by Bhakta Eric Johanson

The search for truth can take spiritual seekers to unexpected places, and since the physical departure of Hare Krishna movement founder A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (Srila Prabhupada) in November 1977, the ISKCON institution’s leadership has provided any number of cul-de-sacs in this regard. One of these is the subject of the Gold, Guns and God book series. Author Henry Doktorski’s search for truth and healing of his experience in that space now includes giving a detailed account of its events and personalities. (ISKCON is the International Society for Krishna Consciousness.)

It is said that children inevitably follow the example of their parents, as opposed to the high-sounding words of their parents. The same can be said of spiritual teachers and their followers. In this regard one of the sub-themes of Gold, Guns and God is the regular petty crime, lying, deceit, and exploitation by the associates and underlings of “guru” Kirtanananda Swami Bhaktipada, with himself also included. The story of Kirtanananda and his followers, mostly at the West Virginia New Vrindaban farm commune, is the substance of Gold, Guns and God. Although this disregard of morality was not preached or exhibited by Srila Prabhupada (it was condemned), many of his followers tended to independently believe that their zeal to spread Krishna consciousness allowed them this special dispensation from God, Krishna. Srila Prabhupada was always the example of the goodness he preached.

Concerning this, an older devotee once told me that, as a Krishna-realized pure devotee, that Srila Prabhupada did not have to leave (die) in November of 1977, even if he was being poisoned as alleged by some. Instead he chose to leave so that his leading secretaries would be forced to experience the karmic reactions of their deviations and lack of surrender to him. For years a number of them had been sidetracking devotees’ loyalty from him to themselves as part of their Governing Body Commission (GBC) zonal management autonomy, as well as committing any number of other sins. Srila Prabhupada had been absorbing the sinful reactions from his disciples as part of expanding his worldwide mission, but he also knew that in the process this was subtly encouraging their material enjoyment. As described in Gold, Guns and God, Volumes 1-6, one of the main offenders in this regard was Kirtanananda. By late 1977, the level of the GBC’s deviations had apparently reached a critical point, as indicated by their refusal to honor one of Srila Prabhupada’s last wishes: that every single disciple of his come and see him in Vrindaban, India, before he passed away.

Anyway, by this Gold, Guns and God, Vol. 7, it is becoming increasingly apparent, as continued from Vol. 6, that the fruits of Kirtanananda’s petty and major crimes, secret sense pleasures, hubris and his narcissistic delusion that he was Srila Prabhupada’s sole successor, etc., are starting to catch up with him. His followers have also all too closely taken up his example in all the worst ways. They killed critic Sulochan dasa, basically for the crime of not being taken in by Kirtanananda. In this regard, it is interesting that West Virginia law enforcement had a more accurate assessment of Kirtanananda’s character than virtually all devotees, both in and away from New Vrindaban. Devotees are supposed to see things “as they are” with no illusions as a result of their surrender to God. This then raises the question as to who they were really surrendered to, the Supreme Personality of Godhead Krishna and his authorized representative Srila Prabhupada, or the conditioned souls on the GBC and their “divinely-appointed” ambitious and fallible so-called gurus?

Even if we disregard karma as the cause of the reverses at New Vrindaban, the devotees’ extreme certainty that their sometimes murderous immorality was divinely approved largely brought about their undoing. This certainty drove them to sometimes broadcast their reasons and actions in the name of preaching Kirtanananda’s glories.

Needless to say, any coming around, going around and fruit gathering is also nicely illustrated herein as regards the ISKCON institution’s leadership: the GBC. They also got to share in the Sulochan dasa murder scandal and the New Vrindaban copyright bust embarrassment. They were finally forced to confront what they foolishly sidestepped in December of 1977 when, with sheer Machiavellian audacity just a few weeks after Srila Prabhupada’s passing, Kirtanananda started “initiating” new disciples and accepting worship without the GBC’s permission. In doing so he was clearly saying to his GBC godbrothers, “I dare you to do something.” The glaring implication was, “Are you willing to risk losing my loyal followers and temples in my zone in a schism if you try to discipline me?” The GBC, like cowards, folded, thus allowing Kirtanananda to dictate, instead of Srila Prabhupada’s guidance, how so-called gurus would conduct themselves in the ISKCON institution after the Founder/Acharya’s departure.

