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WORLD  Formal Apology From His Holiness Bhakti Caru Swami BY CANDRASEKHAR ACARYA DASA USA, Feb 10 (VNN) — (see also VNN Story 6545) Dear readers, Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupad. What follows is the formal apology letter that His Holiness Bhakti Caru Swami wrote to Brahma Prabhu as well as to the BCS istagosthi conference regarding the statement he had made about His Holiness Tripurari Swami. Being Maharaja's secretary, I can tell that both Brahma Prabhu as well as Vicaru Prabhu (editor of SANGA), after having received this letter, wrote back to Maharaja, appreciating his mood of humility and repentence. Therefore, in order to make this issue a balanced affair, please read this apology letter. Thank you very much, Yours in the service of Srila Prabhupada and ISKCON, Candrasekhar Acarya dasa (secretary to H. H. Bhakti Caru Swami.) Apology letter: Dear readers, Please accept my best wishes. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. I just got to know that the following statement was printed in one of the writings by my secretary, Candrasekhar Acarya dasa. I feel extremely embarrassed that such a statement was broadcast in public. I am also extremely embarrassed that I made a statement like this. A godbrother of mine, Brahma Prabhu, wrote the following letter after reading that article. I am very thankful to him for correcting me. I also want to request you all not to harbor any negative opinion about Tripurari Maharaja due to my statement about him. I want to clearly declare that I was totally wrong to make such a statement. As a matter of fact, I am in no position to say such a thing about him. During the early days of ISKCON, he was a great hero of Srila Prabhupada's sankirtan movement. He was one of the pioneers of book distribution and he achieved a lot for Srila Prabhupada. That fact will become obvious from Brahma Prabhu's letter. It is a pity that, due to my weak memery I forgot about all the wonderful service Tripurari Maharaj rendered to Srila Prabhupada, and made such a derogatory statement about him. I feel extremely embarrassed about my mentality and dealings. I beg forgiveness from all the Vaisnavas whom I have offended by making such a statement. Bhakti Charu Swami I mentioned, "what about Srila Prabhupada was once told about Tripurari Swami selling a book to a lady by telling her that the book was about the power shortage in California?" Guru Maharaja (Bhakti Caru Swami) said, "I don't know in what context Srila Prabhuada was told that. These are misconceptions that caused so much damage to our society. In my opinion Tripurari caused the most damage to ISKCON. He destroyed book distribution. He introduced lying, changing up, cheating...and if he is so dear to Srila Prabhupada and loves Srila Prabhupada so much, then why did he leave him? Why did he leave ISKCON? These are not personalities to follow. I know that Srila Prabhupada was a very honest and noble man Dear Bhakti Caru Swami, Regarding the comments above posted on your website about Tripurari-Swami and book distribution. These comments reflect society consciousness at its worst. If T-Swami were a Guru in ISKCON you would not have singled him out. Being outside ISKCON makes T-Swami a convenient scapegoat. How book distribution affected the societies popular appeal began long before anyone named Tripurari was generally known. I joined the movement in 1972. I walked in the temple with sleeping bag in hand at 9am and by 11am I was in the street selling BTG, long hair and all. Even then people did not want to be bothered and they mostly just tried to avoid us. We chanted and that sometimes drew a crowd but people never lined up to buy books with money in hand like they did in India. Prabhupad set up the movement around book distribution. We were forced to sell books to support the temples. Every day on book distribution we faced a hostile crowd. If we met a few favorable people it made our day. And this was back in 1972. On top of the local pressure to sell books Prabhupad wanted money for the India projects and funded them through the BBT. Prabhupad knew we needed some grandeur to be widely appreciated in India and he meant to accomplish this by impressive projects. At the same time his hardback books were piling up in the warehouse. When Tripurari along with others developed the techniques to sell them Prabhupad was ecstatic. He named Tripurari "the incarnation of book distribution" and ordered him to train us all to sell his books. You allude that Prabhupad did not know what was going on in the airports and how his books were being sold. This is not a fact. Tripurari was in constant contact with Prabhupad and explained to him in detail the activities at the airport. Apart from that a number of leaders complained to Prabhupad about the techniques the distributors used and that the public was being alienated by book distribution. Prabhupad dismissed all their objections and strongly brought any dissidents into line. And you should note he never chastised Tripurari in any way about his techniques what to speak of the things you say about him. As a matter of fact Prabhupad often talked and laughed about how the books were being sold and even mentioned the energy crises incident above. Tripurari taught the devotees how to present the solution for every material problem from anxiety to world crises was solved in Prabhupads books. This did not require lying because it is a fact. Eventually all leaders enlisted Tripurari to train the book distributors in their temple or zone. And in spite of complaints