During the 1980s and 1990s, there was a sequence of scandals in our movement, with devotees in high positions falling down in troublesome circumstances. This was of course an eye-opener that made us understand that it is not so easy for someone to become a pure devotee with just a few years of practice, as well as a warning about the consequences of electing unqualified people for positions of leadership in spiritual organizations.

What not many know was that half a century earlier devotees in the Gaudiya Math suffered from a similar event, whose repercussions were even more serious. This is an event that is not very well known, but it can help us not only to better understand the reasons for the split of the Gaudiya Math but also to better understand many dangers we faced in the past that can appear again in the future.

In a conversation from 18/06/1976, Srila Prabhupada mentions that “One of my Gauḍīya Maṭha Godbrothers, big, he became the head of this Bhag Bazaar Gauḍīya Maṭha. So his wife was debauched, and she was bringing new paramour, and the child protested. And the boy, he was ten years or twelve years old, he could understand: “Who is this man?” So he protested and said, “I shall tell all these things to my father.” And he was killed”… “His wife was a regular prostitute, and she killed her child, and on this shock, he took poison and died”… “He became shocked, that “This is my family life—the wife is prostitute and son is killed. What is the value of my life?” This was his spiritual realization. Just see. And he was made the chief.”

A great number of Srila Prabhupada disciples (mostly ladies) remember that at the beginning of Iskcon, all devotees used to call each other “Prabhu”, regardless of gender. The men were “Prabhus” and the ladies were also “Prabhus”. According to them, that was the way Srila Prabhupada established, and the system was changed to the Prabhu/Mataji style of address only later.

On the other hand, a great number of Srila Prabhupada disciples (mostly men) say that to call ladies “Prabhu” doesn’t make sense, and as far as they remember, ladies were always “Mataji’s”.

How can we reconcile these different opinions?

Krsna says in the Bhagavad-Gita that “O son of Kuntī, declare it boldly that My devotee never perishes.” However, we see that devotees go through all kinds of difficulties. Even pure devotees, like the Pandavas and Srila Prabhupada, went through great difficulties. How is that?

To understand how the protection from Krsna works and why devotees sometimes face difficulties, the first point is to better understand the context of this verse. Krsna says: “I envy no one, nor am I partial to anyone. I am equal to all. But whoever renders service unto Me in devotion is a friend, is in Me, and I am also a friend to him. Even if one commits the most abominable action, if he is engaged in devotional service he is to be considered saintly because he is properly situated in his determination. He quickly becomes righteous and attains lasting peace. O son of Kuntī, declare it boldly that My devotee never perishes.”

Here we have an apparent contradiction. Krsna first says He is partial to anyone and equal to all, but then He says that He is partial to His devotees. Srila Prabhupada explains that such special affection to devotees is not a sign of partiality, but just natural. Just like a pious king may be impartial and equal to everyone, he will always give special attention to his children. Such behavior is unavoidable due to their intimate relationship. Similarly, Krsna is impartial to everyone, but He can’t help giving special attention to His devotees.

Krsna is God, the eternal and unborn. However, He is born as the son of Vasudeva and Devaki. How can the Supreme Unborn be born? As mentioned by Queen Kunti in her prayers, that’s certainly bewildering.

In our case, it’s easy to understand why we are born. Although we are eternal souls, we accept temporary material bodies, and such bodies have a beginning and an end. We are born as small babies and eventually grow up as adults, later dwindling as old persons until we face death. After death, we go to a new body and the cycle repeats. Krsna also appears to take birth and later “die” when hit by the arrow of the hunter, and such appearance and disappearance repeat as He goes from one universe to the other. However, there is something fundamentally different in Krsna’s “birth”.

Krsna never accepts a material body. Although He appears to be born, He always comes in His original spiritual body. We change our body because our body is different from our real identity as soul, the body is just some kind of covering or vehicle that deteriorates over time, but in the case of Krsna, there is no difference between his body and soul. He always appears in His original form.

But still, Krsna is born. How is that? The reason is that he wants to enjoy the affection of his father and mother. We are born of necessity because we are forced by material nature to accept a material body, but Krsna appears in his original spiritual body out of His own free will, “born” as the son of Vasudeva and Devaki. He is then transferred to Gokula, where he enjoys his childhood pastimes.

Although the appearance of Krsna is supremely auspicious, He is born in conditions that appear to be inauspicious: in the prison of Kamsa.

Nowadays many of us are getting sucked under the influence of these weapons of mass distraction we call social medias, where we are not just stimulated to see the content created by others but also enticed to create our own content in the form of photos, reels, articles, videos and so on. In this way, we are conditioned by our overlords to contribute to their efforts to increase the audience of their services, and when we do we are rewarded with likes, shares, or even a few comments.

The ones who are successful in this game can amass a huge number of followers and become celebrities. Followers are nowadays a symbol of status, just like personal beauty or money, and many work really hard to increase the magical number, even at the expense of other areas of their lives.

Just like in other trends of modern life, devotees are not immune to this. Just like regular people tend to worship the so-called influencers, a devotee who has a lot of followers on Instagram, or subscribes on Youtube is often more respected. Just like there are people who judge us based on physical beauty, money, or mundane education, there are also devotees who judge us based on our number of followers. To some people, we have indeed more or less value as individuals according to the number of followers we have.

Although we understand philosophically that material fame and status are ephemeral, we may be tempted to enter into the game and try to also increase our number of followers and subscribers. That’s when we have to take a very long and deep breath.

We can see that often people with schizophrenia, clinical depression, and other problems are treated with psychotropic drugs and show improvement in their symptoms. Sometimes they become almost completely cured by these drugs.

However, this can be quite difficult to explain from a philosophical perspective, since the mind is supposed to be a subtle entity, intrinsically different from the body.

Different from the brain, which is an organ, The mind is a subtle entity that can’t be affected by chemical substances. Drugs can surely affect the workings of the brain, but how can they influence the workings of the subtle mind? This question applies both to pharmaceutical drugs and recreational drugs since both classes have similar effects on one’s consciousness. So, how does it work?

The point is that although the brain and the mind are different entities, they are deeply connected. The brain is a kind of interface between the subtle mind and the gross body. The mind receives the signals from the brain, and based on these signals creates our understanding of reality.

If the brain sends a message of constant pain to the mind, for example, the mind will be affected by it, and because we (the soul) are identifying with the mind, we will feel unhappy.