ISKCON Standards – PAST and PRESENT

Catastrophic Decline in ISKCON Standards

Dear Ameyatma Prabhu, Hare Krishna! Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

IMHO, the main reason for the catastrophic decline in standards within ISKCON is that the “gurus” told their disciples, right from the get-go in 1978, “Don’t listen to my godbrothers. They are envious!” Thus the bhakta program that Srila Prabhupada had so painstakingly put into place over the years, known in the military as the ” buddy system ,” was practically destroyed overnight!

Therefore, you have the situation where “Only my guru and the temple president can instruct me,” but this is not practical because the ” gurus” / temple presidents are not all-knowing, they cannot be everywhere at once, and sometimes they don’t even know / care what the standards are!

Your experiences in LA, while certainly depressing, are, nevertheless, very interesting and instructive. Thank you very much for sharing them with us. I plan to follow your advice, and forward this email to my entire blind copy mailing list.

Your servant,
Pratyatosa Dasa

—-

ISKCON Standards – PAST and PRESENT

BY: Pratyatosa dasa

82 Items of Comparison Between Conditions in ISKCON when Srila Prabhupada was Personally Present with Today’s Conditions

“Very interesting. Maybe I will send it to the GBC conference. Or for starters…to [the] Temple President’s conference. There are many good points there.” Kavicandra Maharaj (GBC Japan)

“Well, I spend most of my time these days in India, and there what you say about ISKCON today isn’t always true, or is usually not true. For example, chapatis for lunch–in India you always get them.” Jayadvaita Maharaj (Editor in Chief, Back to Godhead Magazine)

“I can agree with you on all of the [points] that you have explained…” Srutakirti Dasa (Srila Prabhupada’s favorite personal servant)

“I remember, happily, many of your points re: sleeping on the floor, not using toilet paper, etc. The healthy & peaceful diet, not wasting Laksmi and always honoring Laksmi, always wearing brahmin underwear, picking grains of rice off the floor and eating them with great relish, etc. I remember being always ready to sacrifice to avoid spending Krishna’s Laksmi: begging our petrol, begging our foodstuffs, begging flowers, begging lodging, and if none were given, sleeping on the open ground.” Bhakta Dasa (President of Spiritual Sky Incense, Thailand)

SIMPLE LIVING, THE ENVIRONMENT AND GENERAL Krishna CONSCIOUSNESS

1. Srila Prabhupada would sometimes tell a guest that his disciples live simply and sleep on the floor; now devotees often sleep in beds.

2. Devotees would never be given (with the possible exception of sannyasis) a private room. Everyone was expected to share their room with at least one other devotee; now sometimes a private room is provided based on “importance of service rendered” or “not making waves.”

3. All of the devotees used to follow Prabhupada’s example of never using toilet paper, tissues, napkins or paper towels. They’d wash with water after passing stool, blow their noses in the sink, wash their hands and mouth after eating and, after washing their hands, let the air dry them; now all four of these “banned” products are used to a greater or lesser degree.

4. Extremely quick showers using cold or at least cool water, from start to finish, were taken in the morning, as Prabhupada instructed; now rare.

5. Devotees were very conscious of saving Krishna’s energy by turning out lights when leaving a room, not leaving water running and not leaving heaters or other appliances on unnecessarily; now unconsciousness seems to be the rule.

6. Devotees were very conscious of always protecting Laksmi Devi. If a coin was found on the floor, or on the ground, it was immediately picked up and touched to the forehead, and put in a safe place. Money was never left where anyone could see it, and when no one was around, every penny was kept locked up; now coins, especially pennies are left laying around in plain view. In the treasury office, money is left in unlocked drawers, or even in open view with no one in the room!

7. Srila Prabhupada’s standard of all brahmacaris and all householders who were totally dependent upon the temple giving 100% of all of the money that came their way was strictly followed; now this is very often not followed.

8. Prabhupada’s standard of all of the grihasthas who were living completely independently of the temple giving 50% of their income was followed very frequently; now it is very rarely followed.

9. If a devotee was told that “Prabhupada says…” or “Prabhupada does…,” then he or she would take this instruction or example very seriously, and would usually start following Srila Prabhupada’s instruction or example immediately; now such words usually fall on “deaf ears.”

