Dharmasangha // Truth is Emerging // Satsvarupa's Writings // GBC Authorized? ETC. 11 12 26

TYING UP GOD IS NOT ALWAYS AN EASY TASK!

EVEN MOTHER YASODA WAS GETTING EXHAUSTED.

INCREDIBLE MERCY WE KNOW ANY OF THESE THINGS!

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https://www.dharmasanga.org/blog/form-and-substance/whose-side-are-you-on-the-institution-or-srila-prabhupada/?

R DASI [Truths are manifesting]: 

It feels like so many truths are coming out on so many levels the last few weeks. Like there’s some sort of frequency shift or something. Lies that have been upheld for years and years, crashing down. Secrets no longer secret. Justice finally being served. And rising from the ashes of all of this healing destruction, there is this magical sense of hope and excitement for a promising future. I’m here for it.

PADA: Well yup. Many people have told PADA that we are beating an old dead GBC horse. The GBC guru process is -- on the skids, has one foot in the grave -- the other foot in a bear trap, and is a bunch of old farts of dying corpses etc. -- and all the rest of these suggestions coming in. I get it. 

But I think R dasi is right, the old GBC guard is crashing, and yet there is hope for the future, and I'm here for it along with her. I think that the MAGA Oligarchs, Russia Oligarchs, and well as the old guard in Europe, and many other big and small programs are crashing too, along with the GBC guru oligarchs. Change is in the air and we need to take advantage of this place in time, it may not come again for awhile. I see lots of good changes happening all the time, and our process gaining gradually. 

A devotee told me after his three gurus blooped, the GBC told him it is the job of him, the disciple, to save his fallen gurus. "You have to perform sadhana and that will save your fallen gurus." Wow, the disciples have to save their GBC gurus, the gurus cannot even save themselves never mind others. 

He now believes the GBC system is cheating and does not promote bona fide gurus. He thinks Srila Prabhupada should have been his guru the whole time. But in Towaco and other temples there where he is, it is almost 99% Hindus who do not know or care what guru is worshiped there. 

He said -- ISKCON is sort of crashing on the beach and morphing into a Hindu temple program exclusively. Westerners are never going to come to a program where the disciples have to save their fallen gurus. Your guru is chasing women and intoxication, and your job is to perform sadhana to save him. Wait, the guru saves the sadhaka?    

 

The MAGA movement is crashing sort of for the same reasons. Their leaders are old and out of touch. Most MAGA guys are the retiring old timers, the baby boomers, who all voted for Ronald Reagan so they could have reduced "de-regulated" trade restrictions on China. Then China could transfer most, in some cases all of various sectors, of the USA manufacturing jobs and wealth over there. 

That would "off shore" our jobs, actually millions of jobs, and trillions of dollars of manufactuting income gone -- off shore -- over there. Their plan was called the "de-industrializing of the USA." Works great, for the communists in China, made them very wealthy and USA very poor and in debt.  

Now we have little manufacturing jobs left over here, and trillions in debt, all so the baby boomers could buy cheap shoes in Walmart. They were madly chasing after cheap-oh China made products, and had no concern that they were losing millions of jobs and trillions of dollars here. Well now that is all catching up to them. And the false gurus are catching up to ISKCON.

So what did the MAGA folks do to fix this? Elect a guy who will send all their farm workers, food production workers, construction job workers, food service workers, truck drivers, nurses etc, to -- Mexico, and bankrupt all sorts of small businesses especially farmers. So they just made things WAY worse for themselves. Now the farmers who voted for all this are crying about going bankrupted on TIK TOK. Well duh, you created all this mess because you voted for it! Just like the GBC votes for their bogus ideas.

ISKCON has done the same. They created all sorts of problems, and then made a moratorium on gurus, and that made their problems worse. The good news is, in both cases, the young people are getting tired of all this and they want these old timers to get out of office! Just retire already, before you blow up the whole planet!  

ys pd angel108b@yahoo.com  

PADA: This guy has to retire as well. Ukraine started with taking out 1,000 Russians a month, then to 2,000, 3,000 and on and on, and recently they have scaled up to 70,000 a month and they want to make it 30,000 a week, and they are gaining to that level. 

And they are making longer range weapons that can reach Siberia. Hard to imagine these noisy lawn mower motor drones are flying all over Russia and they cannot do anything. Oh look it is a cardboard and duct tape plane with a lawn mower motor, what can we do? 

I have seen videos of Russians throwing shoes at them. Oh great, Russia also shot down two of their own KA helicopters with their own air defense. They could not figure out if their own helicopter was not a cardboard and lawn mower motor plane?  

Yeah! That means, 70,000 fewer sniper guys shooting at old women collecting bread at the donation center. That is going to save lives! But he is another old fart out of touch guy who is doing more harm to Russia than anyone else. He is destroying himself and Russia, and causing havoc on the rest of the planet. He has to be part of the world of changes to stop all these old farts and get younger and more intelligent people in charge. He needs to join the GBC and retire on moratorium. Heh heh! ys pd 

If you want others to die, you might die yourself.

It is called karma. 

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SATSVARUPA WRITES WRONGS: 

THIS HAS BEEN EDITED PLEASE READ MORE ON WHAT I JUST FOUND.

Satsvarupa's mad art work:

Srila Prabhupada: "This is not a good style of painting. It is an artistic style for sense gratification only. I cannot encourage this style it should be stopped immediately. Paintings should be like the Deities, formal and worshipful. This type of painting is sentimental and not authorised. Paintings should be as our artists in New York are doing. Do not introduce any new styles." (Srila Prabhupada letter to Madhudvisa, 8 December 1973)

Satsvarupa's suppression of truths.

HERE IS THE EDIT I JUST ADDED BELOW

SDG Writings Excerpts: Here is Srila Prabhupada 1991

"So here I am, beginning another book about Prabhupada with a feeling of regret. Prabhupada should be the center of my life, but I continue to take his place…" 

August 16, 1991 Page 2, Week One from here is Srila Prabhupada

"A few years ago I asked Narayana Maharaja what he thought … Narayana maharaja encouraged me…" August 7, 1991

…" There is a danger of creating an illusory Prabhupada. It is all too easy to worship malleable Prabhupada, one who changes his orders to suit our own needs and deviations?…" August 7, 1991

"Occasionally I look at a random paragraph about Prabhupada in one of my own published books. Sometimes it looks wrong. Not quite wrong, but too colored for my own view of Prabhupada. I always regret seeing those things in print…" August 8, 1991

"Earlier in the dream, I was talking either with Srila Prabhupada or with devotees … I think my envy was manifesting in the dream when I was glad to see that the person being massaged was no longer Prabhupada…." Page 22, August 9, 1991

"… What if the disciple is not completely spiritual? Or the guru for that matter?…"

"… We read Krsna Book while the fire burned down in the fireplace. I confessed I battle constantly with doubts that Krsna-lila is mythological…" August 10, 1991

"…Thousands of devotees who never had much personal exchange with Prabhupada felt relief, when after his disappearance, there were no more secretaries to keep them out of his rooms or presence…." 

