The Final Order: Proves Srila Prabhupada is ISKCON's Initiating Guru

by Krishnakant

THE BOOK THAT HAS THE GURUS ON THE RUN! "The Final Order by Krishnakant Desai has been perhaps the most influential post-1977 publication in the Vaisnava world." - HH Bhakti Vikasa Swami, ISKCON guru Who should initiate disciples in the Hare Krishna Movement? The spiritual purity and general prestige of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON, or the Hare Krishna Movement) has undergone a serious meltdown since the physical departure on November 14th, 1977 of its pure and saintly founder, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada. Most of the scandals that have rocked the Movement can be traced back to fairly blatant deviations from the instructions and pure standards given by Srila Prabhupada, the chief of which being his unauthorised displacement as the sole initiating (diksa) guru for ISKCON. This particular deviation was highlighted in 1996 in the first edition of The Final Order which was sent to all ISKCON's leaders in a bid to help solve the Movement’s problems. No ISKCON leader could now credibly claim to be oblivious to the legal documents, personally signed by Srila Prabhupada, that clearly set out his intention to remain the sole initiating guru for the global spiritual movement he founded. It is these legal documents that constitute the core of The Final Order. Far from accepting the conclusions of The Final Order, ISKCON's Governing Body Commission (GBC) embarked on a systematic and sometimes brutal campaign of harassment, suppression and evasion. Surely it is no coincidence that most, if not all, of the members of the GBC are also initiating gurus? This book will help the reader get to grips with the plain facts underlying one of the most fascinating and serious religious controversies of the modern age. "The GBC should all be the instructor gurus. I am the initiator guru, and you should be the instructor guru by teaching what I am teaching and doing what I am doing." - Srila Prabhupada Letter to Madhudvisa, 4/8/1975 “Yes, I am the spiritual master of this institution, and all the members of the Society, they're supposed to be my disciples. They follow the rules and regulations which I ask them to follow, and they are initiated by me spiritually.” - Srila Prabhupada Radio Interview, 12/3/1968

233 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 25, 2015

Reviews

[Maria Fledgling Author Park · Rating 1 out of 5]

ISKCON Squabbles

This is a DNF for me. I wanted information about the history of The Society Krishna Consciousness and this book is an OCD pick apart at the end of the last Guru and his instructions.

I learned more by following the hyperlinks and studying the information on the Internet.

I'm rating this a Don't Bother!

[Meg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review

It is like an interview format like book about iskcon.
Srila prabhupada did give answers about different questions asked in the book

[Bhakta Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

If this book had been written in 1978 it is fair to say it might have changed my life. It concerns a controversy that I was not even aware of when I was involved with the Hare Krishna movement (1977 - 1980). Srila Prabhupada passed on in November of 1977. Before his passing, eleven men were appointed to initiate disciples on his behalf. These men would perform the initiation ceremony and would give the disciples instruction, but the initiates would be considered disciples of Srila Prabhupada, even though they might never see Srila Prabhupada. After Srila Prabhupada's passing, these men started initiating disciples themselves. If you were initiated after Srila Prabhupada's passing you would be the disciple of whoever had performed the initiation.

To someone not familiar with ISKCON this might seem to be a very subtle distinction, not worth bothering with. Nothing could be farther from the truth. This is a big deal. The difference between Sunni and Shia Muslims is smaller than this.

The devotees of ISKCON aspire to acheive pure love of God (Krishna). This is an exalted state, and one who achieves it does not need to be reborn. At the death of his body he returns to the spiritual world, to be with Krishna and love Him. Even when his body is alive, a pure devotee experiences the ecstasy of loving Krishna, which is manifested in ecstatic symptoms. In a sense he is already in the spiritual world, even though he still possesses a material body.

As one who has achieved this, he is qualified to instruct others and deliver them from the suffering of the material world.

So the real issue discussed in this book is, did Srila Prabhupada actually claim before his passing that these eleven men had achieved this state? If they had, then they were qualified to be gurus and accept their own disciples. These disciples would worship them on the same level as Krishna Himself. This is not to say that that these men were Krishna. However, as pure devotees of Krishna they could influence Krishna to accept you back into the spiritual world. It is like grace in Christianity. You can't do anything by your own effort to deserve going back to the spiritual world. You can only get this by Krishna's causeless mercy. While the mercy is causeless, you are still expected to make an effort to deserve it, and part of that effort is worshiping the guru. Krishna is more pleased when His pure devotee is worshiped than when He Himself is worshiped.

If Srila Prabhupada had not claimed this, then these men would still initiate disciples and give instruction, but they would not be considered to be pure devotees and would not be worshiped.

To get some idea of what this means in practical terms, back in 1978 the Evanston, Illinois temple was in the zone of Jayatirtha Maharaja. He was based in England, so we didn't see much of him. I remember one of his visits where devotees washed his feet with a solution containing rose petals, water and yogurt. Afterwards this solution was left out with paper cups, and you could pour yourself some and drink it. I did this. I would guess that his feet were pretty clean before this washing, because the taste was OK, but that was one of the ways a guru might be worshiped.

A few years later Jayatirtha was found to be using LSD and thinking himself to be Jesus reincarnated. One of his own disciples apparently thought he was the Antichrist and killed him, then beheaded him.

There were two other gurus I saw while I was in ISKCON, Tamal Krishna Goswami and Ramesvara Swami. Ramesvara Swami is currently an ex-guru, something I would have thought as unlikely as a retired Pope back when I was in ISKCON. Tamal Krishna was suspended as a guru in 1980, then reinstated in 1982.

I don't know that I would still be a devotee today if these men had been considered only ritvik gurus, as this book suggests. I don't see myself ever returning to ISKCON, even though it is less cultish than it was when I was involved. However, I do think this book makes a good argument, and if the opinion of a lapsed devotee means anything to you, read this book!