What Happened to Gaurasundara Das?

What Happened to Sundar?

BY: GAURASUNDARA DASA

[Originally posted in 2010]

I heard someone ask as I walked by, "I wonder what happened to Sundar?" All I could do was stare and keep walking.

Thirty-one years ago I joined ISKCON Denver, USA. I, like most devotees who have surrendered their lives to Srila Prabhupada, have seen many individuals embarrass Srila Prabhupada and His movement. By their reckless and stupid immoral behavior, these unholy individuals drain the life out of the good, honest, pure devotees of ISKCON, of which there are many.

I used to love giving people the mercy of Srila Prabhupada by giving them a book and preaching His glories to others. Then one day -- a year after I joined, I was told of the former Temple President who looted the Temple funds and started his own real estate company.

So I thought that this was just one individual and he would be put in jail. He was not. I continued my service for four more years doing preaching work and collecting to pay the Temple's bills. So I collected in this way for five years total, living in a crowded room with eight other brahmacaris.

Life was austere; sometimes there was no heat at night and I would wake up shivering from the cold. We took icy baths in lakes in the winter when we were collecting funds for the Temple, breaking the ice to get to the water, and we lived in small "samkirtan" vans.

One day the Temple President came looking for devotees to go to the Sunday feast and preach. I had to go on the alter that evening and dress the Deities, and was tired from doing Deity worship all day, so I explained that I wasn't going to go and that I was preparing for my altar service. He told me in an angry way that I had to go or he would beat me up.

I told him to go ahead and try if he wanted to, but I wasn't going to go. This made me think that I had collected over $3,000 a month for five years straight, and this was my fate? To be belittled? What to speak that only initiates of Srila Prabhupada were allowed to give class in Denver at the time. I asked to give class and was told that time in ISKCON meant nothing. They told me the stones on the altar had been there a very long time and they couldn't give class either.

I was promised when I first started preaching that after five years, every devotee gets to go to India. When it was my turn to go to India ... and this is after collecting over $100,000 dollars for the Temple... that I couldn't go because Ramesvara Swami said that someone had embezzled a huge amount of money from the BBT. Hmmm... Ok… seems like a pattern here of people stealing money from Srila Prabhupada. I guess they will go to jail.

PADA: No such luck. Crimes like embezzling seem to go unreported, and the criminals know that.

That year I threw my back out doing yoga and couldn't walk for 2 days. I was in such terrible pain I felt like screaming. So I went to the Temple President and asked him for $35 dollars to go to the Chiropractor. I had to literally beg for the money as he kept refusing to give it. Finally he gave it to me after I begged him over and over again. At this point I realized the Temple President did not care about me at all; nor did he care about my feelings -- or my spiritual (or even material) life.

I asked my initiating guru, Ramesvara Swami, to be transferred to another Temple. I was traded like a baseball card for another devotee and sent to St. Louis Temple under Sura das. Sura das used to listen to all the devotees in his office by way of a two way speaker that was installed in every room of the Temple. He could hear everyone speak about everything -- as he sat in his office, until I told all the devotees that this was an invasion of privacy and bogus. We started cutting all the wires to his speakers and stopped his eavesdropping.

One day after being in the Temple for six months I walked in on Sura das, speaking to other initiates of Srila Prabhupada. He was laughing at all the people that were not initiated by Srila Prabhupada and saying how stupid and gullible we all were for accepting people like these GBC guru fools as our gurus. He then said that it was great, because it was like the Mafia and all the leaders had complete control.

PADA: Yes, Danavir and Vipramukhya once told me they would never have joined ISKCON if they had to accept a bogus and lusty clown like Jayatirtha as their guru. At the same time, they were lecturing that people have to accept Jayatirtha as their guru. This is called -- knowingly cheating the innocent public. And I also heard other people laugh at how the "fools" (new devotees) were accepting Jayatirtha as "the sum total of the demigods," and that means the new people are "not too intelligent." They were knowingly selling bad goods, then laughing when people got cheated by purchasing their bad goods.

I used to sit and cry and pray to Lord Krsna to leave St. Louis Temple after that, and Lord Krsna sent me Jagat Guru Swami to rescue me from this Temple, where we were all being made fun of. And they were the ones making us chant Guru Puja to our initiated Gurus. It was required of us to do. And behind our backs we were their fools to be laughed at.

PADA: Good, except Jagat Guru Swami / BG Narasignha was one of the people who promoted these false 11 GBC gurus alongside his then mentor -- Sridhara Maharaja. He was another guy selling bad products knowingly.

Sura also threatened me several times when I told him I was leaving. He threatened to hurt me in the Pujari room one day when I stood up to him and told him off. I told him to go ahead and try because at that point I was going to fight back.

Jagad Guru Swami took me to New York City six years after I joined the Temple, and explained to me along the way that they just found out that ISKCON's children were being raped, beaten and humiliated in sexual ways in Mayapur and Vrndavan, India.

PADA: Yep, lots of people knew about the child abuse and they kept a lid on it and did not expose it. That means those few of us who were exposing were in a lot of danger...

I was shocked; neither could I have imagined that this activity was going on in a widespread way in Srila Prabhupada's movement. He also told me that they found out that also in New Vrindaban, West Virginia, the children abuse was ALSO going on. And I found out later that it had also happened on a farm in Colorado. And the Gurus that we were worshipping were responsible for covering it up.

PADA: Well everyone who knew and kept a lid on it was covering it up, not just the leaders.

Even though doctors in India were sewing children's anus parts back together after they were raped without mercy, no police were arresting the rapists? And two Gurus were the rapists themselves.

