THIRTEEN APASAMPRADAYAS

Part One


From time to time a devotee of Krsna is faced with touchy questions about the
shadow side of his religion.  "Is it true there are gurus in West Bengal who
do dope when they chant Hare Krsna?"  Or, "What about that place in West
Virginia where they mix Krsna, Christ, New Age and everything else?"

It's best to keep a broad historical perspective when considering this
problem.  Hybrid versions of Krsna worship, or even downright perversions of
it, are nothing new.  They all tend fit a pattern laid down long ago in India
by thirteen deviant sects known as the apasampradayas.

But before looking at the deviants, the correct culture of Krsna consciousness
should be understood.  Fashionable or not, there is a definite standard of
spiritual life.  It is called sampradaya.

The word sampradaya implies "genuine instruction that has been received
through guru parampara or disciplic succession" (guru paramparagatu sad
upadesasya, from the Amarakosa Sanskrit dictionary).  In the fourth chapter of
Bhagavad-gita, Lord Krsna declares Himself to be the original source of
genuine spiritual instruction, and says that a person is connected to His
teachings only through disciplic succession.

Genuine spiritual instruction is meant to foster ideal qualities in the human
being.  Truthfulness, cleanliness, austerity, mercy, humility and freedom from
material desire are called daivi-sampat (transcendental qualities) because
they have their origin in Sri Krsna, the transcendental Supreme Person. But
fallen souls have no way of associating with Krsna directly. The scriptures
therefore say, sarva maha-guna-gana vaisnava-sarire: in this world, all the
best qualities are embodied by the Vaisnavas, Krsna's pure devotees.  Vaisnava
spiritual masters instill these qualities in their disciples through
association and instruction.  The disciples of a Vaisnava guru thus become
qualified to impart daivi-sampat qualities to their own disciples in turn.
This is the meaning of disciplic succession.

In Kali-yuga, the present age, there are only four genuine sampradayas wherein
saintly Vaisnava association can be found. One of these is the Brahma
Sampradaya, established in South India by the great acarya Madhva.  This
sampradaya was accepted by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu when He received initiation
into the chanting of the Hare Krsna mahamantra from His guru, Sri Isvara Puri.
Then, in Bengal (Gaudadesa), Lord Caitanya began His movement of sankirtana,
the congregational chanting of the holy names of Krsna.  Lord Caitanya's
sankirtana mission, of which the International Society for Krishna
Consciousness is the worldwide exponent, is known as the Brahma-Madhva-Gaudiya
Sampradaya.

Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura has identified thirteen apasampradayas that claim
to have inherited Lord Caitanya's mission, though they have nothing to do with
the Brahma-Madhva-Gaudiya sampradaya.  They are known by the names aula,
baula, kartabhaja, neda, daravesa, sani, sahajiya, sakhibheki, smarta,
jata-gosani, ativadi, cudadhari and gauranga-nagari.  Because these
apasampradayas (apa means "deviated") do not nurture Vaisnava qualities, their
missionary activities are condemned as cheating.

As mentioned in Vaisnava Ke by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati, the
apasampradayas display only inauspicious qualities.  One is anitya-vaibhava,
the hankering for material success. Another is kaminira-kama, illicit sexual
affairs that are usually passed off as "transcendental."  And a third is
mayavada, philosophical speculation that undercuts the personal nature of God
as taught by the Vaisnava sampradayas.

What follows is an in-depth look at the deviations of each of the thirteen
apasampradayas.  In this article's first installment, two of the most
important, the jata-gosani and the smarta, are dealt with.

JATA-GOSANI
Caste Gosvamis

The word jata means "by birth" or "by family".  Gosani is a Bengali form of
the Sanskrit word gosvami, which means "one who controls his senses."  The
jata-gosani are a hereditary caste of gurus.  Their qualification to initiate
disciples is too often limited to the boast of family connections to
associates of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu or to disciples of these associates.

