By Krishnakant
The IRM's influence in world media circles continues to accelerate unabated. Recently, the world's largest media organisation, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), visited New York City to do a special feature on the ISKCON Revival Movement. While recording a show focusing on the IRM's Vani devi dasi, who has worked tirelessly to establish a permanent memorial in the City for His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada (here), the BBC production team decided to dedicate a 'magazine' story to the IRM!
The show was broadcast several times on the BBC World Service program "Focus on Faith" to people in Africa, the Americas, Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East and South Asia on the following dates:
* Tuesday 3rd July, 19:30 GMT
* Wednesday 4th July, 01:30 GMT
* Wednesday 4th July, 14:30 GMT
* Thursday 5th July, 09:30 GMT
(GMT = Greenwich Mean Time).The global audience per broadcast is estimated to be 150 million people. The show could also be heard 24 hours a day for the entire week on the BBC's website. IRM devotees, including myself, were interviewed, along with the President of the world's most powerful and influential anti-cult organisation, the American Family Foundation. The BBC itself provided the background and links to the story.
We reproduce the entire unedited broadcast transcript below.
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."So there you have it. While ISKCON's gurus and their followers are gripped by a mass self-delusion that they can carry on with their illegal guru cheating program, and at the same time disregard all standard codes of moral and civilised behaviour, the outside world will not be hoodwinked by such blatant criminality.
The BBC itself has stated that the American Family Foundation "recently threw its support behind the Revival movement's attempts at transforming ISKCON."
And the American Family Foundation President has stated: "I empathise very greatly with those people who are the reformers within the movement."
With such an endorsement, anyone who dares to try and exercise such violent, cult-like behaviour against the IRM and its devotees as we have recently highlighted, is treading on very dangerous ground indeed. We will not stand for it, the law enforcement agencies will not stand for it, and the
anti-cult authorities will not stand for it. And most importantly - Srila Prabhupada and Lord Krishna will not stand for it.
Postscript: analysis of statement by Satyaraja das
Let us remind ourselves of the statement made to the world on the BBC by ISKCON member Satyaraja das:
"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."
(Satyaraja das)Here we see clearly expressed the sheer enviousness towards Srila Prabhupada's position as the only Guru in ISKCON. Although the scriptures clearly state that the bona-fide Guru should be worshipped exactly like God
["When one has attained the topmost position of maha-bhagavata, he is to be accepted as a guru and worshipped EXACTLY like Hari, the Personality of Godhead. Only such a person is eligible to occupy the post of a guru." - C.c. Madhya, 24.330, purport],
Satyaraja attempts to deride this practice by saying that Srila Prabhupada should not be receiving this level of worship.
And isn't it strange that, although Satyaraja holds Prabhupada in contempt for receiving worship on the same level as Lord Jesus Christ, his peer Tamal Krishna Goswami has stated in his book "Servant of the Servant" that:
"I had no doubt that Srila Prabhupada was EQUAL to Lord Jesus IN EVERY WAY."
(Tamal Krsna Goswami, "Servant of the Servant", BBT 1984, p.25)And another one of his peers, Bhakti Caru Swami, stated that:
"Therefore, when people ask "what do you mean by Srila Prabhupada's having the position of Founder-Acarya", my reply is: "What Jesus is to Christianity and what Muhammed is to Islam, Srila Prabhupada should be that to ISKCON"
(Bhakti Caru Swami, Day 3, LA Seminar, 'Questions and Answers', Published on June 11, 2000)Yet Bhakti Caru Swami had earlier told us that what Jesus is to Christianity is the one and only Diksa Guru of the Christians:
"Christianity does not accept the system of a present guru. They think Jesus is the only one and no one is coming to give initiation, or no one is coming as acarya"
(Bhakti Caru Swami, Recorded September, 1995, in Malaga, Spain, and Printed in 'Spiritual Connections' Vol 13 Jan-April '96)So it looks like ISKCON is completely confused as to even the basic understanding of the position and qualification of our Founder-Acarya Srila Prabhupada!
Satyaraja states that: "In the ISKCON tradition, and it's an ancient, ancient tradition, the Guru is always there with the disciple."
Srila Prabhupada agrees, but also states that the Guru is there with the disciple even if the Guru is physically absent:
"I shall remain your personal guidance, physically present or not physically, as I am getting guidance from my Guru Maharaja."
(Srila Prabhupada Room Conversation, Vrindavan, 14/7/77)Unfortunately, Satyaraja then proceeds to selectively quote from Srila Prabhupada's teachings by stating that: "If he passes away at a certain time, then the leading followers of that Guru then become Gurus themselves, if they're so qualified."
Of course, Satyaraja conveniently omits to mention the fact that Srila Prabhupada had specifically instructed *time and time again* that one must be also AUTHORISED to become a Guru:
"One should take initiation from a bona fide spiritual master coming in the disciplic succession, who is AUTHORISED by his predecessor spiritual master. This is called diksa-vidhana." (Srimad-Bhagavatam 4.8.54, purport)
24 years on from the physical departure of Srila Prabhupada, the GBC has still not been able to come up with ANY specific authorization from Prabhupada that terminates the ritvik system and appoints Guru successors.
And in case anyone is still in doubt as to whether Srila Prabhupada is the Guru of ISKCON, and that ALL the members of ISKCON are his initiated disciples, here is Srila Prabhupada putting the record straight himself:
Interviewer: Now, are you a guru? Prabhupada:: 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)
Note here Srila Prabhupada clearly claims ALL members of the INSTITUTION as his disciples - not only those who are connected with his physical presence. Thus Srila Prabhupada's position as Guru is linked to the existence of the ISKCON institution, and not the existence of Srila Prabhupada's physical body.