The shocking, and revealing, truth about Radhanath Maharaj

8/9/2019 The shocking, and revealing, truth about Radhanath Maharaj

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Last week in Obeisances I addressed an issue that has bothered me for many years,

regarding what I see as an absence of philosophy and a proliferation of storytelling in

ISKCON. Whether it be in the form of auto-biographies or memoirs, or devotees

telling their stories from the asana, there seems to be an over-abundance of it in the

movement since Srila Prabhupada’s departure. I covered many of those issues inlast week’s segment, and tried to explain why I believe many of these stories aren’t

bona fide in terms of our tradition and Sampradaya. While I don’t want to repeat

myself, I do wish to build on that theme today.

I’m motivated to continue the discussion of these issues primarily because I’ve read “

A Wonderful Story “ by HH Radhanatha Swami. For all the same reasons previously

stated, I find this article to be firmly placed in the category of sentimental stories

having very little philosophical input.

Other than describing the so-called spiritual personalities, who in this particular case

are completely unknown to anyone other than the author, this story has little to do

with our Sampradaya. There’s no qualification on Radhanatha Swami’s part as to

who these personalities are from a philosophical point of view, or how much they’re

in line with our siddhanta. Obviously he wasn’t in line with our siddhanta at the time

these pastimes took place, given that he was a devotee of Lord Shiva, whatever that

means. Basically, he was a young American who came to India chasing a dream

about spiritual life.

Of course, one has to keep in mind that Radhanatha Swami Maharaja, like many

other gurus and notorieties in ISKCON in the past, and many in the present, haswhat I would call a “myth” to maintain. This story plays to Radhanatha’s mystique in

stereo. This story is about the mythical Radhanatha Swami who begins his past life,

prior to coming to Krsna consciousness, traveling around India on a transcendental

journey. The mystique insinuated in this story will undoubtedly be told and retold by

his close admirers and followers, who will repeat it in tones of sastra-like awe and

reverence.

The story tells us of the pastimes of Radhanatha while he was becoming a devotee

in India. Of course, the pastimes that we rarely hear about are the ones that

consumed most of his adult life and time in ISKCON – the time he spent at NewVrindavan under the wing and tutelage of Srila Bhaktipada. That part of his story he

seldom broadcasts.

Just how much importance can we place on Radhanatha Swami’s pastimes as a

Shiva bhakta? This is a designation that Srila Prabhupada rejects completely, as he

said those who worship Lord Shiva cannot be considered devotees unless they

accept Lord Shiva to be the greatest devotee of Lord Krsna. Of course, if one knew

of Lord Shiva’s official philosophical status in comparison to Krsna, why worship

Shiva? That’s obviously something Radhanatha decided to do once he came into

contact with an actual pure devotee.



As far as the story is concerned, one has to first of all assume that he was very

advanced himself at that point in his life. What does that make him from a sadhana-

bhakta point of view, considering he hasn’t even begun to perform sadhana under

the guidance of an actual bonafide Spiritual Master? We have to wonder what

degree of realization he had during that era of his life… unless, of course, one wantsto assume that he’s a nitya-siddha, which I’m sure some of his followers actually do.

If you listen to his story here, one might be inclined to come to that conclusion:

“By the end of the 2 months I came to the conclusion that of all the theologies,

philosophies, religions and spiritual paths that I have experienced there is nothing

higher, nothing as sweet, nothing more beautiful then the religion of Vrindavana.

Devotion to Sri Sri Radharani and Sri Krishna. So I decided to spend the rest of the

my life in Vrindavana and never leave.”

I can’t say for sure whether it was his intention to paint himself as being very

advanced in this article, either overtly or subtly, but that’s the overall impression I find

the article gives. Basically, Radhanatha is a storyteller – he’s both the narrator of the

story and one of the main characters, although he puts a lot of focus on the pujari in

question, Ghanshyam, and the Deities that Ghanshyam was worshipping, Sri Sri

Radha-Gopijanavallabha.

The story is obviously well thought out and very expertly narrated, and the overall

message or impression that Radhanatha Swami wants to project comes through

clearly. While I have not heard Radhanatha speak in person in recent years, his

‘voice’ in the story is very telling in that he omits many nouns and articles, like “a”,“an” and “the”. The effect is a contrived mock Indian voice intended to add Vaisnava

authenticity to the presentation. For me, it has exactly the opposite effect. I have

never liked the practice of devotee’s using a ‘pretend voice’ to imitate Srila

Prabhupada’s speaking style, or trying to sound like a homegrown sadhu from

Vrindavan.

