“Old Lies Do Not Become New Truths!”

BY: KODANDARAMA DASA

Oct 11, 2010 — BANGALORE, INDIA (SUN) — Contempt case in Supreme Court.

Why do you think that getting ISKCON-Mumbai’s appeal in the High Court in six weeks’ time was a record, as claimed in these columns by ISKCON-Mumbai? RFAs, as these appeals are called, when they come up for hearing, on the concurrence of the lawyers of both the parties, they are taken up immediately or on seniority.

As it was a conscious decision to have the matter closed soon, it was allowed to be taken up by ISKCON Bangalore as much as by ISKCON-Mumbai. Sorry, no credit to whoever you wanted it to go to.

A victory in the lower court by ISKCON Bangalore last year is a victory anyway over ISKCON-Mumbai, and that cannot be erased by blaming the Indian judiciary of bribery, etc. Sure, when the grapes can’t be reached they are written off as sour, isn’t it?

In fact, the performance of Dayaram das at the stage of witnessing in the Lower Court was so pathetic and his lying tendencies were noticed by the Judge who commented on it, even in the 300 page Judgment where he wrote. “…the very fact that DW1 (Dayaram) has had no courage to deny the suggestion, if read with his other evidence already referred to above, would tend to suggest that he was not willing to speak out the truth.”

Facts about contempt case:

The High Court initiated a contempt on Jaichaitanya dasa, Madhu Pandit dasa and four of our lawyers, being irked by Jaichaitanya dasa’s application asking the Judge who was hearing the case to recuse (excuse himself out) himself from the case and assign another Judge to hear the case. This is nothing contumacious, as it is the right of any litigant to ask for such a change if he had reasonable apprehension that the Judge was prejudiced towards the case. He did recuse himself, but a contempt case was taken up by another bench of two Judges for making such an application.

The new bench of two Judges passed their split verdict. The senior Judge held that there is no contempt in this case as the application was more than polite and the apprehension was genuine and discharged everyone. The junior Judge discharged only Madhu Pandit dasa and another lawyer but held the other four still under contempt charge. Because of the split verdict, the matter has been assigned to a third senior Judge. We are now awaiting the decision of this third Judge.

Well, you want to know the cause of the apprehension of prejudice, don’t you? Now listen – being present in the court hall it is easy to report the facts. A packet with a photograph taken of the Judge, receiving a gift from Madhu Pandit dasa while visiting the temple, was sent with senders address as Jayapataka Swami Sishya Samuh (in a sense anonymous) to impress upon the court that the Judge was biased towards ISKCON Bangalore.

And mysteriously, the Judge concluded that it was ISKCON Bangalore who sent the cover with photo, thus pre-judging. This was felt by us to be wrong on his side. Not only that, on another day he even proclaimed in the court hall that he did not feel devotion at the ISKCON Bangalore temple as the eyes of the Deities were so big, like demons. (I shudder to state this).

Well, what would be the reaction of any devotee on hearing such blasphemy, whoever it may be from? On learning about this, over 100 ISKCON Bangalore devotees marched to the High Court and placed a submission of protest to the Chief Justice, signed by over 300 devotees, on the conduct of this Judge in the court hall. And what were the ISKCON-Mumbai devotees, headed by Dayaram, Varadhakrishna and two disciples of Radhanath Swami doing while the Judge made the blasphemous statement on the Worshipable Deity in this way? They laughed along with their lawyers, as if agreeing! This was unbelievable and shocking.

How does one deal with a Judge making blasphemous statements in the court hall? The best option is to see that he does not hear the case with his prejudiced mind. And if we have to go to jail for this…. we welcome it. We are ready to go through any harassment if need be, to save the honor of Srila Prabhupada and safeguard the honor of the temple and the Deities.

Going to jail is not the end of the world, in any case. It is honorable to go for such reasons. By the way, it is a well known fact that in the history of Indian Judiciary, only in the rarest of rare cases there has been jailing.

Cases like someone throwing shoes at the Judge or abusing the Judge. In spite of knowing this well, Dayaram wants to dramatize to the legally illiterate common reader that the punishment is going to jail for six months. Let him quote those handful of cases of contempt in this country where six months jail was awarded.

The ISKCON-Mumbai devotees laughed with the lawyers on this statement because, as per their ‘gurus’ verdict, the Lord has walked out of this temple. Their disciples are forbidden to take prasadam from this temple as it is not offered through the self-made gurus on the altar. How do they dare to utter such statements that Srila Prabhupada would never do?

The Vaishnava understanding is that the Lord resides where His Holy Names are chanted. I guess the idea of ISKCON-Mumbai devotees is that if they get the property and their ‘Pure Gurus’, Radhanatha Swami or Jayapataka Swami, walk into the temple hall, the Deities will walk in along with them back onto the altar. Amusing!

These contempt cases are a total waste of expenditure. At least in the regular case you get some prayers decreed in your favour. Now Dayaram has gone to the Supreme Court spending lakhs of rupees of Srila Prabhupada’s money, filing this contempt for the cause of protecting the dignity of Indian Judiciary. What a great service to the Indian pride at the cost of Krishna’s money. Their lawyer charges 5 lakhs per hearing.

Dayaram lost a contempt case against Madhu Pandit dasa and two other officers before the Supreme Court of India in 2007, which he filed in 2004. He paid 5 lakhs per hearing for over 25 hearings and forced us to spend too to defend ourselves and finally the Judges dealt with it after three years in the queue in half an hour, and dismissed the contempt petition as baseless.

