Hare Kṛṣṇa!

This is from His Grace Śrīman Yugāvatara prabhu who just received Harinām initiation by Skype. He is from St Petersburg, Russia.

In this message to all devotees, he shares his experience in dealing ISKCON and how he took Śrīla Prabhupāda as his dīkṣā guru through the ṛtvik system of initiations.

“I was born in 1978 and at seven years old as Śrīla Prabhupāda came to Russia in 1971 in simple poor family. My parents are atheist like most people in Russia. In 2012, I had a divorc. My coworker brought in office Bhagavad-gītā. I was reading for half-year. After I found ISKCON programm in Saint-Petersburg and began to chant 16 rounds and followed the 4 principles . I began to distrubute books and held a preaching session with a group of beginners in my flat on been inspired by reading Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books. I went to India and did Parikrama of Vrindavan, Maypur, Puri. On my return I continued to preach and preach Kṛṣṇa consciousness to group of beginners. It was hard years. At time my sikṣā guru was Achuatma prabhu(now GBC of Russia), pranama Bhakti Vigiana Goswāmī.

Deciding to dedicate my life to serving ISKCON In 2015 I left my job and opened a little prasādam snackbar. In 2017 the snackbar business went bankrupt due to untrustworthy partners of mine who came from ISKCON, however still continued to distribute prasādam alone.

In 2018 I read the book “The Final Order” and understood the true position of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s order on how initiation should be conducted after the departure of him. Having realised this truth I began to preach this to the devotees of ISKCON but on the contrary I had to stop preaching as I was not entertained by the devotees who soon declared me as a terrible demon.
Having been expelled by ISKCON I stayed with an old brahmacārī named Asita prabhu who too accepted in the heart the supreme position of Śrīla Prabhupāda as the real guru for everyone. We then began to study seriously the history ISKCON came to understand how ISKCON is very deviantly misleading everyone on the guru issue. We became thoroughly convinced to establish the ritvik system of initiation. Soon we started a small preaching center since 2020. We are now trying to preach this to the many of ISKCON devotees and also to many new people.

Since end of 2019, I cooperated with temple of Goryachiy Kluch and listened to Sundar Gopāl prabhu and other preachers from International Sri Krsna Mandir (ISKM).

Having being fervently convinced by the true spirit of ISKM We celebrated Gaura Purnimā under the ISKM banner establishing ourselves as members of ISKM ST Petersburg. We are now printing many of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books and also the “Initiations after 1977” book. We have began to distribute widely to many people on the street.

We hoping and praying that our Center will soon grow very popular and become very soundly established.

Thank you for the helping in initiating me as a servant of Śrīla Prabhupāda indeed I have been waiting for this for a good eight years and now my desire of being a true servant of Śrīla Prabhupāda has finally come true.

I am feeling very inspired and very enthused by this eternal connection to Śrīla Prabhupāda and I thank Sundar Gopāl Prabhu for this. I very strongly recommend everyone to come forward and take this opportunity to connect with Śrīla Prabhupāda through a very genuine moment like ISKM.

I am humbly praying to all the vaisnavas to please bless me so that I can carry on serving Śrīla Prabhupāda and all the vaisnavas eternally. Please forgive me for any offences.

Your lowly servant,
Yugāvatara dāsa