Hansadutta's History Part. 1 (And Berkeley's temple)

[PADA: A few devotees have recently asked me to comment on my views of Hansadutta. Lets just say, his history speaks for itself. As Madhvacarya says, anyone who understands history is eligible for liberation. So if we understand the history of his actions, everything will be clear.

As for me personally, it was also my karma to be in the middle of this group. Thus, I hold no grudges or animosity personally, because its my own destiny (and its all of our's destiny collectively) to be part of this history. As some folks say, history is unforgiving, it is what it is. So here is a glimpse into this history, and don't tell me its wrong, I lived it. ys pd]

PADA: Hansadutta has done some good service, some not so good, and some just plain awful. I'd like to concentrate mainly on how Hansadutta has influenced post-1977 ISKCON, but there are a few details pre-1977 that would help us understand the post-1977 era better. 

The first problem with Hansadutta was in the early 1970s, when his Schloss Rettershoff was raided by the police in Germany. The Police discovered he was reading books about Hitler and the third Reich, and this was reported in the newspapers and media in Europe. Srila Prabhupada was very upset by this event, and he spoke (and wrote in his Srimad Bhagavatam) that we should not even be discussing, what to speak of reading books about, Hitler. Srila Prabhupada said Hitler is a mundane man whose program failed. Of course even as a karmi I hated to read about Hitler, because whatever Hitler is all about, its not going to help my spiritual life one iota.

Hansadutta created a big public scandal from this event. But what was more important for me personally was to realize -- here is a person who is reading books about Hitler and Joseph Goebbels for inspiration on how to proceed in life. Why isn't he reading -- say for example -- a book about the life of the Goswamis? Now its well known that the lives of Hitler and Joseph Goebbels are generally seen as malefic: Using secret cabals and skulduggery; Misleading and misrepresenting; and worse -- In order to promote oneself as an absolute dictator, unquestioned tyrant, and superior authority. What kind of mindset is attracted to reading about these ideas? You are studying the megalomania super ego mindset and process, for what reason?

The megalomaniacs sabha

PHOTOS ON ALTARS

Then the next issue that emerged in the 1970s was that Hansadutta and Kirtanananda were placing their photos on the ISKCON temple's altars. And we know a devotee who took Hansadutta's picture off the Germany altar, and stepped on it. At that time, Srila Prabhupada said that at least in the Gaudiya Matha they waited until their guru had left his body -- before placing their own photos on the altar, but my disciples are so disrespectful and ambitious, they will place their own photos on my altars while I'm still alive. 

After that, Prithu das told us that Srila Prabhupada had told him; Everyone else is praying for me to live, but Hansadutta is praying for me to die, so he can sit in my seat and take my place. So clearly there was a lot of motivation to replace Srila Prabhupada among these so-called leaders. Prithu further says, Srila Prabhupada told Hansadutta the "punar musika bhava" story, be careful -- because disrespecting your guru will make you -- again -- become a mouse. And some say, this has already happened to him in this life.

SECRET MEETINGS

After Srila Prabhupada left the planet in November of 1977, Hansadutta told me that he and the other 10 "gurus" held secret meetings where they plotted out their plan to take over the post of acharya from Srila Prabhupada. For example, Satsvarupa Das Goswmi pretended to be a disciple of Srila Prabhupada and he held mock debates with the other 10 "gurus" to train them how to argue that they had been appointed as the successors. So this means Hansadutta knew these leaders were plotting against Srila Prabhupada, and in fact he was a member of their "plot and scheme" program. Srila Prabhupada had warned, why are my leaders sitting around -- plotting and scheming? And who were they plotting against -- if not Srila Prabhupada himself?

TOSSING SRILA PRABHUPADA UNDER THE BUS

Now a lot of people tell me, these guys such as Hansadutta really loved Srila Prabhupada all along, you just cannot see it. Really? Yet the first thing the Hansadutta cabal did was -- to say that Srila Prabhupada is a defective mundane man, because he makes the mistake of appointing 11 conditioned souls as Krishna's successors. That would mean: Srila Prabhupada does not know who is Krishna; Or who is His successor; Or what is the parampara; Or what is the process of liberation etc. 

