I humbly request that this letter be exposed to the devotees

[Guest guest]

SHAME ON US

 

Dear devotees,

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupad. Prabhus,

I have just come from the Mathura jail here in India where I visited one of

our God sisters. She is unable to see in one eye properly due to beatings

and has stitches in her head. She has been deprived of her human rights

(such as sanitary pads) and slandered. She is deathly thin, covered in

bruises and unable to trust anyone. Additionally she is epileptic and was

without her medication and not mentally strong enough to cope with her

situation.

I cried when I saw her condition and felt ashamed of myself and even more

ashamed of the devotees at Krishna Balaram Mandir. Only Krishna Chandra

Prabhu was brave and compassionate enough amongst the westerners to try to

help her. He and several Indian devotees worked tirelessly and at their own

peril and expense to get her out. They and many other devotees were well

aware that her life was in real and serious danger. Everyone else was too

scared or too apathetic.

I am so distressed, it is midnight. I can’t sleep. I will not be gagged this

time. I am so angry and outraged and disgusted, I can not hold back. I am so

sick of again and again seeing the devotees justifying their hard hearted

disregard for other Vaishnavas by saying, “ It is their Karma, Prabhu.” Or

accusing that this devotee is not deserving of help due to this or that

bogus and insignificant reason. Haven’t we matured beyond that type of

behavior? When will we learn, we have already driven away many of our

members due to this attitude.

This is Kali Yuga. We are all rascals and miscreants full of bad qualities

and bad behavior. It is stated in Srila Prabhupads books, for example; In

the purport of the Bhagavad-Gita 6: Dhyana Yoga, Srila Praphupad says,

“Therefore, in the Brihan Naradiya Purana it is said that in Kali Yuga (the

present yuga, or age) when people in general are short lived, slow in

spiritual realization and always disturbed by various anxieties, the best

means of spiritual realization is chanting the holy name of the Lord.”

Also in the first canto Srimad Bhagavatam Srila Prabhupad says, “The mission

of the lord was to deliver the helplessly fallen souls of Kali Yuga, and the

brothers Jagai and Madai were typical examples of these fallen souls. Ninety

percent of the population of this age resembles these brothers despite high

birth and mundane respectability. According to the verdict of the revealed

scriptures, the total population of the world in this age will be of the

lowest sudra quality, or even lower…………in this Kali Yuga practically all the

people are of the quality of Jagai and Madai. If they want to be relieved

from the reactions of their misdeeds, they must take shelter of the Lord

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.”

So we can see from these statements of our founder Acharya that we are all

in this category and therefore cannot say that another devotee is less

deserving of our help. Even the Karmis do not display this degree of

impersonalism and hard heartedness. This Mataji, Indulekha Prabhu has done a

lot of service in Iskcon. I do not know her personally, but remember that

she and her husband served very nicely for many years in the Australian

Yatra. Even in her recent time in Vrindavan, she had very good Sadhana, in

fact in the jail in all circumstances she was still chanting despite being

beaten for doing so. I have the utmost respect for her; she is a very brave

devotee. Our Temple authorities showed a blatant disregard for her life and

safety. Whatever her offence, not even an animal deserved the treatment she

was given and again I will say, SHAME ON US. It should be examined why this

was allowed to happen. Tomorrow, it could be any one of us in the same

position. I’m sure the so called devotees, (I say so called because a real

devotee has compassion for others,) could find some reason why you or I

deserve to rot in jail, just as they did this Mataji.

Not to mention the preaching in this situation was so bad. First there was

our devotee’s involvement with the police to have her jailed. Then there was

the fact all of India and especially the Australian Embassy and the human

right commission in India were amazed to see that nobody in our society gave

a damn about this devotee. I was so embarrassed to have to try to cover up

and make excuses in order to protect Srila Prabhupads movement and

reputation. I would have liked to have been able to assure them that our

leaders would investigate why this girl was not helped by Iskcon, but of

course we know that this will be swept under the carpet in the usual manner.

We will demonize the victim to justify our disregard for other Vaishnavas

welfare.

What poor representatives of Srila Prabhupad we are. Many disciples of Srila

Prabhupad will tell you that Srila Prabhupad used to practically cry tears

when his devotees were beaten by police on sankirtan or suffering ill

treatment in any way. He always addressed himself as ‘Your ever

wellwisher.’and as his followers we should try to follow his example and at

least be the well wishers of each other, if not all the fallen conditioned

souls. He was even kind and merciful to those that were envious of him in

many instances.

