History of the GBC's Praghosa/ Ireland / Prithu

[PADA: Amazing. The GBC in 1979 offered to make me the guru of Ireland if I would quit protesting, and work with them. Later on Prithu fell for that trick and he took a big post from them.] 

More on the History of Praghosa and Ireland

BY: BHAKTA CHRIS

Prithu dasa, originally from Germany, had been in Dublin, Ireland for approximately 5-6 years, from 1978. Around 1983, Paul Murphy, a/k/a Praghosa dasa joined ISKCON Ireland. Praghosa was born in Greater London, England to Irish parents. When he was approximately 6 years old his parents returned to Dublin, Ireland, where he remained until his late teenage years. At this point in his life, Praghosa das returned to the London area to seek employment and escape conservative Catholic Ireland culture.

A short time later he met the Hare Krishnas and was employed in the Soho Street Temple restaurant where he met Prithu, who convinced him to return to Ireland. Prithu made him Temple President there. Around 1985, an ex-IRA combatant joined ISKCON -- Martin Blake, a/k/a Uddhava das. Uddhava was an ex-IRA combatant, not Praghosa, as wrongly stated in Virad das's recent article. Both Uddhava and Praghosa quickly became Prithu's henchmen (they had these "qualities") and ruled with an iron fist.

[PADA: Right, there was a sort of goonda rule going on all over the place, and that was one of the techniques, to get criminal thug types to act as "enforcers."]

Eventually however, around 1988, Prithu was exposed as unreputable. 

[PADA: Actually he was exposed way before that, it just took the GBC a long time to respond.]

He was pressured and forced to abandon his post after many years of building up the Irish Yatra, which was deemed quite successful. Uddhava and Pragosh had become prominent leaders in the Irish yatra, and being in the inner circle, they had major problems with Prithu's autocracy, what to speak of the serious questions that had arisen about his spiritual integrity. 

The devotees had developed serious suspicions that Prithu was not chanting his rounds, was engaged in illicit sex, and was generally out of control; that he had 'lost the plot' with his Krsna consciousness, and was accountable to no one. 

He was sending devotees out to do paintings, and was buying himself big expensive toys -- for example: a speedboat, an expensive fancy car, an amphibious vehicle, a fancy RV, off-road 4x4 vehicles, and the like. Devotees also felt he was doing unnecessary major construction works on temple buildings "for fun". All this was apparently being funded by the rank and file, who were out night and day, selling paintings.

[PADA: Correct. While the gurukula children were complaining they were not getting sufficient food, clothing, blankets, medicine and what to speak of proper teachers and administration, the money meant for their care was being siphoned and squandered on opulent lifestyles for these bogus GBC leaders and gurus. 

For example, one of the children told me he had stunted growth and rotten teeth by the time he was 15, because he was not getting enough nourishment. He was always hungry and when he got some moldy oatmeal to eat, it made him vomit. 

So these guys like Prithu (Peter Brinkman?) were stealing the money meant to care for these children and others citizens to buy themselves all sorts of expensive toys instead. Why these leaders like Prithu were never legally charged with criminal embezzling, fraudulent use of charity funds, and orchestrated negligence of the society's children etc. is beyond us, but for sure the Yamaduttas will ask them why their empire starved children while they ate like fat hogs, why they put illicit sex into the Vyasa seat, and so on and so forth.

Even in karmi society people who orchestrate abusing, starving and mistreating of children are considered as the worst of criminals. According to a friend of mine who works in a prison "these people generally get solitary because its not safe for them in the general prison population." What to speak then of how these vicious children oppressing people will fare in Yamaraja's prison house.] 

It was around 1988 when Uddhava and Praghosa together conspired to remove Prithu prabhu from his position as leader and overseer, and they organised a coup d'état which allowed them to take control. Things didn't go exactly to their plan, however, so they left ISKCON and started their own community outside the society, taking some gullible members with them.

[PADA: Hee hee, right, the former little fish enforcer thugs of the big fish bigger thugs do not always make good leadership candidates.]

