THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR SITTING PROPERLY

You know how sometimes your Spam folder doesn’t catch everything, and then, sitting in with the mail you want to read, is something you don’t want to read, something sent to you by someone who doesn’t know you, doesn’t want to know you, couldn’t care less about you, someone who’s either nuts or has an axe to grind or meds to sell or an African inheritance?

Today I somehow received this little gem in my email, but I found it so entertaining I just had to share it with you:

“We, the members of The International Society for Sitting Properly (ISSPROP) feel that Srila Prabhupada’s (and Krishna’s) instructions on SITTING PROPERLY have been minimized over the years, especially by the members of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness.


Many who are familiar with the Krishna Consciousness Movement are doubtlessly familiar with a famous recording of Srila Prabhupada Chanting Japa. During the course of this recording, Srila Prabhupada clearly instructs his disciples to SIT PROPERLY.


In the new, digitized, edited mp3 recording of “Group Japa” now available from the Bhaktivedanta Archives, it is clear that the original tape MUST HAVE been edited. There are ONLY TWO occurrences of Prabhupada saying “SIT PROPERLY” on the newly edited “Group Japa” recording. The original probably has many, many more, but OF COURSE they have been unscrupulously edited out by the Bhaktivedanta Archives.


Where is the UNEDITED original—the tape the GBC doesn’t want you to hear, the way it was PROBABLY meant to be heard—Prabhupada, like a true Zen master, simply instructing his disciples to SIT PROPERLY?
[INSERT LINK FOR ORIGINAL, ONCE WE FIND IT ]

During OUR morning program at ISSPROP, we have our OWN painstakingly re-edited version of the recording, in which Srila Prabhupada simply—and repeatedly—says, “SIT PROPERLY.”

We strongly believe there must be a vested interest on the part of the GBC to gloss over the importance of SITTING PROPERLY, especially since Prabhupada made such clear and repeated statements referring to the necessity of being “properly situated” in devotional service.


Where are the ISKCON authorities stressing this essential point? It’s almost as if there is, in fact, a plot to COVER UP Prabhupada’s DEARMOST DESIRE that we all learn to SIT PROPERLY.


Even a layman will notice that the root of “situated” is “sit”— in other words, one absolutely must first SIT PROPERLY in order to become “properly situated” in devotional service to Krishna.


Look here at all the pictures of our predecessor acharyas—those venerable Vaishnavas whom we count as our gurus in parampara—all SITTING PROPERLY.
[include pictures of parampara here] 


Anyone with half a brain giving even the most cursory examination of the basic texts of Bhagavad-gita will notice that Krishna spends more time telling Arjuna how to SIT PROPERLY than He does talking about chanting Hare Krishna. In fact, the entire sixth chapter is practically devoted to the science of SITTING PROPERLY.


Hari-bhakti-vilasa has many instructions how to SIT PROPERLY (and how not to sit), which Prabhupada saw fit to include in his most foundational handbook for performing devotional service, the Nectar of Devotion.


Yet today in many ISKCON temples, you will see “devotees” sitting with their knees up, their arms around their legs their hands touching their own feet, etc. etc., in other words, clearly NOT SITTING PROPERLY.


We, the undersigned members of ISSPROP, demand the restoration of emphasis given to ISKCON members about the need to SIT PROPERLY, and that the Bhaktivedanta Archives release an UNEDITED version of the “SIT PROPERLY” tapes, (now known simply as “Group Japa,” with no reference to Prabhupada’s DEARMOST DESIRE).


SIGNED,
Simhasan dasa Adhikari, Virasan Swami, Yogasan devi dasi, Dharmasan das, Asan tattva, das, Asana dasi, Vyasasan dasa, Mahasana dasi, Bhakta Lotus Position
The International Society for Sitting Properly”

Ok, now that I’ve shared it with you, I can mark it as “Spam.”