Giriraja swami / ISKCON Cow Crisis / Ramesvara / Hansadutta 09 17 26

ISKCON SELLING ITS COWS TO BUTCHERS?

PADA: Heard similar things happening even outside of India. And stories of cows being uncared for and freezing to death and so on and so forth. Not caring for the women, children cows and elders, is what it looks like. But ISKCON is getting cited in Nepal by the government, cited in Bombay by the government, and some government people are asking about the cows. I would say their operation is falling apart more all the time. They cannot maintain their empire. ys pd   

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GIRIRAJA SWAMI

PADA: OK according to a PADA source, it was known Giriraja was masturbating in the temple as far back as 2018. He says that someone told him the story. I dunno, but it seems likely Giriraja swami was doing this later -- not because he was senile -- but because he was already at it previously. Even if he is senile, he should not be wearing orange now and making pretend he is a sannyasa guru. Sheesh! ys pd

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BOOK CHANGES

Restituyan las ediciones originales

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RAMESVARA

September 11, 2024: On this date in history, Ramesvara (formerly Swami, one of the eleven zonal acharyas) writes to one of the author’s Facebook friends who is reading Eleven Naked Emperors. He says:

Hare Krsna. PAMHO. AGTSP!

I would humbly inform you that I was never interviewed for the 11 Naked Emperors. Since then I have communicated with the author but a history book without such first hand interviews still is missing important perspectives.

Your aspiring servant Ramesvara dasa

My response? I’ll say one thing about this fellow, he’s an incredibly sly fox! I guess leopards don’t change their spots. Talk about omitting important facts! Or perhaps the fellow is getting senile.
Yes, Ramesvara was not interviewed for my book Eleven Naked Emperors. And the book is missing important perspectives, which I admit in the Preface. But why is that?

I asked him for an interview, BUT HE REFUSED! He wrote to me:

“It’s probably best for you and all concerned that I stay quietly on the sidelines. My bad reputation with your many readers would tarnish your genuinely good and valuable efforts. I respect you greatly and offer my humble obeisances and prayers for this endeavor to be successful and that it prove to be very helpful to many devotees.”

Robert Grant (Ramesvara),

Facebook message to the author (May 4, 2015).

You can read this in the Preface to ENE, p. xxiii. I even sent him a complimentary copy of the book! This is the thanks I get!

Update: Later that same day Ramesvara posted a comment on my Facebook post:
Hare Krsna. PAMHO. AGTSP!

Henry, thank you for reminding me about that email which I completely forgot about. My apologies for writing with any implication that you didn’t try to speak to me about these events. Yes my memory is not as sharp as when I was younger. Don’t think it’s senility, but definitely effects of aging. Again my sincere apology
Your humble aspiring servant

Ramesvara dasa

A reader responds:

So Ramesvara sincerely hopes that Henry’s books will help people, yet he discourages people from reading them.

How many individuals has Ramesvara discouraged in private correspondence—or just when he’s sure that Henry’s just not looking—from reading Henry’s books for either this Bull Shit reason or another that no one’s caught him doing yet?

I dunno, but since I’m not a devotee I’d make a bet that the answer to the question as to how many devotees Ramesvara has tried to discourage from reading Henry’s books would be EVERYONE who has contacted him. It’s hard for just a regular Joe, a common man, to doubt someone’s sincerity and still ask that same person a question with any thought that at face value we can trust whatever they said in reply to our question. 

Caught red-handed trying to make Henry out to be the responsible party in producing a history useless for its lack of representation of the cult’s central villains, and most notably himself, I find in Ramesvara’s comments that my consideration that he is neither open nor honest to be well warranted.

It stands to reason that whatever such persons say will be coming from a position of self interest that verges on the point of Narcissism. In other words, when it’s a threat to our own self interest or survival we must resist the compulsion to lie just in order to bail our own asses out of a jam or to advance our self interest when the truth is threatening to either if we are to be faithful to whatever vows we have taken to individuals and communities we have sworn to protect. Ramesvara should perhaps ask himself which of the two is more important. Reading Ramesvara’s Bull Shit, it’s hard to imagine that he gives a crap about anyone’s self interest other than his own.

What’s good for the answerer, rather than the asker, of the question in instances where there are any conflicts of interest between the questioner and the answerer of the question? In this case we see from Ramesvara’s words that he sees Henry’s readers as hostile to him.

