BBC "FOCUS ON FAITH"

JULY 2001

BBC Anchor:

The Hare Krishna movement, an offshoot of mainstream Hinduism which takes as the focal point of its devotion veneration of the God Krishna, is facing internal division. Weighed down by factional strife, allegations of child sex abuse and attendant lawsuits, the movement is urgently trying to reform itself. Leslie Goffe now reports from New York on the task it faces in regaining the popularity it once had 40 years ago.
  (Kirtan)
 
Leslie Goffe (BBC reporter):

Hare Krishna devotees with their shaved heads, saffron-coloured robes and drums, were out in force recently at New York City's annual Rathayatra Festival which is dedicated to Lord Krishna. The celebrations, however, covered over some of the tensions that are ripping the movement apart. Since their height in the 1960s and '70s, the Krishnas have seen their numbers dwindle, in part because of revelations of a widespread child sex abuse scandal. A high profile multi-million dollar lawsuit brought last year by 44 former Krishna students, alleging they were subjected to sexual and emotional torture by their elders at the movement's boarding schools in India and the United States, has still not been settled.
  Satyabhama devi dasi is a devotee who left South Africa to join the Krishnas in New York. She says though she was not sexually abused, she was one of many badly exploited by false gurus.

  Satyabhama: "I am one such victim. I found I have surrendered my profession as a teacher in South Africa, and given up all my assets and all my valuables, and I had been exploited, and I would say I had been treated like a polished slave. (The gurus) do not obey the four regulative principles that Prabhupada has laid out - no gambling, no illicit sex.we find in the history of the ISKCON gurus they fall away with the female disciples whom they are supposed to regard as their daughters. In a way it's like incest, but still they hang on to this position of saying 'I'm a pure devotee, I'm a guru'."
 
[Note: Satyabhama devi dasi, and her husband Alanath das, were leading disciples of and fundraisers for Bhakti Caru Swami. They came to realise that Srila Prabhupada is their real Guru, and all the tens of thousands of dollars they poured into BCS' bank account to fund his lavish lifestyle were actually meant for Srila Prabhupada's service only. They have since left South Africa to join the IRM mission in New York].

  Leslie Goffe:
  It all started to go wrong for the International Society for Krishna Consciousness - the Krishnas' official name - after Srila Prabhupada, the Indian-born Guru who founded the movement, died in the late 1970s. Here he is speaking to devotees:
  (Extract of Prabhupada class is played)
  After Prabhupada's death his disciples declared themselves 'gurus', and set about carving up the lucrative ISKCON worldwide empire, which included millions of dollars of property in the United States, Europe and India. Now, in an effort to rehabilitate Prabhupada, a breakaway group - the International Society for Krishna Consciousness Revival Movement, or IRM -
has been set up. The President of the chapter in Calcutta, India, Adridharan das, is one of its leading members.

Adridharan: "Our first and foremost mission is to restore Prabhupada as the Guru of the institution and restore his teachings as he had preached and practised. There are a lot of little civil wars going on. Naturally, by restoring the Founder of the institution back to his movement, it is actually dis-enfranchising the other 90 'gurus' who are enjoying the assets and enjoying the disciples which are actually meant to be offered to the Founder."

  Among those opposed to the Revival Movement is ISKCON official Satyaraja das:
 
Satyaraja: "The IRM - their reform is not really a reform as such, but it's a sort of deification of the movement's Founder Prabhupada, trying to make him a Christ-like personality, saying that he is the only Guru; which is clearly not the philosophy of ISKCON or its tradition. In the ISKCON tradition, and it's an ancient, ancient tradition, the Guru is always there with the disciple. If he passes away at a certain time, then the leading followers of that Guru then become gurus themselves, if they're so qualified."
  [Note: See below for our analysis of Satyaraja's statement above]  

Leslie Goffe:

  But support for the Krishna movement's attempts at reform have won backing from an unlikely place. The American Family Foundation, a group which monitors the activity of cults in the United States, was once one of the Hare Krishnas' bitterest critics. It recently threw its support behind the Revival movement's attempts at transforming ISKCON. American Family Foundation President Herb Rosedale:
 
"Well, there are going to be some people who believe the parts that are worth preserving are more important. So you don't just leave, you try and make a change and be responsive. There may be a desire to keep a complete element of control and uniformity, but growth and maturity tends to force to diversity. And what's happened is a number of those people have spoken out and have created what I would call small, autonomous groups within an overall movement. And it is not at all unusual when you study the history of movements, whether they be religious movements, or they be political movements to see diversity arise, strains, differences, leadership contests.
And I think it's a different view as to what is necessary in order to preserve the integrity and the good parts of what are perceived to be a religious movement. Not at all unusual, and I empathise very greatly with those people who are the reformers within the movement."

