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EDITORIAL January 3, 2000 VNN5210 Related VNN Stories A Challenge To 'The Ritvik Heresy' BY GAURIDASA PANDITA DASA  EDITORIAL, Jan 3 (VNN) — Open Letter To LA PresidentDear Svavasa Prabhu, January 1, 2000 Happy New Year ! Please accept my respectful obeisances. All glories to Jagat Guru Srila Prabhupada I am writing you to beg a bold request. Please remove the paper, 'The Ritvik Heresy' from the alter of Sri Sri Rukmini and Dwarkadish in the temple room. If you won't remove it and you still think the paper is philosophically sound and should remain there, then please prove it and allow Yasodanandan Prabhu and myself to debate the author of it and anyone else you think would be appropiate. You can invite devotees from around the world or just a few and videotape it. It can be done sooner or later at Rathayatra time when so many devotees come to LA. The last debate we had was at the GBC meeting in San Diego in 1990, 10 years ago! The resolution of that meeting was to have another meeting and discuss this most important issue further. That meeting has not happened to date. Please allow a meeting to happen and help us to resolve this matter, so we can cooperate more and more again as Srila Prabhupada wants. The new anti-ritvik video, 'Disciple of my Disciple' was played in the temple room on Srila Prabhupada's disappearance day. The Producer of the video says it is an uncensored video. How come it is only one sided? How come I was not asked to contribute? I being one of the direct witnesses to these instructions. It's just politics again! How long will this go on? It's time to work to resolve this matter and stop offending devotees, especially Srila Prabhupada! Both sides of this issue need to meet in a nice Vaisnava fashion and stop throwing booms over the fence hoping that it ends the controversy. It won't! Only the Truth will prevail! And that is that Srila Prabhupada is still the Guru of ISKCON and can and will deliver any and all who take shelter of him and follow his instructions. Our duty is to help people take shelter of Srila Prabhupada, not ourselves. We should inspire the devotees to take shelter of Srila Prabhupada as Visnujana Swami did. We need to have open communications with all honesty to resolve our problems and then we can work together to push on this great movement in this new century. Let the Golden Age of Lord Chaitanya continue without politics and then it will attract so many more souls to cooperate and spread the Sankirtan mission of Sri Sri Guru and Gouranga. Guests are coming to get some mercy and nectar from the temple and they are getting politics. Just yesterday a devotee came up to me and said that he didn't know what initiation system Srila Prabhupada wanted after his departure, but whatever it may be, that Ritvik Heresy paper should not be in the temple room. Please do your duty as a leader and give us the nectar, not politics. I can say with all certainty that the paper in question is in direct opposition to what Srila Prabhupada said regarding ISKCON Initiations. I personally heard these instructions and they are on tape and documented in the July 9th 1977 Newsletter to all GBC's and Temple Presidents. The Ritvik Heresy paper is an insult and an offense to His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada. I have written a response to that paper called 'Dr. Frog Philosophy' (attached at end) and there is another response called 'The GBC Heresy' (available upon request) but I don't pass these out to the innocent guests. Don't you care about being implicated in the reactions as the local leader? Don't you think a further study and discussion would be appropriate? I hope so! You are doing a great job with the temple with book distribution and the restaurant and so many things. But you also need to improve in certain departments. Your support of that paper being one of them. I hope that istagosthi's are performed regularly with all well behaved devotees invited. We all have ideas on how to improve our services and so many more would like to be involved with the temple and devotional service in general. I would like to give a little more advice now and that is we need more Kirtan! Srila Prabhupada wrote that if the temple has problems we should have a big Kirtan. Kirtan is our medicine! All of the Kirtans are rather short compared to the 'good old days'. I think more would join also if they got a good taste of the nectar of Kirtan rasa. Class could be rescheduled to before the greeting of the Deities and then the Kirtan could go on and those who had to leave could and those who want more nectar could stay. The evening arati is short also, and so many interested guests are sometimes rudely turned away. Can the temple room stay open later and have someone else lock it up? Another point I would like to raise is that you should preach to the devotees to respect eachother regardless of our individual opinions. There is too much impersonalism due to the politics. Love, trust and respect is lacking. Please excuse me for being so direct but I speak only out of duty and because I do respect you a lot. I am advising you for your and the communities benefit. My only desire is to follow Srila Prabhupada's instructions and help spread the Sankirtan Mission. I am ready to cooperate and I hope you are too. Hoping this meets you well! Your servant, Gauridasa Pandita Dasa About the Author  Other Stories by this AuthorRelated VNN Stories Comment on this storyContact VNN about this storySend this story to a friend
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