Taking Srila Prabhupada Straight
(excerpts)
from His Grace Ravindra Svarupa Prabhu
posted August 14, 2003

A mature Prabhupada disciple who had spent several years with Narayana Maharaja and his followers but has now become disillusioned, reports having directly heard Narayana Maharaja vow to reinitiate the disciples of ISKCON gurus, "I'll reinitiate their disciples!"
In 1990 I was persuaded by some who were then taking siksa from Narayana Maharaja to visit him. In the course of our discussion, the invocation of Sri Isopanisad somehow came up, and I rendered the meaning and purport the way it was presented by Srila Prabhupada, mentioning that this world ('idam'), as an emanation from the 'purnam', is also 'purnam'.

Narayana Maharaja immediately cut me off, and pronounced (in quite an ex cathedra manner) that I understood the text incorrectly. "No!" he said. "The material world is not purnam." 'Idam' did not refer to this material world, which cannot be purnam. Rather, he said, 'idam' refers to Visnu-tattva expansions like Balarama. They are purnam.

I was a bit shocked. Here I was Prabhupada's disciple, yet he was telling me Prabhupada was in error in his books. Of course, I understood at once that Narayana Maharaja had to be ignorant of Prabhupada's books. He had not been enlightened by Prabhupada's brilliant account of just what it meant for this material world to be realized as a complete whole. (It seemed weird to give an interpretation that ignored the context of the invocation, and to ignore the fact that everywhere in the Upanisads and the Bhagavatam 'idam' is conventionally used to stand for 'this world'; and how strange it is to use a neuter singular pronoun to refer to Balarama and other expansions. To give him the benefit of the doubt, I assume he had some authority for his gloss of the sruti mantra. At any rate, Prabhupada's understanding is clearly far more profound. I actually felt sorry for Narayana Maharaja that he had not received the benefit of Prabhupada's teaching.)

Didn't Prabhupada emphasize the importance of his books for us? Didn't he tell us that association with him via his books was better than his personal association? Now, how is a person who has never even bothered to read Prabhupada's books to be considered his siksa disciple? How is he to represent Prabhupada to us? Narayana Maharaja announced himself as the successor-acarya to Prabhupada, the authorized acarya of ISKCON.

Two years ago, Lokanatha Swami brought ISKCON's parikrama party to Kesavji Gaudiya Math in Mathura, where Narayana Maharaja addressed them. It became quite emotional. He said that he used to "lie under the Tamal tree" and to "rest his head in the lap of Giriraja." He said that even Lokanatha Swami used to be his friend. But all of them left him. They deserted him.
And then, when the parikrama party had left, Narayana Maharaja turned to his disciples and said, "Not one of these is a true follower of Srila Prabhupada! I am the only true follower of Srila Prabhupada!" Other witnesses have heard him voice the same idea still more recently: "I am the successor to Srila Prabhupada," he says. Even: "I am ISKCON."

There was a time when Narayana Maharaja criticized Prabhupada in public. He pointed out "mistakes" in his books and "mistakes" in naming of certain Deities. Now, however, he claims that he never said these were Prabhupada's mistakes but those of his followers, and he never criticized Prabhupada. This is not true. The truth is that in private Narayana Maharaja still belittles or criticizes Prabhupada, while praising him in public. And if the private is made public he simply denies it happened.
If we were to accept Narayana Maharaja's claims, we would be disregarding Prabhupada's explicit directions to us, and, in so doing, reenacting the error of the Gaudiya Matha in disobeying the orders of its founder-acarya. Prabhupada's instructions to us are clear and open and direct, and he has warned us of the folly of deviating from them:

Why this Gaudiya Matha failed? Because they tried to become more than guru. He, before passing away, he gave all direction and never said that 'This man should be the next acarya.' But these people, just after his passing away they began to fight, who shall be acarya. That is the failure. They never thought, 'Why Guru Maharaja gave us instruction so many things, why he did not say that this man should be acarya?' They wanted to create artificially somebody acarya and everything failed. They did not consider even with common sense that if Guru Maharaja wanted to appoint somebody as acarya, why did he not say? He said so many things, and this point he missed? The real point? And they insist upon it. They declared some unfit person to become acarya. Then another man came, then another, acarya, another acarya. So better remain a foolish person perpetually to be directed by Guru Maharaja. That is perfection. (Srila Prabhupada Speaking in a Room conversation, Bombay: August 16, 1976)

What would it be like to stand before Srila Prabhupada and explain on what authority Narayana Maharaja is to be promoted as our next acarya?

