Puranjana Prabhu: “Story of my Life 1978”

In 1978 I was living in England at the Bhaktivedanta Manor, under the then “guru” Jayatirtha Tirthapada (James Immel). The other ISKCON leaders had annointed Jayatirtha with the “Tirthapada” title, which means they were saying his feet are of the same quality as the sacred holy places of India such as Vrndavana. This is almost the same concept as the people who are described as washing the feet of Jesus in the Bible, since the feet of the guru are considered as sacred. Yet Jayatirtha was not happy being just “another member” of the sacred society of eleven gurus, he wanted to be the main and most important guru from amongst the eleven.

Therefore Jayatirtha began a public program of “displaying spiritually ecstatic states,” actually publicly “showing off” his alleged “higher state of consciousness” to his gullible followers. He was trying to convince his followers that he alone was allowed into the “inner sanctum” of divine love of God unlike the other ten gurus, who were not advanced enough to display these divine symptoms. Thus, when Jayatirtha would sit in his big huge “guru seat” he would begin to sing very loudly “songs to God” that often ended up sounding very out of tune, almost wailing like a drunken night club singer.

He also would not sing in time to the rythym of the drums and cymbals, and so his whole performance appeared as sort of “out of control.” Of course that was his intention, he wanted to make it appear as if he was in a state of “spontaneous” singing, so the tune and the beat would be lost. This performance developed into more and more bizarre exhibitions, until finally Jayatirtha was actually screaming loudly, wailing totally out of tune, and he would then suddenly burst off of his seat and jump into the crowds of his frenzied followers, like a rock and roll musician jumps into the crowd at a rock concert.

His followers of course thought that they were witnessing the highest states of love of God being performed by any person living on the planet. They thought, no one loves God to the extent that Jayatirtha does, so they considered themselves the most fortunate members of ISKCON since they clearly had the most advanced guru from the eleven. Unfortunately, instead of experiencing higher states of love of God, Jayatirtha was actually becomming intoxicated on drugs like: hash hish, LSD, marijuana, and psychotropics like the “Ecstacy” drug just before he went to sit in his giant guru seat. Therefore people were actually witnessing a highly intoxicated man who was halluncinating, and not a person who was on the actual platform of love of God.
Some of England’s “inner circle” managerial devotees knew that Jayatirtha was taking drugs and they reported this problem to other big ISKCON “guru” leaders, but nothing substantial was being done to remedy the problem. Gradually, it became evident that some of the “ten other gurus” were being very critical of Jayatirtha’s “ecstacy problem” — but only from behind the scenes, no direct action was being taken. I was baffled, why were all the other leaders of ISKCON allowing Jayatirtha’s public “ecstacy from drugs show” to continue — at all?

It became self evident that there was some sort of “guru clique” that would cover-up for one another for the purpose of keeping the whole “appointed eleven gurus” program afloat. If one of them was exposed in deviations, it would call into question the validity of the entire eleven “pure as God” guru’s program. Meanwhile ISKCON’s leaders main “advisor,” namely Sridhara Maharaja of Navadvipa India, said that ISKCON’s leaders must keep Jayatirtha in his guru post and that “none should protest.” This is because Sridhara Maharaja himself had since 1936 supported homosexuals and other deviants as gurus in India, thus Sridhara Maharaja always wanted to promote deviants posing as God’s messiah “guru successors.” So we were told to “keep quiet” on the advise of “Sridhara Maharaja: the main consultant for the eleven gurus.”
The followers of Jayatirtha simply thought that the criticism from the other ISKCON gurus towards Jayatirtha was more proof that their guru was more unique and specially qualified, and thus the other ten gurus were “simply envious” of the higher advancement of Jayatirtha. Needless to say, this was creating a big schism in the power structure of ISKCON’s management. The other leaders had not anticipated that one of their members would try to catapult himself ahead of the others by proving that he was “more advanced in ecstatic love of God” than the ten other gurus, and that drugs would be used as the vehicle to create these “divine visions of love of God.”

