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EUROPE August 31, 2000 VNN6197 Comment on this story Press Release Regarding Protest At Manor BY ASTA SAKHI ENGLAND, Aug 31 (VNN) — PRESS RELEASE SENT OUT BEFORE PROTEST:' 25th August 2000-08-25' A protest against the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, or ISKCON, better known as the Hare Krishna Movement is being launched this Sunday, 27th August. The protesters, mainly women and children, will be picketing and distributing leaflets at the main gates of the Hare Krishna's UK headquarters and temple, Bhaktivedanta Manor in Letchmore Heath near Watford. The protest will begin around 2:00 pm and will go on until late.' It is being timed to coincide with the Krishna Janmastami festival, which annually attracts up to 100,000 Hindus to Bhaktivedanta Manor.' After the founder of ISKCON, or the Hare Krishna movement died in 1977, there has been an intense power struggle amongst leaders in order to control their growing congregations. In all this time, the spirituality which was present within the movement rapidly deteriorated, leaving many of the older members (devotees) feeling disillusioned about the way things were going.' Many of the leaders have seriously deviated from their spiritual path.' However, worse still are many leaders' implications in child abuse cases, rape and murder. Corruption became rampant where money was concerned. For the general congregation of devotees, pure spiritual practices had been greatly minimised. In this time, there have been several attempts by devotees to "clean up" it's own house. Whenever anyone seriously tries to speak out against the management, they become officially banned from worshipping in the temple. All banned devotees who try to attend the temple are removed from the property by the police.' In April 1996, one highly respected Indian sadhu, Shree-Shrimad Bhaktivedanta Narayan Maharaj, came to England for the first time. Many ISKCON devotees found the teachings of Shreela Narayan Maharaj to be refreshingly pure and enlivening. Consequently, more and more devotees have begun to consider themselves his followers. Very quickly, ISKCON made a policy against any church members found to have any affection for Srila Narayan Maharaj. Since this time ISKCON has systematically published false propaganda against Srila Maharaj and has threatened all the devotees who they believe may be following him. Consequently, many devotees have kept their affection for this guru secret out of fear of reprisals.' In July this year, many hundreds of Hare Krishna devotees went to Wales to spend one week attending lectures given by Srila Narayan Maharaj. When the devotees returned to Bhaktivedanta Manor, they found that they had all been banned from the temple.' ISKCON leaders are now using tactics such as telling their devotee friends never to speak with these individuals again.' They are even turning families against each other. Two teachers from the state-accredited school situated at Bhaktivedanta Manor have lost their jobs as well as their right to even go onto the property. The children, some as young as 7 years old can no longer attend the school because they have accepted Srila Narayan Maharaja as their spiritual guide. Other children from the school were asked not to speak with these children about "their trip to Wales".' One man is used as security at Bhaktivedanta Manor even though he has a history of very violent behaviour. Yesterday, he was overheard to have said a few times that he would kill one of the women who have been involved with arranging this protest. We were told that this man would definitely be stationed at the main gate of Bhaktivedanta Manor on Sunday. Although the ladies who are protesting wanted to have the court put a restraining order on this man, the £120 cost was prohibitive as we are, for the most part single unworking mothers.' ACCOUNT OF THE DAY'S EVENTS:' Subject: Protest against ISKCON Hare Krishna Temple' On Sunday the 27th of August, a protest was held outside the main gates of Bhaktivedanta Manor, the main Hare Krishna temple in the UK under the auspices of ISKCON, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness.' Mainly women and children participated in the protest. They were protesting the decision of the temple management to ban them from worshipping at Bhaktivedanta Manor. The police left the protest after they were assured from members of the Bhaktivedanta Manor management at the gates that everything would remain peaceful. As soon as the police and the members of the press left, the same ISKCON management members at the gate beckoned to a group of twelve young Indian men who were waiting further up the road on the grounds of Bhaktivedanta Manor. These men came down to the gates, surrounded the women and children. Taunting and swearing at them, the men forcibly took their placards, smashing them and began tearing up their leaflets. The children were age 14 and under. The children were badly shaken but only suffered from minor injuries. Due to a passerby's intervention, the young men backed away from the crying women and children. He called the police and kindly waited until the police returned by which time the attackers had run back into the grounds of Bhaktivedanta Manor. Although management members stood and watched the attack, they told the police that they saw nothing. The management refused the ladies entry onto the property with the police to point out the attackers saying that we would have to get a court order to do so. There were around 15,000 people who attended the temple that day. One placard was saved by one 14 year old girl who ran and hid with it in a hedge.' Ironically, that one remaining placard said "BHAKTIVEDANTA MANOR HIDES THE TRUTH-WOMEN AND CHILDREN-ABUSED, WOMEN AND CHILDREN-BANNED. The women and children courageously carried on the protest with that placard and distributed around 3000 leaflets despite their cuts and bruises. The police apologised for leaving the protest and remained with them until 7:30pm with no further incident.' ************************************' If you are concerned about these issues and would like to receive more information, please contact: Asta Sakhi (01923)- 672073' Anandini at anandini@tinyworld.co.uk' For lectures by Srila Narayana Maharaja you can subscribe to our mailing' list Comment on this story  Contact VNN about this storySend this story to a friend
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