Indradyumna Swami's Example of Renunciation

Recently Dandavats.com posted a diary entry from Indradyumna Swami titled "Mysterious Antiques". As most devotees are aware, Indradyumna Swami has an ongoing habit of writing self promotional material under the guise of a "diary". The sole purpose of the diary is really to advertise himself and attract prospective disciples and donors. Much like Radhanath Swami and his "wonderful stories" that aim only to show how advanced he is, Indradyumna's writings also are just a collection of fabricated tales made to show how Krishna personally guides the advanced devotee - who happens to be none other than himself. The target audience is obviously the new and neophyte bhaktas who don't have enough philosophical training to spot such self promotion.

Recently Rochan prabhu has been highlighting this new style of "devotional writing", where there is no real philosophy and the sole aim is to promote oneself as a highly qualified guru. Satsvarupa has always been the senior expert of this genre. He has written perhaps a hundred books of useless gobblygook. Now that is truly a case where you really do need a guru decoder ring to understand what he is speaking - it is all nonsensical gibberish. Besides Satsvarupa, other prominent guru campaigners have followed similar styles, with Indradyumna being very prominent, and Radhanatha doing the same in spoken form (knowing his disciples will transcribe it and send it to all the faithful). Last week we had also highlighted Umapati's useless writings on his personal website (www.umapati.net), which contained plenty of utterly mundane topics, such as an article where he spoke about JonBennet Ramsey. So it is clear that this style of writing has become prominent in ISKCON, and is replacing the focus of new bhaktas. Instead of spending their time studying Srila Prabhupada's books, they are catching up on the lastest antics of their favorite superheros.

In the above cited diary entry of Indradyumna Swami, all I see detailed are the ignorant wanderings of a rich american in a third world country. That's the only real message I got out of it, nothing spiritual at all. For example, one of the subjects of the article is how he spent $200 to buy a tiger's tooth necklace to bring him protection. It is not only against international law to purchase or transport products made from endangered species, but it is also sinful to kill an animal just to make a fancy necklace. It is amazing that the Swami didn't have the material nor spiritual insight to figure this out:

As we turned to go I noticed a peculiar item on his desk.

"What's that?" I asked.

"It's not for sale," he replied.

"I just want to know what it is," I said.

"It's an old tiger's tooth," he said.

"In a silver casing with a chain," I said.

"Yes," he said. "It belonged to a king hundreds of years ago."

"Is it special?" I said.

"Very special," he replied.

"How so?" I asked.

"The person who wears it will never be troubled by bad dreams," he said. "He'll be blessed, and his dreams will be good."

"Wow!" said Dhruva. "That's incredible!"

I thought about my bad dreams the previous two nights. I couldn't resist looking closer at the mysterious tooth.

"Can I hold it?" I asked.

The man picked up the tooth and put it in my hand.

It was large and dark yellow, and the silver casing had ornate carving all over it. It spoke of antiquity.

"Thanks," I said and handed it back. We turned and started to walk to the door.

"Are you interested in buying the tooth?" the man said.

"No thanks," I said as we started to open the door. "I'm sure it's too expensive."

"Just wait," the man said. "I'm willing to let this piece go for cheaper."

Dhruva and I stopped and turned around.

"I think he needs the money," Dhruva whispered. "Looks like no one ever comes here."

"How much?" I said.

"Two hundred dollars," the man said.

"That's pretty cheap," Dhruva said.

"Not in Bangladesh," I said. "It's one of the poorest countries in the world."

"I'll buy it for you," Dhruva said, and he walked back in the store. After paying for the tooth, he came back and handed it to me.

Indradyumna Swami could have taken the opportunity to tell his disciple, Dhruva, that it is illegal to own a product made from an endangered species. He could also have told him that it is sinful to kill an animal for the sake of making a fancy necklace. Or at the very least he could have told him that one should not waste Srila Prabhupada's money for material enjoyment. But he didn't tell any of these things, he happily took the new fancy silver necklace and put it around his neck.

