Srila Prabhupada's Poisoning by Arsenic
Someone Has Poisoned Me
The Facts About Srila Prabhupada’s Poisoning by Arsenic
BY: NITYANANDA DAS
“So as Krishna was attempted to be killed… And Lord Jesus Christ was killed. So they may kill me also.” (Srila Prabhupada, May 3, l976, Honolulu)
“My only request is, that at the last stage don’t torture me, and put me to death”
(from SPC Vol. 36, November 3, 1977 tape recorded Room Conversation)
CHAPTER 1 TO CHAPTER 6
[PLEASE NOTE: ADDRESSES, EMAILS, PHONE
NUMBERS ETC. MIGHT NO LONGER BE CORRECT!]
CHAPTER 1:
POISON BECOMES AN ISSUE
Rumors about a poisoning of Srila Prabhupada have been circulating around the world of devotees ever since Srila Prabhupada’s departure over 20 years ago. Rupanuga Prabhu remembers the subject arose in 1980 and Rupa Vilas Prabhu and this author heard about it in 1990.
[PADA: Correct, around 1990 the first copies of "Srila Prabhupada's conversations" were printed by the Bhaktivedanta archives. Unfortunately, under the strict orders of Tamal Krishna, only 1,000 copies were allowed to be printed. Fortunately, a few of us got access to the complete set of these books, and we could not help but notice that in the November 1977 conversations there was a notation "conversation about poison in Hindi." What conversation?
Of course this conversation was not publicly available anywhere at the time, nor included in the book. There was simply a sort of "side bar" indication in the book that such a conversation maybe existed -- somewhere. Needless to say, I began to pray every day to get a copy of that tape (if it even existed -- and was not destroyed already). I felt that this tape would reveal the ROOT CAUSE reason for many of the problems that evolved in ISKCON's post 1977 history, as well as -- WHO were some of the prime culprits involved in this history, and so forth. In other words, we were starting to put together the idea that Srila Prabhupada had been assassinated by some of his "top leaders."
Yes, there were some rumors, and behind the scenes discussions going on here and there about the poison issue, as well as many other controversial issues, but nothing solid was being presented. No one we knew at the time had these tapes, we were not even sure if the archives had copies.]
A few years ago, Satyaraj Prabhu asked his friend Tamal Krishna Goswami about the matter, and was told that these persistent rumors come back to life every so often, much to Tamal’s dismay. Abhinanda Prabhu was recently disturbed by these rumors, as well as many others.
[PADA: Abhinanda knew about the poison issue from the very start. He was present in Vrndavana India in November of 1977, and he was totally convinced that Srila Prabhupada had been poisoned at that time. He saw Bhakti Caru swami crying outside of Srila Prabhupada's room, and when Abhinanda asked Bhakti Caru what was wrong -- he replied "Srila Prabhupada is complaining that someone is giving him poison." Abhinanda knew this was a problem right at that instant.
Its amazing that none of the eye-witnesses like Adridharana, Bhakti Caru and others mentioned this issue at the time, or later on. Adridharan told me he was "alarmed" by the issue, but he never took it further. Various kavirajas were alarmed and in fact convinced of foul play, but they did not want to speak up, fearing for their lives.
So Abhinanda went through a sort of mental breakdown crisis for a long period in his life, due to suppressing this issue for years together, where he was almost unable to function basically. And he told me he was having all kinds of mental breakdowns and was seeing psychotherapists and so on, due to suppressing this issue. Finally, he got in touch with me by phone, and he said he was going to try to get the November tapes from the archives and help me break open the case, because he said, no one else he knew could or would expose this issue in public.
Pretty much at the time he had no faith that any of the other Srila Prabhupada's disciples had sufficient interest to open up the case, apart from me. And at the same time, he felt it would be dangerous for him or anyone who did introduce the issue. Thus Abhinanda felt, even if someone was interested in the issue, they would not be brave enough to make it public. Thus Abhinanda said to me, I know you Puranjana, you will make it public immediately, I have no doubts about that, so let me get that tape and I will get it to you. Then you can make this a public issue, and that is what happened.]
Paritrikananda Prabhu in California began to research the rumors and assemble evidence and leads out of his own need for finding the truth. A list of notes in this regard is included as Appendix 9. In early 1996 Paritrikananda Prabhu tried to interest this reporter in the matter, but at the time there did not seem to be any way to convert the rumors into facts.
[PADA: Unfortunately, its also possible people like Patrikananda may have been making pretend they were interested in the issue to flush out what information was available. He has been against our exposing things over the years, and he still is.]
Puranjana Prabhu, a well-known, controversial and vitriolic critic of ISKCON policies, amplified the issue in mid 1997, publishing on the internet information and questions on the subject.
[PADA: Abhinanda was finally successful in getting a copy of the tape from the archives, and he flew to Los Angeles to give me a copy of the tape. In short, Krishna answered my prayers to get this tape. However, Abhinanda was very frightened and he did not want his name mentioned. This is the trouble with everything really, people tell me there is a major problem, but they do not want to get involved.
I made 250 copies of the tape and began distributing copies in front of the Watseka temple in Los Angeles, along with my commentary and translation. I got a Bengali man to make the first text draft of the conversation which is mainly in Hindi. No other transcript was available at the time, since the Bengali man wanted me to give him another copy to compare his to, there was none. In sum, I was the first person to have the tape and the draft, and was the first to make all this public.
I listened to the tape on my little Sony walkman tape recorder and played it over and over and over for hours, for weeks, while walking around the Santa Monica mall, or at the Venice beach, wherever I was etc. I wanted to make sure that this was a solid poison complaint. Of course all the Hindi / Bengali speaking people who heard said -- it was. Basically I played it wherever I went to make sure it was clear to me what was going on. And! It was and is clear in my opinion.]
At the 1997 Los Angeles Rathayatra, Puranjana was picketing with a large sign which stated that Srila Prabhupada was poisoned, referring to Srila Prabhupada’s own statements to that effect in the Conversations Books.
[PADA: Because I finally had the Hindi portion of tape, the book has very little of the actual conversation. Oddly just a few days before the 1997 Rathayatra, Krishna Kanta Desai of the IRM told me he and his group was "making a deal with the GBC," and part of their deal was -- I should "stop writing and take a vacation in the Caribbean," and they would pay for that vacation. Some of the IRM folks even tried to physically restrain me from going out with the protest sign at Rathayatra. They thought this issue would "give ISKCON a bad name and ruin the movement." Basically, same idea some of the GBC's gurus have had.
