Guest guest Posted November 11, 1999 Report Share Posted November 11, 1999 Dear Vaisnavas & Vaisnavis, Please accept my respectful obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. I wasn't there in Vrndavana. I'm stuck in this "remote corner of the world" called Alachua, where one day in the future "New Raman Reti" will manifest. But I have a friend (name withheld) whose sister-in-law witnessed the entire series of events. This is what he wrote to me: Last night my wife called up her sister (wife of temple devotee, ----das), who lives in Vrindavan and who witnessed the "beating" incident. According to my sister-in-law, what happened is as follows: With regard to men offering their obeisances in front of Sri Sri Radha-Syamasundara--particularly sannyasis--it was decided beforehand by temple authorities that the ladies in front of Sri Sri Radha-Syamasundara should move back to let them offer their obeisances, and afterwords they may come forward as usual. The ladies were informed of this. However, the women were not cooperating--they would not move for the sannyasis and brahmacaris to offer their obeisances. And aparently this non-cooperation went on for some few days. Then on that "fateful morning," some senior men in the temple (temple commander, Aindra Prabhu, and some others) joined their hands and formed a human chain to prevent the mothers from standing where the sannyasis were offering their obeisances. The mothers became upset and started pushing, trying to break the chain. The so-called "beating" incident was when Parvati Mataji almost succeded in breaking through the chain and the temple commander (a brahmacari) grabbed her hand to prevent her from moving forward. According to my sister-in-law, nothing more than this happened. There were no "beatings,gang-rapes," etc. According to my sister-in-law, the ladies who were mainly responsible for this were Parvati dd, Ganga Mata dd (disciple of Narayana Maharaj, and who works in the Gurukula), Radha-Kunda Mataji (Jasomatinandan Prabhu's wife), Krishna-das Kaviraja Prabhu's wife, and others. According to my sister-in-law, Parvati Mataji was saying to other ladies that since Srila Prabhupada always stood in the back, the men (sannyasis, et. al) should also stand in the back and let the women go up front. My wife commented: "What's this nonsense that the men should follow Srila Prabhupada's example and stand in the back but the women should not follow Srila Prabhupada's example and stand in the back? They don't want to follow Srila Prabhupada." I asked my wife (born and raised in India), how Indian men, women, and sannyasis would co-exist in any other temple. She said that what the women would do is also go up front and have darshan (usually on another side apart from the men), but when a sannyasi comes to offer obeisances and have darshan, out of respect they move away and then come back after he leaves. My sister-in-law said, "It is awful what they (Western women in particular) are trying to do." All this I have heard from my wife, who spoke directly with her sister. Your servant, _________das Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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