08/08/98-1981

The Future ISKCON Russia

Russia (VNN) - What's the future of St.Petersburg temple, and ISKCON Russia in general? (author's name withheld)

St.Petersburg ISKCON temple is the largest temple in the Former Soviet Union, and one of the largest in the world. It's an 8-story building of former chemical institute, roughly 3700 square meters, including 600 sq.m. temple room. The Deities installed in January 1998 are Sri Sri Gaura Nitai.

After ISKCON acquired the building on a 49 year lease in 1992, construction work began. The repair went on for 6 years, and is still underway. It ate up about $1 million, including $250,000 misspent by former president Vasudama das. The temple has a restaurant inside, a large kitchen, and living facilities for at least 250 men and women. The construction work is done mostly by temple brahmacaris.

The temple has two special luxurious rooms, used only for Harikesa ex-Swami when he visits St.Petersburg (he comes once a year for 3 days, being GBC there), and locked up when he leaves, never even touched by any other visiting preacher. Every time before Harikesa ex-Swami's visits, the rooms undergo costly refurbishment, even though they don't really need it.

Originally Kamalamala das was the one who found this building and negotiated the price, damping in substantially. Later, by the direct order from Harikesa ex-Swami, the money for the construction were given by Brahmananda Puri das and Brahmika das (president of Prema-Invest, the stock-market speculating group).

In February 1997, Kamalamala became the temple president there. Previously he was doing some business in Moscow, without much success. His managerial and business abilities are really low, and the only salvation for him were financial contributions by his friend Brahmananda Puri das. Brahmananda Puri, also Armenian national as Kamalamala, is a very wealthy businessman, who is famous for giving Harikesa ex-Swami six-figures USD donations every year. When Kamalamala's business went really down, and all employees left him, he decided to become a temple president in some place, and wrote a letter to Harikesa ex-Swami, asking him to appoint him the TP in St.Petersburg. His wish was granted, despite his obvious inability to manage. He spends most of his time in Moscow, visiting "his temple" occasionally for a few days. Recently he also became the CEO of Krishnaloka radio in Moscow, which also doesn't help much with his responsibilities in St.Petersburg.

The group, known as "Armenian mafia", consists mainly of Brahmananda Puri das, Kamalamala das and Sannyas das, the Russian BBT CEO, also a very wealthy man. They are known for their fanatical worship of Harikesa ex-Swami. In 1992 they started a campaign against GBC members, like Gopal Krishna Goswami and Prabhavisnu Swami, which resulted in replacement of those devotees by Harikesa ex-Swami as GBC for Moscow and St.Petersburg. They also organized a physical attack on Sri Rama das, disciple of Prabhupada who was appointed the new Temple President in Moscow by the GBC. After spending a few months in the hospital, Sri Rama left Russia and never came back.

Now, with the newest delcarations of Kamalamala in "SV disciples" COM conference, it's predictable what the scenario will be. Most of Harikesa ex-Swami disciples will split from ISKCON to form their own group around "their spiritual master". They will not accept the authority of the GBC, and most probably will worship Harikesa ex-Swami as some kind of avatar. Or, perhaps, they will say that Harikesa ex-Swami received special instruction from Krishna while he was out of his body, dead. The "divine instruction" was to come back to the material world and preach varnasrama by his own example. This is the only way to justify his present behavior without admitting his falldown.

I just wonder what the future of St.Petersburg temple will be. The biggest temple building in Europe is managed exclusively by Harikesa ex-Swami's disciples. It is very probable that Harikesa ex-Swami will take it as his own permanent residence. But even if not so, it's highly probable that ISKCON will lose this temple forever. Kamalamala is the one who has all connections with the building owners (chemical institute people), and he can secure the building for himself and his group of Harikesa ex-Swami followers. ISKCON can lose the best piece of property in the Former Soviet Union. But even that would be an insignificant loss, compared to the numbers of devotees who will fall off in frustration, or follow the split group. Is the story of the most successful Krishna Consciousness preaching program coming to an end?