In other words, at that time the IRM wanted to help the GBC suppress the poison issue, and some of their members still do. Anyway, we went ahead and marched out with our sign, and protested the poison issue in public at the Ratha festival. The jaws of the GBC's gurus in front of the parade simply dropped when I went out there with the sign, they just could not believe this was happening. Everyone said to me at the time, no one else is advertising this issue in public anywhere, it is being covered up. Some IRM folks even said, "You'll be dead in 24 hours after you launch this issue," ummm, they tried to frighten me into submission. That really does not work too well on people like myself -- for whatever the reason. In any event, the cat was now officially out of the bag. ]
When Isha Prabhu in Miami heard of the poison issue, he became disturbed, disbelieving all of it as nonsense. He had been Satsvarupa Maharaj’s secretary in Dallas in late 1977. When Satsvarupa Maharaj returned from Vrindaban just after Srila Prabhupada’s departure, Isha was given 20 tapes with instructions to make 10 sets of copies to send to various ISKCON leaders before forwarding the original tapes to the BBT Archives in Los Angeles.
Isha Prabhu did this, but kept an extra set for himself. He dug out these tapes after 20 years of storage and made copies for Mahabuddhi Prabhu’s birthday. Isha asked Mahabuddhi to listen to the tapes carefully, as he himself also did, in hopes of finding an answer to the question: was Srila Prabhupada poisoned? These 20 tapes of Srila Prabhupada’s last conversations, although the English portions were transcribed in the Conversations books, had never been released or advertised by the BBT Archives tape ministry. Thus, only a very few devotees had ever listened to them. However, copies are available upon special request from the Archives.
[PADA: I had already sent a copy of the tape to Naveen Krishna, and others, and Naveen was stirring up the issue in Alachua way before anyone else there took up any actual public interest. Perhaps our stirring things up motivated people to dig up other corroborating parts of the puzzle. Anyway, after the whispers were discovered the archives later on gave us an original digital copy of the master, which is where we got much clearer whispers, so they did help us out -- to their credit.]
CHAPTER 2:
POISON WHISPERS DISCOVERED
Almost simultaneously, Isha, Mahabuddhi and Balavanta Prabhus found and focused on several whispers on a tape labeled T-46, the third from the last known recording of Srila Prabhupada, and dated November 10 & 11, 1977. Isha Prabhu, a devotee since 1974 and long-time supporter of the Miami ISKCON temple, stated:
“When I first heard of the poisoning issue I became concerned and investigated by listening carefully to the twenty tapes in my library from Oct-Nov 1977. After thoroughly listening to them I concluded that if Srila Prabhupada was poisoned it was the result of accidental overdose or misuse of his medications.
That same day Mahabuddhi called and told me of suspicious whispers he had found on the same tapes of November 1977. I examined the whispers carefully using sophisticated electronic equipment, and had enhancements done on the tapes by FBI approved laboratories. My conclusion after hundreds of hours of analysis is that it is possible that Srila Prabhupada was poisoned.
I called Balavanta and asked him if we could form an investigation committee. He agreed that Mahabuddhi, Jagajivan and myself would be on it and that we could create a forum on ISKCON’s COM so we could communicate privately about these issues.”
[PADA: Jagajivan subsequently died shortly after this, he was found floating face down in a pond near Alachua, supposedly a suicide. Or was it? Lots of people told me that's how I'd end up if I kept this issue up ... I'd be found dead from "an accident,"or I'd never be found at all ever, I'd be "disappeared." Apparently Krishna has had another plan, He wanted the lid to be blown off this issue, and it has been.]
This reporter also interviewed Mahabuddhi Prabhu, former temple president, former promoter of Prabhupada’s Palace bus tours in New Vrindaban, and founder of the Florida Vedic College:
“We listened to Srila Prabhupada’s tape of November 10-11. My son Mahasimha, when I was out of the room, had heard a whisper, so he called me back and we played this whisper again. We enhanced it and listened to it, and it really sounded strange. We became a little bit shocked, because we thought we had heard something like: LETS POISON IN THE MILK, and the more we heard it, the more we listened to it, about 100 times that night, the more it sounded that way.”
CHAPTER 3:
WHISPERS ALARM DEVOTEES
Mahabuddhi Prabhu e-mailed his discovery to Balavanta and phoned Isha. Apparently Balavanta and associates in Alachua were already aware of the whisper, because the next day, November 11, 1997, the Vaishnava News Network, or VNN, posted not only Mahabuddhi Prabhu’s letter on the internet, but also a statement from Balavanta as the newly appointed “GBC special investigator.”
Apparently the GBC Executive Committee and the GBC Chairman, Madhusevita Prabhu, acted quickly, without full approval of the GBC, by immediately arranging for Balavanta Prabhu to investigate “independently” the alleged poisoning of Srila Prabhupada, beginning with research into the validity and nature of the alarming whispers.
Balavanta’s report stated, regarding the November 10-11 tape (T-46 or #18 out of the last 20):
“…it contains a whisper which refers to poison. This tape was digitally processed for clarity by an independent laboratory in Gainesville, Florida. According to the laboratory technician the following is the probable contents of the whispered statement. Either:
1. “Lets not poison him and go” or
2. “Lets now poison him and go.”
We are currently sending the tape to another laboratory with more advanced equipment for further investigation. We will report the results of that study as available.”
It is noted here that, to the best of our knowledge, this was the first and last public statement made by Balavanta as GBC Special Investigator. Since then, however, Balavanta Prabhu has spoken with others about the investigation unofficially. He, Mahabuddhi and Isha discussed arranging for more testing on the whispers, and Balavanta disclosed that he had sent the T-46 “poison tape” to the National Audio Video Forensic Laboratory in California, headed by a Mr. Norman Perle.
Just two months prior, Mrigendra Prabhu, a devotee attorney and former temple president of Los Angeles ISKCON, had sent the famous so-called “appointment tape” of May 28, 1977, to Perle’s lab to test for evidence of alleged tampering or editing. The appointment tape forensic test results will be discussed later on in Chapter 11 and Appendix 1.
