Srila Narayana Maharaja
Question:
Dear Srila Trivikrama Maharaja.
Dandavat Pranamas, all glories to Srila Prabhupada.
Why is it that Iskcon devotees should not associate with Srila Narayana Maharaja or his followers?
Answer:
Dear Bh. Rune, Hare Krsna!
Thanks for your inquiry.
We have a saying in English that, “Good fences make good neighbors”. I think it is clear to any objective observer that Narayana Maharaja’s society and Iskcon are not one. Of course there are many areas where we are in agreement and we want to respect him and his followers as devotees of Lord Sri Krsna.
We disagree however in some important respects. First of all, our faith is that Srila Prabhupada was especially empowered by his spiritual master and Krsna to establish the mission of Lord Caitanya throughout the world. And thus we believe that his method of expanding this movement is ideal. For instance his emphasis on distributing his books.
In the last days Srila Prabhupada ordered us to manage his society as we had been managing it and he made the GBC body as the ultimate governing authority. This is history that none can dispute.
Narayana Maharaja was not so ordered, nor is he ready to accept this order, but as Srila Prabhupada’s loyal followers we are duty bound to accept this order on our head and to execute it as our life and soul.
Secondly, Srila Prabhupada foresaw that his books would be the basis for spreading this mission for the next 10,000 years. In all our Iskcon temples these books are used for all the classes and there is always a push to distribute them. In Narayana Maharaja’s society this is not the case. There nobody refers to them or considers them as the most important basis for all spiritual subjects. In Iskcon we do.
Then there is the history. About 10 years ago Narayana Maharaja began preaching that Srila Prabhupada did not give us every thing and if we wanted to go deeper into spiritual life we need to have a “rasika guru”, and offered to be that guru. The GBC rejected this claim, and by numerous quotations from Srila Prabhupada’s books and lectures, established that our rasa would be revealed to us when we were qualified to understand it by our sincere service to Srila Prabhupada and his mission. Therefore the GBC ordered our members not to hear from him. He was annoyed by this injunction and since then has been actively targeting Iskcon devotees to get them to leave Iskcon and join him. Because of this the GBC has advised our members not to associate with him or his followers, but to give them respect from a distance.
If this is not clear please feel free to inquire further.
Yours sincerely,
Trivikrama Swami
