Tbilisi Scandal

[Guest guest]

The Tbilisi Scandal

 

Here is the story of the Tbilisi temple scandal. Tbilisi is the capital of

Georgia, a part of the former USSR. It is one of the first places where

ISKCON appeared in the Soviet Union. This temple survived in spite of all

difficulties, tests and trials. At present the temple goes through hard

times and is in the most complicated situation.

 

Why? What happened?

 

Let's start from the events that took place about 6-7 years ago.

ISKCON bought the site in 1991. And that year the temple president Ambarisha

Das started construction and renovation of the temple. According to the

documents the official owners of the building were two brothers, the

disciples of HH Prabhavisnu Swami. Their names are Govindananda Das (Zaza)

and Jagannatha Das (Jimsher). They joined ISKCON in II in I…???

In 1991 they moved to Russia for 4 years. The temple was still their private

property. For this reason the devotees had some problems with legal matters

whenever they had to deal with official instances in regards with the

building. For example, when the temple construction was finished they were

unable to register upper flours because the so-called «owners» of the

building were away. Therefore when the brothers came back in 1995 they were

requested to give power of attorney to somebody who could deal with house

papers in their absence. They said that the papers were lost.

The brothers together with Bhaktivinoda Das came to the notary's office to

draw up documents. To the great amazement of Bhaktivinoda Jagannatha asked

the notary what this act would result in and what would happen if he changed

his mind and decided to ask devotees to leave the building? Only by the

court, - was the answer. Wow! - said aggrieved Jagannath. What are you

speaking about? - asked Govinda, - do you want to kick devotees out?! No, I

am just joking - replied Jagannath.

 

This gave some food for devotees' doubts in the brothers as bona fide ISKCON

property trustees. However this question was not put under the discussion

till 2000. Finally in August 2000 when the local GBC HG Rohinisuta Prabhu

and Vaidyanath Prabhu arrived in Tbilisi they were requested to ask one of

the brothers to relinquish his property right or at least to add some more

property trustees for according to the ISKCON law the relatives cannot be

property trustees of the same real estate. However the brothers refused

telling that TP just wants to sell the building and they want to protect

ISKCON and its property from dirty hands of rascals and thieves.

 

20.08.2000

HH PVS was expected to arrive. The brothers requested TP Yamaraja Das to

tell nothing to their guru and to solve all the problems among themselves.

Yamaraja Das agreed.

 

21.08.00

Govindananda Das did not come at the appointed hour to cook for his GM

though it had been his service for many years. Then he said that he was too

busy that day. He came much later to the Airport to meet and pick up HH PVS.

At night he came to GM's room and started to talk with GM about the temple.

22.08.2000 the day before Janmastami

In the morning PVS told about it to Yamaraja Das (TP). Yamaraja was amazed

for it had been already decided not to speak with HH PVS on this point. They

told him the whole story and requested to influence the brothers. However HH

PVS told that he hesitated to instruct them for they were unlikely to follow

his instructions and would commit gururavagya or offence to guru in such a

way.

 

In the first half of the day 4 cars came to the temple with Yuri Madetadze

at the head (the assistant chief of the transport police). They ordered TP

to go downstairs.

 

When he came they roughly asked who the owner of the building was. TP called

for Jagganath.

 

- Is it your house?

- Yes.

- What are the cars at your house?

- Friends came to visit me.

- What is the number of the car?

- Why are you asking?

- We are investigating the case of the robbery of the currency exchange.

$1000 were stolen and two women murdered. Some people saw a light-coloured

car of the model "Zhiguli" at the place of the crime the number of which

begins with "5".

- Show me your house papers.

- I haven't them.

- Where are they?

- He has - noded he in the Yamaraja's direction.

- Why?

- What car is it?

- Why are you interested in it?

- There is a crime committed by the people with the car of this model with

"7" in the number.

- It isn't of this model. It has only side-lights of this model and it

hasn't "7" in its number.

- Show me the papers.

- Excuse me, on what grounds?

- We'll find them, go to the police office with us.

- I won't, I'm busy, said Yamaraja.

- He'll come later, - Emzar began to assure, - he is really up to his neck

in work. We have a celebration and guests. We'll drop in tomorrow or the day

after tomorrow.

 

The policemen went away.

Yamaraja requested Govindananda das to help with some documents of GM but he

told that he has no time and left.

 

23.08.2000 Janmastami

Nothing happened.

 

24.08.2000 Nandotsava and SP's Appearance Day

The day started with SP's abhisekha. It was performed by the devotees and HH

PVS. HH PVS left at 10 in the morning. On the way back Yamaraja called in

the temple. He was told that Jagannatha was taken away to the police office.

Yamaraja phoned Emzar and his relative who was a policeman and asked them to

come to the police office. When he came there Emzar was already waiting for

him. Jagannatha is very likely to plan something, - he whispered in

Yamaraja's ear. The questioning started.

