July 20, 1999  BY ANUTTAMA DAS
In his article, "Follower of His Example" (VNN), Sri Antardwipa Das suggests that Adridharan and Madhu Pandit Prabhus step out of ISKCON if they are "unhappy" with the system of initiations currently practised in ISKCON. Apart from the fact that Antardwipa fills his article with baseless strawmen-like accusations against Madhu and Adri, he also reveals his complete ignorance on the real problem at hand. While the whole world is debating on the issue of post-samadhi initiations within ISKCON, Antardwipa prabhu seems to be just waking up from a long slumber.  Is Antardwipa aware that Srila Prabhupada set up a specific system of initiating devotees with the help of representatives on July 9th, 1977?  Let's examine this with a neutral disposition:

1. Srila Prabhupada did not give any instruction (known to us at present) to stop that system of initiation upon his departure.

2. Nor do we have any instruction (known to us at present) to continue that system after his departure.

So how do we decide what to do?   It goes without saying that in the absence of an explicit instruction from Srila Prabhupada directing either way, if anyone has to stop the system personally set up by him and appoint himself or other ISKCON devotees as "as-good-as-God"  diksha gurus, then he must provide sufficient justification for doing so. Can anyone doubt this?

Have the GBC who have changed the system provided any justification?   The oft-repeated justifications for this change, given by its supporters, are a plethora of explanations of "the law of disciplic succession", "one must have a living guru", "this is unprecedented" and so on & so forth...

Yet, as everyone witnessed in the recently concluded debate on CHAKRA, all these arguments to justify the changes were filled with contradictions in themselves and self-defeating. And it became obvious to anyone who followed the debate closely with a neutral stand, that finally the GBC were never providing any proof to justify the change under scrutiny, but were just stating & re-stating the very claims they had been asked to prove. If Srila Prabhupada's instructions are so clear to appoint oneself as the next guru, then why all the "hand-waving" we saw in the debate? And the debate was prematurely terminated when the GBC representative seeing that he had got himself into a "spaghetti-like" sticky mess of contradicting statements excused himself to spend time with his son from the gurukula. And it strikes us why none of Antardwipa's "highly qualified disciples of Srila Prabhupada" could step in to save the situation.

So the point being made is: If you cannot provide a proper justification for the change, then please follow the only system of initiation that Srila Prabhupada personally set up. You will get "full-points" for simply following the guru's instruction, even if it appears to you to be against sastra or whatever. Please don't speculate, concoct, invent and destroy the whole movement. Otherwise, you are not only a thief, but also a betrayer of your own guru.  And don't tread the path laid by the "qualified disciples" - removing sincere & honest devotees -- the real followers, from Prabhupada's home, it will serve you no good purpose. Gone are the days when you could manipulate the devotees, beat them up, remove them from temples and brainwash them.  By Srila Prabhupada's arrangement, today's generation is seeing for itself who the real follower is and who, the thief.

Srila Prabhupada ki jai !!