We 11 are the new acharyas, and we are defective, because acharyas like Srila Prabhupada are also defective. We are all equals, one and the same, we are all the shaksat hari tvena program, and thus our defects are the same defects you will find in Krishna and His acharyas. This is what Srila Prabhupada said about the Gaudiya Matha's deviants, they dragged the acharyas to their level.  

So they did everything they could to make it appear as though Srila Prabhupada is an ordinary conditioned being who makes huge mistakes, thus he cannot distinguish what is pure and what is not pure. Of course they had to do that since they were painting themselves as acharyas, so naturally they would have to say ALL acharyas are defective, to cover up their own defects. And so in 1980 they wrote their "Mahajanas Have Diffiiculties" paper, to say that its common for great souls to fall into illusion, like they were doing left, right and center. 

So, we love Krishna and Srila Prabhupada, therefore, we are going to establish that defective beings, sexual predators, deviants, drug addicts, homosexuals from Mott Street, criminals, porno swamis, and the most degraded behaviors on earth, are the successors to Srila Prabhupada and Krishna. Where is the love for Krishna if one is saying Krishna's successors are drug addicts and debauchees? 

Sulochana das summarized all this, he said it would have been better if Hansadutta had established the worship of a bucket of dogs stools than his acharya sabha, because a bucket of dogs stools cannot molest children and orchestrate assassinations of vaishnavas. A bucket of dog stools thus cannot harm anyone, while these guys can get me killed. 

Sulochana said that Hansadutta is not advanced enough to worship a bucket of dog stools, because that would be too much in the modes of goodness in comparison to his deviant acharyas. And this is a fact, if they had worshiped a bucket of dogs stools, Sulochana would still be alive. 

Of course Hansadutta in 1986 also worked hand in glove with Kirtanananda and the people who wanted to kill Sulochana. No kidding, Sulochana had these people pegged and they wanted to eliminate those who saw their real natures. Now the flood gates have been opened by these people like Hansadutta, who wanted to establish that acharyas are defective. And so its now common around ISKCON to hear that acharyas are defective and falling into every deviation known to man, because even Srila Prabhupada is defective according to their process. 

The Pandora's box is now open, thus people tell me all the time, well Jeepers prabhu, even the parampara acharyas have defects, why are you so concerned about the GBC's acharyas defects? So this was Hansadutta's contribution to ISKCON's history, he wanted to establish that acharyas are mundane and defective, and that would include Krishna and His acharyas, and this has totally contaminated the entire ISKCON atmosphere. He could have done what we did, resist and do not comply with this deviation, but he was getting too many fringe benefits to give it up.   

GOEBBELS MEETS MACHIAVELLI

So Hansadutta was one of the original conspirators against Srila Prabhupada. Of course Sudama swami said to me that Hansadutta and his pals were already plotting this guru take over process earlier, in May of 1977, or maybe before that even. Hansadutta had a powerful attraction to Tamal Krishna swami, who was telling other GBC to read the book "The Prince" by Machiavelli. Yep, Hansadutta with his Joseph Goebbels program, and Tamal with Machiavelli's, what could go wrong here? 

THE PLAN TO PURGE THE DEVOTEES

Shortly after December of 1977, Hansadutta then spent a tremendous amount of time associating with Tamal Krishna Goswami, and they worked together closely to remove as many Srila Prabhupada followers as possible from ISKCON, and to replace his followers with their own fanatical followers. For example by 1984 there were only three original Srila Prabhupda followers left in Berkeley temple, and one of them was Hansadutta. So Hansadutta removed nearly all of the original worshipers of Srila Prabhupada in order to establish his own worship, and he plotted with the other false gurus to remove the worship of Srila Prabhupada from the entire worldwide society of ISKCON, and to displace his worship with theirs.

MACHINE GUN SWAMI

But things were not going well because for starters, so many of Hansadutta's new followers were criminals. So the federal authorities raided Berkeley Temple and temple farm where they found many stolen items, and they uncovered an illegal gun sales business. At the same time, Hansadutta was arrested for having a machine gun in the trunk of his vehicle. 

And all of these scandals were published in the news media, so Hansadutta was re-creating another major media scandal that he had already created in Germany. And the local police officer -- Joe Sanchez, made a record 75 felony arrests in a short time, and all of these arrests were made from Hansadutta's followers at the Berkeley temple. In other words, Hansadutta was self-evidently encouraging criminals to join is operation, and go out and commit crimes.

