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WORLD  Temple Visitors Denied Entry Into Iskcon Montreal BY SOUMITRA DAS CANADA, Jun 29 (VNN) — [All glories to Prabhupada and all glories to Lord Sri Krishnaji. As VNN is the leader of unraveling the truth, I have decided to send you my plea documenting how I was forcibly driven out of the temple room from the temple gate by a Hare Krishna devotee and was threatened and intimidated. As I regard VNN as a perfect acronym like Veritable Vaishnava News Network, I have placed enormous faith upon you to post my letter which will enable the devotees to know the fact concerning my being debarred from entering Montreal ISKCON temple by Raghumishra, a rowdy disciple of Srila Prabhupada. As Chakra will never post any veracious and truthful incident vis-a-vis ISKCON to conceal the rowdy behaviour of the ISKCON devotees towards the temple visitors, I have no choice but to repose my utmost faith in VNN to post this letter. Even though I didn't want to write this letter to VNN to acquaint everyone with how Prabhupada's philosophy - that ISKCON's door is open to everyone - is being repressed by a number of devotees, yet I have been compelled to do so as no one from ISKCON Montreal Administration looked into my situation] All glories to Srila Prabhupada. All glories to Lord Sri Krishnaji. Please accept my humble obeisance. Let me introduce myself before I write down for your kind and patient perusal my aggrieved complaint against the non-Vaishnava, rowdy behavior of a so-called devotee Raghumishra of ISKCON Montreal. My name is Soumitra Das. I shouldn't be mistaken for a Vaishnava Devotee because of the word "Das" [which is my family name instead] added to my first name. Ever since I was in Montreal, I had been a visitor to ISKCON Montreal mostly at the Sunday Program as well as at some big festivals for a number of years because of my inclination of Lord Sri Vishnu and Sri Krishna. Raghumishra, a Prabhupada disciple - having strayed from Vaishnava etiquette such as humility, non-violence, the two most common pillars upon which Vaishnavism is based - forcefully drove me out of ISKCON Montreal Temple at a Sunday Feast Program on May 19, 2002 and thus perceptively tarnished the reputation of being a Krishna Bhakta and Prabhupada Disciple as well. On the day of occurrence Raghumishra - appointed by the Temple Administrators to the post of a so-called Jay-Vijay to deter the temple visitors from entering Vaikunthaloka just to symbolically make a mockery of the Puranic episodes and devalue them - stopped me near the temple reception around 6:15 PM when I was about to take off my shoes before proceeding to the temple room. He told me that as I was late again, I wouldn't be permitted to enter the temple room. Owing to my patience having run out because of his harping on the same string all the time and his rude and curt behavior during my prior visit to the temple on Sunday in the past, I asked him whether that was his own temple, resulting in his being infuriated as usual as he is to be. In order to prevent others from noticing his flaring into rage and his intrinsic pugnacious attitude, he bustled me out of the temple and told me that he was going to throw me out and jostled me severely down the stairs. I somehow maintained balance and leaned against the wall to keep standing. Raghumishra ran at me, railed at me, saying to me, "Go to hell." When I asked him why he wasn't letting me in the temple room, he told me that I didn't have any rights to enter the temple as I didn't do any service in the temple. He - when asked whether entering the temple hinged upon doing services in the temple - said in the positive. Despite his repeated obstruction, I wanted to go to the temple in a bid to see the deities. He grabbed me by the hand and told me that he would break my neck and teeth. When asked who authorized him to deter my entry into the temple room, he told me that Vishwambhar Das, the present temple President commanded him to do so. I told him that if he wanted to take law into his own hands, then I would have to call the Police. Having been angered at this, he grabbed my hand again, attempted to punch me on the face repeatedly. Then in the face of stiff resistance I walked away and called the police. The police asked me to write a report against the accused. But I didn't take any stringent legal and judiciary action not to implicate ISKCON at the present crisis it is going through. I have never heard anyone to be barred from entering a temple during its stipulated openings hours. In the past I visited many temples in Bangladesh where there were no such rules stipulated for the visitors to come to the temple at this and that time. During the temple opening hours, anyone used to be permitted in the temple room. Raghumishra - who is intrinsically a pugnacious person and has a dubious track record of trying to beat up H.G. Krishna Chaitanya Dasa [ a disciple of H.H. Bhaktimarga Swami ], H.G. Nrishimhananda Dasa [ a disciple of H. H. Gopal Krishna Goshwami ] and even stepping towards H.H. Bhakti Raghava Swami to insult him - appears to have no gentle demeanor let alone Vaishnava etiquette except bullying the temple visitors and falling foul with almost everyone. If he is given free hand, he might even assault the female visitors in the foreseeable future. It is heartening to note here that most of the devotees I have encountered here hardly possess the basic human qualities such as good demeanor, tolerance which are even found in the Non-Vaishnava Karmi persons like me. I am totally flummoxed to think whether these devotees like Raghumishra have ever gone through the following verse of Srimad Bhagavatam referred to by Lord Kapila Deva ( Devahuti Nandan ] to His mother Devahuti and applied its inner meaning to their devotional lives. TEXT titikhava karunika suhrida sarva-dehinam ajata-satrava santa sadhava