Doesn’t ISKCON’s rule to glorify Srila Prabhupada and not one’s guru go against Vedic culture of glorifying one’s guru?

Hare Krishna question the in the traditional Indian culture the people would naturally glorify one’s own guru but in ISKCON now we have the policy that we should not glorify our guru we should glorify only Prabhupada. Doesn’t this institutionalization cause the separation of the natural devotion and thereby the separation of the natural devotional culture that was there in India? Answer, first of all it is not necessary that one’s devotion to one’s guru has to be expressed by constant glorification of one’s guru directly.
In fact the Goswamis say that when Bhaktivinoda Thakura also quotes this he says that among the things that we should keep secret he says one should keep one’s mala secret he said keep the mala in a beard bag don’t show the mala to the world so go payet keep them secret. One of the things he says is keep your guru secret and so the point here is that we see Prabhupada also you know he when he would preach he would of course express his depth of gratitude to his spiritual master but if you look at his own life and the way he taught his the essence of his message was teaching philosophy by essence I mean the stress it was not that he was constantly telling past times of Bhaktisiddhanta Swami Thakur he knew that was not what his audience could relate with so yes for the devotees who came close to him at that time he did tell some defining anecdotes and past times of Bhaktisiddhanta Swami Thakur but still the important point was if you look at the crux of Sri Prabhupada’s teachings they are centered in philosophy and from his presentation what we understand is that it is as devotees we have to do we should do that which helps people come close to Krishna so at one level we may say that it was the Vedic tradition to glorify one spiritual master but there are exceptions to that also there are in fact I was contrary in joining saying that once you keep one spiritual master go payet so the point of this is Anukulyasya Sankalpa Pratikulyasya Varjunam whatever is favorable for our bhakti we accept that and whatever is unfavorable for our bhakti we put that aside so when we are living in a community of devotees at that time where especially when we are living within the Krishna consciousness movement so there are devotees who are disciples of different spiritual masters and in the Bhagavatam in the third canto as well as in the 11th canto of Uddhava Gita as well as Kapila’s teachings it is mentioned how bhakti can be practiced within the modes of ignorance passion goodness and ultimately in transcendence also so bhakti is itself transcendental but the practitioners of bhakti if they are predominantly in the lower modes then they will practice bhakti accordingly and we in the Krishna conscious movements have come from a wide variety of backgrounds and and we will see that often there are much stronger conflicts between the disciples of gurus than the gurus themselves now when two spiritual masters meet often usually they are and they deal with each other in a dignified Vaishnava way but often their disciples have very bitter conflicts that is why because yes there may be some issues some differences between two Vaishnavas but those Vaishnavas also know how to deal with those differences in a Vaishnava way and that is the characteristics of Atman Bhakti and Transcendental Bhakti but when we ourselves are in Rajoguna or Tamoguna then we take those differences and we tackle those differences in a Rajasic or Tamasic way where we create conflicts just as we may not be able to deal with the differences properly because we ourselves are not in the higher modes and certainly we are not similarly the principle of one’s guru the principle of principle of glorifying one’s guru we may apply it in a in a in an inappropriate way that alienates others in the Ramayana when Ram is about to go to the forest initially his plan is that he’s going to go alone and then he instructs Sita about how she should conduct herself while she is living in the palace as Bharat is the king and one central message which Ram gives to Sita in that context is that when Bharat is the ruling king don’t glorify me in Bharat’s presence he says that men in general and kings in particular are known to be concerned about their ego and their prestige and therefore in the presence of a king if you glorify some other man then that may lead to unfortunate results now if we look at the character of Bharat you know Bharat was devoted to Ram and he would be delighted if Ram’s glories are spoken so Ram when he’s speaking this he’s speaking about general principle that it’s a basic it’s a basic it’s a basic human courtesy sensitivity that one should speak in a pleasing way to others so that’s why the point which I’m making is sometimes so even Lord Ram is telling Sita that be sensitive and don’t glorify me in Bharat’s presence so similarly this is a this is a this principle of sensitivity is there in the in the broad bhakti culture and bhakti literature itself so if we are in a circle where there are devotees of other spiritual masters also or especially the the the GBC resolution based on the ISKCON disciples course based on which the ISKCON disciples course has been formed where the focus is on Srila Prabhupada there the