strugglefortruth.wordpress.com, posted on Wednesday, March 31st, 2010: In 1998, the devotees of ISKCON-Bangalore for the first time came in touch with the institutional directive issued by Srila Prabhupada four months prior to his passing away 1977, outlining the system of conducting initiation through the ritviks or Officiating Acharyas. ISKCON-Bangalore consisted of about 75 devotees at that time and a good number of them were educated in reputed Indian colleges and universities including IITs and IISc.
Madhu Pandit Dasa, a civil engineering graduate from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, was impressed by the books of Srila Prabhupada and later in 1981, while still doing his M.Tech, he joined ISKCON. He soon became the Temple President of ISKCON-Bangalore. Under his leadership, the small temple with about five devotees operating out of a rented two bedroom house in an obscure location off Chord Road, Rajajinagar, Bangalore, has now grown to become an iconic temple with hundreds of dedicated missionary devotees.
In 1998 the devotees of ISKCON-Bangalore first came to know of the disobedience of Srila Prabhupada’s directions that have become deep rooted in ISKCON movement with regard to the Guru system. Soon after that, the devotees fiercely debated among themselves to ascertain the veracity of the ritviks or Officiating Acharyas system. When they were convinced that that was the system intended by Srila Prabhupada for his movement, they declared to the world that they would not accept the selfappointed guru system.
In February 1999, Madhu Pandit Dasa and Adhridharan Dasa, then Temple President of ISKCON-Calcutta, prepared an elaborate Powerpoint presentation went to Mayapur, West Bengal, to present the arguments before the Governing Body Commission. Madhu Pandit Dasa made a presentation before a gathering of 37 Governing Body Commissioners. The deliberations did not last for more than 45 minutes. The next day the GBCs resolved that Madhu Pandit Dasa, Chanchalapathi Dasa, Vice President of ISKCON-Bangalore and Adridharan Dasa were unfit and hence they should be expelled from ISKCON!
I am quite sure that if the “prepared elaborate Powerpoint presentation” had been presented to ALL of Srila Prabhupada’s disciples and followers, the “deliberations” would not have taken 45 miniutes, and the results would have been much different.
Rather we might have heard a tumultuous roar of Hari Bol! All Glories to Srila Prabhupada! Glories to Madhu Pandit Dasa and Adhridharan Dasa!
All Glories to Srila Prabhupada. Is this PowerPoint online? – Mahasana dasa