12/20/97 - 1398

Letter to Vipramukhya Swami

USA (VNN) - Letter from Pratyatosa Dasa:

Dear Vipramukhya Maharaj,

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

You said:

>We, the authors of the newsletter (which include at least 4
>sannyasis in good standing and several others), hope you may find it
>to be of service in your preaching.

Now you say:

"The CHAKRA team consists of Vipramukhya Swami, Umapati Swami, Gunagrahi Goswami, Madhusudani Radha devi dasi, Krishna Dharma Prabhu, Bhagavat Dharma Prabhu"

Three sannyasis is "at least 4"??? Your are rapidly loosing your credibility.

Here's another thing that you said:

>Trying to take advantage of the perceived state of confusion, the
>Ritviks have started an all-out "Misinformation Campaign," by sending
>e-mail messages all over ISKCON with such titles as "Boston Temple
>President Resorts to Illegal Slander."

I wrote that message complaining about a lie that was told about me by this temple president, who also said that I was "spreading nasty rumors about him" by reporting something that I had heard to the appropriate GBC men by private email. If these GBC men had any scruples, they would have investigated without revealing their source. This is the same sort of problem that happened in North Carolina, that you were supposed to investigate. A GBC/sannyasi/guru member of the local child protection team (CPT) broke confidence, and revealed the source of a child abuse complaint. This has the effect of putting a damper on anyone daring to come forward with any knowledge of child abuse in the future. Now you are doing the same thing by branding anyone who complains about the transgressions of an ISKCON authority "a ritvik".

The only "ritviks" that I have ever heard about are the original 11 that Srila Prabhupada appointed, plus Kapindra Swami in New York. I also heard that Hansaduta Dasa (one of the original 11) is now willing to perform the function, if called upon to do so.

Like I said before, your credibility is rapidly slipping.

Your servant,
Pratyatosa Dasa