POLICE MAKE RECORD NUMBER of FELONY ARRESTS

Then Berkeley police officer Joe Sanchez was awarded the "most felonies arrest record in twelve months" by the city, and for "cleaning up the Krishna temple." Of course the GBC could not clean out a clogged kitchen sink much less contain Hansadutta. Meanwhile Hansadutta made a rock and roll recording that he was the "Gangster Prankster Guru," and the local newspapers called him "The Machine Gun Swami." My personal favorite song on his rock album was Hansadutta's "Guru, guru, on the wall, who is the heaviest of them all" --- rat a tat tat -- (a machine gun shooting). Yep, a guru with a machine gun, he is the heaviest of them all! Hee hee!

His followers plastered all these newspaper clippings with photos of Hansadutta wearing mirror sun glasses and a machine gun underneath, looking like a MAFIA hit man, all over the Berkeley temple. These followers were taking great pride that their guru had now the huge public reputation for being a dangerous machine gun toting crime boss. 

NEW AGE PEOPLE TERRIFIED 

Did we forget to mention that almost all the local new age people became terrified of the Krishna religion, and some still are, due to this Hansadutta program of worshiping machine gun swamis? Then again Hansadutta showed Gurukripa a gun and told him "they are out to get me, but I am ready for them" as he waved the gun around and Gurukripa was worried, he could be shot, if nothing else, by accident by this gun waving person! And many of Hansadutta's followers also had guns, ok you become what you worship, and if you worship the gun guru, you will tend to be a gun nut person yourself.  

Basically, a devotee told us, Hansadutta did everything humanly possible to ruin the good name of Srila Prabhupada and Krishna, and to toss Krishna under the bus to promote himself. We agree. He could not have ruined the name any worse than he did.   

CAUSING GRIEF TO HUNDREDS OF VAISHNAVAS

Meanwhile, some of the original Srila Prabhupada followers were feeling tremendous grief having been removed from their service to the deity. For example, one woman friend of ours was removed by the Hansadutta program from doing her service to the Berkeley temple deity, and so she told me -- because she missed her serving the deity, she no longer has the will to live. OK she wants to die, all due to the machinations of Hansadutta.

Shortly after that (around 1987) she was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and she died at a younger age. Needless to say, people like me went to visit her as she was laying dying in the hospital, Hansadutta was nowhere to be found. Other original disciples of Srila Prabhupada who were removed also died of other problems, like heroin, alcohol poisoning, and many of their deaths that were premature. 

CAUSING PREMATURE DEATH OF VAISHNAVAS

Do I think Hansadutta caused hers and similar other's premature deaths? Most Definitely. I would further argue that his policy not only murdered her direct or indirect, his policy essentially tortured her to death. Her death was very slow and very painful, and he is thus the main suspect that created this suffering and premature death, so yes he is responsible for her dying because he is the person who caused her to lose her will to live. OK, there is no nice way to say this, his hands are full of her blood. That is not only what I believe, if one causes someone else to die by indirect means, what to speak of Hansadutta's program's chronic bullying of this poor woman, even the karmi courts consider one as a participant in the death of another.

Now if we consider that a person has to suffer many thousands of years in hell for each hair on a cow, for causing that cow to die, what if the victim is a human and a vaishnava? Furthermore, Srila Prabhupada says that blocking vaishnavas from moving where they want to go -- is the same as blocking Krishna from moving where He wants to go, because the vaishnavas are authorized to move by Krishna's will. 

Imagine then if one blocks thousands of vaishnavas from moving where they want to go? Imagine if these vaishnavas are then suffering and dying from being blocked from seeing Krishna? Even one old lady was standing on the shoulders of Lord Chaitanya and He said its very sinful to stop this woman from viewing the Lord. 

Now a regular woman who manages a restaurant was charged with manslaughter, because a young man she employed committed suicide due to her bullying him. Notice, even in the mundane world we are not allowed to cause one death, we are immediately criminal, guilty of murder or manslaughter. What if the person we had manslaughtered was very dear to Krishna and Srila Prabhupada? 

