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| WORLD November 24, 1998 VNN2552 See Related VNN Stories Vineet Narain Addresses GBC BY VINEET NARAIN INDIA, Nov 24 (VNN) — Text from COM: From: Internet: Vineet Narain Date: 12-Nov-98 To: ICC (Indian Continental Committee) Subject: GBC Please Reply H. G. Ravindra Swaroop Prabhu, Member GBC ISKCON Respected Prabhu, Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. I am pained to learn about the content of the current GBC conference on me. What disappoints me is the fact that many of you get away with lies and yet claim your spiritual purity. The phrases being used in my context like; political ambitions, using ISKCON for personal gains, picking up Nava Yogendra Swami to use him to get political mileage, blackmailing ISKCON, are too alien to my thought process. On each of these allegations I can prove with evidence that you are grossly off the mark. A number of celebrities, activists and senior journalists of India will also give witness in the court or before the press if I call them to prove my point. They are eyewitnesses to what havoc the bogus guru system of ISKCON has caused to my personal and professional life. Despite their (these well known people) repeated advise to be careful of the ISKCON guru trap, I went ahead because I had developed faith in the philosophy of Srila Prabhupada. It is unfortunate that in our temples we create an aura of child molesters and homosexuals as mahabhagwat gurus. When their karma come to light, you people start searching for scapegoats. Unfortunately we as disciples are forced to listen to such gurus who have been created by you, because; Guru Mukh Padma Vakya-Chitta te kariye akya, aur na kariya mana asha. I fail to understand how can you have two measuring rods for the same crime? If a brahmachari does something immoral, he is thrown out of the temple but if the member of the GURU CLUB (GBC) does something so grave as exploring the private parts of a girl, he is allowed to accept disciples and annual vyas pooja, year after years, why? When a powerful guru like Harikesh deviates, you have the whole world pray for him and you continue to hoodwink the world by telling the devotees that his problems were due his austerities and his full dedication to the sankirtan movement. Do you mean to say that if one is so dedicated to the sankirtan movement then it is likely that he or she will land up in a situation like your best leader Harikesh did? What do you expect us to swallow? In the sections which deal the with amara ajnaya verse, in CC, Madhya-lila, 7.130, Srila Prabhupada clearly instructs that one can be a Guru & preach and further "It is best not to accept any disciples". Why is it that you always associate the word Guru with diksa. It appears just like a lusty man, who when he sees a woman, can only think of sex. The desire to make one's own disciple is so deep rooted that all threw out Srila Prabhupada's books, such persons associate the word Guru only with making Disciples. It was like a businessman who looks at everything as an opportunity to make money. The July 9th directive signed and authorized by Srila Prabhupada. Its time frame being applicable to the life of the institution and not to his physical absence, is being blatantly disobeyed, and therefore we have a compromised philosophy which accommodates the fallen guru concept, a movement in tatters and directionless. Incidentally do you ever think HOW you people have been bullying a number of sincere souls in the movement? If we want to debate the Guru issue within the society, you ban it. If we distribute literature based on Srila Prabhupad's Vani you throw-out a strict follower of Prabhupad's instructions Ram Parashar prabhu. If we hold quiet meetings of IRG, you tell devotees that they should not hear the poison (They should remain in darkness and continue to serve as slaves). If we go ahead with our meeting, you land up with seven muscle men to terrorize one of the most dedicated devotees i.e. Madhu Pandit prabhu. When your own sincere god brother H H Radhanath Swami proposes Guru - Reforms, we get the news from Mayapur that the disciples of one of you will beat all the GBC members if they even thought of such a move. (Is it a Vaishnav behavior? Please ask Dayaram prabhu.) From Rukmani in Alachua to thousands others in different part of the world, there are unlimited stories of your reign of terror. Please do not forget that politicians can sometimes (not always) get away with such expose because they are thick-skinned people. But as a spiritual society you will be no where if all the victims of your bogus guru system, bee line for media expose. Their horror stories will make good news for the world but the movement will be severely damaged. To avoid that I had very humbly written the following letter to all of you through your then Chairman Harikesha Swami (Ex). If you missed it then please read it carefully now. It will definitely help you to understand my mind and intentions. Please do not forget that this letter was written much before the trouble at Lucknow temple had started. So don't give this fake argument that I can't be trusted. By the way even for Lucknow you people did not respond till you encountered some press report in July 1998. Even after the Bombay meeting Badri Prabhu gave me a hopeless reply and then I had to resort to threat to solve that problem. What kind of people are you that you do not care for gentlemanly behavior? If you believe me then I am telling you that the release of my statement all over the country on Nov 2nd, was a slip from a journalist friend of mine. It did not have my approval and I am doing my best to repair the damage. But when I hear that you people make your own stories and start an all out attack on me I get upset. As the member of GBC you have full right to question me and ask for an explanation? If you feel I am not responding in a proper manner then off course you have a right to attack me. By the way if you think enough damage has already been done then you are mistaken. You have no idea how far things can go. But what is the point in doing that when the purpose is to reform and not destroy ISKCON. Do you realize how much damage your release in New York Times has done to your credibility. 