This displays another huge problem in ISKCON. ISKCON Gurus are stealing money that should go to Srila Prabhupada's movement, and instead diverting it for their own sense gratification. Spending $200, which is around 10,000 rupees (enough money to run a small ISKCON temple an entire month in India), on personal fancy jewellery is hardly the best example one would expect from a sannyasi. We have countless examples of past ISKCON "Gurus" purchasing golden plates for themselves to eat off of, expensive clothes, jewellery, and so many other nonsensical things, most of which are later given away as "prasadam" to the cute looking lady disciples. The fact that Indradyumna didn't even blink or hesitate a second when spending $200 US dollars to buy himself fancy jewellery shows it is a regular spending habit. It's clear that this isn't the first time he has spent money like this, he has a lot of experience spending money whimsically. These false gurus are often surrounded by neophyte disciples who are eager to serve their gurus by buying them unique and exotic things. Unfortunately, the fake gurus take advantage of this kind sentiment and engage their disciples in buying all sorts of mundane things like Tiger's teeth necklaces. This money should really be directed towards the lotus feet of Srila Prabhupada, but instead it buys fancy jewellery for ISKCON sannyasis.

We should note that originally Indradyumna doesn't even know what the jewellery is, yet he is so attracted to it. He wrote:

"I just want to know what it is."

So even though he has no idea what this fancy, shiny jewellery is, this sannyasi has an immediate attraction for it and starts the process of purchasing it, knowing his disciple is there to foot the bill.

Let us now look at the philosophical message Indradyumna Swami presents in this diary entry. He wrote:

"The person who wears it will never be troubled by bad dreams," he said. "He'll be blessed, and his dreams will be good."

I thought about my bad dreams the previous two nights. I couldn't resist looking closer at the mysterious tooth.

Indradyumna Swami doesn't have faith that for protection devotees should chant Lord Krishna's holy name and pray to Srila Prabhupada and Lord Nrisimhadeva. Instead he feels an expensive talisman, a tiger's tooth necklace, is what is really required for devotees to be protected from bad dreams. What type of nonsense is Indradyumna Swami teaching to his disciples by his words and actions? If Lord Krishna's names cannot protect Indradyumna Swami from bad dreams, then nothing in this universe can protect him. Or perhaps the problem is he isn't actually chanting Lord Krishna's names anymore, like many of the other GBC and gurus. Whatever the case, it is clear by his actions that his faith in the transcendental potency of Lord Krishna's names is very small. He feels that the real solution to all his problems are not in Lord Krishna's name, but in a special talisman, an illegal Tiger's tooth necklace.

Next we would like to study Indradyumna's level of common intelligence. He writes about the Tiger's tooth:

"Yes," he said. "It belonged to a king hundreds of years ago."

And later he writes about several pairs of deities which "must be hundreds and hundreds of years old", which he later bought for $100 US Dollars. Anyone who has experience living in third world countries knows this is the oldest trick in the book. There are many special factories where they manufacture deities and make them appear old or antique using various chemicals. In India it is common to find people selling "antique coins" dating from hundreds of years ago. They sit with piles of them at many holy places, selling the coins to foolish tourists. The reality is they are all brand new forgeries, treated by chemical processes to appear old. Indradyumna falling for the line about his tiger's tooth previously belonging to a king hundreds of years ago shows he is just a foolish American in a third world country waiting to be ripped off. Later when he falls for the same line about the deities, it just confirms his stupidity. In there countries the customs officers are specifically trained to catch the smuggling of antique dieties, which are usually valued well above $15,000 US dollars each. The thought that Indradyumna found a real set of deities that were hundreds of years ago, and bought them for a mere $100 USD is hilarious. If they were even made from high quality brass, they could have melted them and received more than $100 USD just for the metal. The fact is they are made from cheaper metal combinations, primarily zinc, but given a high grade external polish to look nice (and ancient) to the tourists.

A few other portions of the diary entry caught my eye and deserve comment. For example this line which shows that Indradyumna just globe hops like a rich hippy, with no particular predesigned plan. Suddenly hop on a plane and go for an adventurous vacation at the expense of the disciples' donations:

Later in the day, I telephoned my disciple Dhruva das to ask about the possibility of visiting another holy place in India before our scheduled Vrindavan parikramas in Kartika. We talked about Haridwar, Tirupati, and Udupi. Then suddenly I had an inspiration.

