Hello everybody! :)
First, allow me to introduce myself and express the reasons which
motivated me to write. My name is Danijel Turina, as declared in the
"from:" header, I live in Zagreb, Croatia, and I teach Kundalini-yoga.
What does it mean to teach yoga? Well, it isn't that simple to
explain, since yoga is a very wide term that encompasses practically
the entire human existence: body, energy, mind, spirit... basically I
teach people how to act in harmony with God's will in every aspect of
their existence. How I define success? It's doing the right thing when
they wake you up in the middle of the night, by pouring a bucket of
cold water on you. When your memory doesn't work, when you can't
remember what Krsna told Arjuna in BG chapter four, when you have only
your natural resources available, and when such natural actions are in
perfect harmony with God's will (which can, then, be found written in
some scripture... or not). 
I had contact with ISKCON folks here in Croatia some time ago, and
they made the same impression upon me as the plastic flowers do.
Artificial. The plastic rose looks like the real one, it's red, it has
petals, it looks like a rose, it even smells like one if you spray
perfume on it, but it just isn't it, if you know what I mean? It's an
imitation, a lousy one, the essence of a rose just ain't there. They
feel like they've read in some book how enlightened folks are supposed
to act, they decided that enlightenment is about displaying the
symptoms of enlightenment, so they started acting like they're
enlightened and said "wow, we really are, gee! now let's tell the
other folks how good it feels". I visited their "sunday feasts"
regularly then; once I got to know a guy who kept filling himself with
prasadam, he was all over food. It looked strange so I asked him
what's that all about, he can't possibly need all that food for his
body to function? He answered that he can't control his sexuality, so
he's trying to compensate it with prasadam; since sexuality sucks and
prasadam is cool, it means he's controlling his senses. Now, you might
imagine that I expressed polite doubt about that; I told him that I'm
just a little yogi kid here, but to me it seems that if someone's
spirit is filled with God's glory at all times, he won't find any
appeal whatsoever in senses or their objects, so his spirit will
naturally be drawn to God without any need for control or
compensation. I also said that AFAIK Prabhupada wrote about that
stuff, saying that if you chant HK mantra, your spirit transcends the
sphere of senses and is connected to God. If that's true, and he's
chanting Hare Krsna all day (he said he's making 16 rounds, which is
108*16=1728 times; if one's awake for 16 hours a day, it means 108
times per hour, which means practically all the time), he wasn't
supposed to have problems with that. If one's reading a good book, he
might find himself stuck in some very weird uncomfortable position for
hours without even noticing, because his mind was completely in the
book. I ain't much of an expert on God, but whenever I met Him He was
far more interesting than any book I ever read, or anything else for
that matter, and from those experiences I kinda conclude that if
someone's conscious of God at all times he ain't supposed to have any
problems with controlling the senses. It simply makes no sense. :)
One other HK guy asked me how many times do I chant mantra. I didn't
know what to say to him. Usually I can't say it at all because if I
just say it, it's a lie, I can't back it up; I can program my PC to
repeat mantra millions of times per hour, but is it really the real
thing? I don't think so. But if I really say it, I can't even complete
one mantra, most of the time, if I really remember God's attributes
contained in it... no way Jose. Two or four words maybe, but then I
get too blissed out to talk or think. 
I tell people: if you're able to repeat a mantra longer than 15
seconds, you're doing it wrong. It doesn't work, you might as well
chant "burger with french fries", it's the same thing, just words
without substance.
God's mantra is God's "handle", Windows programmers will know what I
mean. If you have the handle and you call it, you're there with God.
But I don't think that folks understand how big and important it is,
and how profound its meanings are. They radically lack awareness and
are contained with simulating the symptoms. Hell, if I say "bread
please" in a store, someone will give me bread, I'll pay and eat. If I
chant "bread please" in my apartment with nobody there, it ain't do me
much good, is it? It's the same with mantra, if you mean it while you
say it, there's nothing in this world or any other that can match it,
but if you don't, it's just empty. So how often do I say it? Not that
often, only when I can really back it up, and that was just a coupla
times so far. Definitely not 108 times per hour.
