Janananda Maharaja writes Bhakti Vikas Swami

All glories to -- me!

Janananda Maharaja's Appreciation for Women: Masters or Mothers?

BY: H.H. JANANANDA MAHARAJA

A letter to H.H. Bhakti Vikasa Swami.

Dear Maharaja, Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

I just wanted to comment a little on the book – Women: Masters or Mothers? I have just finished reading it. Your disciple in London – forgot his name - asked me to give some comment or perhaps approach the authorities there in London as to why they have prohibited its sale in their shops and temples. I was not aware of that – I heard that in Mayapura there was some objection last year but that is all I knew. Well I would be surprised that those who have made the decision to ban the book have actually gone thru it. I have read it fairly comprehensively and frankly found it well balanced – in no way offensive – well researched . respectfully presented in general – perhaps the naming of certain individuals could have been averted, informative and very Krsna conscious to name a few aphorisms.

[PADA: Right, we do not want to actually name some of the GBC people who have been saying that gurus are often debauchees engaged in illicit sex etc, and describe all the resultant mayhem that process has been causing, because we don't want to "be offensive"? All this trouble sort of dropped out of the sky, no one caused this?

Over the years we have challenged various GBC followers on this point. They keep saying to us there is at least ONE guru in the GBC's program who is bona fide. And yet they factually cannot EVER name this ONE single GBC guru who has made a public disagreement with the numerous GBC position papers -- where the GBC are saying that gurus are often deviants and as such -- gurus fall down, are censured, suspended, monitored, removed and etc. 

Can anyone name this one person who is bona fide in their group? 

This includes Torben Nielsen, Ajit Krishna and Kim Moller ilk, they also cannot name ONE single person who disagrees with the main body of GBC documents and lectures since 1977, which basically say -- gurus are often debauchees. This is perhaps the biggest problem in ISKCON today, people are engaged in severe deviations and yet "we cannot name the names of the deviators and the specific deviations going on." Isn't this called -- the blind leading the blind?  

That perpetuates the problems. Lets start off with one name then, Janananda Maharaja, he is one of the GBC's folks who goes along hand in glove with GBC's documents that say gurus are often falling into illicit behaviors, left, right and center, and that the guru successors to God Almighty are often debauchees, or even usually they are debauchees. 

And then when their gurus are falling, their folks say their guru "took too many sins" -- as if neophytes can absorb sins like Jesus is? Who authorizes people like Janananda Maharaja to claim they are diksha gurus who can absorb sins like Jesus in the first place? Didn't Srila Prabhupada say we neophytes cannot act like diksha gurus, because we would then be overwhelmed if we tried to absorb other's sins? 

The only good news is that their accumulated sins are making them fall down, get sick, or both, and some have died, thus Krishna is thinning out their herd of hokey messiahs all the time, the bad news is that many of them still think they are authorized to accept these sins like they are the second coming of Jesus.]  

I felt more could have been said about one of the primary underlying catalysts to the issue – the misbehaviour of the husbands and certain male figureheads in our society etc.

[PADA: Here we go again. We cannot name these "certain male figureheads," hee hee, code words that really mean -- some of the GBC's biggest henchmen, various temple presidents, teachers, sannyasas and even -- their alleged gurus. Also correct, the behavior of some, or even many, of the husbands has been bad. Of course, if these husbands are worshiping some of the GBC's misogynists and their anti-women / anti-children / anti-family / false renunciate -- regime and agenda -- as their gurus, won't that make them also become dysfunctional and misogynists from the get go? 

You become what you worship? If we worship dysfunction ... then?

Ooops! We cannot actually say "who or whom on the GBC" is making these debauchees into their messiahs, because then we would have to name the actual culprits, those who orchestrated this program. OK, but what if ALL of the post-1977 GBC folks combined, including Janananda Maharaja, have orchestrated and participated in this program of making debauchees into God's successor gurus -- which is malefically affecting the husbands, their spouses and their entire families?]

From my experience in most cases of breakdown in the family has come from the male side – offensive behaviour. Aggression to the wife – excessive sexual abuse. Again and again over decades I have heard that the wives just could not tolerate it. As one of the quotes in the book states that a wife should serve a husband who is not fallen. What constitutes fallen? 

Does that infer she should not serve him if he is fallen? How much can they tolerate? Surely it is the husbands job to act in goodness since the women naturally are influenced by passion and ignorance. If the husbands had played their part I am sure the situation would not have been what it is now. It is the mans job to protect but when he is exploiting instead then what can be done. Equality means both have a responsibility to play their parts. In many cases the husbands have just not protected their wives. Of course there are many cases of the onus being on the females part also.