In the Gaudiya Vaisnava sampradaya, gosvami is a title used by sannyasis, men
who have renounced worldly social ties.  The jata-gosani use of the title
gosvami as a family name is a deviation peculiar to this apasampradaya. Though
they remain attached to wife, children and home, they present themselves as
important as the six Gosvamis of the Gaudiya Vaisnava sampradaya, about whom
Srinivasa Acarya has written:

tyaktva turnam asesa-mandala-pati-srenim sada tuccha-vat
bhutva dina-ganesakau karunaya kaupina-kanthasritau
gopi-bhava-rasamrtabdhi-lahari-kallola-magnau muhur
vande rupa-sanatanau raghu-yugau sri-jiva-gopalakau

"The six Gosvamis - Sri Rupa, Sri Sanatana, Sri Raghunatha Bhatta, Sri
Raghunatha dasa, Sri Jiva and Sri Gopala Bhatta - are worshipable because they
renounced their aristocratic family life as insignificant and became
mendicants to preach and deliver the fallen souls.  They are always bathing in
the waves of ecstatic love for Krsna."

Persons born in caste gosvami families are indiscriminantly accepted by simple
Indian village people as uttama-adhikari Vaisnavas, or the most spiritually
advanced of all devotees of Krsna.  The jata-gosani even take the title
Prabhupada ("he at whose feet all devotees sit") as an exclusive birthright.
But the Gaudiya Vaisnava sampradaya does not award recognition to someone
simply on the basis of blood.  A spiritual master is honored as an actual guru
when it is seen he has changed the character of his disciples.

In Bengal, many of the important temples and holy places connected with Lord
Caitanya's pastimes remain under jata-gosani control.  A famous example of
such a clan is the so-called Nityananda-vamsa, who allege they are descended
from three grandsons of Lord Nityananda.  They say His divine essence is
therefore carried in their family blood line.  This is mendacious on two
counts.  First, the ancestors of the Nityananda-vamsa were actually disciples,
not sons, of Lord Nityananda's only and childless son Sri Virabhadra Gosvami.
Second, a person is known to be a Vaisnava not by birth from a particular womb
but by his character.  Up until the early part of this century, they held the
lower-caste Vaisnavas in a thrall of superstition and wrong teachings.

Beginning in the late 1800's, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura challenged the
jata-gosani in his popular Bengali-language books like Jaiva Dharma and Hari
Nama Cintamani.  He proclaimed that it is not enough to accept a spiritual
master merely on the basis of caste.  Before taking initiation, the candidate
must be sure that the initiator is fully conversant with the scriptures and
can lift his disciples out of ignorance.  The guru should be of spotless
character: if he is addicted to sinful acts, then even those he may have
already initiated must reject him.  Bhaktivinoda's books unleashed a wave of
reform in Bengal that pushed the jata-gosani into a defensive stance.  But the
confrontation came to open war when his son, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati,
took over the Gaudiya mission.

In 1912, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati was invited to attend a samminlani
(assembly) of Vaisnavas sponsored by the Maharaja of Kossimbazar.  But some
jata-gosani and their supporters prevented him from giving a public lecture;
in protest, he fasted for four days straight.  According to the account of his
disciple Sambidananda dasa, Acarya Siddhanta Sarasvati refuted all the
arguments placed before him by the caste's proponents in a discussion separate
from the main program.  The jata-gosani thus learned to fear Srila
Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati as the singlemost threat to their privileged
existence.

After taking sannyasa in 1918, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati mounted a
concerted effort to smash the influence of the jata-gosani even in their
strongholds.  He fearlessly toured Jessore and Khulna (now in Bangladesh), the
bastion of Priyanath Nandi, the leading spokesman of the caste gosvamis.
Priyanatha met defeat in a public debate held at the village of Toothpada.

