SD: A male disciple of Bir Krishna Goswami emailed this to him a couple days ago:
"Maharaja, I resign as your disciple effective immediately. I cannot be party to any sort of cover-ups involving the abuse of children.
It's more than I can take. It's destroyed my faith in ISKCON. When leaders actively cover up child abuse by supporting and enabling abusers, and dismissing the victims, it is detrimental not only to the victims but to the community at large.
What covering up child abuse does:
- tells victims they don't matter
- tells future victims they don't matter either
- destroys trust in the community
- families don't feel protected, and leave
- abusers keep on abusing because they are not held accountable
- tells other abusers they can abuse with no repercussions
Srimad Bhagavatam says, “The supreme duty of the ruling king is to give all protection to law-abiding persons and to chastise those who stray from the ordinances of the scriptures in ordinary times, when there is no emergency." 1.17.16
Ruling kings are the topmost leaders in a society. For ISKCON, the topmost leaders are the Governing Body Commission (GBC). The GBC will prove they are worthy when they perform the supreme duty of giving all protection to law-abiding persons, especially the most vulnerable and innocent: children.
The GBC will prove they are worthy when they chastise those who stray from the ordinances of the scriptures: child abusers who prey upon and give undue and cruel suffering to children.
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RH: Nice sentiment. Won’t do sh**. Iskcon would appear to be controlled by some very, very bad people. We live in an episode of the Twilight Zone.
AC: What a hard decision for someone to have to make. But I'm very glad to hear that at least some in iskcon don't want to be involved in covering up child abuse. now, if everyone else could just "get" that, it would be great!
SD: Yeah, that could not have been easy. If I found out someone I sought spiritual guidance from was covering up child abuse, it would definitely change the dynamic of our relationship.
AC: Absolutely!
JO: They did not learn from the Windle Turley case.
SD: Wasn't the compensation reduced to $9 million? Not $12 million?
JO: The compensation, originally $400MM, was constantly being reduced even after my experience with the SPT, as the whole thing wound down. I quit and left in disgust after that one day. At that point it was still 12mm.
SD: yep!
JO: The footnote link from my book points to the LA Times article after my experience where the amount had gone down to $9.5; but also mentions the scattering attempt to find as many claimants as possible to screw the victims. https://www.latimes.com/archive
Krishna Payouts Begin
LATIMES.COM
They ended up with 535 up from around 90 that were qualified by the court originally, as I recall. That is a page from my chapter 10 of my memoir on the Turley Child Abuse case, when I was secretary to the SPT in 2004-5.
PB: Anyway you received a spiritual name, now go on to practice Krishna Consciousness seek out some good association and Krishna and Srila Prabhupada will be pleased and you will become a good example for all!
YN: Krsna Consciousness is about rising up and fighting the good fight, defending the defenseless, and standing up for righteousness. Kudos to this disciple.
MM: This is not the first Bir Krsna disciple I have seen do this.
SD: Yeah I’ve heard complaints from others...
JO: Leaving is actually quite liberating; the fear of separating is the illusion. Once free we begin to see clearly the original Sambandha Jñana Science that originally attracted us.
PA: Good for him. I should've done the same years ago, but then my so-called guru blooped, so I lost the opportunity. My guru beat me to the punch by leaving before I did.
PD: My experience with BKG is -- that his moral standards are below those of the average karmi!
RS: Great, I would do the same -- except my guru beat me to it also.
HA: What a very noble thing to do. It's sad to see the amount of people who just go along with the abuse, or harass the abused, and keep the abused silent.
SA: A conspiracy of silence, or worse, repression.
I had it out with BKS back in 2004 after submitting to the GBC my Healthcare Retirement proposals for all devotees. I was unable to go to Mayapur so Guru Das Prabhu requested Prahladananada Swami to push the button to show my Audio-visual PowerPoint and video presentations describing the free government grants and strategies I had dessigned.
ReplyDeleteReportedly, they stopped the presentation midstream. Vijay a Das ACBSP came to my New Dvarka Apartment to tell me that is was Badrinarayana GBC who had demonized my Devotee Healthcare needs because: “in the 70s Yadu (me) married a divorced woman.” Vijaya Prabhu felt I needed to know how the entire presentation had been stopped in the middle by them and for that weak reason. BKS found out it was Vijay Prabhu who came and told me. BKS subsequently sent out an email too all GBC (copying me like an idiot) stating that harm should come to Vijay Prabhu for divulging GBC meeting proceedings.
I wrote back to BKS, copying them all, “If anything happens yo Vijay, you will answer to me.”
A few months later BKS was reportedly scandalized in his cabin in the woods allegedly sprawled out on the floor playing with him self.
This, ladies and gentlemen, is your GBC.
V DASA: As this adoration of a guru like Lokanath, a child molester, is being tolerated and accepted by Iskcon leaders, then it’s sets a precedent that probably will become normal now and in the near future. Low standards for gurus. Hardly any qualification needed. Sex offenders accepted. Financial awards and adoration guaranteed.
ReplyDeleteBe a guru and see the world.
Get rich and go Back to Godhead. Be remembered as a Saint and have your own luxury samadhi. Start your own bonafide guru franchise and become a God man now. Financial security set for life.
Act now, before it’s too late and all the gullible disciples are gone.
Come to think of it, this ad would attract 1,000s of people to join up. Especially in India. It’s a great career choice for ambitious men.
They could even retire rich before 40-50 and then get some pretty wives and a green card. This is really just a guru franchise business. Child molesters welcomed to sign up.