10. A male devotee either had a shaved head and a sikha or the short “hair of a perfect gentleman.” Prabhupada said, “If you don’t shave your head every fortnight, you cannot have a sikha, and you must have hair like a perfect gentleman, like Ambarisa [Grandson of Henry Ford].”; now devotees often have both hair and sikha.

11. Devotees used to go everywhere dressed as devotees; now this is rarely the case.

[A case in point: One devotee was seen on a japa walk dressed in karmi clothes, even though he attended both mangal arati (before the japa walk) and greeting the Deities (after the japa walk) dressed in dohti and kurta.]

12. No devotee would wear clothing with pictures of Krishna on his sweaty body, or into the stool room; now common.

13. Devotees would never engage in frivolous sports. Prabhupada said that swimming and wrestling were the only vaisnava sports, and in addition the gurukula children could “kick the ball”; now frivolous sports such as basketball are sometimes engaged in.

14. Devotees used to follow Srila Prabhupada’s example and be very straightforward, and simple, in their way of dealing with others. Like Srila Prabhupada they would always get straight to the point, not being distracted by bodily considerations; now they often seem to try to psychoanalyze the person that they are talking to. They seem to have more faith in following karmi psychologists than they have in following Srila Prabhupada’s example, saying things like “I don’t like the words that you are using.,” “I don’t like your tone of voice.,” “I don’t like your attitude” or “If you say that, it means that you need counseling.”

15. All of the devotees used to know that they were supposed to sleep either on their backs or on their sides (never on their stomachs) with their heads pointing either East (preferable) or South; now many devotees don’t seem to know this.

16. There used to be a great deal of camaraderie among the ISKCON sannyasis; now that they are competing for disciples, much of this is gone. [I have personally heard the following words come out of the mouths of ISKCON sannyasi/“gurus,” in reference to other ISKCON sannyasi/“gurus”:

a. “{Sannyasi/’guru’ A} shouldn’t be on the GBC. He doesn’t even chant 16 rounds a day.”

b. “{Sannyasi/’guru’ B} shouldn’t be on the GBC. He doesn’t even attend the morning program regularly.”

c. “{Sannyasi/’guru’ C} initiates criminals.”

d. “A Sannyasi doesn’t go to college.”

e. “Gurus shouldn’t be on the GBC. Then they don’t have time to do either service properly.”

f. “Gurus who believe that they know the inside story behind the ‘UFOs’ are in maya.”]

17. Devotees used to all chant japa pretty much in the same way, trying to follow in the footsteps of Srila Prabhupada; now some scream the Holy Name so loudly that they can be heard for blocks away, while others chant so quietly that all that can be heard is some faint whistling sound.

CHASTITY AND CELIBACY

18. All devotee men wore brahmin underwear, all of the time, as Prabhupada always did; now a rarity.

19. No devotee man would ever bathe naked, but would always wear brahmin underwear or a gamcha, as Srila Prabhupada instructed; now it is quite common for a man to bathe naked, especially if he is alone.

20. Devotee men used to make a conscious effort to not talk to women, other than their wife, unnecessarily; now unnecessary association is common.

21. Married devotee women would be very careful not to touch or be flirtatious with even their husbands in public, especially if a devotee who was trying to be celibate was present; now they are sometimes not so strict.

22. Married devotee women used to always make sure that their heads were covered in the presence of a devotee man other than their husband; now this is not followed very strictly in many temples.

23. Devotee women used to part their hair in the middle of their heads, now sometimes there is no part at all.

[Devotee woman’s comment: “I don’t know if a woman has to have a part–it just shouldn’t be parted on the side. I think that hair pulled back is okay.” Is this true?]

PERSONAL CLEANLINESS & HYGIENE

24. The devotees would follow Srila Prabhupada’s example and never wear clothing in the temple room or while cooking that had been worn in the stool room; now rarely followed.

25. No devotee would put on tilok in the stool room or even get water from the stool room for the tilok; now common.

26. After bathing, tilok was always applied to twelve places on the body, while distinctly uttering the prescribed twelve mantras; now often not done.

27. The devotees used to also know that it is important to pass stool by placing their feet on the toilet seat and squatting, like they do in India, not sitting on the seat, like they do in the West. This is not only better for one’s health, but it saves time and is more natural; now many devotees don’t seem to know this.