Things came to a head in February-March 1925, just as the Gaudiya Matha began
nine days of a Navadvipa parikrama leading up to that year's celebration of
the birth anniversary of Lord Caitanya.  The party of devotees, numbering
several thousand and personally lead by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta, was viciously
attacked by goonda hirelings of the jata-gosani as it entered the city of
Navadvip.   The attack was in revenge for the party's refusal to pay a tax for
maintenance of caste gosvami temples.  Armed with brick-bats and other
weapons, the goondas charged the elephant procession, injuring many pilgrims.
The shocked public sided with the Gaudiya Matha devotees and the pilgrimage
continued under police protection.  This incident permanently tarnished the
reputation and influence of the jata-gosani.  Overnight, their stubborn
opposition to Srila Bhaktisiddhanta's preaching lost all force.

In conclusion, the jata-gosani are the priestly class of a mundane religion
that superficially resembles Vaisnava-dharma. As Srila Bhaktisiddhanta
Sarasvati used to say, they use the worshipable forms of the Lord in the
temples they control as "stones for cracking nuts" (i.e. as a means of income
for sense enjoyment).  They initiate disciples as a ritual means of garnering
a follower's lifetime financial support.  They neglect their disciples'
factual spiritual advancement by not teaching them the regulative principles
of sadhana-bhakti; indeed, such "gosvamis" are sometimes even worshiped by
bidi-seva (ceremonial presentations of cigarettes) and offerings of fish.


SMARTAS
Caste Brahmanas

The Padma Purana, a text of Vedic teachings, states that if we always remember
Visnu or Krsna (smartavyah satatam visnu) before performing our duty, we
automatically fulfill all scriptural rules and regulations.  If we forget Him,
we unavoidably transgress the spirit of the scriptures even if we observe them
to the letter, because keeping Krsna always in mind is the purpose of all the
scriptural codes of behavior.

Not everyone admits that purpose.  There are three classes of brahmanas: the
dvija, the vipra and the Vaisnava.  The third-class dvija is ritualistically
initiated, the second-class vipra is learned in the Vedas and the first-class
Vaisnava knows that the goal of the Vedas is to always remember Krsna and
never forget Him.  A dvija or vipra who is not a devotee can't know the real
sense of the rules and regulations of scripture; like a crooked lawyer, he'll
use the law to enrich himself materially. The non-devotee dvija or vipra is
what is meant by the term smarta-brahmana.

Smarta-brahmanas totally reverse the instruction of the Padma Purana: rather
than always remember Krsna and thus fulfill the rules and regulations, they
remember the rules and regulations and always forget Krsna.  The acara
(behavior) of a strict smarta-brahmana and a strict Vaisnava may externally be
almost the same, but the consciousness is completely different.

In its subtlest form, the smarta contamination is a shift of _values_ more
than of behavior or even philosophy.  Smarta values are called purusarthika,
whereas Vaisnava values are paramapurusarthika.  The difference between the
two are explained by Srila Prabhupada in C.c. Antya 7.24, Purport:

"Purusartha ('the goal of life') generally refers to religion, economic
development, satisfaction of the senses and, finally, liberation.  However,
above these four kinds of purusarthas, love of Godhead stands supreme.  It is
called paramapurusartha (the supreme goal of life) or purusartha-siromani (the
most exalted of all purusarthas)."

Smarta brahmanas think that one must be born in the brahmana caste to be a
guru.  But according to Lord Caitanya, a person from any family, race, color
or creed can be guru as long as he or she knows the spiritual science of Krsna
consciousness.

The smartas also claim the exclusive birthright to worship the saligram-sila
(Lord Visnu's form as a black stone, which may only be worshiped by qualified
brahmanas).  And they never marry outside of the brahmana caste - this taboo
is followed so rigidly that a smarta father would rather give his daughter to
the son of a priest of the tantric school (which utilizes black rituals and
offerings of meat and wine) than to a non-brahmana Vaisnava.

Though the smartas share with the jata-gosani the bad trait of upper-caste
pride, the two communities differ in their mode of worship.  Caste gosvamis
are exclusively priests of Krsna temples; ritualistically, at least, they are
Vaisnava-brahmanas. Caste brahmanas, on the other hand, worship according to
the Mayavadi pancopasana conception.  Thus they regard Lord Krsna or Visnu to
be one of five forms of Brahman.  Of the five (Durga, Ganesa, Surya, Siva and
Visnu), Bengali smartas have always preferred goddess Durga because she
supplies her devotees with material opulence.