So why would Ramesvara try to make another person a reader of Henry’s books? The answer is that he wouldn’t, and just as we see, he didn’t. In fact he sought to poison the author’s pen even after the pen had been put down, the pages printed and the ink dried, suggesting that without the benefit of his perspective, omitted through the author’s deliberated (since he brings it up twice) fear or disinterest in including them, which had the result of making them one sided (only including the testimonies of victims and not those of the Perps), and therefore asara or useless to the aspiring seeker into the truth about ISKCON, the truth about what it was when he and his cronies were in charge.

Ramesvara’s reply to Henry also seems disingenuous and mocking of Henry‘s inability to call him on his Bull Shit as much as Ramesvara feels he can safely get away with and can manage without telling Henry to just F*ck Off, which is probably what he’d rather do. Without the power of a guru over his chela or a Zonal Acharya over his Zone and without his enforcers, he can do what? Be snide? Oh, how the mighty have fallen!

Ramesvara can no longer have anyone beaten or battered into submission or even yell at them in his prissy and petulant little way without inviting a smack and the little sucker knows it, and I believe that it grates him. What he longs for, his words betray, is not to advance anyone to anything other than himself and a return to his glory days when he was one of the masters of his world and the rest of you were his slaves.

Having devotees battered into submission or just worshiping him out of misplaced loyalty and a wealth of abysmal ignorance in a world where his teenage groupies doodle him, those are things, the faded glory that he longs for, not for Prabhupada’s service, which he left by the way, the first time he went home to his old life and started again to eat roast beef and steak which severed the connection between guru and disciple according to Prabhupada.

One thing I always wondered was what is it called when one Zonal Acharya wants someone killed, but the killing is done outside of his own Zone and so he has to ask another Zonal Acharya to carry it out or help him get rid of the body or evidence? Is that called a courtesy assassination?

While pretending to respect and honor you and your historical contributions, Ramesvara stabs you in the back, probably every chance he gets. What a piece of work he is, but that’s pretty obvious to both of us. Your books are a treasure, thank you for writing them.

George Smith
Overland Park, Kansas

PADA: Ramesvara, Bhagavan and really the whole mob has never come clean, ok except Hansadutta to some extent. They never contact me either, despite they know I am making history recordings. They don't want the real history to be known, because they had a dark part in it. 

An ex-guruli said, 

"They burnt down the ISKCON house, with us kids still inside the house, and then grabbed a suitcase full of money and a woman -- and left. They never cared about ISKCON, or us, or even their own spiritual future -- where they will certainly rot in hell for making hell for us and everyone else. I pray every day that they all leave the planet to purify the earth."

ys pd angel108b@yahoo.com

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ANAPAYINI JAKUPKO

My offering to Srila Prabhupada this year for Vyasa Puja was the first I have ever given publicly as an adult.

Somehow, this year it felt very clear what I wanted to say, and I decided to ride the wave of inspiration—and bravery. I also knew I wasn't speaking only for myself. I had no fear that what I was saying was a unique idea, or something I needed to convince others to believe. I knew that hundreds of my friends and fellow second-generation devotees have carried many of these same feelings, questions, and concerns. I felt them standing behind me.

Later that morning, I had the service of welcoming Srila Prabhupada's disciples into their feast tent. I was met with so much love and encouragement. Dozens of devotees approached me with positive feedback and appreciation for what I had shared. The only criticism I received was that I had spoken a little too long!
I was the only second-generation devotee who spoke that morning, and perhaps I took a few extra minutes because, in my heart, I knew I wasn't speaking only for myself.

And I still have more to say.

I want to continue the conversation around the questions I laid at the feet of my beloved spiritual grandfather—especially the question of how we, as a movement, value, protect, educate, and invest in our children. Since then, I have received so many messages from people around the world asking, **“What can I do? How can I help put the children first? How can I support programs that are already doing this work?”**

There is so much we can do.

Look at your own temple community. What facilities and programs are available for children? Ask how you can help strengthen them. If something is missing, perhaps you can help create it. Offer to facilitate something meaningful for your temple's children and youth. Reach out to your local devotee school. Volunteer your time, professional skills, or services. Make a donation. Ask the teachers and administrators what they actually need. Let your temple management know that supporting children matters to you—and ask how you can help make it a greater priority.

And I will admit that I am a little biased because I have the great privilege of working at **Bhaktivedanta Academy**, Alahcua Florida, where I see every day what can happen when devotees pour their hearts, skills, time, and resources into Srila Prabhupada's children.

