PRABHUPADA NEWS

Myth: “In a letter to Tusta Krishna dated December 2, 1975 Srila Prabhupada authorized initiating gurus”

30. August 2025 By Prabhupada News 1 Comment

Anti Ritvik Myths debunked (#10)

Myth: In a letter to Tusta Krishna dated December 2, 1975 Srila Prabhupada authorized initiating gurus in ISKCON.

Truth: Srila Prabhupada didn’t order Tusta (a problematic disciple) or anyone else to take up the position of diksa guru, and just answered him when it may be possible to act as guru but actually ordered him to keep trained up and go on preaching as his representative.

Srila Prabhupada’s current acarya position and his ritvik initiation arrangement were “terminated” in 1977 by managers who had no such right. “Zonal acaryas” began to propagate that they had been personally ordered by Srila Prabhupada to become the next acaryas, but it turned out to be far from the truth. So they started searching for something that can be used to justify their position. Thus, many years later anti-ritviks began to retroactively justify their new guru system by referring to Srila Prabhupada’s letter to his disciple Tusta Krishna written on December 2, 1975. They added it to their set of misinterpreted quotes that supposedly counteract the July 9th, 1977 final directive on initiations in ISKCON and other Srila Prabhupada instructions. E.g. maya-ISKCON guru Jayadvaita Swami refers to this letter in his paper “Where the Ritvik people are wrong”, and there are many other examples. But let’s make a thorough review of full text of the letter and its historical context which is very relevant in this case.

1. Impersonal tendencies

An article by Siddha-Svarupananda das was published in Back to Godhead magazine (No. 44) in 1971, where he himself writes that before meeting Srila Prabhupada he had been an impersonalist guru (named Sai), and he had his own disciples. One of his followers was future Tusta Krishna das, who then became Tusta Krishna Swami:

“Srila Prabhupada has a disciple named Tusta Krsna Dasa, who had been a follower of Sai in Hawaii and had joined ISKCON when Sai, along with other followers, had come to surrender to Srila Prabhupada. Prabhupada initiated Sai as Siddhasvarupa Dasa.” (Giriraja Swami Vyasa-puja homage to Srila Prabhupada, 2016, VedaBase)

However, Srila Prabhupada had to repeatedly reprimand these two disciples for violating his instructions, and sometimes these violations were very serious. Unfortunately, Tusta Krishna and Siddha-svarupa turned out to be among the most problematic and ambitious disciples, who, along with their followers, remained a separate group even during physical presence of Srila Prabhupada. Basically, that group never fully joined ISKCON. Srila Prabhupada tried a number of ways to influence them and tried to prevent them from splitting up. This historical context is important for understanding the situation. Clearly, Srila Prabhupada did not consider Siddha-svarupa or Tusta Krishna as qualified for becoming diksa gurus. Even in 1977, while discussing the future of ISKCON initiation system, Srila Prabhupada did not mention Tusta Krishna or Siddha-svarupa as successor gurus at all.

“My Dear Tusta Krishna, Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated August 12, 1972, and I have noted the contents carefully. Yes, Karandhara said that Sriman Siddha Svarupa Ananda is not up to the point of our preaching work, especially when the “Sai Speaks” booklet was distributed there was some discrepancy from our standard.” (SP Letter to: Tusta Krsna — Los Angeles 24 August, 1972) [Read More…]