Sankirtana Diary: Srila Prabhupada was blasphemied, and the GBC remained silent [ 2008-08-31 ]
In an assembly where a censurable act is not rebuked, every member of that assembly is afflicted by sin. Grief will overcome them all in due course.
-Mahabharata, Drupadi insulted by the Kauravas

About ten years ago, there was a well-known incident wherein a couple of devotees publicly blasphemed Srila Prabhupada. One was a GBC Deputy, the other an editor of the Chakra.org website:

[Devotee One:] "Although other people may see Prabhupada as more of a human being and less "God-like" than you do and they may feel that he has made mistakes about material matters, without feeling that this detracts from his ability to give us Krsna, *you* have taken it upon yourself to judge that this constitutes an offense, that your view of Prabhupada is the only right one and that everyone else is a blasphemer."

[Devotee Two:]"Another things that bothers me is that Srila Prabhupada is always so sure of himself. He is fully confident in his own judgment. He is fully confident that the world is full of girls, that in certain places all people are rascals, that "Bad things means Western type of civilization," etc. Very strong, super simple black-and-white general statements. Where ordinary people would soften their statements by saying, "as far as I know," "I am convinced that," "to some degree," "in this respect," "from my experience," "most probably," "at present it looks like..." etc., Srila Prabhupada passes absolute judgemnts, and he is not even consistent in them.I am ready to believe the source of his certainty is direct link with Krsna's absolute knowledge, *if* it can be proven he was absolutely right each time.Up till then, I will rather suppose Prabhupada's absolute self-confidence was a feature of his own individual character.

I just have a big problem trusting persons who label others so easily and so unpredictably."
(End of quotes)

In both of these comments, the devotees are suggesting that Srila Prabhupada was not a perfected soul, but that Srila Prabhupada was just an ordinary conditioned soul.

SB 3.15.25 Purport:
"The third offense is to think of the spiritual master who spreads the glories of the Lord as an ordinary human being."

To see the whole incident in it’s entirety, you can visit here

This naturally caused an uproar. Certain devotees were demanding that the GBC do something to stop such blasphemy (on the internet: COM) of Srila Prabhupada. The GBC remained silent, which caused two GBC members, Sivarama Swami and Bhakti Charu Swami, to resign from the GBC. Here are their comments about blasphemy of Srila Prabhupada:

Sivarama Swami (his statement in full can be found here):
”Dear Chairman and Executive,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

I am sorry to have to tender my resignation from the GBC body. I am not happy to do so but see no alternative at present. For the last two months I and many others have been concerned over blasphemous statements made by some members of our Society (and member outside of our Society on ISKCON's communications media COM) about Srila Prabhupada. The GBC executive or body has not to date stopped such criticism nor taken a clear and strong stance against it.”

Bhakti Charu Swami (his statement in full can be found here):
“I feel extremely regretful about my inability to do anything to defend Srila Prabhupada's honor and protect his ISKCON. Therefore, I hear by submit my resignation from the GBC as one of its members.

Your humble servant,
Bhakti Caru Swami.”
(End of quotes)

And the GBC remained silent. They did not defend Srila Prabhupada, as noted by the reputed scholar, Burke Rochford, in his recent book "Hare Krishna Transformed", pg.157:

"Despite the outcry from GHQ members and other devotees equally concerned about the challenge to Prabhupada's authority, ISKCON's North American leadership made no formal effort to sanction, or otherwise stop, those responsible for defaming Prabhupada. As one prominent GHQ member declared, "These GBC men did not rise to defend Srila Prabhupada, they did not rise to come to the defense of those who were trying to defend Srila Prabhupada"(Das Ameyatma 2000).