These Conversations are Trivial and Boring! (10/26/03)
Dear M____ Mahārāja,
Daṇḍavat praṇāmas. All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Frankly speaking, “growing a beard and hair” is not tapasya. For a Vaiṣṇava shaving is a tapasya! We shave everyday to meet the public – that is a tapasya.
If growing a beard is tapasya then every Sikh in the Punjab is a yogi!
I find these conversations that you are having about cāturmāsya very trivial and boring, so kindly excuse me from any further correspondence on the matter.
If you ever have any meaningful questions or information regarding Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava siddhānta or such things, then I welcome your correspondence and association, but for these trivial matters I really have no time or tolerance.
What amazes me is that after being disciples of Śrīla Prabhupāda for possibly even 30 years or more years, these devotees are still discussing such insignificant issues (very reminiscent of the down fall of Gauḍīya Maṭha after the disappearance of Sarasvatī Ṭhākura). What this demonstrates most however is that there is no actual authority in ISKCON that all of you are willing to accept.
Accept the GBC of your zone and accept his/her/their decision that was Śrīla Prabhupāda’s standard. Kṛṣṇa Consciousness is an autocratic process, not a democratic process (democracy means demon-crazy). What’s the problem? If you cannot live with the decision of your GBC then leave ISKCON. Prabhupāda himself left the Gauḍīya Maṭha because of similar mentalities amongst his godbrothers.
In the meantime I wish you all the best.
Respectfully,
Śrī Hari-jana-kiṅkara –
Swami BG Narasiṅgha
