Tulasi Dasa's

Dear Bhakti-vaidurya Madhava Maharaja,

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Sri Sri Guru and Gauranga. I have received your letter dated June 21, 1996. Because I am presently on tour, I was delayed in responding to your letter. Please forgive me for this.

I have read your letter, and in this regard I want to say that you should not take My response as that of an opponent, but rather as that of a friend. For about fifty-five years I have had the good fortune to associate with very learned disciples of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura Prabhupada who are deeply conversant with all the conclusions of sastra. As a result, I had the opportunity to hear form and serve many of the most prominent disciples, such as My Gurudeva, as well as pujyapada Sri Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaja, pujyapada Srauti Maharaja, pujyapada Giri Maharaja, pujyapada Gosvami Maharaja, pujyapada Vaikhanasa Maharaja, pujyapada Puri Maharaja, pujyapada Madhava Maharaja and pujyapada Sridhara Maharaja.

I consider Srila Swami Maharaja my siksa-guru. I have had his association and have served him since 1946. By virtue of my being his siksa disciple, my faith in him and service to him is no less than any member of ISKCON. As a senior devotee of advanced age and experience, and due to my long-term intimate and affectionate friendship with him, he would show me a preferential respect, superior even to that which he offered his disciples. Kindly take note of all these facts first, and then consider what I am about to explain.

I would like to begin by explaining that I did not, as you infer in your letter to me, choose to bring up this discussion in public for the purpose of disparaging or minimizing the authenticity of ISKCON. And I would like it to be known that this current 'controversy' is being stirred up by ISKCON, and not by myself.

For your information, Tulasi dasaji was a Vaisnava belonging to the Ramananda Sampradaya, a branch of the Sri Sampradaya. All the four...