"My relationship with Srila Prabhupada is lifelong and solid, yet I still struggle with it, just as I struggle with my doubts about the Krsna Book stories. Although I am convinced that I love Prabhupada, I still confuse him with the "authority figure" who forced me into the US navy and who thought that writing poetry was for sissies. …

"… I am more afraid of my own possible deviations-seeing him as an ordinary man, minimizing him in some abstract way, not reading his books, leaving his movement - than I am of Prabhupada…" page 76

" Sometimes I imagine Prabhupada has come back for only one day and he has agreed to see me. Imagine inviting him to a secluded place in Ireland…" page 108

"Now Prabhupada is arriving, he pulls up in a big comfortable BMW…As I offer the arati articles, I feel rushes of emotion. Srila Prabhupada doesn’t have to read my mind; just by standing before him my activities since his disappearance – my attempt to become a guru and some of the excesses of that, my reading in Christian saints, my publishing my own books, my seeking lonely places, my hurts. He also sees my desire to serve him…" page 111

"… He cites prema-dhvani prayers and mangala-carana prayers " My dear boys and girls…He says that these young Irish devotees are also his disciples as long as they follow …He refers to corruption that has occurred in ISKCON since his disappearance. The references are indirect but we feel the weight of them…" page 112

" Should I ask him something as I used to? Is this the time to do it? Or should I wait? Remember Srila Prabhupada probably knows all about ISKCON. He didn’t come today to learn basic news but more to hear how you Satsvarupa das Goswami. … Page 116

"…Why do I aspire something more when I can’t even practice the preliminary stages? Can I ask questions of Narayana Maharaja when you’re not here? What do you want me to do?.." page 117

"After your disappearance I went along with the guru worship which our society now deems as a period of abuse to devotees and minimizing the central position of your Divine Grace. It would have taken great conviction of purpose to keep a humble course in defiance in those years, and I didn’t have such strong conviction to stand alone…" August 14, 1991 page 118

"… I stopped yesterday’s meditations when I got to the point of asking Srila Prabhupada questions. Again I don’t think I can fill in Prabhupada words in this imaginary dialogue" page 120

"…All things considered I want to please him and serve his purposes. I’m doing it to some degree behaving according to sannyasa dharma, writing books for those I initiate in his name…but I know I could do a lot better…" page 122

"…Even when he is here my rounds are not attentive. If he could teach us, by magic or blessing how to read his books once and for all… Should I ask about svarupa-siddhi and rasa? No, it’s premature. The origin of the living entity? He already told us…. he can see in my face that I didn’t turn out to be lie a pure devotee. . Page 126

"… While he speaks and drifts off, we are there with him. Now I am satisfied. Whatever problems I haven’t yet resolved in terms of how to get rid of anarthas and excess baggage and the vain glory of thinking myself special devotee – I know it will all work out in my remaining days…" page 130

" Tonight we read of Abhay’s initiation. I defend the Lilamrta’s presentation which only hints at the fact that Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura recognized Srila Prabhupa as an eternal great pure devotee even in the early years of Abhay’s household life…" page 134

"If the world leaders are not praising Srila Prabhupada and the authorized parampara, the "stand-ins" like me will have to do unto the world discovers that this the real responsibility of writers and readers." Page 139

"...Srila Prabhupada –you have to read his books to know him. Otherwise it is a bluff." I love Prabhupada and I talk about him". Moment to moment, his association is available. Why don’t you take it? What are the objections?

"He’s too repetitious."

"It’s too philosophical."

"My mind is too scattered."

"I’m not serious enough, what can I do?" Page 144

"…Shortly before the disappearance of his guru, Abhay wrote him a letter…" page 164

"… Gaudiya matha sannyasis moving into rooms rented from Abhay…"p 165

"Similarly if I want to compose Here is Srila Prabhupada, the I must keep my home base in ISKCON at Prabhupada’s lotus feet. "Don’t leave," Prabhupada requested. Stay in the fellowship of devotees." Page 171

"…One barrier is the resistance I have built up against reading his books. It’s just a bad habit…" page 176
"… Even as a businessman Abhay was spirited…"
"… Abhay went to their offices…"
"… When Abhay tried to start his own factory…"
"… It’s pleasing to see Srila Prabhupada in public like this, retaining his devotional composure …" page 183
"… Srila Prabhupada’s movement is one of self-sacrifice and the following of authority-
the previous acaryas, the sastra, and the present leaders…"???? Page 185

"…In his letter to Gandhi, Abhay called himself, "Your unknown friend..." Page 191

"…He wrote to all the leading politicians and to anyone who would listen. In one sense, the letters had little effect. But one effect it did have it did was to enable Prabhupada to focus all his energies as a preacher…" page 193

"…It’s embarrassing. What use is my attraction to truthfulness if all I can do is admit my anarthas, especially the anartha called pramada, inattentive chanting..." page 196

"…If I can overcome my lack of appreciation for the poetic metaphors the acaryas have used to describe Krsna’s beauty, then I too will one day appreciate seeing Krsna returning home after a day on Govardhana hill..." page 202

"… Also beauty is always incomplete until it is engaged in Krsna’s service. Krsna says that he is the strength of man when the man is "devoid of passion." We may become affected by the first "shock wave" when we see a woman "dressed to kill" But on second glance, we are not interested in becoming entrapped by her physical features…." Page 204

"I used top feel more the conflict between trying to be his disciples and trying to be guru. That was because there were excesses in the way we received grand worship befitting only Srila Prabhupada. I sometimes saw him as my rival. Still, I sometimes feel a tinge of jealousy when one of my disciples speaks on and on about all the realizations he is getting from his direct relationship with Srila Prabhupada. In the old days (1978-1986) we used to tell them, "Don’t jump over your spiritual master. You cannot have a direct relationship with Srila Prabhupada. You have to go through us." Now I encourage the differently, Srila Prabhupada…" page 211

"…And I always feel betrayed when someone decides to make a clean break with Krsna consciousness. So I think, "Why bother? Why be betrayed in the end by such a high percentage of those I accept for initiation?" But I keep doing it, Srila Prabhupada, out of my desire to serve you. Despite the argument, by those who say that us nobodies can’t be gurus, ISKCON is committed to continuing the parampara of diksa-gurus. It appears that this is supported by guru, sastra, and sadhu. We just have to somehow come up with the right attitude when doing it…."page 211

"… I can’t even imagine giving up the responsibility I owe to those I have already initiated. I took those disciples on behalf of ISKCON, as a servant of the movement. It keeps me in the camp. There are advantages to taking disciples, although these same advantages can become curses if they are not treated the same way. The guru is the representative of Krsna to his disciples. Therefore they want to please him and they do this by offering service and money.

"…Srila Prabhupada, it didn’t work when I tried to imitate you, when I tried to be for my disciples what you were for me in 1966. Now I’ve adjusted myself within the general reform in ISKCON. I also tried to bring about that reform. I now try to strike the profile of servant and friend to my disciples." page 212

"…I must search and learn – more microscopic honesty. So that you can see the difference between Prabhupada’s actual presence and my literary game…" page 236

"…He also teaches us to be patient with the dryness that comes due to all of our offenses…" page 252

" …He was dangerously old and not in strong health.. in America it would be different…" page 258

"… Madhu closed the book and looked up beaming," That’s fabulous!" Ganga dasa was smiling too. The best story, the very real and human story of Srila Prabhupada" page 259

"… He explains that we should never have deviated in any way. Did he ever deviate from the orders of his guru maharaja? Never. Why do we? The instructions are clear. Deviation means we are foolish rascals with desires other than service to guru. He means me. …" Page 261
ys yasoda nandana dasa

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Who Authorises the GBC, and Who Holds Them Accountable?

