Rukmini Dasi: I write in despair regarding the recent resurgence of extremely serious allegations on a leader within the movement. While my intention is not to publicly shame anyone and I will not be using any names here; I also don’t want my silence to be understood as condoning the incident.
I humbly agree that I am a nobody and some problems need to be dealt with at a managerial level. Some members of the community have chosen to remain indifferent and for them this is the peril of an institution.
However, for me ISKCON has not just been an institution. It is a community in which my parents were wedded, my siblings and I were born and raised. I pray to Srila Prabhupada to have the good fortune and spiritual intelligence to raise my children under HDG’s guidance in Srila Prabhupada's movement.
I don’t want to hold my silence because of the fear of upsetting the sentiments of my elders, friends and the devotee community (The threats and condescending comments that I have received and am expecting after writing this will not deter me).
[PADA: Right, it is common in pedophile cults to insult, attack and threaten the people who expose the problem. We should expect that in -- pedophile cults -- and not in bona fide religions.]
I am speaking up today because I don’t want to pass on the battle of zero tolerance for child-abuse to the next generation. In 55 years, and with our horrid history, we should have resolved and implemented this.
[PADA: Years and years of "horrid history" should be enough to wake people up, unless they are participating in -- or acquiescing with -- the horrid-ness and are part of the horrid agenda. Clearly, most devotees have created this horrid history by omission or commission, it did not happen in a vacuum.]
In the light of the recent (refutable) statement given by the accused's team, it has become even more clear that this needs to be further investigated. In the case of (probable or possible) child sexual assault, as a community it is better for us to err by being too cautious than by choosing to be too negligent. And burying the case is not a solution.
After the release of the recent statement, the situation now has clearly become: Her word against his word. But there is the third angle to it which is the truth. Paramatma sitting in both their hearts know what had happened and I pray that the investigation churns out the truth.
We have all made mistakes, whether with intent or accidentally. However, if what happened according to the testimony is true, then it was not a mistake. It was a crime. Within a spiritual community, I would think that one’s conscience would have more weight than what the law states.
Yet, our leaders seem to be erroneous by taking it so lightly and by appealing for the case to be dropped without further investigation. Since we are past the stage where I can appeal to the conscience of people, I am quoting the Indian Penal Code (verbatim):
"C- SEXUAL ASSAULT AND PUNISHMENT THEREFORE
Sexual assault:
7. Whoever, with sexual intent touches the v****a, p***s, a**s or b****t of a child, or makes the child touch the v****a, p***s, a**s or b****t of such a person or any other person, or does any other act with sexual intent which involves physical contact without penetration is said to commit sexual assault.
8. Whoever commits sexual assault shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which shall not be less than three years, but which may extend to five years, and shall also be liable to a fine."
In his defense, please do not state the good he has done as it cannot undo, nor can it negate -- the charges against him. And please don’t use verses from the Bhagavad Gita as a plea for forgiveness. Let us not cherry pick the philosophy and use it in such a distorted manner to defend the accused.
The community deserves an answer. The incident needs to be objectively re-examined by qualified professionals. The only right decision would be to hand over the case to the CPO. First and foremost, the truth of what happened needs to be established and meanwhile, it is only right that the accused is suspended from all leadership roles within the movement.
It is not right for the leadership to suggest that public discussion of this issue is not the right thing to do, when meanwhile you have taken decisions and have unsuspended the suspension of the accused.
I leave you with a question: If your child came to you with this very testimony regarding being sexually assaulted, what stand would you take?
In the mood of defending the truth, and serving the community and Srila Prabhupad,
- Das-anu-das-anu-dasi
After the release of the recent statement, the situation now has clearly become: Her word against his word. But there is the third angle to it which is the truth. Paramatma sitting in both their hearts know what had happened and I pray that the investigation churns out the truth.
We have all made mistakes, whether with intent or accidentally. However, if what happened according to the testimony is true, then it was not a mistake. It was a crime. Within a spiritual community, I would think that one’s conscience would have more weight than what the law states.