[PADA: The society overall has not protected brahmanas, women, or children, and cows have been abused and neglected, and even there is the case of those cows that were sold to a slaughterhouse. We cannot expect women to surrender to this program?]

In Vedic culture or anywhere come to that there was no legal marriage so where would the question of legal divorce enter in. Now in order to go on the sannyasa list you must have a legal divorce from one's wife if one is married. I had to go thru that. Seems quite contradictory. 

[PADA: Why is there a sannyasa waiting list -- but no guru waiting list? Sannyasa takes years, guru is bingo, boingo, done, you are another sin-absorbing Jesus - like messiah in an instant? Then again didn't Srila Prabhupada suspend sannyasa and say -- they should get married and start varnasrama. What happened to that program? And if they are not fit for sannyasa, how are they fit to be guru?] 

What would you say in a case which I am presently experiencing. The husband and wife are both devotees and Indian. They lived in the US and only the husband worked in a good job. For some reason he started to develop negativity towards the local ISKCON and in general began to look elsewhere for inspiration – rtvik, gaudiya matha. 

[PADA: OK the GBC says we all have to worship their guru lineage that contains illicit sex, drugs, and some have even fallen into meat eating and criminal actions etc. Who wants to worship a guru lineage that is more degraded than the prospective new worshiper is? Normally, we all want to worship something superior to ourselves, but the GBC says that is wrong, we need to worship their degraded guru lineage that contains dog like lusty behaviors, and worse behaviors, and which is thus more degraded behavior than the common man's behavior. 

And so! People have been leaving ISKCON in droves for decades and that process will continue, because why would a person want to worship something that is more degraded than he already is? We need to give people something superior to worship, not inform the ordinary man he has to worship a guru program full of lusty dogs, who are more degraded than he is? Then again there are those who think this is the actual plan, to make the process of worship very disgusting and make ISKCON into a ghost town. 

No wonder people are drifting off to other camps. In fact its almost amazing there is anyone left in an institution that openly preaches that their alleged acharyas, gurus and messiahs from heaven are often falling and engaged in animalistic illicit debauchee behaviors left, right and center. Why wouldn't people drift off from that so-called religion?]  

His behaviour also became erratic and unpredictable to the point that he just left ISKCON per se and decided to go back to India and start his own movement more or less. He demanded his wife and child follow him and give up their connection with ISKCON altogether. He had also become physically abusive to his wife. The wife was for sure not submissive after some point and refused to give up ISKCON, or go to India and follow him. He became quite irate and left. 

Since then the relationship has been very distant – from all reports and letters he sends to me also he is willing to say, do and promise just about anything to get his way but she is not budging and is filing for divorce. Unlike most civil cases we have the added complexity of the spiritual commitment involved not just the material compatibility. Which is the higher consideration – allegiance to one's Krsna conscious principles or following theoretical dharma even though it is not really a dharmic affair in its actions. Just staying married does not make it dharmic necessarily.

[PADA: Right, so all of these policies of the GBC of forcing people to worship their illicit sex messiahs is tearing families apart, and this was well known when Sulochana wrote about this in 1986. He said -- the GBC's policies of forcing people to worship illicit sex gurus renders many families dysfunctional, and places children at risk for abuse because the family structure is being eroded and attacked.]

What can be done if the husband or wife is really fallen. Are they to tolerate the fallen behaviour at the cost of their Krsna conscious practice. Another real dilemma is sex only for kids. In the city for sure, with no extended family, to have more than 2 kids is really unmanageable for many. What to do – they cannot marry more than one wife. Cannot have sex with their one wife if they do not want to have more children. This is often why the men go to prostitutes, watch porn or have an affair with another woman. They are not so advanced and simply frustrated and lusty.

[PADA: Gunagrahi was one of the GBC's gurus / parampara members / messiahs and he was watching porn himself. How can these people advise others about family affairs, when their own house is in such total disorder? And why has Janananda's GBC program covered and papered over complaints about their porno guru for decades, and they still kept him in the post of their alleged messiah, evidently knowing there were big problems? If the GBC is dysfunctioning, then everyone under them will have problems functioning. What a great man does, others will follow, so if your great men and gurus are -- watching porno ...???]   

Specifics aside the book seems directed towards presenting the Vedic – Krsna conscious standpoint and especially in relationship with Varnasrama. Mostly it comes over that this is the main thrust with a deep concern about the ultimate protection of society – to free them from fear by taking shelter of Krsna's instruction in terms of duty etc. the special emphasis on the welfare of the children and the womenfolk is very much appreciated.

