Godbrothers, not equals
Posted by Hansadutta das on September 12, 2006
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At some point, under inspiration and mandate, Srila Prabhupada assumed the mantle and role of Sampradaya Acharya, and produced the fruit of the Acharya; whereas his godbrothers, who up to that point had regarded him as their intimate friend or equal, assumed the title, but produced no fruit.
At that moment, from that time on, when Srila Prabhupada assumed the authority of Acharya, they were obliged to recognize him as such and render him service, just as Arjuna forgot all friendly talks and accepted Krishna as his spiritual master, or just as when a man takes sannyasa, all his civil connections, civil life is finished. The past relationship between Srila Prabhupada and his godbrothers was finished, or should have transcended to the plane of spiritual life, spiritual connection, but even now the godbrothers are still bringing up their friendship and peership with Srila Prabhupada.
When and how Srila Prabhupada became Acharya is not clearly defined, but doesn’t need to be. Like a pregnant woman—it’s taken for granted that at some time and place she became pregnant.
The Acharya is like a tree that has come to the stage of bearing fruit. It was always a fruit tree, even when it was a seedling and then sapling, but now it is bearing fruit in accordance with its destiny. It has finally realized its destiny.
Prabhupad Das Karapurnam said,
Shrila Prabhupad became the recentmost Sampradaya Acharya because he understood, accepted and attempted to follow “all” the instructions of Shrila Bhaktisiddhanta. He was the “ONLY” disciple of his Guru who understood the essential need for a Vaishnav social system based on Varnashram divisions of the social order, and took steps to continue where Shrila Bhaktisiddhanta left off, ie. creation of the Sannyas order and the Gaudiya Math Society. The remnants of the Gaudiya Math remain stuck on the supremacy of the Sannyas/Math system and, the now defunct ISKCON, which I call PISKCON [Pseudo-ISKCON], is stuck where it was when Shrila Prabhupad departed, with many “bizarre” additions and distortions rendered by the GBC.
The “Next Acharya/s” will be either a cooperative group of Bhaktivedanta-shishya [Prabupadanuga's] or single individual/s acting alone who understand, accept and attempt to continue the development of a Vaishnav Social System based on the synthesis of Bhakti-yoga and Varnashram divisions.
Each disciple needs to do a personal inventory to see how many of their Guru’s instructions they are able to comprehend, accept and follow. When they find deficiency in understanding, acceptance or attempts to follow, they must do whatever it takes to come to the standard: Cooperative Execution Of The Guru’s Mission.
This will entail much soul-searching followed by stenuous effort to abandon “useless” projects [ISKCON Activism, as an example] and accept “Cooperative Efforts” to understand and follow “all” the Guru’s instructions in the company of God siblings. This demands a “Revolution” in current thinking and doing patterns, with a retreat to the original plan of association presented by the Guru, ie. Temple Community Lifestyle with abandonment of fruitive work and association of non-Vaishnav’s.
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