[Comment: The old common sense seems to be lacking in some cases:

a. One devotee told me that it didn’t matter whether she brushed her teeth before or after she showered!

b. Another devotee told me that it didn’t matter whether he shaved before or after he showered, especially since he was using an electric razor!

c. Some devotees seem to think that all they have to do to be a brahmin, as far as cleanliness goes, is to take three showers a day, but they don’t even come up to the Western karmi, meat eater’s standards of cleanliness in other ways. What about having clean pajamas to sleep in at least twice a week? What about having clean sheets on the bed at least once a week? What about having a clean towel at least twice a week? (My standard is to dry off using a damp gamcha which has been thoroughly rinsed and wrung out by hand.) In 1971, the temple president of ISKCON Minneapolis, Goverdhan Dasa, told me that he had just received a letter from Srila Prabhupada that said, “clean sleeping cloth every night!”]

DEITY WORSHIP AND DEVOTIONAL PRACTICES

28. Formerly only 2nd initiates were allowed to cook in the Deities’ kitchen; now, in some cases, they have bhaktas doing this.

29. Street shoes would never be worn in the Deities’ kitchen; now, in some temples, this is being done.

[I heard a report that this is even going on in a temple that has Radha-Krishna Deity worship!]

30. It used to be that all leaders and devotees would attend the whole morning program; now devotees seem to think that the morning program is a buffet–some just choose mangal arati, some just japa, some just guru puja and class, some attend just a portion of mangal arati, etc.

31. Most of the devotees would try very hard to arrive on time for mangal arati so as not to offend the Deities; now devotees with this standard are rare.

32. Devotees would never wear karmi pants or yogi pants in the temple room during the morning or evening programs; now common.

33. Devotees used to know that the proper way to offer obeisances was with the left side towards the spiritual master or the Deities, as the case may be; now many don’t seem to know this.

34. The devotee men would never commit the offense of wearing red or blue in front of the Deities; now common.

35. Devotees would greet the Deities by being in a standing position with folded hands, until all of the Deities were revealed, like Prabhupada always did; now often not done.

36. Srila Prabhupada would greet the Deities by meditating on Their Divine Forms with full, undivided attention, and his disciples would follow his example; now devotees sometimes talk, or have their hand in their beadbag, chanting japa, during greeting the Deities.

37. Devotees would follow Prabhupada’s example, and let their bead bag do it’s job of keeping their sacred japa beads from touching the floor, while offering obeisances; now devotees seem to think that their bead bags are not supposed to touch the floor, and therefore commit the offense of not touching the floor with both hands, palms downward, while offering obeisances.

38. Devotees used to follow Prabhupada’s example of putting down the musical instrument that they were playing, and touch the ghee lamp to their forehead with both hands; now seldom done.

39. Kirtans in the temple room used to consist mainly of chanting the Hare Krishna mantra as Prabhupada instructed; now very often mostly other mantras are chanted.

40. Kartals used to be played the same way that Prabhupada played them; now almost a lost art.

41. Almost everyone used to dance in step doing the “svami step” with vigor; now many devotees don’t even lift their feet off the floor during the kirtan.

42. Devotees used to know how to dance in time to the beat of the kirtan; now many devotees seem to have “two left feet.”

43. It was very rare to find a devotee who couldn’t sing “on key”; now common.

44. Sitting during arati was practically unheard of; now becoming more common.

45. Devotees used to very grateful to accept the ghee lamp or flower, which was offered to the Deities, as prasadam, and they knew that it was an offense to not honor prasadam immediately; now devotees sometimes refuse to accept these items when first offered to them, requesting that someone else who they apparently consider to be superior to them in some way be offered the item first, and thus possibly committing one or more of the following offenses: the offense of not accepting the Deities’ prasadam when first offered, the offense of talking in front of the Deities, the offense of chastising someone in front of the Deities, the offense of trying to be the “big controller” in front of the Deities, and the offense of trying to “impress the ladies” in front of the Deities.

46. Devotees would never wear clothing that they had slept in, or “taken a nap” in, in front of the Deities; now often done.

47. While attending morning or evening class, devotees would try to listen with undivided attention; now devotees sometimes do unrelated things during class, thus disrespecting the speaker, the holy sastras, and the vaisnavas who are trying to hear class attentively.