Especially we should protect our women and children. That is only basic

human behavior. What to speak of a woman without a husband or sons to do so,

then our men should become her protectors if they are really gentlemen and

followers of Srila Prabhupad. If we can not even do this then we should take

the S out of Iskcon because we can not claim to be a society. Srila

Prabhupad says in a letter to Mr. Loy in 1972,”In our Vedic science of

living, it is enjoined that the society should be organized in such a way to

protect women, children, old people and cows because factually all of them

are innocent.” What to speak of influential men feeling justified not aiding

Indulekha.

Almost 2 months she suffered and rotted there in an Indian jail. I came back

from an overseas trip amazed to see she was still in jail when many of our

Indian leaders have so many links (which have been acquired by the grace of

Srila Prabhupad and his powerful Iskcon movement) and could definitely have

helped from the beginning. This would have been an appropriate way to

utilize such links.

With the help of Subodh Prabhu in Govindas restaurant, we were able to

liason with the Australian embassy, and he got the media and some

compassionate congress members in the Indian government apply pressure and

exert influence and immediately took action to have her freed within 3 days.

They had stopped her appearing in court several days before after she was

beaten badly and hospitalized so that they could delay until 14 Sept, (we

feel so her injuries would be healed and she would have no marks when

released.)

Even the human rights people were becoming involved. We all felt she would

crack and next there would have been a dead devotee, SHAMEFULL. Nobody can

convince me that our Indian authorities could not have done this. They say

it should have taken only several days to have her deported and definitely

not more than 2 weeks. Especially with her medical condition. Everyone

involved in this case wonder, why the delay? The Indian Government wants to

launch an investigation.

We all love India and especially Vrindavan, so we are all at risk. Many of

us are engaged in the service of Iskcon here and helping locals, preaching

and representing Prabhupad to the best of our ability.

I am appealing to the GBC to please stop the neglect and disregard of

devotees here. We all worked hard many years, especially in the Australian

Yatra to help finance the Vrindavan and Mayapur project, as I’m sure

Bhavananda Prabhu can attest. Please do not allow that we should live in

fear here.

I tried to get support from some fixed up, long term devotees here. They are

all scared to stand up for what is right as they are afraid some corrupt

devotees will have them deported. Three different Matajis told me they were

warned by our Authorities not to visit Indulekha. Every devotee I approached

to show solidarity and help get her released, after all there is strength in

numbers, all expressed that they were afraid that their service would be in

jeopardy, or worse, if they came forward only to help secure the release of

Indulekha.

I was also afraid and still am but at what cost? The life and welfare of

another devotee? It was really coming to the point that her life was really

in danger and all unnecessary. If I turn a blind eye and try to justify

that, I am not better than the persons whom we fear. I WILL SAY AGAIN,

tomorrow, I may be in jail and the devotees will find a way to justify being

aloof about my situation.

So many devotees have left and whether we admit it or not, we are partially

responsible for this, if you are well treated and loved at home, why would

you want to leave? It is time we grow up and at least try to treat those of

us who are dedicated to Srila Prabhupad and Iskcon with due respect, even if

our opinions differ or we are not such great Vaishnavas. Or at least if we

can’t behave as Vaishnavas, we can try to behave as human beings towards

each other. The following quote is Srila Prabhupads opinion of a Vaishnava.

In a Purport of the 7th canto Srimad Bhagavatam he says, “A Vaishnava is

always a well-wisher to everyone. The six goswamis for example, are

described in this way: Dhira dhira jana-priyau. They were popular with both

the gentle and the ruffians. A Vaishnava must be equal to everyone,

regardless of ones position.Atmavat: A Vaishnava should be like Paramatma.

Ishvarah sama-bhutanam hrd-dese ‘rjuna tisthati. Paramatma does not hate

anyone: Indeed he is in the heart of a Brahmana, but he is also even in the

heart of a pig. As the moon never refuses to distribute its pleasing rays

even to the home of a candala, a Vaishnava never refuses to act for

everyone’s welfare.”

I am sorry if I have made any offense and I certainly do not have any

political agenda. Myself and my family always give due respect to devotees

and try not to make offense but as a long term and faithful member of

Iskcon, I do not feel Srila Prabhupad would be happy to see us all living in

fear in his movement and afraid to speak out against injustice or Vaishnava

aparadha.

I am only too aware that I am a rascal and a sense gratifier, and not at all

qualified to speak. Many of you are senior to me and doing wonderful

preaching on behalf of Srila Prabhupad so please I beg you to excuse any

lack of etiquette on my behalf.

Your fallen and unqualified servant,

Subhangi Devi Dasi

 

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