Governance in a posthumous Prabhupāda ISKCON

1. Doubt

Who authorises the GBC? Who holds the GBC accountable? And, now that Śrīla Prabhupāda is no longer physically present, who has the authority to correct, redirect or discipline the GBC when it fails in its responsibilities?

2. Thesis

The GBC is legally and institutionally bound by Śrīla Prabhupāda's instructions, his Will and the principles under which ISKCON was established. But who provides the living supervisory authority that holds the collective GBC accountable?
There is no living Prabhupāda-equivalent above the GBC who can intervene, correct its decisions and hold individual commissioners accountable.
The GBC has become the ultimate managing authority. But who holds that authority accountable?

3. Expansion: Why is this important?

During Prabhupāda's lifetime, he understood the importance of establishing a governing body that could manage the Society after his departure.
His own spiritual master, Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, had expressed regret that he had not established a GBC to manage the institution after his departure.
Prabhupāda took that lesson seriously.

He established the GBC, developed it, trained it, directed it, corrected it and repeatedly intervened in its affairs. He spent considerable time and effort trying to get the commissioners to cooperate and implement his instructions.
In his own words, managing the GBC was sometimes a headache.

There were disagreements, dissensions, failures to cooperate and instances of disobedience. Prabhupāda had to reprimand commissioners, remove individuals and reorganise the governing arrangements.

In other words, the GBC was not an automatically self-correcting institution. It required active supervision.

Now Prabhupāda is no longer physically present.

Who performs that supervisory function?

4. The original accountability mechanism

The Direction of Management (DOM), dated 28 July 1970, contained an important provision concerning the future selection of GBC commissioners.

It provided for Temple Presidents to elect commissioners for three-year terms, with the possibility of re-election. This created a mechanism through which the local leadership could participate in determining who represented them on the governing body.

Prabhupāda subsequently modified the appointment procedure in 1975, taking responsibility for nominating GBC members himself.

However, the March 1977 GBC minutes still document a collective review mechanism through which Temple Presidents could propose amendments to GBC decisions, with a two-thirds majority required to refer proposals back to the GBC.
This raises an important question:

Were these arrangements intended to ensure that the GBC remained accountable to the Society after Prabhupāda's departure?

And, if so, what happened to that accountability mechanism?

5. A practical example

Consider the current moratorium on initiations.

The GBC announces that initiating gurus cannot perform initiations between 1 

December and Gaura Pūrṇimā.

What happens if a guru disagrees? What happens if a Temple President disagrees and facilitates an initiation anyway?

What are the respective responsibilities, disciplinary procedures and consequences?

Who determines whether the GBC's decision is consistent with Prabhupāda's instructions?

And who holds the GBC accountable if its decision-making process itself is defective?

These are not merely theoretical questions. They concern the authority of individuals to perform their services and the ability of local communities to function.

6. The organisational problem

There is also a question about the actual distribution of authority within ISKCON.
The GBC is supposed to provide worldwide management and administration. Yet, increasingly, the distinction between spiritual leadership, managerial authority and local operational responsibility appears blurred.

Sometimes individuals simultaneously occupy several positions: GBC commissioner, initiating guru, sannyāsī, regional authority and temple leader.

Where does one responsibility end and another begin?

Who evaluates their performance in each role?

Who resolves conflicting instructions?

How long does it take to make decisions? How effectively are decisions implemented?

An organisation can have elaborate committees, ministries, regional structures and constitutional documents, but these do not automatically produce effective governance.

The head of an organisation needs clarity of purpose, responsibility and direction. When the governing authority itself appears confused about its mandate, the rest of the organisation inevitably experiences the consequences.

7. The fundamental question

I am an adult considering whether to participate in an organisation and potentially dedicate a significant part of my life to its mission.

I want to understand its authority structure, accountability mechanisms, decision-making processes and standards of leadership.

I want to know who authorises the governing body, who evaluates its performance, who corrects it when it makes mistakes and who has the authority to replace those who are not fulfilling their responsibilities.

I am not questioning the need for management. I am questioning whether the present management structure provides sufficient accountability.

The GBC was established to serve Śrīla Prabhupāda's mission and manage the Society on behalf of its members.

The governing body exists to serve the Society. The Society does not exist to serve the governing body.

So, who holds the GBC accountable?

And, looking at the present organisational structure, what institutional improvements can we identify that can assist ISKCON in functioning as a healthy, self-correcting and dependable spiritual society?

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DEVOTEES HAVE TO START REPORTING TO THE POLICE

PL: I am not fine with that... But what stops devotees who care from uniting and filing an official report with law enforcement about sexual abuse of children and women in ISKCON? Why hasn't it happened yet? There are hunters of pedophiles who are hardly waiting to track some of them.... Why do many of the victims keep quiet? Because they are afraid of ISKCON authorities? Who cares for them if they try to hide this... What can they do, proclaim the victims crazy? If a big enough number of victims step out officially, they are done

Guru Must be Mahabhagavat / Mukunda UK / MAGA / ISKCON Gay Marriage / ETC. 11 10 26

PADA: Wow, something we almost never hear in GBC ISKCON, yeah the guru cannot be an ordinary human being. No kidding! Someone told PADA they had to leave ISKCON because their guru kept complaining about how being a guru was such a dire painful burden, and he was exhausted from all the drama. 

And being a guru gave him "guru headaches." And taking karma was making the guru feel ill all the time etc. The devotee just got tired of hearing all the complaining. Why bother being pure when it is just a giant burden and headache? 

At different times he says his guru just sits in a room and does not allow any visitors so he can "recover." Well duh, he sits in a room and does not allow visitors so he does not have to answer all the questions -- why there are so many problems with these gurus. The real problem is -- there is no recovery, once a person takes a lot of sins without authority he has to suffer. And Bhakti Vikas says he now has to retire because of bad health. No kidding! ys pd 

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MUKUNDA UK (Prabhupadanugas EU / HKC Jaipur etc.)

MD: I will never understand their way of thinking, where someone picks and chooses – or how shall I put it – what they accept and what they reject from Krishna consciousness, or from Srila Prabhupada’s teachings, or from ISKCON’s history.

I’m thinking, for example, of how some people favour the original books, whilst others are either for or against fake gurus, and so on and so forth, but aren’t interested in anything else. I hope I’ve managed to put this across clearly.

By the way Prabhu, I agree with the children issue. I’ve read about the conditions in which the devotees and children lived, for example in New Vrindavan. In Henry Doktorsky’s post.

It’s appalling. In fact, they were just tormenting everyone especially children, in inhumane conditions, as they say. This whole movement has become a disaster since Srila Prabhupada left this physical body. And this was one of the worst examples. For anyone to say you are wrong to save children is diabolical, and only helps the people exploiting them. Which is their mission almost?

Countless lives have been ruined, many of them permanently, a number are dead, and so on and so forth. And even today they’re doing nearly the same exploiting, just on a more subtle level, or not quite so conspicuously.

Radhanatha and the other deranged gurus have helped make these problems.

PADA: Yes, these Mukunda guys made a video with Radhanath's defense team to oppose PADA. And Radhanath's fingerprints are on the money that was paid to Sulochana's hit man. These guys are allegedly promoting Sulochana, but also promoting the people who wanted him dead. They are not really for us, they are still compromised. It is amazing that they claim to be champions of Sulochana, while they wanted us to help them promote their hero savior Saint Radhanath's program. 

