Open letter to ISKCON leaders from gurukula alumnus

October 10, 1999

Letter from Jaya Nrisimhadeva Prabhu (Ragunatha) on Chakra.

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Dear Leaders of ISKCON,

Recently, because of all the talk of past abuse, several questions and

doubts have been popping into my head. Since these doubts concern

yourselves, I feel at least one, or some of you should be able to clear

them up for me. If not, I see no choice but to consider the present state

and collective consciousness of Iskcon to be far from the wishes and

teachings of Srila Prabhupada.

First, please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Raghunatha. I was

born into ISKCON Germany in 1975. From 1980-1985, I was sent to the

Vrindavana Gurukula between the ages of 5-10. You can basically say I am a

model case for ALL the abuse that went on there. And I can assure you, that

anything you may have heard or read on the VOICE web-site, is definately

not an exaggeration.

After I had not spoken a word for almost a year, the

Gurukula finally sent me home. I can't begin to explain the psychological

damage that this experience caused, but I can tell you where it took me.

After that experience I had strong troubles with authoritative figures,

especially in school, and therefore have never finished any schooling. My

youth was spent on drugs and cutting my arms open with razor blades. In the

end, I was living on the street, shooting drugs intravaneously, and eating

food from dumpsters. I had absolutely no desire to live, and was waiting to

overdose, get shot, or for something else exciting to happen. But, as I

was living dangerously like that, I tangibly experienced how Krsna saved me

from the brink of death on several occassions.

Through that, I started gaining faith again, and I even started chanting.

Soon, I started to read the books again. At one point, it finally dawned

upon me that actually, the experience I went through, had nothing to do with

Srila Prabhupada and the teachings of the movement.

I could finally accept the fact, that what

happenned was caused by individuals straying away from the teachings. This

gave me enthusiasim, and in the summer of 95, I joined the temple in

Germany. I figured that all this happened in the past, and it was forgotten

history. And wasn't it Vaisnava behaviour to be very forgiving, especially

to people who have offended one personally. So for the next 4 years I

served on the German TSKP. But sadly it seemed always more and more, that

the old mood of Iskcon was still lingering around. And after several

experiences with the leadership of ISKCON, I feel compelled to speak up.

My first concern is a certain Shatadhanya. This person used to be a

Sannyassi, and was caught molesting children in Mayapura back around the

same time as Bhavananda. Now my question is: Why is this same person

living in Mayapura, and getting a paid salary from ISKCON ? Actually I was

told why. Apparently he has such good connections with the local

authourities, so he was seen as indispensible. In fact he seems to be so

valuable to Iskcon, that he seems to be defending Iskcon in court on this

Ritvik issue. Is this true? Infact, he seems to have such great sanctions

from the temple, that he makes pizza for the devotees at the Mayapura

festival.

Maha Prasad Ki Jai ! So my real question is, how do you think

this makes an abuse victim feel. Try to think back to December 12th 1998,

when an ex-gurukuli hung himself from the Broadway Bridge in Portland

Oregon. I was living there in the temple at the time. I didn't have a

chance to talk to him. It is sad, considering that he was probably

conceived with all proper samskaras, and had he not had to go through such

a DRASTICALLY traumatic childhood, could have realized his birthright and

become a great help to this world.

Which brings me to my next question. How is it that the GBC did not make

it a top priority to see that the children were being properly taken care

of? Are not the children the flowers of a society? And like all flowers,

they need proper care, and delicate handling. Especially when they are just

baby saplings. One has to make all kinds of arrangements like proper

fertilizer, water, and lighting. Things like being raped, beaten, and

starved just don't seem very healthy for a childs growth. I mean, a person

who is supposed to be a transparent via-medium to the Lord automatically

sees Krsna in everyones heart.

So why so much unsensitivity to the children of Iskcon? I could understand

if a group were to make some mistakes in raising children. That always

happens. But to have a movement that proclaims to have the answer for all of

humanities troubles, make such fundamental, and tragic mistakes in

child-raising is beyond my comprehension. So maybe one of you can answer

this for me. Especially when I hear from older Germans how the Hitler-youth

camps were actually very fun, and most consider it to have been a wholesome

growing experience in their youth. Which is the least I can say about my

gurukula experience.

There is just one last little thing I would like to trouble you with

before I go. Maybe someone can speak up for Gopala-Krsna Maharaja, and

explain why he took the liberty to lie to a Times of India reporter on

Sri-Krsna Janmastami on September 2nd of this year. When the reporter asked

him about child abuse in Iskcon, he said that there had been SOME problem

in (an)? American Gurukula(s), but that it had been long corrected. It

would interest me to know if he was sitting in the Bombay temple room in

front Sri-Sri Radha-Rasabhihariji and Srila Prabhupada when he told this

obvious lie. Whatever the case. This is the straw that broke the camel's

back for me. You can count on my full cooperation and participation in the

upcoming court-case.

After 20 years of abuse of women and children by a society that claims to

have the highest material and spiritual values, makes me think justice MUST

come from the outside, to give a rude awakening to some obvious ignorant

mentality present in the collective consciousness of Iskcon. Therefore first

of all, let me offer my apologies to all sincere devotees of the Lord, but I

cannot take it anymore. How many more of us do you expect to take our lives

before we are heard ? And for those of you carrying a demoniac mentality

while wearing the guise of Vaisnavas, PREPARE TO DO SERIOUS BATTLE.

You can be sure Srila Prabhupada is standing behind us on this one. And if

he is behind us, I wonder Who else could also be on our side.

Hare Krishna, Raghunatha

October 10, 1999

<< So why so much unsensitivity to the children of Iskcon? I could understand

if a group were to make some mistakes in raising children. That always

happens. But to have a movement that proclaims to have the answer for all of

humanities troubles, make such fundamental, and tragic mistakes in

child-raising is beyond my comprehension. >>

I am not an authority, but I have discussed this issue in relation to

Vrndavana gurukula and have lived in Iskcon for 30 years.My understanding is

that it is more bad management, than bad people. Of course, this is not to

say that there weren't bad people. But good management trains good people and

stops bad people form doing bad things.

Leaders often cried out for help and didn't get it. Often they were put in

charge of services they were not qualified to perform. This is another sign

of bad management.

I think things expanded too fast for us to handle and thus some things got

out of hand. At the same time. I think some were too confident that they

knew what to do.

Another thing I have noticed is that in the earlier days of Iskcon,

materially qualilfied people often had a hard time communicating with and

working with less materially qualified because they valued spiritual

qualifications over material. This is another sign of bad management.

All of this brought unfortunate consequences.

This may sound harsh, but considering how Iskcon started and who it started

with, what happened was probably the only way it could have happened. I think

the real issue is how Iskcon now responds to the mistakes it made.

If Iskcon wants to rectify their mistakes and prevent them from happening

again, tearing it down to the ground in court may be counter productive It

may be that going to court will cripple Iskcon in such a way that whatever

effort they are making to improve the situation will fail or at be severely

handicapped.