12/16/97 - 1367
An Open Letter to the GBC
Spain (VNN) - An Open Letter to the GBC -- After One Week of Odyssey
in Cyberspace
by Vedavyasa Dasa
One week ago, on Tuesday, Dec. 9th, after having read one day
earlier the Official GBC Statement on COM, I sent a reply to the
sender and all receivers:
Subject: Re: announcement
Date: Tue, 09 Dec 1997 16:00:34 +0100
From: Vedavyasa Dasa <cjansenc@nexo.es>
To: Bir.Krishna.das.Goswami@com.bbt.se, Global.Free.Forum@com.bbt.se,
X@com.bbt.se
References: 1
>COM: Bir Krishna das Goswami wrote:
> [Text 947843 from COM]
>
> STATEMENT by ISKCON
>
> Certain conspiracy theorists have been propagating of late .
. . etc.
My dear GBC Godbrothers,
please accept my humble obeisances.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Your recent official statement about "the poison issue" has surprised
and disappointed me. I could not help but be reminded of certain
communiqués given by government spokesmen who use well-crafted
rethoric in an attempt to put sensitive and uncomfortable issues
to rest.
I have been following the development of the investigation since
its earliest stages (via the Vaisnava News Network) http://www.vnn.org/
and I feel that the topic deserves a far more serious and balanced
approach than shown by your communication. There is still a lot
of ground to be covered and a long list of questions to be answered.
Self-righteousness is surely not the appropiate attitude. Furthermore,
to make across-the-board statements (using labels like "conspiracy
theorists", "malevolently motivated", "malicious" etc.) and thus
lumping in anyone anxious to find satisfactory answers to questions
surrounding Srila Prabhupada's final days is, in my humble opionion,
unjustified at best and offensive at worst --a way of dealing
I consider unbecoming the "ultimate managing authority" of Srila
Prabupada's preaching mission.
Please note that over two years ago, while doing research for
my book about Srila Prabhupada in Germany, one Godbrother (guru
and GBC), confided to me that, while being with His Divine Grace
during his last days in Vrindavan, he personally heard Prabhupada
say (in plain English) that he felt he was being poisoned. At
that time, the idea seemed to me so monstrous that it didn`t register
properly, but now, considering the circumstances, the possibility
can't just be dismissed as absurd, as you put it in your statement.
In regards to your way of handling this affair, one is left to
wonder why it took almost two weeks to write this short communiqué.
After all, the lab report was handed to Balavanta on Nov. 26th,
while your message was posted on COM on Dec. 7th. Why was the
report not made public, AS IT IS, immediately after receiving
it?
If questions like these are left up in the air, it will only add
to doubtfulness on part of those looking for satisfactory answers,
and it certainly does not foster trust in the Governing Board
Comission.
I hope that these points will be clarified for the benefit of
the entire Vaisnava community.
Yours in the service of Srila Prabhupada
Vedavyasa Dasa
***
The next day, I received a note from my mail server telling me
that my message could not
be delivered:
----- The following addresses had delivery problems -----
<X@com.bbt.se> (unrecoverable error)
----- Transcript of session follows -----
.. while talking to mail.bbt.se.:
>>> RCPT To:<X@com.bbt.se>
<<< 550 Conference cannot be written to by anyone
550 <X@com.bbt.se>... User unknown
----- Original message follows -----
***
I thought this was strange, since apparently Bir Krishna Goswami
had not had any problems
writing to X@com.bbt.se, which means to all COM users. And what
about Global Free Forum?
Although not indicated in the above note, my message had not been
posted there either. I
wrote to the SysOp to find out what happened:
Dear Raktambara Prabhu,
Pamho. AgtSP.
Yesterday I sent a reply to a message posted by Bir Krishna
Goswami to Free Global Forum and All Com Users.
Today I received the following note from my mail server:
----- The following addresses had delivery problems -----
<X@com.bbt.se> (unrecoverable error)
----- Transcript of session follows -----
.. while talking to mail.bbt.se.:
>>> RCPT To:<X@com.bbt.se>
<<< 550 Conference cannot be written to by anyone
550 <X@com.bbt.se>... User unknown
This seems strange, since the original message was written this
way (to X@com.bbt.se) and I simply addressed my response to all
the recipients.
Neither did the message make it to Global Free Forum.
Please enlighten me what happened.
