Guru Business / Kirtanananda Swami

On Oct 2, 2015, I had a visit by Kirtanananda Swami who was kicked out of his parent Vaishnava society after he was convicted in a US court of several violations of US law.

He wanted to discuss two topics and get some issues resolved. Actually I have no issues with him. My attitude is that whatever happened occurred. We need to move on to the next bump in the road. There will always be mishaps in these life histories. That is for sure. Only people who are into Utopia cannot understand that.

Kirtanananda, who is deceased, wanted to discuss two topics. This is a total astral experience. The two topics were:

• Validity of Deity Reciprocation
• Functioning for a Deceased Guru

Validity of Deity Reciprocation

Kirtanananda explained that he became more and more confident that he was doing the right thing because of mainly his relationship with a pair of deities which were installed by his spiritual master at the New Vrindavan farm. These deities came to be known as Sri Sri Radha-VrindavanChandra. They are deities of Radha, Krishna’s principal gopi-girlfriend and Krishna himself.

Kirtanananda said that he got no indications from these deities that he was doing anything wrong, anything which would eventually scuttle the mission as happened, anything which indicated in any way that he would be beaten into a coma and also be jailed in US prisons.

Why did the deities not indicate any of this to him, he questioned. Why did they accept the offerings from the very activities which proved to be criminal acts and which cause him to be convicted in US courts?

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The reason is simple, I replied.

Your worship of deities was in part worship of your own aspirations and beliefs. It was not 100% based on your connection with the said deities. How can you guarantee to yourself or to anyone else, that it was 100% that? Remember that these deities are installed on this side of existence and mostly by people who feel they have spiritual contact and may not have an objective way of knowing that such contact is really what it is supposed to be.

The procedure for dressing deities, decorating them, offering them food as well as worshiping them with various authorized paraphernalia and ingredients is all subjected to non-objective interpretations and assumptions by the persons doing the offering.

Suppose I decorate the deity, choosing items which I feel are the very best, but suppose this is done based solely or partially on my sense of beauty, then when I view these deities, when I have darshan, how much of that would be objective? How could I know when it is only my taste of beauty which I am enjoying and when the deity is not really involved in my suggestions.

How do I know that I dressed the deity in a way which is pleasing to my senses which has nothing to do with the deity but which makes me feel that everything is favorable for me with the deities?

What was the method used by you for checking this?

Suppose I become successful where many persons come to see the Deity just as people go to see celebrities who are well-dressed and decorated, how do I know that this appraise of the deities is not based solely on physical perception and physical sensual appreciation of the visitors and contributors and not of the deities.

Obviously these technicalities of deity worship if not taken into consideration would result in mishap for the worshiper, who may or may not realize what happened in fact until there is disaster which forces the devotee to question what happened and to realize that the deity worship was terribly flawed.

Remember that the deities are passive forms. They are not physical entities moving about the way Krishna moved about on the Battlefield of Kurukshetra as a physical being with physical impact. The passivity of the Deities forms makes for sure liabilities based on the mistaken or valid mystic perception of the devotee who does the Puja Worship Ceremonies.

Are you sure you had the mystic perception?

Was your mind drumming up reciprocations with the deity based on its dressing of the deities in clothing which it liked the most?

Is Krishna responsible for this?

Is the guru who is deceased but who introduced this careless deity worship responsible for this?

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Functioning for a Deceased Guru

When I got to New Vrindavan sometime around 1979-1980, my intention was to take initiation from Bhaktivedanta Swami. I felt it was time for me to begin the work for Krishna for which I took this body. Since Bhaktivedanta was deceased recently, it was obvious that physically it was impossible to coordinate with him. I did however explain to Kirtanananda what I intended because prior I had contact with Bhaktivedanta when I was in Denver around 1973. At the time I wrote the Swami (at his Bombay address) for instructions on how to explain Bhagavad Gita to children. I suggested in a letter to the Swami that if possible, if he could, he may write a book just for children. In reply he said that I should write the book.

I took this instruction seriously and began to write that book but I used his Bhagavad Gita As It Is as the reference for doing this. I completed the book within 6 months. Then I got manuscript formatted and sent it to him.

At the time I used to visit the ISKCON temple on Cherry Street in Denver. I knew a few of the devotees there who knew that I was once in the Kundalini Yoga 3HO ashram. They were hostile about that but otherwise I used to be friendly with them.

Once a temple-resident devotee who was an artist and who befriended me called me aside at the time when I was on a Sunday Program visit. He said to me that he had some bad news. He explained that the Denver temple president explained to Prabhupada that I was sentimental and was not a staunch devotee and that I did not really support the temple. He said that due to that Prabhupada who had already instructed Mohanananda Das to meet with me, cancelled that instruction after getting the report from the Denver temple president.

So that was the end of the communication with Srila Prabhupada at the time.

I explained this to Kirtanananda in a letter before I went to New Vrindavan and I also sent the manuscript of the Bhagavad Gita for Children which I wrote. Thus Kirtanananda was aware of my contact with his guru before I got to their farm community.

However, as soon as I got there, Kirtanananda made it clear that he was to be my spiritual master and not Srila Prabhupada. That I had to accept him as my authority pronto.

Circumstantially, I agreed, even though I knew that his idea of this was flawed. When you have no choice, then that is what you have, which is no choice. I had no alternative but to comply.

At first when I got to the farm Kirtanananda had recently become an official guru. When I first got there he was known as Maharaja, which is a name used for revered Swamis all over India. Translated literally it means Great King. Suddenly Kirtanananda had a confidential meeting in his room which was on the second story of a large dormitory building, called a dharmashal. In that meeting to my amazement, he said that he was to be known from then on as Srila Bhaktipada or the most respected person (Srila) from whose feet (pada) bhakti or devotion to Krishna emanates. In the meeting he expressed distaste at being called merely Maharaj.

The next day, the president of the farm official announced at a meal gathering that Kirtanananda was to be called Bhaktipada and that no one was to say Maharaja anymore.

Soon after this I took formal initiation from Kirtanananda in a ritual ceremony. Some of the community members did not think I should be initiated but these people were unaware of my prior contact with Srila Bhaktivedanta Swami. They did not know that I wrote books, taught yoga and was versed in many of their literatures. Kirtanananda knew of it, so he pushed ahead and got me initiated quickly. He also put me in the Gurukula boarding school system as a teacher for some boys during the day and as a ward for caring them during the night.

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In the astral encounter, Kirtanananda tried to reverse what happened saying to me the following:

“I should have initiated you with myself as a proxy for Srila Prabhupada and not as my disciple directly. That was a mistake. I really do not know why I did not see that at the time, Some of this was due to the fact that Prabhupada did not allow any of us to take help from any of the Gaudiya Math authorities who were his seniors,; His view was that there is only one Guru as such and that person must be physically present. Of course I had ambitions but still there was this feeling of myself and some senior disciples of Prabhupada that we establish ourselves as exclusive gurus. These were indications we got from him over the years we served him.

“I now know that guru-ship is not limited to physical bodies. If someone can get a guru who is deceased, that should be okay with everyone else, even though there is a high probability that the person will be misled because of confusing a guru’s instruction with something drummed up by the mind and presented by it as the guru’s directive. The risk of mental confusion is there but it does not justify or cover someone stepping in and acting in place of as a deceased guru.

“The whole spiritual path is very risky. I can say that for sure now.”