Thursday, April 30, 2020

Shiva Mahapuran (English Subtitles) VIDEO




This is one of many episodes, check the playlist. Get your popcorn out, and sit down for some video time fun. ys pd

Bhakti Chaitanya Swami Cancer Diagnosis Update


I give up!
Is ISKCON is a place where you will be banned, beaten, sued, 
maybe assassinated,
if you possess an original edition Srila Prabhupada book?

Dear disciples and friends,

Please accept my blessings. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

Today was an important day in regards to my health situation, and I want to hereby clarify the situation, as I know many of you are concerned about it.

Biopsies and a PET Scan performed around March 5th showed clearly that there was some cancer in my prostate. Before a decision was made on a longer term course of action against it, I was given a special anti-cancer injection, the effect of which lasts 3 months, to stop the cancer growing until it was decided what to do. Such an injection usually does not eliminate cancer, but slows or stops its growth.

On April 28th I had an MRI scan done of that area, and the results showed something quite extraordinary. The cancer had completely disappeared.

Today, the 30th, I visited our oncology specialist (a doctor who specializes in cancer) and we discussed the situation. He feels it is very likely that the cancer is still there, but in a microscopic form, and we have to wait for some time to check again.

So in the first week of August we will have another MRI done, and we will see what that reveals. In the meantime I will have another injection around June 6th (3 months after the first one).

If the MRI in August reveals that the cancer has reappeared, I will probably have radiation treatment for some weeks. If the MRI shows it has not reappeared, then we will wait for some time for further checks.

So that is the situation. In certain respects it is encouraging, of course, but at the same time the situation is still of concern, so please keep praying to Srimati Radharani and Lord Krishna to help.

Hoping this meets you well.

Your ever well-wisher,

Bhakti Caitanya Swami

Wednesday, April 29, 2020

Krishnapath Site -- Has Been Hacked

PADA: Apparently it is down due to a hacking attack. Of course GBC's "book changer advocate" folks are the prime suspects. Hopefully, the KP folks have a copy of the site offline somewhere and they can reload it. Its another headache for the sincere preachers.

This is one reason I had to tell a devotee recently that PADA's -- "not so gentleman - like tactics" -- are required -- since our opponents will use nasty techniques against us. He was arguing with me that if PADA editor was more of a "nice guy" -- our opponents would cave in, and then suddenly become docile little lambs and melt into nice behavior themselves. Maybe not! People have actually told me that since the start in 1978. Be nice, be humble, be like a minor league straw on the street -- and be beaten with shoes -- without protest! 


And another devotee wrote to tell me that us "Prabhupadanugas" as a group are losing many battles -- because we are like the moralist "nice guy" Pandavas. Yudhisthira Maharaja wanted to behave like a gentlemen, while the opponents used every nasty crooked technique around. And this was a newer guy who figured this all out. At some point, we might have to bring out the big stick, that is what Krishna told the Pandavas. Nice guy techniques do not work with people who are themselves not nice.


When we first started all this, we had a little teeny Internet provider in a little teeny office with a couple of servers in Los Angeles. It was run by a feisty little teeny lady named "Sue." And evidently some GBC goons wrote to her to remove me from her site or -- "we are going to hot wire your car and blow you up." I told her to call the police and she said, "these (GBC goonda) people are all a**holes and are not worth my time to make a police report." 


Yep, as soon as an actual sensible and responsible thinking type person looks at GBC goonda stuff, they say "these guys are all a**holes." OK being "nice guys" with them is not always going to work out favorable for their victims.

Same thing when we show some of the attacking / harassing / if not death threatening stuff we sometime get to our police friends. They always say, "Wow some Hare Krishnas won't kill and eat cows, but they will kill and eat you for dinner if they could." And over the years we have shown them these types of messages from various GBC / Gaudiya Matha / Narayan Maharaja / Tripurari swami folks and Dayalu Nitai's HKC thug Prahlad and others. 

And it always the same thing we have to tell the police, all this is because we oppose their child buggery messiah's programs and these people are doing their best to defend that process. And that is why their process had to be sued for $400,000,000, they banned, blocked and harassed me, murdered my associates, so it had to go to court. 

The police figured this out way back in 1980, the only thing that will fix these folks are police raids, lawsuits, media expose, and more and more and more expose (and so they encouraged me) and so forth, the opponents are not reasonable and kind hearted people. OK and the police friends tell me the same thing, these guys defend their child buggery messiahs program because -- they are a**holes. Not really that hard to figure out, unless you are a brainwashed zombie GBC-ophile?

So Rupa Goswami says that the false devotees are "utpat," they are simply a disturbance for the actual sincere devotees. They try to trip up the sincere, and sometimes they can be very damaging to the preaching of the sincere.  

Meanwhile, various attempts over the years have been made to hack our PADA news sites, according to my various providers. Security alert! Somehow or other by Krishna's mercy, no major problems ever happened. Of course at this point its a little late in the game, the cat is out of the bag by now. Its unfortunate though that Krishnapath is trying to give people Srila Prabhupada's books and these GBC goondas see them as enemies who need to be stopped. Anyway, if anyone has any updates on the Krishnapath mess, please write me:


angel108b@yahoo.com  ys pd

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

D Dasi: Reading this again in my file regarding book change information… Quite a few more examples but I just put this much in because I didn't want to make it extremely long… Although it's kind of long! Sorry … I'm sure many of you may have already run into this…

In this time of confusion and controversy, in regard to the editing of the BBTI, we humbly submit the following at the feet of all the Vaishnava’s for their own contemplation and realization in spiritual life:

In the Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila 9.358, Srila Prabhupada cites his spiritual master Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, who points out that in the seventy-fourth verse of this same chapter there is an apparent error made by Krishna dasa, Kaviraja Gosvami. Srila Prabhupada, just to teach us the principle of arsa-prayoga, [please see quotes from Srila Prabhupada on “arsha-prayoga” at the end of this article] does not touch the words of Krishnadasa Kaviraja Goswami, but leaves this apparent error as it is, out of respect for the transcendental book. Even though Srila Prabhupada’s own spiritual master, the most pure and intimate confidential devotee and associate of Lord Krishna and Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu himself, had clearly pointed out that this is an apparent error and is apparently wrong.

Furthermore in the purport to that seventy-fourth verse, mentioned above, Srila Prabhupada mentions nothing; only at the end of the chapter, after Srila Krishnadasa Kaviraja concludes his narration, does Srila Prabhupada even mention the apparent mistake.

That Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila 9.358 purport is cited here for your reference:

“Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura points out that in the seventy-fourth verse of this chapter it is stated that Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu visited the temple of Shiyali-bhairavi, but actually at Shiyali, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu visited the temple of Sri Bhu-varaha. Near Shiyali and Chidambaram there is a temple known as Sri Mushnam. In this temple there is a Deity of Sri Bhu-varaha. In the jurisdiction of Chidambaram there is a district known as southern Arcot. The town of Shiyali is in that district. There is a temple of Sri Bhu-varahadeva nearby, not Bhairavi-devv. This is Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura’s conclusion.”

This is a very good lesson to make a clear and prominent note of how Srila Prabhupada, the teacher by example, has chosen to edit (or rather not edit) the words of the spiritual masters or previous acharyas’ writings.

Srila Prabhupada has every right in the world to change or edit anything, for he is Krishna’s direct representative and the present acharya and current link to the parampara. But, as the Acharya, he has himself stuck to the principal of arsha-prayoga and did not changed it just to teach us respect, correct behaviour. He does not touch this apparent “mistake,” he leaves it completely untouched, as it is.