Most of the detail that Radhanatha chooses to go into makes no philosophical point.

It’s simply eloquent filler that keeps the spotlight on himself and the fact that he can

so vividly remember what happened to him in 1971, prior to becoming a devotee.

The story emphasizes the sense that Radhanatha is a very qualified, saintly personwho was able to appreciate the Holy Dhama on a very high level. The story lets us

know that he was able to ascertain, or was qualified to detect, the high degree of

spiritual advancement in the characters we meet in the story. Basically, we all have

to assume that the story is real, because there’s no way we can verify that it actually

took place, and the character Ghanshyam is who Radhanatha chooses to illustrate

him to be. There are no quotes from sastra and no collaborating evidence from

devotees who witnessed these events, so we can’t determine the authenticity of the

story. Yet we have to digest passages like the following:



“…we would go around Vrindavana every night in the moonlight. And one of these

nice sadhus told me I want you to meet a very very very simple and pure soul. When

you meet him you will understand what is bhakti.”

Of course, when this story was unfolding, Radhanatha Swami didn’t have access to

our siddhanta, nor the mercy of the pure devotee, so all the detailed Vaisnava input

that he’s given is something he came to after the fact. In other words, he couldn’t

possibly have been thinking all these things at the time, or been able to analyze the

circumstance in the way he’s describing it at this point in his life.

The timing of when Radhanatha met Srila Prabhupada and accepted him as his

Spiritual Master is somewhat confusing in this story. It’s not clear why Radhanatha

was taking instructions from Ghanshyam if he had already accepted Srila

Prabhupada as his guru. He writes:

“And he [Ghanshyam] and a couple others were saying if you have to leaveVrindavana, because I was crying I have to leave Vrindavana. They said if you have

to leave Vrindavana you should go to New Vrindavana. I asked what is this New

Vrindavana? They said Swami Prabhupada, when he was here in Vrindavana,

because I had already accepted Prabhupada as my guru by that time in Vrindavana.”

It’s very interesting to consider the main character in the story, who we’re told is an

extremely advanced devotee and who personifies dedication to the Deities. This

individual is described as extremely austere and has all the nice qualities one would

expect to see in a true Vaisnava. In many of the stories Radhanatha Maharaja tells

about his pastimes at New Vrindaban, he depicts himself in a very similar way to the

description of Ghanshyam in this story. While one of the symptoms that an individual

is not highly advanced is his tendency to self-glorify, these are the kinds of

statements we read in Radhanatha Swami’s presentation:

“I was such a simple new devotee. I was thinking how is it possible, he’s serving

Radha-Vrindavananatha. He is a personal, he is bathing Radha-Vrindavanatha, he is

dressing Them, he’s feeding Them, why in the world would anyone who had such a

wonderful service would want to get married. Inconceivable!! So I went to that

devotee I said if you want female association come and help me milk cows. It’s thesafest way to associate to with the opposite sex. Somehow or other he didn’t accept

my advice. So he got married. Then the temple president said you should be the

pujari. I said who is going to take care of the cows? He said you, you do both. So I

was pujari for Radha-Vrindavananatha.”

In the years following his long service at New Vrindaban, Radhanatha has often

explained to the devotees how he completely transcended all the nonsense that was

going on at New Vrindaban over decades, how he never liked Bhaktipada, and how

he kept his spiritual life alive by simply worshipping the Deities and staying aloof,

transcendentally. Therefore he was untouched, like a lotus flower, from all theinsanity, criminal activity and immoral pastimes that were going on all around him. Of



course, this is not a verified version of the story. In fact, many, many persons who

knew him during that per iod will attest to the fact that the image he’s projecting is

incorrect. It’s not at all what he was like during those years at New Vrindaban, where

he was actually playing a major role as one of Bhaktipada’s main supporters and

enforcers. In his article, Radhanatha essentially tells us that whatever he did at NewVrindaban was simply the result of his great surrender and service attitude:

“We would never ever, ever act outside authority or blessings. So for 11 years I

remained there worshipping the deities.”