48. Chanting japa on clickers instead of japa beads was unheard of; now common.

49. There use to be a votive candle on every arati tray; now the pujari’s are often seen having to put down the bell and light the ghee lamp with a lighter, thus contaminating everything, and then continuing with the offering without repurifying anything.

50. It used to be unheard of to chant japa in between mantras while on Hari Nama; now common.

PRASADAM

51. A breakfast consisting of simple farina cereal (optionally containing nuts and/or raisins), raw chick peas that had been soaked overnight, steaming hot milk (or devotee-made yogurt in the summer), raw ginger root and fruit such as oranges and/or apples was served in all of the temples, everyday, as Srila Prabhupada instructed; now non-existent.

52. There were chapatis for all of the devotees, for lunch prasadam, everyday, as Prabhupada instructed; now rare.

53. Steaming hot milk was served every evening (except Sunday) at 9 p.m. as Prabhupada instructed; now non-existent.

54. The devotees would be very conscious of eating all of the prasadam on their plates, and even the prasadam that may have fallen to the floor, down to the last grain of rice; now devotees sometimes throw prasadam in the trash.

55. The devotees would be very conscious of never touching prasad with their left hand; still practiced, but not as strictly.

56. Devotees would never even consider serving themselves, while taking prasad without washing their hands first; now devotees sometimes eat with their right hand, and at the same time, serve themselves with their left.

57. Devotees would be very strict about never offering and/or eating food, especially grains, cooked by non-devotees; now many are not so strict.

58. The cooks would cook for the pleasure of the Deities, therefore the prasadam was always sweetened or salted just right. It was never necessary to add any sugar or salt; now the cooking seems to be done to please the devotee who likes the least amount of salt or sugar, and it’s expected that the rest can add salt or sugar themselves, just like the karmis do.

59. Cooks would never even think of going into the kitchen to cook wearing non-devotee clothing; now this is sometimes done.

60. The Sunday feasts used to be far more opulent than the regular devotee prasadam (20 preps was not uncommon); now it’s often the other way around.

GURUKULA

61. A devotee would never even consider sending his or her child to a non-devotee school; now a common practice.

62. There were no “day schools”; now common.

63. Male gurukula students were always “shaved up”; now sometimes they are not.

64. After puberty, gurukula students were not allowed to attend “coed” classes; now it’s being done more and more.

BHAKTA PROGRAM

65. Srila Prabhupada had a very effective bhakta program in place and it worked very well; now bhaktas sometimes have “nap time” in their schedule, and sometimes only certain designated devotees are allowed to instruct the bhaktas. These are not Srila Prabhupada’s instructions.

66. Bhaktas were expected to follow all of the rules, including chanting 16 rounds, from day one, and this technique was extremely effective; now almost forgotten.

TEMPLE ADMINISTRATION

67. Temple presidents used to consider it a privilege to have that position; now most of them seem to feel that it is simply a burden.

68. All temples would have an “istagosthi” once a week, as Prabhupada instructed; now rare.

69. No temples were run by a board of directors, but by a temple president, temple treasurer, temple secretary and a temple commander, as Prabhupada instructed; now rare.

70. All checks were signed by the temple president and the temple treasurer, as Srila Prabhupada emphatically instructed; now rare.

71. All devotee needs were provided for; now the devotees are given money and made to do their own shopping, an extremely inefficient arrangement, and against Srila Prabhupada’s instructions.

72. One brahmacari used to do the laundry for all of the brahmacaris and similarly for the brahmacarinis, a very efficient system; now it’s “every man for himself.”

73. All temples were very clean and well maintained; now the exception, rather than the rule.

74. All temples used to follow Srila Prabhupada’s direct order that there be no carpeted floors; now carpets are common.

75. No temples used to have furnature such as plushly upolstered chairs, sofas or love seats, except, perhaps, for guests; now common, even in the brahmacari quarters.

76. Everyone, including temple presidents and GBCs, used to go on Hari Nama Sankirtan at least once a week, if not everyday; now rare.

77. Funds were raised for the most part by distributing Srila Prabhupada’s books and “Back to Godhead” magazines; now the exception rather than the rule.