- Who are you? Why are you here? Why do you keep house book and papers?

2 brothers were witnesses.

- Do you know him?

- No.

- So do you see him for the very first time?

- No, we have seen him, however we do not know who he is, where he is from.

He came from Moscow, a pretender, he mocked at us and forced to distribute

forbidden literature in an illegal way.

- Have you told him that this is illegal?

- Yes, but he did not obey us.

- Hmm.

- Till now this forbidden literature has been stored at our home. Krisnaites

brought this books illegally. It's contraband. They stole our beautiful

house to store their books in it.

- So they have stolen your home.

- Yes they usurped our house, our home. He cheated one Hindu by $15 000, and

gave our car to his wife.

(The story with the car is another part of the Tbilisi poem. Previously

Jagannatha was a temple brahmachari and one gentleman gifted a car for

books' distribution. Jagannatha had documents for this car and distributed

books in it. After some time he stopped distributing books and used the car

in his own interest. For this reason and other Jagannatha was requested to

leave the temple. That gentleman was asked if he gifted this car to

Jagannatha personally or to the temple and if Jagannatha could take the car

with him. The gentleman said that it was his gift to the whole temple and

then the car passed into the possession of Mandala DD, a sankirtana devotee

who was not Yamaraja's wife that time.)

The brothers lamented so much that one policeman couldn't bear it anymore

and asked with a jeer:

- Has he taken away your wife?

- No, he hasn't, - Jagannatha sobbed.

Besides he drove an old woman mad. He made her sell her apartment, live in

the temple and pocketed all the money.- Do you know what we'll do with you?

- What? Put into prison? I've already been imprisoned and I'm not afraid.

Kill me? I will die anyway.

The questioning lasted from 14 to 22. Afterwards the policemen said that

usually one could question about 60 people within this period of time while

they wasted the whole day for only one. Finally Yamaraja wrote them where

and when he drove the car during the last month and left. He was said to

come to the public prosecutor. He summons, they said.

 

When Yamaraja came to the public prosecutor the next day, the prosecutor was

very amazed because he had summoned nobody from "Hare Krishna". The incident

seemed to die away after this but only until the 23rd of September. Yamaraja

phoned GBC Vaidyanatha and he advised him to hire an advocate.

23.09.2000

Yamaraja was again invited to the police office. They began to ask him

questions about the legality of his presidency. Gauragopinatha Das (Mahmud)

was also in the police office. Yamaraja wondered why the police tried to

interfere with the internal ISKCON affairs. Still he presented the letter of

HKM confirming Yamaraja Das as a new TP for the Tbilisi temple. Then George

Zadelava, the head of the local Ovchala police branch, expressed his desire

to visit the temple as his assistant Jimal Kbilasvili did.

The devotees agreed and picked them up to the temple. When the policemen saw

the beautiful temple with rails, balconies, columns and a picturesque garden

they whispered for wonder and said: "Now we understand why people are

fighting for this building." Then they asked the devotees where they kept

their books and a naive devotee opened them the door to the big store of 6

metre height and 8 metre length and width. The policemen stood agape when

they saw about 200 tones of books.

 

The devotees told them that it was a religious literature and presented to

the guests a few sets of books in Georgian. The police officers left but

just to come again in half an hour with the head of the district police

department, the colonel Davidashvili. He kicked up a row.

 

- Why hadn't these books gone through customs?

- These books were brought into the country in the USSR time when there was

no customs.

They left.

 

Yamaraja asked the brothers what do they wanted. They began to accuse

Yamaraja that he destroyed ISKCON in Georgia and they wanted him to leave.

Yamaraja told he didn't mind and he was ready to leave if the brothers

agreed to re-register the temple on the 3rd neutral person. However, this

talk was interrupted by the police detachment. About 50 policemen with

Ruhadze, the assistant of Davidashvili entered the temple territory.

They said that they came to take the forbidden books illegally imported to

the country. The document allowing the withdrawal of the books was not

shown. Yamaraja requested just to seal up the store and then come with the

documents to take books for anyway they wouldn't be able to load all the 100

tones of books. After some barging the police said they would take only two

lorries of books and wouldn't disturb devotees anymore till all the

documents are ready. So that's exactly what had been done.

 

24.09.2000

The police came again and again without the documents. The advocate was

waiting for them. (The devotees hired two advocates Tina Tamaradze and

Gocadarci, a husband and a wife who substitute each other in matters

connected with devotees).

The police insisted on taking more books. The advocate advised to yield and

then take advantage of their misdeeds with a view of opening the case of

illegal actions of the police.

This day the action against Yamaraja was brought.

1. He usurped the house and the car "of" Jagannath.

2. He forced the old lady to sell her flat and donate money to him.

3. Anil (now initiated in Gaudia Math as Akhilesh, an Indian devotee who

couldn't develop Govinda's restaurant in Tbilisi) inspired by these two

brothers blames Yamaraja that he lost 15.000$ through Yamaraja's fault.