"Let's go to Bangladesh," I said, "and visit the great saint Narottam das Thakur's birthplace in Keturi.

The following also shows that Indradyumna was more interested in going to the tourist resorts than visiting the ISKCON temple. He could have easily waited another 2 minutes to find a taxi that was willing to take him to the ISKCON temple, but instead he just said, "show me the beautiful tourist spots":

There was a lot of traffic and we waited a long time for a taxi. "Let's go to the temple," I said to Dhruva as we finally stepped into a taxi. But the driver refused.

"Is it dangerous to drive there?" I said.

"Not today," he replied. "But it's too far and I'm stopping work soon."

But neither Dhruva nor I wanted to wait on the street any longer. "Then take us to a
beautiful part of the city," I said.

The driver laughed. "There's not much beautiful about this city," he said.

"Well then," I said, "take us where the tourists go."

"What tourists?" he said.

So rather than try to go to the ISKCON temple for preaching and associating with devotees, this ISKCON sannyasi asks to go to the beautiful tourist areas in the city. Again, the fact that there is no hesitation on the part of Indradyumna Swami shows he has a lot of experience going to beautiful tourist places while he travels. Otherwise, how would that be his immediate next response.

At the conclusion of the diary entry, Indradyumna lets us all know what was the final lesson his dear disciple learned from him on the trip:

"Dhruva!" I said excitedly. "I just had an amazing dream. I dreamt we were on Harinama in a Muslim village. As we chanted through the village all the people came out of their houses to sing with us. They were singing 'Allah Akbar!' and we were singing 'Hare Krishna.' We all joined hands and danced together in bliss. It was so vivid!"

Dhruva looked at the tiger's tooth around my neck. "Guru Maharaja," he said, "that's exactly what the man said would happen if you wore that tiger's tooth. Just imagine if we'd been able to get the peacock feather, the coin, the deity of Ganesh, and the special pot that neutralizes poison."

Indradyumna had previously highlighted these magical items, all being sold by the "antique dealer", as follows:

"I can show you some unusual items," he said, "but I have to go home to get them. I don't keep them here."

"Like what kind of interesting things?" Dhruva asked.

"I have a centuries-old coin," he said. "If you put grains on it, they'll immediately disappear."

"Is that true?" Dhruva said.

"I also have a peacock feather that casts no shadow."

"Wow!" said Dhruva.

"I have a deity of Ganesh that doesn't appear in any photo you take of him."

"Really?" said Dhruva.

"And I have a pot that neutralizes poison."

"Neutralizes poison?" said Dhruva.

So in conclusion, the message we really get is this: "Geepers, if we had just managed to collect all the magical crap that the antique fellow was selling then our Krishna consciousness would be perfect!" That's the final conclusion we get from Indradyumna. The purpose of Krishna consciousness is to wander the globe like a hippy, going in search of talismans, magic beans and mystical pixie dust. This is the essence of Indradyumna's fabricated "diaries of a traveling preacher".

At the very beginning of his diary entry, he began by stating:

"Going to India is more of a necessity than a luxury for one in the renounced order of life."

What in his description is anything but a luxury? A rich, globe hopping American who roams like a hippy, living off the expense of foolish disciples, and squandering Srila Prabhupada's money for fancy illegal jewellery. All glories to Indradyumna Swami.

(Keywords: Hare Krishna, ISKCON, Indradyumna Swami)

Another Pretender Guru Falls Down

Again word from Mayapur that another false guru, Bhakti Vidya Purna Swami, has fallen down with an underaged minor. If it had occurred in the United States the criminal would be subjected to a prison sentence. But since it has happened in India, and under the protection of the GBC, it is swept under the carpet and forgotten. It's not that people weren't aware of what was going on. For months people had been seeing Bhakti Vidya Purna Swami going around with this girl, him riding a motorcycle with her sitting on the back, right up next to him, cruising the back roads of Mayapur. Every single resident of Mayapur had seen it, and they all knew, but he was needed to run the gurukula, so they just let it go. I guess they were happy that at least he wasn't a homosexual, like the last three Mayapur Swamis (Bhavananda, Nitai Chand and Satadhanya).

