$108,000.00 cash reward money for any ISKCON guru who can show the Nam Hatta an original, signed document dated July 9, 1977 or later from Srila Prabhupada's hand, naming any person or persons specifically appointed to the position of full guru-acharya, authorized to initiate disciples as his own after the disappearance of Srila Prabhupada.
Failure on the part of any guru means he must publicly give up his unauthorized guru title and return his disciples to the lotus feet of Srila Prabhupada, the sampradaya acharya and founder of ISKCON.
Previously (August, 1977) a challenge and reward of 500,000 rupees was offered by ISKCON to Dr. Kovoor, a prominent scientist of Sri Lanka, to prove his claim that life is generated by chemical interaction. Dr. Kovoor was invited to a public meeting, where he could bring his chemicals and produce life by creating a cat, mouse, a mosquito or any other plainly visible living creature from inert chemicals. Dr. Kovoor failed to win the Rs. 500,000 prize. He died a few months later, publicly humiliated.
Now ISKCON is being challenged by Nam Hatta devotees world-wide: "Produce the written document, signed by Srila Prabhupada, ordering any devotee to act as guru-acharya of ISKCON."
Submit documented claims to any Nam Hatta centre near you.
Nam Hatta World Sankirtan Party
P.O. Box 157 * Geyserville, CA 95445 * USA
Dated: June 1993
P.O. Box 157 * Geyserville, CA 95445 * USA
Dated: June 1993
NOTE: This REWARD is still unclaimed by the many Iskcon Gurus as of the Year 2009
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This is a real offer. It's not a joke. There is no expiration date. Bhima das backs it up, so if any ISKCON guru wants money, all he has to do is bring proof and collect on it.
So far no ISKCON guru has dared to come forward to answer it. Some years back, Gour Govinda Maharaja disciples came to collect from Bhima in Singapore, insisting that their guru had told them that he had received a letter from Srila Prabhupada himself to become the acharya.
Bhima asked for the proof, but they had none. So a few months or so later, Gour Govinda Maharaja came to Singapore. Bhima went to the meeting, brought his cheque book, and after Gour Govinda Maharaja finished speaking his lecture, Bhima asked him, "So Maharaja, your disciples say that Srila Prabhupada personally gave you the order to become spiritual master. Can you please explain why you waited all those years until GBC appointed you to become guru? Why didn't you immediately act on the order?"
Gour Govinda Maharaja responded, "What is that? What is it?" So Bhima spoke up a little louder, "Maharaja, is there an order for you to become guru?" No reply. Again Bhima asked, "Did Srila Prabhupada give you the order to become guru?" Silence. Bhima raised his voice, "Is there an order?" Everyone in the room was shocked. Maharaja was visibly stunned, and momentarily speechless. There was an uncomfortable pause.
He answered, "No order. No order. No order." Three times. He was red-faced and couldn't speak for 5 minutes afterwards, then asked the devotees to sing kirtan. A week later he passed away in India. Not since then has anyone else claimed to possess the required proof.
And in case anyone on this list wants to promote Narayan Maharaja as acharya, let him or her consider that Narayana Maharaja's own guru did not see him fit to become acharya even of that small math and handed it over to someone else instead, and Narayana, having nowhere else to go and nothing else to do, sat down there until some foolish ISKCON "gurus" turned to him looking to boost or prop up their own "uttama" qualifications.
Gaudiya Math self-appointed acharyas
Srila Prabhupada, August 16, 1976, Bombay (Conversations with Srila Prabhupada, Vol. 26, p. 59-60) "If one remains always a servant everlastingly of guru, then he is liberated. And as soon as he thinks that he is liberated, he's a rascal. That is the teaching of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.... You must be ready always to be chastised by guru. Then he's liberated. And as soon as he thinks that "I am beyond this chastisement, I am liberated," he's a rascal....
Why this Gaudiya Math failed? Because they tried to become more than guru. He [Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura], before passing away, he gave them all direction and never said that "This man should be the next acharya .." But these people, just after his passing away, they began to fight, who shall be acharya . That is the failure. They never thought, "Why Guru Maharaja gave us instruction so many things, why he did not say that this man should be acharya? " They wanted to create artificially somebody acharya, and everything failed. They did not consider even with common sense that if Guru Maharaja wanted to appoint somebody as acharya, why did he not say? He said so many things, and this point he missed? The real point? And they insist upon it. They declared some unfit person to become acharya . Then another man came, then another, acharya, another acharya . So better remain a foolish person perpetually to be directed by Guru Maharaja. That is perfection. --
Therefore we may not commit the same mistake in our ISKCON camp. Actually amongst my Godbrothers no one is qualified to become acarya. So it is better not to mix with my Godbrothers very intimately because instead of inspiring our students and disciples they may sometimes pollute them. This attempt was made previously by them, especially Madhava Maharaja and Tirtha Maharaja and Bon Maharaja but somehow or other I saved the situation. This is going on. We shall be very careful about them and not mix with them. This is my instruction to you all. They cannot help us in our movement, but they are very competent to harm our natural progress. So we must be very careful about them.
". . .He was first deputed by my Guru Maharaja, along with our late God Brother, Bhakti Pradip Tirtha Maharaja, to open a missionary center in London, and they stayed there for 3 years, but didn't make any appreciable advance. Except that spent enormous money of my Guru Maharaja, and later on they were called back to India. So that is a great history; it is not possible to say everything in this letter, but for the present, be satisfied with these words, and later we shall talk more and more. On the whole, you may know that he is not a liberated person, and therefore, he cannot initiate any person to Krishna Consciousness. It requires special spiritual benediction from higher authorities."
[Srila Prabhupada Letter to: Janardana -- New York 26 April, 1968]
Srila Prabhupada: "I am practically seeing that as soon as they, our students, begin to learn a little Sanskrit, they immediately feel they have become more than their guru. Then the policy is to kill their guru and become guru themselves". "As soon as he learns that Guru Maharaj is dead, now I am so advanced I can kill guru and become guru. Then he is finished." (Srila Prabhupada 1976)....
