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EDITORIAL March 14, 1999 VNN3324 See Related VNN Stories The Ends Justify The Means BY PRATYATOSA DASA EDITORIAL, Mar 14 (VNN) — Dear Srila Prabhu, please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada! Thank you very much for your concern over the matter of this "$2 billion" class-action lawsuit. It is certainly not something which any of us should take lightly. You stated, "I was greatly alarmed by Pratyatosa's recent proposal to sue ISKCON for all it's worth - to the tune of $2 billion." First of all, how is this possible? Srila Prabhupada, in his divine wisdom, insisted that all of the temples be separately incorporated, so that it would not be possible for one lawsuit to destroy everything. The Robin George case, for example, did not result in any property loss for ISKCON. The $1.5 million settlement came out of the pockets of the ISKCON GBC men, which is exactly where the responsibility also lies for ISKCON's many cases of child abuse. I'd like to make it clear that I have no interest in this court case other than to try to get justice for the thousands of victims of abuse at the hands of the ISKCON leaders, and to replace these leaders with leaders who will actually begin to follow Srila Prabhupada's all important final order on how initiations are to be carried out within ISKCON. These bogus leaders are committing the greatest offense against the chanting of the Holy Name, that of disobeying the orders of the spiritual master. The final order is extremely clear and obvious to anyone who is not self-motivated. To say that Srila Prabhupada, our beloved spiritual master, left such an important policy unclear is another very great offense against our guru maharaj! You have expressed your opinion, but other vaisnavas do not agree with you: http://www.vnn.org/ubb/Forum1/HTML/000106.html You say that it would adversely impact many innocent people, but are any of us really innocent? The law of karma states that everyone receives the result of his or her sinful activities in an unfailingly just way. Speaking for myself, I am certainly not innocent, and will undoubtedly have to suffer greatly as a result of this lawsuit. The "ISKCON" that we see today is not the same ISKCON which we saw when Srila Prabhupada was here in his vapu form. Today's ISKCON is an empty shell where Srila Prabhupada's final order is being disobeyed. How can Srila Prabhupada be present in such an institution? What is your positive alternative? You seem to be simply complaining and criticizing, but you don't give any new ideas for a solution to ISKCON's many problems. How do you propose that justice be achieved? You don't seem to have anything to propose which has not already been tried, and which has not already failed to bring about a just conclusion to the mess that ISKCON currently finds itself in. The GBC has never even apologized to me for my son's getting sexually molested while enrolled at the Vrindavan Gurukula. They have never apologized to me for their policy of covering up the child abuse, which resulted in many victims becoming perpetrators. In order to keep anyone from finding out, they quietly moved the perpetrators to other temples, or even to other schools, where they molested even more innocent children! These atheistic materialists obviously do not believe in the law of karma. They simply wanted the parents to keep sending their children back to these "snake pits" called "gurukula ashrams" year after year in order to keep that tuition money coming in! The GBC's vicious attack, this year, against sincere, intelligent, hard-working vaisnavas such as Adridharan and Madhu Pandit shows one and all that the GBC are beyond being reasoned with, and are incapable of working cooperatively with their godbrothers. They consistently and repeatedly refuse to answer even the most simple and straightforward questions, so obviously the only way to get them to "fess up" is to get them on the witness stand, or in front of the deposition video cameras. I just received an email from a former GBC man. He stated, "...if a corporate officer in any firm would do even a fraction of the things that go on daily and routinely amongst the leadership of our ISKCON officers, they would be fired immediately, or indicted for misappropriation, embezzlement, extortion, in short, racketeering." He said that the laws governing non-profit organizations are very strict, and that these types of organizations must be very open and available to all of its members. This is not the case for ISKCON today. Therefore, the ISKCON leaders have left themselves open to prosecution. It is a king's duty to make sure that all of the citizens are happy and satisfied. Have the current ISKCON leaders been able to achieve this important goal? Obviously not! In the purport to Bhagavad Gita, 12.15, Srila Prabhupada states, "A few of a devotee's qualifications are further being described. No one is put into