They ruled their community with tyranny and heavy handedness while attempting to politically fracture the infrastructure of the Irish spiritual community. At this time Sivarama Swami was the GBC for Ireland / UK, and he was negotiating with Uddhava and Praghosa for a return to ISKCON integration.

[PADA: Sivarama is one of the biggest supporters of the illicit sex acharyas program, which bans, beats, molests and assassinates people, big help he is!]

Praghosa and Uddhava's break-away community was located in the countryside near Wicklow, Ireland, approximately 50 km. south of Dublin. Among its members were the following grihastas:

Pragosh das, Goloka dasi and their 2 sons
Uddhava das, Hare Krsna dasi, their son and 2 daughters
Krsna Katha das and Bhagavati dasi, and daughter Devahuti
Prabhupada das and Bhaktin Emer and their 3 sons
Annirudha das and Himavati dasi and their 3 daughters
Daruka das and Charanaravinda dasi and their 2 daughters
Gopagan das and Karanesvari dasi and their daughter
Patri das and Dinadiadra dasi and their 2 sons

This marginal and self-appointed ISKCON community lasted approximately five years, until Praghosa secretly commenced negotiations by himself with Sivarama Swami. Praghosa, unbeknown to Uddhava and the other community members, made a private proposal to re-enter the fold of ISKCON. 

Giving Sivarama Swami an ultimatum, he demanded to be made a GBC member for Ireland with managerial authority. Sivarama Swami capitulated, much to the horror and resentment of Praghosa's self-styled community members, who regarded this as an act of betrayal. 

Sivarama was apparently able to convince the other GBC members to accept Praghosa's demands on the argument that it would bring a lot of disenfranchised devotees back to ISKCON and mend the fractured Irish yatra. Praghosa with the attitude of a mercenary, had thus stabbed Uddhava and their community members in the back , due to his avaricious ambition for power , control, resources, money and position. 

[PADA: A perfect leader candidate from the GBC perspective?]

After a short time, this self-styled, non-mainstream ISKCON community fell apart, and Uddhava along with his colleagues and most of the community degenerated back to a non-devotional lifestyle. Some community members practically gave up Krsna consciousness as a result.

[PADA: That happens all the time in GBC land, people get discouraged and leave.]

Since that time, Praghosa is believed to have heavily mortgaged temple properties in Ireland, allegedly directing the funds to various apparently private projects. Due to a lack of disclosure and accountability, the evidence appears to be circumstantial, but the temples in question are as follows:

Hare Krishna
Inish Rath Island, Derrylin,
County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland BT929GN U.K.

Hare Krishna Temple
140 Upper Dunmurry Lane
Belfast, Northern Ireland BT170HE U.K.

Funds from the mortgaged temples may have been directed to three Govindas restaurants in Dublin, said to be Praghosa's private projects:

Govindas
4 Aungier Street, Dublin 2, Ireland

Govindas
83 Middle Abbey Street, Dublin 1, Ireland

Govindas
Talbot Street, Dublin 2, Ireland
(Now permanently closed)

Since being handed power as an ISKCON GBC, many devotees feel that Praghosa has treated the rank and file members of the Irish yatra with gross abject contempt. He maintains a tyrannical system of no transparency, no disclosure, no accountability. He spends little energy or time within the Irish community of devotees and couldn't care less about the welfare of the yatra he was appointed to oversee, according to most of the mature standing devotees who have continuously resided here in Ireland.

Dissatisfaction and despair has long been the order of the day, while words continue to fall upon the GBC'S deaf ears to have him replaced with a more competent manager.

[PADA: This seems to be a big problem overall, the GBC's idea that acharyas are often debauchees is not attracting well rounded mature people. So they have to compromise to attract anyone. And they thus get many people who are selfish tyrants, motivated for position, followers, power, and maybe sex with some of the followers, and / or money, etc. Likes attract. 

So the whole thing needs to be corrected, as many devotees seem to agree. The good news is that more and more of this story is getting out every day, so the sincere people can avoid getting burned by these deviants. All this of course begs the question, why does the GBC end up making these people their leaders and gurus? ys pd]