They were infuriated when I refused to help them promote Sulochana's hunting team leadership. For his part, Mathura Pati / Prabhupadanugas EU says he is promoting the Radhanath defenders team because "they oppose PADA." Wow, he admits he wants to be in bed with pedophile guru program folks in order to oppose the people promoting Srila Prabhupada? 

So yeah, a lot of them are ultimately compromised -- if not back door pedophile guru lovers, and that is why we had all these problems. But even today some of them still say yeah, we promoted pedophiles as gurus, and we were still right and the ritviks are still wrong. They cannot admit this is a deviation, because they are deviants.

I’ve just read that everything has been turned upside down at ISKCON in Vrindavan as well. This is due to that Sruta Kirti disciple of Srila Prabhupada—who is also said to be deranged—and his wife, who are, so to speak, running the Vrindavan temple or congregation from behind the scenes. The so-called ISKCON might as well shut down before it discredits itself completely. And it should be shut down, and the good news is, they are making a moratorium shut down themselves.

PADA: Yes, a lot of devotees are against certain points that are wrong, but they still defend other points that are just as wrong as well. It is called mixed devotional service. They cannot clean up the whole thing. But all of this rot would NEVER have happened without a lot of people supporting and defending it. 

The rank and file devotees should have stood up and resisted all this, and instead, most of them criticized me and defended the regime. And that is why it is what it is now. And for them to say -- we are for Sulochana, and we promote the cheer leaders of his hunting party -- is simply another example of the hypocrisy. That explains why we had to take the whole mob to court, these guys are not going to help us save these children, the courts had to do it for them. 

All of these above guys told me not to help Bangalore, who are the No. 1 people promoting ritviks. I forgot, they are with Saint Radhanath's people instead. Sorry, we placed our money on the Bangalore horse, and we are winning the race, at least in India. Better than anything these guys will ever accomplish.

ys pd

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HARIKESH SWAMI

Harikesha was removing all of my God brothers from ISKCON, including some of the most senior people who were leaders. The real problem then was -- that these senior people were often replaced with child predators, and that is how Harikesha created a massive child mistreatment program by getting rid of us "regular householders" and bringing in a group of predators to replace us. That created a situation where we had to help hundreds of victims sue ISKCON, for $3,000,000 and then $400,000,000. 

Notice that as soon as we began to put together the $400,000,000 case (1998) that is when Harikesa Swami blooped and left. He knew we were going to expose his program and its agenda and he wanted to bail out, and he did. He said oh yeah, we are going to lose in court, I better leave before they connect my name to this mess. He never contacted me because he knew I was leading this legal effort and he did not want to go on record saying anything about it to me. 

He was promoting all of this mess for decades and when the results were finally known, he abandoned ship. We knew the child mistreatment was going on in 1979, we were reporting it then, and that is why he and his group had us removed. And so many children suffered, actually probably thousands. ys pd *** Harikesh effectively left his leadership role in ISKCON in July 1998 after what ISKCON's Governing Body Commission (GBC) described as a serious physical and mental collapse. On July 14, 1998, the GBC announced that he had resigned from key positions, including the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust board, and stepped down from his responsibilities.

ys pd angel108b@yahoo.com

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MAGA MESS

Yep, the Texas farmers formed a Blue Coalition after they lost $100 billion from the tariffs and had to plow their crops under because MAGA removed all their tomato pickers. There was a carrot farmer who lost $240,000 after his 110 workers were removed by MAGA, and he had to plow his crop under and declare bankrupted. So they are trying to destroy America's agricultural business, and that us why the USA is now record number of importing food products. Did I forget to mention MAGA increased the price of fertilizer 300%? So they are going after the farmers and the farmers decided to stand up and vote against the people trying to bankrupt them, which should be expected? Who would vote for the people who want you to be bankrupted? ys pd

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BHAKTI VIKAS SWAMI RETIRES (Sort of)

Bhakti Vikasa Swami Announces He Will Reduce His Traveling and Establish a Base in Mayapur.

Published on Akincana Gocara on 6 November 2026

Bhakti Vikasa Swami has told his followers that his health has been declining, that most of his trips this year have been cancelled and that a facility is being set up in Mayapur for his writing and media work.

In a 15-minute video published on 2 November, the ISKCON sannyasi and guru, nearly 70, said he became quite sick after Rama Navami this year and "never really picked up after that." He named no diagnosis.

"Some days it's just difficult to get through the day. Just chanting my rounds takes all my energy," he said, adding that he now misses Mangala-arati most days.

He has spent most of this year at the ISKCON center in Vellore, South India, on Ayurvedic treatment monitored daily by his disciple and doctor, Keshavananda Prabhu. "That might be the position with me, or I could recover," he said, adding that he is confident he is "in the hands of Krishna."

The main announcement concerns his base. He said Hrsikesa Prabhu, who has worked on his media for 10 or 12 years by his estimate, is making a facility in Mayapur to bring the scattered BVKS Media team together and to support his health, talks and books. He hopes to travel more in future, but not as widely as he used to.

He answered in advance the objection that a sannyasi should not spend heavily on such a place. The facility, he said, is "not to facilitate my sense gratification," but to keep his "worn-out body" functioning for Srila Prabhupada's mission.

He said the work on his books and recordings will go on after he leaves this world, and asked devotees for their "blessings, appreciation and support." 

PADA: Oh great, going back home, back to Mayapur, main headquarters of the molester messiah's project. He is going where he belongs. Ill health from taking karma is taking a toll on these guys, have to say! ys pd

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ISKCON performs the first Hare Krishna gay marriage ceremony in Brazil

Published on Akincana Gocara on 3 August 2019

Verônica Monteiro, 23, and Tatiane Alves, 25, were married according to Hare Krishna rituals at the Bhakti Yoga House in Taubaté, São Paulo. According to the couple's testimony, this was the first homosexual couple to marry within the movement in Brazil.

"We married with the blessings of Krishna and the devotees," Verônica said, according to the Brazilian site Razões para Acreditar. The only earlier gay marriage within the movement that she knew of took place in Los Angeles in 2009, and it was not disclosed.

She told the Portuguese site dezanove that she wrote to people advanced in the movement, including Chandramukha Swami, a sannyasi and ISKCON spiritual master. He sent her several audios explaining how the movement sees marriage and same-sex relationships. "He told me that ISKCON was not ready to receive the marriage, but as God's blessings are important to any relationship, therefore, if we were sure about our feelings, then we should go to the Brahmin priest Rama Putra and talk about the ceremony."

"We are very grateful to all who helped us, devotees, parents, priest and Maharaj Chandramukha Swami, who is now my spiritual master and has given us his blessings," she said.

The Bhakti Yoga House is not an ISKCON temple. It is a place for a programme organised by an ISKCON devotee, Narada Muni Das, which the official page of ISKCON Brazil has advertised on Facebook. Hridayananda Dasa Goswami was then serving as the GBC for Brazil.

Photos of Chandramukha Swami and Hridayananda Dasa Goswami, not taken at the ceremony.

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An Unhappy Diwali

I don’t know how you usually celebrate this festival of hope — when everyone remembers the return of Lord Rama and Sita.

But here in ISKCON Vrindavan, this Diwali broke many hearts. Our leadership decided that HG Mukunda Datta Prabhu’s service as Head Pujari was no longer needed. And somehow everything was presented — delegation, younger generation, new leadership.