Meanwhile, Isha and Mahabuddhi were finding more incriminating-sounding whispers on the same “poison tape.” In total, as reported on VNN, they were:
1. “Lets poison him and go,” or perhaps, “Put poison in the milk”
2. ” poison ishvarya rasa…get ready to go”,
3. “the poison’s going down, the poison’s going down”
4. “put poison in different containers.”
The level of concern and fear amongst devotees became greatly heightened. On November 30, Isha, very expert in manipulation of computer and sound recording equipment, reported on VNN his own personal findings in regards to the poison whispers on the “poison tape.” They were:
1. Conversations Vol. 36, pg 373: After Srila Prabhupada asks to lie down flat is heard this whisper: “The poison’s going down..(giggle) the poison’s going down.”
2. Con:36.373: After Jayapataka says, “follow the same treatment,” a whisper: “Is the poison in the milk? Um hum.”
3. Con:36.374: After Srila Prabhupada says, “Daytime we expose…”, we hear the whisper, “Do it now.” Then Srila Prabhupada drinks something.
4. Con:36.378: We hear the whispers, “Jayadwaita… will you serve Srila Prabhupada poison Jayadwaita?”, then several negative responses followed by “Nette, nette.”
5. Con:36.391: After Jayapataka says, “Should there be kirtana?” we hear a Bengali phrase, and then the whisper “Poison ishvarya rasa.” Srila Prabhupada says weakly and very surprised, “Me?”, then we hear, “Take it easy, get ready to go,” then a few seconds later, “The poison’s in you Srila Prabhupada.” Then, “He’s going under… He’s going under.” Then Hansadutta’s kirtan began.
The audio clips including the above whispers were posted on VNN on December 5, 1997. It is difficult for many to make out the whispers due to so much of the quality lost in that means of transmission. Dozens upon dozens of devotees have been taken by Naveen Krishna Prabhu in Alachua to a local sound studio to listen to the enhanced and “cleaned up” whispers.
Most agree, after listening carefully a few times, and there is no doubt in their minds, what the whispers are about: Srila Prabhupada was poisoned in a conspiracy by His own closest disciples. The number of devotees with this experience in Naveen Krishna’s sound studio continues to grow as time goes on.
http://www.iskcon-truth.com/poison/vnn-audio-files.html
http://www.iskcon-truth.com/poison/poison-whispers.html
CHAPTER 4:
POISON INVESTIGATIONS BEGIN
While Perle was analyzing the poison tape as per Balavanta’s instructions, Isha called Perle and discussed the whispers’ locations on the tape. Perle stated that he had been asked to study only one whisper, and to do it on a shoestring budget. It has been unofficially learned that the report Balavanta received from Perle soon thereafter did NOT verify the whispers, and the report has never been made public. Surprised to hear this, Isha called Norman Perle to discuss his findings. Isha relates his talk with Perle:
“I had discussed with Perle about several locations of the tape which contained whispers but when Balavanta received his report there was a great deal of confusion about what Perle had actually analyzed. I called Perle the day after my conversations with Balavanta to discuss my concerns about which sections of the tape he was listening to. I could not get a clear answer from him but he did make a statement which raised my suspicions even higher. He said that conversations and events on the tape did not represent the actual events taking place. He said that he was 95% convinced of that.”
Balavanta Prabhu also could not clearly identify for Isha which sections of the tape or which whispers Perle had examined. Thus it was speculated that Perle had analyzed the wrong whispers on the tape, as there are many throughout the tape, and did not examine the ones referring to poison.
Interestingly, though, Perle had alluded to fraudulent tampering of the tape, a subject we address later. Suffice it to say at this point that Perle mistakenly thought that the stop-start routine of recording was evidence of tampering. Mahabuddhi and Isha were disturbed that Perle’s report was not made available to them to verify or contradict their suspicion that the wrong whispers were examined. The credibility, accurateness and value of Perle’s report to Balavanta was thus deemed highly questionable.
[PADA: Balavanta withdraws, his case disappears. Why? His case is also not funded, done on shoestring, yep, not enough interest.]
Also, at this time, Balavanta Prabhu now would no longer take a personal position on the whisper issue as he had at the start. He had become private, grave, and attorney-like in his behavior. Further, what had begun as a cooperative effort had now effectively split into two groups: the secretive, “independent” GBC investigation and the work done by an entity called the Independent Vaishnava Council, with Mahabuddhi and Isha Prabhus’ participation.
Isha explains his disappointment with Balavanta:
“Balavanta informed me that there was no longer an investigation committee and that he was going to act alone based on the GBC’s instruction. I had already shared with him all the information I had gathered from the tapes and became further disturbed because of his breaking our agreement. Over the next several days I sent out several more e-mails detailing the results from the sound labs I had worked with in Miami. The VNN website (vnn.org) agreed to publish my findings. The CHAKRA website (chakra.org), which was created later, has refused to post my reports, however.”
Mahabuddhi also states: “…we had cleaned some tapes and made some enhancements on some segments …we actually delivered these tapes to Balavanta who came to West Palm Beach to meet with us. We were always very cooperative, and at that point we thought we were working as a group or a team, but then he told me that actually he’s now the only investigator.”
Mahabuddhi and Isha then decided to continue with their audio forensics investigation on their own. At this point this reporter became intimately involved in their investigation. The whispers were digitally enhanced and cleaned for clarity by prominent and first-class sound studios, one of which was Soundtrack, Inc of Miami, headed by George Blackwell. Mr. Blackwell, who does a lot of work for law enforcement agencies, reported in early December, 1997:
“First of all, what I remember hearing on his tape after cleanup was “It’s not poison in the milk” or, allowing for an unusual speech pattern by the speaker, “It’s not poisoned milk.” As in handwriting analysis, one calls upon other skills besides engineering for this type of work. At this point I relied heavily upon my 25 years of experience in musical training and in recording voices for commercials and narrations.”
George Blackwell then describes how he adjusted the pitch, filters and equalizer to obtain a variety of listening conditions. His conclusions, it must be noted, however, were based ultimately upon listening with the human ear and did not include more sophisticated analytical methods.
Harikesh Maharaj, then the GBC for much of Europe and the principal guru-power/broker in ISKCON, reported on the internet that by listening to the whispers with the equipment used for his tape ministry, he and his aides could not hear anywhere the word “poison” being whispered. He did admit, though, that it remained a big mystery to him as to why Srila Prabhupada would say that he was being poisoned.
