ISKCON Hyderabad Meltdown

angel108b@yahoo.com

[PADA: An India ISKCON devotee said he was just now kicked out after doing 30 years of service. He thinks this has to do with not paying him something as his body is getting older. He said the ISKCON retirement plan is, to get rid of the retirees by dumping them on the street. 

So this is now becoming more of an issue. I am personally helping an elderly devotee who is now on their death bed, and no one from the institution even knows or cares about this person. Nor did this person get one penny of help from ISKCON after serving there for decades. 

Meanwhile the Chandramauli swami instagram was advertising Lokanath recently and someone complained. Malati said, many of these leaders are unaware of these issues. He probably does not know about Lokanath's molesting issue? 

So we are paying to maintain these leaders, who have no idea what is going on in the society they are supposed to be leading. The managers of the company have no idea what the company does and how it operates. So why are we paying for their maintenance? 

Anyway these money matters are going to get a lot more intense as we keep exposing them and drawing down their incomes. There will be a big fight over a decreasing pie of resources. Already more than a few people told me they are fully withdrawing all their funding and services until all this is cleaned up. 

And it will get a lot worse if they don't take rectification steps. It looks like more and more people are starting to wake up to these issues in any case.] 

**** Dasa: What a joke! Grhastha compensation! 70 Lakhs of rupees! What for? What about other Grhasthas in the same temple AND all other Grahasthas in ISKCON all over India? What about Brahmacharis? And this in the face of SIDC categorically asking for investigation and more discussion on it.

Bureau didn't fail by delaying handouts to a bunch of criminals (they are welcome to sue me for this if they think what I am saying is wrong) but Bureau has failed ISKCON by submitting to a gang, holding the whole of spineless ISKCON at gun point. 

Chairman of TMC openly admitted that he would be killed if he went there during this crisis. Bureau is rewarding them for laying a seige of them in 2018 when they visited the temple and had to seek the help of police.

[PADA: You can also get killed if you interfere with the operation of criminals in the MAFIA. You can get killed by association with "Krishna's devotees"? OH yeah, and you can also get banned, beat, molested, sued -- and killing is just another option for the crooks. The original guru crooks have attracted more crooks, that is all.]

We have failed this temple of Prabhupada by allowing a siege of this temple. After all the drama of 2018, still the same team, the same accountant, is running the show. Nothing has changed. 

There are more than 40 leaders of SIDC (and hundreds of devotees serving under them) who have sacrificed their life for the movement, what crime have they done that they are not receiving a penny of any compensation.

In their previous so called testimony, these apostles (of Jesus Christ) claimed that they brought crores of rupees to ISKCON, but aren't these people manning the stalls, cooking etc? Whole ISKCON machinery is ready to get in action just on their one letter, General Secretary flies in to make sure they receive their cheques but what about the countless others who were kicked out or who are still serving?

The enthusiasm with which the Bureau accounts team questions the temple 
Presidents for this invoice of 500, that invoice of 1000, I hope the same enthusiasm can be displayed in compensating them for their years of
service, like these 16 Apostles of Jesus Christ. For some, there are no
laws and for others, all the laws.

In 2018, when the city devotees here did the whistle blowing on all the wrongs, they were witch hunted for being envious, political and diabolical. Time is the best judge. Now they stand vindicated. What we are witnessing is a total criminalization of our precious society.

On Sat, Nov 19, 2022 at 9:53 AM Bhaktarupa (das) ACBSP (Puri - IN) 

Bhaktarupa.ACBSP@pamho.net wrote:

Maybe there is something that I don't remember about the matter, but what I do remember is that as soon as the issue of grhastha compensation in Hyderabad arose, the Bureau appointed a team to deal with the matter. The team felt it necessary to visit Hyderabad to understand the matter in depth, but then the lockdowns came and it was not possible. 

So it is not that there was gross neglect on the part of the Bureau.

Your servant, Bhaktarupa Das

From the side of the HTMC Hyderabad, I would like to confirm that the said 1.8 acre property now stands registered in the name of ISKCON. This has resolved challenging situation ISKCON had faced when the property underwent a change of ownership about month back. 

I am very grateful all of you who have helped in some form or other during these days of great anxiety and turmoil. Also it was surprising to see a near unanimity of the SIDC leaders on this matter. 

Of course we should first acknowledge the change of heart among the grhastas of ISKCON Hyderabad and their leader Vedanta pr. Also, the Bureau has fulfilled the other assurance given about the handover of compensation to all the long standing grhastas. The compensation cheques were also handed over as a final settlement. This completely finished another long standing issue pending for almost 4 years with the Bureau. 

That Bureau kept this extremely sensitive issue hanging for 4 years is not correct in the opinion of many leaders . To some extent we can say that here is where there was a lapse in the part of the all stake holders in not planning and structuring devotee compensation in a proper uniform manner.