[PADA: Except a number of the ex-kulis are boycotting ISKCON and the Kuli-melas because the leaders who created all their abuse infrastructure are still worshiped as leaders and gurus in ISKCON. Why would women feel any more encouraged in this situation?]

I do not feel there is any strong ground to ban this book especially in the light that so many questionable books have and are being sold in ISKCON temples all over the world. 

[PADA: OK why is the GBC allowing the sale of questionable books, like all of Satsvarupa's whack doodle writings and insane artworks? Janananda points to the real issue here, the GBC does not police their own program, thus there are bogus books "all over the world," there are also sexual predators, crooks, embezzlers, and there are bogus gurus -- all over the world. 

And there has been a lack of care for the brahmanas, women, children and cows. And there are so many deviations we cannot count them, and its not being controlled and contained. What kind of gurus allow all sorts of bogus books to be sold all over their society, never mind they allow Jayadvaita to re-write the actual bona fide books, so he can make them into bogus books?]

The main thing I pick up is the cover and title were very instrumental in the decision of the objectors. It comes over as provocative. It does not seem that most of the content is directly aimed at this point of master/mothers.

I had a funny experience today whilst giving the Sunday feast lecture in one temple. After chanting the sloka I asked the prabhus to repeat. Then after 4 or 5 of them had led I turned to the ladies – what is the address here for the ladies – Okay prabhus now chant. Just a joke but it got a lot laughing at the absurdity of it.

Generally I really appreciate what you have done here and I just wish that more would see its value. I myself feel compromised in many ways especially in working in countries like Philippines where the women are just more together and dominant in so many cases. We are more or less dependent on them. In other places I have gay disciples - how to encourage them in their lives. In many cases it may be that they are more lusty – whatever that means.

[PADA: Hee hee, right, Tripurari swami's ex-secretary told me that there were a lot of gay disciples, but even they got fed up with his gal pal association.]

I feel this term women are 10 times more lusty needs explaining since again from my discussions and experience it is the men who are far more sexually lusty than the women. The women however are much more concerned with the paraphernalia of household life and the trimmings therein. Men not so.

Unbiased – yet of course bias to the acarya and sastra – discussions on this topic may be possible.

I would like to comment on the evolvement of let us say a more traditional approach in regards to the mixing of the sexes. As a movement I agree we should be developing more civilized behavior favorable for the cultivation of pure devotional service. Yet there will always be newcomers – first timers. In dealing with them the same leniency expressed by Srila Prabhupada I feel is still needed today in dealing in these areas. 

One last point for ksatriya wives when there is a necessity they would sometimes – or so it appears take up the business of their husbands – specifically in cases where the husband was killed or wounded. It is described that Dasaratha's wife was driving his chariot and when he was injured she is the one who helped him. Jhansi rani another example who took the sword when her husband fell on the battlefield.

Hare Krishna
I hope this finds you well.

Your servant,
Janananda Gosvami

[PADA: Well yep. your guru program is failing and that is why people are drifting off to the ritviks, the babajis, the Gaudiya Matha and who knows what else. Someone sent me a link to the GBC's babaji authority, who is giving us "siddha deha" -- and there are some GBC gurus going there for "rasika instructions." So even their own gurus are drifting off and away from ISKCON, never mind the rest of the lot. And these gurus are not being contained, so they are spreading this babaji-ism. 

And so! As long as Janananda Maharaja and his pals are preaching that God's successors are often illicit sex debauchees if not porno swamis, he will turn people away from Krishna in droves. We have been discussing with some devotees that for these people to teach children that God's successors are often illicit sex debauchees is probably not even legal, its fraud and its corrupting the morals of minors.

Meanwhile, there is a giant pile of already existing victims of Janananda's guru program that still have not been helped one iota by these "managers," and in fact their suffering has been made worse by the Janananda process of propping up the leaders of their abuse regime as saints and acharyas. Perhaps that is the problem this poor person is experiencing -- 

https://www.crowdrise.com/save-my-brother1/fundraiser/kirtanrasa

This seems to be one common result of the illicit sex acharyas program, it destroys people and it is destroying the institution. Hansadutta says that there are no disciples of these new gurus, there are only the people they hijacked and kidnapped away from Srila Prabhupada and took them as their own. Anyway, Janananda and his pals are not going to a very nice destination for their preaching to children that God's successors are often illicit sex debauchees and porno swamis, guaranteed. 

ys pd]