So if any of this inspires you and you are wondering, **“Okay, but what specifically can I do?”** please reach out to me. I can happily give you something tangible and specific to support. There are real needs, real projects, and real children who will directly benefit from that support.

We don't have to wait for someone else to solve this.

Putting our children first can begin in our own temples, schools, and communities—with each of us asking a very simple question: What can I do to help Srila Prabhupada's children thrive?

PADA: OK Alachua has a lot of people like Pranada who promote Auschwitz for kids ki jaya sir head honcho Jayapataka. We cannot simultaneously worship Auschwitz for kids programs and wish our kids well at the same time. Not working! ys pd

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HANSADUTTA WRITES

Dear Veda Guhya Das Prabhu,

Please accept my most humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
Because you asked me to write VNN about the Rittvik matter, I thought I would first pen you my thoughts on the issue along the lines of our discussion a few days ago.

The discussions that took place on 28th May 1977 between Srila Prabhupada and some GBC regarding initiations in the future were not known to me till years after his disappearance. Srila Prabhupada would say many things on many subjects, but unless a particular policy was written in letter form, or some other legal document, such discussions on different matters were not accepted as final. Prabhupada often said you can say anything, but do not put it in writing. Writing makes it legal.

A number of questions come to my mind when the controversy over the rittvik-Guru issue comes up.

1) The system of rittvik initiations was an ongoing practice for years before Srila Prabhupada named eleven “Rittvik representatives of the Acharya” in his letter of July 9, 1977. Why would Srila Prabhupada make a special effort to write a letter appointing eleven of his senior disciples as “Rittvik representatives of the Acharya” when such rittvik initiations were already being performed on his behalf -- not only by the persons named in his July 9th Letter but by sannyasis, GBCs, Temple Presidents, and others who happened to be at hand on the occasion of such initiation ceremonies?

2) Why did Srila Prabhupada decline the suggestion Of Tamal Krishna Goswami to include Brahmananda Swami on the rittvik list? He was a leading devotee and sannyasi.

3) Why did Srila Prabhupada not simply say “All sannyasis, GBCs, and Temple Presidents of ISKCON in good standing everywhere” could act as “Rittvik representatives of the Acharya” and initiate new disciples on his behalf whenever the need presented itself ?

4) How would creating “Rittvik representatives of the Acharya” relieve Srila Prabhupada from the burden of taking on the Karma of newly initiated disciples if the disciples thus initiated would still be Srila Prabhupada’s disciples?

5) Why did Srila Prabhupada reiterate the July 9th Letter appointing “Rittvik representative of the Acharya” in three separate letters (two to myself, and one to Kirtanananda Swami) and in several conversations, but never once mention anything about appointing Gurus or about rittviks becoming Gurus upon his anticipated disappearance from the world?

I distinctly remember when I received the July 9, 1977, letter in Sri Lanka that it was clear to me that this letter was Srila Prabhupada’s arrangement for initiations for the future. I also remember feeling some disappointment with the obvious conditional authority that the “Rittvik representative of the Acharya” designation implied, because I actually had a great desire to be a Guru like Srila Prabhupada, and I think many of the leaders did have similar desires. 

Still, I understood it was a very responsible and authoritative appointment. On July 10th I received another letter from Srila Prabhupada written in response to a letter I had sent him describing the preaching activities in Sri Lanka at that time. In this letter he wrote as follows:

“You are a suitable person and you can give initiation to those that are ready for it. I have selected you among eleven men as “Rittvik” representative of the Acharya, to give initiations, both first and second initiation, on my behalf.” 

A newsletter is being sent to all temple presidents and GBC in this regard, listing the eleven representatives selected by His Divine Grace. Those who are initiated are the disciples of Srila Prabhupada, and anyone who you deem fit and initiate in this way, you should send their names to be included in Srila Prabhupada’s “Initiated disciples” book.

