GBC Banning Policy Review

With all the good things you can do to spread sanatan dharma, the GBC of ISKCON Phoenix, Hari Vilas das, in the service of Srila Prabhupada, has banned more 21 devotees from the temple for over 1 year! Why would anyone do such a thing? 

False charges were levied against a 75 year old Indian devotee by the temple president Prema Dhatri after the man and a few others monitoring the temple accounts found out some discrepancies in the accounting. They brought it up to the lady who then made up charges against the 75 year old devotee, that he had taken some money from one Indian lady guest, money she said that was meant for the temple. It was later found out in court that the lady admitted owing the money to the Indian bhahmana and the charge against him was baseless,

Prema Dhatri (Pratibha Somaiya) then got a court restraining order against the Indian man, whose name is Dr, Misra. He appealed the case in a higher court and the charges against him were proven false and dropped. At least four times after the court found him innocent, Dr, Misra was harassed when trying to visit the Phoenix ISKCON temple to have darshan, by Prema Dhatri calling the police on him to have him removed. She claims that the NA GBC representative, Hari Vilas and the North American GBC Executive Committee composed of Nityananda das, Badri from San Diego (who is now wearing he cloth of a sannyasi), and Romapada Swami had banned him from entering the temple. 

All the supporters who went to court to defend the innocent Dr. Misra, all supporters of the temple way before Hari Vilas ever set foot on the temple sacred ground, have also been banned from visiting the temple, including their wives and children, atotal of 21 devotees. 

The backlash of the ridiculous and offensive behavior of Hari Vilas and the temple president Prema Dhatri has circulated throughout the large numbers of Indians in the community, who have boycotted the temple from visiting and numbers of guests are way way down because of it. The GBC EC of NA are unwilling to mend the wrong they are responsible for, including Hari Vilas, who at one time threatened to "break Dr. Misra's legs, if he tried to visit the temple again!

Someone may say, this sounds too outlandish a punishment for no offense or crime committed, and it has caused a civil war practically in the congregation. There is more to the story. The NA GBC EC charirman, Nityananda das and friends, called for a professional audit to done on the temple accounts and the personal accounts of the temple president, since the complaint against her was that it appeared there may have been some "money laundering" done mixing the temple funds and her funds.

Nityananda das would not reveal to myself or the congregation who was doing the investigation and audit. However, finally he claimed the audit was completed and the results were that there was found no discrepancies. He published this in a public email as did Badri, the GBC from San Diego. 

However, the devotee doing the audit was found out and it was discovered in talking to a devotee in charge of the new IDRO: ISKCON Dispute Resolution Office, Jagajivan prabhu, that the audit was stopped by Hari Vilas and was inconclusive, which was not what the NA GBC members were telling everyone. Why did they stop it the audit? Why are these Indian devotees still to this day, after more than a year of temple politics and proof that they committed no wrong, still not allowed in the temple they even helped to start? More importantly, WHY did members of the North American GBC Executive Committee LIE about the whole thing? Doesn't this sound insane, or highly suspicious, or both?

I have concluded that the whole event is insane, and that there is a coverup being executed by persons on the GBC who in fact perhaps shouldn't have that service, if they cannot be honest, fair, and proper representatives of Srila Prabhupada.

Now there are NA GBC and Temple Presidents meetings this week in Dallas. Will the temple presidents demand that the GBCs resolve this offense to these innocent people? Will the NA GBCs stand their ground, on no platform whatsoever except their deceit and arrogance? Guess we will find out by the end of the week.

Photos of the banned devotees are presented here, including one young Nepali devotee, Rupanuga das (Ram Prasad), who has been in ISKCON his whole life and is very well known.
There is more crooked "stuff" behind the story involving Romapoad Swami who set up an unethical and illegal takeover of the temple back in 2009, kicking out the GBC and putting in his own to be future dsiciple as the TP.

Why would he do that? To learn more, you can visit

http://watchdogbulletin.org.