Yet, our leaders seem to be erroneous by taking it so lightly and by appealing for the case to be dropped without further investigation. Since we are past the stage where I can appeal to the conscience of people, I am quoting the Indian Penal Code (verbatim):
"C- SEXUAL ASSAULT AND PUNISHMENT THEREFORE
Sexual assault:
7. Whoever, with sexual intent touches the v****a, p***s, a**s or b****t of a child, or makes the child touch the v****a, p***s, a**s or b****t of such a person or any other person, or does any other act with sexual intent which involves physical contact without penetration is said to commit sexual assault.
8. Whoever commits sexual assault shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which shall not be less than three years, but which may extend to five years, and shall also be liable to a fine."
In his defense, please do not state the good he has done as it cannot undo, nor can it negate -- the charges against him. And please don’t use verses from the Bhagavad Gita as a plea for forgiveness. Let us not cherry pick the philosophy and use it in such a distorted manner to defend the accused.
The community deserves an answer. The incident needs to be objectively re-examined by qualified professionals. The only right decision would be to hand over the case to the CPO. First and foremost, the truth of what happened needs to be established and meanwhile, it is only right that the accused is suspended from all leadership roles within the movement.
It is not right for the leadership to suggest that public discussion of this issue is not the right thing to do, when meanwhile you have taken decisions and have unsuspended the suspension of the accused.
I leave you with a question: If your child came to you with this very testimony regarding being sexually assaulted, what stand would you take?
In the mood of defending the truth, and serving the community and Srila Prabhupad,
- Das-anu-das-anu-dasi
[PADA: Yep, more and more people are saying -- enough horrid history is enough, it is time to change. Lokanath has been a lead army general in his horrid Vaishnava's assaulting and killing program -- that bans, beats, molests, sues and kills Vaishnavas. He is going to be crushed in Yamaraja's stone rollers department for his orchestrating devotees of God being violently banned, beaten, molested, sued and killed, if shastra is correct.
And guess what?
Shatra is correct. No one is allowed to treat the Lord's Vaishnavas worse than people treat their dogs, there are severe consequences. And unless we start to defend devotees now, the horrid history and legacy of continued Vaishnava abuse will -- continue. We need to break the cycle, and we need to start somewhere, and the Lokanath case is a good cause celebre start.
We have friends born from India and living in India who are mortified by all this, and they are afraid to speak up, because Lokanath's horrid pedophile guru cult is -- known to be violent -- if not murderous. In sum, Lokanath is the horrid leader of a horrid pedophile cult. He needs to be removed from a position of power.
And all the people who said "PADA is a crazy man" seem to be falling by the wayside as we are getting more and more intelligent and courageous people on our team every day. ys pd]
PADA: Yes JD, she did approach the senior ISKCON leaders, and they rejected her pleas. Of course.
ReplyDeleteI think this is why a number of ISKCON's children (ex-kulis) tell me, "The only way all this will be fixed is -- when all of the original Prabhupada devotees die -- and they are not here to cause problems for us any longer." Maybe they are right.
And she refers to the GBC's "horrid history" -- which means it is not even a secret to her -- or to the mass of devotees -- or even to the general public -- that these leaders have caused hellish situations for many innocent souls. "Horrid history" is just a great summary of the whole post-1978 situation created by the GBC leaders.
And! Whenever there is an effort to clean house, it is almost always "the senior leaders" who lock the doors and stop anyone from entering, and changing the status quo, or their worship of deviants as messiahs project.
The good news is, more and more people are waking up, so the bogus guru clown show is losing ground on a regular basis, and we are gaining on a regular basis, so their kingdom is in trouble. Never mind a lot of them are just plain old, tired, fried, sick, wiped out, crazy, on death's door, dead, and just mentally exhausted from all the constant criticism they get.
That is why one of them told my friend that he hides out in Africa because coming to the USA would mean "facing the angry mobs." Hee hee. Yep, angry mobs indeed. That means they want to avoid taking responsibility for the mess they made, but Yamaraja holds everyone 100 percent responsible, so they are just putting off the inevitable. ys pd