BY: B. RADHA-GOVINDA
Jul 12, 2011 — USA (SUN) — Dear Kesava Krsna prabhu, there is a very simple solution to your problem regarding certain “unpalatable” things getting posted to Sampradaya Sun: If you don’t like it, don’t read it. Simple. No one is forcing you to read any of the articles posted there. You make the choice to read them. Thus, if something is considered unpalatable by you, you certainly can refrain from reading it.
Srila Prabhupada defined “satyam” in His Bg 10.4 purport:
“Satyam, truthfulness, means that facts should be presented as they are for the benefit of others. Facts should not be misrepresented. According to social conventions, it is said that one can speak the truth only when it is palatable to others. But that is not truthfulness.
The truth should be spoken in a straight and forward way, so that others will understand actually what the facts are. If a man is a thief and if people are warned that he is a thief, that is truth. Although sometimes the truth is unpalatable, one should not refrain from speaking it. Truthfulness demands that the facts be presented as they are for the benefit of others. That is the definition of truth.”
Prior to the definition of satyam, Srila Prabhupada writes about asammoha:
“…freedom from doubt and delusion, can be achieved when one is not hesitant and when he understands the transcendental philosophy. Slowly but surely he becomes free from bewilderment. Nothing should be accepted blindly; everything should be accepted with care and with caution.”
Kesava Krsna prabhu, you mentioned how certain things posted on Sampradaya Sun hurt you. For instance:
“It appears that your ideas of free speech mean to help destroy the faith of disciples of ISKCON gurus. Since you are a Godbrother of those gurus, and therefore an uncle to their disciples, does it not cause you to wonder if your version of free speech might hurt them – emotionally and faith wise?”
Again, you and others are not being forced to read something you do not have to or want to read.
You’re making the choice to read them. So don’t read these articles. SS certainly has many other articles from which you can choose to read, which have nothing to do with this kind of subject matter.
But getting back to your statement: Have you ever thought of the reasons why the various devotees write what they do? It doesn’t seem to hurt you, that thousands!!! of serious bhakti-focused devotees have been forced out of ISKCON by the GBC and other authority figures for NO legitimate reason. This GBC “clearance” of godsiblings began in 1978, when ISKCON “Zonal Acarya” “gurus” decided to get rid of Srila Prabhupada’s disciples, and fill the temples with their “own”. Do you think Srila Prabhupada wasn’t being hurt? Do you think these devotees who got pushed out after rendering so many years of dedicated service weren’t being hurt? Maybe you might consider giving thought to the hurt that Srila Prabhupada felt to see these GBC members DESTROYING HIS, Srila Prabhupada’s ISKCON, and the hurt of those devotees being forced to leave because their Godbrothers took over ISKCON for themselves, and wanted no one who wouldn’t cooperated with their usurper “agenda”.
The GBC has made sure that the devotees have no recourse for addressing atrocities committed to them by the GBC. The so-called “Ministry of Justice,” is a useless “whatever” (farce) that has no function, other than a name of pretense of supposed “existence.” It is because of the fact that ISKCON has no facility (because the “in-charges” don’t want one) to address devotee grievances, that the devotees will write to Sampradaya Sun with their experiences and comments.
Are you aware, Kesava Krsna prabhu, that many devotees have committed suicide due to their frustration and grief over being pushed out of Srila Prabhupada’s ISKCON? Are you aware that many of them have gone back to drugs and drinking for these same reasons? Are you aware that though there are devotees who haven’t done these things, and are still able to follow the principles, and continue with their chanting, they are feeling so frustrated, and are in deep depression because they are being forced to live an isolated life in the non-devotee society with practically no personal devotee association?
You’re feeling hurt because you see articles written about or poems making fun of these people. You’ve expressed your thinking the possibility that some submissions may not be fully accurate, that some may be written out of envy.
Why don’t you think about the devotees who are writing these articles, poems and why they write them. Yes, there may be some devotees who write some things because of their feelings of envy, or maybe they didn’t write all the facts, but why would devotees be writing in, in the first place, if everything was “wonderful” in the land of Vaikuntha (ISKCON)?
You’re writing from South Africa. (2008 I was in South Africa.) Based on what I saw there in terms of ISKCON, I don’t think devotees there – other than reading things on the Internet – would have any idea of what’s really happened within ISKCON over the years. Because the ISKCON “authorities” provide NO faculty for their peers (who they threw out) to address anything within the ISKCON structure, your goduncles and other devotees have been forced (by ISKCON) to address their issues through the Internet so that they can at least write about things which they experienced, and discuss it with other devotees who went through similar experiences. Often it is a psychological healing for a person to know that s/he is not the only one who went through a particular experience.
Don’t you think the GBC read the Sampradaya Sun articles, as do you? (They do.) So if they were so concerned about Srila Prabhupada’s ISKCON, as opposed to their main concern for lining their own pockets and/or bank accounts, keeping their positions and power, don’t you think they would make appropriate arrangements to invite, meet with these devotees, and try to settle the various grievances? They don’t, and instead make it very obvious that they do not care to try to settle anything, nor do they care about what happened.
Have you ever wondered WHY it is that SO MANY of Srila Prabhupada’s disciples are gone?; that SO MANY disciples of the subsequent ISKCON gurus are gone?
The South African temples are comprised mainly of Indian-bodied people from South Africa. South Africa, has the highest population of Indian people outside of India, and they have kept their religious traditions more seriously than other Indian communities. So there are many Indian people coming to the ISKCON temples in South Africa.
But if you were to come to the USA, Canada, Europe, and other continents, you would see that the temples are very empty, with “imported” devotees living in the temples, the main attraction for their coming, being green cards and getting salaried. Some temples pay much more / better than others, including a yearly, or every six months, a trip back to India.
So Kesava Krsna prabhu, in essence, the blame for all of this (and much more) goes to the GBC.
You may want to keep a high sense of respect for liars, cheaters, thieves, child molesters, and even murderers – as some ISKCON leaders have arranged for the beatings, and even murders of other devotees, though I’m sure if you really knew what some of these GBC people have done, you would be giving it question.
May I take the liberty here to state that the two gurus you mentioned in your article are alleged to be guilty of the last two mentioned – responsible for having devotees beaten, and for arranging murders of devotees.
Your servant,
B. Radha-Govinda
Speak Your Mind