Do we really want Srila Prabhupada's samadhi to eventually look like the centerpiece of some Christian graveyard? Where bodies are expected to pop out of the ground at the second coming?

Presently there are three samadhis there, in one of which the recipient had to be laid out flat. He had died by hitting a tree at high speed, and after various cuttings-up in an autopsy, his body had to be laid out flat inside his tomb, not in the posture of samadhi. Another samadhi is of someone who died of liver cancer complications after contracting a degenerative disease. While these souls may have served Srila Prabhupada well, were they uttama-adhikaris, devotees of the top most qualification, and so qualified for a samadhi?

Samadhi means just that. A samadhi is for that great soul who has attained the status of paramahamsa. He has attained samadhi in life, not by death. Seeing everything in existence as spiritual previous to the non-functionality of his material body, he takes the spiritual out of everything in this material world, where matter and spirit are mixed, just like the swan that takes milk from the water. Living in this transcendental consciousness effortlessly by dint of prema-bhakti pure devotion, when he leaves his body that body is not a lump of contamination, it is a spiritual relic. It is iron that has become fire by constant immersion in the fire of devotion. As such, that form is not material but fully spiritualized and thus worshipable. Such a form is fit for samadhi and to become a place of pilgrimage.

Souls who have not attained such a sublime status should never be given a 'samadhi'. Such behavior is simply a pretense and a farce. A body that was a vehicle for sense enjoyment, fruitive activity and mental speculation is contaminated and should be purified by mantra and fire and the ashes thrown in a river.

Srila Prabhupada tells the story of his godbrother Tirtha Swami, who had his samadhi built approximately seven years previous to his death. Eventually he died in a hospital with tubes inserted into various parts of his body and after an extended period of coma. Still his disciples used the prepared samadhi. But the mood of Srila Prabhupada in telling the story is one of derision. It is simply disgraceful egotism to wish for artificial worship of this bag of stool after one's death. One may as well have one's disciples worship the rickshaw one used in life.

As regards qualification, there are a number of instructive stories. The most recent being the order of Gaura-Kishora dasa Babaji to have his body dragged through the streets of Navadhvipa and then given to dogs as a meal. Such humility is the required qualification. There is no 'physical' samadhi for Srila Narotama dasa Thakur because he entered the Ganga and then ordered his disciples to pour the water over him. This caused his body to dissolve into a milky substance in the Ganga, some of which was captured in one of the lotas and put in a 'milk samadhi'.

Nonetheless, just as the GBC follows the Gaudiya Math practice of rubber-stamping the unqualified as 'gurus' so clearly condemned by Srila Prabhupada, so also we see the GBC is now arranging for their 'samadhis' when they have left us. Apparently, there is no consideration of qualification other than the money to have one built. Perhaps another is there: one should have gone along with all the nonsense and never rocked the floundering GBC boat.

We can safely predict that these tombs, if they are allowed to accumulate like a bunch of tombstones in a cemetery, will become only monuments to the deviation and concoction of the GBC. They will become places of public disgrace where the nonsense of the buried bodies is discussed. Already this is happening -- just sit at the nearby coconut-juice stand in Mayapur and hear the comments.

Perhaps one day an angry Ganga will rise up and flush them all away down the pipe of time. Yet a far better proposal would be for the misleaders to come to some realization of the nonsense egotism under which they are performing their activities. It is clear to all that they prefer their mental speculation to the directions of the Founder-Acarya, whom they are turning into a lip-service icon. When the leaders of ISKCON are not in accordance with their Spiritual Master's instructions, are they even disciples? What to speak of paramahamsas?

Are the temples Srila Prabhupada built to become crowed cemeteries for neophytes? Already samadhis are popping up in different places of ISKCON.

Yet the GBC will answer: Why worry that Srila Prabhupada's temples will become chock-a-block with samadhis? We've already thrown ninety-five per cent of Srila Prabhupada's disciples out of the movement.

But this enlightened policy of the GBC forgets one thing: the second generation. Seeing the activities of their guru and understanding that one imitates the guru, rather than following the sastra, we can imagine that they will soon be picking out a spot to bury their bag of nine holes for eternal glorification. And then the next generation, and then the next. After a few generations of that, it'll be like finding your way through a maze just to find the temple door.

But seriously, is this what ISKCON properties are to become -- a mass of self-indulgent samadhis haunted by ghosts? I have yet to find any instruction of Srila Prabhupada on this matter. It would be enlightening to hear pertinent contributions from devotees on this point. Without wanting to speculate on the mind of one's Spiritual Master, however, perhaps Srila Prabhupada could not even imagine how his disciples would be lining up samadhis for themselves.

But Srila Prabhupada did say "Will the GBC ruin everything?" So I guess multiple samadhis is included in that statement.

Kindly contact your GBC and guru and tell him you'd rather see his body burnt than buried… See his reaction and hear what he says and then assess his qualification for a samadhi.

GBC, stop this nonsense neophyte samadhi building immediately.

We hope this is found helpful,

Your servant,

Balavidya dasa