Another Pretender Guru Falls Down

Again word from Mayapur that another false guru, Bhakti Vidya Purna Swami, has fallen down with an underaged minor. If it had occurred in the United States the criminal would be subjected to a prison sentence. But since it has happened in India, and under the protection of the GBC, it is swept under the carpet and forgotten. It's not that people weren't aware of what was going on. For months people had been seeing Bhakti Vidya Purna Swami going around with this girl, him riding a motorcycle with her sitting on the back, right up next to him, cruising the back roads of Mayapur. Every single resident of Mayapur had seen it, and they all knew, but he was needed to run the gurukula, so they just let it go. I guess they were happy that at least he wasn't a homosexual, like the last three Mayapur Swamis (Bhavananda, Nitai Chand and Satadhanya).

A few months ago some of his disciples had complained to me that he was spending the entire day, from morning till evening, at the all-girls school, "teaching" the girls Bhagavad Gita, just so he could be around this girl. That's a lot of Bhagavad Gita to be teaching these young girls, wouldn't you think? From morning till evening. And then there were the secret rides out into the sunset with the girl on the back of his motorcycle, which everyone was aware of. Most of the people running the school were his disciples, so they couldn't say anything. They just silently went along and said, "Oh well."

The Mayapur management needs him to run one of the last few boys gurukulas left in ISKCON, so I wouldn't expect any push on their part to punish him. The word is it will be called an "accidental falldown", and not need to be disclosed to the public. This way they can keep the whole event internal, just amongst the Mayapur community, without having to really punish him or close the boys gurukula. These "accidental falldowns" seem to be quite common nowadays. Satsvarupa was also involved in an "accidental falldown", whereby he was able to hold onto his fake guru post and fake sannyasa. Till this day Satsvarupa is certified "as good as God" by the GBC. Suhotra Swami is another member of the "accidental falldown" guru club. Coincidently he also lives together with Bhakti Vidya Purna Swami at the Mayapur gurukula. After Suhotra's falldown, he had pledged to rededicate himself to sannyasa vows under the direct personal guidance and supervision of Bhakti Vidya Purna Swami. I guess that wasn't a very good idea, was it?

Suhotra had a special bonus with his accidental falldown, he got a nifty new pada title to add to his name. His actions had actually been so ridiculous that they couldn't cover it up and let him remain a sannyasi, but at the same time they didn't want to say he fell down. So they said he "downgraded himself to vanaprastha." What exactly does it mean when a sannyasi downgrades to vanaprastha? They could have just said he was caught going to prostitutes, but that wouldn't have sounded as advanced. So instead they decided to "downgrade him to vanaprastha". At the same time they wanted to cover up the fall down, so they announced that the GBC had awarded him a new name in recognition of his "severely austere nature". From now on he would be known as Tapovanacari - "the vanaprastha who does severe austerities (tapasya)". Yes, he is now Suhotra Das Tapovanacari - not just regular vanacari, but TAPOvanacari. So the good news for Bhakti Vidya Purna Swami is if he is lucky he may end up with a nifty new pada name like Suhotra got.

What's the lesson for the rest of us small time ISKCON devotees to learn? I really don't know. It's tough to figure out a spiritual moral from this, but maybe it's this:

If you go along with the corrupt GBC, you can remain a guru and sannyasi even if you are engaged in illicit activity. But if you happen to think Srila Prabhupada is the primary spiritual master of all devotees, you are banned, beaten, and thrown out of ISKCON forever. How long will everyone keep pretending things are getting better? When will you realize the GBC is corrupt from top to bottom. Just like they cover the falls of these small time gurus, they are also covering the falls of the bigtime gurus as well. How many disciples really know who their guru actualy is - what type of person is he? You see them for one day a year as they zip by to receive their yearly worship and dakshina from you and your temple. Do you have any idea how your guru lives, what he actually does, or anything at all about him? No. You see him for an hour a year, and you only see the big guru show they put on as they pass through.

It is a fact that the majority of ISKCON gurus no longer live in ISKCON temples, but have private houses where they stay with a few servants to take care of them. It is also a fact that the majority of high profile ISKCON gurus are multi millionaires. Take for example Bhakti Caru Swami, who a couple months ago pledged to donate $1,000,000 USD of his personal money to the GBC to be used for the child abuse court case. Where does someone like Bhakti Caru get $1,000,000? And do you think he is completely giving 100% of his total money? No way. If he is giving one million dollars that means he is sitting on 30 or 40 million dollars. Gaudiya sannyasis are traditionally known as "Tridandi Bhikshu", which literally means "street beggar", and several ISKCON millionaire sannyasis even print this title on their letterheads.

It is time for ISKCON devotees to see that the present gurus are looting Srila Prabhupada's movement of all it's finances. Why are the temples throughout the world struggling to stay open, and struggling to pay the bills? It is because all of the local money is sent off to these rich gurus. They initiate the local devotees, and then suddenly the temple loses it's donation base as the money is sent to millionaire gurus with swiss bank accounts. Money that should be going to build up Srila Prabhupada's temples locally is instead being sent to false Swamis who use it to continue their lives of sense gratification.

(Keywords: Hare Krishna, ISKCON)