Download this in PDF format here:
The following comments give a history of Bhaktisiddhanta spoken by his brother Lalita Prasad Thakur. I found these on one webpage that was discussing ISKCON.
1.
Comments from Gaudiya Discussions dot com. Note that BP is Bimal
Prasad aka Bhaktisiddhanta. And LPT is Lalita Prasad Thakura, Bhaktisiddhanta’s
brother:
(1) “He went on to tell a story about Bhaktisiddhanta that blew
my mind. He said that Bhaktisiddhanta was actually the reincarnation of a fake
guru by the name of Bishikishan who Bhaktivinoda had incarcerated when he was
the deputy magistrate in Puri. Bhaktivinoda had this fellow, who was
impersonating Krsna and dancing the rasa dance with young women, arrested and
imprisoned and a few months later he died in prison (police brutality?).
According to LPT, Bishikishan swore on his dying breath that he would get even
with Bhaktivinoda and spoil his life’s work. According to LPT he was born as
Bhaktivinoda’s son, Bimala Prasada. At this point he produced a letter written
by Bhaktivinoda to him years later describing the horrible pains his mother
experienced in giving birth to BP, far worse than ordinary birth pains, and
there may have been a comment either by Bhaktivinoda or his wife (LPT’s mother)
about a great demon residing in her womb.”
(2) “According to Nitai das, Lalita Prasad produced evidence
that Bhaksidhanta Sarasvati might be a demon.”
(3) “We were fed this GM/ISKCON propaganda that Bhaktivinode did
not give Bhaktisiddhanta initiation because it was not according to protocol to
get initiated by one’s own father. Then we later found out that this was not
the case and that Bhaktivinode gave initiation to Lalita Prasad. I think that
is awfully suspicious, to say the least. “
2.
From Nitai’s “Escape from the Hall of Mirrors”:
“Who are my sources? Dr. Kapoor and Lalita Prasad Thakur,
Bhaktisiddhanta’s own brother and duly initiated disciple of Bhaktivinod
Thakur, and what I heard from them was confirmed by everyone else I spoke with.
Don’t blow off hear-say. Hear-say is sruti if it comes from authoritative
sources. I heard the demon story directly from Lalita Prasada Thakur who felt
it had been confirmed by his own mother who exclaimed during her pregnancy with
Bimala Prasad that it felt like a demon had entered her womb.”
3.
More from Gaudiya Discussions dot com:
“…I thought it would be appropriate to at least present what
Bhaktisiddanta’s devotee brother (Lalita Prasad Thakur) had to say about the
family history. According to him, Bhaktisiddhanta was believed to be a
reincarnation of a yogi that Bhaktivinode imprisoned for impersonating Vishnu
(Bishika Sen or something like that was his name). The story is that this yogi
commited suicide and cursed Bhaktivinode saying that he would take birth in his
family and destroy his life’s work. When Bhaktisiddhanta was in his mother’s
womb, she reportedly was convinced that it was the yogi and that she felt like
the unborn child was burning inside of her and causing her great pain. The
reason Bhaktisiddhanta was denied diksha by his father, according to this side
of the story, is that he offended Bhaktivinode’s guru, Bipin Bihari Goswami,
both verbally and physically by throwing a bucket of water on him. Bhaktivinode
was so angry that he kicked Bhaktisiddhanta out of the house.”
4.
A tradition of poison use…from Gaudiya Discussions dot com. Note
that Bhimala is Bhaktisiddhanta:
(1) “Regarding the poisoning of Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati
Thakura, (I guess this is a question to others also): did you come across that
idea solely from Lalita Prasad Thakura, or from other sources also?”
(2) “Regarding the poisoning, I only heard that from Lalita
Prasad.”
(3) “I recall once reading a statement from AC Bhaktivedanta
Swami, where he suggests that someone also tried to poison Bhaktisiddhanta. I
can’t seem to locate the reference at the moment.”
(4) “However, judging by the statements in Subalji’s text, it is
clear that some suspected Bhaktisiddhanta of being poisoned though. Not least
his own brother.”
(5) “He saved his brother twice when he was poisoned by his
disciple. The last time, he was locked in a room so that he could not go to his
brother. They also tried to poison Lalita Prasad a couple of times
unsuccessfully.”
(6) “The lives of Bhaktivinode’s sons reads at times like an
Agatha Christie adventure with plotted poisonings and murders and that supposed
letter that Bhaktivinode wrote to Lalita Prasad that Bhimala was an incarnation
of a previous opponent of his…”
(7) “Tirtha Maharaja tried poisoning his guru Bhaktisiddhanta a
couple of times, but Bhaktisiddhanta made it to Lalita Prasad who saved him.
Finally, he was poisoned and locked in his room so he couldn’t go for help. It
was the kind of poison known as a ‘Russian heart attack.’ He was taken from
Calcutta to Mayapur for cremation and burial to avoid an autopsy. A couple of
unsuccessful attempts were made on Lalita Prasad’s life also.”
5.