As we saw in the last meeting, this requires a more mature, detailed and standardised approach applicable to all the wonderful devotees of ISKCON
serving in all centers. What is the Bureau stance on this ? A localised approach as advocated by some bureau representatives or a pan India uniform approach advocated by the majority of the grass root level Leaders and Managers?

It seems very immature and dangerous to not deal with this matter at the level of Bureau. So the ilegitimate question that arises is what else is the Bureau or its
office bearers doing if they don’t have to time to deal with matters as critical to the wholesome development, protection and ensuring dignity among ISKCON devotee resources. 

We are looking up to the Bureau office bearers to be more proactive, sensitive in dealing with issue as all of us in this generation of leaders and devotees who have sacrificed all their active lives are ageing and we will be confronted with uncomfortable truths and realities in a few years.

A knee jerk reaction is not the solution nor is the bureaus careless attitude towards whole matter acceptable.

One expects bureau and its office bearers to be more sensitive and listen to all sides and be fair and firm where required take the responsibility to develop a pan India response to this matter. The Hyderabad episode is a wake up call to the Bureau to deal with this whole concept of care we ought to be extending to genuine full time warriors of ISKCON.

I along with so many managers of ISKCON fervently wish that Bureau office bearers are sensitive and understand that it their responsibility to proactively
develop policies and approaches in dealing with this matter. So far the conduct of the office bearers is not very inspiring.

It should be noted that one of the reason for the crisis in Hyderabad is definitely the long inexcusable delay on the part of the bureau and the total lack of clarity in dealing with this sensitive and humanitarian issue. It was during the day when all this was happening, the SIDC sub committee arrived.

We were surprised and we were completely unaware of their plans, I am afraid that we could not give them the time they must have expected. We truly regret the matter.

But however , isn’t it time to review the mandate given to the Sub committee.
All of them are senior and great leaders individually. Now the critical matters in Hyderabad stand resolved.

I have personally appealed to the members of the committee to not indulge in witch hunting. I can state with confidence that the previous exercises did not find
anything sensational as was expected and hoped for in some quarters. What
new will this team find now?

All that can be considered wrongful or improper or hasty or dangerous or unusual is there in Sitaram prs report which has been shared to all of you. So, after the resolution of the critical long standing issue of Grhasta compensation and the more critical issue of holding ISKCON property in personal names is resolved all that remains is how to deal with these matters within the framework of ISKCON internal policies applicable to such extraordinary challenges brought about by multiple levels of complicity committed knowingly or unknowingly intentionally or
otherwise.

Also we must remember that the previous committee did not prime facie detect any wilful intention to profiteer personally. But I suggest, let them look at this matter without personalising the issue or localising the focus.

How about they look into how to develop a robust system of check and balance and a clear and firm policy and education to all full time volunteers about what they can expect and what they can’t. Also there seems to be a dire need for leaders also to be educated about what they can do and what they should not. Also nobody should look at Hyderabad issue as a opportunity for a free for all and any leader can do whatever he likes in the name of devotee welfare.

Hyderabad is an eye opener in many ways. Please look into the matters that the Hyderabad issue is forcing us to consider and deliberate upon so we can preempt such episodes from repeating. And we can also develop fair and sustainable policies about full time devotee care.

The valuable time of the very distinguished leaders of the sub committee would be utilised for bringing about a major institutional shift on this matter.

I can imagine the news about compensation being paid out to Hyderabad devotees only will cause considerable heartburn among all the other
devotees serving sincerely selflessly in all other centers for many decades. I don’t for a moment agree with any suggestion that such devotees are there only in Hyderabad or that leaders of Hyderabad are the only ones with a desire to provide meaningful devotee care.

Can we see that the time of the leaders be not wasted on trying to dig and exhume but rather do something of value for all of ISKCON. Under the present team of office bearers in the bureau one wonders what we can expect. So, we could take some small steps atleast in the direction of educating full time devotees and Managers of ISKCON on what is proper.

Thanking all the leaders of SIDC for the swift response when the matter was first reported to them and for near total unanimity on some issues. Now is the time to reflect about future and to take advantage of the challenge the Hyderabad issue is forcing us to consider 

Ys
Varada Krsna Dasa

Many of the opinions expressed above are my personal feelings. 

On Fri, 18 Nov 2022 at 9:53 PM, A Srinivasa (rangarangagouranga@gmail.com)

wrote:

Thanks for the information.

On Fri, 18 Nov, 2022, 4:03 pm Shankhadharidas,

<Shankhadharidas@pamho.net> wrote:

Hare Krishna, PAMHO. AGTSP.

The 1.8 acre land at Medipally, Hyderabad, the transfer of which as gift has been approved by a Bureau resolution was transferred to ISKCON on October 17, 2022.

Previously the land had been divided and transferred to around 17 grihasta
families of ISKCON Hyderabad. Those transfers were cancelled over a period
of one week and now the land is in ISKCON name.

YS Shankhadhari Das

ISKCON

27 St.Johns Road, Secunderabad-500003

AP, India

Ph. +91 9849095990