Bir Krishna Maharaj (GBC vice-chairman at the time), Bhakticharu Swami (ISKCON guru), and Rabindra Swarup Prabhu (GBC and ISKCON spokesman), made a joint statement on the internet on January 17, 1998 that they also had listened to the poison tape, and in their opinion, the whisper about “poison in different containers” was actually “posing different opinions.”
They also had several Bengalis translate the whisper “poison ishvarya rasa” as a Bengali term meaning “in a few days time.”
It should be clarified, however, that the whispered poison phrase comes right after the Bengali phrase so translated. This attempted sweeping aside of one of the four whispers is the same kind of error likely made by Norman Perle analyzing a non-poison whisper and then saying there is no poison word. One wonders whether these GBC’s were doing shabby or dishonest reporting; it is quite obvious to anyone who listens to the tape that the poison whispers comes after the Bengali speaker.
News of the poison issue circulated quickly and was featured on the internet by the VNN and, later, by the “ISKCON-friendly” CHAKRA websites. Visits to VNN’s site tripled as thousands checked in every day for “poison issue” news, showing that devotees worldwide were very interested and concerned about the poison issue. It was clearly not a non-issue.
CHAPTER 5:
ISKCON STATEMENT
Given the seriousness of the matter, it is surprising that for many weeks no official statement was issued by ISKCON. Finally, on December 7, 1997 it came, composed by Bir Krishna Maharaj and, as he put it, “stiffened-up” by Rabindra Swarup Prabhu and Mukunda Maharaj. It read:
“Certain conspiracy theorists have been propagating of late the allegation that the Founder-Acharya of ISKCON met his demise on November 14, 1977 due to intentional poisoning at the hands of his own disciples. The GBC of ISKCON considers this charge both absurd and offensive. Based on considerable testimony from those present at the time, and on its own preliminary internal study, the GBC is convinced that no such evil deed or even intention existed at the time. The GBC is certain that Srila Prabhupada’s passing away was due to entirely natural causes, as his doctors stated.
Some persons have claimed that they heard the word “poison” whispered on a tape said to have been made in Srila Prabhupada’s room. Many others, however, find the whispers indecipherable. In other words, one can read into the whisper almost anything one chooses. Nonetheless, some persons are bent on establishing the false and malicious theory that some of Prabhupada’s own disciples conspired to poison him.
To refute this charge beyond the slightest doubt, the GBC has given the original tape over to independent forensic experts for detailed analysis. The singular purpose is to lay to rest malevolently motivated theories about Srila Prabhupada’s passing. According to Balavanta das, head of independent investigation, “Initial reports from two of the forensic laboratories, both of which used equipment more sophisticated than any previously applied, do not find the word poison on the tape and do not support allegations of any wrongdoing.”
It is now clear to the GBC that the report of taped whispering conspirators is a false alarm. The GBC is confident that the final forensic report will confirm these preliminary findings.”
This official statement, one of only two issued by ISKCON at the time this publication went to press (the other is Appendix 21), has dismayed many devotees who had hoped ISKCON would lead the search for the truth. Now, anyone who would feel or express justifiable and legitimate concern over the circumstances of Srila Prabhupada’s departure from this mortal world, has been condemned as a virtual enemy of ISKCON.
It is perhaps this blatant shunning of efforts of cooperative goodwill offered by those outside the institutional walls that feeds the perception of a dishonest GBC, who many feel has become expert in keeping closed a Pandora’s box of gruesome ghosts collected over 22 years of embarrassing history.
The GBC says they are “convinced and certain that Srila Prabhupada was not poisoned.” Yet at least some of the GBC’sarranged for Balavanta’s investigation to research the matter, indicating that even they have some doubts. Suspicions arose in the minds of many about the GBC’s honesty and the supposed independent investigation they initiated. Does the apparent half-hearted and non-aggressive nature of Balavanta’s investigation have to do with the GBC’s influence, who, in a state of denial, hopes this issue will fade away? Does this look like an open and honest attempt to satisfy natural and obvious questions raised by the evidence itself?
Has Balavanta Prabhu decided to maintain silence until he can accumulate enough evidence to make a complete report? Are Balavanta and Naveen Krishna Prabhus, past and former GBC members, compromised by their past political allegiances, or are they truly concerned in uncovering the truth of the poison issue?
What are the findings of the “considerable testimony and preliminary internal study”? What in this material has so thoroughly convinced the writers of the ISKCON statement that there is no cause for concern- why not share this with the Vaishnava community? Where are the doctors’ statements verifying natural causes to Srila Prabhupada’s passing away? (There is no indication that such a thing ever existed!)
If ISKCON is really to refute the supposed charges of poisoning beyond the slightest doubt, as they say, then they should immediately enlighten everyone with full disclosure of all their findings, such as their audio lab reports, interviews, if any, and a full explanation and answering of questions by Srila Prabhupada’s secretary and primary caretaker for most of 1977: Tamal Krishna Goswami. When contacted by Dhaneshwar on behalf of this author, Tamal refused to discuss the issue or answer questions, saying that there was already an ongoing investigation. Tamal previously told Satyaraj Prabhu that if he answers one question, there will be hundreds more (Yes! and all should be answered! Why not?)
Also, what was the second audio forensic lab report obtained by Balavanta Prabhu? One report was the Norman Perle report, which may be of dubious value, as we will see later herein when reporting on Perle’s appointment tape analysis. Was the other lab the sound studio in Gainesville? What other audio forensics had Balavanta Prabhu done, if any? …….
Complete Article here:
http://www.iskcon-truth.com/poison/prabhupada-poisoned-part6.html
Will be continued on Part 7
Chapter 7 to Chapter 11
Srila Prabhupada left this mortal world on November 14, 1977.
But He lives forever in His instructions, and His followers will always live with Him.
“He reasons ill who tells that Vaishnavas die
While thou art living still in sound!