How will the legal court system of Yamaraja deal with that crime? 

And why did the rest of the GBC allow this to go on in Berkeley, unless they were aiding and abetting this crime? And were there not other premature deaths and / or major problems with other devotees worldwide who had been banned and removed? And were not these leaders gloating, oh yes, they are falling, goody, they are no longer our competition. Hansadutta could have declared Berkeley a Prabhupada centered temple and invited these refugee people to come and take shelter, but no, he was with the evil plotters.     

WAS THIS THE PLAN ALL ALONG?

Many folks have asked us, wasn't that the apparent Hansadutta program's plan from the get go? Lets get rid of Srila Prabhupada, and what better way than to get rid of his followers, and take over, following in the footsteps of the bogus Gaudiya Matha's gurus. Did we forget to mention that Hansadutta was a big supporter of Gaudiya Matha leaders like Sridhara Maharaja? Hansadutta had a giant eight foot high photo of himself sitting with Sridhara Maharaja placed in the temple foyer. Yep, the founder father of the 1936 illicit sex and murder of dissenters bogus guru program is the main person Hansadutta worshiped, and he wanted everyone else to worship this program as well. 

I HAVE DONE TOO MANY DIRTY DEEDS

There are also examples of direct followers of Hansadutta who felt suicidal later on as well, after they realized he was cheating them. At least one of them (who was our friend after he abandoned Hansadutta) killed himself, he said to me that he had "done too many dirty deeds for Hansadutta -- and now he is going to hell for serving this demon." I said, did you murder people? And he said, well maybe yes, maybe no, but its along those lines. And so he is another victim, only question is, is he victim number 50, 500, 5,000 -- or more? 

BUDDHIMANTA HAS TO ESCAPE

Of course many others died in other ways, for example (ISKCON's best book distributor?) Buddhimanta told me he could no longer participate in ISKCON because it had become too far "Hansadutta-ized" and it was too depressing. He told me its better to play tennis than to go to the temple and see these foolish disciples of Hansadutta. And so, perhaps from depression, he developed a terminal cancer brain tumor, and he too died at a younger age. 

Incidentally Buddhimanta had married Himavati, and she reportedly became an alcoholic and also died prematurely. She was in any case very depressed. So it's hard to put a exact number on how many original Srila Prabhupada followers -- fell down, fell away, suffered horribly, felt suicidal, or died, but there are many who suffered this fate as a result of the activities of Hansadutta. Yep, how many crushed skulls are under his gestapo jack boots, no one knows, but there are many millions when we consider how he also turned the mass of public away from surrendering to Krishna by his program of presenting criminals and sexual predators as God's messiahs. And he was one of these criminals and sexual predator bogus messiahs himself ...

ITS TIME TO PARTY!

Meanwhile, as these victimized folks problems worsened, Hansadutta was in extreme party time mode, drinking beer, peppermint shops, and he was also taking percodon (a psychotropic drug). So Hansadutta really had no idea how much suffering he was causing to the followers of Srila Prabhupada, or ISKCON, nor did he care one iota, because he was in a constant chronic drug-induced stupor. He was also going to some drug rehab program, that was costing the temple a bomb. It was all about himself, at the expense of everyone else.

HANSADUTTA's LIFE SAVED by ME

At the same time he was having illicit sex with reportedly half dozen women. I saved Hansadutta's life once, when a husband wanted to use a sawed off shot gun to blow off Hansadutta's head for having sex with his wife, and I restrained this man and told him its not worth it to kill Hansadutta. Of course there are some people who later on told me it was a mistake to save his life, he should have been taken out so he could not engage in his favorite pastime, causing more misery to others, and to the entire planet thereby.

SLEEPING 23 HOURS A DAY

And at one point he was sleeping 23 hours a day due to taking too many intoxicants, with little or no concern for even himself, what the speak of having concern for others. The only good news is at this point, when he was sleeping 23 hours a day due to massive intoxication, he invited me to come to Berkeley and re-establish the worship of SP. So I did come there and began preaching my Prabhupadanuga idea, except Hansadutta never told his followers that I had the right idea, so I was in a very precarious and potentially dangerous situation because his followers were very fanatical.

Stay tuned for part 2!

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Early days Kirtanananda / Umapati / Bhavananda