ISKCON Vrindavan Goshala
Apr 4, 2011 | Vrindavan Today — Someone named Ram Kishor Das has written an article, Big Money Men in Vrindavan, which has been published on the Sampradaya Sun website. In it, he accuses the Vrindavan ISKCON temple president and GBC, as well as businessmen from within the ISKCON community, of wanting to sell off portions of the Bhaktivedanta Goshala, which he conservatively estimates as having a worth of 2-3 million dollars.
If true, this is indeed a very worrisome development.
The goshala is located on eight acres of prime land bordering the Parikram Marg, and currently has a cow and bull population of over 300 animals. Many of the other properties in the area are being developed now that this section of the Parikrama Marg has been transformed into a “V.I.P, Road.” It is not at all surprising that any piece of land that is easy of access, has the potential to provide residential or hotel accommodation in a nice environment with a view of the Yamuna, has developers’ mouths watering.
As such, the accusations in the story ring quite true.
Some may worry about whether such articles are slander or not. Some people say that the people named in this article are wonderful devotees. But that is simply a way of deflecting the issue.
Kurma Rupa shared the goshala on Sunrakh Road with a “wonderful devotee” affiliated with Ramesh Baba. Yet when land values reached a critical point, the “greed tipping point” as it were, the goshala was sold off to the highest bidder and Kurma Rupa was forced, practically at gunpoint, to move with the cows to another location within 48 hours.
We can now expect yet more highrises in that part of the town outskirts, along with the cutting of more trees, the desecration of bovine graveyards, and ever more traffic congestion and pollution. Once again the words Vrinda’s “forest” are made a source of pain and mockery.
Ram Kishor Das presents the people involved as rapacious businessmen, following the Indian model of unscrupulous capitalist greed. Whether or not that is true, what is a fact is that once the greed-tipping point comes, nearly everyone is susceptible. It is so easy for interested parties to cast a cloud of confusion over their intentions by making such sweet-sounding arguments like, “This money or land could be used so much better in Krishna’s or Prabhupada’s service.”
The gullible will believe and watch as yet another open space in Vrindavan is covered with concrete and elsewhere private villas are built with the proceeds.
The position of Vrindavan Today is that the protection of the Vrindavan environment and heritage is the number one priority for everyone who professes to love the Dham. ISKCON has led in the preaching of Vrindavan Dham, helping to attract the thousands of pilgrims and tourists that come there. This has led to the kind of development that is straining the municipality to its limits.
Every day more cars clog the streets. The Parikrama Marg has been turned into a drag-racing strip where drivers without the least concern for the devotional mentality bring curiosity seekers from Delhi and elsewhere, their only goal to get where they are going faster only so they can leave faster. On the way, they threaten lives and destroy the peace of the devotees — and desecrate the holy land.
And this is the point: What are we doing turning Vrindavan into a place where religion is just another business? Only last week someone reported a conversation where the owner of one of Vrindavan’s biggest hotels said candidly, “The traditional Vrindavan is gone. But don’t forget to fill your pockets.” That is where things stand.
Vrindavan is a microcosm of the way that greed and so-called development are destroying the very concept of the sacred, what to speak of the environment on which we depend.
ISKCON has led the world to Vrindavan. Now it should show leadership in the movement for environmental and heritage preservation, not only in Vrindavan, but throughout the world.
The parties accused of threatening to undermine the Bhaktivedanta Goshala should make a public statement disavowing this intention. And then we will see if they are true to their word.
get rid of the cows and get rich.