© 1999 VNN
|
WORLD January 14, 1999 VNN2850 See Related VNN Stories Prabhupada's Magic: Cure For ISKCON Child Abuse - Part 2 BY RAGHUNATHA DASA USA, Jan 14 (VNN) — Prabhupada - his policies and philosophies are the cause of guru-kula's abuses. At least, I felt this was inferred by some of the recent articles printed in ISKCON Communications Journal that also cast the GBC as the leading force of change in our childcare reforms. I believe the "professional" view of these experts are wrong on both accounts. I relay how these reforms were in spite of the GBC and then detail the extent of Prabhupada's personal concern for us - children - based upon the sound principles of guru-kula: "apprenticeship" and followed by a solid commitment of his best resources and men. I conclude with the "recipe for reform" referred to as "Prabhupada's Magic." I use the success of our guru-kula newsletters and reunions as an example of this formula and how and why it works - as much for us as guru- kulis as for the movement at large. This should not be confused with Yadubar's essay called Prabhupada's Magic II "inspired" as he put, by this essay. It was postponed until its publication in the ISKCON Communications Journal - by their request and who has now decided not to use it after all. This essay inaugurates my daily newsletter. You can join by simply contacting me. Here is the 2nd part of the essay and the most dear to my heart. My own experience as a small, 11 year old child in guru-kula during Prabhupada's final days in Vrindavan, India, is a telling example to this sense of Prabhupada's loving care. There were the many incidents of personal attention I received from Prabhupada and there was his management that also meant as much. His decision often favored the individual situation of my school friends or parents over that of set policy. For me, it first started in LA 73, where Prabhupada wrote my mother about my "beautiful features" before singling me out 3 days later by handing me cookies from his vyasa-sana throne to pass on to smaller kids that hovered around after his morning class. About a week later, he stopped his Rolls Royce and had me climb in to join him on his daily morning walks which I did every day there after for a week or more. There are many instances where I received this kind of attention from Prabhupada though I was only one small child out of a community of 400 devotees. One day while sitting in his room, "spacing out" as he talked with others, he turned to me and asked, "Are you cold?" The window was open during a December evening. I was shirtless. "No Srila Prabhupada?" "How come?" he asked. "Because I chant Hare Krishna." Prabhupada was very pleased and gave me the name Raghunatha after the saintly Goswami known for his austerity. He took note of my potential discomfort and when I showed my willingness to accept it, he honored my sacrifice. He did not take it lightly - though only a boy of eight. More telling is the fact that he alone noticed I may be cold. This was Srila Prabhupada. And this has been the missing ingredient from much of the movement's operation - especially after Prabhupada's departure in 77. LA - 73, Dallas-75 and then Vrindavan 76-77, all had similar small incidents that left me feeling a personal sense of attention and concern from Srila Prabhupada. I even felt protected and loved at times - odd given the hardships of guru-kula. "Are they getting enough to eat?" he would ask on occasion in Vrindavan. A couple times he asked teasingly because we sang so softly while he rested - as the devotees did for him during his last days. Another time, he asked why we were so skinny. He responded in kind by arranging for better prasadam - meals. He instructed the Krishna Balarama Temple management to give us the remnants of the deities 4:30 am mangala arotic offering of sweets. It was an assortment of 5 different kinds of heavenly milk sweets - some of the best I have ever had. The sweets were previously going to the sanyasis - leaders. Later, Prabhupada found out we were getting significantly less in the name of "Prabhupada's breakfast." He promptly began sending us his breakfast "remnants" - a veritable feast. He even allowed us our own cook, budget and kitchen - a rare luxury of the day. There were other seemingly mundane concerns he made personal issue of; from getting enough play time - 2 hours (against teacher protest), to enough rest time - "eight hours" including 1 hour naps. And it didn't end there: "Why are your cloths so dirty?" he asked me on one occasion from his return palanquin visit to the temple. He had become so weak by then, he could not even walk the 20 feet to see the Deities. But he stopped his palanquin to ask me about my filthy cloths as boys are apt to be. This was the eye of