Murali Krishna Swami and his Guru Decoder Ring Sampradaya

Murali Krishna Swami starts his latest article with the usual put downs one would expect from a guru campaigner, namely that anyone who doesn't accept his guru as a pure devotee is "groping in the dark and lost in mental speculation". Also he points out, as they always do, that all of these unbelievers are "committing serious offenses due to their lack of proper understanding" - the typical aparadha defense. None of this is new, as we have all heard the same arguments in regards to Srila Kirtanananda, Srila Bhavananda, Srila Harikesh, and all the other past and present Divine Graces. In philosophical debate these are the obvious telltale signs of someone who has little substance to offer and has a weak faith.

After firing his volley of personal attacks against all us foolish offenders, he finally gets to the point of his article, that one must hear from a pure devotee's physical lips (not from his books, nor from a recording of his lectures). The entire emphasis is that the physical lips of the spiritual master are the most important aspect and only source of transcendental knowledge. Murali Krishna Swami's position is summarized in his following statements:

"Now one may say, “OK, I accept that in order to truly understand Vedic knowledge one has to hear from the lotus mouth and into the receptive ear, well, I am hearing from Srila Prabhupada from his tapes or CD’s…”. But that is not what Prabhupada says. One must hear directly from the lips, “Just like Sukadeva Gosvami was speaking to Maharaja Pariksit.”

"Srila Prabhupada has in many places spoken of the absolute requirement of directly hearing from the mouth/ lips of a pure devotee as THE process for developing transcendental knowledge (tattva- vijnanam)."

"Some may say, “That is all right, I am hearing from Srila Prabhupada or other past Acaryas from their books.” This sounds good but, when it is recommended to hear in order to receive perfect knowledge, it means hearing directly from the lotus lips/ mouth of a pure devotee into the receptive and submissive inquisitive ear of a bona fide disciple."

As neophytes are only able to appreciate Lord Krishna in His deity form, unable to see Him as Paramatma situated in the hearts of all living entities, in the same way these neophytes identify the source of the pure devotee's transcendental knowledge as being solely from his physical lips (vapu). For them transcendental knowledge cannot come in his writings, nor even in his recorded lectures, as the physical lips are missing from that transmission. Thus we are to understand that if the guru were to get into some accident, whereby his lips were damaged, then that would be the end of his transcendental knowledge. A new guru replacement would need to be found who had the physical lips by which to transmit transcendental knowledge. Or perhaps if the guru was unable to physically speak (due to damaged vocal cords), then he wouldn't be able to be a guru at all, even if he was able to write all of his transcnendental realizations in books. Without the physical lips and the physical opening and closing of the mouth, transcendental knowledge cannot be transmitted. This is the primary teaching of the neophyte vapu sampradaya.

To them the primary duty of the disciple is to carry a tape measure for making sure he is situated within the scripturally required 15 foot distance from the lips of the pure devotee. He should be careful to measure directly from the lips, not from the feet or any other part of the pure devotee's body. If he is somehow out of range from the lips of the pure devotee, then there is no chance for him to develop pure devotion. For them the guru is limited by both time and space, and you must be both physically near to the guru and also “hearing live” for there to be any chance of getting spiritual knowledge. If you later watch a video of the guru speaking, the guru's teachings become impotent due to time lapse. And even if you hear the same lecture live being broadcast through a microphone system (as is done in many ISKCON temples, while devotees do service in the kitchen or pujari room), you will not get transcendental knowledge because you are not within 15 feet of the guru's physical lips.

Of course for those who have actually read Srila Prabhupada's teachings, this all sounds absurd and completely against his transcendental teachings. Srila Prabhupada never once stressed the importance of his physical lips, nor did he emphasize the need to travel with him to hear in his physical presence. How many of Srila Prabhupada's disciples even met Srila Prabhupada once in their lives? The majority of them did not meet him, but still received transcendental knowledge from him through his books. When someone directly teaches something opposite to what Srila Prabhupada taught, it is obviously a deviation that disqualifies them from being his pure representative. In numerous places Srila Prabhupada has stressed that hearing his teachings are of primary importance over being personally present in front of his physical lips:

"To answer this argument, it is described here that one has to associate with liberated persons not directly, physically, but by understanding, through philosophy and logic, the problems of life." (Srimad Bhagavatam 3:31:48)

"There are two ways of association - by vani and by vapu. Vani means words, and vapu means physical presence. Physical presence is sometimes appreciable and sometimes not, but vani continues to exist eternally. Therefore we must take advantage of the vani, not the physical presence. Bhagavad-gita, for example, is the vani of Lord Krsna. Although Krsna was personally present five thousand years ago and is no longer physically present from the materialistic point of view, Bhagavad-gita continues." (Caitanya Caritamrta, Antya 5 Conclusion)

"I understand that you are feeling my absence. Krishna will give you strength. Physical presence is immaterial; presence of the transcendental sound received from the spiritual master should be the guidance of life. That will make our spiritual life successful." (Letter to Brahmananda and other students, 19/1/67)

