His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

IRG v GBC & Gaudiya Math
Court Case Update No 3

INDIA, May 29 1999 — BY MADHU PANDIT DAS

The GBC have submitted their affidavit-in-opposition to the IRG petition, which itself was posted in full in our court update No. The GBC were supposed to have submitted their affidavit by the 16th April, after which we were given 2 weeks to reply. Due to the GBC affidavit being submitted late, the next court hearing to hear their affidavit-in-opposition and our reply to this, will be on June 12th.

In an unprecedented move, the GBC reply rather than tackle our arguments and evidences head on, have instead gone for appeals to historical tradition and relied on the help of the Gaudiya Matha. They have presented as one of their main pieces of evidence, a letter which they have managed to get signed by all 20 or so odd Gaudiya Matha missions currently existing in West Bengal.

Such cosy co-operation makes a mockery of the GBC attempts to portray the IRG as simply being another 'camp' along with the Gaudiya Matha, that is attacking ISKCON. Rather as this action has shown, it is clear that there are only 2 'camps' - the 'Prabhupada is the acarya' camp of the IRG, and the 'Prabhupada substitute' camp headed by the GBC, Gaudiya Matha, and dozens of many other mayavadi and Hindu groups. It demonstrates that the GBC's so-called opposition to the Gaudiya Matha is simply is one based on competition for men and money, but when it comes to philosophy and principle, and in particular their desire to keep Srila Prabhupada substituted with inferior 'physical body' versions, they are two peas in the pod. I shall quote here from paragraph 10 of the GBC's affidavit-in-opposition:

To illustrate this new level of love and co-operation, we have appended one such letter supplied to ISKCON by the Gaudiya Matha of the late Bon Maharaja, at the end of this posting. (All the letters are the same with just the names of the various Gaudiya Matha personalities changed).

Please note that in presenting this evidence, the GBC are validating that the present Gaudiya Matha are in the parampara and are following the standard system in the vaishnava line of Lord Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu. That they are in effect a bona fide branch of the disciplic succession just as ISKCON are.

We would ask the readers to keep this in mind the next time the ISKCON authorities 'warn' them to stay away from the 'poison' of the Gaudiya Matha, and also when they ban various Gaudiya Matha leaders from even visiting ISKCON temples for taking darshan. Indeed this new era of love and co-operation between ISKCON and the Gaudiya Matha should accelerate the mass exodus and defections from ISKCON to the Gaudiya Matha that have taken place since the physical departure of Srila Prabhupada. The irony is that the ISKCON propaganda has always been that it is the 'ritviks' that are driving people to the Gaudiya Matha. Now the truth has been revealed. ISKCON have validated the Gaudiya Matha as a bona fide organisation, worthy of shelter for ISKCON devotees,and one from whom they are desperate to seek assistance for their most important court case.

Indeed this new liberality and inclusiveness towards other groups is not restricted to the Gaudiya Matha. In a spirit of generosity and a sudden new-found humility, the GBC has decided to endorse virtually every Hindu and mayavadi group in India: "On the contrary, I respectfully submit that what has been presented by the plaintiffs, as the Posthumous Ritvik Doctrine is in utter contradiction with all other established Vedic, vaishnava and Indian religious and philosophical systems and has therefore been rejected and declared a dangerous philosophical deviation by the GBC body." (GBC affidavit-in-opposition, paragraph 24, emphasis added)

It seems after years of telling us that ISKCON was the ONLY way to salvation, as soon as their backs against the wall, the GBC will ditch any principles it has, in a mad struggle for survival. We also see how they have justified their rejection of the IRG stance by taking guidance from these outside groups, instead of basing it solely on the instructions of Srila Prabhyuada, as the IRG has done.

Of course the GBC may try and weasel out of the above embarrassing situation by saying that they are willing to take help from anyone, no matter how bogus they are, simply as an expedience measure to curry favour with the Judge. We heard the same line of argumentation to justify portraying Srila Prabhupada as a 'hired hand' of ISKCON, who was given pencils and paper to write his books, in the BBT case against Hamsaduta.

Fortunately such unprincipled arguments did not work then, and they won't work here either, for the courts are concerned with truth and integrity, not expedient humbug. And the ambivalent and hypocritical attitude of the GBC towards the Gaudiya Matha right up until the present day, has been detailed with evidence in our reply, and we shall see then just how seriously the judge will take ISKCON's offering evidence from the Gaudiya Matha.

Your servant
Madhu Pandit Das

(Please look out for more court updates, as and when we can supply the information)


Sree Sree Gaur Gadadharaya Namah
Founder-Acharya : Tridandi Swami Srimad Rasananda Bon Maharaj

Sree Sree Gaur Gadadhara Ashram
Sree Mayapur, P.O. - Sree Mayapur, Dist. : Nadia,
Pin - 741313

To Whom It May Concern

The Sree Sree Gaur Gadadhar Ashram is a member of the Brahma-Madhva-Gaudiya-Saraswata Vaisnava Disciplic Succession also known as Guru-Parampara. We are coming in the disciplic line of Lord Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu.

It is our Guru Parampara tradition and system that initiations (diksas) are granted by a spiritual master during his natural lifetime to disciples.

After the physical departure or demise of the spiritual master one or more of his disciples in turn are then authorized to give initiations to new disciples and thus become spiritual masters. This is the system authorized by sastra and our previous Acharyas. For example, the Gaudiya matha was established by by His Divine Grace Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur Prabhupada. In our institution the founder is Sri Srimad Rasananda Bon Maharaj who is an initiated disciple of Om Visnupada Srila Bhakti Hriday Bon Maharaj. Sri Srimad Rasananda Bon Maharaj is the initiating Acharya on behalf of our institution. This is the standard system of our spiritual line.

There is no precedence of any other system and particularly no system whereby a guru continues to accept disciples by accepting them after his physical demise through a ritvik representative. This system doesn't exist in our Disciplic Succession. The whole concept of disciplic succession is that one generation of disciples succeed the previous generation of disciples and in this way perpetually keep the disciplic succession current.

Our institution doesn't agree to any system whereby a former spiritual master is said to be the diksa guru (initiating spiritual master) of a disciple except those disciples who are initiated during the physical presence of the spiritual master in the manner approved by him.

Yours truly,

(Sign of Sri Srimad Rasananda Bon Maharaj)
Sri Srimad Rasananda Bon Maharaj
Sree Sree Gaur Gadadhar Ashram,
Sridham Mayapur, Nadia,
April 5, 1999