Trivikrama Swami .com

Question:
Dear Guru Maharaj, I would like to get some information about Tripurari Swami:

Your humble servant,
Krsnangi devi dasi

Answer:
Dear Krsnangi dd,

Hare Krsna!

Thank you for your questions.

Tripurari Maharaja was initiated by Srila Prabhupada 1st, 2nd, and sannyas. He was well known as a big book distributor in Srila Prabhupada’s time. After Srila Prabhupada’s departure he remained as a conservative Iskcon leader for a number of years. I mention this because we have heard that he has said that he was present when Srila Prabhupada was supposed to have said that, “You my disciples should follow B R Sridhar Swami after I disappear”. Of course Srila Prabhupada never said that, but even if he had why didn’t Tripurari Maharaja go to Sridhar Maharaja right away? In fact Tripurari was highly critical of those first Iskcon devotee who started to go to Sridhar Maharaja in around 1982.

What Srila Prabhupada did say about Sridhar Maharaja was that he could be consulted on philosophical points. He never intended that he be consulted on how to manage his international society, as Sridhar Maharaja had no experience in that regard nor did he really see the necessity for such a far reaching world wide society. He like to speak in small circles and go deeply into the philosophy, and almost never left his compound in Nabadwipa.

I was personally working with Tripurari Maharaja in San Francisco when he decided to leave Iskcon, somewhere around 1986. By this time he had gotten some of Sridhar Maharaja’s books and was impressed with his writings. He had also become an Iskcon guru and had a initiated some disciples. A couple of years prior to this I personally had a very vivid dream wherein Srila Prabhupada came to me and made it clear that I should not involve myself with Sridhara Maharaja’s group, so although Tripurari tried to get me involved in his separating from Iskcon I was not interested. I had been advising him to keep his connection with Sridhara Maharaja confidential but one morning we came into the temple to greet the Dieties and found Sridhara Maharaja’s picture on the altar in between the picture of Srila Prabhupada and the picture of Srila Bhaktisiddanta. Tripurari sat down to give class and explained that, “The GBC has failed and therefore Krsna has sent Sridhara Maharaja on the horizon”. I was shocked by this turn of events! Srila Prabhupada had worked so hard to make a workable system to carry on his most cherished mission and here was Tripurari throwing it away so soon after Srila Prabhupada’s departure.

So to say, that he was thrown out of Iskcon is simply not accurate. He knew full well that when he put Sridhar Maharaja’s picture on the altar in an Iskcon temple, which by the way had a life size murti of Srila Prabhupada, he was clearly and boldly declaring his separation from Iskcon. So nobody threw him out, as a matter of fact the local GBC man, Atreya Rsi, was prepared to let him keep that rented building so he could continue his mission separate from Iskcon, without making any fight. Eventually he did move to another place but he was given a fair amount of money to cover whatever he had invested in that rented building.

Now of course his prediction that the GBC would fail didn’t prove to be true. However over the years, as many people would always ask him why he left the mission of his Guru, Srila Prabhupada, especially as Srila Prabhupada’s last instruction was for us to show our love for him by cooperating together, it became convenient for him to imply he was thrown out. The readers can judge for themselves, but these are the facts as I personally witnessed.

I have never heard anywhere that Iskcon apologized to him personally. Of course they did offer a general apology to all the devotees for any offences that may have been committed by the leaders after Srila Prabhupada left.

Why he is not working with Iskcon now would have to be asked to him.

Regarding changes in the Bhagavada Gita the readers are asked to examine the evidence for themselves at: www.krishna.com/newsite/GitaRevsExplained.html

I have no information regarding his views on homosexuality.

Yours sincerely,
Trivikrama Swami

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 25th, 2009 at 2:32 am and is filed under Questions & Answers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.