Of course, he goes on to describe exactly the opposite scenario, as well:

“Kirtananda Maharaja made a rule that I was not allowed to speak about Vrindavana.

That rule was very very difficult to follow. Sometimes devotees would come way up

to that old mountain farmhouse where the temple was of Radha-Vrindavanatha and

it would be just me and them looking after the offerings and the aratis. In betweenthey would say tell me about Vrindavana. And I would start telling them about the

places of Govardhana and the places of Vrindavana and the places of Nanda-

ghama, Varsana.”

In fact, the more I study how Radhanatha Swami runs his ‘institution within the

institution’ today in Chowpatty, the more I see that he uses a lot of the tricks of the

trade that were sharpened to perfection by Kirtanananda. Kirtanananda was an

expert cult leader, and he appeared to be very austere, very saintly, and very

dedicated. He was a strict sadhana man, and he forced the members of New

Vrindaban to be the same way – they worked really hard under very austere

conditions, showed up for the morning program, and chant their rounds. Externally,

Kirtanananda looked like he was into the Deities and he was dedicated to building

Srila Prabhupada’s Palace of Gold, but in reality he was into himself and his vision.

Everything ultimately came down to Bhaktipada, because he controlled every aspect

of New Vrindaban. He was the king – he even had the crown and scepter.

There is absolutely no question that Radhanatha was one of Kirtanananda main

lieutenants. In fact, even though Bhaktipada had his administrative leaders like

Kuladri and others who were running his construction program, on the so-calledspiritual side, it was Radhanatha who helped prop-up Kirtanananda’s spiritual

mirage. He was joined in that role by Bhakti Tirtha Swami, Umapati Swami and

Chandramauli Swami. These Swamis helped to give the impression that

Kirtanananda was actually advanced because they supported him and worshipped

him. Today we see that the image Radhanatha emphasizes at this point in his career

doesn’t include the most significant part of his life story — his relationship with

Kirtanananda and New Vrindaban during the most notorious part of their history.

Considering all this, what is Radhanatha’s “wonderful story” really all about? What is

the message behind it? Now people may think I’m cynical, conspiratorial, or fault-finding, but to me, this story is nothing but a story. It has no real significance and no



purpose other than for the reasons I’ve stated above. Basically, the story helps to

highlight and enhance Radhanatha’s image.

It’s interesting to note that the character Ghanshyam is not only described as having

been instrumental in Radhanatha’s spiritual development, he also perfectly highlights

many of the mythical qualities that Radhanatha is becoming known for having.

Ghanshyam has apparently impacted Radhanatha’s life to such a degree that

throughout his whole life he has emulated this person. Of course, one should

question that, considering that Radhanatha has a Spiritual Master who’s a

Sampradaya Acarya while Ghanshyam, as far as we know, has no connection to our

Sampradaya at all.

The way Radhanatha depicts Ghanshyam, he’s an extremely advanced devotee. In

fact, it’s interesting to note that the characteristics of this person were far beyond

anything that I’ve seen anybody in ISKCON exhibit, except for Srila Prabhupada. Of

course, Srila Prabhupada’s mood and qualities were far broader, deeper, and wider

than anything this other character exhibits, so what does that really tell you?

Radhanatha tells us that Ghanshyam was practically a pure devotee, but only a few

people in the whole world had the mercy of knowing that… and of course, HH

Radhanatha was one of the persons advanced and fortunate enough to have the

eyes to see what others could not:

“When we read about qualities of selfless service, when we read about the principle

of servant of the servant of the servant, when we contemplate actual humility of the

heart, Sri Gopijanavallabha empowered him to be a very wonderful wonderful

example of that. But only a few people in the whole world ever saw him or knew him.

He was just totally an unknown person.”

Frankly, I find the way Radhanatha is depicting himself throughout this article to be

questionable. At one point he emphasizes that his transcendental adventures in

Vrindavan happened very early in his life:

“Because one great sadhu living in Vrindavana had given me a name when I was

little, the name Ratin-Krishna dasa. I never got initiated but he gave it out of

affection. So Ghanshyam always called me Ratin.”

Of course, “little Ratin” was actually a full-grown man by this time. He tell us “I was

such a simple new devotee”, but at the same time, denigrates the New Vrindaban

pujari in his story about the pujari giving up his service in order to get married. On

one hand he tells us that these are the thoughts of someone who’s a simple, new

devotee, yet the actual message is that these are the thoughts of an advanced

devotee. So throughout the whole article we get this duality wherein he’s depicting

himself in a very humble way, and then on the other hand, he’s portraying himself to

have this advanced spiritual vision.