Three years, the GBC was waiting anxiously for the result of the contempt petition, hoping to win. And what was this contempt about — the Supreme Court in 2001 had directed ISKCON Bangalore not to spend more than 5 lakhs without permission of the trial court. It did not say 5 lakhs per day or per month or per item or per bill. Obviously we cannot run to the Trial Court for permission for festival expenditure, monthly electricity bill and the likes, which all exceed 5 lakhs.

We made sure that no single payment exceeding 5 lakhs was made for any expenditure, according to our interpretation. Dayaram got our accounting records stolen from the temple and told the court that we had spent more than five lakhs in buying books from BBT and spending more than five lakhs for prasadam distribution without permission of the Trial Court.

Can you believe that he made Madhu Pandit dasa run to the Supreme Court in Delhi 25 times during those three years, spending crores of rupees, just for having spent money on book distribution and prasadam distribution. They even gave written counter saying that these are not essential activities of ISKCON. Nobody knows all these frivolous sports of Dayaram. Let him deny this fact.

Coming back to the latest contempt adventure of Dayaram. The senior Judge discharging all six from charge of contempt was certainly to the displeasure of the ISKCON-Mumbai gang. Now they want the other governing council members of ISKCON Bangalore other than Madhu Pandit dasa and Jaichaitanya dasa also to be pulled into the contempt case.

They filed a contempt case on all of them before the High Court. The High Court dismissed the same without even admitting. This dismissal order was appealed in the Supreme Court by ISKCON-Mumbai and as is normal procedure, the Supreme Court has directed to issue notice to us for our reply on the appeal petition. This thing has been given a twist by Dayaram dasa as if the Supreme Court has initiated contempt on us.

The Supreme Court will also conclude similar to the High court’s verdict, that there was no contempt in this act because the request to change the Judge was based on genuine apprehensions.

Or, if they want us to be put to jail, as Dayaram spends his twenty-four hours wishing, so be it. But just by sending a few of us to jail Dayaram cannot think of taking over this place, as he did in Calcutta. He will have to put all 300 devotees in jail to fulfill his fantasy. In the face of the High Court’s dismissal, Dayaram appealing it before the Supreme Court is like a drowning man holding onto a last straw floating around. It is this contempt case that he has made a mountain of a mole hill.

As an active member of ISKCON Bangalore, I am not aware of any ‘Exit Strategy’ being worked out at Hare Krishna Hill, as claimed. Unless the spies of Dayaram have managed to enter the inner core of Madhu Pandit dasa’s heart and hear what Madhu Pandit dasa himself does not hear. Why do we have to hear all this donkey-braying? For your kind information, the devotees of Hare Krishna Hill are going about their lives as happily situated in Krishna Consciousness at the Lotus feet of Srila Prabhupada, whose sworn followers they are.

Only to a person hallucinated with intoxication of pride will the opening of many Hare Krishna Movement all over India appear as a sign of defeat of the ISKCON Bangalore group. I feel sorry, that they also see the success of Srila Prabhupada’s mission expanding under the banner of ISKCON Bangalore as a sign of defeat. Please inform Dayaram that we could easily open branches in the very name of ISKCON in all these different locations in India. But we have not done so out of sympathy for Dayaram and party, so that they do not have to fight legal battles in every state of India against us and get exhausted!

The ISKCON Bangalore group is expanding in India very fast with dedicated devotees heading different projects. It may soon match the number of branches ISKCON-Mumbai has in India and any kind of mud slinging on this expansion is only the sign of desperation which is written all over the article, “Criminal Contempt Charges against Members of Madhu Pandit’s GBC“.

We are Srila Prabhupada’s ISKCON and so there is no need for us to “use” the good name of ‘ISKCON’ as alleged. You should direct this allegation of ‘using the good name’ to the ISKCON-Mumbai group, who unscrupulously slings mud over all the good work being done by ISKCON Bangalore and at the same time shamelessly makes use of and takes full advantage of the good name of ISKCON Bangalore group for collecting money all over India. To save a Russian temple they got the former Prime Minister of India, Sri Vajpayee, to tell the Russian President that they are an organization who feeds lakhs of children in India. Let them deny if it is not true. This is five years ago, when they were not even feeding a single child and criticizing our program as ‘food for death’ instead of food for life. Yes, Srila Prabhupada’s ISKCON, ISKCON Bangalore is a very rich group and that is the reason why the ISKCON-Mumbai babus are having sleepless nights. Disgraceful.

Yes, for sure the things are getting exciting in the High Court. Let us wait and watch! It surprises me that while Dayaram calls Madhu Pandit dasa a manipulator of the judiciary system, it is the disciples of Radhanath Swami and Jayapataka Swami who are the foot soldiers seen walking the length and breath of the court in Bangalore on a daily basis, even when the hearings are not there. God knows what they do there each and every day. I leave it to your wild imagination.

However hard Dayaram tries to use all kinds of forums, Governmental, Political, Bureaucratic and the Vaishnava community all over the world to sing his lies to – he cannot make the old lies become new truths. He can sit hoping and dreaming and trying to convince all the Vaishnavas that he is the greatest GBC loyalist and a great savior of the movement. All the best! Time will reveal everything, especially the Truth.

As someone said, lies are so strong that they run a very long distance till at last they face defeat against the stamina of truth.

Now, if the Sun Correspondent is ready, I invite him to come to ISKCON Bangalore to carry authentic facts so that he does not have to report things that have by default fallen into his inbox.

Kodandarama dasa
ISKCON Bangalore