Der Kreide Kreis (The Circle of Chalk)

BY: PADMAGARBHA DAS

Jun 23, 2011 — NORTH CAROLINA, USA (SUN) — The German playwright, Bertold Brecht wrote a play based on an ancient story (biblical perhaps), called “Der Kreide Kreis (The Circle of Chalk). The play tells of two women claiming to be the mother of the same infant child. to solve this dilemma, the two women and the child were brought before the village elder.

The ‘elder’ requests for a small circle to be drawn on the floor, with a piece of chalk, and he then orders the child to be placed within that circle. He then instructs both women to each take one hand of the child and proceed to pull the child out of the circle! And he declares that whoever succeeds in pulling that child out of the circle, will be the mother.

The two women start pulling on the child’s hands. As the child starts screaming in agony, from being almost torn in half, one of the women lets go of the child, while the other woman triumphantly pulls the child to her chest, proclaiming to be the child’s mother!

The ‘village elder’ at that point asks the woman who had released the hand of the child, “Why did you let go?”, upon which the woman replied, “I could no longer take the crying of the child!” The “Elder”, in response to that woman’s answer declares, “You are the mother of that child!”

In the case of ISKCON in general, and the Bangalore Temple in particular, we are witnessing a very similar scenario! In the ‘play ‘, one of the women is so determined to “possess”, to “control” the child’s body , even if her ‘victory’ results in the child suffering great pain, or even if it means the departure of that child’s soul from it’s body!

The controllers of ISKCON, it’s gurus, the GBC, and the Sannyasis, all have demonstrated over the past years to have the identical consciousness as the woman in Bertold Brecht’s play! In the past, and now again in the case of the Bangalore Temple they are making it clear that they don’t care whether or not ISKCON, Srila Prabhupada’s body, lives or dies! Their only ambition is to be the “controllers” of the institution of ISKCON, it’s buildings, and all other assets! They view everything Srila Prabhupada left us to only exist for the enjoyment of their senses!

As early as 1978 did it become most apparent that ‘severing’ the institution of ISKCON from Srila Prabhupada’s instructions, from Srila Prabhupada himself, was responsible for the exodus of the ‘life force’ of this movement, from the body of ISKCON. And that ‘life force’ was (is) the 1000’s (over 95%) of empowered devotees, empowered by Srila Prabhupada due to their desire to please him.

And this is exactly what these demonic ‘leaders’ of ISKCON are again attempting to achieve in Bangalore!

The Bangalore Temple is filled with hundreds of devotees who have dedicated their lives to serving His Divine Grace. Their accomplishments are unrivaled by the totality of “ISKCON”. They distribute more Prasadam in one day than all of ISKCON does in an entire year! (And whether ISKCON distributes any significant amount of Prasadam is questionable!? Offering bhoga to the pictures of conditioned souls, that actually being “idol worship”, that is hardly the process for transforming ‘matter’ into ‘spirit’!)

Also, the Bangalore devotees, if I am not mistaken, distribute more of Srila Prabhupada’s books than all of ISKCON combined. And if these King Venas of ISKCON succeed in their legal manuevering, it will unquestionably result in the “soul” of the Bangalore Temple, the empowered devotees, along with their wonderful service, departing the Temple. And very likely even the congregation will express their outrage with their feet! What will be left of the Bangalore Yatra will be only bricks and mortar, fully resembling the rest of this movement.

And just as the ‘fictional’ gurus of ISKCON have attempted to do with the institution over the last 30 years plus, they will uselessly endeavor to bring life into the “corpse” of the Bangalore Temple. But just like the fictional Dr. Frankenstein, all they’ll be capable of creating is just another Frankenstein monster.

I live in ‘Prabhupada Village” in North Carolina, and just like the situation in Bangalore, we also are presently experiencing the curse of ‘heartless ambitions’, by those anxious to please the Kali Chelas ruling ISKCON. Through deceit and treachery, the ISKCON loyalists (only two families) have managed to take control of our Temple board. And an attempt by the members of our community to call for a more representative Temple board (approximately 50% of the devotees are Rtviks, 15% GBC supporters, 15% Tripurari followers, and the rest “neutral” ex-disciples of Harikesa, etc.), that request was rebuffed with arrogance and insults.

The result: 80% of the devotees have chosen to no longer participate in the Temple functions. And, unfortunately, that mood on part of these devotees in turn is being exploited, being taken advantage of, by the two families who have “prostituted” themselves at the feet of Tripurari! These families are now facilitating alternative Sunday and festivals programs, with the obvious intent of steering people away from Srila Prabhupada, into the cult of Tripurari.