sadhu-bhushana SYNONYMS titikhava--tolerant; karunika--merciful; suhrida--friendly; sarva-dehinam--to all living entities; ajata-satrava--inimical to none; santa--peaceful; sadhava--abiding by scriptures; sadhu-bhushana--adorned with sublime characteristics. TRANSLATION The symptoms of a sadhu are that he is tolerant, merciful and friendly to all living entities. He has no enemies, he is peaceful, he abides by the scriptures, and all his characteristics are sublime. Had Raghumishra - boastful of taking initiation from Srila Prabhupada - ever read the above verse and applied it in his devotional life, then he never would have thought of attempting to bully me by threatening me with breaking my neck and teeth, and attempting to beat up H.G. Krishna Chaitanya Dasa & H.G. Nrishimhananda Dasa and insult H.H. Bhakti Raghava Swami. Never was there in the past any such criteria stipulated pertaining to the attending of the Sunday Program concerning the devotees and any visitors. All have changed since the new administration took over from H.H. Bhakti Raghava Swami last year under the leadership of Sri Vishwambhar Dasa. I have recently come under the wrath of the new administration which has of late placed some criteria that anyone intending to attend the Sunday Program has to appear at the Sunday Feast precisely at 5:30 PM. Since the end of December last year, I had been under intense pressure from the Temple administration officials because of my failure to attend the Sunday Program at 5:30 PM. They would quite often accuse me of visiting the temple on Sunday just to eat Prashad. Whereas I - who last year and at present due to other personal engagements wasn't able to appear precisely at 5:30 PM at the Sunday Program already curtailed by half an hour from 5:00 PM to 5:30 PM by the new Temple Administration in contravention of Srila Prabhupada's stipulations - would go to the temple mostly to attend the 8:00 clock Arati and Kirtan. During the tenure of one former Temple President and H.H. Bhakti Raghava Swami, I tried my best to do some service on Sunday. At that time, Raghumishra and other Prabhupada Disciples would hardly do any service and rather sit and prattle in the Prashad Room during the Bhagavad Gita Class. Now these devotees have engaged in coercing almost everyone into doing service without which they would bar them from entering the temple even to offer obeisance unto the Deities. I wasn't the only person who was denied entry to the temple on Sunday so far. There are many persons and devotees too who have been denied entry to the temple by Raghuishsra if they ever have failed to come to the temple on time and have been asked to stay out of the temple until 7:15 PM. I was told by an anonymous devotee that another temple visitor was turned away from the Temple entrance by Raghumishra last Sunday. One eventful situation possibly leading to the harsh treatment meted out to me last month could be traced back to December 15, 2001 when I inquired Samir Prabhu [ one of the Temple Administrators ] about some ISKCON related subject matters and eventually I called a spade a spade regarding his alleged attempts to split the Weekly Sankirtan program that has been burgeoning for the last 1 year in one part of Montreal region. I eventually got embroiled in altercation with him and was perceptibly brought at bay by his barrage of undesirable comments and gibe. I was extremely cut to the quick but rather unfazed by his outrageous comments on December 15 and his making insinuation accompanied by staring at me along with other temple devotees on December 30th, 2001 while I was speaking to a devotee. And since the beginning of this year I had to stop coming to the temple foreboding that I might meet with some untoward and ominous incidents because of my not liking for the new Administration which was always critical of H.H. Bhakti Raghava Swami, H.H. Gopal Krishna Goshwami - the latter of whom was banned about 7 years ago at the behest of Samir Prabhu, Lakshminath Das - an acerbic, acrimonious basher of the Indians and the Hindus. Vaishnava etiquette which forms the foundation stone of the characters and personality of the devotees seem to have disappeared from the devotees who are administering the Montreal Temple. Instead hooliganism, rowdyism, racketeering primarily led by Raghumishra in a mimetic gesture handed down by the Kauravas of the Mahabharata era such as Duryadhan and Duhshashan have taken precedence over the execution of practice of Bhakti-yoga in ISKCON Montreal. Through racketeering and rowdyism these devotees have suppressed Prabhupada's philosophy that "ISKCON's door is open to everyone." Unless this situation - resonant with racketeering, hooliganism, threatening on someone's life is brought to the notice of everyone and remedied forever for the betterment of the Vaishnavas and for the pacification of Lord Krishna, it will not only come to an end in the near future but also remain unabated and keep escalating. Initially I dithered and dawdled whether to write a letter in VNN not to malign anyone to the slightest extent. But as no one from the Temple Administration as well H.H. Bhaktimarga Swami [the GBC of this region] - whom I spoke to immediately after the incident with a view to apprising him of the whole episode and sought his help to look into the matter - has yet contacted me off his own accord to sympathize with me over this untoward incident and investigate into the matter, I have been left with no other options but to write this open letter to VNN to inform everyone belonging to the Vaishnava Society of the deteriorating situation prevailing vis-a-vis the administering of ISKCON Montreal and the debarring of the temple visitors from entering the Temple in Montreal temple. Soumitra Das Your Dasanudas Jai Lord Sri Krishnaji Contact VNN about this story  Send this story to a friend
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