700 newspapers picked that story. It has awakened the media in India and has generated a lot of interest to uncover the filth in ISKCON. Yet I managed to force my friend to issue a positive report about ISKCON through the same UNI network countrywide. I am sure none has informed you about that. Anyway in your own interest, please do look at the following letter and try to see the current situation in this light. You may one day realize that I am your well wisher and not an enemy. 25.2.98 To, The Chairman and all the members of G.B.C. ISKCON, Mayapur. Most respected maharajas and prabhus, All Glories to Shri Sri Radha Madhav. Please accept my humble obeisance at your lotus feet. All glories to Srila Prabhupad. Three years ago Shri Hansaduta (Ex-Mahabhagwat, Ex-Sanyasi and Ex-GBC) approached me with his Ritvik literature with a request to expose ISKCON's current Guru system. I did not respond to his frequent demands because I realised that his intention was to damage the society. Also H.H.NavYogendra Swami discouraged me from reading ritvik literature. Subsequently someone or the other kept sending me more of such literature from abroad, which I ignored to save my little sadhna. However, recently I was forced to read a research paper titled, 'The Final Order'. I find it shockingly revealing and very convincing. I have already conveyed my feelings to H.H. Nav Yogendra Swami. I think this paper should not be ignored or banned. My experience of two decades of investigative journalism is that whenever the government is guilty or scared of facing the truth it BANS my video news cassettes. It is a different matter that each time, after some legal battle, the govt. looses ground and gets embarrassed and exposed. Governments can afford to do this because politicians, as Srila Prabhupad described, are generally rascals and of demonic nature. But this behaviour can not be attributed to an spiritual authority. You will agree that a healthy, open, spiritual debate i.e. shastrarth is part of the great Vedic parampara, which is what our founder acharya Srila Prabhupad has so mercifully handed over to us. This is also to inform you that I have read the official response from the GBC to the Final Order, titled 'Disciples of My Disciples' which I found to be contradictory, inconclusive, evasive and totally in-adequate. This is my most humble request at the lotus feet of all of you; the great vaishnavas, sanyasis and GBCs to conduct an open debate during this Mayapur festival on the issue of ritvik. So the clouds of confusion are dispersed. Otherwise, I fear, the global simmering of this discontent, anguish and unrest may erupt into a volcano in future. The video / audio cassettes of this debate between H.G. Krishnakant (UK) and GBC should be readily available in all the ISKCON centers for the sincere devotees to understand the whole issue in right perspective. You know that in this age of information-blast with Internet and other methods, this issue can not be swept under the carpet. Also with electronic and print media becoming more and more competitive, their hunger for such "spicy - stuff" is increasing everyday. It will be disastrous if this whole issue gets projected as a 'scandal', 'racket' or 'scam' within ISKCON. Please see the things in this light and for God's sake don't misunderstand me. I am simply and frankly conveying my feelings, observations, concern and apprehensions. Because, I do feel that a large number of sincere souls, in ISKCON, are falling prey to the politics of their 'gurus'. This unfortunate trend is adversely affecting their abilities to contribute, positively and collectively to this noble mission meant for saving the whole world. It is so unfortunate that this great mission of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Srila Prabhupad has already seen several 'mahabhagwats' and 'non-mahabhagwat' links in the Parampara falling from the spiritual platform. It is horrifying to imagine the plight of those thousands of sincere disciples who for years worshipped these self-proclaimed 'acharyas' as direct representatives of Sri Hari . This has considerably damaged the reputation ISKCON in USA. No wonder why our senior devotees and sanyasis are now forced to conceal their identity in public in major American towns. I am sure that you will appreciate the true spirit behind this letter and would respond in the manner, which is in the best interest of this great mission. A mission which all of you have nurtured with your tapasya and sweat for the past three decades. Please pardon me for all my apradhs and kindly bless me to be an useful instrument in the service of Srila Prabhupad. Your most fallen servant Vishnumurti Dass (Vineet Narain) Editor-in-chief Investigative News Bureau Kalchakra Samachar Trust C-6/28, Safdurjung Development Area, New Delhi-110016. Tele; Office (011) 686-6280, Home (011) 689-2444 Fax; Office (011) 696-7399. e-mail; kalchakr@nda.vsnl.net.in vineetnarain@hotmail.com Chant Hare Krishna and be happy! All glories to His Divine Grace A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada! See Related VNN Stories This story URL: http://vaishnava-news-network.org/world/WD9811/WD24-2552.html |