The only concession the GBC (or at least the ten self-appointed “gurus” among them) would get from Kirtanananda was agreeing to participate with him in the “zonal acharya” conspiracy, wherein suddenly in the spring of 1978 there were now eleven monkey “gurus” jumping up en-mass claiming to be Srila Prabhupada’s successors. In this Gold, Guns and God, Vol. 7, the GBC finally, in March of 1987, invite the schism by expelling Kirtanananda from the institution, albeit ten years and untold compromises with Srila Prabhupada’s instructions later. By then, most of Srila Prabhupada’s committed preachers had left in disgust at the self- apotheosis and over-lording of the eleven, who demanded worship even from their peers. As described in previous volumes, the eleven did not tolerate even slight or polite resistance to their so-called perfection. All this damage to Srila Prabhupada’s once dynamic preaching mission must be laid at the feet of the GBC who sanctioned all the deviations and abuse. “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”—(Edmund Burke) The honorary title of acharya, which means “one who teaches by example,” was usurped, just like the ISKCON institution, by these eleven, who were anything but. Zonal referred to a GBC designated area of the world wherein one of the eleven was the exclusive so-called guru.

In regard to the compromises with Srila Prabhupada’s instructions, since the spring of 1978 the GBC have peddled a sometimes macabre, Kingdom of Oz sideshow in regard to who is authorized to be “guru.” The eleven initially out-and-out lied that Srila Prabhupada had appointed them. When it was pointed out that they had only been appointed ritviks (priests) to officiate until his departure at ceremonies wherein new people became Srila Prabhupada’s disciples, they changed their “authorization” to approval by the GBC, Srila Prabhupada’s “ultimate managing authority.” This “approval by GBC” ecclesiastical selection method has been used for the last 42 years, despite it being condemned by (1) Srila Prabhupada, (2) previous gurus from hundreds of years ago, and (3) the GBC’s own Sastric (scriptural) Advisory Committee.

Srila Prabhupada enjoined, “It is imperative that a serious person accept a bona fide spiritual master in terms of the sastric injunctions. Sri Jiva Goswami advises that one not accept a spiritual master in terms of hereditary or customary social and ecclesiastical conventions. One should simply try to find a genuinely qualified spiritual master for actual advancement in spiritual understanding.”—Purport, Sri Caitanya Caritamrita, Adi 1.35 Prabhupada also explained, “Mundane votes have no jurisdiction to elect a Vaishnava acharya. A Vaishnava acharya is self effulgent, and there is no need for any court judgement. A false acharya may try to override a Vaishnava by a High Court decision, but Bhaktivinode Thakur says that he is nothing but a disciple of Kali Yuga.”—Sri Caitanya Caritamrita, Madhya 1.220, Purport

More recently, the ISKCON Sastric Advisory Committee warned, “Our present system has institutionalized a process of senior devotees voting or offering no-objection to prospective gurus. But we do not find that this institutionalized blessing-seeking process is mentioned by guru, sadhu (saintly person) or sastra as the way that one is authorized to become a guru.”—Balancing the roles of the GBC and the disciple in Guru selection

Here one quote makes clear that all the “gurus” approved by the GBC over the last forty-some years are “disciple(s) of Kali Yuga.” Kali Yuga is the current Iron Age of quarrel and hypocrisy, so it is not something a truly saintly person should be associated with.

As far as the track record of the hundred or more men who have “served as guru” in the institution, thousands of “second generation” followers have been left without a guru due to some kind of scandal. These “fried out” people usually also leave the institution, as will be described for New Vrindaban in future volumes. This has led the GBC to declare itself the superior authority over the so-called gurus, another glaring contradiction with ancient scriptures and tradition. Sastra says that a genuine guru is to be seen by the disciple “as good as God,” or above all mundane management authorities. The GBC policy itself is therefore an admission that the “gurus” can’t be expected to attain to the standard which has been the norm for Vaishnava spiritual masters for thousands of years. Besides being an apasiddhanta—something outside standard Krishna conscious philosophy and practice—this is clearly a question of spiritual authority, not mere management. If Srila Prabhupada had intended the GBC to be superior to the “gurus,” he would have called them “the ultimate authority” or “ultimate spiritual and managing authority” instead of qualifying their authority as merely “managing.”