PADA: Correct, no one, including evidently the parents, reported this crime to the police.

And then it came to light within the next few years about the LSD Guru, and the Gun shooting Cow killing Guru; and then my initiating Guru, ... who was "dating" a 14 year old girl. And so I decided to take my Initiating Gurus picture off the altar and stop doing Guru Puja for him. And when I did, I was called many names by others.

My new car was destroyed by someone pouring something in my gas tank… merciful devotees.

PADA: Yep, it became a violent cult at that stage ...

My mail was opened before I received it... by the way, this is a federal offense. My room was broken into and searched. For my protection… I was shunned and told that I would not have any facility for myself and my new wife. So after 10 years living in an ISKCON Temple as a Temple devotee, I moved out with no money; a new wife; no car, and moved into the house of my mother.

PADA: Yep, they extracted everything they could from you, and tossed you out like a squeezed lemon peel, as happened to thousands of others.

Years later I thought that all this was over and I wanted my children to love Krsna the way Srila Prabhupada wanted us all to, so I let them stay in a newly set-up day care facility in Denver. I figured it would just be like a babysitter watching our kids and they were devotees, so why not trust them. I found out later that they were being beaten with a stick... about 4 years later, when they were old enough to tell us.

So now my children who I wanted to be devotees don't want anything to do with Lord Krishna or temples because of this. And one of my sons is completely crazy and in a mental hospital because of this.

PADA: Yes, the reactions of children being lead to blame Krishna is very severe and it has lead to many of them having break downs, and even suicides. One of these victims was a boy, who at only 17 who was constantly taking off all his clothes and running down the city streets yelling and shouting obscenities ...

What really disturbs me is the lack of empathy on the leaders part in ISKCON. And so many big leaders run off with millions of Srila Prabhupada's money. They are not put in jail for it because they are the insiders that have a lot of dirt on each other, and they will tell these dirty secrets to the general masses of devotees or to the authorities, and ISKCON will fall like a deck of cards. And this is why they can steal millions from Srila Prabhupada without being arrested.

PADA: Yep!

What did I think when one of the LSD devil guru's head was lopped off by a disgruntled follower? Good job. Or when the child molester guru's head was hit with a hammer... too bad they didn't finish..... the good job. So when the evil demons of Srila Prabhupada's movement fall, I will be clapping, knowing that they will have to come back into this world not as Gurus, but as children ...maybe not human ones...but children nevertheless.

Why do I write this letter? I found out that Bhavananda is in Mayapur sitting on a seat of respect and giving classes, calling everyone rascals. He was banned from ISKCON for life and now he is back giving classes. This is such an insult to all the children he raped, embarrassed, and molested.

As well as to Srila Prabhupada. Also, I found out that in 1974, Bhavananda was caught having sex with a boy in the barn in Mayapur, India. Srila Prabhupada was still on the planet at the time. And I know that they told him about it. That is why I know now that there is no way in hell that Srila Prabhupada would ever tell Bhavananda to become an initiating Guru. Srila Prabhupada would never tell a pedophile that he was the next initiating spiritual master after Srila Prabhupada left the planet.

Of course, everyone in ISKCON is a siksa disciple of Srila Prabhupada eternally. I am sure that Srila Prabhupada wanted us all to be considered his disciples...with the advanced devotees performing the initiations and also being Siksa Guru to all new devotees. So yes, the initiators would also be teachers or Gurus; but we all would be connected to OUR Acarya, Srila Prabhupada.

When you tell me you are a Srila Prabhupada disciple, I hope you are not the one that called my ex- wife and asked her to go to a bar and dance with him (Subananda dasa) ...by the way ...to me you are trash, Subananda dasa... So I will now call you Subananda trash dasa.

I never took a penny from ISKCON but always gave from my heart. The new scam is for the Temple Presidents to have their name put on the mortgage for the Temple and then to re-finance the building, keeping hundreds of thousands of dollars in their personal bank accounts and leaving the Temple devotees with a huge un-godly amount to be paid back when they steal it. I found one year that a Temple had purchased some land and no one knew about it. Only when the electric company asked for permission to lay power lines did the devotees find out that the Temple even owned land in another state.

Sometimes I just sit and wonder to myself... what happened to Sundar? I never received an apology from the Child Protection services for my children being beaten.

And I do blame myself for having trusted evil, heartless, selfish leaders who very well may have poisoned Srila Prabhupada. He did say someone had poisoned him - more than likely because the pedophiles knew they would be kicked out by him, and they wanted to steal Srila Prabhupada's Temples, followers, and bank accounts. I wish them well in hell. Actually, I wish that they suffer eternally. I hope God forgives them, because I do not. My children hate me because I am a devotee; my ex-wife left me because I was a devotee. I gave everything to ISKCON and lost my health, my family, my friends.

I also do not forgive the devotee who was babysitting my small children when they were 7 years old, and had them pass around a pot pipe to everyone. I wish you the worst, and had I known I would have called the police and had you arrested, because that led my children into thinking drug use was okay and it contributed to my son going crazy. You are scum.

So I will tell you that I am a real disciple of Srila Prabhupada. I am His follower. I am His disciple and He is my Acarya. You can't take Him away from me. Especially the ones that Srila Prabhupada would kick out because of your evil hearts. I spit on your graves. But for the good devotees of Srila Prabhupada, and I do mean every one of you, I bow down to your Lotus Feet.

It is wise to look at past mistakes so that they will not be repeated in the future.

Your Servant,

Gaurasundara dasa

PADA: Wow pilgrims!