Open Letter to the GBC (P Dasa)

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Recent comments

To: jayapataka@gmail.com

19 December 2022

Dear Jayapataka Maharaja. Pamho. AgtSP.

May children and women contact you personally to seek your protection when they are abused by so-called devotees in Mayapur? And can you order managers in Mayapur to not blackmail / blackball / harass devotees who report abuse by threatening them to not extend their visa. This is a criminal act.

Your servant
A dasa 

Ex-guru disciple: How could there be so much molesting going on in Mayapur, when the GBC go there every year for their meetings? They do not know what is happening -- right there on their own doorstep? 

Ex-guru disciple: They (all ISKCON leaders) are a pit of vipers.

Ex-guru disciple: Trivrikrama swami will never be welcome here again.

Ex-guru disciple: Wow, they wanted to kill you for reporting their child abuse? Not only child molester lovers, but violent child molester lovers.

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Capitalizing on all the GBC's email addresses falling in our laps today, I took some time to send them (all of them) the following the letter.

I encourage all of you to do the same, revealing your own minds and sharing you own proposed solutions. For maximum effect, I recommend good grammar and formatting, not too long, and a couple of practical action item suggestions. If there is no "ask," the ball doesn't real get in their court.

Dear ISKCON GBC Members,

Please accept my humble obeisances.

All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

A devotee in an online forum posted a spreadsheet with all your email addresses, and was inspired by this unsought opportunity to speak to each of you directly. I pray that you take 10 minutes of your time and receive these words in a service attitude appropriate to your positions.

My name is P dasa I am an initiated disciple of ******** Swami, and I have been an active member of ISKCON since the 1990s. Some of you know me; for most of you, I am a nobody amongst the nameless flock you shepherd. Currently, I am in a teacher position I accepted after retiring from a career as an academic research scientist. This service puts me squarely on the front lines of child protection, and it is in this context I am writing to you now.

Like many faithful ISKCON members, I was horrified and outraged at the CPO’s recent findings of sexual and pastoral abuse perpetrated by Anirdesya Vapu in Mayapur, our international headquarters. Also like many faithful ISKCON members, I am equally, if not more, appalled by the covering-up, enabling, and outright lying perpetrated by this man’s close associates. 

Your congregation is not so foolish as to believe that people of whom there are scores of photographs eating with, hugging, lying with their heads in each other’s laps, and sharing a high stage with Anirdesya Vapu were not close with this person (as a few have claimed) and knew nothing of his crimes (which all have claimed.)

These are simply unbelievable assertions, and in many cases there is paper evidence to prove their falsity. The physical abuse perpetrated decades ago by Anirdesya Vapu alone would have landed him squarely in prison in any properly run society.

I am hopeful that you understand this in your hearts, even if you lack the courage or political capital to say it outright. I can accept that you were all young, inexperienced, and in well over your heads when Prabhupada left this world, and therefore made many mistakes. But that is no longer an excuse decades down the road. Now you know. No more excuses.

My purpose here is not really to chastise you, though (although that is also there), but rather to simply ask:

What have you learned, and what are going to do with that knowledge?

Today, right now, representing Srila Prabhupada’s flagship project in Mayapur, there are known child abusers with positions of status, prominence, and respect representing ISKCON’s international mission. As an insignificant lay member sleeping in a dusty corner of the basement in the house that Prabhupada built, I find this disgusting and offensive. 

Satadhanya raped a pre-pubescent child so badly that the boy needed anal reconstructrive surgery. That is a fact, and you all know it. Bhavananda cheated thousands of innocent devotees with a host of illicit crimes, including crimes of physical, sexual and pastoral abuse, doing practically irreparable damage to Prabhupada’s mission in the meantime. He is the epitome of a bogus guru that Prabhupada preached so strongly against. 

These folks are not fallen sannyasis; they are criminal predators. Lokanath Swami, while perhaps a more nuanced case, has nonetheless openly defied, or skirted around a number of restrictions you put on him, due to molesting a young girl. The message this communicates to the world is that money and followers are more important to ISKCON than the safety and well being of children.

I have heard it said by some senior folks that Satadhanya doesn’t have any position or power. That may be true on paper, but it is not true. When I visited the TOVP in February of 2020 - he was my main point of contact. 

He was the man sitting in the TOVP main office giving tours and hosting guests of all backgrounds and nationalities. He was the most visible figure in ISKCON’s most visible project on a day-to-day basis, and the man I was told to talk to if I wanted to get anything done.

I had no idea who he was. Looking back on it now, I realize this was a gross dereliction of your duty to protect our community.

I can confidently say I speak for thousands, if not tens of thousands of devotees when I call for the unconditional and complete restriction of Satadhanya and Bhavananda from ecclesiastical, executive, administrative, and pastoral (preaching / outreach / counseling) functions within ISKCON. Let them worship quietly in the back like the rest of us, if you lack the fortitude to excommunicate them outright. 

There are probably more people that I do not know about, but that you do. There are others more qualified than myself to inform you, if you need more information. Get them all out.

Furthermore, we call for similar restrictions on Lokanath Swami, including a suspension on initiating new disciples, sitting on a vyasasana, leading kirtan, having his photo on an altar, and performing arcana, until a neutral third-party, independent of both the CPO and the GBC can review his case file. This has been handled badly in too many ways by too many diverging interests for us to sort it out on our own, and it needs to be sorted out once and for all.

These two steps are the bare minimum actions you can take to restore a modicum of faith in your leadership. To not do the first one (ban predatory abusers) is a criminal level of negligence, frankly.

Let me reiterate that devotees across the world are outraged, and it is incumbent upon you to hear us with a humble heart and an open mind.

So, I ask again: what have you learned? What changes are you thinking of implementing? We know change takes time, but you need to act decisively to right a foundering ship. Other than a condemnation of Anirdesya Vapu, as a governing body you have not done much to heal the badly damaged faith of many of your congregants.

I am presenting the two basic steps I have outlined above as a starting point for truth and reconciliation. Your annual meeting is imminent. The entire devotional world is watching. Can we make some meaningful progress on this most important issue?

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

P dasa 

PS I do not expect any of you to respond directly to me, but I would appreciate it if you did, nonetheless. I know you are all very busy, as am I. If you are concerned that I might leak your responses, I promise to hold any response I receive in confidence.