difficulty, anxiety, fearfulness or dissatisfaction by such a devotee." If certain ISKCON leaders are causing anyone to be put into a state of "difficulty, anxiety, fearfulness or dissatisfaction", then their qualifications as devotees should be looked at very carefully. If they do not fit this description that Srila Prabhupada himself has given, then they should be removed from their positions of leadership. In Bhagavad Gita 4.7/8, Lord Krishna says, "Whenever and wherever there is a decline in religious practice, O descendant of Bharata, and a predominant rise of irreligion--at that time I descend Myself. In order to deliver the pious and to annihilate the miscreants, as well as to reestablish the principles of religion, I advent Myself, millennium after millennium." In the purport Srila Prabhupada states, "Lord Sri Krishna descends for the specific purpose of mitigating the anxieties of the pure devotees." Could it be that this lawsuit is a case of "the ends justifying the means"? Could it be that Krishna Himself is descending as a lawsuit in order to get rid of the miscreants who have ruined ISKCON? Anyone who reads the Mahabharata knows that Lord Krishna doesn't fool around when it comes to "annihilating the miscreants". His sincere devotees were on both sides of the battle, but mass destruction unparalleled in human history was the result. What is one puny court case in comparison to the battle of Kuruksetra? These shameless GBC men, who broke the laws of man and God by illegally seizing control of ISKCON in 1978, and still have not resigned from their posts, should give up pretending to be gurus, and should immediately resign from the GBC! Those who, later on, joined the ranks of these lawbreakers, are all equally culpable. The temple presidents have the power to get rid of them. What are they waiting for? If the TPs really cared about the temples that they themselves are running, then they would band together and get rid of all of these GBC men, who have simply become a liability. This would definitely take the wind out of the sails of most of the present and future litigation against ISKCON, especially if the new GBC brought legal action against the former GBC men. Another example of the current GBC's being a liability, is their recent $1 million payoff to Harikesa/Russian Mafia, while at the same time, "throwing a bone" to the children who were the victims of sexual abuse in ISKCON's boarding schools. The fact that they can be so easily blackmailed by someone who has the "goods" on them is further evidence that the time for them to step aside is long overdue! The recent BBTI/ISKCON vs. Hansadutta court case demonstrates that Krishna and Srila Prabhupada are not always necessarily on the side of the present day farce known as ISKCON! This new court case is now out of my hands. Krishna is in control! Badrinarayan Dasa (GBC) even wrote over 1 1/2 years ago that "The writing is on the wall.": http://www.islandnet.com/krsna/vada/iskcon/abuse.htm The $120 million judgement which Badri is referring to in this memo, is the famous case which the Windle Turley law firm won on behalf of 11 former altar boys who were sexually molested by one Catholic priest in Dallas, Texas. This same law firm is currently studying Web pages such as the following: http://www.ccrgroup.com/voice/ http://www.press.uillinois.edu/f96/muster.html http://www.vnn.org/world/WD9903/WD11-3299.html http://www.islandnet.com/krsna/vada/nugas/gurukula.htm Shouldn't we be ashamed of what we have done to these children, which is now posted on the Internet for all of the world to see! What kind of preaching have we done for Srila Prabhupada? ISKCON, for the next 10,000 years, must be built on a very strong foundation. Let's help to create a foundation that is very strong and stable, rather than one which is weak and "wobbly", because of the current leaders committing the greatest offense against the chanting of the Holy Name, "disobeying the orders of the spiritual master". Let's try to be part of the solution, by putting pressure on these leaders to step down from the positions of authority which they no longer deserve to have! Many devotee victims are stepping forward to participate in this class-action suit. I don't even know who many of them are, because they have contacted the law firm directly, and have evoked the client/attorney privilege of confidentiality, which is protected by law. Even the FBI is not allowed to violate this privilege! Anyone who is interested in possibly joining this suit, may call Pam Reeves, Law Offices of Windle Turley, P.C., at 800-692-4025. Her e-mail address is pamr@wturley.com. Ms. Reeves has assured me of the strictest of confidentiality. Your servant, Pratyatosa Dasa (Howard Best) pratyatosa@hotmail.com http://www.com.org/hb/ptd/ See Related VNN Stories | Comment on this Story This story URL: http://www.vnn.org/editorials/ET9903/ET14-3324.html
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