As Srila Prabhupada said “I have instructed everything in my books.” (Letter to: Dina Dayala, Mayapur, 25 February, 1976) So Srila Prabhupada has also instructed us to not edit the books in his books themselves.

There are many instances of this in Srila Prabhupada’s writings if we just look.

We will cite another place were Srila Prabhupada left a seeming mistake as it is, even though it may be considered “wrong.”

“Ambikavana is situated somewhere in the Gujarat province. Ambikavana is said to be situated on the river Sarasvati, yet we do not find any Sarasvati River in the Gujarat province; the only river there is Savarmati. In India, all the big places of pilgrimage are situated on nice rivers like the Ganges, Yamuna, Sarasvati, Narmada, Godavari, Kaveri, etc. Ambikavana was situated on the bank of Sarasvati, and all the cowherd men and Nanda Maharaja went there.”

(KRISHNA Book 1970 edition Volume 1 Chapter 33 / Vidyadhara Liberated and the Demon Shankāsura Killed)

In this quote from Srila Prabhupada’s original KRISHNA book, Prabhupada mentions that although it says, “Ambikavana is said to be situated on the river Sarasvati, yet we do not find any Sarasvati River in the Gujarat province…” Prabhupada does not change the text to correct the seeming mistake.

Below is another example of something that may be considered from the scholarly or mundane viewpoint “wrong” with the text but it was left as it is out of respect for the author, adhering to the principle of arsha-prayoga.

TRANSLATION

Thus Paramananda Puri started for Jagannātha Purī, and Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu began walking toward Sri Śaila.

PURPORT

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura remarks, “Which Sri Shaila is being indicated by Krishnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami is not clearly understood. There is no temple of Mallikārjuna in this area because the Sri Śaila located in the district of Dhārwād cannot possibly be there. That Sri Śaila is on the southern side of Belgaum, and the Śiva temple of Mallikārjuna is located there. (Refer to text 15 of this chapter.) It is said that on that hill Lord Śiva lived with Devī. Also, Lord Brahmā lived there with all the demigods.” (Cc Madhya 9.174)

Srila Prabhupada’s own standards and the established Vedic principal of arsha-prayoga that he gave to us are not being followed by the BBTI editors headed by Jayavaita Swami and Dravida. On the contrary, the exact opposite is being done, causing Srila Prabhupada’s once authorized and respected writings to be lost and devalued due to these unauthorized offensive changes that directly go against Srila Prabhupada’s will and example

Tuesday, April 28, 2020

ISKCON Arawade Financial Crisis



PADA: OK so just a few months ago Jayapataka swami and his GBC pals announced they were going to continue their -- apparently already costing $20,000,0000 Delhi Supreme Court case -- against Bangalore. So there is always plenty of millions on hand for buying new Mercedes for lawyers, where is the money for the brahmacharis and the cows? One Jayapataka follower told me they would spend $100,000,000 over the next 100 years suing Bangalore. OK that is their main priority expense, suing the Vaishnavas? ISKCON does not even have any other proposed $100,000,000 project anywhere else.

Another devotee from Mayapura says some devotees there begged the temple for a few acres of land so they could grow some local food, because the food supply lines coming into Mayapur are shaky at best. So they should develop at least some better plan for on site food production. Nope. The temple refused to help them. 

I forgot, we have to ask for money to buy a new Mercedes for lawyers, then there is plenty in the GBC bank to spend endless amounts of cash. You guys asked for land? No good! Ask us for money to pay lawyers to get them a new Mercedes, then we will start writing checks left, right and center. Told ya! I feel sorry for these brahmacharis and their cows, they are way down on the totem pole of expense priority for the GBC guru's guys. ys pd  

Monday, April 27, 2020

Hansadutta's BBT Legal Successor Documents

Original books can be ordered here:



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



[PADA: We have been asked to review Hansadutta's appointment of a BBT successor (some Russian / Canadian devotee), and honestly we don't know how its all going to work out. First of all, Hansadutta ALREADY signed a legal document resigning from the BBT, when he "made a deal" with Jayadvaita's folks in the 1997 BBTI lawsuit. Hansadutta specifically avoided getting Yasodanandan's legal advice on this matter, or anyone else's advice, because he wanted a compromise with the GBC folks. In sum, he made a deal with the Devil. And a bad deal.

So he essentially surrendered legally, maybe thinking its going to give him some special status with the bhoghi yogi book changer's club. After he signed the compromise deal, then he showed all the documents to Yasodanandan, which was immediately seen as a really bad deal. Then Hansadutta started a lawsuit to sue the other Krishna Books (KBI) agreement folks (like Gupta) who had been named in his own lawsuit as his co-workers. 

That put into jeopardy the little progress he had made, and allegedly ended up wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars on a foolish self-induced lawsuit. If Hansadutta was not happy with the terms of the deal, he should never have signed it in the first place. And making a big mess of the KBI agreement then hampered the KBI books program and made it very dysfunctional, just like everything else Hansadutta touches. KBI has never recovered very well from all this initial mayhem. 

Then, Hansadutta goes into hiding -- living is some run down old shed in Cloverdale where he has some big Krishna deities he stole from a temple using his goondas, where he is allegedly drinking Vodka again, instead of taking care of his duties to manage the books of his spiritual master. Then he goes to live in some run down place in Oakland, and he dresses like a lost Tibetan monk. What is he doing to make sure the original books program is being upheld? Then he is seen wandering around Oakland mostly by himself, looking like a lost street vagrant. 

And some of his followers are alarmed that he is always alone and aloof, not participating in social activity. Right, he is just waiting out the clock -- so nothing EVER gets done to fix the mess he made of ISKCON, then the mess he made with the BBT process. 

Now he has appointed a BBT successor, some Russian / Canadian devotee. However a quick review of the documents finds spelling mistakes, which means -- Hansadutta evidently wrote these documents himself and not a professional law firm. I have never seen these type of amateur typos in an official legally prepared document. 

Anyway! What can be done now to save the original books of Srila Prabhupada? And what happens to KBI now etc.? If anyone knows, and if anyone knows who is the actually in charge of KBI now and how they can be contacted, please write: 

angel108b@yahoo.com.

ys pd]



Letters from Hansadutta on BBT matters:

Notice of Termination

20 April 2020

We hereby inform you that the Board of Trustees of BBT has decided to terminate the activities and exclude from the Board of Trustees of Bhaktivedanta Book trust Claro Lopez Cruz (Krishna Prema das) Reason: Claro Lopez Cruz was appointed a Trustee of the Bhaktivedanta Book trust by a resolution of the Trusties meeting on October 30, 2019. 


The written text of the resolution, notarized and signed by the Secretary of state of California, was sent to Mr. Claro Lopez Cruz in the Philippines through the office of Mr. John Hanton (Jitarati das) in Hong Kong. Since then, Mr. Claro Lopez Cruz has never contacted the other Trusties of the Trust, did not send his Acceptance of the Trust, thereby showing his attitude to the Trust and its Trustees. 

