MEASURE FOR MEASURE
1)
Have my prayers
And my puja
Amounted to naught
If my role as protector
Is so fallen short
That ignoring molester
Pretender, and thief
I enable a rampage
Of rupture and grief ?
2)
Impressed by appearance
Neglecting the core
The want for approval
Will always crave more
The shroud of pretension
Has smothered the heart
While feeding attachments
I'm loathe to depart
Neglecting the core
The want for approval
Will always crave more
The shroud of pretension
Has smothered the heart
While feeding attachments
I'm loathe to depart
3)
I have failed to be moved
By reports of abuse -
The posers in saffron
Allowed to run loose
In gurukul ashrams
Where kids live in fear
Of pretenders and predators
Year after year
By reports of abuse -
The posers in saffron
Allowed to run loose
In gurukul ashrams
Where kids live in fear
Of pretenders and predators
Year after year
4)
I have turned a deaf ear
I have turned a blind eye
I've ignored the reports
I've been quick to deny
That things aren't as they should be
When children are broken
Where badges of office
Are merely a token
I have turned a blind eye
I've ignored the reports
I've been quick to deny
That things aren't as they should be
When children are broken
Where badges of office
Are merely a token
5)
Giving darshan or class
I'm surrounded by faces
Whose innocent hearts
Never glimpse my disgrace
As I dance and cavort
In a pantomime show
Where the things I am saying
Are not what I know
I'm surrounded by faces
Whose innocent hearts
Never glimpse my disgrace
As I dance and cavort
In a pantomime show
Where the things I am saying
Are not what I know
6)
Oh, the pictures I paint
Barely hint at the truth
When the rubber-stamp meetings
Are filled with disputes
Where self-preservation's
The name of the game
And integrity sinks
In a swamp of disdain
Barely hint at the truth
When the rubber-stamp meetings
Are filled with disputes
Where self-preservation's
The name of the game
And integrity sinks
In a swamp of disdain
7)
The disease that now surfaces
Festers within
It destroys like a cancer
While feeding on sin
The sin of neglect
And highhanded behaviour
Where arrogance struts
In the garb of a saviour
Festers within
It destroys like a cancer
While feeding on sin
The sin of neglect
And highhanded behaviour
Where arrogance struts
In the garb of a saviour
I have sacrificed souls
I have sacrificed Truth
As I shuffled my papers
Demanding more proof
But no saffron alliance
Or nod-and-a-wink
Can hope to assuage
The calamitous stink
I have sacrificed Truth
As I shuffled my papers
Demanding more proof
But no saffron alliance
Or nod-and-a-wink
Can hope to assuage
The calamitous stink
9)
The buds of brief innocence
Scattered and broken
Are pressed to recover
But wither, unopened
While those who sow havoc
For power or pleasure
Will find it returns to them
Measure for measure
Scattered and broken
Are pressed to recover
But wither, unopened
While those who sow havoc
For power or pleasure
Will find it returns to them
Measure for measure
10)
The whipping and beating
The rape and starvation
Are hardly the stuff
Of a yajna oblation
Yet par for the course
In the lives of young souls
Who once came to an ashram
With spiritual goals
The rape and starvation
Are hardly the stuff
Of a yajna oblation
Yet par for the course
In the lives of young souls
Who once came to an ashram
With spiritual goals
11)
There's no end to the nightmare
Unless and until
We captains of ISKCON
Have each had our fill
Of deception, avoidance
And passing the buck
Where misplacement of sympathy
Still runs amok
Unless and until
We captains of ISKCON
Have each had our fill
Of deception, avoidance
And passing the buck
Where misplacement of sympathy
Still runs amok
12)
Best nurture the traits
By which Vaisnav's are known
That our Founder-Ācārya
Is seen to have shown
Or we'll stray from the path
And we'll meet our demise
As integrity drowns
In a fabric of lies
By which Vaisnav's are known
That our Founder-Ācārya
Is seen to have shown
Or we'll stray from the path
And we'll meet our demise
As integrity drowns
In a fabric of lies
13)
Are the claims to an office
Depleted or dead
Where abhorrent behaviour
Raises its head?
Do heads of department
Have license to harm
Because they wear tilak
Or live in the dhām' ?
Depleted or dead
Where abhorrent behaviour
Raises its head?
Do heads of department
Have license to harm
Because they wear tilak
Or live in the dhām' ?
14)
When procedural duties
Uproot and chastise -
Unfettered by bonds
Or political ties -
Should response to offenders
Be bold or discrete
Whose devious dealings
Are straight from the street ?
Uproot and chastise -
Unfettered by bonds
Or political ties -
Should response to offenders
Be bold or discrete
Whose devious dealings
Are straight from the street ?
