© 1999 VNN
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USA January 15, 1999 VNN2855 See Related VNN Stories Ragunatha's Review Of The Child Abuse BY KRSNA AVATARA DASA USA, Jan 15 (VNN) — Dear readers, I think that Ragunatha's review of the child abuse is excellent, especially from a historical perspective. I was in his ashram when in Vrdavana, and we have known each other for about two decades. However, there are a few things about his perception of Children of Krishna(CKI) that I would like to clear up. He states: 80% of the $50,000 collected through Children Of Krishna went for just one of their self appointed "directors" and other "office expenses." Most of the youth was disgusted. However, the immediate threat of a law suit had dissipated. Coincidentally, the GBC found the Children of Krishna a great success. Today's Youth Minister was similarly viewed by most as an appointed "Representative of the GBC" for their business with the youth. The Youth Minister is NOT the "Representative of the Youth" to the GBC. Never has the 2nd generation been asked who they would like to represent them and its clear that they never will be asked. Nor should they ask to say. This Youth Minister appointment was also done under a similar cloud of potential law suites. Since I am the self appointed director you are referring to, I would like to clear something up. In any organization there needs to be some one to run it. In most non-profit organizations the executive directors are paid. My salary was $1600 a month. Given the fact that I have a business degree and a little bit of graduate work and experience, I don't think that by anybody's standard this is exorbitant. Personally, I thought it was too little, as public teachers are paid more. I worked between 40-60 hours a week. I had to call donors, write letters, write and mail the newsletters, call victims, make the blueprint for our forms, take calls in the middle of the night, and attend endless meetings. I worked hard. I had to build this organization from nothing. As far as the "office supplies" are concerned, any organization that intends to be around for longer than a year needs things like a computer, fax machine, file cabinets and the like. The money that we received the first year was seed money, meaning that we had to use it to build an organization-not give it all away. Every cent was accounted for and reported in the newsletters that we sent the donors and the second generation. In any most organization, the first year is the most expensive due to the start up costs. Eventually we found a way to cut cost by 62.5%. During my time as Executive Director, every grant request that had the information we requested was funded. So we had a 100% batting average; how much better could we have done? We are not apologist for ISKCON, in fact CKI is not even part of ISKCON; many recipients are not. Most of the youth were happy that at least something was being done. Ragu writes that ". However , the immediate threat of a law suit had dissipated". Anybody thing who thinks that the immediate threat of lawsuits have gone away, is thinking unrealistically. The threat is constantly present, as well as threats of negative publicity, books by second generation devotees, etc. In fact I am working on a book myself, and I took an interview with the AP six weeks ago. As far as the youth minister is concerned, Manu has asked repeatedly on the gurukula alumni conference and VY conference for help. It seems like nobody wants his thankless job. I do agree that nobody has asked the second generation what they want, except Annutama. I know the second generation would like some respect when they visit the temple, they would like our former headmaster of the Vrndavana gurukula who committed heinous abuses to never have any position within ISKCON including sanyasi again. The CPO is dealing with this issue right now. The director, Dira Govinda is an honest devotee who I trust will do the fair thing, is well educated and has much outside experience in this field. So, albeit much of this has been cause by lawsuits, and threat of bad press, hopefully the leaders have learned their lesson, and the future will be better. I agree with Ragu that this was all made possible by the newsletter that he started. Until then many second generation devotees were completely disenfranchised, wanted to have nothing to do with ISKCON, and thought all the leaders were jerks, including myself. The newsletter helped second generation devotees get in touch with each other, develop genuine friendships, regardless of the level of KC. Now I see nice reunions, many lifelong friend of mine are coming around, and a genuine bond between us exist that I have not seen from the first generation Krsna Avatara dasa See Related VNN Stories | Comment on this Story This story URL: http://vaishnava-news-network.org/usa/US9901/US15-2855.html
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