Save K.B. temple Vrindavan(Prabhupada's Home) and The Bramcharies

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 4/19/2004 1:40:16 AM Eastern Standard Time,

Visnu.Mohan.RGM (AT) pamho (DOT) net writes:

 

YOU MUST BE KNOWING ABOUT THE GURUKULA SITUATION(CHILD ABUSE BY THE WESTERN

DEVOTEES)

EXCUSE ME, DEAR IGNORANT ONE, THE ABUSE WAS NOT AT ALL PERPETRATED BY "THE

WESTERN DEVOTEES" ONLY. THE "INDIAN DEVOTEES" DID THEIR FAIR SHARE AND THEN

SOME.) YOU COME OFF AS AN IMMATURE INDIVIDUAL, SO I SUPPOSE, LIKE A CHILD IS

EXCUSED, IN SOME WAYS , YOU MUST BE EXCUSED. SRILA PRABHUPADA INSTRUCTED THAT

ONE

CAN SAY ANYTHING BUT IT SHOULD NOT BE PUT INTO WRITING. YOU WOULD DO WELL TO

FOLLOW THAT PRINCIPAL.

[Guest guest]

Dear Abhiram Prabhu, PAMHO. AGTSP!

 

I had the same initial reaction upon reading the text of the signed

agreement, but fortunately I spoke to Devaki Prabhu on the phone and got a

clarification. My understanding is that either it was a mistake in the email

typing or maybe a miscomposition of the agreement itself. What the ISKCON

officials signing meant to do was simply acknowledge that these particular

devotees had this particular request, and that the request would be taken up

by the appropriate authorities at the appropriate time.

 

Don't ask me why it got sent out the way it did. But I did want to relieve

the dozens of receivers of your email that at least it was not what it

appeared to be.

 

Devakinandana Prabhu has to be more careful with his writing in the future,

but I guess he was all alone in Vrindaban at the time, what with the

summertime hiatus and the Kumbha Mela, and had no one to check with.

 

Your servant, Bhaktarupa Das

 

 

> Devakinanda Prabhu,

>

> Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

>

> Although I am a bit closer to India and Vrindaban than many who received

> this letter, I am still very perplexed by what you have said. Perhaps I am

> completely misunderstanding, so please be kind if I am wrong here, but;

>

> Firstly, you seem to describe clearly that these 'devotees' as you call

> them, are actually hindu racists intent on forcing their 'rights' on

> ISKCON. I have no difficulty understanding this, because India remains

> strongly racist, as does most countries of the world. In the case of

> ISKCON, there is a strong resentment and envy amoung some of the extremely

> neophyte Indian trainees. Unfortunetly, the gurus who initiated them do

> not always take responsability to teach them the a-b-cs of Krishna

> Consciousness and I have been personal witness to some so called ISKCON

> guru insighting this anti-foriegn envy. Out of greed for their own

> comforts, some gurus fill our temples with people who Srila Prabhupada

> definitely did not want inside the establishment. Srila Prabhupada,

> actually did not want the uneducated villagers and directly made

> statements to this effect. He wanted a truly international society, which

> hindus could never achieve, due to their petty racist mentality. Srila

> Prabhupada was neither a hindu, nor an Indian, he was a true Vaishnava

> whose mission was to spread Krishna Bhakti to all countires and peoples.

>

> Of course you know this very well, and have explained this problem with

> good insights into Srial Prabhupada's mission, yet the conclusion of your

> informative letter leaves me in shock! How could you compromise our

> society, at the expense of senior Vaishnavas who are worthy of our

> worship? I quote the confusing sentences here:

>

> <3. Divya Purush Das and some other devotees are requesting the management

> <that the following devotees be requested not to take managerial

> <responsibility in Vrindavana though they are encouraged to stay and serve

> <in

> <Vrindavana. This decision should be finalized by Janmastami 2004 :

>

> <1. Deenabandhu Das

> <2. Brihat Mridanga Das

> <3. Braja Bihari Das

> <4. Rupa Raghunath Das

> <5. Dhananjaya Das

>

> <This agreement was signed by the following:

> <Gopal Krishna Goswami, Devakinandan Das, Mahaman Das, Janardan Das,

> <Ganapati Dasa, Divya Purusha Das, Vishnu Mohan Das, Radharaman Swami

>

> Devaki and all of you who signed this disgraceful cowardly and offensive

> pettition: I hope you will run to these senior disciples of Srila

> Prabhupada and beg their forgiveness and also ask them to teach you how in

> future, you can have proper discrimination and courage in Srila

> Prabhupada's service. This is my sincere advise! Unless you have written

> this letter incorrectly, or unless I have grossly misunderstood it, you

> had better pray that your own devotional creeper is not seriosly harmed by

> participating in this offensive folly.