15)
Do we duly take note
When we hear the complaints
That some saffron crusader
Is less than a saint ?
Do we summon a meeting
When problems arise -
Or send for a lassi, with pizza and fries?
When we hear the complaints
That some saffron crusader
Is less than a saint ?
Do we summon a meeting
When problems arise -
Or send for a lassi, with pizza and fries?
16)
And what's our response
If it leaks to the press?
Do we tell them our leaders
Are under duress ?
That we've banished the culprits
And told the police
That the suicide victims
Have pardoned the priest?
If it leaks to the press?
Do we tell them our leaders
Are under duress ?
That we've banished the culprits
And told the police
That the suicide victims
Have pardoned the priest?
17)
Do we say it remains
An internal affair?
That we'll deal with it promptly
And boldly declare...
"There's no place within ISKCON
For sociopaths -
No matter their status -
In temple or math"...?
An internal affair?
That we'll deal with it promptly
And boldly declare...
"There's no place within ISKCON
For sociopaths -
No matter their status -
In temple or math"...?
18)
Srīla Prabhupāda's mission's
No place to malinger
Some corporate edifice
Wagging the finger
Some movers and shakers
Must wake from the dream
Lest his mission of love
Comes apart at the seams
No place to malinger
Some corporate edifice
Wagging the finger
Some movers and shakers
Must wake from the dream
Lest his mission of love
Comes apart at the seams
END
© Sakshi Gopal das / Stephen R. Perry, March 2023
LW: The question will always be asked, were the devotees of ISKCON worthy of getting the teachings. Did they fail their master. And fail Krishna. Unfortunately, most of us know the answer by now.
ReplyDeleteA lot of people would spend a lot of time getting their silk dhoti pressed, putting on pakkha tilaks, and learning sanskrit slokas from the Gita, but most of them never understood the essentials of the teachings.
They have not learned to have love and concern for others, especially vulnerables like women and children. Of course ... sitting around blabbing about too much sugar in the Sunday feast sweet rice ... as thousands of people get kicked out ... made havoc also for many of the cows. And we now have a devotee compiling all sorts of cow horror story problems on a web site, which were terrible in many cases.
If we chant for 10,000 lifetimes, but still have a steel framed heart, it is all show and no substance. Most of the devotees, to put it bluntly, just have not given a crap about the suffering of others, or the troubles that ISKCON has been going through. Everyone and everything can go down the tubes, as long as I get a big cushioned seat and some temporary glorification from fools. Or I can go back to momma's house and smoke some pot in the basement.
They were given a golden treasure, and in my ... not so humble opinion ... and direct observation ... most of them flushed the gold treasure down the toilet of Kali Yuga. Even allowing the books to be attacked with hatchet job editing.
The children, the temples, the deities, the books, the women, the cows, have not been protected. That is job # one for a devotee, especially the men, but they ... and I hate to have to say this ... failed. And yes, that is probably the opinion of millions in the public too, who have witnessed one horrible scandal after the next because, no one cares, or certainly not enough cares.
There is no place for sociopaths in religion ... unless everyone else allows them free reign. Which self-evident means, everyone else did not understand the essence either, in some cases, almost as badly as the sociopaths who hijacked it.
My experience is? Most people just do not want to hear about the problems, which makes the problems amplified 10,000 times. If you don't want to hear someone warn you about your bald tires, then you are to blame when your tires fail ... and innocent people are damaged or eliminated as a result of your neglect.
This opinion is really not my own, many outside observers of ISKCON had this all figured out decades ago. Most devotees were too arrogant to see their own acquiescing was helping cause all this ...
M Dasi: "I turned a deaf ear." Sure. That is what is self evident. How could all of these ... cases and cases ... of molesting, sometimes rapes, beatings, and God only knows what ... have gone on, and on, and on, and on. And it looks like ... the main leaders of all this are still running around like nothing ever happened really. No one is ever charged and what to speak of prosecuted. Same old same old.
ReplyDeleteRaghubir ... Bhakti Chaitanya swami ... is just looking at his Apple laptop wondering if someone is cooking his samosas.
I tried to raise the alarm, and most people thought I was the evil witch sent from hell. Who is that witch ringing the fire alarm? Oh yeah, we just want it all to burn down ... and she is getting in the way.
It really is a case of mass crimes and mass denial about the crimes. Perfect storm ... especially if you are a child. Or a witch.
I did my part ... and paid for that dearly. Whistleblowing witches are not welcome here. Who is welcome? I forgot ... the real Satanics crew. Now Jayapataka is yammering about how the children are all Vaikuntha children. Sure. And we all know how he treated them. His history speaks for itself. As soon as he sees a child from Vaikuntha, it is time to call an ambulance. And the police.