Kampala crisis.

[Guest guest]

hare krishna hare krishna krishna krishna hare hare hare rama hare rama rama

rama hare hare Camp:Sri Sri Radha Londonishwara Temple,Soho St,London W1D3DL

Tel:0044 207 437 3662 Mob:-07751196402 All Glories to Sri Guru and Sri

Gauranga

 

Dear Samkirtanaika Pitarau Das,

 

Hare Krishna!All Glories to Srila Prabhupada!

 

Thankyou for your letter. Please excuse the reply delay.I became too

involved in UK with nursing my apparently dying mother and all that

involved.I hope the situation is not out of hand and Umapati Prabhu has been

able to help the situation.

 

> I'm writing this emailon behalf of the devotees in the Temple in Kampala,

> Uganda.

> My name is samkirtanaika-pitarau das, disciple of HH Mahavishnu Swami, and

> am staying here in the temple to do service.

> The devotees approached me today with major concern about the situation in

> the temple. Phalguna prabhu left a few days ago for Kisumu and after that

> his travel to India. Since that day the trouble started between Ms. A

> Soekla and the devotees.

> They had problem with devotees entering the restaurant with dothi, and in

> their eyes, not properly dressed. I judged it myself and it's normal

> vaisnava standard if you ask me.

> Big Bihma prabhu also approached me to ask me to write this letter. At the

> moment he's being chaztized by Bijel in an, let's say, unpleasant matter.

> He's becoming fed up with the whole situation in the restaurant and has

> the urge to leave.

> Mrs. Soekla (Wife of Makesh) also told (after seeing the devotees in dhoti

> in the restaurant) that they had to leave the temple or go to the Farm.

> They weren't wished there any longer and should go. Two devotees were

> tollerated to stay (pujari) and someone else to take care of the temple.

> Of course the bhakta's refused and are still here.

 

Thankyou for getting involved with the local issues even though you are a

visiting student devotee writing a thesis on Social welfare activities in

Africa.I am sorry the situation is difficult.It is rather a raw introduction

to ISKCON's " social welfare activities" in Kampala.There are many cultural

issues which contribute to this as you can see.

 

My understanding is this.Because at the moment there is not a strong Krishna

conscious ISKCON leader in the Kampala temple Mrs Shukla now thinks she

has to take charge.Unfortunately though she is well intentioned she does not

have proper training in Krishna consciousness , knowledge of how ISKCON runs

and the aims of ISKCON in Africa.Actually we are trying to find ways to

train and engage the localpeople and make them devotees. Srila Prabhupada

clearly says this is the priority in Africa.

 

> Also there is no good understanding who is working for who here. Is the

> restaurant a part of the temple or is it not? Or is it the other way

> around?

 

Mrs Shuckla's husband Mukhesh is the Chairman of ISKCON Kampala and also he

is the Director of Shumuk, a cooporate of Companies in Uganda.Unfortunately

he feels his priority is to be busy with his Companies' management rather

than getting than the local ISKCON management issues concerning the

restuarant and temple.Therefore it seems his wife feels she should try and

manage.

 

**The whole building,Plot No 9, is legally ISKCON's property and Govinda's

is (unofficially) renting it from ISKCON and donating a regular amount to

maintain ISKCON programmes in the top floor***.In other words unfortunately

the regular maintenance of the ISKCON devotees is coming from Govindas not

any outside collections.If there was another income source or a healthy

sankirtan bringing in funds the restaurant would not be necessary but it

could be an ideal preaching centre on the ground floor. But at the present

if devotees interfere with the restaurant and create a bad`atmosphere they

are just biting the hand which feeds them.This should be understood clearly

by all the devotees of the temple.

 

So the devotees should leave the restaurant staff alone so that the

restaurant can peacefully make its profit to support the preaching

programmes.The devotees should steer clear of antagonising the restaurant

staff even if the restaurant devotees are misbehaving according to ISKCON

standards. It is a fact that presently the restaurant is not being run

according to all the standards Srila Prabhupada wanted .However neither is

the ISKCON temple up to all the standard. So the Temple devotees should not

be so self-righteous and be super tolerant until the situation can be

rectified.I hope that the ISKCON Regional Secretary Umapati can come and

help to arrange things better.

 

> Since there is lack of authority at the moment, there is lots of

> confusion and more troubles are being made then necessary. All of this

> calls for immediate attention before things get out of hand.

> I hope you are all able to do something, perhaps from a distance, perhaps

> personal. I feel to interact but I don't have a position to do so since

> I'm just here a few days and don't know the whole situation. Perhaps you

> could give me advice on what to do and I would do it on your behalf to be

> able to help out the temple.

 

Thankyou for writing and trying like this.It is a crash test for you in

African management as a newcomer.You seem to have understood the situation

quite well allready.But the only first resort is in the holy names and the

scriptures and service to Sri Sri Gaura Nitai. It requires super

tolerance.The situation is very complicated and has been an ongoing problem

for quite a while because there has been no qualified ISKCON leader.The main

thing though at the moment is that I think you should try and calm down the

upstairs ISKCON devotees party spirit and leave the Govinda's staff alone

as much as possible.Avoid confrontations. Remember the Mahabharat stories

..Although the Pandavas were continually unfairly provoked they avoided

military confrontation until there was finally no other choice and Krishna

sanctioned it.So devotees should act like this.

 

Presently I am in ignorance of how the maintenance money is being supplied

to the ISKCON temple.This is probably at the crux of the issue.I suspect

there is s strangle hold being applied somewhere.Please try and find out who

is handling the weekly maintenance money and tell me.It may be Thiru ,who

belongs to both the temple Temple and Govinda' restaurant.It would be good

if you can try and meet Mukhesh Shukla at the Shumuk factory and explain to

him what you see is happening.I am sure he would be happy to meet you.

 

Again thank you for your difficult service.May Krishna bless you with

knowledge how to deal with the devotees.Thank you.

 

Hoping that this finds you well in Krishna consciousness,

 

Your Wellwishing,

 

Mahavishnu Swami