Yes, I am the Spiritual Master of this institution, and ALL the

members of the Society, they're supposed to be MY disciples. They follow the

rules and regulations which I ask them to follow, and they are INITIATED by

me spiritually. So therefore the Spiritual Master is called Guru. That is

Sanskrit language."

(Srila Prabhupada Radio Interview  March 12, 1968, San Francisco)

Hare Krishna!  Please accept my humble obeisances.  All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
 
I would like to thank His Holiness Bhakti Caru Swami for responding to my concerns over the Indian newspaper reports about the Calcutta Ratha Yatra ("Was it so Successful?", CHAKRA, 8 July 2001), which conflicted with Maharaja's initial report as published on CHAKRA ("Without Prejudice - Calcutta Ratha Yatra,", 5 July 2001). 

I hope readers will forgive me for bringing up yet more evidence, this time photographic, which to my mind still raises questions over the accuracy of Maharaja's latest report ("Calcutta Ratha Yatra Was Indeed Highly Successful", CHAKRA, 18 July 2001).  Readers will appreciate that as my profession is in the media, it is my job to verify the accuracy of all statistics, reports and sources before they are put into print or broadcast over the airwaves.  In this way, my concern is the same as His Holiness Bhakti Caru Swami who stated:

  "I tried my best not to deviate from the truth, knowing well that in this age 'dharma' is standing on that leg only, and I don't want to deviate from that path. With all sincerity I want to declare that I don't have any intention to deceive anyone with false propaganda." (Bhakti Caru Swami, 18 July)

  For this reason, I have checked with the 'Asian Age' newspaper to verify Maharaja's statement that the Calcutta Ratha Yatra was celebrated by "hundreds of thousands" of devotees.  I also requested Adridharan das to provide evidence to refute Maharaja's accusation that he (Adri) had deliberately sabotaged the Rath carts.

  The photographs and accompanying captions attached herewith are the evidence I received from both sources.  CHAKRA readers are therefore now in a position to make up their own minds as to the accuracy of Adridharan's newsletter vis-a-vis Bhakti Caru Swami's reports.

  In Adridharan's original article (newsletter 48 on the IRM website), he stated that:
 
1) Due to a 'fraudulent application', Mayapur was able to conduct the Ratha Yatra festival, rather than Calcutta.
 
2) That contrary to Bhakti Caru Swami's claims, "hundreds of thousands" of persons did not attend the festival, but that actually relatively few persons attended compared to when the festival was organised by the Calcutta Temple.
 
3) That the carts were not damaged by him (Adri), but rather work had simply stopped on them due to Mayapur having being given permission to conduct the festival. He also quoted many newspaper articles in support of his points.

  In contrast, Maharaja's latest article on CHAKRA quotes newspaper articles which simply *confirm* what Adridharan das stated in his newsletter - namely, that Mayapur had been given permission to conduct the festival.  I am still unable to see any evidence at all in support of Maharaja's claim that "hundreds of thousands" of persons attended the ISKCON Ratha Yatra. This impression is given by Maharaja when he reproduces the following incomplete quotation from the 'Asian Age newspaper':
 
"An unidentified foreign devotee chants Hare Krishna along with other Indian devotees while watching the Rath Yatra in Kolkata on Saturday. Hundreds and thousands of people celebrated the Rath Yatra ..." (Asian Age, June 25th, 2001).

  The ACTUAL quote states the following:

  "An unidentified foreign devotee chants Hare Krishna along with other Indian devotees while watching the Ratha Yatra in Kolkata on Saturday.  Hundreds of thousands of people celebrated the Ratha Yatra *in different parts of the country on Saturday*." (Asian Age, June 25th, 2001 - emphasis added)

  I wonder why Maharaja decided to leave off the final 8 words of the quote when he had already quoted the rest of it, especially since these final 8 words would establish clearly that hundreds of thousands of persons did NOT attend the Mayapur Ratha Yatra, but rather these were the numbers of persons which attended ALL the many thousands of Ratha Yatras which are held at this time all over India, including the one in Jagannath Puri (indeed, these other nationwide Ratha Yatras were reported in many Indian newspapers).