In this regard, we inform You that Mr. Claro Lopez Cruz has been excluded from the Board of Trustees since April 20, 2020, and in the future does not have any rights to represent himself as a Trustee of the Bhaktivedanta Book trust, sign documents as a Trustee of the Trust, give permission to publish books by A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, or apply to any Legal Attorney under the name of Bhaktivedanta Book Trust

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

Bhaktivedanta Book Trust Trustees
Letter of Appointment

23 April 2020

Me, Hans Jurgen Kari (Hansadutta Das), in the event of my death, transfer all my rights and duties as Trustee of the Bhaktivedanta Book trust, established in the state of California, USA in 1972, entrusted to me by the founder of the Trust, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada in 1974 to Andrey Khmelnitsky (Abhimanyu das). Canadian Citizen, Passport GJ402985, issued in Scarborough, ON Canada 14 February 2014 as a senior Trustee-successor of the Trust's founder, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, who died in 1977. I also give him all the documents in my possession concerning the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust. I also instruct you to check all the documents of the Trust and, if necessary, restore the lost ones. 

And also to investigate the fraudulent unauthorized activities of the Bhaktivedanta Book trust international Corporation incorporated in California in 1988 ( criminal acts of a deliberate nature, such as misappropriating the name of the trust, the BBT logo without permission, changing the contents of books, manipulating copyrights, unauthorized registration of copyrights in the Library of Congress in their own name, attempts to illegally transfer copyrights to relatives of the founder A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, illegal court proceedings in 1990 in Singapore and in 1998 in Los Angeles, California, United States, printing unauthorized literature under the name of the trust, illegal appointment themselves as Trustees of a Trust to which irrelevant, embezzlement and misuse of funds of the Trust in violation of clear and understandable instructions of founder set forth in the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust agreement). All of the above entitles Andrey Khmelnitsky, as a Senior Trustee of the Trust, to apply to the US Justice and law enforcement Agencies if necessary.

Hans Jurgen Kary (Hansadutta das Adhikari

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


Letter to: Resolution

20 April 2020

BHAKTIVEDANTA BOOK TRUST RESOLUTION

Artyom Pa??? (Unknown das) is hereby appointed as a Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, dated 1972 Los Angeles, California, trustee. Resolved this 20th day of April, 2020;

Bhaktivedanta Book Trust Trustees

Hans Jurgen Kary (Hansadutta das Adhikari)

Andrey Khmelnitskiy (Abhimanyu das)


https://www.facebook.com/khmelnitskiyabhimanyud

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

From HANSADUTTA DAS:


Dear **** Prabhu, bowing, all glories to Srila Prabhupada. It's not good for you to communicate with these devotees who always find some flaw. especially people like Puranjan. Prabhupada used to say " These are two types of animals, flies and bees, flies will always go to feces, bees will always go to honey, you will never find bees going to feces, similarly flies don't go to honey.

[PADA: OK, except we barely survived Hansadutta's program in 1986 to establish, what Hansadutta said at the time, was his "eternal best friend Kirtanananda." Hansadutta also told everyone at the time: Kirtanananda is "the purest devotee on the planet." And! This was after Sulochana was killed, and Kirtanananda was sitting on a golden throne covered with the hands of dozens of children. That a "pure" fer sure!

A deviant person who is covered with the hands of dozens of children while sitting in a golden seat, who wears a golden crown while he orchestrates the murders of vaishnavas is -- "the purest devotee on the planet"? That's the illusion to the one who has been prone to illusion -- Hansadutta.

A karmi news woman told me that Kirtanananda's sitting on a big seat covered with the hands of many boys is "pedophile heaven." And Hansadutta thinks self-apparent this "pedophile heaven" saint is "t
he purest devotee on the planet"? After he knew that Sulochana had been murdered? And AFTER he knew this was orchestrated by the leaders of this "pedophile heaven" group. How is all this "pedophile heaven" program an example of the "purest devotee on the planet"? 

Maybe Hansadutta also forgets that when the husband of one of the women he was having illicit sex with wanted to shoot Hansadutta in the head with a firearm, the PADA editor was one of the people who held that man and convinced not to blow Hansadutta's head off. Out with double shot?

Hansadutta doesn't even seem to be grateful to those of us who saved his life, because of his propensity to have illegal relations with the wives of his disciples. In fact, the devoted woman he finally married after that was the wife of another disciple. He just "took care of her" just like he smashes and grabs other things. He ordered her to marry him and leave her husband, and her husband left the movement disgusted with everything, thanks to Hansadutta. Another life has to be tossed into the toilet, so Hansadutta can benefit for his self interests. 


Srila Prabhupada says -- a guru who has sex with a follower is the same as a father having sex with his own daughter. OK it is de facto incestuous pedophile activity. He is using his post of authority to exploit the subordinates. 

Who would blame the poor husband and other folks for leaving? And thousands of others left for similar reasons, Hansadutta was making the idea of Krishna's "pure gurus" totally disgusting, and this was turning people away from Krishna by the hundreds, in droves. Or maybe turning away millions when we consider his (and his guru pals) criminal program was always getting HUGE bad mass media on a regular basis.

Then again, there was Jagannath das who committed suicide after being so upset with Hansadutta. Then there is mother Tribhuv, my personal friend who died of cancer after telling us: she couldn't live after Hansadutta's regime kicked her out of serving the deity. Then there is Jiva. I don't know how he ended up dead with six shots to the chest, but some remember Hansadutta pointing a gun to his head, in sum: there are many corpses around / under these jack boots, it's hard to tell how many. 


Never mind a gurukuli killed himself in San Francisco and he left a note "there is no place for me in this religion." OK, and all that is thanks to Hansadutta squeezing this boy out of the religion. There is so much Vaishnava blood on Hansadutta's hands, how many gallons is un-countable. And if we consider that Hansadutta glorifies people who orchestrate devotee's banning, beating, molesting, lawsuits and murders programs, like Kirtanananda, then its clear he has been thinking that making devotees suffer and die is the result of the actions of "pure devotees." 

Ooops! Yamaraja has a different opinion. Anyone who causes even a little suffering to Vaishnavas, never mind causes them grief, sadness, suicides, alcohol poisoning, violence and even death, has to enter my stone crushing rollers over here on Yama's planet! That is very clear from shastra. Yamaraja has a total different opinion of people who orchestrate devotees to be banned, beaten, molested, sued and assassinated. Yamaraja says these people are not the "purest devotees on the planet," they are the most sinful subjects who to go into my stone rolling machines over here. Even a dog eater has far better karma than this lot, as shastra explains nicely.

Yes, it's a fact, Hansadutta said at the time that the people who organize mass molesting of young boys -- and murders of those who protest their mass molesting program -- are "the purest devotees on the planet." And that's where the "feces society" comes from, which Srila Prabhupada warned us about. And Hansadutta was number one in Kirtanananda's promotion at the time. The fact that Hansadutta says we are "flies after stools", this is how he makes us folks get murdered, giving us dogs a bad name -- and hanging us. 


This is how Hansadutta helped murder Sulochana, to discredit us and painting us as demons. Hansadutta seems to forget that the mass of devotees and the general public consider their guru regime and their pure pal Kirtanananda as "the feces society". So we are the bad guys, and that sets us up to be assassinated.

Notice! As soon as a CBS news woman in 1986 saw Kirtanananda covered with the hands of many children, she told PADA editor that "this man is in pedophile heaven." However, as soon as Hansadutta sees Kirtanananda, dressed in golden silk lace with in a large golden crown and bearing a sceptre, covered with the hands of dozens of little children, Hansadutta believes he has seen the reincarnation of Jesus. 

And Hansadutta falls down and offers his prayers to the pedophile heaven king and bows down crying like a lost puppy "here's the purest devotee of the jagat". So this is the difference between someone like Hansadutta, and a regular worldly news woman from worldly news. She can immediately understand who is pure and who is not, several billion times faster and better than Hansadutta. 