Prabhupada. He noticed a passing detail out of hundreds of devotees - a small boy. I promptly answered before Prabhupada's full entourage of ISKCON leaders. "Because the teachers won't give me powdered soap Srila Prabhupada." My teachers were horrified. I felt as proud about this as I was embarrassed. I felt that Prabhupada found my condition noteworthy enough to make issue though I was just a kid. This kind of personal attention from Prabhupada was the "universal" experience with everyone who ever met Prabhupada. It created a sense that Prabhupada was watching over us as much for me as kid in Vrindavan as for the thousands of devotees throughout the world. It was magic. Prabhupada's magic. Prabhupada intervened a number of times over official set policy whether on guru-kula discipline or over temple devotees sending their kids to guru-kula. Srila Prabhupada for example, rebuffed Jagadish's plea for the need of corporal punishment for such "incorrigible" kids like Jagaman - a 13 year old and one of the first teenagers of the movement. Jagadish was the Minister of Education at the time and was trying to defend the right of teachers to "chastise" the kids with physical punishment after complaints were brought to Prabhupada's attention. Prabhupada said no - repeatedly. Prabhupada saw such on going "misbehavior" as a symptom that the child was "not properly engaged." Prabhupada had Jagaman transferred to a farm in Hydrabad in which he did much better. Another time, Prabhupada intervened on Kirtan's behalf - his mother was Prabhupada's cook. Kirtan was an 8 year old considered to be "a discipline problem." There were other instances as well. In one letter, Prabhupada writes that a teacher "should be beat" if he "slaps" a student. Other times, he instructed parents to personally attend to their child. Anirudha dasa, for example, was living with, being taken care of, and tutored by his mom though living in Vrindavan where our guru-kula was in full swing. This was true of others. He told Arandati devi dasi that tending to her child was her "deity worship" when she wrote him about her personal priority to "deity service" while someone else babysat. Such seemingly "contradictory" instructions are rarely repeated but were common to the devotees of the day when faced with a "unique" situation. Prabhupada often advised and arranged things to meet their individual needs. Perhaps more striking was Prabhupada's managerial involvement with guru-kula though officially "resigned" from all day to day ISKCON management - doctors orders. He formalized Bhagajis involvement with us. Bhagaji was one of Prabhupada's closest, personal friends in Vrindavan. Bhagaji is a great man remembered with the heavy heart of deep affection. Prabhupada also hand picked Yasodanandan to teach us though Yasoda was heading up the biggest fund raising "Sankirtan Party" in the world. He also appointed Dr. Sharma though unnoticed for such a post by everyone else associated with guru-kula - for he did not follow most of the basic requirements from chanting "sixteen rounds" of Hare Krishna to reading Prabhupada's books, or attending most temple functions and classes. Still, Prabhupada appointed him. Dr. Sharma is - in my 30 years of experience - the best principle of any guru-kula, if not gentlemen, I have ever come to know. Someday, we can hopefully give a more detailed list of Prabhupada's personal involvement in "hand-picking" from his best resources - not his worse. His "vision" versus what took place with guru-kula should also be more thoroughly examined. This is important. It will define Prabhupada's responsibility for the "shortcomings" of guru-kula vs the "Western devotees" translations of "Prabhupada's instructions." Example: Prabhupada: "show them the stick" - a finger thick, 2 foot long ruler. Teacher translation: breaking a 1 ¸ inch thick, by 3 feet long, "Smaranam (remember) Board" on a 10 year olds back side. Like so many other instances in the movement, this was immediately stopped once brought to Prabhupada's attention. Prabhupada: send a misbehaved child to the "corner." Translation: locked in small, dark, wet bathrooms for hours - sometimes days. Prabhupada: older boys can serve as "monitors" and the peer pressure will influence the younger to behave. Translation: encouraging bully's to beat kids up younger kids out of favor with teachers. And the list of such things goes on, and on, and... This kind of review of Prabhupada vs. guru-kula will also demonstrate the feasibility of guru-kula. Guru-kula literally means: Master's-Home. In short, guru-kula is the system common to every culture of the world as apprenticeship - the student lives with a teacher who is "master(ed)" in the art of ones interest. This is in contrast to the Western-Catholic