10/10/1998 - 2342 ...(See Related VNN Stories)

Indian Community Outraged

LA, USA (VNN) - The following text is from a flyer being circulated in the Indian community in LA:

Los Angeles, California. Saturday, October 10, 1998.

The Indian community here is outraged at the irresponsible behavior of thelocal ISKCON Temple President Svavas (Emil Beca), the main GBC manBadrinarayan (Robert Morrill), and their lawyer Amarendra (David Liberman).The reason for this is the unfortunate death this past week of a baby boy ofRam Parashar and Sunanda Parashar, devotees who rent an apartment fromISKCON in Los Angeles. The child died in her mother's womb within a fewweeks of taking birth.

This tragedy happened because the President of the ISKCON Temple gave veryhard time to the Parashar family. Leaders of the Indian community in LosAngeles had been constantly writing to the ISKCON authorities to stoptorturing the family. But the arrogant Temple management and the GoverningBody Commission of ISKCON ignored all appeals and clear warnings. Theapprehension of the Indian community came to pass and the worst happened.Sunanda Parashar became so stressed and in anxiety over the impending unfairand untimely eviction that she lost her baby within a few weeks of herdelivery date. And this GBC Badrinarayan from San Diego is blaming RamParashar for this tragedy and calling on the Sheriff to complete the unfaireviction even some days after the loss of their child. And the ISKCONlawyer Amarendra (Liberman) carries out this unfair legal actions.

Ram Parashar is the son of a famous Indian politician of the yesteryears.His father was the minister with Dr Shankar Dayal Sharma (Ex President ofIndia) in Madhya Pradesh and subsequently a MP of LokSabha. Ram comes froma pious Brahmin family of scholars. He himself is a post graduate inComputer sciences from Chicago. His wife hails from Varanasi and has acomputer degree from New Jersey. The Parashars' two children are healthyand were born normally, without any complication. This was to be theirthird child.

The ISKCON Temple has some apartments in Los Angeles which are exemptedfrom taxes because ISKCON has not been candid and given questionableinformation to the tax authorities. These flats are rented with leases andall are charged regular rental rates instead of being provided to full timedevotees for Temple service. The devotee community feels very stronglyagainst the Temple President who has practically converted the ISKCON Templeinto his private kingdom. This Svavas runs the Temple and controls accountsbut he never likes to share with the life members and others due to fear ofbeing caught in private money-making business. Even Svavasa's sonimpregnated an unmarried girl who later left because of the tyrant behaviorof the family. And this son has been given the charge of the famousGovinda's Restaurant at the Temple. Svavasa's wife runs the big gift shopon the Temple property to the family benefit while the devotees suffer toget two square meals a day. And all the while this Svavasa is buying thelatest BMW car and controlling properties and putting all family members incontrol here and there over the devotees.

On the other hand, Ram Parashar is the only devotee whose whole familycomes regularly for the morning Temple program at 4.30 a.m. And Ram is oneof the best preachers in all of ISKCON. Ram and his wife have successfullypreached to innumerable high class families and Ram's only fault is he cannot tolerate nonsense of the ISKCON authorities. That is why Svavasa andBadrinarayan tried to throw out this innocent family against all Vaisnavareligious principles and even against all reason and civility. But leadersof Indian community strongly feel that protest should be done and it shouldbe made clear to the ISKCON managers and leaders that they can not havedifferent standards for different devotees. If a western guru is found tobe indulging in all nonsense homosexuality or child abuse, the GBC shieldshis sinful activities. But when the sincere devotees object to theirshameful conduct the ISKCON management wants to throw them out in thestreet.

This sinful behavior has now led to the most serious of tragedy and deathof an innocent, unborn Indian child. ISKCON Founder/Acarya A. C.Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada preached strongly to protect women andinnocent child. Why are ISKCON authorities rejecting his instructions ?Why is it that ISKCON cannot see their sinful behavior and they do the mostabominable action of attacking a pregnant woman and the stress is resultingin death of this innocent child?

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