How did this happen? It happens because the news lady has no motive to promote pedophile heaven messiah's programs, there is no reward for her to do so, but Hansadutta gets to keep his post as a a big leader by licking the boots of the pedophile heaven messiah's meister, who will assist Hansadutta's schemes to hold on to some form of glory, worship and mundane power and control -- at all costs.

First of all, this doesn't mean Hansadutta hasn't done a good service in the past. On the other hand, we all did a good service in the past, we were all in "Krishna's Lila or sport" some millions of years ago. However, we can't just rest in our past acts, we must continue. So what happens is that we initially fall from the spiritual world, and when we are still relatively pure, Krishna places us as born as residents of higher planets, that's where we go immediately, after falling from Vaikuntha.

Unfortunately, then we begin to gradually sink into lower planets and lower life species, as we contaminate and entangle more and more in material desires. And so, we degrade ourselves more and more, and start acting in modes of behavior ever lower. After a while, as we fall further and further down into consciousness, we are finally born as snails at the concrete entrance of a devotee, hoping that devotee will be merciful and lead us to grass before we are run over by a car.

The same process with people like Hansadutta, he was very loved by Srila Prabhupada, he was empowered to do a great service, but then he began to become increasingly entangled in the crime of imitation of the acarya, so much so -- that gradually even a normal woman would be millions of light years ahead of him to understand that Kirtanananda is a deviant. All of us did same thing, millions of years aof we were serving Krishna, or a pure devotee, and we became envious of Krishna, or envious of the pure devotee, and then we fell into "the dark side of the force."

In short, Hansadutta lost his spiritual vision and shakti due to offenses towards the pure devotee, what to speak about Hansadutta promoting the killers orchestrators of Srila Prabhupada's servants as messiah like Jesus. And in this way we can all lose our shakti, and we can become ignorant snails due to offenses and material entanglement. And in this way, even a good devotee can lose his discrimination and intelligence. Then again, we believe Srila Prabhupada was poisoned, and Hansadutta was then sitting at Tamal's feet like a lost puppy after 1978, hoping he would get a little puppy snack of recognition off Judas' meal plate.


This is technically called "buddhi nasa" in the Bhagavad gita, a person loses discrimination due to worldly entanglement, and this process accelerates tremendously when one openly offends pure devotees and supports orchestrators of the murders of their servants.]

HD: Prabhupada also said, no one has to go to school to learn to laugh or learn to cry, similarly when the time comes, every boy and girl knows what to do to have sex, it's not a topic for school, read or write, everyone knows. KRSNA and everything you need to get KRSNA is all we are (as human beings) destined to learn. If this is learned, everything is understood.

[PADA: Right, well, first of all, Hansadutta was arrested with a machine gun in his car when federal marshals raided his farm. And this created a horrific story in the media that ruined the good name of the ISKCON society across America. Thanks to Hansadutta's antics, millions of people were removed from admiring Srila Prabhupada and Krishna, this was the result of the self-advertising "gangster-prankster" messiah Hansadutta. 


Even ordinary mundane people are always trying to separate their bad behavior from Godliness. They know its a SEVERE sin to brand their unlawful deviations as "Godliness." Why? Because they know it makes God look bad, and thus they have some minimal respect for GOD almighty. Don't blame God for my bad behavior, that is rule number one even in the murderer's row at prison. You have to beg God for mercy, not start saying, oh yea -- so what -- even God's pure devotees are criminals -- like me. That is going to infuriate God, and all the agents of God. We cannot say God's successors are criminals, because that means -- God is a criminal.

We don't normally find people going to court saying "God wanted me to rob the bank and kill people." Rather they are mortified that their bad behavior would be linked to God because they have respect for God, and they know linking bad behavior to God is attacking God's character and as such it is verboten and sinful to do so. 

What to speak then of Hansadutta claiming all his deviant behavior is the behavior of God's pure successor guru, and giving the impression to the public that Krishna's acharyas are criminal deviants?

So yes, we are destined to serve Krishna in our human lives, yet millions of humans have now permanently decided NOT to serve Krishna, after they read about the criminal organization Hansadutta and his pedophile messiah's clan had created "on behalf of Krishna." Really? Or on behalf of Satan? OK really.

Hansadutta was openly calling himself the "gangster prankster guru." And so, the good hearted, peace-loving people of the "new age" yogis etc. here in Berkeley told PADA, they even fear approaching the Hare Krishna temple, because there are violent gangsters with machine guns, who could steal your purse and take your credit cards for a Vodka party at their expense.

Therefore, most people, in fact, almost all people, will never come to Krishna, at least not in this lifetime, thanks to this gangster pra
nkster fool who wanted to be a guru. He made people fear and hate Krishna, and thought his personal importance was more substantial than Krishna's importance. OK, and that's why we fell here in the first place. We wanted to get a bigger name for ourselves, so we stepped on Krishna's name to catapult our name before His. That only works for maybe a hundred years, then we have to rot for maybe a few million years for making that offense to the nama of God.

Hansadutta in sum "Hansadutta-ized" the Krishna movement into a violent criminal cult, and Berkeley police arrested 75 people here at Berkeley temple in less than 12 months, because Hansadutta wanted and encouraged criminal behavior and he wanted that to be the public image of the movement. In short, Hansadutta wanted to paint Krishna as the deviant God for criminal mobsters. 


And just like that, Hansadutta is the supreme servant of Krishna, the criminal mobster servant of the criminal mobster God. I'm not sure "what's the karma" to paint Krishna as the original ring leader of a criminal organization, which adores criminals, homosexuals and sexual abusers as God's messiahs, but it won't be pretty, that's what we can guarantee.

As Sri Isopanisad says, the fate of people who promote false messiahs is worse than the fate of the common man, because these fake people are severe criminals. And the result of these severe criminals is that they can turn the public against Krishna, which of course is what good demons wanted to do all along, they wanted to alienate the mass of people from their connection to God. 


Most sinful! 

In short, Srila Prabhupada says in the Bhagavatam that these imitations of the guru "are never tolerated by the Lord or any agent of the Lord". Never tolerated! As Sulochana used to say, I wouldn't trade ten billion years of my bad karma for two seconds of these people's bad karma, he's right.]

Akshaya Tritiya Celebration



AKSHAYA TRITIYA

It's most auspicious and marks beginning of CHANDAN YATRA. For 21 days the Lord will be smeared with beautiful sandalwood paste and than there is a BOAT FESTIVAL. The Lord is taken to a lovely boat ride especially in Jagannath Puri.

Sri Madhavendra Puri was ordered by Lord Himself to bring Chandan from Malaya-Giri, when He was staying in Vrindavan. And Gopinath stole the sweet rice for Madhavendra Puri at Remuna in Orissa. Thus, these are some of the sweet pastimes of Lord and His Devotees associated with this Chandan Shringar festival.

The Lord is beautifully decorated with scented flowers and light clothes to give Him pleasure. The Lord is smeared with sandal mixed with rose water, camphor, musk and other scents to give Him coolness and bliss.This is how the Brijwasis serve their Gopal, by giving Him pleasure...Jai Jai....!!