Simultaneous to the Jayatirtha crisis was the meltdown of ISKCON in France. Bhagavan das (William Erlichman) was the guru for France and he started another crisis by his iron fisted campaign to purge most of the original followers of Srila Prabhupada from ISKCON of France, and he initiated “the new people” as his own followers. What happened (as I recall) was that Bhagavan got some of his goons to knock on the doors of many of the Srila Prabhupada followers and demand that they leave ISKCON’s property within a few hours. Eventually, about one hundred devotees (including teeny babies and toddler children) ended up stranded at the Paris train station with no money for food, baby formula, diapers and of course, they had no travel money. Basically Bhagavan wanted to send a message: the slightest amount of disagreement with him would lead to drastic and immediate removal from ISKCON’s properties.
So this was the general policy, anyone who can not accept that these eleven are “pure devotee gurus” is going to be treated as a severe “enemy of ISKCON.” In fact some of Bhagavan’s followers were being trained to call Srila Prabhupada worshippers “envious snakes.” Notice what was happening, ISKCON’s little babies and toddler children were also driven to the Paris train station and abandoned with no food, supplies or money, and no one from the ISKCON leadership took strong action against Bhagavan for his heinous treatment of Srila Prabhupada’s family members and even children. So this was the atmosphere that was being generated, even babies and small children will become cannon fodder, ground up under the heels of the guru’s jackboots in their war against the worship of Srila Prabhupada.

As defective and even intoxicated as Jayatirtha was, he was at least somewhat merciful when compared to the other ten gurus. So he sent funds to the Paris train station to rescue the French devotees (along with their babies and children) who had been abandoned there by Bhagavan das, and he brought most of them back to England. The problem this caused was: these rescued devotees then became somewhat fanatical supporters of Jayatirtha once they came to England. They knew that without Jayatirtha’s support, they would have no standing at all in ISKCON, rather they would be kicked out onto the street within a second. Thus Jayatirtha sort of “purchased” their loyalty by helping them out, and it was then hard for me to try to convince members of this group that Jayatirtha had some major problems.

This was certainly a big issue in and of itself, many of the “rank and file” devotees had given ten or more years of their lives to ISKCON and so they had little abilitiy to “go back to the material world” and get a job and be independent, if they were suddenly removed from ISKCON. The Catholic church in medieval times also made people similarly conform to their ideas, or else the “doubters” would be put into economic, social and religious isolation. ISKCON’s big gurus after 1977 also isolated those who doubted that they were the next messiahs from heaven. In sum, people were coerced to cooperate with the bogus eleven’s guru program, as we eye-witnessed over and over.

I actually visited the Paris temple a number of times when conducting business for Spiritual Sky incence of UK. I was amazed that the stinking and leaking trash bags were once again being piled up over six feet high near the front door, filling up the foyer hallway. The French government had already come in once and taken away the trash, and fined the temple a large sum of French Francs for bringing rodents into the neighborhood. Yet despite being fined and publicly humiliated, again here was the trash being piled up. Again! I tried to talk to the temple president about this matter, but he turned out to be a very young man, obviously he had no managerial skills. Bhagavan was driving out the experienced senior devotees and replacing them with his young, untrained new people.

When I tried to take a shower in the morning at the Paris temple, the shower was a sunken floor type which was filled up with very dirty water, so the plumbing was out of order. Again! I dreaded the idea of even walking into this water, it was so filthy. I asked, “How can the pujaris (temple priests) stay clean here”? “Well, they cannot really get clean,” was the answer. I asked, “How can Bhagavan stand living here”? “Well, he never stays here, he stays at the four star hotel down the road,” was the answer. “Does Bhagavan know this temple smells like rotten trash and the plumbing is not working”? “Well yes, but he says we need to perfom austerities.”