But does it not matter who is actually influencing these decisions? Of course our great Shrutakirti Prabhu and Vishakha. Does anyone seriously believe that this couple is qualified to make decisions, manage, and influence the life of the all Deity Department in ISKCON Vrindavan?

Seriously? We have personally watched this situation for a year. We have seen how people are treated. And honestly, we saw nothing divine in it. Even not business objective can justify treating devotees this way. If this is acceptable to our management— fine. Live with it. But please do not call it Krishna consciousness.

And do not present it as the mood of Srila Prabhupada. There is a difference - big difference between this type of politics and real Krishna consciousness in Srila Prabhupada mood. And more and more devotees understand that difference very clearly. So I want to say one thing to everyone reading this:

Before you give your time, trust, resources and life to service under this couple — think carefully. Especially when the names of Srila Prabhupada and Their Lordships are used. One thing I know: Srila Prabhupada would never have treated a devotee this way. Never!!! 

And no matter how much someone tells us about how much time they spent with Srila Prabhupada — that is Srila Prabhupada’s glory, not theirs. To treat a devotee who represents Guru-tattva this way… During Kartik month.

On Diwali. In Sri Vrindavan Dhām… I have never felt so ashamed of what I am witnessing. The attack on Guru tatwa in ISKCON continues ...

Where will this lead our society? Who will protect our Deity Department from this Ravana’s mood influence? Let’s express our endless gratitude to Mukunda Datta prabhu in the comments.

#iskcon #iskconvrindavan #guru #vrindavan #radharani 

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RUSSELL BRAND

Russell Brand has been sentenced to 10 years and six months in prison after being convicted of r-pe and three counts of sexual assault, bringing a dramatic conclusion to one of the most high-profile criminal trials involving a British entertainer in recent years.

The 51-year-old comedian, actor and former television presenter was sentenced at Southwark Crown Court in London on Monday, 9 November 2026, four days after a jury found him guilty of offences involving four women.

Brand, who had denied the allegations, was convicted following a four-week trial. The jury also acquitted him of two further r-pe charges and one count of attempted indecent assault.

The offences for which he was convicted took place between 2004 and 2009, when Brand was establishing himself as one of Britain's most recognisable entertainment personalities.

His career began in stand-up comedy before he became a prominent figure on MTV, Channel 4 and BBC Radio. Known for his flamboyant appearance, outspoken personality and controversial humour, he went on to achieve international recognition through films including Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Get Him to the Greek and Arthur.

He later moved away from mainstream television and film, building a substantial online audience through political commentary, discussions about addiction, spirituality and criticism of established institutions. However, his public career came under intense scrutiny in September 2023, when an investigation by The Sunday Times, The Times and Channel 4's Dispatches brought allegations of sexual misconduct into the public domain.

The Metropolitan Police subsequently launched an investigation, interviewing witnesses, examining historical records and gathering evidence relating to allegations dating back many years.

According to police, detectives spoke to more than 100 witnesses, obtained over 400 witness statements and examined more than 1,400 documents while building their case. During the trial, prosecutors argued that Brand had exploited his growing celebrity status to gain access to women and sexually assault them.
Following his conviction, David Roberts, a senior Crown prosecutor, said: "Russell Brand was predatory and used his celebrity status to commit sexual crimes. He was a manipulator with an insatiable desire to get what he wanted regardless of whether consent was given or not."

The prosecution maintained that Brand's fame and influence played a significant role in his offending, while the women involved described the lasting consequences of their experiences. One conviction concerned the r-pe of a young woman who had met Brand following a stand-up performance in 2009. The other three involved sexual assaults in circumstances connected to his growing entertainment career.

The sentencing hearing heard accounts of the psychological harm experienced by the women, including anxiety, distress and the difficulties of seeing Brand continue to appear in public life. Brand had maintained during his trial that he was innocent of the criminal allegations, although he acknowledged aspects of his previous sexual behaviour.

Following the guilty verdicts on 5 November, he was remanded in custody ahead of sentencing.

https://www.tmz.com/2026/11/09/russell-brand-dr-oz-consent-joke-maha-summit/

ISKCON Bombay Suspends Gurus / Bangalore ISKCON 11 07 26

 

Russell Brand // Mirror UK // De Facto Ritvik // India Heritage Boston etc. 11 06 26

Yep, people are having a field day with the 

"suspended Guru" issue.

The memes are everywhere. 

=================

RUSSEL BRAND: ABUSERS AND THE ABUSED

PADA: Someone said there are a lot of photos of him with ISKCON people like Radhanath, and it is going to come back to bite ISKCON for promoting this fellow. I dunno, let's hope not. I mean how much worse can the name of ISKCON be? 

But if this guy is a predator, while preaching heavy duty against the globalist women and children children trafficking and exploiting society, that would really be a lot of hypocrisy. He is a very clever and convincing speaker, and I can see how so many people would easily accept him as a champion of the down trodden and even a sincere spiritual seeker. It is unfortunate ISKCON is now connected to his legacy.

In any case, if he goes to prison, the prisoners are not going to be kind to him, that is for sure. I don't envy his situation at all, for one who has been honored, infamy is worse than death. True dat! The good news for PADA, we were never really put on a very high official position or pedestal, so we really have no got far to fall back down to. We are still taxiing the runway, so our crashing won't be a big crisis.  

On the other hand, his arrest has inspired other victims of other cases to come out of the woodwork, so maybe this will overall have a healing impact. Whole thing is sad, he comes to Krishna, sort of, and ends up with Saint Radhanath. Sheesh pilgrims! 

Anyway now he really has time to repent and think about what he is doing with his life, and let's hope he makes better choices. I think the Russell Brand legal issue has been going on for quite awhile, and therefore have confidence the courts did their homework on his case. But still the whole thing is sad, he could have been a good advert for Krishna, then he ends up being the worst. ys pd  

======

The Mirror [UK]

Sadly, every time another famous person faces serious allegations, whether it’s Russell Brand, Sean “Diddy” Combs, Huw Edwards or someone else entirely, I recognise the same public conversation.

The names change. The emotions rarely do. Warning: Sensitive content. 

As someone who gave evidence in the Rolf Harris trial, I know just how difficult it is to speak out against someone the public admires. I also know why so many people struggle to believe it could possibly be true. People often ask why women wait so long to come forward.

I’ve come to believe we’re asking the wrong question. The better question is this. Why is it still so incredibly hard to speak in the first place. 

I didn’t come forward because I wanted attention. I came forward because I watched an interview with one of the young women Rolf Harris had abused.
She was only 14 years old when he assaulted her, and I knew she wasn’t lying.
I came forward for her. I came forward for the other women. And I’d do it again in a heartbeat. 

For a long time, I couldn’t understand why so many people called us liars or accused us of wanting money. There wasn’t any money. There never was.
We wanted justice. Looking back now, I don’t think it was only the victim / survivors who had a journey to make. The public did too.

When someone has entertained you for decades, you’ve welcomed them into your home through your television, you’ve trusted them and admired them, discovering that they may have abused that trust is incredibly confronting. People weren’t just losing a celebrity. They were losing someone they thought they knew.

That doesn’t excuse victim blaming. It never will. But understanding it has helped me stop carrying the anger I once felt towards people who couldn’t believe us.
Eventually I realised they weren’t asking the same question I was.