And one of the lawyers has to protect Yamarajs and the other to protect our

society.

 

The police came everyday to take books. The police actions were illegal and

devotes were advised by the lawyer not to open the doors and let them enter

the temple. Sibi went around the organizations, TV and Press.

On the 28th of September at 11:00 the police came to take the rest of the

books. But devotees did not open the gates. The police climbed over the

gates and entered the territory of the temple, broke the gate's lock and

started to truck the rest of the books. Yamaraj closed the door of his

office and went up on the roof, and he was filming everything what was

happening. One policeman tried to climb up on the roof and to take the

camera by force, but Yamaraj told him: "Come up to me closer and we will

jump down together. I have nothing to lose and what about you?". The

frightened policeman went down.

 

When the police lorry was almost filled with the books, TV and journalists

appeared at the temple with one American among them. They were filming and

interviewing. At that time our lawyer was there too. The people from TV

began to ask the police: "Who is responsible for taking the books?". They

wanted to record and take an interview. But the police did not answer.

Little by little they began to disappear from the temple place, they even

left the car full of books and ran away. Then as we've found out this car

wasn't even the police's, but just from the street.

 

Then devotees started to unload the books back from the car and even the

lawyer and a chief of one TV channels helped them, too. This chief spoke

over the phone with the public prosecutor (in front of the camera) and said

that it wasn't a legal action. Some of the books had been saved in this way.

Now it is very difficult to say how many books remain, but about a quarter

of all of them are in the bookstore. On the same day the temple and its

situation were shown on two TV channels. After that the police didn't come

for books anymore.

 

On the 1st of October Dharmaraj das came. Yamaraj das and he met the

representative of the government as well as different people from the

parliament of Georgia such as the ombudsman, the Chairmen of the Committee

of Protection of Human Rights and Vise-Chairman of the Security Council of

Human Rights (The President's Office). All of them act in a positive way and

are ready to help us (as an official religion) on the governmental level.

The new Minister of Justice Sakashvili made a speech. He said that such

incidents are infringements of human rights, which we must nip in the bud.

So on the 23rd of September the police started to take out the books from

the temple. Till the 28th approximately 100 tones of our books had been

taken out from our store. Someone wants to destroy ISKCON here. We deal here

not with the formed honest government structure, but with the corrupted

system. These people do whatever they want. For instance the action of the

books' withdrawal was illegal and the police is trying now to legalize it by

writing different documents signed with last days' dates.

 

Georgia is such a country that we really don't know what to do and what the

police's next steps will be. Our lawyers say we should apply to different

organizations such as the Organization of Protecting Human Rights, Red Cross

as well as TV, Radio and Press. We will try to do it.

 

There were some conferences with TV and Press participation. At the moment

some newspapers and magazines issued different articles about Hare Krsna

movement as positive as negative. Trial is hold 08.11.00.

 

There is a quote from Yamaraja Das letter to HG Rohinisuta Prabhu, local

GBC:

 

> 24 Nov in old police building we found about 10 tones of our literature.

> Books rained in due to many hols in the roof. We filmed it.

> Incindent became the cause for the conference hold in Georgian ombuchment

> office 26 Nov. TV, NP correspondents and raidio were present. From our

> side Arcavatara, advocate and me were speaking. We presented ISKCON as a

> part of hinduism, wich has more then one billion of followers. We spoke

> about our wellfare programs and demanded police to bare responcibility for

> all their illegal and criminal actions. We told that we are demanding and

> insisting that guilty persons have to recover all moral and material

> affects and we will apply to international judicature.

 

Here in Georgia ISKCON is in very different position and need a lot of help

of the world. Temple paid advocates with the only car they had. Also

devotees have to pay different bills for placing articles in newspapers and

for TV programs. At the moment they need about $4000. Those who want to help

Tbilisi Temple can send donation on following account:

 

INTERMEDIARY

HSBC NEW YORK

(Formally Republic National Bank of New York)

425 5th Avenue, New York, NY 100187

SWIFT: BLIC US 33,

ABA: 021 004 823

Correspondent Account N 608 491 454 (USD)

 

BENEFICIARY'S BANK:

TBC-BANK

11, Chavchavadze Ave., 380079, Tbilisi, Georgia

SWIFT: TBCB GE 22

 

BANK's Account N: 68070434

 

BENEFICIARY: YACOB JIJAVADZE

 

In this country even smallest money are big and therefore any help is

greatly welcomed. Please share this information with others.

 

For detail information do not hesitate to contact Arcavatara Das (Archil

Madzgarashvili)

a.m.arcavatara.rsd (AT) usa (DOT) net

 

faithfully yours,

Madhurya Kadambini Dasi (GBC secretary in this zone)