Notice, Krishna’s deity can live in a rotting, stinking and leaking trash bags heap with no bathing and cleaning facilities, while Bhagavan gets to live in the nearby four star hotel with maid service, giant television, giant bath room with all amenities, and servants giving him massages and so on. Where were the rest of the big ISKCON leaders to fix this problem? Nowhere in sight! In fact, they thought Bhagavan was one of their stellar members, doing a great job!

So this was the “trend and tendency,” some of their biggest temples were falling into disrepair, the conditions could even become unsanitary, but meanwhile “the big guru” like Bhagavan was riding around in a large BMW, living at a nice hotel. Satsvarupa was also famous for staying at Howard Johnson hotels in the USA. So this independent, separated and opulent housing for “the gurus” began to emerge. Jayatirtha purchased an expensive, big and opulent house near the manor for his “separate residence” as well. Even today many of these big gurus have their own private facilities, or they are going to college and so on and so forth. How can they “manage the society” when do not even participate, and / or they are living separate from the society? So this question was already emerging early on, even as early as 1979. Typically, tyrants, mad cult leaders, dictators and the like, they always seem to have their own opulent and separated facility, while the masses live in squalor and poverty. ISKCON was becomming a third world tyrannical dictatorship.

Meanwhile, around this time in the USA the zone of Ramesvara (Robert Grant) had a big drug operation that was unravelling (as quoted from Nandini’s research): “Laguna Beach temple president Rishabdev made the necessary introductions for those who wanted to become smugglers. Despite the moral questions involved in such practices, some devotees willingly risked their freedom for the promise of quick financial independence and the ability to support chosen projects.

In late 1977 the devotee – dealers became irritated that some associates were embezzling from PDI “Prasdam Distribution International” [the Laguna Beach money laundering operation]. They hired five Italian enforcers who were — unbeknownst to them — members of the federal witness protection program under orders to infiltrate PDI. In time, two of the Italian gangsters grew impatient with Stephen Bovan, a PDI “employee” who owed them money. They urgently wanted Bovan to pay so they could reimburse federal agents for fronted cocaine.

To raise money, Bovan kidnapped Alexander Kulik and extorted $100,000 in ransom from PDI, but instead of paying his debt, he kept the money. The protected witnesses reacted by shooting him nine times in front of a Newport Beach restaurant. Local law enforcement officials solved the case in a matter of days when they found the getaway car, a customized green and white Cadillac convertible, for sale in a used car lot. High-powered attorneys helped clear the devotees of murder charges; the two notorious protected witnesses disappeared before the trial.” p. 63 Notice: money for high powered lawyers was always available while money for baby food and diapers almost disappeared in Bhagavan’s zone, and children were being starved in other locations.

Nandini dasi: I looked over the old clippings and filed them, so I was aware that a drug murder had taken place just when I met devotees in Santa Barbara. It never occurred to me that dealing was still going on, but yet another drug bust happened . . . For the second time in two years, authorities arrested Rishabdev, Dridhavrata, and others in Laguna Beach. This latest bust, an undercover operation of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), happened in November 1979, just in time for the first anniversary of Jonestown. The Orange County Register announced the news on its front page with the headline “Krishna Hash Bust: Eleven Indicted in Orange County Crackdown.”

Similar headlines appeared in the Los Angeles Times and other papers, but “Krishna Hash Bust” was unique for its size and its tabloidlike impact. The Register later called the drug-smuggling ring one of the largest in Southern California history. They were right about the Hare Krishna connection, too, even though the P.R. office denied it. At the time I didn’t know that in the 1970s ISKCON accepted money from a number of different drug-dealing operations. p. 65

And not too surprisingly, some of these high powered drug dealing PDI folks had intimate friendly connections with Jayatirtha who was also from the Los Angeles temple, thus some the PDI folks wanted to flee to England. Lets face it, people like Jayatirtha and other ISKCON leaders knew very well about the PDI drug program before the big newspaper’s expose, public “drug bust” and murder occured. I recall some big wheel from PDI walking around the Bhaktivedanta Manor with Jayatirtha, so the ISKCON leaders knew about the PDI operation and they knew who was involved. Also notice, Ramesvara and Jayatirtha were never taken to task by the other gurus for allowing this to occur. To sum, the criminal aspect was increasing.

