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October 18, 2000 VNN6337 Related VNN Stories Comment on this story
Iskcon Temple In Bangladesh Joins IRM
BY IRM
BANGLADESH, Oct 18 (VNN) — We report on yet another chapter in the IRM's rapidly successful step by step plan to return ISKCON back to Srila Prabhupada.
There has been an ISKCON temple in Khulna for 8 years. Khulna with nearly 2 million people is one of the four metropolitan cities of Bangladesh and has a university, a Medical college, and the country's only Telephone Cable and the biggest paper mill in Bangladesh. Khulna is also a divisional headquarter for Bangaldesh. Pretty much since the founding of the temple it was run as a zonal acharya temple with Jayapataka Swami (JPS) the main Guru, and Bhakti Caru Swami and Prabhavishnu Swami also having some influence here. The Temple President Vijay Gopinatha Das, was initially the Temple President of the ISKCON temple in Jessore. He was then asked by the GBC to then take on the responsibility of founding and developing a Temple in Khulna.
Then about 1 year ago as fate would have it, the Temple President of Khulna and a very important supporter of the Temple - a Professor Dwarkadish Adhikary of Jinaidaha College - visited the ISKCON Temple in Calcutta. There they were given a copy of 'The Final Order' - the IRM's position paper. The rest, as they say, is history.
They began to study 'The Final Order' and were extremely inspired and repeatedly visited Calcutta.They asked many questions and had all their doubts cleared up. It was very clear to them that it was indisputable that Srila Prabhupada alone was the Guru of ISKCON, just as he himself had ordered. They were determined that Srila Prabhupada's mercy must now be spread all over Bangladesh as well. Professor Dwarkadish Adikary therefore began to translate some of the IRM papers into Bengali in order to make it easier for all the devotees there to comprehend all the evidence. Within a short period of time the entire temple became convinced that Srila Prabhupada alone, and not Jayapataka Swami, was their eternal Guru. Next the devotees began preaching the good news to the entire congregation which consisted of many hundreds of devotees, most of whom were chanting Hare Krishna and following the principles. Gradually the ENTIRE congregation including big businessmen, intellectuals and Life members also accepted 'The Final Order'.
This transformation naturally caused immediate shockwaves throughout Bangladesh. JPS's camp which previously controlled the temple immediately took action to try and steal the devotees back from Srila Prabhupada. They tried in vain to convince the devotees that only JPS could give them shelter. They were extremely upset at the success of the IRM's preaching and they tried the usual tactics to counter this success. First they said that the leaders of the IRM were expelled. This was very quickly exposed as a lie since the GBC themselves had first rescinded this expulsion, and their latest attempt has been stayed by the High Court. So when this did not work they tried to frighten the devotees that the Parampara would come to an end if Srila Prabhupada was made the Guru of ISKCON. However this lie did not work either. In fact no one could understand HOW the parampara could possibly end by having Srila Prabhupada as the current link for the duration of ISKCON. When they realized their propaganda was having zero effect, the JPS camp next tried to open a rival center. Right near the ISKCON Khulna temple they tried opening a tiny center by renting a room in a nearby building. However this pathetic attempt was met with completely apathy by the public and the congregation, and thus they have been completely unsuccessful in combating the IRM in this city.
Under the IRM leadership the Temple is thriving like never before. There are over 12 full-time devotees living in the temple, with at least another dozen ready to join immediately. And along with the IRM's program to revive ISKCON according to Srila Prabhupada's original formula, the temple has regular harinama on the streets, and Srila Prabhupada's books are distributed daily. Amongst the huge congregation, there are already over *100* devotees who are ready and waiting to take initiation from *SRILA PRABHUPADA* and not the substitute GBC Gurus led by JPS. The temple even publishes its own magazine - Hare Krishna Gaur Vani - which is published with the IRM logo on the front cover. Thousands of copies are distributed monthly. Thus the public is fully aware of, and supportive of the Temple's attempt to promote only Srila Prabhupada.
Thus another amazing IRM success has been achieved again in Jayapataka Swami's own back-yard. As is well-known, Bangladesh along with South and Eastern India and Malaysia are where many of JP'S disciples are concentrated. We have already reported on the success we have had in breaking JPS's stronghold in the other areas, and no we have made in-roads into Bangladesh. This, as with all other breakthroughs, is simply the beginning, as the IRM begins to take a foothold in more and more countries, as we open up new fronts all the time. As will be seen from this story above, our success seems to be restricted only by how quickly we are able to get devotees inside ISKCON to read the Final Order. Once they do, it seems only be a matter of time before they return back to Srila Prabhupada's original mission, and join the IRM.
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