You can thank all the blue gods in the world that this nutso didn't get elected to anything:
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www.rebelnews.com]
This fanatical religious nut job thinks a 17 year old gun-happy kid is "just trying to defend his community" from "rioters".
Remember this. Bhaktivedanta swami envisioned a world where if people did not accept his Krishna god they should be shot: [
prabhupadasaid.com]
That coupled with the Gita's bold message to Arjuna about doing his "duty" and killing out his kin, you get the picture. Butler's group and ISKCON are full of violence and hatred. The record speaks for itself. The proof is in the pudding. Spanning the gamut of physical to psychological abuse and everything in between.
Many Butler youth own guns and even show themselves on social media proudly holding them and shooting them. Rama posted about this years ago. Tusli has always been quite eager to join the army to shoot muslims and vouch for electro-shock therapy for gay teens. He stance of freedom of speech and rights to bear arms is very well received by her political base of utter nut job, gun-totting, racists. Read any of her posts comment sections and you will be pretty enlightened as to who she attracts. And ironically it's the very same class of people Butler has attracted to him over the years as well.
Butlers school in the PI was run by Tapasya Das, Toby Ramon Tamayo who used to pull out his guns regularly to show off tot he gurukulis and show them how to shoot the guns into the gardens.
Tulsi thinks that the media is radicalizing things, but she seems to have no problem jumping on the bandwagon as she cried "hindu-phobia" (as did her rabbit supported) all throughout he presidential run when questioned about her vulgar guru.
Gaudiya Vaishnavas have a history of militant preaching styles. Bhaktisiddhanta was called the "lion guru" as he pretty much claimed his teachings and approach to god was the only real way. Bhaktivedanta was more "chill" in public, but as his many private lectures show, he was racists, mysogynistic pro-dictatorship and anti-science. Never mind Butler and his rants.
Let me just say this: When you have a "Gaudiya Vaishnava" in public office vouching for some 17 year old white boy criminal who took 2 peoples lives, you gotta start to wonder what the hell is this person on?
I had a friend many years back who was stabbed to death by another "devotee" who felt he was right to do so because my friend and his wife were having an affair. By the laws of Manu (you can listen to many lectures and read many purports where Bhaktivedanta and even more recent gurus like Bodhayan Maharaj praise such scriptures), sure. We're in 2021 now. We discuss things and make rational statements based on as many available facts as possible.
A 17 year old living in a privileged society has no right to murder anyone with an assault riffle. A so-called gaudiya Vaishnava has no rational reason to support or even get involved in supporting such violence. Unless, and this is my fear and what I suspect, they are literally being dictated to by their guru who believes that the same rules of life apply now as they did in 1200 BC. Not everything can be fixed with an aloha, namaste or a haribol. Sometimes stupid, is as stupid does.
I think this is one of the harder pills for may people existing this cult to swallow. And that is, how can these scriptures, gurus and their followers, on one hand be supposedly speaking in terms of absolute knowledge, yet exemplify more often than not, a type of ignorance you would expect from an uncultured drunk, not a so-called saint. In that sense, one needs to use their power of discrimination and discern what of it all is valuable and what is not. But on that same note, one must practically realize that one can no longer hold the supposed "messenger" as anyone worthy of worship or adoration beyond a cursory acknowledgment. One cannot in good faith accept ALL that such scriptures and gurus promote as being of value. How could you? When on one hand a man is telling you that you are an eternal soul and we are all equal in the eyes of god, but then an entire system is set up in the cult that breeds false identification with all manner of nonsense posts, roles and hierarchy that obliterates any rational sense of what the philosophy preachers. On one hand the so-called giant, chaitanya, is saying "I am not a brahmin, I am not a this or that..." but lets face it. He was a brahmin, he was a sanyasi and this figured very much into his persona. As does such identification and role-play figure into many aspects fo the cult. Butler married his disciple, so he could "preach to householders" or "women". If he is not his body, who the hell cares what title or role he has externally? His disciples are likely to care more that their guru gave up his vows to marry a disciple of his, more so than they are worried about him maintaining his vows while preaching to whoever he cares to preach to.
