Jagad Guru, means teacher of the world, he is the initiated disciple of Srila Bhaktivendanta swami. Teacher of the world is the name that the Chaitanya Mission calls their leader. The Chaitanya mission teaches that you will be blessed if you call on the name of God. And according to them, God has more than a million names! One needs to consider that names represent the deity they represent and these deities are of different religions that have different natures and attributes. One cannot make the case that God is God no matter what name you call him (her, or it).

In the book The Holy name: Real Protection by Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa (1989 Science of Identity) it tells us God has “hundreds and millions of Names, Like Krishna, Govinda [Allah, Jehovah] etc.” Here Lord Chaitanya is saying that the process of self-realization is very simple. In the previous verse He says: All glories to the congregational chanting of the Names of God! This hearing and chanting of God's Names cleanses the heart and mind of all contamination, all the dust which has covered one's heart and mind for lifetimes and lifetimes, and actually gives a person a taste of that nectar for which we are always anxious.” (p.4) On p.10 “the Name of God is not just a sound. It is non different from God himself.”

One finds out later Chaitanya says there are no rules for chanting God’s names (plural). The reason God's names are repeated (and they can be a million of them) so that you “become increasingly purified of material contamination and begin to experience actually being situated in the spiritual world.”

“When a person chants God's Names, he doesn't need to worry'. All he needs to do is hear the Names of God from a lover of God, someone who is in disciplic succession from God. He hears the Names of God from such a bona fide spiritual master and then he chants as he has heard. This is the method of going deep”(p.15 The Holy name: Real Protection) In other words they need a guru, like himself (Jagad guru).

So what is being presented is far from a Christian worldview. Though Jesus and Jehovah’s name may be dropped, this is derived from Hinduism and with this chanting comes Yoga, reincarnation etc. which is found in the literature and teachings of Jagad Guru; to follow this is anything but Christian.

A putdown generalizing all religions is seen often in the literature as well as on Jagad guru's program. “The materialistic person is very frightened. Even those who know they are not the body or say they're Christians, Muslims, Hindus, or whatever are afraid of going too deep; they're afraid of going too deep in prayer, they're afraid of abandoning all self-protection and all frivolous activities, they're afraid of abandoning all those things which keep them from looking at themselves and their situations and having to pray to God, "Please save me!" (p.5 The Holy name: Real Protection)

Chris Butler’s (Jagad Guru) hostility toward other religion’s, especially Christianity is seen in a number of his lectures. Science of Identity used to have a weekly program on the local Olelo public broadcast TV.  From what I understand it was produced by Carol Gabbard. The Gabbard's are known for theer association with Science of Identity foundation by only a few.

On one program in particular, using a tract to interpret who Christians think God is, Jagad Guru mocked born again Christians. He tells the story of a person dying and heard before they died that they should repent and believe in Jesus. After he dies he goes to be judged in this room where a huge creature is sitting on a throne, no face and sitting in a concrete chair.

He says, “You’ve got all your information about [the Christian] God right there. He’s a faceless, Big Dude, cold as ice and hard as concrete. He likes to sit there and throw little people in the fire [of hell]. He’s like a sadist. That’s his primary activity. That’s his job. It’s a long job, but he doesn’t want a break. He’s such a sadist that he doesn’t want a break. He loves his job. He likes to sit there and throw people in the fire and he enjoys it.” “These Christians idea is that one of these days you are going to have to go before God, and when you do, you are going to get your ___.”

He makes fun of God having no face (the trac probably portraying God’s holiness as the Bible says no man can see my face and live) and we see Gabbard and his wife sitting there with the others laughing, and approving what is said.

Jagad says The book of life is brought out and he yells at someone “is his name in the book,” the response it is not. God bends over and points to this tiny guy you be “damned and go to hell.”

Jagad guru then says, “we can learn who God is by his activities, he likes to torture people.” He calls this nonsensical speculation and I would agree with him, if this is how it really transpires. His portrayal of the Christian view of God is that he judges people all day and then is happy when he sends them to hell. Guru Chris then implies God is like how the Godfather acts to people.

This portrayal has to been to be seen to be appreciated, the mocking attitude and animosity toward Christ and his people would make any Christian disturbed.

He then says:  Jesus says to love this supreme being with all your heart, Jesus wants me to do the impossible, Jesus wants me to love that thing (again upholding his straw man argument of interpreting God by a tract, not the Bible) thus showing he is  purposely ignoring what the Bible truly says.

He then says there is a great disservice done to the people of the world through these nonsensical so called Christians and other fanatics who put forward a false image of God. I would say what he is doing is even a greater disservice with his misrepresentation of Christianity and then telling people to worship the supreme being who has a million names in various religions. God is reinterpreted on his own terms, ignoring how Christians really represent and know God.