> <Kindly give your valuable advice of what to do if they go on strike again

> <INSIDE. I have spoken to their guru, HH Radha Govinda Maharaja, prior to

> <this letter, and he said these guys are independent and really don't

> <listen.

> <Your servant,

> <Devakinandan dasabut

> Devaki Prabhu, of all the men who signed, I am most surprised by your

> signature, because you are generally courageous and bold in Prabhupada's

> service. I am not surprised by the signature of GKG, since compromise is

> his speciality, but you should have stood strong. My advise (unfortunetly

> for all in this chain, you have asked my advise) is to stand on Srila

> Prabhupada's principles and do not compromise on these important issues.

> We will end up like we were in the Killan days, when our own chowkidhars

> could beat even woman devotees freely inside our Krsna Balaram Temple and

> the Vrindaban Pandas used our guesthouse for illegal and immoral

> activities, freely.

> I was also told by GKG that these men threatened to complain (or already

> have) to the FRO, in order to get these vaishnavas thrown out of India. If

> I am not mistaken, the GBC had years ago made clear that this kind of

> blackmail would be viewed as a most serious crime in ISKCON and those

> doing it would be totally barred. I hope I have added some food for

> thought on the above issues. I know my extreme positions are often

> unpleasant, but I was in India, under Srila Prabhupada and I must speak

> the truth when you ask me. If you find my answers unpalatable or untrue,

> you may always avoid asking me in future.

> I have great hope for you, Devaki and pray that you will accept my

> chastisement in the spirit of training. This was something we once valued

> in ISKCON.

> ABhirama Das

>

> > My dear Basu Ghosh prabhu and other RGB Members,

> >

> > Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

> >

> > > Would you be so kind as to let the members of the RGB know just what

> > > is the problem there at Vrindavan, so that our ignorance in this

> > > regard is dispelled?

> > Actually there is no problem in Vrndavana. These two individuals, Divya

> > Purusha das and Visnu Mohan das, are the disciples of HH Radha Govinda

> > Maharaj. They left the temple on their own about a year ago. They stay

> > outside. Now they want to come inside, but they don't know how to do.

> > So with their intelligence, they decided to put pressure on management

> > in this dramatic way.

> >

> > I will reply and inform everybody about the situation here in three

> > parts: a. The situation before the new management came

> > b. The situation today

> > c. Points of the letter

> >

> > a. You were all aware of the situation of Vrndavana about the devotees'

> > fruitive mentality, commission-consciousness and harrassment of every

> > visitor for money. There was very poor sadhana, and theft was rampant;

> > Cheap initiations, free mixing of men and women, independent movement

> > everywhere and anywhere (going off to see rasa dance, any bhagavat

> > septa, taking people around to the holy places and pocketing the money),

> > big financial mess, no accountability, much misbehavior by some of the

> > pujaris, ex-gurukuli's getting drugs everywhere, ad nauseum. Therefore

> > the GBC investigation committee brought the new management.

> >

> > b. When the new management came, our council was established with 7

> > senior devotees. Each policy and decision in the council was made to

> > bring back the good name of ISKCON Vrndavana and Srila Prabhupada. We

> > instituted many things where we found things not up to the mark, e.g.

> > 1. Compulsory attendance of morning program til 9 o'clock, and 6-8

> > hours service by the temple residents. You will be surprised to know

> > that there are some devotees who were only seen at prasadam time, and

> > they now come to all the programs and are still here.

> > 2. All the money which is collected has to be deposited in account,

> > and the computerized account dept. was set up under the supervision of

> > Krishnaswami, the all-India auditor.

> > 3. We stopped all the commission on LM and book distribution.

> > 4. We did attempt to close down unauthorized shops which were

> > simply for personal gain of individual devotees.

> > 5. We did establish that no brahmacari should freely mix with women

> > or play with children.

> > 6. We stopped all independent programs of going to rasa dances,

> > hearing bhagavat septas, taking people around for Braj Darshan and

> > pocketing the money for their services and going around wherever they

> > want instead of going to the evening program.

> > 7. We formed the policy that no more marriages and householders

> > will be maintained by the temple.

> > 8. Temporarily, we put a hold on recruiting new bhaktas, and

> > started vigorous college preaching. To this result, we got a report

> > today that our college preacher, Shyama Hari prabhu, got the permission

> > to teach BG and Teachings of Queen Kunti in BITS Pilani and in IIT

> > Kanpur. 9. We never asked any devotee to leave the temple. We did

> > formulate the rule that anyone who wishes to come here MUST give a

> > letter from their temple and get approved by the VAC (Vrndavana

> > Administrative Council).