I was asking, “Why don’t they believe us.” Many of them were asking themselves, “How could someone I trusted possibly have done this.” Those are two very different questions. [Suzi Dent, who bravely gave evidence against sex offender Rolf Harris.]

=======

DE FACTO RITVIK

PADA: Trvrikrama swami was yelling and shouting at the other GBC at the 1990 GBC meeting. He said -- making all these "ISKCON laws" that apply to us gurus, such as financial accounting disclosures, making us sign an oath of allegiance, monitoring our correspondence with disciples etc. is "de facto ritvik." It is like the Council of Churches that makes the priests do the same thing, sign an oath to the Church and submit financials. And he is right, the rules the GBC are making for their gurus are the same type rules the Church applies to priests. Therefore it is ritvik de facto.

At the same time, Trivrikrama complained, a few GBC elite people like Jayapataka are not monitored by anyone, so he is more or less absolute. Trvikrama said the good old boys network of original 11 have different rules than us newcomers. So he was saying, the old guard have no rules and we have all the rules, thus it is a double standard. I think he is correct. There is good news, after awhile Trivrikrama was having an affair with a woman disciple and the GBC told him he has to cut that out, or wear white. Eventually, due to GBC pressure, he had to stop being a sannyasa. But some of his disciples from Eastern Europe told me, he was being very secretive for a long time and he was hiding the affair.

Which makes us ask, what kind of acharyas are having secret affairs with disciples? But this was causing a lot of confusion and infighting among his people because some supported him even when he was fallen. A bunch of people left after he blooped out. That is why Badrinarayan wrote a paper in 1982, the disciples should be considered the property of Srila Prabhupada, so when the guru bloops, the followers will stay. His paper was never accepted.

By the way Trivrikrama saw me at Rathayatra and he said "Holy h*ll, you are not six feet under, you are still walking around on the surface of the earth, why are you not six feet under in the graveyard"! So he was very disappointed their enforcer teams had not put me in the grave. What kind of acharya wishes others to be -- in the grave?

And Trivrikrama's buddy Ravindra Swarupa said the same type things, we are trying to restrict our acharyas -- but we cannot get Kirtanananda to do anything we say. He operates outside our authority. Hansadutta said the same type thing, a committee of defective people cannot make rules for an acharya, the whole idea is ritvik-diculous.

So now they are going to make a committee to consider the role of Srila Prabhupada and making him "more central," which is what they have been saying since the 1980s. But that never seems to happen. In any case, making Srila Prabhupada central and making the GBC agents or proxies, is also the ritvik idea. They also said we need to emphasize shiksha over diksha, again, making leaders into shiksha agents of the acharya is the ritvik idea.

But if we are going to have a threadbare theological re-make, we have to go back to ALL their previous papers and documents and sort through all the false statements. For example -- Gaura Govinda Maharaja's 1988 "Guru Tattva" paper said -- gurus can become asuras, and "hopelessly entangled in sense gratification." They never explain how the residents of Krishna loka are sometimes fallen and even asuras. And how is fallen Jayatirtha the Maya Jayatirtha, just like the real and false Mother Sita. What does Mother Sita have in common with intoxicated womanizers. What about the 1980 "The Mahajanas Have Difficulties." Or in 1978 BR Sridhar is our seniormost advisor, but then in 1982, he is a rascal and no one can visit him.

Instead of explaining all this, they just make another pile of new documents which are full of even more mis-statements and falsity, never correcting all the previous document's mish mash. I think it is finally time to say, a person who needs to be monitored by the Church Council, who needs to sign and oath and submit financials, is not Jesus. 

He is a conditioned soul priest, and therefore -- the ritvik idea is the only idea that is going to work. And that is why Srila Prabhupada ordered it. Making more rules and by-laws will never change the essential fact, a conditioned soul cannot take the post of acharya, and no amount of reams and reams and piles and piles of GBC rationalizing documents is ever going to change that fact. They need to make ritvik official. And if they don't, ISKCON will continue to spiral down in public and devotee opinion, and it will fade off into insignificance which it has been doing since 1978. ys pd

------

INDIA HERITAGE BOSTON

Śrīla Prabhupāda’s System of Initiation | Ritvik Harināma Dīkṣā Ceremony

On Sunday, October 11, 2026, six devotees received initiation at Sri Sri Radha Damodara Mandir in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts. Of these, three received Harināma Dīkṣā and three received Brahminical initiation.

The ceremony was conducted on behalf of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Śrīla Prabhupāda, the Founder-Ācārya of ISKCON, in accordance with the ritvik system of initiation outlined in his July 9, 1977 letter. The devotees took sacred vows and received their spiritual names, marking an important milestone in their spiritual journeys.

“Initiation means you agree to enter the world of enlightenment.”

— Śrīla Prabhupāda, lecture in Los Angeles, December 13, 1968

May this sacred new beginning inspire deeper surrender, sincere chanting of the Holy Names, and a lifetime of loving service to Their Lordships Sri Sri Radha Damodara.

======

BHAKTI CARU SWAMI SPEAKS

"Like in 1987, although we had a reform, after so many gurus fell down, there was a fifty man committee was formed, and there was reform; it was not actually, at least my perception is that it was not actually a reform. It was kind of watering down the same misconception and continuing. Like what we did was we appointed some more gurus and opened up the world for anybody to initiate wherever he wanted. Whereas previous to that it was a kind of zonal acarya. So that I think is the main mistake where we started, that took place after Srila Prabhupada's disappearance that has never been properly rectified. [...] Yes, I agree, to begin with, I think at the beginning I said our main problem was introducing a defective initiation system. 

And that defective system may have been watered down to some extent but it's still prevailing. After Harikesa fell down in 1998, in 1999 I proposed that it's obvious that we are going in the wrong direction. Now, when you go wrong, when you know you're going in the wrong direction, what do you do? You stop to find the right way. So for the time-being, let's stop giving initiation and find out what actually the problem is and what is the solution to this problem, whether we can find a solution and until then, let us stop." (Bhakti Caru Swami, Toronto Meeting, July 20th 2003)

=======

FEMALE DIKSHA GURUS

ISKCON Gurus Urge the GBC Not to Force a Decision on Female Diksa Gurus

Published on Akincana Gocara on 21 October 2026

As the GBC devoted the second and third days of its 2026 Midterm General Meeting at Govardhan Eco Village to Vaishnavi diksa-gurus, two senior sannyasis and disciples of Srila Prabhupada addressed its members directly. Bhakti Raghava Swami wrote to GBC members in a letter headed "GBC/FDG October 2026", and Bhakti Vikasa Swami recorded a four-minute video message. Both ask the GBC not to force a decision. Neither had been published before; Akincana Gocara reproduces both in full.

Bhakti Raghava Swami, who says leaders of the India Continental Committee and the India Bureau asked him to take part in the meetings, writes that the GBC "as a whole" has "failed to take up seriously Srila Prabhupada's 50 percent mission, that of establishing Daiva Varnasrama Dharma", and that without that foundation its members are "recklessly tampering with" a principle concerning women that he regards as primary, not secondary, instruction. "When there is a clear majority opposition again and again voiced by the leaders in Bharat, as well as others around the world, it is wise not to force this issue and best to give additional time," he writes. "History has shown that within other major religious organisations premature decisions on crucial matters have had devastating effects."