If this isn’t enough consider what Jagad Guru has to say speaking on the Cross on another program says “In other words it is such an offensive act, the crucifixion of Jesus Christ was such an offensive act in the eyes of God, in other words it was so displeasing to the supreme person, that it would not be hard to imagine the supreme lord saying to hell with all these people and all their descendents, they so often says.”

This is not what the Bible says, it says it pleased the Father to bruise him (Isa.53) but this guru does not care, but mocks Jesus Christ and Christians openly. He goes on “And in order to make it so that some spiritual thing happens, he has to, in order to satisfy some kind of higher power right? The priest is engaging in an activity in order to bring about a result, the result of a priest would be to obtain the pleasure of God, right? You sacrifice to please God, but who the hell is God sacrificing for? Your saying he so loved the world that he sacrificed his son, sacrifices are not for God you idiots, (he is speaking about Christians) God doesn’t engage in sacrifices! A person who engages in sacrifices admits that there is someone above him to say god engages in sacrifices is to say that there’s a God above God, there’ law above God. That God has to satisfy.”

The problem is that Jesus willingly laid down his own life and for being a guru who is to have perfect understanding of these things, in my biblical opinion he does not have a clue what the Bible actually says or means.

The Bible teaches that God did require sacrifices and that Jesus became the last sacrifice for sin. Essentially this is a public mocking of the Christian message.

The anti-material stance of Jagad guru comes through loud and clear when he speaks about the intimate relationship in marriage as wrong if it is not for the propagation of children.

Mike Gabbard has been known by many to champion the cause of traditional marriages and challenge the gay agenda, being in politics for years he is now running for congress here in Hawaii. I happen to agree with most of his position on traditional marriages. So do many conservatives, and Christians. However, there are some things the Church needs to know besides his political position on morality. For too long this has gone on without any awareness.  The church seems to believe Gabbard is a Christian like others who go to Christian churches, but he is NOT. At least not the way Christianity defines it  in the Bible.

I have talked with Mike on the phone and in person in the past at some length about his beliefs, so my conclusion does not come from any secondary source or misinformation. I do believe he is a nice person who sincerely believes in his cause. But that really has nothing to do with what this article is about. There appears to be a religious aspect to his cause.

Gabbard has been accepted as a Christian activist, because he holds the same stand against homosexuality that Christians do. But he is not coming from a Christian perspective at all. Mike Gabbard has long been involved in what is called Science of Identity under a guru Chris Butler, aka Jagad guru which runs the Science of Identity (formerly Mantra Meditation of Hawaii). They are an offshoot from Hare Krishna they were Formerly called the Holy Name Foundation. They teach meditation, Bhakti Yoga. Butler, claims thousands of followers, this includes the Gabbard’s.

Jagad Guru says in an article on homosexuality that the process of Bhakti yoga in the spiritual life is the only path to actual freedom and happiness. In discussing this with Gabbard I was told that Bhakti Yoga is the solution to set people free from all sexual abuses whether homosexual or fornicators. The disease we have is that we want to be enjoyers of this world (the disease is not sin). The reason for this is view that both he and his wife are devotees of Chris Butler,  known as Jagad Guru (Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa), a guru of the Hindu god Krishna. 

In a conversation I had with Gabbard he denies Jesus is the only true God manifest in the flesh, and believes that God has appeared in different incarnations. That his gurus information is coming from God himself and that he learns the Bible through his spiritual master. That he could learn nothing about Jesus Christ through me (or any Christian for that matter). He is entitled to his opinion, and we are also. I happen to disagree with this view and this is why I'm writing this.

Many may be under the impression Gabbard is Christian but if one presses further into what he actually believes they will find this is not Christian teaching. Unfortunately, we have open our doors to someone standing for a cause that is the same as the church but are unaware of what else he also believes. 

Gabbard has also been honored along with others by Reverend Sun Myung Moon, a cult leader who is a self proclaimed “Messiah” that thinks he replaced Jesus, (Moon’s “We Shall Stand” gathering on Oahu) Star bulletin  Sunday, April 15, 2001 http://www.wewillstand.org/news/news_0414.html  (article can still be found in the archives)

Gabbard accepting an award from this false Messiah, especially   who claims he is replaced Jesus at this time because Jesus failed in his mission is not the main concern. Gabbard’s association and training under Jagad guru should be more of a concern for any Christian.

Christians accept Gabbard as being a Christian on their side because he fights against what we do, because he holds a certain value that we do. On the other hand, he is not for what we are for, he does not hold to what we hold. He has a totally different solution to the problem. Just because someone is against what you are against does not mean they for what you are for. Think about it. 

 This article is not meant to be against Mike Gabbard personally but to point out what most people do not know (and is long overdue). I ask Christians to pray for him, witness to him the truth if you have the opportunity, so that he can one day really champion the truth.