The Good Old Days
BY: HASYA MUKHI DEVI DASI
Nov 19, 2012
Golly gosh call me a sentimentalist, but I tell you true, Prabhu, I'm a romanticist at heart. Yup, like any withering flower, I long for the good old days when I was young and beautiful and men used to open the door for me. But that isn't what was best for me about my Springtime of yesteryear. No way, Jose. What I loved most about that magic moment in time is that I could surrender and worship my favorite Zonal Acharya without some bona fide militant brahmachari screaming words like "Founder-Acharya" at me all the time.
So what is it that has tweaked my long lost memory banks, you ask? Well, it's something I came across on Facebook, and my eyes have been moist with sentimental recollections ever since. Have a read of the glorious past and see what we have lost.
Pushpanjali means that you get to put flowers on his toes
From Facebook:
"In my case, I was a bhakta recruiter. Previously I had recruited directly for Srila Prabhupada, but then Kirtanananda Maharaja became our next GBC in Eastern Canada after Rupanuga prabhu was not doing that service anymore, so I was told that new devotees I would be cultivating would be recommended to him.
"There were problems because some devotees were not attracted to the local zonal guru, but there was enough peer pressure, that devotees felt that they should take (initiation) from this senior devotee who visits their area more than most others just out of practicality. Or else some might even be thought of being too puffed up if they would not blindly accept this person. It was ‘out of the box' to want a guru that you rarely saw, and that was a new way of thinking.
"His Divine Grace Shrila Gopala Krishna Maharaja became our next Zonal Acharya after Kirtanananda was asked to leave (and to no longer recruit our man /woman power for New Vrindavana. Or to send his NV collecting renegades , taking over our sankirtan spots during major events like the Pope-a-Thon). When Gopala Krishna Maharaja arrived one day at our Ottawa temple, he had a big blow-up photo of himself, a 20 X 24, to have framed and installed on a separate Vyasasana. He told me that Srila Acharyapada (His Divine Grace Shrila Jayapataka Swami) had recommended that he have the name ‘Shrila Bhagavatpada' ( another name for Srila Madhvacarya) because of his dedication to printing the Bhagavatam in many Indian languages. His Divine Grace asked me what I thought of that name…
"I really didn't know what to think. I used to be a rock & roll / R & B / Blues guitarist and singer, and just before I joined ISKCON, our band had spent $500 for publicity photos. This was show biz and you needed photos of the band to place at the entrance of the hotels, bars or clubs to get people interested to come in to drink and dance. So I had mixed feelings. I thought to myself, ‘Hey, I used to do this kind of thing a few years back before I joined ISKCON?!?' Self-promotion and publicity for the crowds to increase your fan-base. And now our acharyas are doing that in ISKCON ? Hmmmmm.... Can everything be used in Krishna's service, even this ?' I was wondering if I was a demon or envious for questioning his motives …
"I didn't know what to make of the name. It sounded pretty cool. I said I thought it had a nice ring to it. I didn't know at that time that Shrila Madhvacarya had been called that name. Eventually the GBC banned these very honorific names from being used in public. I think this was after the majority of thousands of Godbrothers had left ISKCON because they no longer felt that Shrila Prabhupada was being kept in the center."
Well that really rocks my cradle, and I know you feel the same, Prabhus. I realize that the old-timers out there all share my fantasy for the good old days. Times when our selfless, loving acharyas manifested such pure goodness and a willingness to sacrifice for our benefit that they carried around huge pictures of themselves for you and me to worship. And I miss having separate Vyasa Asans for all these wondrously empowered representatives of themselves. My dream was that someday the temples would be so chock filled with Vyasa Asans for the loving army of empowered Padas that there would be no room for anyone else in there. A huge hall stuffed with dozens of velvet seats for all our paramhamsas. And giant photos of each one in their finest poses of renunciation. In a perfect ISKCON of the GBC's future vision, these Zonals would all just mount their divine thrones and lecture to one other. But, alas, it was not to be.
As I approach the winter of my life, I lament for what might have been if only the devotees were not such a bunch of lunatic fanatics. I lament for the days when I was able to express my love for His Divine Grace Shrila Gopal Krishna Bhagavatapada by offering flowers on his toes. Shrila Bhagavatapada ki jai.
You need to be a member of puredevoteeseva to add comments!
Replies
Shrila gopal dasa? SHRILA??!! and SHRILA Jayapatalaloka? I know tales of these two guys' criminal murders that would make you puke. and they dare to use SHRILA ??????????????
Clearly, most of the members of the Hare Krsna movement are naive dupes, otherwise they would never be conned into worship of some selfish ugly ignorant puffed-up piece of carp crow-immigrant coca-cola killer as as good as God, when he is lower than most street criminals.
J'accuse!
Go-pal (friend of material senses) Krsna asura is a murderer, so is Jaya-ape-taka, just like John Gotti is a murderer.
- They paid off the president of Iskcon Delhi to get a prostitute to accuse Bangalore officers of rape, but he ratted them out to all of us instead, over the 25 thousand US dollars. Circa 2001 ish.
-They had the ritvik t.p. of Calcutta murdered in jail after the same plot of false accusation by a paid-off prostitute and later confirmed false rape charges! circa 1999 ish, because he would not worship their althete's feet. Jaya and Gopal were both recently taken to court over this issue which is unresolved.
-They further had their goons build bombs, which subsequently killed people! This is called madness.
- Jaya-ape-patala stole millions of rupees from the Bhubaneswara temple while i was secretary-treasurer, leaving GGS and I and many others scrambling for financing, delaying the temple Prabhupada wanted built.
- Jaya's admin and goondas murdered Radhakrsna dasa Prabhu Ji by hanging him on a short rope in a dirty small room in Mayapura, supposedly for stealing! But Jaya is also a thief, and so he should be hung from a short dirty rope in a small room somewhere? I do not know, Krsna, He knows for certain only.