  Maharaja has also repeated the accusation that the carts had been deliberately sabotaged the day before the festival by Adridharana, although Adridharan had already stated that there was no need to 'sabotage' the carts as they were already incomplete, since work had stopped on them many days before the Ratha Yatra due to Mayapura's actions in preventing Calcutta from staging the festival.

  I reproduce herewith the photograph and article sent to me by Adridharan, published again by the 'Asian Age' newspaper.  'Asian Age' confirms that work had stopped on the carts as soon as Mayapur had been granted permission to stage the festival.
  As the article accompanying the picture clearly suggests, work had stopped on the carts many days before the Ratha Yatra festival started when Mayapur got permission to conduct the festival, and thus there was no sabotage carried out on the carts the day before the festival. The picture clearly proves that the carts were therefore already in a state of dis-repair way before the festival began, and therefore Bhakti Caru Swami's allegation of sabotage the night before the festival was due to commence is clearly refuted.
 
  It also seems to me that Adridharan's citation of a newspaper report that there was no special VIP guest to inaugurate the festival ('Pratidin' June 24th, 2001) is only confirmed by Maharaja's statement that:
"In a way it is true that, unlike other years, we could not get some very important personalities to inaugurate the Rathayatra ..."

  Maharaja's article of July 5 again restates his vision of the events:

  "If any of our critics had been present in Calcutta during that time then they would have seen how ecstatic the mood of that festival was. They would have personally seen how hundreds of thousands of people came to attend that festival everyday, chanted and danced in ecstasy, honored Krishna prasada and went back to their respective homes with Srila Prabhupada and Lord Jagannath's mercy at the end of the program."

  Maybe it is my contaminated consciousness that prevents me from sharing in this unbridled enthusiasm, but I still find it extremely difficult to reconcile this report with the photographic evidence and the complete, unedited quotes of the independent Indian media.  As a reminder to readers, this is what the newspapers reported:

  "ISKCON's Rathayatra celebration in Metro city of Calcutta became a dull & dry show because of infighting between Dharma gurus. Since the last 20 years the Rath Festival in this metro was known as the third biggest Rath Yatra festival in the world, but because of the infighting very few people attended the Rath Yatra celebrations as compared to last year and the size of Lord Jagannaths chariot was also much smaller in comparison to last year.

" - SANMARG, June 24th 2001   "Kolkata, the annual car festival today turned out be a poor show. " -
Hindustan Times, June 24th 2001  

"But visitors have found this fare lifeless. "
Despite all the arrangement, it is a dull and dry fare", say Rituparna Sen and Atul Bhattacharya of South Calcutta. " - Hindustan Times, June 30th 2001  

"After a lacklustre Rathayatra, the Ultaratha, too, was devoid of the usual glamour and religious fervour associated with the celebration of this Vaisnav festival in the city" - Asian Age, July 2nd 2001  

No doubt readers will make up their own minds based on the evidence presented here.  I beg forgiveness for any offences caused, but I am merely trying to establish a true account of the Calcutta Ratha Yatra based on objective evidence.  Indeed, if there is new evidence from His Holiness Bhakti Caru Swami which directly contradicts the evidence quoted by Adridharan das, we would all, I am sure, be glad to examine it.
  I remain   Your servant Deepak.

ASIAN VOICE

7th JULY 2001  

ISKCON Bhaktivedanta Manor Banned Me From The Temple!
 