78. People used to be thrown out of temples for being lazy or crazy; now the lazies and crazies are allowed to live in the temples, and devotees are more often thrown out for political reasons.

79. Formerly a brahmacari who insisted on having a private room, was made to get married; now he’s sometimes made the temple president, without getting married.

80. If a temple was short of money, the temple president would ask for volunteers among the grihastha men to go and get jobs; now temple authorities do a lot of complaining, put the temple into debt, and the temple president is eventually replaced by another one who also laments, and puts the temple even further into debt.

81. No ISKCON leader would even dream of renting a portion of an ISKCON owned temple building for the purpose of gambling; now a major portion of one ISKCON temple building is being rented out for a bingo hall.

82. No devotee running a “Govinda’s” restaurant would dare to serve beer and wine; for a brief time, in the mid ’90’s, in North Carolina, USA, this was done.

[Comment: Some temple administrations no longer have the old common sense either, it seems:

a. One temple makes the devotees wash their stainless steel plates in the stool room!

b. Another temple makes the devotees wash the metal plates that they’ve eaten off of, then passes these same plates out at random the next time that prasadam is taken, so that one has no idea who washed his plate. It might have been some bum off the street!

c. Just to add insult to injury, another temple has a coin operated washing machine which charges top rates, and which has no hot water going to it!

d. Another temple has a coin operated drier that has been made to work for free, but it never turns off automatically. It just keeps going and going, wasting tremendous amounts of Krishna’s energy! The TP of this temple is constantly complaining that there’s not enough money!

e. Another temple does not allow the devotees to use any bleach when doing their laundry!

f. Another temple makes everyone who moves in, even devotees who have been members of ISKCON for 25 years or more, fill out a two page form containing such questions as, “Have you ever been convicted of sexually molesting a child?!” How many “yes” answers do they think that they are going to get? How many devotees are they offending with this questionnaire?

g. Another temple allows children to help serve prasadam at the Sunday feast who, as can be expected, do not have enough sense to avoid touching contaminated plates with the serving spoon.

h. Another temple, located in a rainy climate where it sometimes gets very cold, forced the devotees and guests to leave their shoes outside in the rain. This went on for 12 years before a vestibule was finally built.

i. Many temples, even ones that have a building with many stories, or more than one building, do not have a telephone system that allows all of the devotees to be easily reached by phone.

j. One temple has a buffet style restaurant, where the very low class customers were seen serving themselves with their right hand while tasting things with their left, using their finger to get the last little bit of prasadam off the serving spoon, and then sticking their finger in their mouth to “clean it off,” serving themselves seconds onto a plate that they had eaten off of by touching the serving spoon to their plate, etc.]

———

Dear Pratyatosh, Prabhu
Please accept my humble obeisances
All glories to Srila Prabhupad

I can’t send to the Vaishnav Council, but was forwarded this from laksmi

I have written some comparisons over the years, but your list, from 1997,  13 years ago, is more complete, and i am sure we can all add to it.   I didn’t even get chance to read the whole list yet, but, i will, and i am bookmarking it.

It is very important.    Important for new devotees who are sincere and want to know what sort of ISKCON Srila Prabhupad established.   While we can all take some blame, the real failure is the GBC, because it is their duty to keep up the standards.  Srila Prabhupad told us, just maintain what he has given us.    And, the whole thing fell to hell with the Zonal Acarya days.

Let me add a few stories of my own.  But, first,   here is the link for everyone to know what i am talking about:

Pratyatosh:
Here’s something that I wrote and posted on COM (the official ISKCON devotee forum) while living at ISKCON Denver in 1997. It got a huge reaction on COM. It probably helped to get me kicked out of that temple and kicked off of COM. Years later, the devotee who was the Denver ISKCON temple president’s wife at the time asked me to send her a copy, so I gave her the following URL. Devotees who have never lived in a temple tend to find it a revelation of what temple life was like in the “good ol’ days”:

http://pratyatosa. com/Oldvsnew. htm

Ameyatma’s stories:

1) LA – Back in the mid 70’s the temple kitchen,   and there was only One kitchen then, that cooked devotee meals, feasts and Deity offerings,   was kept very very clean.   In 1974 Srutikirti was telling me how, that day, Srila Prabhupad decided to take an unannounced visit to the kitchen.  It was empty at the time he came, in the middle of the afternoon.  Everything was clean and in it’s place, except one small pot.  It was sitting on the transfer table,  obviously an offering had been cooked and the food was put onto the Lord’s plates, but the empty unwashed pot was sitting there.  Everything else,   was spotless,   and the floor was so clean, you walked in with white socks,   they were clean when you walked out.  Prabhupad was in his socks,  no complaint about the floor back then.    But, that one uncleaned pot?   Srila Prabhupad stood there with just Srutikirti and he became upset.   He told Sruti to fetch the TP and GBC IMMEDIATELY.  Jayatirtha was the GBC.  Srila Prabhupad remained in the kitchen until Srutikirti brought them.   Heads rolled.   “Why is this pot not cleaned?”   Srila Prabhupad demaneded.    ‘ah, ah, er, ah.,   this isn’t my service,  ah,  i don’t know,   ah,  i am not the pot washer’  as Jayatirtha tried all sorts of ‘excuses’,    the more excuses, the more furious Srila Prabhupad became,  until  Srutikirti said Srila Prabhupad had become very angry and was shouting,  and Jayatirtha broke down in tears.  Prabhupad said it IS the duty of the TP to see that those under him are doing their proper duty,   and it is the duty of the GBC to see that all under them are doing their duty.  Their duty is to keep up the standards that SP taught.   And, he taught that as you cook you clean,  so that when a cook is finished with their cooking, all the pots should be cleaned.  The cook cleans their own pots,   they don’t let them sit for someone else to do.   Now, large feasts maybe different, but in general cooking small offerings: as you cook you clean.     The real point is,   how high the standards were under Srila Prabhupad’s direct supervision, and how low they have come since.

2) another story in LA – The fall of the standards.   The standards fell even before Srila Prabhupad departed.  LA temple was important because that was the world HDQ then, and the standards set there would be duplicated all over ISKCON.  In the LA kitchen there was posted a copy of the hand written Rules for the Kitchen,   written and signed by Srila Prabhupad,   and at the very top of the list,    NO Shoes.        The old LA kitchen floor was a single slab of smooth concrete.   It didn’t look like much,   but it was kept spotless.   I know,   it was part of my services when i first joined the ashram.  We would wet mop the whole kitchen area, then dry mop it.  When we were done, you ‘could’ eat off the floor,  but we would not do so in the kitchen.  And, even though large Sunday feasts were cooked there, no one spilled food all over. The consciousness was higher, there was no waste, and everyone was super careful what they were doing.   So, even when we mopped there was no food all over.   Then, they remodeled the kitchen and put in Tiles along with a water hose and a floor drain.  The idea was to clean the kitchen floor now, you just take the hose and use water pressure to wash all the dirt and food down the drain.  Then, they bought this rubber floor squeegee,   like a large windshield wiper blade with a handle, that you push along the floor to dry the floor.  They spent all this money with the goal,  so that cleaning the floors could now be done in 5 min,  where before it took a good 30-60 min to wet mop, then dry mop.   Problem was,   the rubber squeegee didn’t work on the tile floor, the grout area tore it up and water would still collect in the grout areas.   Not wanting to admit that they wasted Krishna’s Laxmi and still would have to dry mop,  the standard became to just wash the floors with the hose, then leave the floors wet.     So, the main cook, can’t recall his name, he was older devotee,   because he was in the kitchen all day, bare foot,   his heals cracked, and then got infected.   I happened to be in Jayatirtha’s office at that time talking when the cook came back from the doctor.  His feet were all bandaged.  He told Jayatirtha he couldn’t cook for at least 2-3 weeks,   the doctor told him he had to keep his feet totally dry. Jayatirtha insisted,   no,  he HAD to cook,  there was no one else,   the devotees and Krishna would starve,   he HAD to cook.   But, how?    So, Jayatirtha told him to go to the store and by rubber shoes – that he would use Only for the kitchen.     Later that day he is in the kitchen with these rubber shoes.  It created a scene –   NO SHOES meant NO SHOES.   But, he told everyone that Jayatirtha had him buy them.   Complaints were rampant for days,      from 2 sides,   1 side was from those who insisted there should be no shoes,  period.   The problem causing the cracked feet was that the floors were constantly wet,   where they used to be dry. The real solution was to assign someone to Dry Mop the floors, like before,    not use and wear shoes in the kitchen.     The other side complained,   why just the head cook gets shoes,   their feet are cracked too.   The side that won,    Jayatirtha went and bought 6-12 rubber shoes and labeled them Kitchen Only.   Now, everyone wore rubber shoes in the kitchen.   But, Prabhupad’s hand written Rules – at the very top said,  NO SHOES.  The solution?   The rules were removed.    They used to be posted on the door before you enter, and on the wall above the main stove.  Now they were taken down.