Bhaktivedanta loses all credibility when he maintains that he is using snuff tobacco daily for "health" when such a chemical intoxicant has ZERO health benefits (while asking everyone else to abstain from drugs). He claims it helps him stay up all night to write his books. But any rational person who has heard him speak in choppy Indian-english can easily see that his books were not written by him alone. They were heavily edited and written by his followers. The same ones who continued the writing of his final cantos of bhagavatam. Philosophically his books purports are weak and lack depth, are often repetitive and dwell on a lot of amiguity. They are surface purports concerned more with the mythology itself and promoting his ISKCON, rather than adding some philosophically consistent narrative or symbolically coherent metaphor. In fact, many of his purports are downright scientifically inaccurate and naive.
It's not in a spirit of meanness I say this. But simply my observation after having read much of it again without the sentimental vail over my eyes. You may call it lack of faith, but I read these things not with a lack of faith or a desire to find fault, but simply to read at face value without a fanatical, blind adherence to the person of Prabhupada. After all, to a lay reader, he is first and foremost an author (or, translator of ancient texts, as most of the purports and other books he wrote were compiled from lectures/dictation and heavily edited by his disciples). And since his books are available to the general public, I read them as a lay person, not with he preconceived bias of my early years as a devotee. This was eye opening. On very few occasions, when reading in this way, was I really touched by anything deeply. If anything it often felt devoid of a personal wisdom, but rather as if he was simply parroting things on autopilot. Which, upon further reflection, made sense. This was all he ever knew. He was not versed in other scriptures, or even other philosophical systems. This was all he ever believed, studied and knew. It dictated his whole life from birth. So there was little in the way of a personal realization that was apparent, but rather a regurgitation of the same things he had heard his whole life.
As with Butler, none of Bhaktivedantas major projects and visions for his mission every came to fruition. To this day the Mayapur Project is a massive 72 million dollar failure. His books, while impressive, have endless examples of overt literalism to the point of cheesiness. Prabhupada endlessly claimed that his books have all the answers. But answers to what exactly?
I leave you with this. Upon finding out that his many volumes of books were being edited beyond recognition (thank god for editors BTW) of his original dictation, in agitation and anger he went on to say:
Prabhupada: "Anything change means it is the domain of rascals, pandemonium. Just like in Manu-samhita it is said that, nasyam svatantratam arhati, women should not be given independence. Once said, that is fact. If you want to change, you suffer. That's all."
So this is our progressive, spiritually sound "acharya". A man claiming some bullshit archaic text from the dark ages of Indian history, is to be followed to the T. Make your own conclusions if this is anything you want to be associated with.
My approach is that I took from it what was seemingly sound (and since have found countless places more sound and rational, while still affording me a sense of balance, peace and happiness) and left the rest where it belongs. In the trash heap of time.
And then I ran. And kept running.
For those curious about the assorted changes of verses that many of his fanatical disciples complain about (try not to laugh as you read some of these purports and verses... geez):
Fourth Canto
Original version:
The real creation is done by the Supreme Lord Himself by agitating His material energy, and then, by His order, Brahma, the first living creature in the universe, attempts to create the different planetary systems and their inhabitants, expanding the population through his progeny… Svayambhuva Manu is the son of Brahma.
(SB.4.1.1 purport)
Changed version:
The Supreme Lord Himself does the real creation by agitating His material energy, and then, by His order, Brahma, the first living creature in the universe, attempts to create the different planetary systems and their inhabitants, expanding the population through his progeny… Svayambhuva Manu was the son of Brahma.
RUN_FOREST_RUN PURPORT:
What exactly is meant by "agitating"? You gotta love this Vedic cosmology explanation that devotees LOVE to quote as a way of saying the vedas describe the entire process of creation of the universe. God agitated some energy, a 4 headed guy was born on a lotus and whipped up some planets. Voila!
Original version:
Akuti had two brothers, but in spite of her brothers, King Svayambhuva Manu handed her over to Prajapati Ruci on the condition that the son born of her be returned to him as his son.
(SB.4.1.2 translation)
Changed version:
Akuti had two brothers, but in spite of her brothers, King Svayambhuva Manu handed her over to Prajapati Ruci on the condition that the son born of her be returned to Manu as his son.