As described in this volume and Volume 6, Kirtanananda, with his insistence that no one is superior to guru, was the main obstacle to the Guru Reform Movement being able to implement this policy. Philosophically he was right, but ironically it was a consequence of his bad qualities in the event of Sulochan’s murder that led to its implementation. And all this was the result of the GBC’s cowardly inaction in December 1977, by neglecting to discipline Kirtanananda Swami for initiating his first disciples and accepting worship as an uttama- adhikari.

In this way the story of Gold, Guns and God has taken us full circle to Kirtanananda’s expulsion from the ISKCON institution. Readers can trace how the seed of the ISKCON institution’s philosophical and moral undoing was actually this one man: a kind of living, preaching, stealth time bomb. In 1967 he was the first apparently fully-surrendered, renounced disciple of Srila Prabhupada, who repeatedly praised him. He imbibed Srila Prabhupada’s mood and style to such an extent that many older devotees also thought him to be a pure devotee. He regularly preached about the evils of the material life and sex. His charisma and compassion attracted the love and devotion of both his peers and followers. Yet Kirtanananda also harbored great ambition and was capable of ruthless self-interest and audacity. Considering that he could fool virtually everyone he came in contact with, he was an extremely dangerous man.

Kirtanananda’s damage to Srila Prabhupada’s branch of Gaudiya-Vaishnavism directly and indirectly caused the turnover of first- and second-generation devotees during the first fifteen years after Srila Prabhupada’s departure. That horrific hemorrhaging of ISKCON’s membership eventually forced ISKCON to become almost completely dependent on people of Indian descent, both in and out of India. However, these people tend to see the movement as more of a church instead of as a missionary transformation of society offering love of God. It may have been that in 1978 some kind of zonal acharya conspiracy might have formed anyway without Kirtanananda’s audacity, but had Kirtanananda been disciplined by the GBC instead, the ISKCON zonal-acharya travesty would have certainly been impeded, and he would not have been the direct catalyst.

The real victim of the compromises with Srila Prabhupada’s instructions has been the Founder/Acharya’s focus on pure devotional service—a one-hundred percent Krishna- centered environment in every temple. Srila Prabhupada wanted every disciple’s twenty-four hours to be dedicated to thinking and talking about Krishna with everyone he or she met, with every action and word in accordance with Prabhupada’s detailed instructions. Only this would enable the seeker to truly transcend his or her previous material consciousness and realize Krishna. This intensive process of individual self-transformation (Bhakti Yoga) was what was largely happening before the spring of 1978, but the GBC have gradually secularized that, leaving just another hierarchical, congregational, institutional religion, what Srila Prabhupada once called “Churchianity.” The intensive self-transformation can’t happen when virtually all members merely work a job in material society and give donations, showing up at the temple only on weekends. It also doesn’t happen when diversions from pure Krishna consciousness like Hatha Yoga and stress relief are used to attract people to the temple. The following conversation serves as an example:

Satsvarupa: Srila Prabhupada, sometimes you say only a very small percentage can take to Krishna consciousness.

Srila Prabhupada: Yes.

Satsvarupa: But yesterday morning in your lecture you were saying it can expand to ten thousand, million, or ten million.

Srila Prabhupada: Yes, if you take the proper way it can be increased.

Satsvarupa: Is that just up to our preaching?

Srila Prabhupada: Yes. That will depend on your purified preaching activities. If you again become materially victimized, then you cannot do it. If you remain on the spiritual platform, if you try, then it will increase. Anandambudhi-vardhanam. It will increase. As soon as there is any contemplation of sense gratification, then the spirit will be lost. Then instead of Christianity, it will be “Churchianity,” officially going to the church, doing nothing, and gradually nobody will go.—Morning walk, Mayapur (April 7, 1975)

