Where is the Anger? / ISKCON Psycho-babble / Women's Dharma ETC. 05 08

Narasimgha Jayanti Vrndavan.

If Krishna Gets Angry Over Child Abuse,

Shouldn't We? 

AD: Where is the anger?

Well the excuses the GBC provides are the type of excuses one would tell to a child-like mentality person, or to a person one considers not very inteligent. They are making fools of us all. They don't provide better excuses because they don't have any. They are just perfectly aware ... or even more aware of the situation then we are. They count on the silence and stupidity of the majority of blind people. Practically like our politicians in the government. That's exactly the same types of excuses i read from our politics in the news.

The sooner we realize these excuses are not so dumb -- because of their lack of intelligence -- but rather a calculated and organized silent declaration of how they intend their abusive system to continue, then the better it is for ISKCON's children. They should know what is going on and they are covering it up ... or they are dumb as rocks. I think they know.

How many "maharajas" and "prominent" leaders with nice positions actually signed the latest letter which is asking those responsible to resign? Probably a big protest like in France right now but against child abuse would be something that can only save the next generation of abused children. I wonder for how long we are going to be fooled like that. 

Each day that passes by ... under their law, how many more children are sodomised. Instead of distributing books to a non devotee part of society on the streets maybe we should start to distribute the testimony of Vedasara, but to the devotees. Clearly most of the devotees didn't even read it or not care enough to make a huge protest. 

It's just impossible to imagine the child abuse going on and the tolerance for it in the last 40 years but at the same time it is also difficult to imagine and understand how after so many dumb excuses there is not somebody who will make a protest and get very angry. I'm sure that after everybody finally realising how they are fooling us, a solution would come much faster if a large group of concerned devotees appear with a microphone and big speakers in front of the temples. 

Just like at the government protests. Stating the facts, reading their absurd statements and excuses, reading the testimonies. Presenting iskcon history as it is. The essence of what is being discussed should be spoken publicly on a big protest. Then hopefully enough people will understand and help to stop this.

PADA: Yep, rather oddly, many devotees were very angry -- at me -- for exposing the molesting, book changes, poison issue and numbers of other crimes. If there had been actual anger at the perps and their enablers, the crooks would have been charged with crimes a long time ago. ys pd angel108b@yahoo.com

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ISKCON's New Age Psycho-babble

DD: Sri Caitanya Deva has stated that the fifth goal of life is love of Krishna, prema pum-artha mahan. Nothing else should be the goal of one’s life. Sense gratification and the cultivation of all things not actually related to Krishna’s service such as: 

astrology, palmistry, reiki, frivolous sports, gemology, crystal worship, UFO abductions, conspiracy theories, women’s liberation, channeling, past life regressions, body building, boji-stones, colonics, blue-green algae diets, grape fasts, self-urine therapy, hollow Earth theories, pyramids, ouja boards, pendulums, exorcism, numerology, tarot cards, copper plate Babas, tantric practices, Machiavellian politics, Coveyian management systems and new age prophecies are actually a waste of time because they do not directly foster love of Krishna. Unfortunately we see these thing filtering into ISKCON, never mind the Radhanath / Hindu "motivational speakers" program.

If we want love of Krishna, then we should take to chanting the holy name as our life’s occupation. (Note: The above mentioned non-Krishna related topics are unfortunately very popular among many western Vaisnavas including gurus and sannyasis.)

In the time of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura and also during the time of my Guru Maharaja, Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada there was no other focus for their disciples other than chanting the holy name and distributing the chanting of the holy name to the fallen souls. Now in the absence of these great personalities many ‘isms’, false doctrines and non-Krishna conscious practices have all but consumed a major section of the western Gaudiya Vaisnavas. 

If the Krishna consciousness movement wants to truly get back on track then it would be advisable for its members to take up again the holy name as the central focus and abandon all activities not recommended in sastra by the previous acharyas.

It is especially disheartening to see senior disciples and sannyasis of Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada traveling around the world delivering seminars on astrology, rekhi, UFOs, channeling, motivational talks, relationships counselling, and other non-Krishna conscious topics. The fact of the matter is that the dovetailing process of our material propensities and material desires is slowly but surely suffocating the Hare Krishna movement. 

Due to extreme attachment to these non-Krishna activities it is difficult these days to find the association of devotees who are prepared to make the necessary self-sacrifices to improve this movement.

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Women's Stri Dharma  

PADA: Ok well the "men" sannyasas in ISKCON created a huge molesting program -- which I had to help have the GBC sued in 1986 for $3M and later on in 1997 for $400M, and instead of cleaning up Mayapur they simply added more trouble makers. 

And now I am working with mainly a group of ladies to challenge them -- again. And I was interviewed already for many mass medias already, and I am being interviewed again this fall by a major TV network. My conclusion is -- that the ISKCON men as a class -- lack discrimination. 

And that is why the gang of four sannyasas kicked me out of ISKCON in 1979 for opposing their false acharya, who was having affairs with married women and he was offering LSD to the shalagram. When a famous CBS TV newslady interviewed me in 1986, she showed me footage her crew filmed at New Vrndavana -- of a huge "Jaya Bhaktipada" kirtan. 