In our tradition, one of the main aspects of our philosophy is that an advanced

devotee is, by nature and by activities, very humble. So by portraying oneself in a

humble way, you’re essentially glorifying yourself, because that’s the sign of an

advanced devotee. So calling yourself a lowly person or a wretch is really a form of

self-glorification. Of course, those who are listening to Radhanatha in this storywould think the opposite, but the fact is that he’s portrayed throughout ISKCON as

being one of the great gurus and sannyasis, and on account of that he gets a great

deal of adoration and distinction.

The way the whole story of the Deities and Ghanshyam unfolds as it’s told here puts

the reader on the spot, so to speak. You either have to think of Radhanatha as being

an extremely rare and advanced soul, or you have to suspect that he’s pulling a

Kirtanananda on us. I feel fortunate that I’m not put into this quandary, like so many

devotees are, because his existence doesn’t directly impact me or my life, as it does

so many others.

One of the great pains that I’ve experienced in my devotional career is seeing the

devastation that’s created when a guru falls down, and those who have worshipped

him as good as God and spent innumerable hours serving him, have to come to

grips with the fact that they’ve been cheated, and the person wasn’t at all what they

said they were. Not only does that impact the disciples psychologically, emotionally

and spiritually, but it’s very hard for them to regain faith. Inevitably you are a

neophyte if you have a gur u who is of this type of character, and it’s very difficult for

a neophyte to recover when the guru falls down. And it is even more difficult in the

case of a fallen guru who had all along been presenting himself as highly advanced,when he was not. This is not an isolated case in ISKCON; many disciples of fallen

gurus have lost faith in Srila Prabhupada and the whole process that’s presented by

Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu. That’s the great loss, ultimately. I’ve seen this so many

times, so forgive me if it appears that I’m looking at Radhanatha from this critical

perspective – but I am. My fears and skepticism have been reinforced after reading

this ‘story’.

The only time Radhanatha mentions Kirtanananda in this story is in the context of

making Kirtanananda look bad, as in the story about Kirtanananda muzzling

Radhanatha from telling stories about Vrindaban. All this would make sense, except

that it doesn’t match the reality of Radhanatha’s relationship with Kirtanananda over

the years. Perhaps Radhanatha was simply living a false life all those years, inwardly

disliking Kirtanananda while outwardly acting as if he was the next great

Sampradaya Acarya. But I don’t see how an advanced devotee could tolerate acting

like that. The fact is that anyone who had any degree of spiritual enlightenment

would have left New Vrindaban, and not have been faulted for it. History proves that

to be a fact. Of course, this is the part of the Radhanatha myth that has to be

covered up. And it appears that so many neophyte devotees are ready to buy into

the perception he’s now projecting.



We should keep in mind that in around 1987, New Vrindaban was kicked out of

ISKCON. There was a period of time thereafter when Kirtanananda was still in

charge, and was busy changing everything at Srila Prabhupada’s Palace of Gold

over to the neo-Christian motif. Radhanatha Swami stayed with Kirtanananda that

whole time, even after he and his aberrant community were kicked out of his SpiritualMaster’s movement. As recently as the 1990’s, Radhanatha was still on the record

(via taped lectures) in which he was glorifying Kirtanananda.

When Kirtanananda was completely de-throned and sent to prison, then the GBC

came up with a “plan” to get New Vrindaban back into the ISKCON fold and to

minimize the fallout from Kirtanananda’s departure. They hand-picked Radhanath to

become the person who re-initiated all Kirtanananda’s people in India and Bombay.

Similarly, Bhakti Tirtha Swami got to re-initiate all the African disciples. Basically,

Radhanatha was installed by the GBC and vaulted into notoriety, not because of his

spiritual purity, but because he knew the inside story, and was in a position to helpthem with damage control. For those who knew the events of the day, all this history

comes flooding back when you read stories like the one Radhanatha is telling here,

the sanitized, spiritualized version of his devotional career in which he is clearly self-

proclaimed as being a highly advanced Vaisnava.

Documents

The shocking, and revealing, truth about Radhanath Maharaj