style boarding-schools that guru-kula came to resemble for there was really no other master then, but Prabhupada. Boarding schools are often more a cattle ranch for housing disadvantaged kids as was the case of many guru-kulas. Reviewing these kinds of considerations will better define the movements single most sensitive area of controversy - Prabhupada's role in the past "mistakes" with, and vision for, women and children. That "vision" may be nicely summarized in this closing story about Vrindavan Guru-kula itself. Prabhupada's original request was for us to go to Mayapur like the Western "older boys" who arrived the year before us - 1975. Our friends told of the hardships they lived in Mayapur. We found Vrindavan far more welcoming. There was just five of us in this 2nd batch of Western kids to India; Deva Deva, Lila Smarana, Dwarkadish, Vrindavan and myself. We were 8 through 10 years of age at the time. We simply decided we wanted to stay in Vrindavan. We loved Vrindavan. Here is the amazing part. Prabhupada said fine and then built this huge school there in Vrindavan for us. There stands today, Vrindavan Guru-kula, 5 stories high and a football field big. Vrindavan Guru- kula is a testament to Prabhupada's commitment of resources to us - our education, our well being - our happiness. It exemplifies his sense of accommodation - a whole school to meet the personal preference of 5 young boys. The fact that Vrindavan Guru-kula became the most abusive of all the schools, personifies the contrast of Prabhupada's sincerest intent and most valiant efforts against the "devotees" translation of that kindness. This is seen all too often throughout the movement - especially in regard to women and children. A whole school for our personal accommodation - this was Srila Prabhupada. This was the Prabhupada I came to love as a child, the Prabhupada I came to know as a devotee and the Prabhupada I came to honor as a man. Prabhupada went the extra mile for us and so we did for him. Here is the formula of Prabhupada's Magic and the recipe for creating true reform whether it be our schools or childcare, the temples, leadership and society, or in our own personal relationships and endeavors. The real break through in all these youth and child protection programs is not so much the institutions themselves as created by the GBC leadership, but the caliber of men that have finally been attracted to run them. Here is the true hope for effective, long term reform and the basis for the movements change. My faith in the Child Protection Agency is only to the extent that Dira Govinda and Yasoda remain to run it. Their commitment to our well being seems solid if not greater then their loyalties to the movements political concerns. It was Dira Govinda who requested my response to Professor Burke's essay knowing full well the cutting voice with which I speak. This is an important testament that Dira Govinda will present even the most discomforting facts to the GBC. He is the first ISKCON representative to request me to make such a public address as well as the first to recognize my contributions to the 2nd generation. The Children of Krishna is similarly only as good as Anutama's involvement and those like him. Anutama is personally committed to making a difference to the youth - both as a father and as a friend. His duties as PR Director are only secondary to his commitment as a family man and so I trust this carries over to his kid as well - a gurukuli. The stands especially true for the Youth Minister, Manu. Manu is himself a veteran of guru-kula. He is overly protective of his "territory" at times and somewhat soft spoken about the concerns of the "older youth," but his passion and commitment to us remains unquestioned. It is also in honoring the parents that have done such a fine job by their own children that we may find the answers and resources to develop the same. Again, it comes down to individuals. The good news is that ISKCON finally has a crew with the competence and passion to affect real change - so long as they are not compromised in their concern for the youth. Their appointment remains to be the most significant act by the GBC to reforming our movements torrid past - as long as these people stay on to finish the job unhindered by the movements politics. Keep in focus the individuals' well being and all other intended goals will automatically be had. This is as true for our schools and child care reform as for the movement at large. I watch with cautious hope, but hope all the same, that we may finally once again see more of this loving care of Prabhupada's Magic. Raghunatha Anudasa@aol.com See Related VNN Stories | Comment on this Story This story URL: http://vaishnava-news-network.org/world/WD9901/WD14-2850.html
|