In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries A.D., the importance of the Bengali
smarta community was practically nullified by Lord Caitanya's sankirtana
movement.  Among the great Vaisnava-acaryas of that period, Srila Narottama
dasa Thakura stands out as the preacher who most cut down their pride.  The
smartas, considering him just a low-born kayastha, became so infuriated at his
making disciples from among their ranks that they enlisted the king, Raja
Narasimha, and a conquering pandita named Sri Rupanarayana, to lead a crusade
to somehow expose Acarya Thakura as a fraud.  The king, the pandita and a
large party of caste brahmanas made their way to Kheturi, where Srila
Narottama dasa had his headquarters.

When Sri Ramakrsna Bhattacarya and Sri Ganga Narayana Cakravarti, two
Vaisnava-brahmanas, came to know of the smarta conspiracy, they disguised
themselves as sudras and set up two small shops in the Kumarapura market: one
a pan and betel nut shop and the other a store selling clay pots.

As the party arrived at Kumarapura, the smartas sent their disciples to the
market to purchase wares for cooking.  When the students came to the shops of
Ramakrsna and Ganga Narayana, they were dumfounded to find that these "wallas"
spoke perfect Sanskrit and were eager not to do business but to engage in
philosophical disputation.  Finding themselves outmatched, the distressed
students called for their gurus, who arrived on the scene with Raja Narasimha
and Rupanarayana.  When the smartas fared no better than their disciples,
Rupanarayana himself was drawn into the debate and soundly defeated.

The king demanded they introduce themselves.  The two shopkeepers humbly
submitted that they were low-born and insignificant disciples of Srila
Narottama dasa Thakura Mahasaya. Shamed, Rupanarayana and the smarta-brahmanas
lost interest in proceeding to Kheturi.  They all returned immediately to
their respective homes.

That night, Raja Narasimha had a dream in which an angry Durga-devi threatened
him with a chopper used for killing goats. Glaring at him with blazing eyes,
the goddess said, "Narasimha! Because you greatly offended Narottama dasa
Thakura, I shall have to cut you to pieces!  If you want to save yourself,
then you had better immediately go and take shelter at his lotus feet."

His sleep broken, the frightened king quickly took bath and set out for
Kheturi.  Arriving there at last, he was suprised to meet the pandita
Rupanarayana, who sheepishly explained that he'd had a similar dream.  They
both entered the temple of Sri Gauranga in order to meet Srila Narottama dasa
Thakura.  Acarya Thakura was absorbed in his devotions, but when a disciple
informed him of the arrival of the two guests, he came out to meet them.
Simply by seeing his transcendental form, the two offenders became purified
and fell down to offer their obeisances at the Thakura's lotus feet.  Finally
he initiated them with Radha-Krsna mantra.

Because their leaders became Vaisnavas, many lesser smartas thought it
fashionable to externally adopt Vaisnava customs. This is how the
smarta-apasampradaya, or Vaisnavism compromised by caste brahmanism, began. In
the late nineteenth century, a well-known member of this community claimed to
be the incarnation of Rama, Krsna and Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.  He established
a missionary movement that preached the worship of Kali-Krsna, a concocted
deity blending the forms of goddess Kali and Sri Krsna.

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura soundly defeated the smarta-
apasampradaya at the town of Valighai Uddharanapura, West Bengal, in September
of 1911.  He presented a work entitled Brahmana o Vaisnavera Taratmya
Vishayaka Siddhanta in which he conclusively argued the superiority of
Vaisnavas to brahmanas. This paper was read before a gathering of more than
ten thousand panditas, and though he was the youngest speaker present, Srila
Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati was acclaimed by the judges as the winner of the
dispute.

Nowadays, the smarta-brahmana community of Bengal has largely succumbed to
secularism and exerts little influence in spiritual affairs.