Am I constantly conscious of God? Yes and no. I feel Him all the time
as my silent background, the feeling of rightness that I follow when I
do things, a feeling of dharma. Every time I say or write I "listen"
to that feeling and align to it. But am I _really_ aware of God,
meaning invoking His mantra, even the "lower" ones, Om Namo Bhagavate
Vasudevaya, Om Sri Parama Bhagavate Namah...? Not that often, I just
can't, it's too big for me, and too big for what I do. I'd probably
drop my body within minutes, because it makes me lose all the
attachments to my work with people when I do that. It's just too
magnificent for me to remain detached from, even for a moment, when I
remember what I lost... no, I don't remember it often, my friends, I
don't invoke the mantra that much. Only when I want to show my
students what it's about, what the real magnificence is, where they're
heading to. I'm there and I'm not there at the same time, but I hope
to be all there soon without anything here... when the work is over.
But enough about me. :) I selected and dropped this NG on several
instances during the last year, and I didn't know what to do with it -
it certainly didn't contain anything that would be of any interest to
me, ritviks and GBC arguing bitterly about who's the bigger asshole,
throwing shit all over each other. What's the big issue that's being
argued? Are Prabhupada's main students real gurus, or just ritviks,
meaning, are they supposed to be diksa or siksa gurus? May I have your
definitions of the term "guru", please? Because then we'll be able to
see what we're talking about here. The guru isn't supposed to just say
the words, he's supposed to carry the meaning. That meaning hits the
student with such a profound impression, that his roots are shaken,
and the essence within is brought out to the surface. I'm misfortunate
enough never to have had a guru in the physical... I've struggled
through the scriptures, through the wrong interpretations and
illusions, both mine and other people's, and the only guru I had was
that little voice within which told me what's the truth and what's
just bullshit. The truth is what is real, everything else is bullshit.
The reality check. Am I really in touch with the highest of the high,
or am I just imagining things so I could blow my ego out of
proportions? These questions. I had to spank my own ass, and, believe
me, it wasn't a pleasant trip. I was searching for a guru and instead
I found students, the people I guide. For some time I thought that Sai
Baba could be the real thing, until I went to India to be
disappointed. He's good, he knows things, he has laser depth in his
eyes, but he's the same kind as one of my dear friends here in
Croatia. They've probably both studied together in a past life or
something. He doesn't cheat, I think, but it's not the real thing, I
didn't see the depth I expected to see. I expected to see the light I
see on the inside, in him, on the outside, but it wasn't there. I was
following the inner light while searching for it on the outside, maybe
that's the whole point, the search that's made of the goal, I don't
know, but that's how it was for me.
You argue if the GBC bosses are allowed to give initiation? What is
the initiation? I've given it to people, you might want to ask them
how it felt, most of them are on the Internet, that's how we met in
the first place. Believe me, it wasn't formal. If someone is given
permission from above, and he or she _can_ do it, then what's the
issue? Where's the problem? If not, where's the problem, again? What
are you arguing about? 
I think the results, fruits of the labor, speak for themselves. Most
guys Prabhupada initiated already left ISKCON. Folks comment it and
say that they've fallen. Maybe, but I don't see it that way. If what
they were doing in ISKCON was the real thing, they would have to be
real shitheads to leave it for something smaller, but you just can't
leave the real thing, you become completely in love with it and you
can't replace it with less. It just wasn't the real thing, their souls
weren't filled with God so they left, disappointed. You can't follow
something that doesn't feel right on the inside, not for long. The
voice within kicks your butt away from it. It's better to do the less
valuable thing out of conviction, than to do the really cool things
without it, to paraphrase Krsna. It's better to be a sinner true to
one's instincts, than a fake saint. It's the truth, the instinct for
the real thing, that leads folks to God. What's real is cool, what
isn't sucks, and the wise folks follow the reality to its origin,
which is God. Those who are close to God are more real, closer to
reality, and it manifests as a big smile, the inner fulfillment. It
can't be faked, and it's dangerous even to try. One just knows it's
there when it is. What am I trying to say? Follow your instincts guys.
If it doesn't work, flush it down the drain, peel the onion down to
the core and find out what's real in it all, and stick to it, don't
let it go. What is it, that fulfills you more than anything else in
the world? Find it, stay in it, and it'll show you God. The thing you
love most, the thing love comes from.
Om Srimad Parama Bhagavate Namah. 
Om Sri Narayana Parama Bhagavate Namah.

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Web (Kundalini-yoga): http://danijel.cjb.net