From Gaudiya Discussions dot com:
(1) “Remember, the principle was that we could do anything for
Krishna. The end justified the means. This resulted in fraud and con tactics,
drug dealing, murder and prostitution being used by some devotees. Now some
argue whether Bhaktivedanta was aware of these things going on or not. He
certainly was pleased with the devotees who brought money and wasn’t concerned
with how they got it. The biggest wheeler dealers became the biggest ISKCON
leaders.”
(2) “According to Harikesh, Gurukrpa was giving money to
Bhaktivedanta Swami from drug traffic sales, much to Bhaktivedanta Swami’s
awareness, for the financing of the Vrndavan Krsna-Balaram Mandir. In 1977
Gurukrpa was arrested and thrown in jail in the Netherlands for some 5-7 years.
“Some may want to shrug this off as not true or whatever. People
get uptight when I bring this up. It may not even have any relevance to some.
It does to me. I had two brothers that died in their early thirties from
related drug addictions. It is sad that a temple of God was financed on drug
money, even more so, when the principles we vowed on our ‘supposed’ initiation
was that we refrain from intoxication.
“It is even sadder to hear people rationalize this incident with
the story of the four mystics who plunderred people in South India to construct
the Sri Ranganath Mandir in South India. I hear people say, ‘Prabhupada
purified that money.’
“I agree whole-heartedly with Subal – I like to have some
integrity in my life and stand up for what is right for whatever it is worth.
The seeds of deciet will remain within our hearts till we uproot them,
recognize and the value of virtue, being honest with ourselves and others.
Living in denial is self-deceit. It will not bring us in touch with our souls.”
6.
From Nitai’s “On Varnasrama”:
“The biggest mistake was this teaching on the varnasrama dharma.
I don’t think he really understood what he was doing. It doesn’t matter what
you call it daiva or asurika, it is nothing but an obstacle (…) Now instead of
shifting our self understanding from our physical identities, such as they are,
to our spiritual identities we have to pass through some caste identity? This
is absurd. (…) This only introduces another level of maya and another opportunity
develop a false sense of who we really are.”
7.
More from The Caitanya Symposium:
“Deprogramming ourselves after exposure to those books is very
hard. I have been struggling with it for years and I am far from deprogrammed.
Plus, where is the counter-literature? I can read Bengali and Sanskrit so I
have access to much but for those who don’t it is really tough.”
8.
If the fruit is so thoroughly noxious … what does that tell us
about the tree?
"I think I will
concentrate on the Lalita Prasad Thakur question in this letter. Of course Jan
and Gadadhara Pran, who received initiation from LPT, are probably better
informed on many of these matters and may even have some of the documents I
will refer to. I had the good fortune to visit LPT in Birnagar at
Bhaktivinode's family estate and temple sometime in 1975 after I had left
Iskcon and been at least partially initiated by Tin Kudi Baba. By the way LPT
is the younger brother of Bhaktisiddhanta, not older. It was awe-inspiring
being in the presence of someone directly related to Bhaktivinoda, whose life
and work I have always been inspired by. LPT was quite old then and basically
spent his days in his room sitting or lying on his bed surrounded by books and
manuscripts, chanting the Holy Name. I believe he was chanting some five lakhs
of Harinama a day. That is 500,000. At my best I could only do one and a half
lakhs a day and it took me all day. All of his needs were being seen to by a
middle-aged woman who ran the asrama. She had his meals prepared and took care
of everything. LPT said that she was the reincarnation of his mother who had
come back specifically to care for him. He always called her "Ma."
She seemed very peaceful and very efficient. LPT spoke to us (I think I was
with a god-brother by the name of Jagadananda Das) at length on the first day
of our visit. His basic point was that Bhaktisiddhanta was a usurper. His
father, he said, had passed on the responsibility of spreading Mahaprabhu's religious
tradition to him, not Bhaktisiddhanta and he produced a letter from
Bhaktivinode to him stating something like that. (Whether it was genuine or not
I cannot say.) He claimed that Bhaktisiddhanta made the claim of carrying on
his father's work without any authorization to do so. LPT stated quite bluntly
that he had received initiation from Bhaktivinoda, but that Bhaktivinoda
refused to give it to Bhaktisiddhanta. One has to wonder why.
He went on to tell a story about Bhaktisiddhanta that blew my mind. He said that Bhaktisiddhanta was actually the reincarnation of a fake guru by the name of Bishikishan who Bhaktivinoda had incarcerated when he was the deputy magistrate in Puri. Bhaktivinoda had this fellow, who was impersonating Krsna and dancing the rasa dance with young women, arrested and imprisoned and a few months later he died in prison (police brutality?). According to LPT, Bishikishan swore on his dying breath that he would get even with Bhaktivinoda and spoil his life's work. According to LPT he was born as Bhaktivinoda's son, Bimala Prasada. At this point he produced a letter written by Bhaktivinoda to him years later describing the horrible pains his mother experienced in giving birth to BP, far worse than ordinary birth pains, and there may have been a comment either by Bhaktivinoda or his wife (LPT's mother) about a great demon residing in her womb. The rest according to LPT fit this paradigm. BP insulted Bhaktivinoda's guru Bipin Bihari by calling him a fart breather. He went on to teach and play the guru without any initiation, took over the organization that Bhaktivinoda had founded and turned it into the Gaudiya Math. According to LPT Bhaktivinoda became so disgusted that he retired to Puri early and went into seclusion practicing the final astakaliya and harinama-bhajana with which he ended his life.
