Prabhupāda: Who, who is he?
Bhavānanda: He‘s a renegade brahmacārī from one of your godbrothers.
Prabhupāda: Prabhupāda dāsa. [break]
Prabhupāda: Oh.
Gargamuni: He‘s the one that purchased the land on the north side of us.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Yes. You time fix up. I am ready.
Prabhupāda: Hare Kṛṣṇa. Jaya. [break] Hare Kṛṣṇa. [break] …when I don’t remember, “Get out.” This is Māyāvāda philosophy. “So long I require your help, I catch your hand. And as soon as I don’t require, please get out” [break]
Gargamuni: We have Kṛṣṇa.
Prabhupāda: Yes. He, he was worshiping Viṣṇu at home, and he was trying to kill Kṛṣṇa. Similarly, there are many Vaiṣṇavas like Jarāsandha-apparently worshiping Viṣṇu—but trying to kill Kṛṣṇa. Jarāsandha–Vaiṣṇava.
Jayapatākā: So what is the value of such worship of Viṣṇu?
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Jayapatākā: So what is the benefit of such worship of Viṣṇu? Jarāsandha worship?
Prabhupāda: They will get material opulence. Asuras, they want material opulence. They, they do not understand what is spiritual life or spiritual happiness, what is devotional service. Neither they’d like to understand. Which way?
Adi lila 3.98… Purport-This sort of serious interest in the welfare of the public makes one a bona fide ācārya. An ācārya does not exploit his followers. Since the ācārya is a confidential servitor of the Lord, his heart is always full of compassion for humanity in its suffering. He knows that all suffering is due to the absence of devotional service to the Lord, and therefore he always tries to find ways to change people’s activities, making them favorable for the attainment of devotion. That is the qualification of an ācārya. Although Śrī Advaita Prabhu Himself was powerful enough to do the work, as a submissive servitor He thought that without the personal appearance of the Lord, no one could improve the fallen condition of society…
The so-called ācāryas of the Age of Kali are more concerned with exploiting the resources of their followers than mitigating their miseries; but Śrī Advaita Prabhu, as an ideal ācārya, was concerned with improving the condition of the world situation CC Adi lilA 3.98
Similarly when Śrī Rāmānanda Rāya proposed about the efficacy of sannyāsa either in the order of the Māyāvādīs or in the order of the Vaiṣṇavas, the same was again rejected by the Lord for He thought that in this age sannyāsa is an impossible game. The so-called sannyāsīs dress themselves in the red garments to earn an easy livelihood but in action they are like ordinary men of filthy mind. Such filthy sannyāsīs of the age of Kali may be able to accumulate large sums of money by the plea of establishing temples and deities by exploiting foolish persons but they are unable to bring their followers to Godhead. These sannyāsīs generally construct some temples and install deities in them to exploit the religious feelings of different men but the main purpose of constructing such temples is to open different branches of income for comfortable material life although in the dress of a renouncer. They construct such temple most unauthorizedly and thus implore many foolish men to join to make contribution upon it. And some of them perform unauthorized yajñas and thus accumulate money. The temple builder sannyāsī assures every one of the contributors to become the chief donor in such pious act but ultimately none of them is given any position, but the sannyāsī himself becomes all in all by accumulating a big bank balance for his personal material comfort. : https://prabhupadabooks.com/articles/20
“In this verse there are many important words which could be very elaborately explained, but we shall briefly discuss the important aspects of each. The final statement is ātmavic-caraṇārcanam. Ātma-vit means a self-realized soul or bona fide spiritual master. Unless one is self-realized and knows what his relationship with the Supersoul is, he cannot be a bona fide spiritual master. Here it is recommended that one should seek out a bona fide spiritual master and surrender unto him (arcanam), for by inquiring from and worshiping him one can learn spiritual activities.” (SB.3.28.2, Purport)
Some Conclusions–After reading the above descriptions by Srila Prabhupada of previous cheaters beginning with Jarasandha (who tried to kill Krsna 18 times and failed) down to the present times, it is very clear to some of us, that one must be very very serious about his or her spiritual life in this degraded age OR he or she will be cheated without a doubt. And that is exactly what we have seen happen, right up to this present moment.
The situation in iskcon today is exactly what Prabhupada warned about back in 1976 was happening all over India and the world for that matter. Only things have gotten exponentially worse since then.
Our only hope today, is to stick to that great soul that we know will not cheat us. I remember Jayananda saying when he gave his $5,000 dollars of save money, all his wealth at that time to Srila Prabhupada so he could print the NOD book, he said
“I know this man wont cheat me”. And he was 100% correct.
Cheaters will always be here in this material world and they are meant for those who want to be cheated. The only way to remove ourselves from the “cheated category” is to ourselves become serious and sincere-then Krsna will help us from within as Supersoul and from without as Srila Prabhupada.
Hare Krsna
damaghosa das