point is that there are devotees who have not even come to know or know any of the ISKCON spiritual masters and they’ve not even understood the basic philosophy so at that time we have to focus on what is the best thing that will attract them to Krishna so there are two different situations here first is if you look at Prabhupada’s example now Prabhupada focused on presenting the philosophy in such a way that people would be attracted to the philosophy to the wisdom and then of course people were attracted to him also and they want to take instruction from him but the center of his message was not I am this I am that the center of the message that he was giving was that we are souls we are parts of Krishna and only by learning to love him will we be happy so similarly we should focus on presenting the message of Krishna consciousness in the best possible way and if we at an initial stage before new people we start glorifying our spiritual master then one thing is new people themselves may go away because then they start thinking that this is just a personality cult especially nowadays with movies talking about fake godmen mislead people and live in luxury and have good looking disciples so there is a lot of negative image of godmen and in such a situation if we start glorifying our spiritual master people may just feel that we are another personality cult centered movement so we have to be cautious about that we may alienate new people by not presenting what would have attracted them to Krishna so even what would have attracted them to the philosophy of Krishna consciousness and even when we are what to speak of yes not glorifying our spiritual master even when we are speaking we should focus on Prabhupada’s message in terms of the universal principles of bhakti if we start focusing on how Prabhupada is the greatest spiritual master there’s no everyone else is this and that and if we again go to the personality if people are people’s head is not convinced their heart will not be steadily attracted and the heart is not attracted and glorification may be more alienating than appealing so we may alienate new people that’s one possibility and also if we are in a community of devotees where there are different devotees of different who are disciples of different spiritual masters and glorifying one’s own spiritual master may well be alienating as an example from Ramayana Lord Ram is to be Sita don’t glorify me in front of Bharat so you know we may alienate people by the same principle so yes because there is a way to glorify which is centered on Krishna and the mercy and potency that is Krishna is manifesting through his devotees through his exalted devotees who may be our spiritual masters but there is another way of glorifying where glorification of those with whom we are connected is simply a tool simply and subtly often a tool for glorifying oneself you know my spiritual master is so great becomes a tool for saying i am so great so our the glorification of our spiritual master becomes a tool for one-upsmanship just like people say yes there are there are glorious things about India but the idea is many times when people talk that their idea is so that yes i am i am great so like that we may want to go we may want to glorify our spiritual master so that we want to show that yes because my spiritual master is so special so i am also so special if we that is our attitude then we have got things wrong you know if yes if our spiritual master is so special the spiritual master has got special mercy of Krishna special mercy of Sri Prabhupada and exalted Vaishnavas then that special potency which the spiritual master has and which will be a current of mercy and potency coming to us that should come in our that should be manifest in our transformed life in our dedicated service to Krishna in our steady devotion to Krishna and that is what will attract people to Krishna so we focus on that principle we behave in such a proper way sensitive non-alienating alienating caring way that we by our actions attract people to Krishna and if those people feel inspired they can be attracted to our spiritual master also so otherwise there can be terrible unnecessary conflicts between my guru is greater your guru is greater or oh this i preach to this person so this person should become my guru’s disciple so one reason for this attitude is also that yeah if that person is my guru’s disciple then that person will be under my control now we practice bhakti not to expand our controlling mentality we practice bhakti to get rid of our controlling mentality so this sort of possessive mentality is will undermine our devotional spirit so yes if we have a natural desire to glorify our spiritual master then we can have proper forums where we do that there is a there can be the sangha of our god family our god brothers god sisters with whom we can talk about the glory of our spiritual master but with the within the broad devotee community where we can focus on speaking about Krishna and doing what is best for attracting people to Krishna and because Krishna’s message has been widely broadcast within the Krishna consciousness movement by its founder Shri Prabhupada so the focus is on introducing people to Prabhupada first and then talking about our own spiritual masters so thereafter as is appropriate thank you don’t give your enemies