11/13/97 - 1203

Sweet Milk

Dear VNN

Reading Mahabuddhi Prabhu's statement, I got extremely disturbed.

How could sweetened milk be served to Srila Prabhupada by his personal servant? This is very very dangerous, considering Srila Prabhupada was a diabetic and considering the diagnosis of the British expert quoted by Abhirama Prabhu. This in itself was poison for him - no need to add arsenic nor mercury.

Who was in charge of his diet?

What was his diet?

When I was in Vrindavan in late summer of 1977, Srila Prabhupada was given (sweetened) fruit juice. That also is not recommended for diabetics.

It appears, most of us were all so naive and ignorant that any shrewd individual, including quacks, Srila Prabhupada's godbrothers or disciples could have taken advantage of this fact. Besides, we were not to question or doubt the so called great leaders.

Being discriminative and critical is a prerogative to maintain good health. Even a social body like ISKCON needs critical inquiry in order to survive and stay healthy.

Mahabuddhi is right when he states that independent Vaishnava need to play a leading role in uncovering the truth. As has been reported by VNN in the case of Pratyatosa Prabhu, one wrong word and your thrown out of an ISKCON temple, never mind your 27 years of service.

Here a quote from Caraka:

"It is better to die than to be treated by a physician ignorant of the science of medicine. Because, like a blind person moving with the help of his hands or a boat being driven by the wind, a quack applies the course of treatment with ignorance. Such a quack may cure a few people by chance who would have got over the ailment automatically; but he is likely to kill in no time hundreds of patients who would have survived if treated properly"

Citrakara dasa