The Vaishnavas die to live, and living try
To spread the Holy Name around”
(Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Thākura)
HARE KṚṢṆA HARE KṚṢṆA KṚṢṆA KṚṢṆA HARE HARE
HARE RĀMA HARE RĀMA RĀMA RĀMA HARE HARE
Index – Overview
[PADA: This issue will be discussed in quite a lot of detail for quite a long time. We are just glad its out in the open at this point. Thats the main thing we wanted to have done, and by Krishna's grace it has been done. ys pd]
Someone Has Poisoned Me
The Facts About Srila Prabhupada’s Poisoning by Arsenic
BY: NITYANANDA DAS
“So as Krishna was attempted to be killed… And Lord Jesus Christ was killed. So they may kill me also.” (Srila Prabhupada, May 3, l976, Honolulu)
“My only request is, that at the last stage don’t torture me, and put me to death”
(from SPC Vol. 36, November 3, 1977 tape recorded Room Conversation)
CHAPTER 1 TO CHAPTER 6
[PLEASE NOTE: ADDRESSES, EMAILS, PHONE
NUMBERS ETC. MIGHT NO LONGER BE CORRECT!]
CHAPTER 1:
POISON BECOMES AN ISSUE
Rumors about a poisoning of Srila Prabhupada have been circulating around the world of devotees ever since Srila Prabhupada’s departure over 20 years ago. Rupanuga Prabhu remembers the subject arose in 1980 and Rupa Vilas Prabhu and this author heard about it in 1990.
[PADA: Correct, around 1990 the first copies of "Srila Prabhupada's conversations" were printed by the Bhaktivedanta archives. Unfortunately, under the strict orders of Tamal Krishna, only 1,000 copies were allowed to be printed. Fortunately, a few of us got access to the complete set of these books, and we could not help but notice that in the November 1977 conversations there was a notation "conversation about poison in Hindi." What conversation?
Of course this conversation was not publicly available anywhere at the time, nor included in the book. There was simply a sort of "side bar" indication in the book that such a conversation maybe existed -- somewhere. Needless to say, I began to pray every day to get a copy of that tape (if it even existed -- and was not destroyed already). I felt that this tape would reveal the ROOT CAUSE reason for many of the problems that evolved in ISKCON's post 1977 history, as well as -- WHO were some of the prime culprits involved in this history, and so forth. In other words, we were starting to put together the idea that Srila Prabhupada had been assassinated by some of his "top leaders."
Yes, there were some rumors, and behind the scenes discussions going on here and there about the poison issue, as well as many other controversial issues, but nothing solid was being presented. No one we knew at the time had these tapes, we were not even sure if the archives had copies.]
A few years ago, Satyaraj Prabhu asked his friend Tamal Krishna Goswami about the matter, and was told that these persistent rumors come back to life every so often, much to Tamal’s dismay. Abhinanda Prabhu was recently disturbed by these rumors, as well as many others.
[PADA: Abhinanda knew about the poison issue from the very start. He was present in Vrndavana India in November of 1977, and he was totally convinced that Srila Prabhupada had been poisoned at that time. He saw Bhakti Caru swami crying outside of Srila Prabhupada's room, and when Abhinanda asked Bhakti Caru what was wrong -- he replied "Srila Prabhupada is complaining that someone is giving him poison." Abhinanda knew this was a problem right at that instant.
Its amazing that none of the eye-witnesses like Adridharana, Bhakti Caru and others mentioned this issue at the time, or later on. Adridharan told me he was "alarmed" by the issue, but he never took it further. Various kavirajas were alarmed and in fact convinced of foul play, but they did not want to speak up, fearing for their lives.
So Abhinanda went through a sort of mental breakdown crisis for a long period in his life, due to suppressing this issue for years together, where he was almost unable to function basically. And he told me he was having all kinds of mental breakdowns and was seeing psychotherapists and so on, due to suppressing this issue. Finally, he got in touch with me by phone, and he said he was going to try to get the November tapes from the archives and help me break open the case, because he said, no one else he knew could or would expose this issue in public.
Pretty much at the time he had no faith that any of the other Srila Prabhupada's disciples had sufficient interest to open up the case, apart from me. And at the same time, he felt it would be dangerous for him or anyone who did introduce the issue. Thus Abhinanda felt, even if someone was interested in the issue, they would not be brave enough to make it public. Thus Abhinanda said to me, I know you Puranjana, you will make it public immediately, I have no doubts about that, so let me get that tape and I will get it to you. Then you can make this a public issue, and that is what happened.]
Paritrikananda Prabhu in California began to research the rumors and assemble evidence and leads out of his own need for finding the truth. A list of notes in this regard is included as Appendix 9. In early 1996 Paritrikananda Prabhu tried to interest this reporter in the matter, but at the time there did not seem to be any way to convert the rumors into facts.
[PADA: Unfortunately, its also possible people like Patrikananda may have been making pretend they were interested in the issue to flush out what information was available. He has been against our exposing things over the years, and he still is.]
Puranjana Prabhu, a well-known, controversial and vitriolic critic of ISKCON policies, amplified the issue in mid 1997, publishing on the internet information and questions on the subject.
[PADA: Abhinanda was finally successful in getting a copy of the tape from the archives, and he flew to Los Angeles to give me a copy of the tape. In short, Krishna answered my prayers to get this tape. However, Abhinanda was very frightened and he did not want his name mentioned. This is the trouble with everything really, people tell me there is a major problem, but they do not want to get involved.
I made 250 copies of the tape and began distributing copies in front of the Watseka temple in Los Angeles, along with my commentary and translation. I got a Bengali man to make the first text draft of the conversation which is mainly in Hindi. No other transcript was available at the time, since the Bengali man wanted me to give him another copy to compare his to, there was none. In sum, I was the first person to have the tape and the draft, and was the first to make all this public.
I listened to the tape on my little Sony walkman tape recorder and played it over and over and over for hours, for weeks, while walking around the Santa Monica mall, or at the Venice beach, wherever I was etc. I wanted to make sure that this was a solid poison complaint. Of course all the Hindi / Bengali speaking people who heard said -- it was. Basically I played it wherever I went to make sure it was clear to me what was going on. And! It was and is clear in my opinion.]
At the 1997 Los Angeles Rathayatra, Puranjana was picketing with a large sign which stated that Srila Prabhupada was poisoned, referring to Srila Prabhupada’s own statements to that effect in the Conversations Books.
[PADA: Because I finally had the Hindi portion of tape, the book has very little of the actual conversation. Oddly just a few days before the 1997 Rathayatra, Krishna Kanta Desai of the IRM told me he and his group was "making a deal with the GBC," and part of their deal was -- I should "stop writing and take a vacation in the Caribbean," and they would pay for that vacation. Some of the IRM folks even tried to physically restrain me from going out with the protest sign at Rathayatra. They thought this issue would "give ISKCON a bad name and ruin the movement." Basically, same idea some of the GBC's gurus have had.
