Hypocrite Tusli Gab-Bard, devout follower and disciple of Siddhaswarupanada Paramahamsa, Jagad Guru, Chris Butler, is once agian caught in the politiclaly self-serving act of sporting a military uniform while complaining about self-serving politicians. This modern day Arjuna is complaining about wars and politicians, while sporting a military uniform and being a politician herself. Pretty much sums up her politacl career that Butler had all his followers bolster.
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taskandpurpose.com]
And then we have the plastic oh-no band: [
wailana.com]
Obviously a pure devotee by any standard. Selling cheap crap for cheap frills to cheap-minded people.
For a cult that claims it does not proselytize, is non-sectarian and all the other crap they peddle, they sure spend a lot of time and energy on proselytizing/preaching/outreach/initiation/endless mindless rules and regulations and any way possible to appeal to people. In fact, is there really anything the average devotee will not say to justify or promote their fanatical religious ideology? I think not. They will tell you "what prabhupada really meant..." when he said any number of silly things. What the vedas really means and what the real religion is, sorry, Sanatana dharma, "eternal path", not religion apparently.
The great religion that prabhupada vouched for and the oppression of women he promoted is very much in line with the "dharma" scriptures like Manu Samhita that promotes women should remain a servant to their husband's whim and if she even thinks for herself mildly she should be subject to abuse, Is it any wonder than??? [
www.hsph.harvard.edu]. Bhaktivedanta had no issue with this system of viewing women as less intelligent, unaccomplished. All in the same breath peddling a nice-sounding ideology of equality by virtue of "not being the body". For a cult that builds its foundational principles on not being the body, there sure as shit is a lot of focus on the differences between bodies.
Castism, a vile offspring of so-called "vedic dharma" and promoted by Gita/Krishna/Prabhupada as a "natural" system bound to the fiber of reality is still affecting India today. Hell, Bhaktisiddhanta thought it was so important to keep this "eternal system" going that he established brahmin initiation in a devotional cult whose founder, Chaitanya, literally said, "I am not a brahmin, vaisya, sudra etc". Why establish initiation (a form of religious conversion/sectarianism) into a caste role like Brhamnism when repeatedly Indian religious movements fought against such a destructive hierarchy??? It certainly was not "preaching according to time and place". If anything it was turning the clock backward. In fact, the whole package of having devotees dress in medieval Indian clothing and shaving their heads was so ass-backward that it's a marvel the movement even made it as far as it did (stay away from drugs kids). Hell, even Butler did whatever he could to strip away all the external BS of the Hare Krishnas. He could not shake the hate though. He spent his guru career lecturing against gay people and Muslims and other religions. Such an all-inclusive faith he was promoting. Most of his followers are literally homo-phobic in an era that has fought and largely gotten over their irrational views on human sexuality.
One can be a sincere and seemingly educated person and still be a religiously naive fool. That's the scary part. Many of these preachers use their scholarly education and other coercive methods to convince otherwise smart folks to believe a blue god, elephant-headed gods and lion-headed gods are a reality and that the chanting of mantras to them is some pious and worthy endeavor. They fool people to think that worshiping and listening to their words is going to result in some sort of enlightened state.
Take this statement from Bhaktisiddhanta:
“The idea of an organized church in an intelligible form, indeed, marks the close of the living spiritual movement. The great ecclesiastical establishments are the dikes and dams to retain the current that cannot be held by any such contrivances. They, indeed, indicate a desire on the part of the masses to exploit a spiritual movement for their own purpose. They also unmistakably indicate the end of the absolute and unconventional guidance of the bona-fide spiritual teacher.”
Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur MaharajaTry and take off your cult glasses for a second and truly understand what this person is talking about here.
For one, Bhaktisiddhanta was not above creating an organized religious institution/temple/math/church. He did exactly that. So what is he even talking about and taking a supposed stance against the very thing he created himself???
Read the rest. What complete jibberish. He goes on to say that somehow churches stop the flow of the "absolute", whatever the heck that is, and claims gurus as "unconventional guidance". What does that even mean? The man was from India. There is literally no shortage of "gurus" for whatever that is worth. So pretending that there is something "superior" about a system that has a "living" guru, which is a big sell point of the hare krishna ideology, is really meaningless. Your guru. like Butler, can be as "living" as you want, but hiding in a mansion for over 20+ years, he might as well be dead to his followers.
So essentially Siddhanta Saraswati is criticizing something he boldly did himself (As did his successors: Countless maths, temples, centers—all organized churches of some type), but because it is not his religion (presumably he is being critical about Christianity, which, BTW, has "Living" teachers, like local priests and popes and so on, that bring the spiritual message to the masses—they just don't have an ideology built into their religion that asks us to surrender our self to such people) he seems to have some random problem with it when other people do it. So, as usual, he is claiming that his version of spirituality is the "best" one or "absolute". Basically, the entire phrase is meaningless and unintelligible. read it a few times and let me know if you think anything of real substance is being conveyed. There are countless writings and words like this spoken by so-called spiritual masters. They are empty jibberish word play that makes you feel that they are saying something profound when in fact they are talking complete nonsensical ideas that have no value in any sense.
What is the sound of one hand making your forehead?
Run people. Think for yourself, trust your gut and if you feel this cult to be odd, it's because it is. You can romanticize it, mysticism it and transcendentalize it, but you're going to always end up feeling off. 100% guaranteed.