Akshaya Tritiya: In South India, near Vishakapatnam, in the famous Narasimha Deva temple in Sri Simhachalam, chandana yatra has a special meaning, as this is the place where Lord Narasimha Deva, enraged with Hiranyakashipu for his evil - Treat and torture Prahlada, who was a sincere devotee of the Lord and who had steadfast faith in the Lord, so much that despite all the danger his father inflicted on him, he was never disturbed and always sang the holy names of the Lord who appeared to protect your devout Prahlada and kill his demonic father Hiranyakashipu 


The Lord has shown so much anger that his devotees applied chandana to calm him and practice is still followed to this day, with the Deity being covered with sandalwood paste every day of the year, because of which, its real form is not Visible all year round, it is covered by layers of chandana. In Akshaya tritiya, this chandana cover is removed and the original form of the Lord can be seen for a day, after which again the pujaris begin to apply more chandana to him. The broken sandalwood pieces are then distributed as Maha Prasada.


HAPPY AKSHAYA TRITIYA AND CHANDAN YATRA FESTIVAL!

Chandan Yatra (21 days) [From 26 April 2020]

Akshaya-tritiya, Chandan-yatra begins

Chandan-yatra is a twenty-one day festival observed in temples—especially in India—during the summer season. During Chandan-yatra, devotees anoint the Deities of the Lord with cooling sandalwood paste.

Akshaya tritiya, according to the Vedic calendar, is a day considered to be conducive to success in any significant endeavor. Traditionally, those aware of Akshaya tritiya's benefits schedule major life events — marriages, initiations, business ventures, establishing a new place of residence — on this day.

Candana yatra starts on the third lunar day of the waxing moon of Vaisakha month, and continues for twenty days. Lord Jagannatha gave direct instructions to King Indradyumna to perform this festival at this time. Smearing the body of the Lord with ointments is an act of devotion, and the best of ointments is sandalwood paste. Since the month of Vaisakha is very hot in India, the cooling effect of the sandalwood is very pleasing to the body of the Lord.

Sandalwood paste is applied all over the body of Jagannatha leaving only his two eyes visible. The utsava murtis (functional Deities - Vijay utsav) are taken on procession and are placed in a boat in the temple pond. To commemorate this festival, Lord Caitanya also carried out water sports with his devotees.

On the day of Aksaya Tritiya in Vrindavan, all large Goswami Temple Deities are covered with chandan Paste and not a bit of cloth used to cover the deities in the afternoon. The festival is also celebrated in the ISKCON Vrindavan temple and it usually continues for 21 days with the Utsava Vigrahas covered in chandan. The Deities are covered completely with chandan (sandalwood paste), which provides the Lord relief from the scorching heat of summer in the month of Vaisakha / Jyestha (May / June).

Chandan yatra is said to have been celebrated first on the day when Treta-yuga began. Sages and devotees perform homa (yajna) during this holy occasion. Usually barley is used as a major ingredient for homa. Ganga Devi is said to have descended to earth on this day. People also perform special puja on the occasion of this holy day. Bathing in a holy river, offering charity, performing japa and fire sacrifices, offering barley in sacred fire, and preparations of delicious food using barley are common celebrations among the people.

In the Mahabharata, the Pandavas lived in disguise in the palace of King Virata during their Ajnatavasa. After Bhima killed Kichaka, King Virata realised that the Pandavas were living in his palace. The king felt proud of them and made strong bonds of friendship with them. Once, the king expressed his desire to have a darshan of Lord Krishna with the Pandavas. Yudhisthira then advised the king to organise a boat journey in a lake for the amusement of Lord Krishna in summer months.

The king also organised to embalm the body of the Lord with sandalwood paste in fragrant water to comfort Him from summer heat. Satisfied with the devotion of King Virata, Lord Krishna arrived with his elder brother Balarama. The two Lords and the Pancha Pandavas enjoyed the Snana-yatra and rowing festival. 


Thus with the close association of Lord Krishna, the pious king fulfilled his devotional desire. To commemorate this incident, Lord Jagannatha (Krishna) enjoys Chandan Yatra with Pancha Pandava at the Narendra Sarovar. This festival is known as Chandan Mahotsava. Prior to the existence of Narendra Sarovar, this festival was said to have been observed in other tanks like Benta Sarovar.

Madhavendra Puri was a great follower of the Gaudiya-sampradaya. When he was in Govardhana, he dreamt of a deity of Gopala dug in the jungles. The Lord said, “Madhava, I am suffocated in the jungle beneath the earth. Please excavate my place and install Me in a temple.” So Madhavendra Puri, with the help of the Annore villagers, excavated the earth and found the deity and Gopala was installed on top of the Govardhana Hill. One day, Gopala said, “I was beneath the earth for long and My body is worn out. Would you please bring some sandalwood from Jagannatha Puri and smear on Me with its pulp and soothe My body?”

Madhavendra Puri was then an old man and he couldn’t deny the order of Lord Gopala. So he set out to Jagannatha Puri. On the way, he reached the Remuna where the Gopinätha temple is located at the border of Orissa and Bengal. He stayed there overnight and saw that the pujari offered twelve pots of ksira to the deity. So Madhavendra Puri thought, “If I could taste a bit of ksira, then I would also make similar offerings to my Gopala in Vrindavan. Immediately, his consciousness scolded him, “Oh, I am so stupid. Before offering it to the Deity, I think of eating it.” 


Realising his mistake, he immediately left the temple. He went outside and sat beneath a tree and chanted the Hare Krisha Mahamantra to pass the night. At night, the Deity appeared in the dream to the priest and said, “I have shielded one pot of kshira (condensed milk) behind My garment. Take it to Madhavendra Puri sitting beneath the tree outside the temple." The priest reached the temple and did so as instructed. Then the priest described the whole episode to Madhavendra Puri. Thereafter, Gopinatha became famous as Ksira-cora, who stole ksira for His great devotee.

In the next day morning, Madhavendra Puri set out to Jagannatha to collect chandan for Gopala. Before he reached Puri, the news was spread there that Gopinatha stole kshira for Madhavendra Puri. At Jagannatha Puri, Madhavendra met the pujari of Lord Jagannatha and expressed the desire of Lord Gopala. 


The pujari took him to the King of Puri. Hearing the episode, the king gave him one mann (nearly 37 kg) of special sandalwood used in Puri and two security guards and gave him a written order not to harm Madhavendra, the carrier of chandan. While he reached near Gopinatha, Govinda appeared in his dream and said, “Madhava, you embalm Lord Gopinatha with sandal paste so that I too would receive it, for Gopinatha and I are one.” Madhavendra Puri anointed Lord Gopinatha with chandan paste as Gopala instructed. The Chandan Yatra festival started since then to commemorate the incident.

*Please see the extract from Caitanya Caritamrita below to commemorate the event. (Translation and purport by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada)*:

*Sri Caitanya Caritamrita: Madhya Lila (4.106)* says,

gopāla kahe, purī āmāra tāpa nāhi yāya
malayaja-candana lepa’, tabe se juḍāya

Translation

In his dream, Mādhavendra Purī saw Gopāla, who said, “My bodily temperature still has not decreased. Please bring sandalwood from the Malaya province and smear the pulp over My body to cool Me. 

Purport

The Deity of Gopāla had been buried within the jungle for many years, and although He was installed and was offered thousands of pots of water, He still felt very hot. He therefore asked Mādhavendra Purī to bring sandalwood from the Malaya province. Sandalwood produced in Malaya is very popular. That province is situated on the western ghāṭa, and the hill Nīlagiri is sometimes known as Malaya Hill. 

