I am going to address some of the things that popped up in the last few posts in my random freestyle way. Please BARE with me.
I never heard anything about ACB giving his endorsement for FL to accept disciples. In fact if you read the Folio just the opposite was said. He said outright FL was NOT a pure devotee. He did recognize both Vishnujana and Jayananda Prabhu as pure devotees but not FL or Tusta.
Indocentric verses Eurocentric:
I recently did an in depth research on the history of Indian clothing in particular the Indian Sari. What I found was astounding. In fact the present mode of dress for ladies in India is more Victorian Christian than it is Hindu or Vaishnava. I remember that ACB’s sister Pishma, used to go topless with just a shawl covering her upper parts. The western devotees complained that she was walking around in public topless. ACB replied something like, ‘she is old and stringy!!!” He did not think it even an issue.
The fact of the matter is in Vedic times, the most woman would cover on top was with a very light breast band and shawl. In the hotter areas the breast band was see through material. Many did not cover at all except with a shawl, not even any breast band.. This tradition is still present in many remote areas of India and up until the middle of the last century it was still the preferred mode of dress in the states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu, (South India). This mode of dress has all but disappeared with the arrival of western culture in India. The puritanical Victorian mode of dress came later. The British introduced the breast covering including the Choli and bra. Moslems were also influential and forced more clothes on the indigenous Indians.
From wikipedia:
“Some researchers state that these (upper breast coverings, the choli and bra) were unknown before the British arrived in India, and that they were introduced to satisfy Victorian ideas of modesty. Previously, women only wore one draped cloth and casually exposed the upper body and breasts. Other historians point to much textual and artistic evidence for various forms of breastband and upper-body shawl.” From wikipedia [
en.wikipedia.org]
[
www.puja.com]#
another good reference^
This also explains why the old temples in India are covered in stonework of scantily dressed woman.
So we should give up the idea that the puritanical Victorian idea of modesty was an Indocentric invention, it was a Eurocentric invention. It was introduced by both Christians and Moslems.
This one Zelig will like. It is a fact the first Jews arrived in India some 2,500 years ago and although their dress differed from Vaishnava Hindu India they did not try to impose their ways on Indians like later invading, Christians and Moslems did. It may also be noted they assimilated very nicely into Hindu culture as they came as friends and traders and not invading conquerors. Hindu India is known as being the only culture on earth that has not persecuted Jews. To this day the Jewish community is prosperous and regarded with great respect by Hindus.
Now we can just imagine if ACB had tried to introduce the more traditional Vaishnava wear when he came to America in the sixties!! ACB was not telling everything he knew about ancient Indian culture for obvious reasons. The Indian mind was not obsessed with sex like we are in the west. People were more controlled and therefore such dress was not an agitation for most of the population. Of course those days are over and cannot be re-introduced now in a society that promotes the idea that to please the material senses is the goal of life.
Don’t get me wrong I AM NOT ADVOCATING WOMEN SHOULD GO TOPLESS in this day and age.
On breaking sannyasa and giving sannyasa to the unqualified:
If we look at the Madhva Sampradaya that has existed for over 800 years we can see that this Vaishnava Sampradaya has produced many thousands of sannyasis. In all those hundreds of years only 2 or three of their sannyasis fell down. That is due to the Indocentric culture they live in. Sannyasa in India is still a lot easier than in the west.
We can second guess ACB all we want and conclude he gave sannyasa to those who were not fit. But the way I see it is like this. ACB was on a mission. It is up to each individual to decide from where that mission originates. But we can all agree he was on a mission to broadcast the Maha Mantra around the world. It was like a war. In every war you need generals. All he had was a rag tag group of hippies, former drug users, burned out surfers etc. (of course there were some more respectable types that joined but they were a minority). He needed generals. The sannyasi is like a general. So what to do in such a war? If some one comes forward saying they want to be a general you let them try. So he gave them the stick and sent them out to fight. That is what ACB did. Now on Monday morning we can look back and see that out of some 60 sannyasis, only 9 or 10 are left standing. Of those 9 or 10 we can see some have become acharyas. Some have left the world and their disciples are carrying on the tradition. SO fault ACB all you like. But I would have done the same thing in such a condition. Any smart general would have. But it is unprecedented that so many have fallen. This is a first in the Vaishnava tradition. I do not fault the order of sannyasa however, but rather the norms and mores of western society and its influence on all of us. It is very difficult for an average person to maintain the order in the west. Which by the way is why FL could not maintain it.
One of those sannyasa disciples of ACB that comes to mind was recognized by all other acharyas outside of ISKCON as a pure devotee, a maha bhagavata. He never left ISKCON and did all he could to reform it. Some of his disciples said he left the world early due to his broken heart at what at become of his beloved spiritual masters mission. His name was Gaura Govinda Maharaja and he was Indian. It may also be noted he had shiksa gurus outside of ISKCON. The official policy for ISKCON today is that no one is allowed to take instruction outside that organization. This is also true in FL’s cult. This is a completely foreign idea when it comes to Gaudiya Vaishnavism, it is a western invention and reeks of sectarianism and cultism.
I would like also people to consider this. There were many sadhus outside of ISKCON that did their best to help that organization. They were not throwing stones on the sinking ship hoping it would go down quicker. They had great love for ACB and his followers and wanted his mission to overcome the obstacles. Unfortunately those well wishers were not listened to. The mentality of a real sadhu is he does not like to see the fall of any devotee or his mission. He does what he can to stop it. In FL’s case he predicted what would happen in ISKCON and did absolutely nothing to try to prevent it. In fact I heard his big sannyasis boasting they were happy that ISKCON was going down. I am sorry but this is not the mentality of a pure devotee well wisher of all who has no enemies.
Hoax, concerning the Nityananda issue. It is not that FL was lying. It is just he does not know the truth about it. He does not know the truth about many things because he never had any shiksa guru to tell him the truth about so many things. So we give him the benefit of the doubt. I do not believe he intentionally lied. He is just in ignorance on the subject, that’s all.