In other words, at that time the IRM wanted to help the GBC suppress the poison issue, and some of their members still do. Anyway, we went ahead and marched out with our sign, and protested the poison issue in public at the Ratha festival. The jaws of the GBC's gurus in front of the parade simply dropped when I went out there with the sign, they just could not believe this was happening. Everyone said to me at the time, no one else is advertising this issue in public anywhere, it is being covered up. Some IRM folks even said, "You'll be dead in 24 hours after you launch this issue," ummm, they tried to frighten me into submission. That really does not work too well on people like myself -- for whatever the reason. In any event, the cat was now officially out of the bag. ]
When Isha Prabhu in Miami heard of the poison issue, he became disturbed, disbelieving all of it as nonsense. He had been Satsvarupa Maharaj’s secretary in Dallas in late 1977. When Satsvarupa Maharaj returned from Vrindaban just after Srila Prabhupada’s departure, Isha was given 20 tapes with instructions to make 10 sets of copies to send to various ISKCON leaders before forwarding the original tapes to the BBT Archives in Los Angeles.
Isha Prabhu did this, but kept an extra set for himself. He dug out these tapes after 20 years of storage and made copies for Mahabuddhi Prabhu’s birthday. Isha asked Mahabuddhi to listen to the tapes carefully, as he himself also did, in hopes of finding an answer to the question: was Srila Prabhupada poisoned? These 20 tapes of Srila Prabhupada’s last conversations, although the English portions were transcribed in the Conversations books, had never been released or advertised by the BBT Archives tape ministry. Thus, only a very few devotees had ever listened to them. However, copies are available upon special request from the Archives.
[PADA: I had already sent a copy of the tape to Naveen Krishna, and others, and Naveen was stirring up the issue in Alachua way before anyone else there took up any actual public interest. Perhaps our stirring things up motivated people to dig up other corroborating parts of the puzzle. Anyway, after the whispers were discovered the archives later on gave us an original digital copy of the master, which is where we got much clearer whispers, so they did help us out -- to their credit.]
CHAPTER 2:
POISON WHISPERS DISCOVERED
Almost simultaneously, Isha, Mahabuddhi and Balavanta Prabhus found and focused on several whispers on a tape labeled T-46, the third from the last known recording of Srila Prabhupada, and dated November 10 & 11, 1977. Isha Prabhu, a devotee since 1974 and long-time supporter of the Miami ISKCON temple, stated:
“When I first heard of the poisoning issue I became concerned and investigated by listening carefully to the twenty tapes in my library from Oct-Nov 1977. After thoroughly listening to them I concluded that if Srila Prabhupada was poisoned it was the result of accidental overdose or misuse of his medications.
That same day Mahabuddhi called and told me of suspicious whispers he had found on the same tapes of November 1977. I examined the whispers carefully using sophisticated electronic equipment, and had enhancements done on the tapes by FBI approved laboratories. My conclusion after hundreds of hours of analysis is that it is possible that Srila Prabhupada was poisoned.
I called Balavanta and asked him if we could form an investigation committee. He agreed that Mahabuddhi, Jagajivan and myself would be on it and that we could create a forum on ISKCON’s COM so we could communicate privately about these issues.”
[PADA: Jagajivan subsequently died shortly after this, he was found floating face down in a pond near Alachua, supposedly a suicide. Or was it? Lots of people told me that's how I'd end up if I kept this issue up ... I'd be found dead from "an accident,"or I'd never be found at all ever, I'd be "disappeared." Apparently Krishna has had another plan, He wanted the lid to be blown off this issue, and it has been.]
This reporter also interviewed Mahabuddhi Prabhu, former temple president, former promoter of Prabhupada’s Palace bus tours in New Vrindaban, and founder of the Florida Vedic College:
“We listened to Srila Prabhupada’s tape of November 10-11. My son Mahasimha, when I was out of the room, had heard a whisper, so he called me back and we played this whisper again. We enhanced it and listened to it, and it really sounded strange. We became a little bit shocked, because we thought we had heard something like: LETS POISON IN THE MILK, and the more we heard it, the more we listened to it, about 100 times that night, the more it sounded that way.”
CHAPTER 3:
WHISPERS ALARM DEVOTEES
Mahabuddhi Prabhu e-mailed his discovery to Balavanta and phoned Isha. Apparently Balavanta and associates in Alachua were already aware of the whisper, because the next day, November 11, 1997, the Vaishnava News Network, or VNN, posted not only Mahabuddhi Prabhu’s letter on the internet, but also a statement from Balavanta as the newly appointed “GBC special investigator.”
Apparently the GBC Executive Committee and the GBC Chairman, Madhusevita Prabhu, acted quickly, without full approval of the GBC, by immediately arranging for Balavanta Prabhu to investigate “independently” the alleged poisoning of Srila Prabhupada, beginning with research into the validity and nature of the alarming whispers.
Balavanta’s report stated, regarding the November 10-11 tape (T-46 or #18 out of the last 20):
“…it contains a whisper which refers to poison. This tape was digitally processed for clarity by an independent laboratory in Gainesville, Florida. According to the laboratory technician the following is the probable contents of the whispered statement. Either:
1. “Lets not poison him and go” or
2. “Lets now poison him and go.”
We are currently sending the tape to another laboratory with more advanced equipment for further investigation. We will report the results of that study as available.”
It is noted here that, to the best of our knowledge, this was the first and last public statement made by Balavanta as GBC Special Investigator. Since then, however, Balavanta Prabhu has spoken with others about the investigation unofficially. He, Mahabuddhi and Isha discussed arranging for more testing on the whispers, and Balavanta disclosed that he had sent the T-46 “poison tape” to the National Audio Video Forensic Laboratory in California, headed by a Mr. Norman Perle.
Just two months prior, Mrigendra Prabhu, a devotee attorney and former temple president of Los Angeles ISKCON, had sent the famous so-called “appointment tape” of May 28, 1977, to Perle’s lab to test for evidence of alleged tampering or editing. The appointment tape forensic test results will be discussed later on in Chapter 11 and Appendix 1.