The word malaya-ja is used to indicate the sandalwood produced in Malaya Province. Sometimes the word Malaya refers to the modern country of Malaysia. Formerly this country also produced sandalwood, but now they have found it profitable to produce rubber trees. Although the Vedic culture was once prevalent in Malaysia, now all the inhabitants are Muslims. The Vedic culture is now lost in Malaysia, Java and Indonesia.

Nonetheless we request you never forget the rituals of Chandan Yatra and kindly ask you to offer their Lordships as this is a greater opportunity to stay at home and serve their Lordships in a better way now !

Saturday, April 25, 2020

Hansadutta Health Crisis

http://krishna1008.blogspot.com/2014/04/hansadutta-das-writes-about-pada.html

http://krishna1008.blogspot.com/2017/02/hansaduttas-history-part-1-and.html


[PADA: Has departed.]

PADA: We have a sort of third hand report that Hansadutta (Hans Kary) is suffering from pancreas cancer, which has spread to other organs. That is all the info I have at present. A person asked me to have people pray for him. 

We had quite a lot of interactions with Hansadutta over the years, some good, some bad, some ugly. And we sort of summed a few of these things up in the video (below) we made on the topic of Hansadutta's escapades.

In any case, we will wish him well at this point. Lets hope he gets a lot of Krishna's mercy at this stage, because in our assessment, he is going to need it. Yep, even my "karmi" lady friend (who is a professional nurse for decades) says, its very odd that so many "healthy living vegetarians" would be getting one case after the next of cancer, and often times -- terminal cancer. Something is odd about that, and we agree with her.

If anyone has more details and updates send to: 

angel108b@yahoo.com.   

ys pd


We Are Living in a Failed State (The Atlantic)



https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/06/underlying-conditions/610261/

PADA: First of all, we felt for a long time that something was going to pop. And then the wheels would start to fall off the frenzied / overly stressed / way too fast paced / hyperactive / "always on overdrive" society we have had. People were commuting for hours to get to their job in San Francisco -- driving all the way in from Stockton, Sacramento, and beyond -- because they could not afford to live in the Bay Area. A number of people were spending two hours or more just getting to their job. Think of all the excess gasoline use and pollution that is causing daily.

Thus every day we have had a huge traffic mess / clogged up nightmare -- with hundreds of thousands of vehicles jammed together. And there had been so many vicious traffic accidents all the time to boot. If our vehicle was going 20 mph, that was going very fast. And this situation was getting worse by the day, the roads were basically impassible. Even the ordinary people knew, this was a "rat race." 


Did I forget to mention that since almost everything purchased in the USA has been coming in from China, the roads were also clogged with tens of thousands of giant trucks carrying shipping containers that came in from China. Meanwhile, people were struggling to pay their huge mortgage and rents here, and so they were packing many people into a teeny space to double up, triple up -- on paying rents. OK this was not a sustainable situation on many levels, just mentioning the traffic and housing crunch as examples. 


Meanwhile the leaders of the USA were glorifying the stock market's folks, same business folks who shipped the USA jobs offshore to China by investing in manufacturing over there. Then, a pandemic crept into the world and the USA did not bother to make an executive order, Marshall plan etc. to get mass testing, contact tracing, public distancing and so forth together, as was done with at least some success in S. Korea, Taiwan etc. 


Right now doctors, nurses even Air Force leaders complain they cannot get tests for themselves or their workers. OK USA was simply not prepared for such an event. And it still isn't doing too well in terms of addressing the crisis as we speak. Anyway, Srila Prabhupada gave us warnings upon warnings that the material civilization is an artificial process and it would experience all sorts of calamity, and this is just a preview of what will come to pass. 

Something will eventually evolve from all this, but it probably won't be back to "business as usual" for some time, because Krishna wanted to slow or check all these activities at least for some time. Notice that the meat processing plants are being closed.  

As devotees, we really have limited options at this point because the ISKCON society is another failed state. In fact the mundane society had to save us from the hands of the criminal goondas and hit men from the so-called Krishna society. As Harikesha said, the bogus Krishna society was way worse than the mundane society. So our only real option is to try to surrender to Krishna to save us from the conjoined meltdown of the mundane society and the false ISKCON society. In any event, Srila Prabhupada gives us many instructions on these matters, and we should try to understand them more clearly at this stage. ys pd] 

angel108b@yahoo.com

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

Letter to Rupanuga -- Mayapur 21 February, 1976

Yes, this supplying of milk to the temple is wanted. Thank you. In the way that Atlanta is doing, every center must have a farm so we can get all milk and if possible vegetable, even fruit, flowers and milk.


Lecture - SB 1.8.35 -- Mayapura, October 15, 1974

Here it is said that avidyā-kāma-karmabhi. By ignorance, they are thinking by opening factories they will be happy. That is avidyā. He does not know that this is ignorance. Why you should open factory? That is... This is called ugra-karma. There is no need of opening factory. You have got land. Here are so many lands. You produce your food grains. Annād bhavanti bhūtāni (BG 3.14). You eat sumptuously food grain, milk, and that will be available without any factory. The factory cannot produce milk or food grain. 


The present scarcity of foodstuff means everybody is engaged in the city, producing bolts and nuts. Who is producing food grain? This is the solution of economic problem. Annād bhavanti bhūtāni. Therefore we are trying to engage our men to produce their own food. Be self-sufficient so that these rascals may see that how one can live very peacefully, eating the food grains and milk, and chant Hare Krishna. This is our mission.

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

This world of maya is called durasraya, which means "false or bad shelter." One who puts his faith in durasraya becomes a candidate for hoping against hope. In the material world everyone is trying to become happy, and although their material attempts are baffled in every way, due to their nescience they cannot understand their mistakes. People try to rectify one mistake by making another mistake. This is the way of the struggle for existence in the material world. If one in this condition is advised to take to Krsna consciousness and be happy, he does not accept such instructions.

>>> Ref. VedaBase => NoI: verse 7

In the material world, people are always hoping for something. They hope against hope, yet their hopes will never be fulfilled.

>>> Ref. VedaBase => TLK Vs 22

Prabhupada: Helplessness is always there, because the threefold miseries will always exist in material life. There will always be miseries arising from the body and mind, miseries inflicted by other living entities, and natural catastrophes. In addition, there is always birth, old age, disease, and death. It is only a fool or a rascal who hopes against hope and makes plans to overcome all these difficulties. However we may plan, nature is so strong that it will smash our plans to pieces with the kick of death. Man hopes against hope to adjust material things so that he can be happy in this world, but this is foolishness. Man is helpless at every step.

>>> Ref. VedaBase => Sigmund Freud [1856-1934]

They have lost the view of their self-interest. Why? They have got a false idea of becoming happy in this material world. They cannot be happy, but still they are hoping, hoping against hope

>>> Ref. VedaBase => Srimad-Bhagavatam 2.1.1 -- June 30, 1970, Los Angeles

Mind is very crippled. Therefore they are hoping against hope. They will not live here. Still, they are decorating, decorating the dead body: "This is my apartment, this is my house, this is my country, this is my skyscraper building." Painting. And one day, mrtyuh sarva... Just like Hiranyakasipu: he's challenging, challenging, "Where is your God?" "Ah, here is God! Come on!" Finished. Finished. "Here is God."

So God will appear. Don't forget that you will be godless. You will see God -- death -- and at that time, after seeing, you will be finished, no more understanding. When you will be taken away, everything, all your possession, all your scientific knowledge, bank balance, skyscraper, everything will be taken away, then you will understand what is God,

>>> Ref. VedaBase => Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.15.21 -- December 1, 1973, Los Angeles

Prabhupäda: Hope against hope is which is never fulfilled. "This plan has failed. Now let me this, make this plan." And then again fail? "All right, let me this." This is hope against hope. He's thinking that "This plan has failed. Let me do this plan." Again failed? "Again another, again another." [Bg. 9.12].

