Long Island ISKCON Court Case / Maharani writes

LONG ISLAND ISKCON INC. UPDATE 

Statement from the ISKCON North America Council
October 16, 2021

A North American legal case that has lasted almost two decades took a decisive turn in favor of ISKCON this past week. This long-running case, known in ISKCON as the Long Island Court Case, began in 2004 in Freeport, New York. At that time, a group of “ritviks” opposed to the ISKCON Governing Body Commission (GBC) from outside Long Island, through deception and subterfuge, took control of the Long Island ISKCON Temple and the Board of Trustees.

[PADA: OK evidently the GBC let their guy run up huge debts against the temple building -- being used as a lien -- and he siphoned money off for himself. And then the GBC let him run off with the money. I believe that is what started the whole dispute, the temple wanted their money back. Then the GBC put Romapada in charge of the dispute, then the GBC went to court to sue Romapada and kick him out of the New York Temple. If you are already getting dizzy here, its not you.]

(Ritviks are persons who oppose the continuation of the ISKCON Gaudiya Vaishnava parampara as desired by ISKCON’s Founder-Acarya, Srila Prabhupada; and instead, believe that Prabhupada wanted to directly initiate disciples even after his passing from this world in 1977.)

After attempts by the GBC to mediate the dispute and remove the ritviks from possession of the Long Island temple failed, a lawsuit was filed in the Nassau County Supreme Court. In October 2017 the court decided in favor of ISKCON. However, the defendants appealed on a technicality and in January 2021 the appeals court ordered a new trial.

This case is of worldwide significance as ISKCON stands to establish the following:
That, as per Srila Prabhupada’s Last Will and Testament, all ISKCON temples are to be held for the benefit of ISKCON’s religious society at large.

That, as per Srila Prabhupada’s Last Will and Testament, the GBC would continue to be the ultimate management authority of ISKCON’s religious society in perpetuity.

That ISKCON is a hierarchical religious organization.

That the GBC is the sole and ultimate management authority that defines leadership and membership within ISKCON’s religious organization.

The court victory this week resulted from the ritvik’s submission of a late motion to present a lengthy list of defenses and counterclaims at the new trial. ISKCON vigorously opposed this motion and in response the trial judge, Justice Marber “DENIED (the motion) in its entirety.” The Judge ruled that the ritvik request failed to demonstrate a reasonable excuse for further delay or a meritorious defense and would be unfair to ISKCON.

“We are optimistic that ISKCON will prevail again in the upcoming trial,” said John G. Stepanovich, lead ISKCON attorney. “We expect a new trial date in the first quarter of 2022. This will be a lengthy trial that should last well over one week, with witnesses called from around the world, and thousands of pages of supporting documents will be submitted.”

[PADA: OK the ritviks evidently fumbled the ball here. However, all I would say is, do we want any children -- anywhere -- to worship sexual predators, drunks, drug addicts, pornos swamis and / or pedophiles as their chain of messiahs from heaven, and is that what the court also wants here? And let it go from there. Of course people don't like my style of arguments, hee hee.

Meanwhile, not sure how this is really totally relevant right now for most devotees. A friend of mine said -- even if the GBC offered to give him an ISKCON temple right now for free -- with no strings attached -- he would refuse to take it because he has no interest in managing a big operation right now. He said even when Srila Prabhupada was here -- managing a temple was a major headache. 

And now that they have bankrupted the institution financially, morally, spiritually and on every level they possibly could, it will be a much harder challenge to manage the bombed out rubble that remains. Worse, he would not ever take a free "no strings attached" job -- managing Mayapur or some place in India -- for fear they would poison him -- or take him out in some other fatal fashion. In sum, he is afraid these guys are criminals and if he tried to clean it up, he would be dead in short order. Does he want to manage an ISKCON center, even if they gave it to him for free? Nope. OK like lots of other folks. 

And! Most devotees are now living outside, independent of all ISKCON properties, and they don't go there -- or rarely -- and they have no interest in trying to take custody of a building or "managing ISKCON" at this stage.

Sort of like the 1936 Gaudiya Matha. 

The leaders got the buildings, but they lost the hearts and minds of the devotees -- who made a mass exodus and "voted with their feet" -- right out of the door. Srila Prabhupada said -- many of his God brothers ended up sitting at tea shops, reading the newspapers and smoking beedis. 

Exactly like many ISKCON devotees, they left and started going to the karmi places. So that means, it is more honorable to sit in a tea shop smoking beedis than to compromise with bogus gurus. I am with them. One ex-temple president told me he feels better watching football on Sunday than going to the Sunday program at the temple. 

OK this guy is gone, permanently. It does not matter what he is offered, he is not coming back -- and neither are thousands of others. So they captured the bricks and stones, as did the Gaudiya Matha, but lost the hearts and minds. Actually not only lost their loyalty, but many of the alienated are constantly cursing at the GBC and hoping they will all -- just get on with their free trip to hell -- and quit harassing everyone.  

Anyway, lets see what happens with this court case down the road. My feeling is, Lokanath swami was right in 1988 when he said ISKCON is turning into an empty ghost town, where did all the devotees go? An empty shell is not ISKCON, it is a empty shell fake version. The buildings in sum -- are not the heart and soul of the devotees, and we can't win their loyalty with a court case, and neither could they do so in 1936 in India. 

And after Bhakti Vikas swami says that ISKCON is like a giant guru jumbo jet factory that makes dangerous planes that crash left, right and center, killing off all the people foolish enough to get on the BVKS plane, a devotee wrote to tell me -- "Wow, they are making deadly bogus guru aircraft, then they wonder why their airplane is empty? I am not ever getting on board either! Ever!" 

ys pd 

angel108b@yahoo.com

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PADA: They have lost most of the devotee's hearts and minds and have made permanent enemies out of thousands and thousands of people. They have a building, great, but they do not have dharma on their side. Displeasing the Vaishnavas is the worst sin there is, and there are tens of thousands of displeased Vaishnavas at this stage.

SD: My friend Maharani DD gave me permission to share her letter to the GBC:

Dear GBC members,

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

I am a friend of S dasi, who has been sharing documents relating to the Lokanath Swami case on Facebook, and like her and so many others, I was horrified that a grown man who had sexually abused a child was still being worshiped and glorified on the vyasasana. It seemed another terrible stain on the reputation of Srila Prabhupada’s ISKCON.

Not long after, I was unexpectedly thrilled to hear that you, the GBC, had passed the following resolutions:

Lokanath Swami's authorization to initiate is hereby suspended pending the completion of the International CPO's review of Lokanath Swami's CPO case.
Lokanath Swami is hereby suspended from his role as GBC minister pending the International CPO's review of his CPO case.

This seemed like a wonderful step in the right direction, a chance to begin to redeem the good name of the Hare Krsna Movement, which has been hurt so badly by decades of unaddressed aparadha. However, devotees are now reporting that this is too good to be true, and that the GBC has quietly instructed the ICPO to abandon its investigation.

I do not ask for a response to this email—many of you are great Vaisnavas and are not at all accountable to me.

However, each of you is accountable to Srila Prabhupada, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura, and the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the Protector of His devotees, Sri Nrsimha Bhagavan. I hope that each one of you will sincerely search his or her heart, and affirm whether the truth of your actions in this matter, individually and as a governing body, will appear satisfactory to our Founder Acarya, to his beloved Guru Maharaja who taught us that “purity is the force,” and to the Lord Himself, who appeared in such a wonderfully ferocious form for the deliverance of His young devotee.

I humbly request you to please let the ICPO handle the Lokanath Swami case, without interference.

Your humble servant,
Maharani dasi