After hearing this story, I remember wondering if this was merely the result of sibling rivalry or something more substantial. At any rate, the documents to support LPT's view of the situation were right there. That was one of the most tantalizing parts of the visit. LPT showed me a couple of almira filled with Bhaktivinod's letters and manuscripts, some published and some unpublished.There was a huge mass of literature there. I got the impression that what had been published was only the tip of the iceberg, that there was so much more of Bhaktivinoda's realizations buried in those almira. I hope that someone is trying to protect it and publish it. Another of LPT's claims was that those things of Bhaktivinoda that had been published by the Gaudiya Math had been"edited and changed". He said that the true position of Bhaktivinoda would not be known until the works were restored from the original manuscripts. All in all, it was an interesting couple of days. LPT passed away a year or two later and I have no idea what has become of the mss or of the ancestral estate of Bhaktivinod since then. "
He went on to tell a story about Bhaktisiddhanta that blew my mind. He said that Bhaktisiddhanta was actually the reincarnation of a fake guru by the name of Bishikishan who Bhaktivinoda had incarcerated when he was the deputy magistrate in Puri. Bhaktivinoda had this fellow, who was impersonating Krsna and dancing the rasa dance with young women, arrested and imprisoned and a few months later he died in prison (police brutality?). According to LPT, Bishikishan swore on his dying breath that he would get even with Bhaktivinoda and spoil his life's work. According to LPT he was born as Bhaktivinoda's son, Bimala Prasada. At this point he produced a letter written by Bhaktivinoda to him years later describing the horrible pains his mother experienced in giving birth to BP, far worse than ordinary birth pains, and there may have been a comment either by Bhaktivinoda or his wife (LPT's mother) about a great demon residing in her womb. The rest according to LPT fit this paradigm. BP insulted Bhaktivinoda's guru Bipin Bihari by calling him a fart breather. He went on to teach and play the guru without any initiation, took over the organization that Bhaktivinoda had founded and turned it into the Gaudiya Math. According to LPT Bhaktivinoda became so disgusted that he retired to Puri early and went into seclusion practicing the final astakaliya and harinama-bhajana with which he ended his life.
After hearing this story, I remember wondering if this was merely the result of sibling rivalry or something more substantial. At any rate, the documents to support LPT's view of the situation were right there. That was one of the most tantalizing parts of the visit. LPT showed me a couple of almira filled with Bhaktivinod's letters and manuscripts, some published and some unpublished.There was a huge mass of literature there. I got the impression that what had been published was only the tip of the iceberg, that there was so much more of Bhaktivinoda's realizations buried in those almira. I hope that someone is trying to protect it and publish it. Another of LPT's claims was that those things of Bhaktivinoda that had been published by the Gaudiya Math had been"edited and changed". He said that the true position of Bhaktivinoda would not be known until the works were restored from the original manuscripts. All in all, it was an interesting couple of days. LPT passed away a year or two later and I have no idea what has become of the mss or of the ancestral estate of Bhaktivinod since then. "
Steve Bohlert, a.k.a Subal was an initiate of A.C
Bhaktivedanta Swami, founder of iskcon.
The following excerpt is taken from “Saffron”, Subal’s
autobiography. Here Subal recounts a
meeting with Lalita Prasad, the brother of Bhaktivedanta Prabhupada's guru
(Bhaktisiddhanta). Subal relates what Lalita Prasad told him (emphasis added):
“The line that your guru maharaja (A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami-
Prabhupada) listed in his Bhagavad Gita was made up by my brother
Bhaktisiddhanta. He was rejected by our father Srila Bhaktivinode Thakur and
his guru who was Bipin Bihari Goswami. Bhaktisiddhanta spoke against Bipin
Bihari from the stage of a large public gathering in Calcutta. He called him a
caste Goswami and a sahajiya (a cheap cheater).
“When our father heard about this, he said, ‘You should keep
out of religious affairs. It would be better if you went and lived in Mayapur
alone. Chant Hare Krishna and pray for Lord Chaitanya’s mercy.’
“But when our father Bhaktivinode Thakur died, I went to my
brother and said, ‘Who will carry on our father’s teachings now that he is
gone? You are the oldest.’ I was working for the government like our father
did, while he was doing his spiritual practices and was a scholar. ‘You’re the
one to do it,’ I told him.
‘How can I do it when I’ve been rejected by our father and
his guru?’ was his reply.
‘You’re smart. Make up a disciplic succession. Who will
know?’ He did it. When he went to Vrindaban to preach, the babajis there knew
he had made it up.” It did not jive with known historical facts and
relationships between the personalities mentioned.
No comments:
Post a Comment