07/29/98 - 1941 (see also VNN story #1924)

Dallas, Bay Watch or X-Files?

USA (VNN) - In recent months ISKCON has provided the public with several sequels of "TV Soap Operas". From a stream of guru/sannyasis dropping like teenagers out of high school to a "Dallas" style multi-million dollar court case over BBT copyrights. Some have sarcastically called for a moratorium: "Lets keep it to one guru per month blooping, ok?" - from "Comedy Central"

VNN has just received another report of an official announcement in some Eastern European ISKCON temples that Harikesa Swami has given up sannyas. The CEO takes off with the massage therapist? In case somebody deemed this unusual, the GBC recently assured the public on its PR website "CHAKRA" that their top sannyasi needs a "female" massage therapist and there was no other "male" massage therapist available worldwide to do the job right, only she had that "special touch". - from "Bay Watch"

A recent GBC statement announces that "[The GBC] regrets that to date there has been no significant change in the condition of Harikesa Maharaja". In the same text they state later: "he has been saying many things that are incoherent, implausible". Does this mean he has been like this for a long time? - from "Unsolved Mysteries"

The GBC has also recently asked the public for sympathy and understanding that Harikesa Swami, "after years of austerity" his health and mental state was ruined. The GBC seems to be referring to a man, who is being chauffeured in luxury automobiles from one luxury apartment to the next, accompanied with a "female massage therapist". Each one of these "Hilton style" apartments comes with its own 24 hour service of opulent food, no obligation to rise early or attend any temple programs or adhere to any strict work schedule. If the GBC considers this "austerity" - we are left to wonder what they consider luxury? - from "Lifestyle of the Rich and Famous"

Amongst the latest allegations is a massive loss of many million dollars (some speculate as much as 30 million) of BBTI funds in the recent collapse of the Russian stockmarket. The upcoming BBT/BBTI court case, has given room to speculation whether the entire spectacle of Harikesa Swami's resignation was an elaborate scheme to get Harikesa Swami out of the line of fire, since he had become a serious liability for the BBTI and ISKCON in the court case involving the possible loss of the copyrights to Srila Prabhupada's books. A BBTI spokesperson has denied any such losses: "...no BBT funds whatsoever were invested in the Russian stock exchange. ...some business-minded disciples of Harikesa Maharaj had been making investments, but I have no details of any gains or losses they may have made." (end quote) However, VNN has received reports from well-informed sources that some BBT officials have admitted to some loss in the recent stock market collapse. There is even speculation that this had been the final straw, that has pushed Harikesa Swami over the edge. - from "Wall Street" the series

After the steamy "Bay Watch" episodes the "X-Files" suspense was not far behind, with eyewitness reports going back a decade, telling of UFO research, construction of Flying Saucers that take off from ISKCON properties, never to be seen again, to hazardous "Perpetual Motion Machines" and all sorts of "Woodo" stories. - from "The X-Files"

We are left to wonder what will indeed happen to an estimated 100 million dollars that are currently believed to be stashed away in secret BBTI or personal Swiss bank accounts, possibly exclusively controlled by Harikesa Swami, who in the GBC's own admission is "speaking incoherent" and "has moments of lucidity" and is currently contested in an international court case, that could jeopardize the copyrights to Srila Prabhupada's books. - from "Dallas"

All this could be mistaken to be amusing and funny, but may not sit very well with the countless rank-and-file devotees who have given the best years of their lives to ISKCON and the countless Prabhupada disciples, that had to leave the mission of their guru, to make room for a few ambitious.

For many years Harikesa Swami's officially policy for sankirtan veterans, godbrothers, as well as disciples, was anything from: "If you cannot make your sankirtan quota, we have some other ass-like service for you" or "If you don't want to go on sankirtan anymore, all you can do here is wash pots in the kitchen" to "If they want to leave sankirtan kick them, if the want to leave sankirtan again - kick them again and if they want to leave sankirtan again - kick them again", pushing some of these sankirtan men and women to the point of attempting suicide (names withheld).

It is high time for some of these leaders to taste some of their own medicine which they have so generously prescribed to their godbrothers and faithful followers for decades.

But most likely it will be more of a "Golden Parachute", as it is called in the corporate world, where the top executives are paid millions of dollars to leave the company after they have run it into the ground.

And some are still wondering why the Ritvik idea is so popular today?