> > 10. We also made a policy that if any devotee leaves the temple for

> > a reason only know by them, and if they wish to come back, they have to

> > get approval from VAC.

> >

> > There were many more policies made, which was approved by the VEB

> > (Vrndavana Executive Board--the GBC council here).

> >

> > c. Letter of the strikers, answered point by point

> >

> > > 1. As the new management came into administration in May 2002 the

> > > problems started immediately after that.

> > > 2. Our biggest problem is that we are never provided with the proper

> > > facilities. Lot of partiality we always face while staying in the

> > > temple. This is necessary to mention here that most of the devotees

> > > suffer but they don't come forward because of their cowardliness

> > > behavior. Now the time has come to show our unity and get our

> > > legitimate rights. We never get the same priority or facility in

> > > comparison to the western devotees. We bramcharies never want to have

> > > any bad feelings against our brothers. Only the behavior of our

> > > management forces us to think the bodily difference between them and

> > > us.

> > This is baseless, and only grounded on the bodily consciousness of these

> > individuals, like any normal racists. We understand there is a problem

> > of accomodation. And we are planning to build a brahmacari ashram with

> > prasadam hall, better facility for pujari ashram, Deity kitchen, devotee

> > kitchen, more guestrooms. Dhananjaya prabhu from Ahmedabad, a well

> > known architect, has made the design, which has VEB approval. There are

> > some adjustments to be made, and hopefully, we are going to start the

> > construction by Kartika.

> >

> > > 3. Management threw out almost 80 devotees out of the temple in last 2

> > > years. Now their latest tactic is that they are trying to remove all

> > > the devotees out of the ashram and shift them to some other place away

> > > from the temple. On one side they talk of our spiritual standards

> > > should go high and on the other side they are trying to put us away

> > > from the temple. If we will not be able to attend to temple programs

> > > because we will be living at a distant place. Their plan is to shift

> > > us in a rented place and later on not pay the rent of that place so

> > > automatically we will be out of our spiritual life. These 60 devotees

> > > will also meet the same fate what the other 80 devotees are facing.

> > > Most of them are living on road side's and begging alms and somehow

> > > managing their living. Many of them are trying to join Narayan

> > > Maharaj's Place. Some of them went back to their karmi(material) life.

> > > We think that this is the biggest sinful act done by the management.

> > First of all, we have thrown out NO ONE. But there were many devotees

> > who could not follow the standard and did move out. Divya Purush and

> > Visnu Mohan were among them. It's true that we want to purchase Prthu

> > prabhu's ashram next door for an ASHRAM COLLEGE, to educate the

> > devotees. And we were discussing that temporarily we could move the

> > brahmacaris there til the brahmacari ashram is built on the Kedia Land.

> > The Gurukula wanted the full space of their building in order to be self

> > sufficient. They were planning to have 500 kids total. Everything was

> > depending on getting Prthu's land, not renting some space somewhere.

> > All this was discussed in an isthagosthi. When the brahmacaris heard

> > this they all became inspired and enthused. But people with vested

> > interests like Divya Purusha, Visnu Mohan and others living outside,

> > confused and misled the resident brahmacaris. And to this effect they

> > got signatures from the boys that they did not wish to move out of the

> > brahmacari ashram. To get everyone's attention, these strikers have

> > made other baseless claims that some went over to another camp. In

> > fact, they themselves pulled in a couple Narayan Maharaj devotees to sit

> > in their hunger strike.

> >

> > >4. Brihat Mridanga Das our President from South Africa is

> > > really demon wearing saffron. He always prefers western devotees and

> > > keeps on telling that this temple was made from the foreign funds so

> > > only western people should be living here. The so called

> > > bramchari(Brihat Mridanga Das) stays in A.C. room of the guest house

> > > and gets special prasadam. He can not bear the summer as well as

> > > winter of Vrindavan. Nine months of the year he is out of Vrindavan.

> > > How somebody can manage the temple when he is not present in

> > > Vrindavan most of time. For a long time he stopped hindi Srimad

> > > Bhagawat Gita and Srimad Bhagawatam classes. When we protested the

> > > classes were again started after long time. He always implements such

> > > regulations that the devotees feel frustrated and they leave the

> > > temple. He repeatedly says only English speaking devotees are needed

> > > in the temple(this was never Prabhupada's Program). His travelling

> > > expenses are a big burden on the temple. The Indian devotees who are

> > > close to him they get special facilities but the others always suffer.

> > > He introduced a new form. He used such a language in that form, no

> > > where it was mentioned that we are devotees. He always calls us

> > > volunteer workers whom he can throw out of the temple without giving

> > > any reasoning. He forcefully told all the devotees to fill this form.