Meanwhile, Isha and Mahabuddhi were finding more incriminating-sounding whispers on the same “poison tape.” In total, as reported on VNN, they were:
1. “Lets poison him and go,” or perhaps, “Put poison in the milk”
2. ” poison ishvarya rasa…get ready to go”,
3. “the poison’s going down, the poison’s going down”
4. “put poison in different containers.”
The level of concern and fear amongst devotees became greatly heightened. On November 30, Isha, very expert in manipulation of computer and sound recording equipment, reported on VNN his own personal findings in regards to the poison whispers on the “poison tape.” They were:
1. Conversations Vol. 36, pg 373: After Srila Prabhupada asks to lie down flat is heard this whisper: “The poison’s going down..(giggle) the poison’s going down.”
2. Con:36.373: After Jayapataka says, “follow the same treatment,” a whisper: “Is the poison in the milk? Um hum.”
3. Con:36.374: After Srila Prabhupada says, “Daytime we expose…”, we hear the whisper, “Do it now.” Then Srila Prabhupada drinks something.
4. Con:36.378: We hear the whispers, “Jayadwaita… will you serve Srila Prabhupada poison Jayadwaita?”, then several negative responses followed by “Nette, nette.”
5. Con:36.391: After Jayapataka says, “Should there be kirtana?” we hear a Bengali phrase, and then the whisper “Poison ishvarya rasa.” Srila Prabhupada says weakly and very surprised, “Me?”, then we hear, “Take it easy, get ready to go,” then a few seconds later, “The poison’s in you Srila Prabhupada.” Then, “He’s going under… He’s going under.” Then Hansadutta’s kirtan began.
The audio clips including the above whispers were posted on VNN on December 5, 1997. It is difficult for many to make out the whispers due to so much of the quality lost in that means of transmission. Dozens upon dozens of devotees have been taken by Naveen Krishna Prabhu in Alachua to a local sound studio to listen to the enhanced and “cleaned up” whispers.
Most agree, after listening carefully a few times, and there is no doubt in their minds, what the whispers are about: Srila Prabhupada was poisoned in a conspiracy by His own closest disciples. The number of devotees with this experience in Naveen Krishna’s sound studio continues to grow as time goes on.
http://www.iskcon-truth.com/poison/vnn-audio-files.html
http://www.iskcon-truth.com/poison/poison-whispers.html
CHAPTER 4:
POISON INVESTIGATIONS BEGIN
While Perle was analyzing the poison tape as per Balavanta’s instructions, Isha called Perle and discussed the whispers’ locations on the tape. Perle stated that he had been asked to study only one whisper, and to do it on a shoestring budget. It has been unofficially learned that the report Balavanta received from Perle soon thereafter did NOT verify the whispers, and the report has never been made public. Surprised to hear this, Isha called Norman Perle to discuss his findings. Isha relates his talk with Perle:
“I had discussed with Perle about several locations of the tape which contained whispers but when Balavanta received his report there was a great deal of confusion about what Perle had actually analyzed. I called Perle the day after my conversations with Balavanta to discuss my concerns about which sections of the tape he was listening to. I could not get a clear answer from him but he did make a statement which raised my suspicions even higher. He said that conversations and events on the tape did not represent the actual events taking place. He said that he was 95% convinced of that.”
Balavanta Prabhu also could not clearly identify for Isha which sections of the tape or which whispers Perle had examined. Thus it was speculated that Perle had analyzed the wrong whispers on the tape, as there are many throughout the tape, and did not examine the ones referring to poison.
Interestingly, though, Perle had alluded to fraudulent tampering of the tape, a subject we address later. Suffice it to say at this point that Perle mistakenly thought that the stop-start routine of recording was evidence of tampering. Mahabuddhi and Isha were disturbed that Perle’s report was not made available to them to verify or contradict their suspicion that the wrong whispers were examined. The credibility, accurateness and value of Perle’s report to Balavanta was thus deemed highly questionable.
[PADA: Balavanta withdraws, his case disappears. Why? His case is also not funded, done on shoestring, yep, not enough interest.]
Also, at this time, Balavanta Prabhu now would no longer take a personal position on the whisper issue as he had at the start. He had become private, grave, and attorney-like in his behavior. Further, what had begun as a cooperative effort had now effectively split into two groups: the secretive, “independent” GBC investigation and the work done by an entity called the Independent Vaishnava Council, with Mahabuddhi and Isha Prabhus’ participation.
Isha explains his disappointment with Balavanta:
“Balavanta informed me that there was no longer an investigation committee and that he was going to act alone based on the GBC’s instruction. I had already shared with him all the information I had gathered from the tapes and became further disturbed because of his breaking our agreement. Over the next several days I sent out several more e-mails detailing the results from the sound labs I had worked with in Miami. The VNN website (vnn.org) agreed to publish my findings. The CHAKRA website (chakra.org), which was created later, has refused to post my reports, however.”
Mahabuddhi also states: “…we had cleaned some tapes and made some enhancements on some segments …we actually delivered these tapes to Balavanta who came to West Palm Beach to meet with us. We were always very cooperative, and at that point we thought we were working as a group or a team, but then he told me that actually he’s now the only investigator.”
Mahabuddhi and Isha then decided to continue with their audio forensics investigation on their own. At this point this reporter became intimately involved in their investigation. The whispers were digitally enhanced and cleaned for clarity by prominent and first-class sound studios, one of which was Soundtrack, Inc of Miami, headed by George Blackwell. Mr. Blackwell, who does a lot of work for law enforcement agencies, reported in early December, 1997:
“First of all, what I remember hearing on his tape after cleanup was “It’s not poison in the milk” or, allowing for an unusual speech pattern by the speaker, “It’s not poisoned milk.” As in handwriting analysis, one calls upon other skills besides engineering for this type of work. At this point I relied heavily upon my 25 years of experience in musical training and in recording voices for commercials and narrations.”
George Blackwell then describes how he adjusted the pitch, filters and equalizer to obtain a variety of listening conditions. His conclusions, it must be noted, however, were based ultimately upon listening with the human ear and did not include more sophisticated analytical methods.
Harikesh Maharaj, then the GBC for much of Europe and the principal guru-power/broker in ISKCON, reported on the internet that by listening to the whispers with the equipment used for his tape ministry, he and his aides could not hear anywhere the word “poison” being whispered. He did admit, though, that it remained a big mystery to him as to why Srila Prabhupada would say that he was being poisoned.