Baby rescue program
Jayatirtha and Bhagavan became involved in a “my chateau is bigger than your manor” competition. Bhagavan purchased Chateau D’ Oblaise and so Jayatirtha had to buy a bigger place, Croome Court. Once again, there was ample money to buy huge castles but not enough money to buy basic necessities for the devotees. I visited Bhagavan’s chateau in the middle of winter and I was struck at how cold, damp, dark and miserble the place was. It was sort of like being in a dark castle from a horror movie.

I was already freeezing and shivering and the stone floor was like an ice cube. I went to take a shower at 4am, and the water too was icy freezing cold, not even luke warm. Later that morning I was invited to attend a meeting with Bhagavan in his office. Entering his office was like opening the door to a tropical island. There was a roaring fireplace, deep pile carpets so our divine holy guru Bhagavan’s precious little feet would not get cold, and there was Bhagavan himelf sitting in a giant sutffed chair. It was actually hot in there! I felt like I’d gone from the north pole to the Bahamas in five seconds.

Around this time, the wife of Haribolananda was living there as well, her name I think was Kamalakanti. She was only nineteen years old herself and she had a two years old baby daughter. Kamalakanti grew very tired of the eternal coldness, they lack basic supplies and even diapers for her baby. She also complained about the lack of her own needs — like a box of Tampax. So she “blooped” (left ISKCON) with her baby daughter and went back to England to live with her mother. The mother then helped Kamalakanti get legal custody of her baby girl. Then Haribolananda and his friend went back to England and forcibly knocked over Kamalakanti’s mother and grabbed the baby, and then they sped off in a car back to the ISKCON property in France. Bhagavan was apparently helping this escapade since Haribolananda was reputed to be on the France ISKCON property.

So this became “an international scandal news story,” picked up by the newspapers in Europe: “Krishna Kid Kidnapped.” Jayatirtha was of course being phoned all the time by the police, Scotland Yard, and many European news agencies about the situation. So he was getting very frustrated. Then Jayatirtha called me into his office and he said, “Puranjana, you are the only one I can trust with this job, you have to go to France and get that baby, and get her back here to the manor, so we can hand off that baby back to the mother.” I felt very sad for Haribolananda of course, since now his daughter was probably going to be raised in the regular mundane society, at the same time the child needed better facility, so I sympathized with the mother’s plight as well.

So I drove to Paris and Bhagavan had convinced Haribolananda to hand the baby over to me. Then I drove back to England with the baby, and my wife Isvari came along to baby sit. And it was surprising that the customs agents did not even ask us for any paperwork for the baby. They already knew who the baby was from the newspaper’s stories. So they smiled and waved us on, knowing we were on a mission to return the baby. By the time I got to the manor there were hundreds of news reporters and photograpers on the site, and I was reluctant to drive through their gauntlet.

Someone then came out and said that due to all the media frenzy, Kamalakanti wanted to meet me privately. So I had to loose all these news people and meet her at a Hotel. She was thankful for my help, but evidently very fried with the Krishna religion. Anyway her story was then printed in the European media, that she could not get basic baby supplies while living at the Krishna campus. And I am the bad guy who is creating a publicity problem? Notice, the householders, the women, the children and even babies are being ejected from ISKCON, and a very dubious “celibate male” program peppered with homosexuals has been taking control. Normally, when there is a crisis, the women and children are given protection first of all. They get the first round of life jackets and prime seats in the lifeboats, but in the post – 1977 ISKCON scenario, the women and children are tossed into the frigid waters and the big strong men are sitting by the fireplace — watching the women and children drowning. In short, the anti-women, children and family, and pro-bogus celibate male program was taking root.