I immediately wrote a letter to Srila Prabhupada asking him why he had been so merciful towards me by appointing me as his “Rittvik representative of the Acharya” which I understood to be a very confidential and responsible position. In other words, it was clear to me that this letter appointing “Rittvik Representatives” to initiate new disciples on Srila Prabhupada’s behalf was Srila Prabhupada’s final instructions in anticipation of his disappearance from the world.
Srila Prabhupada replied my letter by paraphrasing my question and answering in a letter dated July 31st 1977 as follows:

“You have written to Srila Prabhupada saying you do not know why he has chosen you to be a recipient of his Mercy. His Divine Grace immediately replied, “It is because you are my sincere servant. You have given up attachment to a beautiful and qualified wife and that is a great benediction. You are a real preacher. Therefore I like you. (Then Laughing). Sometimes you become obstinate, but that is true of any intelligent man. Now you have got a very good field. Now organize it and it will be a great credit. No one will disturb you there. MAKE YOUR OWN FIELD AND CONTINUE TO BE RITTVIK AND ACT ON MY BEHALF”.

It was clear that Srila Prabhupada had officially introduced the concept of “Rittvik representative of the Acharya” as the arrangement for initiations by his disciples for the future of ISKCON. Had there been anything more to clarify certainly Srila Prabhupada would have written another letter to amend what was already so clear. But he never did, other than reinforce what he had already written: 

“Continue to act as rittvik representative of the Acharya.”

These eleven men and many others had been initiating devotees on Srila Prabhupada’s behalf for years, so there was no need to make a formal declaration and name disciples who could initiate on Srila Prabhupada’s behalf simply to relieve Srila Prabhupada from the burden of initiating due to his illness as it was already going on all over the world for years.

However, the July 9th letter gave authority and responsibility that was not allowed previously. The eleven men selected as “Rittvik Representatives of the Acharya” were given the freedom to initiate (first and second) and give the spiritual name without first having to consult Srila Prabhupada by letter and have an appropriate name sent by Srila Prabhupada. This was new. This system, in effect, gave these eleven “Rittvik representative of the Acharya” all the responsibilities and authority of a GURU, but at the same time it was clear by their “Job Description” as “Rittvik representative of the Acharya” that their authority was CONDITIONAL -- it was not a blank check

- as they were not mature full qualified Spiritual Masters. They were apprentices of the Spiritual Master -- “Rittvik representatives of the Acharya” -- and, the disciples they would initiate would be the disciples of their Spiritual Master, Srila Prabhupada, the Sampradaya Acharya, The Founder-Acarya of ISKCON.
The Emperor or King delegates power to a Viceroy who thus has all the power of a King to rule over a colony or state, yet it is understood that the Viceroy is not the King, but is ruling as the King’s representative. Such a Viceroy would not automatically become a King upon the death of the King, rather he would continue to act as the Viceroy until the next Emperor or King was installed on the throne. Similarly the “Rittvik representative” does not automatically become a Guru or Acharya (as we assumed when Srila Prabhupada disappeared), but the Rittvik continues to act as the representative of the Acharya, Srila Prabhupada.

Although Srila Prabhupada spoke of all his disciples becoming Gurus, he never once ordered any disciple “To be a Guru”, rather he gave conditional authority and responsibility to some leading disciples to “Act as Rittvik representatives of the Acharya”. Having failed to carry out this responsibility by assuming that automatically upon Srila Prabhupada’s disappearance the rittviks would become Gurus we find everything has gone off track, and the whole ISKCON movement is in shambles. Still, it is better late than never. Everything can be brought back into focus if we simply come back to the order of the Spiritual Master and act as 

“Rittvik representative of the Acharya.”

I don’t think that my words will make any difference -- but for my own clarification and purification I have written down these thoughts. Perhaps they will be of some help to you.

I have one last concern and it is this idea I get from Krishna Kant’s paper “The Final Order” that the “Rittvik Representative” is nothing more than a priest who performs a ritual initiation, and then is no more significant in the spiritual life of a disciple than a clerk at an army recruiting station.

Yet, the fact is that Srila Prabhupada was very careful and deliberate about choosing his “Rittvik representatives” and we will notice all of them were distinguished by their enthusiasm and success in the preaching field. So if there is going to be a reform and actual adherence to the order of Srila Prabhupada to act as “Rittvik Representatives of the Acharya,” then I think that anyone who is going to be designated as such should first of all go out and show their capacity to represent Srila Prabhupada as his “Rittvik Representative” by opening some centers and recruiting 100 or 200 devotees (or families) and train them up properly to preach and worship Srila Prabhupada as his disciples. Otherwise, what is the meaning of “Rittvik representative of the Acharya?” Without this it will simply be another office job.

I hope you and Janaki are well. Thanks for your hospitality. I hope we can meet again soon.

Your humble servant,
Hansadutta das