I was so happy to read the letter from Mr. Ravi Patel in last week's Asian Voice (dated 30th June) regarding ISKCON, and I can say from personal bitter experience that he is correct in everything he said, and that his questions should now be answered by Bhaktivedanta Manor.
  I am one of a growing band of people who accept Srila Prabhupada's legally signed directive that he should remain the sole initiating Guru for ISKCON.
As readers may have gathered, we now have nearly 80 ISKCON gurus all flying around the world illegally stealing Srila Prabhupada's disciples and controlling his assets. For the crime of agreeing with Srila Prabhupada, ISKCON's Founder Guru, I have been banned from Bhaktivedanta Manor, even though I was the first Temple Presdient there. My son, who did absolutely nothing, and who was taught in the Manor school, was also spitefully banned from acting with his friends in the Manor theatre. When he asked why ?  He was told it was because of MY beliefs.  My family are now so traumatised they find it hard to visit at all.
  Below I reprint a letter addressed to me from the current Temple President of Bhaktivedanta Manor, Vipramukhya Swami, in which he eccentrically orders me:

  "...not to advocate or support either at home or at the temple the unauthorized posthumous ritvik theory."

  ISKCON gurus are so deluded they think they can tell you what you should or should not support even in the comfort of your own home! The text of the letter appears in quotation marks, interjected with explanatory notes from myself:

  "Dear Bhaja Hari Prabhu.
  "The GBC hereby declares that the posthumous ritvik initiation theory is a dangerous philosophical deviation.  It is therefore totally prohibited in ISKCON. No devotee shall participate in such posthumous ritvik initiation ceremony in any capacity including acting as ritvik initiate, assistant, organizer, or financer. No ISKCON devotee shall advocate or support its practice. (GBC Resolution 1990-73)"

  Note: "posthumous ritvik theory" is the ISKCON GBC (Governing Body Commission) terminology for those people, such as myself, who continue to worship Srila Prabhupada as the sole Guru for the Movement.  Please note the highly inflammatory language, such as "dangerous" and "deviants", to describe us.  It is this type of language that led to the sickening attack on the Calcutta temple by some of their disciples, as described in the Indian press recently.

  "It is the desire of the local ISKCON, UK Charity Board of Directors, chaired by His Holiness Sivarama Swami, that I strictly uphold the above mandate, and hence this letter. They have obliged me to ban all persons who advocate, assist, organise or help finance posthumous ritvik theories from coming to Bhaktivedanta Manor."
  "You are suspect of supporting and/or advocating the cantankerous word jugglery of the posthumous ritvik concoctions. While you have a right to your personal opinion, I am not satisfied your visits to Bhaktivedanta Manor are in the best interests of ISKCON. In order for me to assist in allowing you to continue visiting Bhaktivedanta Manor, I need you to satisfy me that you do not advocate or support the posthumous ritvik theory. You can do this by signing the following statement to demonstrate your loyalty to Srila Prabhupada and the Governing Body Commission of ISKCON:"

  He then wants me to sign the letter saying :

  "I am not/no longer a supporter or advocate of the posthumous ritvik initiation theory. I accept fully to abide by the injunction of the GBC as implemented by the temple president of Bhaktivedanta Manor not to advocate or support either at home or at the temple the unauthorized posthumous ritvik theory."
  "I accept that if I am found supporting or advocating the unauthorized posthumous ritvik theories, I will be banned from the Manor and all its functions and that this ban will take place immediately. By contravening this agreement, I will risk being removed by the constabulary and listed with them as a disturbance to the peace at Bhaktivedanta Manor."

  Now the Manor President is labelling me as a potential criminal.  He will call the police if I dare say that Srila Prabhupada is the current Guru in ISKCON. He has actually called the police several times to have devotees thrown out of the Temple for just this reason.

  "Failure to return this registered letter within seven days, duly completed and signed, will automatically enforce a ban on you at the Bhaktivedanta Manor grounds and any of it's public festivals. To otherwise intrude will be illegal and hence warrant prosecution against you."
  "Please note that it is not acceptable to take the position that you are still "making up your mind" on this issue. That will be taken as your failure to support the GBC resolution quoted above, and will result in your being banned."

  Needless to say, I did not sign my agreement to this letter.  For simply expressing a belief based wholly and solely on the written directives of Srila Prabhupada, I have been treated like a dangerous criminal.  And anyone else who believes that Srila Prabhupada is also their real Guru is similarly treated in this cult-like fashion.
  Is it that ISKCON's self-appointed "Gurus" and their followers are only interested in courting the financial support of the Hindu community, whilst abandoning their founding Guru's wishes 24 year ago?
  Let us see now how Bhaktivedanta Manor respond to Ravi Patel's fair questions.
  But beware, if Vipramukhya Swami had his way you would not even be able to think favourably about this in your own home.
  Chris Murphy