Sex, ‘dhokha’ behind Mumbai Machinations

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1. Mangalmoya das says:

   31. May 2011 at 9:05 pm

   Here a few comments from the same topic at facebook:

   Roupamanjari dd: Srila Prabhupada has asked us to judge a thing by its result. Madhu Pandit Prabhu has created and impeccably maintained ISKCON Bangalore by the orders of Srila Prabhupada, without addition, subtraction, or modification, and as a result the membership is ever expanding and as a result (as noted above), money is flowing in from public donations. The non-elected ISKCON GBC, on the other hand, goes from temple to temple raiding the individual temples’ donations while (as noted above) having no independent income of their own, meanwhile forcing newcomers to accept initiation from unqualified men (the current “ISKCON gurus”) if they are to be allowed to perform deity seva or be accepted as “members of the society” “in good standing”, thereby effectively robbing the new members if they are to be allowed into ISKCON. How is this ethical? Srila Prabhupada specifically stated in the Direction of Management (http://www.iskcon-dom.com/dom.html) that the GBC must be elected by the temple presidents for to prevent this very thing from happening – so that there would be no coup formed that would then rule the rest of ISKCON in the hierarchy in which it is in today.

   Dharmatma Das Acbsp: Very sad news. Madhu Pandit is doing wonderful preaching and maintains a high standard at the temple. Both sides have spent unbelievable amounts of money fighting. What preaching and book distribution could have been done. Instead lawyers are becoming rich.

   William G Benedict (Bhakta das ACBSP): Madhu Pandit has certainly prepared for this eventuality. The case is not over until the Supreme Court rules, and that will take time. Meanwhile, let’s see if the High Court or Supreme Court grants a stay order.

   Rama Dasa: If my memory serves me correctly, when Srila Prabhupada set up Iskcon he wanted each temple to be a separate entity, he wanted his sannyasis to travel from temple to temple preaching not managing. The management of the temple was to be done by the tp and his associates. Now we have the absurd situation where temples are being taken to court so that they become under the control of a sannyasi.

   This whole situation is ridiculous. It seems to me that Iskcon is longer what Prabhupada wanted it to be. I can remember how he always pointed to the Gaudia Math and their court cases against each other as not the way he wanted his society to go

   If my thoughts on this are wrong please point them out so I can try to understand this stupid, karmi like situation better.

   Martin A. Raghavendu Lewis: Disciples of low madhyama adhikari gurus unite! You have nothing but your chains to lose! Rtvik by any means necessary! The Directions of Management Party, as the conscious exponent of the real Rtivk movement, aims at the complete liberation of the toiling masses of Iskcon devotees from every form of oppression and exploitation. The achievement of this objective—the abolition of bogus initiations in the promoted by the GBC\ and the creation of the D.O.M. ruled Iskcon Society—calls for a very high development.

   Martin A. Raghavendu Lewis: For the devotees in the former Soviet Republics: Ученики низкой мадхьяма адхикари гуру соединяйтесь! Вы ничего, кроме своих цепей терять! Rtvik любой ценой! Направления управления других компаний, как сознательное показатель реального движения Rtivk, направлена на полное освобождение трудящихся масс преданных ИСККОН от любой формы угнетения и эксплуатации. Достижение этой цели-отмене фиктивных посвящения в способствует GBC \ и создание DOM постановил ИСККОН Общество-звонки для очень высокого развития.

   CarloAnanda Dorigatti: Srila Prabhupada attempted to implement the D.O.M. not once but TWICE. Both times his leading disciples on the GBC neglected the directive and made up all sorts of excuses for not implementing it. Thus Prabhupoada was faced with a group of highly materially motivated neophyte disciples de facto disobeying the order of their spiritual master. To protect such disciples from this grievous aparadha (offense) Prabhupada, out of his infinite mercy, did not proceed with a confrontation. Had he done so I’m pretty certain, knowing by bitter experience the mentality of some of these mundane men in the dress of vaisnavas, the situation would have become untenable. This is my analysis and others may have another, but later events after Prabhupada’s disappearance bear me out (see my post on asara acaryas).

   As far as challenging the ISKCON oligarchic GBC, good luck! Many, many good men tried and were swiftly branded as envious snakes and hung out to dry.

   Akruranatha Dasa: Carlo, the analogy with Gaudiya Math that ISKCON split into 11 factions is not a very good one, because there really are not 11 factions today.

   (Maybe there was a threat of breaking into 11 factions in the early 1980s, but that never happened, though the Kirtanananda party was expelled, and the Hansadutta party joined them for a while, but by and large the GBC remained in charge of ISKCON as Srila Prabhupada had directed, and the bulk of practicing devotees have stayed with ISKCON, while some small group of others found shelter among various Gaudiya Math groups).

