prostrated himself. He said, ‘Prabhu, by your mercy my ego has been shattered and I have understood that I am insignificant. I am unable to do the service you requested. If I sell my whole country, still it will not be enough to repair the transcendental stair of Vṛndāvana. So many precious jewels are there. By your causeless mercy today I have understood that everything of Vrindvana is eternal and transcendental and everything of this world is temporary and mundane.’”

Gurudeva continued heavily, “And you think you will show me some opulence in the West…You nonsense. I will never say anything contrary to what I have directly heard from my Gurudeva, Śrīla Bhakti Prajana Keśava Gosvāmī Mahārāja, my śikṣā-guru Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Swāmī Mahārāja and our scriptures.”

In this way Śrīla Gurudeva was teaching how everything should be confirmed with guru, sādhu and shastra and that any conclusion that is against the precepts of Rūpa Gosvāmī and our rūpānuga ācāryas is to be rejected immediately. He was speaking so softly and sweetly when the sannyāsīs first came but now he was speaking to them with commanding authority showing that he expected immediate obedience, “I have known and spoken this philosophy with Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Swāmī Mahārāja since 1946 and know that it is not possible at all for him to write anywhere in his book that the jīva has fallen from the Vaikuṇṭha planet… You cannot change the meaning of what is there in śāstra.”

Śrīla Gurudeva powerfully reprimanded their actions. “Don’t think that I am greedy to go to western country. I am indebted to my most merciful Śrīla Gurudeva. I will always be loyal to him. He taught me everything and sent me for preaching. When argument came, automatically I was able to clear. Do not speak what is not in scripture and what you have not realized or otherwise you may be wrong. Wherever I go, I will speak only that which has been given by our guru paramparā and our scriptures.”

The bhāgavata paramparā must be kept intact in its purest form. Just as Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura sent Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa to Jaipur to protect the Gauḍīya Sampradāya, Śrīla Gurudeva is giving us all the essential truths of our Sampradāya Ācāryas and the scriptures so that the sampradāya can be protected from apasiddhānta.

Śrīla Gurudeva flatly refused their foolish offer. Their misunderstanding the philosophy and presenting it as a core siddhāntic teaching of their Gurudeva, Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Swāmī Mahārāja would create a threat and an unprecedented deviation from the teachings of our ācāryas in the Bhāgavata sampradāya.

Sternly silenced by Śrīla Gurudeva, the sannyāsīs never dared mention anything like this to Gurudeva ever again.