DEVIATIONS

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura Prabhupada radically reformed the Gaudiya Tradition, transforming it into a global preaching mission for the modern world. His work was not much appreciated by many, prominent among them the babajis of Vraja, who felt that he was deviating by his emphasis on vigorous preaching rather than the esoteric cultivation of raga-marga. His disciples were constantly assailed by the charge that their Guru Maharaja was a deviant who could not offer them the "real thing." As you know, a number of them succumbed, most prominently the unauthorized "successor-acarya" Ananta Vasudeva dasa (later reinitiated in the babaji community as Puri Goswami).

A number of our own God-brothers also fell prey to the same attack, even while Prabhupada was present. What Narayana Maharaja is now preaching and delivering clearly comes from outside the line of Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura. He did not get this from Bhakti Prajnan Kesava Maharaja, his diksa guru. Narayana Maharaja has acknowledged that there was no practice of raga marga in that matha, no "rasa-katha" but rather discourse about Prahlada Maharaja, Dhruva Maharaja, and so on.

Narayana Maharaja was apparently not satisfied with this, for, as he once confessed, he left his spiritual master's temple without permission, and he went to Govardhana. In great distress, crying, Bhakti Prajnan Kesava Maharaja came and brought him back.

But later, after the departure of his Guru Maharaja, Narayana Maharaja returned to the babajis of Govardhana, and from among them he accepted a rasika guru, supposedly the one who "pushed the switch" which made the "current of bhava flow." After his guru's departure Narayana Maharaja did something his guru had forcibly prohibited in his presence. Whatever it is that Narayana Maharaja is giving comes from this babaji. This is his lineage. It is clearly not the lineage from Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura.

In Vrndavana there are prakrta-sahajiyas who say that writing books or even touching books is taboo. For them, devotional service means being relieved from these activities. Whenever they are asked to hear a recitation of Vedic literature, they refuse, saying, "What business do we have reading or hearing transcendental literatures? They are meant for neophytes." However, pure devotees under the guidance of Srila Rupa Gosvami reject this sahajiya philosophy. It is certainly not good to write literature for money or reputation, but to write books and publish them for the enlightenment of the general populace is real service to the Lord. That was Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati's opinion, and he specifically told his disciples to write books. He actually preferred to publish books rather than establish temples. According to Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, distributing literature is like playing on a great mrdanga. Consequently we always request members of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness to publish as many books as possible and distribute them widely throughout the world. By thus following in the footsteps of Srila Rupa Gosvami, one can become a rupanuga devotee.

Narayana Maharaja once said that the result of book distribution by a member of ISKCON would be that in his next life the book distributor might qualify for advanced association (of a rasika bhakta), but that was all. Yet Srila Prabhupada did not recognize such a dichotomy between Gauranga's seva and Gopijanavallabha's seva, for, as he famously commented: "Book distribution is in the mood of the gopis." Srila Prabhupada tells us that he attained this realization from his Guru Maharaja, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura (Madhya 19.133, Purport)

In this connection, I am enclosing an exact (unedited) typescript of Prabhupada's preface to the original edition of the second volume of Srimad Bhagavatam (1964). Here, Prabhupada replies to criticisms of his activity. These very same criticisms of "brhat-mrdanga preaching," voiced by the sahajiya babajis of Vraja, are unfortunately being recycled by Narayana Maharaja.
Prabhupada begins by saying:

The path of fruitive activities i.e. to say the path of earn money and enjoy life as it is going on generally, - appears to have become also our profession although we have renounced the order of worldly life! They see that we are moving in the cities, in the Government offices, banks and other business places for promoting the publication of Srimad Bhagwatam. They also see that we are moving in the press, paper market and amongst the book binders also away from our residence at Vrindaban and thus they conclude sometimes mistakenly that we are also doing the same business in the dress of a mendicant!

