December 8, 1998  

BY SATTVIC DAS ADIKARI

Dear Worldwide Vaisnavas. Hare Krishna. Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

I have recently read an article posted on Chakra by Vipramukhya Swami. The article denoted the mood of many devotees worldwide towards ritvik. I must say that It's not surprising that our Iskcon leaders are trying to take shelter in numbers especially now that they have not been able to reply to practically any of the philosophical points as put forward in the Final Order and other related Papers.

Before we carry on we first have to understand that most of the Iskcon devotees throughout these years have been put through the propaganda machine of the establishment and are therefore at best innocent and ignorant of the reality of Srila Prabhupada's final instruction on initiation for after his departure.

The GBC commissioned some of its members to ask certain questions to Srila Prabhupada and especially they asked a straightforward question about initiation in the future, specifically at the time when he is no longer with us.

In the subsequent document sent by Tamal Krishna Goswami on July 9th 1977 signed by Srila Prabhupada, are we to believe that such an important instruction was only meant for the physical presence of Srila Prabhupada? Why, after asking Srila Prabhupada what to do in the future was there no mention of it in the directive document sent to all Iskcon officers on July 9th 1977? Evidently the July 9th directive document was meant to be followed by the Institution for during and after the departure of Srila Prabhupada. A directive to the society is for as long as the society exists. Since there is no order for it to terminate we have no business to speculate the time frame of its application.

From the posting on Chakra it seems (at first look) that there is indeed a groundswell rising of anti-ritvik sentiments. However we have to first of all analyze the actual situation. A sannyasi recently came to Calcutta and after talking with us on the ritvik subject he happily agreed to read the Final Order and all subsequent related Papers on the subject.

When asked by the Bangalore devotees whether he read the Final Order Jayapataka Swami admitted he never did. It seems that most devotees are unaware of the existence of the Final Order and/or never read it. Most of the devotees who read it have definitively changed their view and have understood that the ritvik system of initiation was indeed conceived, applied and instituted within Iskcon By His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada. I hereby take the opportunity to invite all devotees to read and study the many Papers written on the ritvik-representatives of the Acarya subject. No Iskcon leader nor the entire GBC body has been able to philosophically refute in debate or on paper the Final Order.

Attempts have been made but failed miserably to address the issue and each paper either contradicted the previous one or itself. Now they are trying to scare and intimidate everybody by the use of numbers as a last recourse. The whole movement is been donated to the Gaudiya Math after repeated gross fall downs by our "as good as God" self-appointed Gurus, Temples in America are empty, worst still are temples in South America where the only successful preaching is done by the Gaudiya Math devotees.

Many hundreds of ex Harikesa disciples are in touch with Narayana maharaja and are planning to join him. So is the France Yatra and in the Australian yatra there has been an exodus of hundreds to the Gaudiya math and temples are like ghost towns. The Italian Yatra is practically gone to Puri Maharaja with over 200 devotees having taken initiation from him recently. What is the value of numbers? Why, instead of taking shelter of numbers don't the GBC and other leaders philosophically and sastrically definitively prove that an Acarya cannot initiate disciples in his physical absence?

Vipramukya Swami very cleverly quoted the November ICC meeting in Vrindavana and by doing so is trying to mislead innocent devotees into believing that the whole Indian Yatra is against Ritvik. Here are the facts. At the meeting there was a 20 bloc vote by 12 gurus and 8 Mayapur devotees. Many devotees such as Adridharana and myself and other temple managers were unable to come or were not enthusiastic to attend the meeting knowing it was being orchestrated. If you minus this 20 bloc votes and at the same time subtract Navayogendra Swami's zone and add it to the ritvik vote you'll get 9 vote in favor of the guru system and 15 on favor of ritvik. And if you add the 8 to 10 temple presidents who never attended and who are silent conscientious objectors you will get the real facts. This facts burst the groundswell propaganda as boasted on Chakra.

Your servant Sattvic Das