Bhagavad-gita Chapter 16, Text 4: dambho darpo ‘bhimanas ca krodhah parusyam eva ca ajnanam cabhijatasya partha sampadam asurim TRANSLATION Arrogance, pride, anger, conceit, harshness and ignorance–these qualities belong to those of demoniac nature, O son of Prtha. PURPORT In this verse, the royal road to hell is described. The demoniac want to make a show of religion and advancement in spiritual science, although they do not follow the principles. They are always arrogant and proud in possessing some type of education or so much wealth. They desire to be worshiped by others, and demand respectability, although they do not command respect. Over trifles they become very angry and speak harshly, not gently. They do not know what should be done and what should not be done. They do everything whimsically, according to their own desire, and they do not recognize any authority. These demoniac qualities are taken on by them from the beginning of their bodies in the wombs of their mothers, and as they grow they manifest all these inauspicious qualities.
The Sampradaya Sun – Independent Vaisnava News – Editorials – January 2007
4) There is now a new imperative to inspire married couples to be bold and go out to open temples. This was Srila Prabhupada’s desire from the beginning. If one has any aspirations at all in this direction, then the letters in this book will be very encouraging. Prabhupada wrote often on that subject, especially in the early years before the 1970 conspiracy. We have included many of those letters herein. When thousands of devotees are united, yet independently preaching the same message all over the world, it will be plainly evident who is actually becoming advanced through their sincere preaching effort, not by some concocted “appointment.” The ISKCON movement was never intended to be a movement of neophyte men posing as renunciates, as is the case today. Real society is dependent on responsible householders. ISKCON’s divorce rate must come down from its estimated 75%-90% to a much more civilized figure before any attempt to organize a real Vedic society can take place. Therefore, in this book, we have given equal importance to the issue of marriage and women’s exploitation in an attempt to clean up ISKCON’s high divorce rate, which is also caused, primarily, by the unauthorized interference of the new “gurus.”
There are two methods to remove such blood poisoning. There is a slow, painful method, which is what most of the devotees have been indirectly backing now for the past seven years. They want to tolerate all this pain in hopes that it will go away on its own. They think that eventually the GBC will get its act together, and, somehow or other, clean the thing up. That idea has shown less and less promise as time has passed, since, the men who are supposed to clean the thing up, the GBC, are the main ingredients of the boil itself. They are the ones who need to be removed. So the majority of devotees now agree that these anomalies will not disappear by dint of the GBC; there will have to be a direct action taken.
SULOCANA DAS – THE GURU BUSINESS
Prabhupada makes it very clear in his letters why 99% of the devotees leave the Society: “Nasty, personally motivated” leaders. That’s all. There is no other reason. With proper leadership anyone can be happy and find shelter in Srila Prabhupada’s real movement. The real movement is meant for the whole world, not just a small handful of religious zealots. But first there has to be real leaders.
SULOCANA DAS – THE GURU BUSINESS
Some individuals have the idea that devotees who were inclined to want to work in the way Kirtanananda engaged them, i.e., in physical labor, construction, or doing arts and crafts work, because they couldn’t find that type of service elsewhere in the movement. But that’s a foolish justification. New Vrindaban wasn’t the only country facility available to devotees at the time, and many new temples needed artists and laborers. But Kirtanananda provided an atmosphere where you just had to obey him, and many people succumbed to that mood. You had to have a completely subservient attitude, and people were mistakenly made to believe that this is what surrender was all about – what Srila Prabhupada meant by surrender. But that is bogus philosophy and total nonsense.
The Sampradaya Sun – Independent Vaisnava News – Editorials – January 2007