Bhakti Vikasa Swami says in his video that a Mayapur resolution calling for guru-tattva to be thoroughly discussed before any change "was jettisoned", and that the GBC instead decided there had been enough discussion. He argues that the Sastric Advisory Council's research was "seriously flawed", that its flaws were never acknowledged, and that "to those who think that there is a strong case for instituting FDGs, you are highly likely to be seriously misinformed." Members, he says, "need to take the time to thoroughly, openly and honestly address all the pros and cons."

=====

Rama Movie / GGM / MAGA / Cyril Wohrer / Guru Govinda / Trai Dasa 11 05 26

PADA: Yeah thanks prabhu. Ravana was a predator and ISKCON wants us to worship predators. I know, the irony here is that amazing. Some ex-gurukulis told me the irony is, Rama had to chastise a predator, while in ISKCON they worship predators. And they allow their predator gurus or their friends to exploit us kids. But there was no Rama to save us? And the predators or their supporters are still worshiped there. This is upside down Rama's kingdom. ys pd

PADA: There you have it. Gaura Govinda Maharaja's plan to save the universe. Have ISKCON's children worshiping his illicit sex with men, women and children as "guru" system, thus creating an Auschitz for kids program, so then children will have predators as their gurus and the GGM predator gurus will attract many other predators. And the children in GGM's program will call his program -- Auschwitz for kids.

Rather amazing that he departed from the planet at the Mayapur head quarters of Auschwitz for kids. And then ISKCON thought that was a very holy event, while some of his followers wrote and told me they thought the GBC had him poisoned. OK well that is the association he chose. A person who supports an anal reconstructive surgery epidemic messiah's project will go to the planet of anal reconstructive surgery epidemics. 

ys pd angel108b@yahoo.com 

PADA: The trust will never be reestablished as long as the same people who broke it are in charge. 

=================

MAGA MANIA

PADA: No prabhu I am not gloating that MAGA lost big time in the election here. That being said, MAGA is a kind of cult and it is not healthy. But when Joe Biden was president he did come across as a spaced out "sleepy Joe" type guy. So I get why they wanted the more industrial strength fired up MAGA crew. But yeah the GBC and MAGA are both having a meltdown, maybe it is Krishna saying "enough already." Hee hee! 

But the MAGA crew created more economic problems for the citizens with their tariffs and wars, and the citizens are not happy. For example, many small Chinese gift shops and small importers went out of business here because they could not pay the tariffs, and then they had to fire their workers. A guy whose business was importing custom car wheels could not pay to get his wheels out of customs, and he went broke, fired his staff etc. 

These MAGA guys are always seemingly trying to make life hard, if not impossible, for the small business people -- to boost up their giant box store Walmart donating pals. Walmart buys all their stuff from China, so it does not help USA to drive small business into bankrupting and laying off workers.  

Never mind farmers like the one who spent $240,000 on his carrot crop, and then MAGA sent all the farmer's 110 farm workers back to Mexico, so he had to plough under his carrots and declare bankrupt. And now we are buying Mexican carrots from Mexico. So MAGA is always helping someone other than the USA, OK like Mexico, Israel etc. 

Perhaps the most clear objection people had was the Trump Bible, printed in China for less than $3 per Bible, and then sold by MAGA for $59.99 to the public. It does look like a lot of these "helping America" programs are helping a few elites fill their pockets with various scams. 

Of course Trump is a big fan of the mega tech bros and AI farms, which again are not popular with the public, nor do AI farms create a lot of jobs. There are just a few tech guys keeping the machines running. AI will take away jobs and not make more. Oddly I once had a job in a computer farm, and my job was to monitor to thermostats and computer temperature gauges. Other than me, place was a ghost town.

Unfortunately, the MAGA folks VASTLY over stated and over promised -- and then VASTLY under performed, so now they are looking worse than sleepy Joe. But to me it looks like the USA is going from one not very competent crew to the next, as the issues are not fixed by either side. So it is basically a dysfunctional mess. 

Now MAGA will block everything the Democrats propose, so I see a sort of constipated gridlock emerging from this situation, but I hope I am wrong. Overall yeah, I feel the Democrats are more in touch with us little guys. At the same time, even when they are in office, not a whole lot seems to happen to benefit us little guys. 

I hate to say it but, I believe we are not going to see any big improvement in my not so humble opinion. But I do believe we have to get out of this never ending (and expensive) Iran war quagmire -- and I hope they can at least do that, because it is very dangerous for the entire world to be pushing military buttons over there. 

I believe if Iran blows up all the electrical power and water supplies over the entire region there, which they could do, it will make a giant -- millions of people with no food and water -- humanitarian crisis, that the world will not be able to fix, and it will crash the entire world economy too. There will be a gigantic refugee problem, lots of them dying etc. Then again there are those telling me, that is the plan. 

Anyway I am hoping for the best, because I live here. ys pd 

angel108b@yahoo.com      

 

Message to Bill O'Reilly: Good job Bill! The farmer who spent $240,000 on his carrot crop had to plow it under and go bankrupted because Bill's plan to send his 110 workers to Mexico worked great. Bill's plan bankrupted many other farmers that same way. 

Bill wonders why those farmers did not vote for the SAME people who want them to go bankrupt? Why would anyone vote for the SAME people who want to see you go bankrupt? Bill never makes any sense. Bill wants all our farmers on food stamps so they can buy their Mexico imported carrots. What a doofus! After we bankrupt you, vote for us! They are destroying people's lives. Bill does not know that?

========


CYRIL WOHRER

You guys are just relentless, aren't you? Jesus have mercy on you poor souls.

PADA: Yep, the gang of four GBC gurus removed me from ISKCON for my objecting to their intoxicated womanizer acharya, Jayatirtha. Cyril Wohrer is friendly pals with the SAME people who kept that disciple predator in their Vyasa seat. Rather amazing, the intoxicated womanizer class of debauchees would not be allowed to act as Church Butler in my 1950s Church, he would be disqualified to have any post in the Church. But when Cyril Wohrer's acharyas program finds a nice intoxicated womanizer, they think they have met the next messiah! Jesus will not have any mercy on the people making intoxicated womanizers into another Jesus. ys pd


=====

GURU GOVINDA KRIPA DAS

PADA: No problem, I sued the GBC here for $3,000,000 (1986) and then $400,000,000 (1999) for mass child mistreatment, and won both times. I do not want the same people who orchestrate exploiting and putting children into victimhood and peril to run a coffee shop, never mind a temple. Children victims of the GBC program were taking their own lives. I do not support such people, or their lawsuits, or their gurus or anything else. They were feeding kids here horse oats that are not for human consumption and children were suffering malnutrition, but the GBC lawyers are fat and eating nice beef steaks, paid for by the GBC. I have no sympathy for their process. All these GBC guys ever worry about is feeding their lawyers and not the children in their system, and they are the same now as ever. ys pd

==

A Deeply Heartfelt, Eye Opening Letter

My name is Trai dās. I had the good fortune of receiving initiation from Śrīla Prabhupāda in 1971. I write this letter with some hesitation. I am not a scholar or an expert, and I have made more than my share of mistakes. I do not write because I believe I see more clearly than others.

Many of the devotees who will read these words are my seniors; they have served Śrīla Prabhupāda more faithfully than I have and carry responsibilities I could never carry.

Whatever understanding I have of this matter has come only through my own painful errors.