Original version:
This is called putrika-dharma, which means that by execution of religious rituals he gets a son, although he is sonless by one 's own wife… Manu is the lawgiver of mankind, and since he personally executed the putrika-dharma, it is to be accepted that such a system can be adopted by mankind also. Thus, even though he has a son, if he wants to have a particular son from his daughter, he can give his daughter in charity on that condition.
(SB.4.1.2 purport)
Changed version:
This is called putrika-dharma, which means that by execution of religious rituals one gets a son, although one is sonless by one 's own wife… Manu is the lawgiver of mankind, and since he personally executed the putrika-dharma, we may accept that such a system may be adopted by mankind also. Thus, even though one has a son, if one wants to have a particular son from one 's daughter, one may give one 's daughter in charity on that condition.
RUN_FOREST RUN PURPORT
You gotta love the amount of control all this even have over a woman's reproductive choices and even the future of her kids. It's all so fair, just, loving and dharmic it makes me so sad we don't live in times like this any more.
Original version:
When a devotee becomes mature in his prosecution of devotional service, he sees eye to eye the same Syamasundara he has thought of during the entire course of his devotional service.
(SB.4.9.2 purport)
Changed version:
When a devotee becomes mature in his prosecution of devotional service, he sees face to face the same Syamasundara he has thought of during the entire course of his devotional service.
Original version:
The devotee is allowed to see the Supreme Lord eye to eye, although the Lord is beyond the expression of our senses and beyond our direct perception.
(SB.4.19.10 purport)
Changed version:
The devotee is allowed to see the Supreme Lord face to face, although the Lord is beyond the expression of our senses and beyond our direct perception.
RUN_FOREST_RUN PURPORT
Be patient and keep serving and chanting and you'll see god face to face, eye to eye and some. In the meantime, you are not allowed. Sorry. your senses are not "pure" enough. You may even be offensive unknowingly. Or you may have chosen the wrong guru. Anyway, it's always gonna be on you either way. But god loves you and really wants your love. You gotta believe that, no matter how royally uncomfortable and hard to get it all is, for eternity.
Original version: 4th Cnt(1974) 4.24-45-46
Thus the raga-marga, or Bhagavata-marga,friendship exists on a higher platform with Krsna, namely the platform of vipralambha friendship. Paternal friendship, conjugal paternal service, as well as conjugal service, are visible in the Vrndavana raga-marga relationships.
Changed version: 4th Cnt(1978)
Thus the raga-marga, or bhagavata-marga, friendship exists on a higher platform with Krsna, namely the platform of vipralambha friendship. Paternal friendship, paternal service and conjugal service are visible in the Vrndavana raga-marga relationships.
Original version:
Here, however, it is indicated that those who are constantly engaged in meditating on the lotus feet of the Lord are certainly purified of the material contamination of the senses and are thus able to see the Supreme Lord eye to eye… Lord Siva therefore advises that one who is actually serious about purification must engage himself in this type of meditation or in the mystic yoga system, which will help him not only to see the Lord within constantly but to see Him eye to eye and become His associate in Vaikunthaloka or Goloka Vrndavana.
(SB.4.24.53 purport)
Changed version:
Here, however, it is indicated that those who are constantly engaged in meditating on the lotus feet of the Lord are certainly purified of the material contamination of the senses and are thus able to see the Supreme Lord face to face… Lord Siva therefore advises that one who is actually serious about purification must engage himself in this type of meditation or in the mystic yoga system, which will help him not only to see the Lord within constantly but to see Him face to face and become His associate in Vaikunthaloka or Goloka Vrndavana.
RUN_FORST_RUN PURPORT
You gotta get serious about that purification stuff if you ever want to see the lord eye to eye. Preferably in conjugal parental mood. whatever that is.
Original version:
Just as one gets a chance to consult with the Paramatma within his heart, he also gets a chance to see Him actually situated before him.
RUN_FOREST_RUN PURPORT
If you have a heart transplant, you may accidentally get someone else's paramatma. But don't be alarmed! All paramatmas are created equal and take up the same amount of space. To keep your heart and paramatma healthy, RUN!