And he was sitting on a big seat covered with the hands of -- maybe two dozen boys. And she said, before we start I have to ask, "is this pedo - heaven"? I said "yep it is." And she said -- thank goodness we met you, none of the other several hundred people we interviewed agreed, at least one of you Hare Krishnas sees what is going on. So people see what they want to see. 

She also said, many of the mothers at New Vrndavana had totally different looking kids which means, these women were "passed around" to different men. I said yep, very possible, that is what happened to Sulochana's wife. Later on "People Magazine" used a cover photo of Kirtanananda sitting on his seat with many boys, so they obviously saw the obvious. That newslady said, "if this was going on in my Church, I would go up there and pull that man off his seat all by myself, I would not care about my safety, I would not tolerate this. Why don't your people read the Bhagavad Gita? 

They are supposed to fight for justice. Yep, so if she could see what was what in about two seconds, anyone else could. People see what they want to see, the emperor has fine clothes, or no clothes, depends on the sincerity of the viewer. She was sincere, she got it immediately. In sum, to say that we need to rely on the men to make things go correctly, has not worked. If the men class actually were doing their job, none of this would have happened. In sum, the CBS newslady figured out everything in two seconds, when many ISKCON men never did, because she understands dharma, worshiping bogus people is adharma and not dharma. In sum dharma is eternal, it never changes and anyone who follows is a dharmi, and anyone who doesn't is adharmi. ys pd

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Arming psychos is not the problem? 

PADA: Perfect sense. The reason the USA has on average 600 mass shootings per year, and maybe more than that this year, is because -- the USA hands off industrial military grade assault weapons and thousands of rounds of ammo -- to mentally ill people, drug addicts, and the evil class of people. Should we stop giving these kinds of weapons to these kinds of people? Nope. That would restrict their "freedom."    

Sorry, if you'd want to place that amount of firepower into the hands of the mentally unstable, drug addicted and evil people, then you are making the problem more than the mentally unstable people, because you are their empowering and enabling help mates. Is it sane to give that degree of fire power to the mentally unhinged? Maybe not! Just saying. "Well it is a mental health issue," ummm so you want the mentally deranged to be armed to the teeth? 

Same thing with placing loaded guns into the hands of toddlers, and then someone gets killed, is it the fault of the toddler -- or the people who gave guns to the toddler? The USA was supposed to have a well regulated armed militia, that does not include the crazy town insane folks. Did I forget to mention that empowering the crazy town folks with assault weapons makes the whole USA look crazy town to other countries, never mind it is placing everyone in peril. 

ISKCON has a similar sort of problem. They make / empower / enable mentally unstable people into their acharyas and messiahs who are -- ok just not that glued together -- or they are just flat out insane, and there is a lot of trouble as a result.

ys pd

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Book Changes

MM: I have a few thoughts I want to share about book changes. Some people believe that it's okay to change Prabhupada's books if it will lead to a good outcome. They argue that the new editions helped many people become devotees and that the old editions had many pictures, which made them more expensive to print.

However, in my opinion, those individuals are missing the whole point of the Bhagavad Gita which is to give up proprietorship, cease playing Isvara and serve Krsna without consideration of good or bad results. By advocating for the "correction" of Prabhupada's words, they are committing guru aparadha, and are failing to imbibe Krsna's teaching about results:

"You have a right to perform your prescribed duty, but you are not entitled to the fruits of action. Never consider yourself to be the cause of the results of your activities, and never be attached to not doing your duty."

The same point could be made for the recent concern from certain leaders about chanting at Parliament. The result of chanting is always auspicious, and followers of Mahaprabhu should do it regardless of any perceived inauspiciousness (such as less government favor or less money). As Krsna says "Those who are attached to the fruit of their work are called misers"

Furthermore, the original version of the Bhagavad Gita may have had some mistakes but Prabhupada signed off on it which means it is done. You simply can't make a modified second edition of another authors book!

As for the art work..

The original Bhagavad Gita AS IT IS has a transcendentally attractive cover painting with a beautiful title. In comparison, the new editions are dull and underwhelming, with uninspired fonts and paintings that do not depict Krsna anywhere near as sweetly. These changes were made on the advice of a non-devotee marketing company, who couldn't even help distribute the books effectively.

If my painting made it into Prabhupadas's Gita I would be devastated if someone removed it. But regardless of my personal preference, opinions or their rationale behind the changes, it is simply not our place to alter Prabhupada's books - neither their content nor their artwork - after the author has left us. 

To do so is a grave offense.

Prabhupada's books are his legacy, entirely created by him, and should remain as he left them. This applies not only to his books, but also to his movement. If someone wants to change something, they should start their own movement. But as devotees of Srila Prabhupada, we should strive to keep his movement AS IT IS.
Thank you Garuda prabhu, Dhanesvara prabhu, Sitapati and Danna mataji for being champions of this conversation.