> > > Those who will not fill this form will be turned out of the temple

> > > and the facilities will be stopped.

> > Brihat is a wonderful, strict devotee, very exemplary. He is one of the

> > members of the VAC, and only has a one in 7 voice. So it is not fair

> > to single him out and accuse him of these truthless statements. It IS

> > true that Brihat prabhu does not know Hindi, and there may be some

> > communication gap, But as far as policy is concerned, these kind of

> > decisions are made in the VAC as a body. For example, when we have very

> > few devotees, like in summer or winter, then we have combined class with

> > all devotees. These detractors should feel ashamed speaking like this.

> > They have NO idea of Srila Prabhupada's mood and preaching. There was a

> > day when 80% of the devotees in this temple were foreigners, and only

> > 20% Indian devotees. And even til today, this temple is known as

> > Angrega ka Mandir. It is unfortunate that now it has turned the other

> > way around. And for that, this rascist guy is making all kinds of

> > baseless statements.

> >

> > Regarding the "form", it was a council decision, and I was the one to

> > enforce it, not Brhat. Once again, this is a false statement. This

> > form is the same form which we have in our Indian temples to keep

> > bio-data records of resident devotees.

> >

> > > 5. We would request all the senior Vaisnavas and Vaisnavis to come

> > > forward and stop this humiliation and try to save the Bramcharies and

> > > the Sri Krishna Balaram Temple from this inhumanly behavior of the

> > > temple management.

> > We are also praying to all the Vaishavas to bless us so that we can deal

> > in a Krishna conscious manner with these people who obviously have

> > another agenda.

> >

> > > 6. we would like to accept one single presidant Who can stay all the

> > > time in Vrindavan(DEVAKINANDAN DAS)

> > Believe me, these guys hate my guts and are talking through their teeth.

> > They are saying indirectly that we don't want Devakinandan also.

> >

> > > The above mentioned problems were repeatedly told to the management

> > > but they always gave deaf ear to it. In frustration we were forced to

> > > sit on hunger strike. Since the management is not completing their

> > > commitment given at the time of breaking our strike on 15th April

> > > 2004. We will sit on hunger strike again and if they don't take it

> > > seriously we will be self immolating after putting gasoline(petrol) on

> > > our body.

> > Ridiculous. They did not approach this management with ANY of these

> > problems. One fine day, Divya Purush approached me and asked my

> > blessing to sit on strike in the compound. I said, "nothing doing. You

> > cannot do this." It is certainly not the way Srila Prabhupada taught us

> > to confront our problems. They gave such a bad name to our temple. I

> > never dreamed they had planned out this thing for a long time coming by

> > sending out letters to the press, electronic media, government officers,

> > police, etc.

> >

> > Now, the management has two choices: either throw them out, or work out

> > something peacefully, which we did. Following is the agreement.

> >

> > AGREEMENT

> > April 15, 2004

> > 1. Every attempt will be made to keep the present rooms status quo.

> > Brahmacharies will stay in present rooms until new building is ready.

> >

> > 2. Any devotee who left or was asked to leave the Vrindavana temple may

> > be accepted back if approved by the temple management / brahminical

> > council and if he agrees to follow the strict spiritual standards.

> >

> > 3. Divya Purush Das and some other devotees are requesting the

> > management that the following devotees be requested not to take

> > managerial responsibility in Vrindavana though they are encouraged to

> > stay and serve in Vrindavana. This decision should be finalized by

> > Janmastami 2004 :

> >

> > 1. Deenabandhu Das

> > 2. Brihat Mridanga Das

> > 3. Braja Bihari Das

> > 4. Rupa Raghunath Das

> > 5. Dhananjaya Das

> >

> > This agreement was signed by the following:

> > Gopal Krishna Goswami, Devakinandan Das, Mahaman Das, Janardan Das,

> > Ganapati Dasa, Divya Purusha Das, Vishnu Mohan Das, Radharaman Swami

> >

> > Kindly give your valuable advice of what to do if they go on strike

> > again INSIDE. I have spoken to their guru, HH Radha Govinda Maharaja,

> > prior to this letter, and he said these guys are independent and really

> > don't listen. Your servant,

> > Devakinandan dasa

> > >

> > > Your servants

> > > Divya Purush das

> > > Vishnu Mohan das

> > > On behalf of all devotees of Sri Krishna Balaram Temple Vrindanvan

> > > dham.

> > >

> > > ps: The management is trying to get the signatures of the resident

> > > devotees of the ashram on the favorable report prepared by them.

> > > (Text PAMHO:8085067) ------

> > >

> > > ------- End of Forwarded Message ------