This is in response to comment by Jnanagamya Dasa.
I am sure that my uninformed comment is not necessary on your forum. What I do on my website is post articles as allow devotees to sort out their views and opinions without much intervention. I hardly get involved except to provide the articles and forum.
The responses of Jnanagamya Dasa and others which you have sent me are certainly the main responses from devotees who do not understand the responsibilities of a person who gives spiritual shelter to others. There is a lack of understanding of terms in our society and so they end up forming opinions based on misunderstanding terminologies.
For example critical means both destructive and negative criticism and then there is constructive / positive criticism and so they think that any form of critical assessment of a personality is necessarily negative and destructive. However we are a society of Brahmins need to be able to differentiate between the two. Certainly we should not engage in negative or destructive criticism.
The other term that is largely misunderstood is judging. The idea that one must not judge someone’s behavior or actions is another misunderstanding in our society; yet we need to understand what is right and what is wrong according to shastra. After all when one is on the madhyama adhikari level of realization one must discriminate between what is right and what is wrong for their spiritual advancement. There is no compromise, there is right or wrong according to shastra so this is judging or adjudication.
Modern thinkers or speculators desire to believe that there are shades of gray in our lives, however, this is a misconception. There is only right and wrong. We have choice in every circumstance and in every instance of our lives. Sure there are times when we have limited choice but we still have choice – to do good or bad according to guru sadhu and shastra.
The idea that someone who calls a thief a thief or reports any wrongdoing is being critical or making judgments on others is not something that we as aspiring Vaishnavas should allow to be
acculturated into our Vaishnava society as you know. Being critical as I have said above is making an informed judgment on something that affects our lives, we do this every day in every thought, emotion or action we take. Srila Prabhupada teaches us to make judgments on the people in our life, especially who we associate with or who we take association from. We have to judge or else we will be cheated as we do exist in the kali-yuga where there is only the cheaters and the cheated. A devotee is no fool, we have to become independently intelligent in all our thoughts feelings and deeds.
We simply must be able to discriminate in order to survive.
The fact that someone acts in the role of a guru in ISKCON like PVS and is exposed and his behavior is analyzed or discussed, is not being critical or being judgmental, it is necessary for our society to learn, grow and mature. We have to learn from our mistakes and not bury our heads in the sand about our weakness and problems.
PVS is responsible for his actions and he should be held responsible for his actions and rebuked in order for him to learn from his mistakes and to make recompense to those he betrayed, namely, his disciples. His disciples also need to learn that they must not place their faith love and devotion in someone who is fallible and that is why we need to take shelter of Srila Prabhupada who is a suddha bhakta.
There is the argument in our society that Srila Prabhupada has said that we can accept a devotee as a guru even if they are on the intermediate platform of Krishna consciousness.
However if one reads on from that, he also said that such a guru can only accept disciples on the same platform and the disciple must know that the guru can only give them what he has to give and he cannot give him something he lacks. Srila Prabhupada then warns that it is best to take shelter of the uttama adhikari devotee or one who has actually seen Lord Sri Krishna Himself.
Actually we must understand that the level of Krishna consciousness of a madhyama adhikari devotee is very advanced and if Srila Prabhupada had any devotees of that caliber in his manifest lila he would have appointed them as gurus but he knew that even though many of his disciples loved him with all their hearts and served him with such love and devotion they were not yet on that spiritual platform.
We are here to learn to love and serve Lord Krishna and that means we have to search our hearts and make real relationships with other devotees based on caring, truthful and honest dealings with each other.
Even though PVS did some nice service he was most definitely not on the level of madhyama adhikari for at this level he would have released most of his most crude and stubborn anarthas via deep loving caring relationships with other devotees. The fact that he has gone on for so many years engaging in illicit sexual relations with women infer he does not. Where were his friends who loved and cared for him and knew him?
No one knew him and so he harbored so many desires in his heart that he ended up cheating his disciples and ultimately himself. He could not release these through shastrically understanding his desires and sharing his problems with his friends. No one is above sadhu sanga. Even Srila Prabhupada had his old and trusted friends.
Everyone around him was not able to see his needs or share his pains. They all wanted him to
be better than he was for their own needs and he got lost in this impersonal atmosphere. He kept people away and people stayed away as they feared upsetting him. Making an offence or be guilty of criticizing him.
Personally I would be so upset if any of my close friends feared talking to me. I welcome my friends into my life and know that they love me and that I love them. This is what I always thought bhakti yoga was. Loving exchanges with devotees in relationship to Krishna?
Our society needs and must learn from PVS situation and heal. We must learn to open our hearts to our dear friends and if we don’t have any we need to get them. We need to share our lives with others and grow together. This is sadhu sanga and bhajana kriya then and then only is it possible to achieve anartha nvritti – in this day and age. Sure in other ages people were more mature socially and emotionally and they knew the philosophy of life but this is the kali yuga and we need to learn how to associate with each other and that means discriminate to find friends.
We are the sadhu, Srila Prabhupada is the guru and shastra well shastra is everything that Srila Prabhupada has given us. Please remember Krishna consciousness is a shared learning experience and we must learn to care and love each other and help each other grow and become more conscious of Krishna in our lives and our hearts and as our one and only goal of life.
If we don’t then more and more innocents will be cheated.