Bir Krishna Maharaj (GBC vice-chairman at the time), Bhakticharu Swami (ISKCON guru), and Rabindra Swarup Prabhu (GBC and ISKCON spokesman), made a joint statement on the internet on January 17, 1998 that they also had listened to the poison tape, and in their opinion, the whisper about “poison in different containers” was actually “posing different opinions.”
They also had several Bengalis translate the whisper “poison ishvarya rasa” as a Bengali term meaning “in a few days time.”
It should be clarified, however, that the whispered poison phrase comes right after the Bengali phrase so translated. This attempted sweeping aside of one of the four whispers is the same kind of error likely made by Norman Perle analyzing a non-poison whisper and then saying there is no poison word. One wonders whether these GBC’s were doing shabby or dishonest reporting; it is quite obvious to anyone who listens to the tape that the poison whispers comes after the Bengali speaker.
News of the poison issue circulated quickly and was featured on the internet by the VNN and, later, by the “ISKCON-friendly” CHAKRA websites. Visits to VNN’s site tripled as thousands checked in every day for “poison issue” news, showing that devotees worldwide were very interested and concerned about the poison issue. It was clearly not a non-issue.
CHAPTER 5:
ISKCON STATEMENT
Given the seriousness of the matter, it is surprising that for many weeks no official statement was issued by ISKCON. Finally, on December 7, 1997 it came, composed by Bir Krishna Maharaj and, as he put it, “stiffened-up” by Rabindra Swarup Prabhu and Mukunda Maharaj. It read:
“Certain conspiracy theorists have been propagating of late the allegation that the Founder-Acharya of ISKCON met his demise on November 14, 1977 due to intentional poisoning at the hands of his own disciples. The GBC of ISKCON considers this charge both absurd and offensive. Based on considerable testimony from those present at the time, and on its own preliminary internal study, the GBC is convinced that no such evil deed or even intention existed at the time. The GBC is certain that Srila Prabhupada’s passing away was due to entirely natural causes, as his doctors stated.
Some persons have claimed that they heard the word “poison” whispered on a tape said to have been made in Srila Prabhupada’s room. Many others, however, find the whispers indecipherable. In other words, one can read into the whisper almost anything one chooses. Nonetheless, some persons are bent on establishing the false and malicious theory that some of Prabhupada’s own disciples conspired to poison him.
To refute this charge beyond the slightest doubt, the GBC has given the original tape over to independent forensic experts for detailed analysis. The singular purpose is to lay to rest malevolently motivated theories about Srila Prabhupada’s passing. According to Balavanta das, head of independent investigation, “Initial reports from two of the forensic laboratories, both of which used equipment more sophisticated than any previously applied, do not find the word poison on the tape and do not support allegations of any wrongdoing.”
It is now clear to the GBC that the report of taped whispering conspirators is a false alarm. The GBC is confident that the final forensic report will confirm these preliminary findings.”
This official statement, one of only two issued by ISKCON at the time this publication went to press (the other is Appendix 21), has dismayed many devotees who had hoped ISKCON would lead the search for the truth. Now, anyone who would feel or express justifiable and legitimate concern over the circumstances of Srila Prabhupada’s departure from this mortal world, has been condemned as a virtual enemy of ISKCON.
It is perhaps this blatant shunning of efforts of cooperative goodwill offered by those outside the institutional walls that feeds the perception of a dishonest GBC, who many feel has become expert in keeping closed a Pandora’s box of gruesome ghosts collected over 22 years of embarrassing history.
The GBC says they are “convinced and certain that Srila Prabhupada was not poisoned.” Yet at least some of the GBC’sarranged for Balavanta’s investigation to research the matter, indicating that even they have some doubts. Suspicions arose in the minds of many about the GBC’s honesty and the supposed independent investigation they initiated. Does the apparent half-hearted and non-aggressive nature of Balavanta’s investigation have to do with the GBC’s influence, who, in a state of denial, hopes this issue will fade away? Does this look like an open and honest attempt to satisfy natural and obvious questions raised by the evidence itself?
Has Balavanta Prabhu decided to maintain silence until he can accumulate enough evidence to make a complete report? Are Balavanta and Naveen Krishna Prabhus, past and former GBC members, compromised by their past political allegiances, or are they truly concerned in uncovering the truth of the poison issue?
What are the findings of the “considerable testimony and preliminary internal study”? What in this material has so thoroughly convinced the writers of the ISKCON statement that there is no cause for concern- why not share this with the Vaishnava community? Where are the doctors’ statements verifying natural causes to Srila Prabhupada’s passing away? (There is no indication that such a thing ever existed!)
If ISKCON is really to refute the supposed charges of poisoning beyond the slightest doubt, as they say, then they should immediately enlighten everyone with full disclosure of all their findings, such as their audio lab reports, interviews, if any, and a full explanation and answering of questions by Srila Prabhupada’s secretary and primary caretaker for most of 1977: Tamal Krishna Goswami. When contacted by Dhaneshwar on behalf of this author, Tamal refused to discuss the issue or answer questions, saying that there was already an ongoing investigation. Tamal previously told Satyaraj Prabhu that if he answers one question, there will be hundreds more (Yes! and all should be answered! Why not?)
Also, what was the second audio forensic lab report obtained by Balavanta Prabhu? One report was the Norman Perle report, which may be of dubious value, as we will see later herein when reporting on Perle’s appointment tape analysis. Was the other lab the sound studio in Gainesville? What other audio forensics had Balavanta Prabhu done, if any? …….
Complete Article here:
http://www.iskcon-truth.com/poison/prabhupada-poisoned-part6.html
Will be continued on Part 7
Chapter 7 to Chapter 11
Srila Prabhupada left this mortal world on November 14, 1977.
But He lives forever in His instructions, and His followers will always live with Him.
“He reasons ill who tells that Vaishnavas die
While thou art living still in sound!
The Vaishnavas die to live, and living try
To spread the Holy Name around”
(Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Thākura)
HARE KṚṢṆA HARE KṚṢṆA KṚṢṆA KṚṢṆA HARE HARE
HARE RĀMA HARE RĀMA RĀMA RĀMA HARE HARE
Index – Overview
[PADA: This issue will be discussed in quite a lot of detail for quite a long time. We are just glad its out in the open at this point. Thats the main thing we wanted to have done, and by Krishna's grace it has been done. ys pd]
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