Danda 1995 - Suhotra Maharaja Archives

home, Back to Godhead by renouncing food and medication and simply absorbinghimself in the hearing and chanting of the Holy Name of the Lord.GURU-TATTVAQuestion from Bhakta Jan MaresApril 26, 1995I just finished reading the ISKCON Journal No.1 from 1990 dealing with ritvikissue. It is very instructive. There is the concept of guru-tattva mentionedseveral times with suggestion that GBC should publish a paper regarding thisconcept.Is there any such resolution? If not, could you please present siddhanta of oursampradaya about it?Answer by Suhotra SwamiApril 26, 1995GBC Resolution 104 of 1990 was passed in direct connection with the edition ofISKCON Journal that you mention. But this resolution does not present adefinition of guru-tattva. It is an invitation to three devotees who espousedthe "rtvik" philosophy to associate with the North American GBC members, so thatthey might Berger understand guru-tattva according to the teachings of thesampradaya.Guru-tattva (the philosophy of the spiritual master) is a vast subject. How canit not be, since the guru represents the teachings of Srila Vyasadeva in bothprinciple and practice. The edition of ISKCON Journal you mention was focusedparticularly on the tattva of the diksa-guru, who links the disciple to theguru-parampara. The "rtvik" philosophers deny the need of a diksa guru. Theysay that someone can even now become a direct disciple of Srila Prabhupada bymeans of rtvik initiation. The so-called rtvik guru is not a diksa guru,because he does not take responsibility for the disciple. He performs aceremony and gives a name, but the connection is to Srila Prabhupada, not tohim. The disciple does not consider the rtvik initiator to be his spiritualmaster. When asked, "Who is your guru?", he answers, "Srila Prabhupada."There is a Sripat (important Gaudiya Vaisnava temple established by apersonified branch of the Caitanya tree) in Bengal where a decree made by SrilaVirabhadra Sena is kept. Virabhadra Sena is the son of Lord Nityananda and theincarnation of Ksirodakasayi Visnu. The decree was written down by SrilaSrinivasa Acarya. This decree excommunicates a brahmana disciple of a Gaudiyaspiritual master. That spiritual master came from a simple background, and hisbrahmana disciple, being caste-conscious, would not acknowledge him as hisspiritual master. Rather, that brahmana would claim to be the disciple of hisspiritual master's spiritual master. Virabhadra Sena declared that the mercycomes to a disciple through his diksa spiritual master, and to jump over theinitiator is a great offense. Thus this brahmana was banished from thesampradaya.The "rtviks" of today use a very similar rationale as did that brahmana. Theirview of guru-tattva is never approved by the bona fide Gaudiya Vaisnavas. Theirview is approved only in apasampradayas. For instance, in Bengal today there isa movement founded by one Anukula Candra Thakura. Anukula Candra is dead, but hecontinues "to initiate" through so-called rtviks, exactly as the rtvikphilosophers lately associated with ISKCON recommend. This Anukula Candra is byno means a bona fide Gaudia Vaisnava. He is a kind of Sahajiya who wassupposedly an incarnation of God. His followers are fish eaters.