A few months ago some of his disciples had complained to me that he was spending the entire day, from morning till evening, at the all-girls school, "teaching" the girls Bhagavad Gita, just so he could be around this girl. That's a lot of Bhagavad Gita to be teaching these young girls, wouldn't you think? From morning till evening. And then there were the secret rides out into the sunset with the girl on the back of his motorcycle, which everyone was aware of. Most of the people running the school were his disciples, so they couldn't say anything. They just silently went along and said, "Oh well."

The Mayapur management needs him to run one of the last few boys gurukulas left in ISKCON, so I wouldn't expect any push on their part to punish him. The word is it will be called an "accidental falldown", and not need to be disclosed to the public. This way they can keep the whole event internal, just amongst the Mayapur community, without having to really punish him or close the boys gurukula. These "accidental falldowns" seem to be quite common nowadays. Satsvarupa was also involved in an "accidental falldown", whereby he was able to hold onto his fake guru post and fake sannyasa. Till this day Satsvarupa is certified "as good as God" by the GBC. Suhotra Swami is another member of the "accidental falldown" guru club. Coincidently he also lives together with Bhakti Vidya Purna Swami at the Mayapur gurukula. After Suhotra's falldown, he had pledged to rededicate himself to sannyasa vows under the direct personal guidance and supervision of Bhakti Vidya Purna Swami. I guess that wasn't a very good idea, was it?

Suhotra had a special bonus with his accidental falldown, he got a nifty new pada title to add to his name. His actions had actually been so ridiculous that they couldn't cover it up and let him remain a sannyasi, but at the same time they didn't want to say he fell down. So they said he "downgraded himself to vanaprastha." What exactly does it mean when a sannyasi downgrades to vanaprastha? They could have just said he was caught going to prostitutes, but that wouldn't have sounded as advanced. So instead they decided to "downgrade him to vanaprastha". At the same time they wanted to cover up the fall down, so they announced that the GBC had awarded him a new name in recognition of his "severely austere nature". From now on he would be known as Tapovanacari - "the vanaprastha who does severe austerities (tapasya)". Yes, he is now Suhotra Das Tapovanacari - not just regular vanacari, but TAPOvanacari. So the good news for Bhakti Vidya Purna Swami is if he is lucky he may end up with a nifty new pada name like Suhotra got.

What's the lesson for the rest of us small time ISKCON devotees to learn? I really don't know. It's tough to figure out a spiritual moral from this, but maybe it's this:

If you go along with the corrupt GBC, you can remain a guru and sannyasi even if you are engaged in illicit activity. But if you happen to think Srila Prabhupada is the primary spiritual master of all devotees, you are banned, beaten, and thrown out of ISKCON forever. How long will everyone keep pretending things are getting better? When will you realize the GBC is corrupt from top to bottom. Just like they cover the falls of these small time gurus, they are also covering the falls of the bigtime gurus as well. How many disciples really know who their guru actualy is - what type of person is he? You see them for one day a year as they zip by to receive their yearly worship and dakshina from you and your temple. Do you have any idea how your guru lives, what he actually does, or anything at all about him? No. You see him for an hour a year, and you only see the big guru show they put on as they pass through.

It is a fact that the majority of ISKCON gurus no longer live in ISKCON temples, but have private houses where they stay with a few servants to take care of them. It is also a fact that the majority of high profile ISKCON gurus are multi millionaires. Take for example Bhakti Caru Swami, who a couple months ago pledged to donate $1,000,000 USD of his personal money to the GBC to be used for the child abuse court case. Where does someone like Bhakti Caru get $1,000,000? And do you think he is completely giving 100% of his total money? No way. If he is giving one million dollars that means he is sitting on 30 or 40 million dollars. Gaudiya sannyasis are traditionally known as "Tridandi Bhikshu", which literally means "street beggar", and several ISKCON millionaire sannyasis even print this title on their letterheads.