[Those who are thus bewildered are attracted by demonic and atheistic views. In that deluded condition, their hopes for liberation, their fruitive activities, and their culture of knowledge are all defeated.]

>>> Ref. VedaBase => Room Conversation -- January 8, 1977, Bombay

Those who are not actually philosophers, scientists, educators, administrators, etc., but who pose themselves as such for material gain, do not accept the plan or path of the Supreme Lord. They have no idea of God; they simply manufacture their own worldly plans and consequently complicate the problems of material existence in their vain attempts to solve them. Because material energy (nature) is so powerful, it can resist the unauthorized plans of the atheists and baffle the knowledge of "planning commissions."

The atheistic plan-makers are described herein by the word duskrtina, or "miscreants." Krtina means one who has performed meritorious work. The atheist planmaker is sometimes very intelligent and meritorious also, because any gigantic plan, good or bad, must take intelligence to execute. But because the atheist's brain is improperly utilized in opposing the plan of the Supreme Lord, the atheistic planmaker is called duskrtina, which indicates that his intelligence and efforts are misdirected.

Srila Prabhupada, Bhagavad Gita As It Is, 7.15

So unity can be established on the spiritual platform. Unity cannot be established on this bodily platform just like the United Nations trying to unite the nation, but every year a flag is increasing. We have seen in New York. So this kind of unity will never be successful. The United Nations established at least how many years ago? So what they have done? They could not do that. Neither can do anything. Before that, there was another establishment, League of Nations. 


They are trying to unite the nations not to fight with one another. But because they are contemplating all these nonsense on the bodily platform, it is not possible. It is not possible. If you want to be united, then you have to be united on the spiritual platform. And what is that spiritual platform? The spiritual platform is to understand thoroughly that "God is great, and we are subordinate. God is maintaining us. All the property anywhere, that belongs to God, and we can use the father's property as much as I require, not to take more and stock it. No." The birds, beasts, they are very free. If you put here one bag of rice or any foodstuff, the birds will come, but they will eat only a few grains and go away. 

And if you put here, say, one thousand bags of wheat and you declare that anyone can take it, there will be fight. There will be fight. Everyone will try to take more. Everyone will try to take more. This is human civilization. The birds will peacefully take few grains and go away. But if you invite the human being, their culture is so—"Oh, I have got so much wheat. Let me take more and stock it for tomorrow or day after tomorrow or for my son, for my grandson, for my great-grandson." (laughter) This foolishness is going on on account of lack of spiritual consciousness.

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

Save Krishna Temple! (Fund Me)

https://www.gofundme.com/f/save-krishna-temple-covid19-crisis?

[PADA: Yep, ISKCON is going to get hit very hard from this pandemic. Some of the temples will be shut down and go bankrupted. Its sad that sometimes Krishna just has to put the boot down on bogus guru programs to get them suppressed and contained. People just don't learn easily, they cannot worship debauchee guru lineages, its not going to please Krishna.

Meanwhile some of the devotees in Mayapur are griping that they cannot get a few acres of land to grow things, because the temple is not behind that idea, even now when there is a pandemic going on. And they complain the temple has wasted lots of money on foolish "housing for sannyasas" projects instead of varnasrama farming etc. Yep, more folks are waking up. 

Meanwhile an older "Prabhupada devotee" lost his residence and he is struggling to find a place to stay, with very little funds. And he has some really serious "health issues" so he is not in a good situation to be in a crisis at this stage. 

So this was always about siphoning off the funds for a few elites to live like Saudi princes -- with huge cars, many servants, big feasts etc., while the peons got a bucket of soggy oatmeal and a soggy straw hut. It is what Srila Prabhupada calls "the guru business." OK but your business might be cramped down with a pandemic, that is Krishna's way of suppressing these bogus guru business projects.  

ys pd]

Thursday, April 23, 2020

Srila Prabhupada’s Books Are Not Authorized (DAVID NRSIMHANANDA SHAPIRO)

[PADA: We were mentioning bogus book changes in our 1980s "PADA newsletter" which was noted by various people, and lead to myself and a few other devotees making a "BBT steering committee" to address book changes. This lead to the BBTI lawsuit in 1997, which really brought this issue out to a lot of people's attention, and made them realize there was a major change being made to the books. 

Ever since then there has been an ongoing struggle to get the originals printed. We are glad more and more people are waking up to these unauthorized changes, better late than never. Of course we would argue the whole post-1977 bogus guru process is unauthorized, and these book changes are simply another part and parcel symptom of many other changes that they made without authority. 

As Srila Prabhupada says, bogus rascals will re-write the Vedas and fill them with their own commentaries and concoctions, as such these bogus writers are destined to the lower regions. And the people who support these shastra re-writers share in their karma. ys pd] 

Srila Prabhupada’s Books Are Not Authorized

DAVID NRSIMHANANDA SHAPIRO


WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22, 2020
I always assumed that every word that I read in a BBT book was authorized by Srila Prabhupada. Despite overhearing occasional chatter to the contrary, I did not pay much attention to the detractors. For decades, I was a mushroom in the cellar. By Prabhupada’s mercy, I gradually woke up from my illusion to find myself in the company of a fringe minority.

The rest of Iskcon was living in a different paradigm. I was no longer welcomed in the Matrix. By Krishna’s inconceivable mercy, I found my way back through the labyrinth. This is my story.

Background:

As the founder, director, and engine behind Iskcon Television from the late seventies onwards, I was an integral part of the international preaching effort. I not only produced shows worldwide, but I was responsible for collecting the funds from the zonal acaryas who were benefiting from monthly receiving new programs in the temples under their jurisdiction. Financial transactions are where the spiritual rubs right up against the material. You really get to see the attachments to money and power.

To say that I had difficulty collecting from some leaders is an understatement. Despite agreements and fulfillments, they held onto their currencies without regard for keeping promises and putting me into awkward situations and prolonged anxiety. I earned a hard-learned lesson: what you see is not necessarily what is true. Krishna was teaching me: look under every rock. Unfortunately, I was a slow learner.

When the Bhagavad gita was republished in 1983, I paid no attention. Actually, no one paid much attention. I mean, “No one.” The manuscript had been sent to some GBC’s, but these many years later, all admitted to not reading it.

Ramesvara was the North American BBT Trustee (although the books were never published from the Trust; always from Iskcon Los Angeles). He had ordered it edited. Prabhupada had authorized errors and mistakes to be corrected. Ramesvara also didn’t read through it.

A few GBC’s had met in Detroit and talked about some changes with the chosen editor, Jayadwaita Swami, but they just scratched the surface. Ultimately, there were thousands of changes - some doing exactly as Srila Prabhupada had requested by fixing mistakes. However, there were many changes that reached far beyond Prabhupada’s mandate. Even “The Blessed Lord” was replaced by “The Supreme Personality of Godhead.”

Strange that no one noticed, but reading Srila Prabhupada’s books was never a priority for most in those days. Making disciples was the main focus of the preaching. The changes were, well, small change, to the bigger picture of growing ever bigger followings.