Murali Krishna Swami and Gaur Govinda Maharaj go so far as saying Srila Prabhupada's books can never be understood unless you hear them explained physically by a "premi bhakta" (again within a 15 foot distance). By some coincidence, that "premi bhakta" whom they say you need happens to be them. So in other words, there is no way to understand Srila Prabhupada's teachings unless you become their disciples. But why didn't Srila Prabhupada inform his disciples that it was useless to read his books unless Gaur Govinda Maharaj explained them personally? Certainly he was present at that time and Srila Prabhupada could have sent all of his disciples to him to physically hear from his “lips”. While Srila Prabhupada was present he never hinted that his books required another person to explain them to us, nor that we needed to physically be sitting in front of him hearing from his physical lips to receive spiritual knowledge. Srila Prabhupada states the following:

"The instruction given in my books is supposed to be personal instruction. When we read the Bhagavad-gita As It Is, it is understood that we are receiving personal instructions of Krsna. No physical barrier is there in the case of spiritual affairs." (Letter to Dhrstaketu, 14th October, 1973)

Srila Prabhupada says there is no "physical barrier" stopping us from receiving transcendental knowledge when we read his books. It is clear that despite his physical lips not being present, this is not a barrier to the transmission of spiritual knowledge. He also says when we read his books we receive "personal instruction" from him.

Now all of this brings us to a very obvious question. Since Gour Govinda Maharaj is no longer living, why do people like Murali Krishna Swami keep printing his books? By their own teachings a guru's books can only be understood from the physical lips of the guru. Then why waste time printing incomprehensible books (without the necessary guru lips to decode them)? Now that Murali Krishna Swami no longer has a physical set of guru lips to hear from, he must be completely bewildered and unable to understand anything written in both Srila Prabhupada's books and Gaur Govinda Maharaj's books. Oh wait, this is another case of rules only applying to the rest of us, but not to them. For us, they insisted that Srila Prabhupada's books could not be understood by directly reading, but for them, they did not have the same requirement of needing a pair of physical guru lips to explain the purports to them. It becomes obvious that this is just another technique to round up disciples by being the only one with the "guru decoder ring".

The double standard is this: Gaur Govinda Maharaj never needed to physically hear Srila Prabhupada's purports being explained from the physical lips of Srila Prabhupada. He simply read the purports like everyone else and understood them. But for the rest of the world, he insisted that they needed to come to him to understand those purports, as he had the physical guru lips that were absolutely required.

Keeping in line with his guru, Murali Krishna Swami repeats the same propaganda, that only by hearing from a pair of physical lips can we understand any of these transcendental books. “But whose lips?” That’s the question that will naturally come, and unfortunately the answer is always that we must approach them. Now that Gour Govinda Maharaj is not present, will Murali Krishna Swami just get to his point and say we need to hear directly from him to understand anything in Prabhupada’s books? As to why he no longer needs the physical guru lips, who knows the answer? When the very root philosophy is a bogus concoction, why should we expect for there to be an answer anywhere?

If this philosophy had been supported by Srila Prabhupada, certainly he would have instructed all his disciples that they needed to stop everything, come to India and start hearing from his physical lips. But he didn’t. Instead he told them to just keep reading his books, and all questions would automatically be answered:

“In my books the philosophy of Krishna Consciousness is explained fully so if there is anything which you do not understand, then you simply have to read again and again. By reading daily the knowledge will be revealed to you and by this process your spiritual life will develop.” (Letter to Bahurupa, November 22nd, 1974)

“All questions will be clarified if you simply read our books very thoroughly and follow the simple process of devotional service as we have given it to chant regularly and rigidly observe the rules and regulations. This is our principle that the spiritual science becomes revealed to the devotee from within the heart according to the degree of his surrender to Krsna.” (Letter to Ekayani, 25th july, 1970)

“Actually I have already answered all questions in my books such as Bhagavad-gita, so kindly read them and chant Hare Krishna Mantra.” (Letter to Brian Fleming, March 6th 1974)

Actually Srila Prabhupada never even hints that his books are impotent and require a special “guru decoder ring” to understand. In fact he glorifies their immeasurable potency many times:

“I am very keen on the distribution of my books and I am very indebted to all of you for your untiring efforts to see that every man and woman in America get one of my books. If they simply read one page, even if they do nothing else, they can become perfect.” (Letter to Hari basara, April 20, 1974)

“These books are so nice that anyone who reads them is sure to become Krishna Conscious.” (Letter to Sukadeva, March 25th, 1971)

“Simply if one will read our KRSNA book, TLC, NOD, and Bhagavad-Gita As It Is, he will surely become a Krishna Conscious person.” (Letter to Nityananda April 1 1971)

“Even if one does not read the book but simply holds if and sees it, he is benefitted.” (Letter to German Disciples, May 6th, 1977)

What Murali Krishna Swami wants us to believe, is that Srila Prabhupada really meant all of this will happen provided we approached a physical pair of guru lips and heard the proper decoded explanations from them. Seeing as Murali Krishna Swami currently lacks such a pair of “guru decoder lips”, we request him to first locate a replacement for any non-living decoder lips he used to have, and come back for discussion when he is properly equipped. Otherwise his attempts to understand Srila Prabupada’s teachings will be futile by his own admission.

(Keywords: ISKCON, Hare Krishna)