Soon, with the introduction of the shoes, the whole consciousness of the kitchen fell lower and lower.  Prabhupad had said that the consciousness of the whole community is determined by the consciousness of Radha’s kitchen.  The conscious goes into the food.     I was working on the LA museum then, and had to go through the kitchen constantly to get access to the back where the electronics room was located.   When I started the floor was spotless,  after the indoor shoes,   the floor got worse and worse.   One dash across the floor with my socks, or bear foot,  and the socks or my feet were now BLACK.    The floor was never kept clean after that –  only when a major cleaning was done,  but most of the time, the floor was now horrible.     And, as the kitchen became more and more unclean,   more and more Coach Roaches and mice came.  Before, i never saw a single coach roach in the kitchen or museum.

I left for Detroit in 1980, and came back to LA in 84.  By then, the standards were totally lost.  When I opened the door that led from the kitchen to museum electronics room,   at least 30-40 coach roaches went running, they were living on top of the door,   coach roaches fell from the door way on to the floor,    ack…      The exibits each had a tape deck,     nothing was working.   The reason,  the place was over run by coach roaches and mice.  It was sick,   totally sick.    The tape decks, because they are warm,   coach roaches were breading in them,   and their urine and stool is highly corrosive.    Everything was ruined.   All the electronics.  And, the smell in there,    I could not breath    There was a dead mouse in one tape deck.    I told Ramesvar how bad it was,  he thought i was totally exaggerating.    I told him,  i am not leaving his room until he agreed to go over there with me and see for himself.  Finally, he agreed and brough Vatsal with him (who was then the TP for LA).  Ramesvar got to the kitchen and took off his shoes,   and Vatsal walked right in with his outside shoes on.   Ramesvar shouts, “Vatsal,  you shoes”.   Vatsal looks at Ramesvar incredulously and says,  “Ramesvar,  where have you been?  This has been the standard ever since I’ve been here”.  Ramesvar puts his shoes back on and goes in.

The point,   Ramesvar was made GBC back in the mid 70’s,      When Prabhupad made that surprise visit to the LA kitchen in 74,  he instructed the GBC then, and after,  that they too need to make unannounced visits to see that the standards are kept up.      This shows that in 1984 Ramesvar had not been in the LA kitchen for 10 YEARS! –  he had not been in there since the mid 70’s when the strict rules were being followed –  no shoes.   What sort of GBC was this?   He had no idea what was going on outside his ivory tower.    And, when he found out,   he did NOTHING.  The Duty of the GBC is to keep up the standards SP gave us,   so,  10 years later he finds the standards are not followed,   what does he do?    NOTHING.    These men FAILED to perform their own duties.   All they were concerned about was how many disciples they had,   who had more disciples,  who had the biggest ASSons, whether their picture was upside down on the altar or not   (Okay,  i was doing artik one morning for greeting of the Deities, and Ramesvar’s picture was there,   prominently, on the altar,   so since he was not my guru,  i turned his photo around, all you could see was the back of the frame.  Ramesvar noticed it as soon as the doors were opened,  and stopped me from doing the offering and insisted i turn it around.  I told him,   ‘you are not my guru, why should i be offering to your picture?’    and so I left it and completed the artik.   He never said anything to me about it after that)

I wrote about the fallen standards to Ramesvar back then,  it fell on deaf ears.   I wrote since these same stories to the GBC,  many many years ago,   and nothing.   They DON’T CARE.  That is what they have shown me over the years,   They simply don’t care about doing their duty.

I really appreciate your list.   It should be sent out to every devotee’s email address. We need a GBC who will finally do their duty.   We need a GBC who will RESTORE Prabhupad’s standards before they are totally lost.

ys ameyatma das