   Basically there are two factions today, ISKCON and the much smaller IRM. The lawsuit over the Bangalore temple (and another one in the U.S. over the little temple started by Adarshi in Freeport, Long Island), are reminiscent of legal battles within the Gaudiya Math, unfortunately.

   It would be nice if the parties could somehow settle them. IRM should stop using the ISKCON name, and maybe pay some money to keep the IRM temple on HK Hill in Bangalore, or maybe ISKCON pays some money to IRM to take back over that property.

   IRM has been taking care of the Deity service for some time, so maybe as part of the settlement IRM should either keep the property or at least they can keep serving those Deities in another building (though the Deities probably should not be moved).

   Therefore the whole lawsuit may be resolved perhaps with money. It remains to be decided how much money IRM should pay ISKCON to keep that building, perhaps. The parties should think like this, and stop further litigation, because the end of all this litigation will simply be the spending of a lot of money on lawyers and the eventual decision by a secular court. Better to decide amongst themselves and keep the laksmi being used in Krishna’s service.

   Both factions have to learn to recognize that though they have a dispute over the proper system of initiation of disciples, they are still committed to the mission of chanting Hare Krishna, distributing Prabhupada’s books, following the four regulative principles, and disseminating these practice.

   I agree with ISKCON that these ritvik-style initiations are not mentioned by any authorities in the Gaudiya Vaisnava line and there was no clear implementation of such an unprecedented system by Srila Prabhupada. Nevertheless, IRM devotees are still reading and distributing Srila Prabhupada’s books and chanting Hare Krishna, so they should be respected as followers of Srila Prabhupada of some sort.

   It would be better to reach some form of compromise in which hostilities would cease (IRM should stop defaming ISKCON leaders: just set a good example themselves), the dispute over money and property could be resolved, and the two factions could go on glorifying Srila Prabhupada and the holy names and spreading Krishna consciousness in their own way to the best of their abilities. I think such a course would be most pleasing to Srila Prabhupada, and the money would not be wasted on lawyers and quarrels.

   When devotees are favorably engaged in Krishna Katha, Krishna comes near. When they quarrel He goes away.

   William G Benedict: I agree with Akruranath. Best to stop paying lawyers and settle this amongst the devotees. Do much intelligence being used to fight on courts that could be used more positively.

   Annabelle Younger: Is this a good or bad? ISKCON is Srila Prabhupada! Why is all this fighting going on?

   CarloAnanda Dorigatti: @akruranath. The analogy was valid at the time it happened, 1978. I was there; there were 11 vyasasanas in Mayapur; the world was divided into eleven zones wherein the local “acarya” ruled supreme and where no competing guru was allowed meaningful influence. This went on for years and broke the movement alienating the majority of godbrothers. The Gaudya Math also went through its metamorphosis after the events that sparked Prabhupada’s original criticism (see CC Adi 12.8). However, that is not my real point. My real point is that the Governing Body disobeyed the order of the Spiritual Master. He ordered us to cooperate, to concentrate on purity by “boiling down the milk” and not to expand (see Gurukripa’s interview with Bhakta das). Regrettably he exact opposite was done. I challenge any guru, past or present, to present any evidence that Prabhupada directly authorized him to be “acarya”. Rather, the guru by vote was instituted which is diametrically opposite all instructions by Prabhupada, either directly or in his books. Let anyone find “guru by vote” anywhere in Prabhupada’s books. Rather the opposite will be found. So, that’s my point, that by disobeying the order of the spiritual master the institution has become asara. Until we go back to the mistakes made in 1978 and meaningfully rectify them I have little hope that we can recapture the blissful mood that attracted me and the many, many disfranchised godbrothrs back to ISKCON in the first place. The institution is there but the spirit is gone. My 2c, YMMV.

   Syama Priya Devi Dasi: Whew! Glad I’m not in ISKCON any more. Glad I’m not a ritvik believer either. Find a pure devotee and serve Him/ Her and stop this nonsense.

   Roupa Manjari Devi Dasi:
   Dear Akruranath prabhu,

   Please accept my humble obeisances. All Glories to Srila Prabhupada!

   You said:

   “The obvious legal purpose for putting DOM in official corporate articles of all ISKCON entities was to prevent breakaway temples like IRM.”