from the public and still from some devotees Prabhupad pushed us even more over the years. Around 1976 he wrote, "Practically I am whipping them to sell books." Personally I was also concerned about public perception so in a Vrndavana darshan I said to Prabhupad, "I think the people don't like that we are bothering them to buy our books and asking them for money." Prabhupad replied something like this," Yes, we are giving them a book about Krishna, taking their money and using it to build this beautiful temple. Then we are inviting them all to come and enjoy it. But instead they want to keep their money, build themselves a palace, and put a fence around it. Then post a sign that says nobody can come in. So who is in the superior position?" From this it was clear to me that Prabhupad knew we were alienating people but he was willing to accept this in order to get the books out, support the temples and build the India projects. And it was evident that he trusted Tripurari enough to personally give him sanyass over the objections of the GBC who wanted Tripurari to follow the mandatory two-year wait called for in their resolutions. Looking at all this in hindsight I agree there were excesses and we could have done things better. But even if Miss Manners herself had personally trained us in book distribution etiquette, people would still have complained and fewer books would have been sold. No one likes being continuously bothered for money and that is what we did. At the time of Prabhupads departure the Western public generally saw us as little more than a bunch of pushy begging religious zealots. It was after Prabhupad was gone when the great guru scandals hit the press that public perception changed from considering us simply pushy zealots to seeing the Hare Krishnas as a religious Mafia. And now just when those old scandals were beginning to be forgotten the worst scandal of all has erupted about the schools. If there is any finger pointing to be done it should be toward those who created all these horrible scandals. To blame Tripurari Swami and other sincere book distributors for the bad reputation of ISKCON is simply ludicrous. We should consider what ISKCON would have been like with no book distribution. ISKCON would have consisted of neophyte devotees performing sankirtana and chanting japa while living in whatever small centers they could afford by selling incense and a few books to stores. Although there is nothing wrong with this picture spiritually it was simply not Prabhupads idea of dynamic preaching. The grand projects that established ISKCON in India, the farms and beautiful temples in the west, as well as the prestigious international BBT with its various departments would not exist, as we know them today. Seeing things from this view I am confident that Prabhupad knew what he wanted and did what he had to do in order to see his books distributed and his great movement established. If public perception was the most important ideal to consider than I don't believe Prabhupad would have sent us all out into the streets and airports to bother people to buy books. I was one of those early airport distributors trained personally by Tripurari Swami. I never once regretted this service I had the privilege to perform for His Divine Grace and neither do most book distributors I know. Your sharp words against Tripurari Swami and book distribution are an insult to all that struggled under those adverse conditions to sell Prabhupads books. Those words should be rethought and retracted because they are untrue and reflect your incomplete knowledge of Prabhupads feelings on the subject. Maharaja, I remember you as a very nice person with a good heart. You should also consider how those words affect the feelings of all those devotees who gave so much of themselves to fulfilling Prabhupads desire. It is now almost thirty years after we first began the great push to sell Bhagavad Gita and Srimad Bhagavatam in the airports and malls around the US. It was not an easy task but we did it and still most of us consider those book distribution days the best days of our lives. Respectfully, Brahma Das My dear Brahma Prabhu, Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. Thank you very much for correcting me. I felt extremely embarrassed when I got to know that my secretary posted those statements in public. I don't know why he did that. Ultimately, of course, I cannot blame anyone but myself for saying such a thing. I learned a very important lesson. A Vaisnava always sees the good qualities in others and never tries to find their faults. From this statement I became very much aware of what kind of person I am. Thank you very much for enlightening me with the facts about Tripurari Maharaja and his relationship with Srila Prabhupada. As you know, I joined very late, but still I heard about his glorious achievements. Those days were undoubtedly the most glorious period of our book distribution and Tripurari Maharaja was the greatest hero. Gradually, over a period of time, due to various happenings, perceptions and opinions changed, and I will admit that to a great extent, mine also did. That is why I made a comment like that. Thank you very much for taking the trouble to write to me and correct me. In order to retract that statement and express my repentance, I am posting your letter in that same istagosthi conference, along with my reply. If you have any other suggestion, please let me know. Your humble servant, Bhakti Caru Swami  Comment on this storyContact VNN about this storySend this story to a friend
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