I write simply because I love Śrīla Prabhupāda’s movement and the devotees who have given their lives to it.

I would feel I was letting down my godbrothers and godsisters if I did not share what I have slowly learned. Some years ago my wife and I needed someone to teach a weekly meditation course at our small preaching centre in Italy.

A devotee we had known since the 1980s reappeared and kindly offered to help. I remembered that, about thirty years earlier, there had been an account of him abusing a five-year-old boy in the gurukula. I told myself it was so long ago that it no longer mattered.

I could not have been more wrong. When some of our young devotees learned of it, the revelation caused deep pain and division in our community; half of our congregation turned away deeply disappointed. In the end, with a heavy heart, I had to ask this devotee to leave. It was not easy because he was our friend and had helped us in many ways.

Only then did my wife and I begin to look carefully at what had actually happened. Slowly we realised that our affection for him had made us partial.

Over time, we came to learn that the abuse had been far more serious than the version he had shared with us. Even then, I am ashamed to say, our friendship continued to cloud our judgment.

What finally changed my heart was meeting the victim, now a middle-aged man. I will always be grateful to him, and I stand in awe of his resilience.

As a young boy in the gurukula he suffered horrific abuse, and yet somehow his love for Kṛṣṇa survived. He protected that love through everything that was done to him.

He had every reason to resent me for having stood by the man who harmed him. Instead he showed a grace and maturity I had lacked. Setting aside the heavy pain he has carried all his life, he agreed to speak with me. He walked me through what he had suffered as a child and the devastation it left behind. And he told me, gently, how much it had hurt him to see me publicly honour the man who had hurt him. I asked his forgiveness for the harm I had caused.

Sitting with him, I finally understood how devastating the abuse of a child is, and that our love for our friends, however sincere, must never come before the protection of the most vulnerable members of our family.

He gave me a gift I can never repay: he let me see the world through his eyes. Once I had seen it, I could never unsee it. It also changed how I saw the man I had defended.

Throughout the investigation he had come to regard himself as the victim. I tried many times to help him see that it was the child who had been truly harmed.

But it is very hard for any of us to accept that we have caused deep and lasting suffering to another soul, and so in his mind he became the one who was being persecuted.

Those of us who loved him, myself included, only made it easier for him to believe that he was the one being wronged. I came to realise, painfully, that in trying to help my friend I had actually harmed him.

My support did not bring him closer to the truth; it helped him hide from it, and so it kept him from the very repentance that could have brought him peace.

I have since seen the same pattern in other cases including that of Laxmimoni and Bhaktividyapurna.

That is why the case of my godbrother Keśava Bhāratī weighs so heavily on me. We have been friends since the late 1970s, and I hold real affection for him. I know many of my godbrothers and godsisters feel the same, and I do not judge anyone for that affection.

I felt it too, and I still do. But because of what I went through, I can no longer look at a case like this only through the eyes of friendship. Now I try to see it through the eyes of the child who was harmed. And I have learned something I did not expect: that is also the only way we can truly help the one who caused the harm; by helping him face what he has done and make amends.

When a victim learns that a finding against the person who harmed her has been set aside, and that he is free to resume positions of the highest authority and trust, it is very hard for her to hear anything other than this: that what was done to her did not really matter.

And she will not be the only one.

Every devotee who was harmed as a child, in every temple and every school, will hear the same message. In time it is not only what victims feel; it becomes how the world sees the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement.

I do not believe that is what anyone intends. But intentions do not change what victims hear. Only she can forgive what was done to her. That is her choice and no one else’s. But we should not confuse forgiveness with restoring someone to positions of spiritual trust and authority.

Forgiveness is a matter of the heart, between the one who was harmed, the one who harmed her, and Kṛṣṇa. Positions of authority are a matter of protecting the community. Someone who once abused the trust placed in him can be forgiven, yet it would still be unwise to place him back in a position that requires that same trust.

For many years victims waited for our movement to take child abuse seriously, and in recent years real steps were taken.

I am grateful to everyone who worked so hard for that progress. It troubles me deeply to see those steps now being undone. I fear the harm will reach far beyond a few individual cases. Those who came forward may feel betrayed a second time, first by the person who harmed them, and then by the society that promised to protect them.

Others who have never spoken may decide that speaking brings only more pain, and so remain silent. When victims stay silent, abuse goes unreported and children are left unprotected. And anyone tempted to harm a child may come to believe that, with enough friends, the consequences can be undone.

Our own child protection guidelines say that restrictions exist, among other reasons, to “act as a deterrent to future potential offenders” and to “show respect to the victims and assist them in their journey to heal.”

These are not someone else’s rules; they are our own.

When a victim watches the person who harmed her restored to a position of honour, it does not help her heal. It opens the wound again. Parents will wonder whether they can trust our temples with their children. Many of our second generation, who already carry deep wounds from the gurukula years, will feel that nothing has really changed and that there is no place for them in Śrīla Prabhupāda’s home. I cannot bear the thought of that. They are Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Vaikuṇṭha children, and they are also our children. I do not believe any of us wants this outcome.

I believe most of us simply find it painful to see a friend suffer consequences, and so, out of love, we look away; as I once did. That is how such a culture continues: not through bad intentions, but through good people being kind in the wrong direction.

We offer our kindness to the one we know and love, who is standing in front of us, who can speak for himself, and whose pain we can see.

The child who was harmed is often far away, silent, or grown and gone from our community.

Their pain is easy to overlook, and so our compassion flows toward the friend and away from the victim. Genuine kindness, free from personal attachment, does not choose whose suffering to notice. It sees both, and prioritizes the most vulnerable. In the early years, perhaps we could say we did not know better. But today we do.

If we truly love our friends who have harmed children, I think the most loving thing we can do is help them face the truth of what they did and accept a humble place in our family.

No one is saying they cannot be devotees, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, or serve. But positions such as guru and sannyāsī carry the sacred trust of the whole community.

I believe that trust must be protected; for the sake of the most vulnerable, for the sake of the movement, and for their own spiritual welfare. I once told Keśava Bhāratī this myself, as a friend. I say it again now with the same respect and affection.

A humble position is not a punishment. It can be a great shelter, and a chance to be truly at peace with Kṛṣṇa and with those he hurt. We, the disciples of Srila Prabhupada, belong to the generation in whose time these wounds were inflicted. Much of the pain our children carry today is connected to our immaturity, our mistakes, and our failure to protect them.

Too often, out of loyalty to one another, we made that pain worse by shielding our friends when we should have stood beside those who were harmed. Now we are in the autumn of our lives. Many of our beloved godbrothers and godsisters have already departed, and the time remaining to the rest of us is precious.

I feel we have a duty to heal these wounds and change the culture that allowed them, while we are still here to do so.

This is especially urgent because the next generation will inherit not only the consequences of our failures, but the culture we leave behind. It will be very hard for future disciples to question practices established and modeled by their own gurus, even when those practices have caused harm.

We cannot leave that burden to them. I pray that, before we leave this world, we can give them something better: a society where every child is safe, where those who were harmed are heard and cared for, and where no one has to wonder whether their suffering matters less because the person who hurt them is our friend. I offer these thoughts with folded hands, knowing my own faults, and praying that they will be received in the spirit in which they are given.

I ask forgiveness from anyone I may hurt with this letter, and I am grateful to all those who carry the heavy burden of caring for Śrīla Prabhupāda’s family.

Your servant, Trai dās