Shall all Srila Prabhupada’s disciples become gurus?

As mentioned before in this conference, the general designation, "Srila Prabhupada disciple" can be misleading. As Srila Prabhupada pointed out, initiation is beginning, it’s not the end.

And so Srila Prabhupada’s disciple is the one who got initiated by Srila Prabhupada into the process of Krsna Consciousness and then it has to be seen how far or if at all he can follow. Disciple means discipline and to the degree one is disciplined by the spiritual master, to that degree one is a disciple.

And so the general designation "Srila Prabhupada disciple", bereft of any personal consideration for the status and the level of Krsna Consciousness of the individual devotee is neither scientific, nor proper. If the Krsna Consciousness offered to the individual soul cannot be covered again, as if the disciple once initiated is always a disciple, regardless his actions and his consciousness. One who is not active in service of his spiritual master is not a disciple anymore… unless he eventually doesn’t resume that position again.

Seniority is irrelevant in this regard. The world is full of senior fools already. The seriousness to follow the instruction indicates the status of an initiate, not the date he was initiated.

And so the more qualified description of such a statement that "all" Srila Prabhupada’s disciples should become gurus indicates the missed part, "If they are qualified". Any other kind of understanding may have a disastrous result, as "unqualified" "Srila Prabhupada disciples" with a questionable past and even more questionable presence can create havoc in name of Krsna Consciousness.

Just the fact that Srila Prabhupada EXPECTED us to be so, doesn’t mean that "WE ARE SO". As ISKCON history accurately illustrates, falsity has no endurance in ultimate sense, any "designated" devotee will be ultimately by dint of material energy brought to the position he should be. One can cheat many for short time, few for long time, but not everybody for all the time. Material nature knows no compromise.

Personally I witnessed a whole generation of gurus being in my physical presence created within one and half hour. It was done under political pressure, it was done due to the immediate need to respond to a political pressure and even it happened 1986, the results of this hazardous decision can be seen until today.

Srila Prabhupada envisioned that the GBC body is the ultimate vigilant team of brahminical vaisnavas who keep uncompromising guard over the principles He established. Without being a universal ISKCON analyzer, it’s easy to produce evidence that this is not at all the case today.

And so the issue "who is guru" in ISKCON is a cloudy one as there is no constitution, neither a strong body in place supervising moral and spiritual standards.

Only confusion and more valances of frustrated faith can be expected as the number of those who may unlawfully assume the position of an initiating spiritual master can only rise. Finally it’s the result which will define the authorization of a guru. The number of entirely unqualified persons being initiated today into ISKCON is indeed alarming. As ISKCON officials herald world wide the glory of Srila Prabhupada’s movement and its 50 years anniversary with no trace of introspection, they may take into consideration the downfall of standards as seen today.

And so one can only hope that indeed, all Srila Prabhupada’s disciples and His grand disciples as well may fulfill the QUALIFICATION to become gurus.