Published On: Wed, Apr 3rd, 2013

Mediation between ISKCON Bangalore & ISKCON Mumbai

Bangalore, India – April 03, 2013 (VNN) by Usha Gururaj

bangalore-temple

Please find attached a set of documents to update the devotee community re. on the progress of the ongoing mediation. These documents consist of correspondence between between Madhu Pandit Prabhu , the GBC Bureau and the ISKCON GBC :

Justice Raveendran (the retired Supreme court justice who was appointed by the Supreme Court to oversee the present management at HK Hill, by the ISKCON Society of Karnataka a year ago) took an initiative to bring about an out of court settlement between two parties thru several mediation sittings.

The Bangalore group offered to bring the property in dispute in the court, which is the Hare Krishna Hill temple under the ownership of ISKCON registered in Mumbai if Bureau assured before the Supreme Court that the rtvik system of initiation practiced now will be the only system to continue and the preaching that Srila Prabhupada is guru of everyone in this temple will also continue. Then we went further to offer all the group properties, worth about 500 million dollars, about 20 temples in India to ISKCON registered in Mumbai with same condition on initiation.

To avoid court battles, they even offered that Madhu Pandit Dasa, Chanchalapathi Dasa and Jai Chaitanya Dasa will be out of management of the Hare Krishna Hill temple, which is disputed before the court.
The Bureau had its meeting with GBC on March 9, 2013 and rejected the condition on initiation and rejected the settlement offer. The Bureau’s foul cries that rtvik is just an excuse for Sri Madhu Pandit Dasa’s plan to grab properties now stands exposed as just mud slinging tactic. If they really believed this to be the case, why don’t they take the offer that would have included Madhu Pandit’s offer?

The attached documents should be read in the following time sequence:

  1. Letter dated Jan 25th, 2013 to Justice Raveendran
  2. Final Offer of Madhu Pandit Das to GBC and Bureau March 5th, 2013
  3. Final Synopsis offered to GBC by MPD on March 5th, 2013
  4. GBC cover letter March 9th, 2013
  5. GBC statement Final March 9th,2013
  6. Reply to GBC and Bureau March 14th, 2013
  7. Final letter to Justice Raveendran March 22nd, 2013