ISKCON Bangalore: Verdict Will Speed Up Theme Park

By Shyamaprasad, Jun 14, Bangalore: ISKCON Bangalore head Madhu Pandit dasa tells S. Shyamprasad that work on Krishna Leela Theme Park on Kanakapura Road will go into top gear with the court ruling that his temple is independent. Madhu Pandit dasa, the Governing Body Commissioner of ISKCON Bangalore Group of Temples, was in Mysore on Saturday where Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa was scheduled to inaugurate an ISKCON centre. It was a spiritual and cultural mission just like any other day, without much time for debating over a city civil court’s verdict that the ISKCON temple in Bangalore is independent, even though it was a big day for ISKCON’s main dividing question. He spoke to Bangalore Mirror:

Does the court verdict ease the day to day functioning of ISKCON-Bangalore?
The court had earlier ordered that we could incur expenditure on all essentials within a limit of Rs 5 lakh. Recently we wanted to build a rope way at the temple and the cost exceeded the limit. We had to take the court’s permission. But from now on, there will be no such problem. If the electricity bill is Rs 6 lakh tomorrow we need not go to the court to take permission to pay it.

Is it the end of the legal battle?
They (ISKCON-Mumbai) have already appealed against the civil court’s judgement. During the 90-day trial, the court examined 600 documents and the judgement alone was 300 pages long. There will obviously be no trial in the upper court and it is likely to be only a question of law. This is a major victory for us. Lakhs of devotees are overjoyed at the court’s order. The rank and file of devotees have realised that God’s blessings are with us.

Has the question of Ritvikism been answered?
The court was dealing with the ownership issue. But the theological question is the basic reason why we had to fight them. Some Westerners have imposed themselves as acharyas. But we continue to consider Acharya Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada as the only Acharya. There have been constant attacks on us due to this. But the court verdict has also given us a moral victory in this regard. Only 200 of the 10,000 disciples initiated by Acharya Prabhupada are inside the organisation now. The rest were thrown out by the self-styled acharyas. All of them will come back now.

Has the long legal battle affected the programmes of ISKCON-Bangalore?
Not really. We started Akshaya Patra in 2001. It was just months after the suit was instituted. To begin with only 1,500 children were covered. Today the Akshaya Patra feeds one million children all over India and four lakh in Karnataka alone.

The Krishna Leela Theme Park has not progressed since its announcement.
The government has given us 30 acres of land on Kanakapura road. The legal battle had held up developments in this project. This is a huge project and the construction will be five times bigger than the Hare Krishna Hill temple. Already Rs 4-5 crore has been spent on the design itself. On Janmashtami day this August the ground breaking ceremony will be held. The project will cost Rs 350 crore.

The project also involves commercial development.
It is a huge project. If the construction happens only with donations it will take 10 years to complete. But we are developing land around the area and creating surplus money. This money will be used for the theme park and it will be completed in only three years.

Man on a mission
Madhu Pandit dasa (formerly Madhusudan S.) is the 52-year-old Governing Body Commissioner of ISKCON Bangalore Group of Temples. He is also the President and Governing Council member, ISKCON Bangalore Society, Temple President, ISKCON Sri Radha Krishna Mandir, Bangalore, Chairman of the Akshaya Patra Foundation and managing trustee of the Hare Krishna Movement. He is an alumni of IIT-Mumbai, where he completed his BTech in civil engineering.

He became a full time member of ISKCON while studying for his MTech in IIT-Mumbai. Soon he was made the President of ISKCON, Trivandrum. By 1983, he was looking after the activities of ISKCON, Bangalore. He himself designed the Sri Radha Krishna Mandir in Rajajinagar on 6.5 acres land given by the government. ISKCON-Bangalore grew in popularity rapidly. Madhu Pandit dasa initiated the organic farmer training centre in Srirangapatna, which teaches farmers organic agriculture and self-sufficient farming. The mid-day meals programme for government school children, ‘Akshaya Patra’, was also his idea. Today the programme feeds 10 lakh children across India on a daily basis.

Religious Wrangling
After 90 days of day-to-day trial, a city civil court has ruled that ISKCON-Bangalore is the sole owner of the Sri Radha Krishna Temple in the city. The court has also fined ISKCON-Mumbai Rs 27.78 lakh for initiating the suit and ordered it not to interfere in the affairs of the Bangalore body. This means that ISKCON-Bangalore is an independent body separate from the society registered in Mumbai. The disposal follows an earlier Supreme Court directive that day-to-day hearing of the trial be held. With this verdict a nine-year-old legal battle has reached the climax. However, ISKCON-Mumbai has appealed against the order of the civil court that ISKCON-Bangalore is the owner of the Sri Radha Krishna temple in the city. But the question now is only of legal validity and another trial is unlikely.

ISKCON-Bangalore always held that it is an independent society registered in Karnataka and not part of ISKCON-Mumbai, where some Westerners had taken over the post of Acharya. The matter had also reached the Karnataka High Court and the Supreme Court over financial spendings by the Bangalore body. The High Court and Supreme Court had permitted the ISCKON-Bangalore to carry on their religious and other charitable activities and incur essential expenditure. After months of trial, judge K.S. Balakrishna has ruled that ISCKON is an independent body and the owner of the Sri Radha Krishna Temple, Hare Krishna Hill and other properties.

THEOLOGICAL QUESTION

Ritvikism, or more simply continuing to consider ISKCON Founder-Acharya A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, as the initiating guru, even after his death is the theological question that divides the ISKCON. The Bangalore body with Madhu Pandit dasa and other followers opposed the self-appointed gurus of ISKCON after the passing away of A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada in 1977.

In 1990, ISKCON’s governing body ruled that anyone practicing Ritvikism cannot be a member of ISKCON. It was of the opinion that Prabhupada himself asked his disciples to become gurus after his death. Madhu Pandit dasa and the Bangalore body broke away on this question. Today ISKCON-Bangalore with its 17 centres across India continues to consider Prabhupada the initiating guru. “Prabhupada initiated 10,000 disciples. A handful of them became gurus themselves and threw out the others. All those thousands of true followers will come to us now,” Madhu Pandit das says.