   This is not what Srila Prabhupada said. If you read the actual wording of the Direction of Management (http://www.iskcon-dom.com/dom.html), Srila Prabhupada clearly states why He gave the order for the Direction of Management and I will quote it here:

   *** I am getting old, 75 years old, therefore at any time I may be out of the scene, therefore I think it is necessary to give instruction to my disciples how they shall manage the whole institution. They are already managing individual centers represented by one president, one secretary and one treasurer, and in my opinion they are doing nice. But we want still more improvement in the standard of Temple management, propaganda for Krishna Consciousness, distribution of books and literatures, opening of new centers and educating devotees to the right standard.***

   Srila Prabhupada is clearly expressing that the ISKCON temple management was (and is) in need of a higher standard and in turn educating devotees to the “right standard”. His Order to elect the GBC every 3 years automatically keeps the management of ISKCON, aka the GBC, free of corruption, by removing the possibility of a GBC (not IRM) takeover. In the absence of the DOM, this is precisely what has happened. The GBC, instead of doing its “primary duty” as expressed in the Direction of Management, to “organize the opening of new Temples and to maintain the established Temples”, has legally replaced Srila Prabhupada with itself and declared itself to be the “Ultimate Ecclesiastical Authority” of ISKCON. (The word “Ecclesiastical” does not appear in the Writings of Srila Prabhupada, and was directly borrowed by the GBC from the Catholic Church, which operates in a total hierarchy, and as we know is full of corruption, notably concealed mass child molestation.)

   You can read all of this for yourself in the GBC Bylaws (http://www.iskcon-dom.com/bylaws.html), which state that the GBC is a separate independent corporation registered as “The GBC Society of West Bengal” in India, that it is in no way affiliated with ISKCON, that they have their own rules and regulations, and that they have no necessity or obligation to share their affairs with ISKCON.

   Simply put, the so-called ISKCON GBC now has complete and total power over every aspect of practice, belief, moneys and property of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. If we consider profit and motive, we can conclude that the one and only reason that the Direction of Management was rejected at the outset was specifically so that the first GBC and their future recruits would be able to seize control of ISKCON, and particularly all of ISKCON’s money, properties and assets, for themselves.

   At the present moment the individual GBC members (some of whom are also gurus), such as Bir Krishna Swami, Jayapataka Swami, Gopal Krishna Swami, Romapada Swami, and many others, maintain private bank balances in offshore accounts that register in the multi millions, all donated by people who give money to ISKCON. There is no other source of income. There would be some leverage from the Temple Presidents against losing their precious donations to visiting members of the GBC, if they were not themselves employees on salary, expressly against the wishes of Srila Prabhupada, who stated that no officer in ISKCON may be paid wages – thus creating the compromised situation that exists in ISKCON today. It is also stated in the Direction of Management, page 4 that: “Removal of a Temple president by the GBC requires support by the local Temple members.”

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2. Saksi Gopal das says:

   31. May 2011 at 10:32 pm

   When a society loses its socialistic ideologies by accepting a top heavy bureaucracy, horizontal dialogue is lost, and with it goes transparency. Members are rendered blind, deaf, dumb and dependent on wage packets.

   Once a bureaucracy is established in a religious organization which operates under a tax exemption status, accountability is lost and the demarcation line between organized religion and organized crime grows evermore indiscernable to an apethetic membership, and totally invisible to a secular world……a criminal wonderland.

   Now imagine a Society with socialistic governance (no entrenched bureaucracy in sight;) with a governing body intellectually and philosophically refined via selection over time. Each member there due, not just for reasons mentioned, but also because they possess vision for the betterment of the Society; its goals and expansion, and acutely aware of the time in tenure to complete election promises made. Imagine a leadership with authority to form commissions and empowered investigative bodies that could demand transparency and accountability of peers and those who sat in office before them. Imagine a membership with the power to remove them if they did not. All we needs do is put Sri Krsna and Srila Prabhupada at the center of such a Society and socialism is transformed to – Spiritual Communism. It is exactly what Srila Prabhupada was saying back in ’71 when a group of young communists barged into his class in Kolkata, and were astounded to hear it.

   This is what His Divine Grace wanted when he so meticulously structured his Direction of Management. With the removal of the Direction of Management, criminals have had free reign to entrench their regime. The Direction of Management is a divine filter for the prevention and removal of the criminal element. Without its implementation the reputation of His Divine Grace and his Society will remain forever under contention in a confused world.

   However the Direction of Management will never fly honestly in a ‘vote for guru’ system. His Divine Grace certainly knew this. It is why we believe he NEVER would have appointed gurus in the wake of a document he crafted and registered…. only to be made redundant.

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3. Gautham Padmanabhan says:

   28. June 2011 at 9:56 pm

   Sarvam Krishna Mayam Jagat,

   I will humbly request each and every devotee of Lord Krishna in the World to march to the Great Hare Krishna Hill to proclaim solidarity to Sri Madhu Pandit Ji and his team.
   I have seen how American CIA Agents dress themselves as Gurus and engage in raping and molesting ISkcon Devotees.
   Madhu ji is a great visonary, he changed the mentality of people towards ISkcon…….
   Long Live ISkcon Bangalore
   and Big Nooooo to JayaPaaataka Swami and his Stupid Followers

   Reply