Y.s. Vedavyasa Dasa
***
The next day I received the following reply:
Dear Vedavyasa Prabhu,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
The reason your message was not posted in Global Free Forum and
X (All COM Users) is that these conferences are moderated (X being
write protected as well). Since they have a very large membership,
they are meant for general announcements and not for discussions,
since such discussions may lead and have led in the past to numerous
offenses, flaming COM wars, etc. Your message was forwarded to
Bir Krishna Goswami, the author of the statement, so it is not
lost in oblivion. It was my negligence that I did not inform you
that your message was not posted in these public forums, and for
this I beg forgiveness from you.
Your servant,
Mukhya dd (asst. sysop)
****
I didn't feel satisfied with the answer, so I decided to contact
COM's supreme authority:
Dear Harikesa Maharaja,
Pamho. AgtSP.
Two days ago, in reply to the official statement posted on COM
regarding the "poison issue", I sent a message to all the recipients
(Global Free Forum and X Users). However, it was returned and,
upon my inquiry, I was offered the following explanation:
>The reason your message was not posted in Global Free Forum and
>X (All COM Users) is that these conferences are moderated (X
>being write protected aswell). Since they have a very large >membership,
they are meant for general announcements and not for >discussions,
since such discussions may lead and have >led in the past to numerous
offenses, flaming COM wars, etc.
Since COM is "your baby" and I suppose that its policies are monitored
by you, I am turning to you in order to gain a clearer understanding
in regards to the underlying reasons and, at the same time, offer
my observations and suggestions. I am told, "since such discussions
may lead and have led in the past to numerous offenses, flaming
COM wars, etc." As far as the past goes, I am hard pressed to
remember a scenario as described above. I have been a COM member
since the very early days (1987), and I am not aware of any flaming
wars on Global Free Forum ever. Therefore, in my opinion, the
reason given does not hold any ground. Now, of course, it may
be felt that the mere possibility ("may lead") is reason enough
to not allow an open discussion. I beg to differ. Any open discussion
can only be positive inasmuch as it helps to clear the air and
offers everyone the opportunity to voice their opinion and learn
to listen to other viewpoints. And if, indeed, somebody crosses
the line of Vaisnava etiquette, the other participants are there
to point out such unacceptable behavior and reign in the offender
by logic, reason, common sense and shastric evidence. If the person
remains uncooperative, then, as a last resort, he or she may be
excluded from further participation. Apart from such extreme situations
which, although unpalatable, are in itself another learning experience
for everyone involved, such discussions can only be good exercices
to sharpen our thoughtfulness and make use of our God-given intelligence
to understand a subject matter from all angles of vision.
In conclusion, I would like to ask you to revise the present COM
policy concerning open discussion and do the needful.
Yours in the service of Srila Prabhupada.
Vedavyasa Dasa
****
His Holiness replied as follows:
If you want to comment on the GBC message, then please write to
Premarnava das on COM who will then post your message for you
if he feels it is relevant to the GBC men. COM is run by Raktambara
das. He makes the policies and usually they are good. I am only
the ultimate issue and rarely do I take part in the discussions.
Hope you are well.
****
I scratched my head. Wow, who in the world is this Premarnava
das? Surely, must be a pretty important personality if he is screening
messages to the GBC in order to see whether they are relevant.
And are all the GBC members aware of this? Nevertheless, I dutifully
sent my letter to Premarnava das who, as I found out, is a disciple
of Harikesa Swami. That was on Friday, Dec. 12th. Now one week
has passed, since I tried to send my response to the GBC, but
I have not received any word from either Bir Krishna Goswami or
Premarnava das. Why this silence? Is my message so irrelevant?
I am putting herewith my case before the entire cyberspace Vaisnava
community for judgement. If I am wrong and never should have written
my message, please let me know why. And if you feel that I am
right, please speak up. And if it's anywhere inbetween, please
explain. One thing though has become clear to me. COM is not a
place where the free expression of thought is welcome. It is not
even an independent ISKCON communication network. It really is
an Intranet, a corporate network owned and operated by the NE-BBT,
and therefore controlled and monitored its CEO and his deputies.
Whoever thinks that messages in an intranet are secure and their
privacy assured, should wake up to reality. COM has definitely
the potential to be used as a cleverly conceived scheme to monitor
and control the information exchange between the most prominent
members of ISKCON. During its ten years of existence it has grown
from a small BBT intranet to a global ISKCON intranet --with the
original intranet structure still intact, only much more refined.
Maybe the GBC should think about revamping this system by putting
some urgently needed checks and balances into place.
Otherwise, just live with this reality: BIG GODBROTHER IS WATCHING
YOU!
Om tat sat