The real Gaudiya Vaishnava process for becoming guru was described a number of times by Srila Prabhupada, interestingly enough on the May 28, 1977 so-called “appointment tape” that the zonal acharyas cited as part of their “guru appointment authorization.” Why then did they so blatantly disregard some of its instructions? Therein Srila Prabhupada says, “When I order you become guru, he becomes regular guru. That’s all. He becomes disciple of my disciple.” Here the main requirement of a direct order, in this case from Srila Prabhupada, is given. Then the restriction of “regular guru. That’s all.” qualifies how his disciple-guru should act. This means he should act under regulation, that he shouldn’t begin acting like a fully-liberated soul, which is exactly what the zonal acharyas started doing. They immediately started imitating Srila Prabhupada’s opulent standard of worship, all with “pada” titles (such as Srila Bhaktipada) and Srila honorifics (which are generally reserved for great devotees). They sat on high seats and demanded worship from even their godbrothers and sisters, which a “regular guru” would never do. Even Srila Prabhupada’s guru, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Prabhupada, who was also a great devotee with the exalted Prabhupada title, used to sit on the floor and return the obeisances of his disciples. These excesses of the zonal acharyas were at least largely corrected by the 1986-1987 reformers.

The main deviation remaining in the ISKCON institution is their ecclesiastical “approval by GBC” so-called guru selection process. Srila Prabhupada said in a number of places that all his disciples should become guru, especially those, as cited above, who get some kind of direct order from him. He also said he was ordered to take sannyasa (lifelong celibacy) by his guru in a dream, so dreams wherein one is ordered by Srila Prabhupada to be guru would also follow suit.

Anyway, who is the GBC to interfere in this deeply personal and spiritual process? Gurus are made by their guru with Lord Krishna’s approval. It’s not a process of this world. That is what is described over and over in the scriptures. Nothing else is needed. The GBC are thus little more than fools rushing in where angels fear to tread. Historically also, they have shared in the blame for their appointees’ scandals and shortcomings.

In any case, even real gurus sometimes fall down, either by preaching philosophical deviations or in conduct. If, as according to the above, the GBC allowed every serious devotee who claimed to have received an order from Srila Prabhupada to initiate, what should be done if that person starts going against Srila Prabhupada’s standards for conduct and philosophy? All they are really left with, as the “ultimate managing authority,” is the power to prohibit such a deviant from preaching in the movement’s temples and facilities. They can also issue a blanket “at your own risk” warning to anyone wanting to become someone’s disciple. The problem with the GBC being able to say who is guru and who is not is that the GBC has become itself the big deviant who then makes lesser ones.

The seekers like Henry who have come to the dead end of their so-called guru cul-de-sacs are actually the fortunate ones. They get the chance to rebuild their lives and renew their search in the right direction. The truly unfortunate are those whose so-called gurus don’t become scandalized and remain approved by the GBC, as four of the original eleven and any number of subsequent selections are. These followers remain aboard what the Srimad- bhagavatam calls a “stone boat,” one that is no longer fully connected with the instructions of previous spiritual masters.

Reporter: Don’t you feel that people are suspicious because of their experience with fake gurus? If you went to a quack dentist and he broke your tooth, you might be suspicious about going to another dentist.

Srila Prabhupada: Yes, naturally, if you are cheated, you become suspicious. But this does not mean that if you are cheated once, you will always be cheated. You should find someone genuine. But to come to Krishna consciousness, you must be either very fortunate or well aware of this science. From the Bhagavad-gita we understand that the genuine seekers are very few: manusyanam sahasresu kascid yatati siddhaye. Out of many millions of people, there may be only one who is interested in spiritual life.—Science of Self Realization, Chapter. 2, “Choosing a Spiritual Master: Saints & Swindlers”

Hare Krishna. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

Bhakta Eric Johanson (formerly Vrindaban Chandra Swami)
Moab, Utah
Disappearance day of Srila Bhaktivinode Thakur (June 29, 2022)
email: vaishnav111@yahoo.com

Bhakta Eric Johanson joined the Berkeley ISKCON temple in December 1977 and was “initiated” by Hansadutta Swami as Vrindaban Chandra dasa in the spring of 1978. He was given “sannyasa” (a vow of lifelong celibacy) by his “spiritual master,” along with Paramahansa dasa and seven others in 1983, and called Vrindaban Chandra Swami. In 1985, he read Sulochan dasa’s book, The Guru Business, and realized he had yet to contact a genuine guru and wasn’t really even initiated, much less a sannyasi. Soon after he rejected his Sanskrit name and returned to being addressed as Bhakta Eric. After leaving ISKCON, Eric became a co-founder the Vaishnava Foundation. Eric is also the founder of the Bhaktivedanta Climate Change Collaboration Group (http://bhaktivedantacccg.org/wp/).