Implosion and Distraction

In 1986, Iskcon imploded. The zonal acaryas fell like so many Humpty Dumpty’s. Entire countries like France were decimated. (They never recovered.) From falling down with God brother's wives -- to marrying disciples -- to murders, Iskcon lost its groove. A convention was hastily convened to salvage the carnage. Godbrothers (no sisters, sorry) who had wanted to be guru’s finally saw their opportunity. The GBC “opened up” the doors to guruship to a few more selected leaders.

These sannyasi’s already had their own flocks, and they soon turned them into their disciples. It wasn’t long before a new order evolved, but the powerful position of guru / GBC was still held tightly by an inner core. The door on including more guru’s slammed nearly shut. No one was paying much attention to what had been happening with the books. Temples were going bankrupt.

Sheer determination by many temple presidents kept the deities served and the temple doors open. Gradually, a sort of stasis was established by the early 90’s. With an uneasy peace in most places, there was time to contemplate.

Revelation and Ostracism.

The machinations of the 80’s paved the way to ritviksim. Faith in the Iskcon guru’s had been lost by many Prabhupada disciples. Prominent sanyassi’s turned to Narayan Maharaja who capitalized on the unhappiness and he started preaching in the US and other countries. Then an Australian devotee, Madhudvisa, (not the orginal ACBSP disciple) dropped a bombshell. He had meticulously compared the MacMillian 1972 Gita with the revised edition. There were nearly 5000 changes!

Gradually, a few devotees began to lobby for the changes to be rolled back, but they were all labeled “crazies” by the BBT managers and the Iskcon leadership. “Don’t listen to them; they are envious snakes.” By 1998-9, those “envious snakes” had launched a lawsuit against the BBT, and the BBT after an expensive fight, had to settle. Krishna Books was born and conferred with the rights to publish / distribute the Mac72 Gita. In return, Hansadhutta and others resigned as lifetime BBT trustees. The lawsuit was costly. That’s a lot of books.

But these “malcontents” were still maligned by the established order of Iskcon. Jayadwaita had been authorized by the BBT to do the editing, and he did a great job according to them. The BBT International (BBTI) had been formed as a corporation to hold all the copyrights to Prabhupada’s books. It isn’t a trust though that word is in its name. It promised to return all the copyrights to the actual California trust set up by Srila Prabhupada when the ritvik case over the Long Island temple is resolved. That case has been going on for over twenty years. Lawyers have long ago advised the BBTI that there is no jeopardy from that case.
Fast Forward

The SABHA passed a proposal last year that requested the GBC to appoint a board of editors to review all of the changes made by Jayadwaita Swami and make recommendations. Garuda also organized a symposium of both Vaisnava and non-Vaisnava scholars to write and present papers on the issue of what are the academic standards regarding posthumous editing. That symposium took place in February 2020 at the Graduate Theological Union.

A BBTI manager was invited to observe -- but chose not to come. An informal meeting had taken place in Washington D.C. mediated by Iskcon Resolve. Out of that meeting, a decision was made to form an editorial board from recommendations made by the GBC. The BBTI put together a board which later became a six person panel - RRP.

The BBTI decided to make the panel advisory. They kept their own editorial board amongst themselves. The panel is to decide principles and guidelines for making changes in the books. They have been formed since January, but their is code of confidentiality imposed upon the panel. No one really knows what they have done or are doing.

The Present Challenge

Jayadwaita Swami formally resigned from the BBTI. I say formally because he is still very much involved. He is continuing to make suggestions for changes. He recently didn’t like Srila Prabhupada’s use of the word “sanguine” and suggested that it was incorrect. Prabhupada had typed that word himself in a draft. Dravida agreed and, in another example, added that he was doubtful that Prabhupada’s use of the word “integrity” was proper.

He has changed numerous words verifiably written by Srila Prabhupada that he “feels” are not what Prabhupada meant to say. The incessant drive to “improve” Prabhupada is without the authority of the author. Author. Authority. I hope that the panel (RRP) can influence the BBT editorial board to end this madness and let Prabhupada speak for himself.

Prabhupada picked Hayagriva as the editor of the Gita. Prabhupada read and spoke from that Mac 72 edition for five years. Anyone has a right to pen their own Gita. Certainly, they would not want someone to change it to “sound better” or “make more sense” without their permission. Jayadwaita Swami himself admits that he has no authority from Srila Prabhupada to edit the Gita.

In "Responsible Editing” he writes," "To my knowledge, Srila Prabhupada never asked us to re-edit the book," (Mac ‘72) in a reply to Amogha Lila in July 1986. Srila Prabhupada often expressed his concern that we have the “change disease.” I want to read a BG that I know has been fully authorized by Srila Prabhupada. I don’t want to be presented with a Gita that has someone else’s words. The BBT should put Jayadwaita Swami’s name on the front cover of the revised Gita as the editor because that’s the truth.

What you are reading in the 1983 revised edition does not contain all Srila Prabhupada’s words or the words of his editor (Hayagriva) who worked closely with Prabhupada to produce that Mac ‘72 edition.

Epilogue

I have known and been friends with Jayadwaita Swami since working at Tiffany Press, Brooklyn, 1971. I care for him and all my Godbrothers / sisters. I am hardly the only one speaking out against the unauthorized changes. Nine GBC sponsored the SABHA proposal to have the GBC select the RRP members.

They and others are also concerned. Ramesvara, the NA BBT Trustee throughout Srila Prabhupada’s presence, said that not reviewing the revised edition was the single worst mistake in his life. Rupanuga, an early disciple, GBC, and former BBT Trustee, has written volumes about the offenses made by changing the books. Ekanatha, protector of Bhaktivedanta Archives, is against all except fixing the errors and mistakes.

Bhutatma, currently working on re-editing a book with the BBT, has been trying to convince the BBT managers that their editing went way too far. Urmila dd has voiced her strong adherence to the principles of arsa prayoga which goes so far as to say to leave the books even with the mistakes.

Visnumurti, the guardian of Prabhupada’s vani, Gargamuni dasa, Govinda dasi, Shyamasundar dasa, Gurudas dasa, Dhanajaya dasa, Garuda dasa, Pancharatna dasa, Bir Krishna Goswami, Hrydayananda Goswami, Atmanivedana Swami, Bhakti Dhira Damodhara Swami, Bhakti Bhagavatamrita Swami, and so many others join the cacophony expressing doubt about the validity of Jayadwaita’s changes.

The time has come to take their voices to heart. There is a disconnect. It is between those who think they can improve upon Srila Prabhupada and those that like him as he is, and the book, Bhagavat, as it is (with only errors and mistakes corrected).

The Cure for All Illness (SP quote)



Srila Prabhupada: When living entities give the Supreme Lord trouble, the Lord comes, collects them together, and puts them in this material world. In essence, He says, “You live here. You are all disturbing the creation; therefore you are criminals and have to live in this material world.” 

Sthānād bhraṣṭāḥ patanty adhaḥ: “One falls down from his constitutional position.” If a finger is diseased, it has to be amputated lest it pollute the entire body. Having rebelled against the principles of God consciousness, we are cut off from our original position. We have fallen. In order to regain our original position, we must resume rendering service unto the Supreme Lord. 

That is the perfect cure. Otherwise we will continue to suffer pain, and God will suffer pain because of us. If I am a father, and my son is not good, I suffer, and my son suffers also. Similarly, we are all sons of God, and when we cause God pain, we are also pained. The best course is to revive our original Kṛṣṇa consciousness and engage in the Lord’s service. That is our natural life, and that is possible in the spiritual sky, Goloka Vṛndāvana.

The Path of Perfection : PoP 8: Failure and Success in Yoga