And Srila Prabhupada winds up by voicing his heart-felt conviction:

So even though we are not in the Himalayas, even though we talk of business, even though we deal in rupees and n.P. still, simply because we are 100 per cent servants of the Lord and are engaged in the service of broadcasting the message of His glories, - certainly we shall transcend and get through the invincible impasse of Maya and reach the effulgent kingdom of God to render Him face to face eternal service, in full bliss and knowledge. We are confident of this factual position and we may also assure to our numerous readers that they will also achieve the same result simply by hearing the glories of the Lord. (Jannama sruti matrena puman bhavati nirmala.)

Narayana Maharaja explains Prabhupada's high praise for book distribution and book distributors as a mere tactic to encourage those of us without the samskara for raga-marga. Therefore it is worth noting that this preface was written about his own activities and some years before he had any neophytes to encourage.

During Kartika last year, Narayana Maharaja was holding a darsana in which a number of disciples of Gaura Govinda Maharaja were present. He announced that last night Gaura Govinda Maharaja had appeared to him in a dream, and after speaking some words, Gaura Govinda Maharaja merged into Narayana Maharaja's body.
Srila Prabhupada said:

Therefore those who are sahajiyas, they simply go to the pastimes of Lord Krsna with the gopis. Other things: "Oh, no, no. That is not Krsna's pastimes. That is not Krsna's pastimes." That is, they differentiate the absolute activities of the Absolute. That is called sahajiya. The sahajiyas will never read Bhagavad-gita, will never read. [Sarcastically:] Because they have been elevated to the mellows of conjugal love. Therefore they have no interest in Bhagavad-gita. (Lecture on Srimad-Bhagavatam 6.3.20-23; Gorakhpur, February 14, 1971)

Narayana Maharaja says within smaller circles that he has no taste for Bhagavad-gita, no attraction for Puri or Dvaraka, no interest in Rama or Narasingha.

SUMMARY

We can begin to understand what influence Narayana Maharaja exercises to make devotees disobey Srila Prabhupada? Let us look at the reason Satsvarupa Maharaja stopped hearing from Narayana Maharaja. He was the first of ISKCON leaders to reject Narayana Maharaja as a teacher. When a crisis arose concerning the others who continued under his tutelage, I asked Satsvarupa Maharaja what made him decide to quit.

He told me, "I discovered that I was reading Srila Prabhupada through the eyes of Narayana Maharaja. And I decided I had better take my Srila Prabhupada straight."

Now, I accept Satsvarupa Maharaja's account. He is by nature transparently honest-even, some say, to a fault. His own account is characteristically direct, simple and guileless. Satsvarupa Maharaja noticed how some subtle and powerful change was happening in his hearing of Prabhupada, and Prabhupada was now coming to him in a distorted or crooked manner. He was hearing Prabhupada differently, and this gave him such qualms that he took remedial measures.

According to Narayana Maharaja, Prabhupada was, in effect, a lower-level guru (a teacher of vaidhi-bhakti only) while Narayana Maharaja is a higher-level guru (a giver of raga-marga). In essence, then, those who follow him may set aside significant parts of Srila Prabhupada's teachings and directions as a kind of outgrown elementary instruction. In effect, Narayana Maharaja gives them the way to "respectfully" disregard Srila Prabhupada's teachings without suffering the pang of conscience.

I doubt Narayana Maharaja's claims to be Prabhupada's follower or designated successor because:

1. He acts in an envious manner toward Vaisnavas and ISKCON in particular and seems to be driven by a competitive spirit of domination.
2. He is unacquainted with Prabhupada's teachings and he differs from them in many ways.
3. He has gone outside the line of Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura for instruction and does not follow the directions given by Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura.
4. He receives teachings on "raga-marga" from babajis unauthorizedly.

This article originally published in Remebering TKG and George, Vaisnava Society, vol. 6