Quote

"Unless someone from the given persons comes and asks him to do so. This is their private matter, but it is not like such a leader thinks that he has a license to kill false ego. Let him kill his own first, because you can see who has the biggest. In this he is a leader, that is correct. …Such a leader can give public lectures, classes, pass on what he has heard, maybe raise some topic, read Bhagavad-gita. Answer questions on vyasasana. But there is no teaching. He comes down from vyasasana and that is it. There is no teaching. He goes around and asks others what they would like to do, encourages. …Here you have to be that sheepdog and not leave the sheep to themselves. Instead of leaders gilding their own person, maybe they would take care of the people, because that is their job. But unfortunately they do not think about anyone else but themselves, about their invented career. This is a tragedy. And then they wonder where such a standard comes from.

…Leaders behave like directors, not humbly. In a sense, they want to copy what they see only from the outside, with their eyes, at my meeting. One meeting, one situation. (not to mention the place, time, people, circumstances, which are never the same) And they also see me, what I am (still) like, (for example) at home? And somehow my daughter is not afraid of me. Those who are afraid of me are those who don't know me and have such a perception perhaps hatched in their associations, mutual fights about who is cool and who is not a devotee. And some try to look better than they are in front of others. And they got so carried away with it that they think that I am also taking part in it.

No, I am not taking part in it and neither is SP. And what do you think, in which direction are leaders and all these people going? They're still going in the same direction, only now here in these climates, in these paraphernalia.

Only the environment has changed, but they're going in the same direction. It's still about jealousy, destroying each other, going over each other's heads, who's higher, who's lower. Only now it's about who's more "advanced", "sincere", "serious".

...I was told that the crowning word (of one of the leaders) is that everyone is fucked up and fucked up in the head. How can you say that? I can say that what someone says is fucked up and I'll prove it, because that's what they think anyway. But I'm not saying that this person is fucked up, because I make the distinction. I see this person as a student, an admirer and I see that they've put their right slipper on their left leg.

And I say that it's fucked up, but not that they're fucked up. That's why it's a mess here. Therefore, these leaders should not teach at all, because they simply have nothing to teach (other students).

…When I came to Poland, everything was from scratch. And then there was this philosophy that first we rent new centers. That was a mistake. Now I don't care if there's a center somewhere or not. If you want to have a center, you can have it. Don't think that a center is for some great mission. This whole system sucks. The system of leaders, centers, financing of various things. For example, someone gives subsidies and has the impression that some mission pays for everything. There's no impression that they're paying for it. People should know that if they paid, they have it and if they didn't pay, they don't have it. It seems to me that we need to inform that so much money is needed for this and that and who would like to give money for it. And we'll count on these people, that they will remember their commitment every month or say early enough that they don't have it and then we can get the money early enough. Or for example someone may not know that we are the ones who invite Balakhilya das and pay for his stay here and treat the retreat as some invitation to a performance and constantly complain that it is too expensive, that the food is not the best, etc. Everything here goes the other way.

I can say one thing: I was disappointed in these leaders... When they were left (alone in the centers without control), they started making their own ice cream, protecting their position and everyone started running after them in the other direction.

...What if they watched each other? And the leaders didn't think they were bishops and the voice of God and weren't allowed to say anything? As disciples, we should take care of the mission and if something is harming people and the mission, you have the right to interfere. Not to teach this person, but to tell him about it with respect and humility. Not like the leaders do, who behave as if they had a license to draw attention. Who gave them that? Nobody even asked them to.

The leaders climb to the top and shout from the pulpit at others that they are idiots and are not up to their feet. This is Iskcon. That's why this happened to Iskcon. They ruined the whole work of Srila Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. There were hundreds and thousands of cool devotees there, who may still be there somewhere, but they are led by people who instead of helping them act like paupers. Just like some Catholic priests are cool, but the subject has been spoiled, because the leaders have been people who have never understood anything, always wanted to be gurus, wanted to have careers, never ended their material life, always strived for their own profit and progress – of course in their understanding, because spiritual progress is going downwards and not upwards.

Such people with such a mentality would even go so far as to get rid of Radha. Maybe they would like to poison her, talk to Krishna about her, pull some kind of a prank, etc. Such people will not enter the spiritual world, because they do not fit there. They would not be able to live there with Radharani, because for them it would be competition. And for the gopis it is not like that. But such people will not understand it, for them someone is lower, someone higher.

…No one thinks like that in the spiritual world. When they start thinking like that, they immediately find themselves here. Because this is where this world is. This is a disease of the soul, this is something that destroys you, destroys others, it only makes a mess. All suffering comes from the fact that you start thinking about yourself.
You immediately become competitive, everyone is an enemy, something doesn't suit you. As long as you didn't think about yourself, it was good. And from that comes envy and mess, because you started thinking about yourself....”