It is time for ISKCON devotees to see that the present gurus are looting Srila Prabhupada's movement of all it's finances. Why are the temples throughout the world struggling to stay open, and struggling to pay the bills? It is because all of the local money is sent off to these rich gurus. They initiate the local devotees, and then suddenly the temple loses it's donation base as the money is sent to millionaire gurus with swiss bank accounts. Money that should be going to build up Srila Prabhupada's temples locally is instead being sent to false Swamis who use it to continue their lives of sense gratification.

(Keywords: Hare Krishna, ISKCON)

IRM dissolves amongst inflated Egos

One very simple way to judge the honesty and integrity of an organization is by seeing the amount of transparency that exists within that organization. Everyone knows from past experience ISKCON fails miserably in the categories of transparency, honesty and freedom to question. Full time members who are dedicated preachers within ISKCON are completely forbidden from asking any questions whatsoever about higher up leadership, for fear of ending up alone on the street. At every step, devotees are encouraged to remain blind and to avoid digging up the past, present or future. This inability to question leadership is one of the main reasons why so much corruption exists within ISKCON. Part of the problem is that in most cases ISKCON leaders are invariably the Gurus of those working under them. Thus it becomes “offensive” to even think something wrong may be occurring up there.

In response to this, some devotees look to the IRM (ISKCON Revival Movement), to cleanse ISKCON and bring about a transformation in ISKCON where honesty, transparency and freedom are key defining aspects of the society. The IRM presents itself as a grass roots movement comprised of all those devotees who want to follow Srila Prabhupada’s pure instructions. From a distance this sounds good, but as you get closer you see there are some very peculiar symptoms which are reminiscent of the corrupt ISKCON they claim to be cleansing.

Over the last few months there have been many rumors coming out about the IRM from highly reliable internal sources, which indicate things are not all smiles. For example, IRM world headquarters (the gigantic ISKCON Bangalore temple ran by Madhu Pandit Das) removed themselves from the IRM and demanded Krishnakant remove their address from both the IRM website and the IRM magazines (Back to Prabhupada). The Bangalore temple, as Prabhupadanugas, still remain friendly with the IRM, but do not want to be officially associated with them.

A second rumor that had been going around was that the Singapore ISKCON temple, ran by Sundar Gopal Das, walked out of the IRM as well, due to disagreements with Krishnakant over initiations. Krishnakant told him that no one can be given ritvik initiation because only the corrupt GBC had the right to appoint ritviks. Without being first appointed by the GBC, you do not have authority to initiate on Srila Prabhupada’s behalf.

All the while that these rumors were going around, the official IRM “leaders” Krishnakant and Yaduraj, both from England, carefully avoided these topics. When the questions came up on other forums, Yaduraj would even post under fake usernames saying “Those all sound like a bunch of rumors to me, I’m sure there is no truth to them.”

This month a third rumor came out, again from highly reliable sources in Bangalore, that Madhu Pandit had planned to give ritvik initiation to 200 devotees. The devotees had already been informed that they would be initiated and the date of the initiation was fixed. In the past many devotees had already been initiated in Bangalore by the same system. But Krishnakant ran to Bangalore and forced Madhu Pandit to cancel the initiations citing the same argument: only the GBC can appoint ritviks, so without first reforming the GBC no one can be initiated.

Having heard all these rumors from highly reliable sources, I thought I would give the IRM the chance to explain their position themselves. I had gone through their website, noted their FAQs and saw how they claimed to be a grass roots organization made up of virtually every Prabhupadanuga follower in the world. I also saw they had projected two of their members, Krishnakant and Yaduraj, as the worldwide “leaders” of IRM. In their forums they even had a separate section "for leaders of IRM to post" (who really only referred toYaduraj and Krishnakant). Also in the Bangalore and Singapore temple stories, it was clear some leader was trying to exert their power over the temples to conform to their opinion. This brought up some serious questions about these two characters, primarily who appointed them as the worldwide “leaders” of the Prabhupadanugas? I decided to ask them politely to see if the rumors could be put to rest with their direct explanation. I went to their forum and posted the following four questions, requesting them to help remove the rumors:

1) I have heard rumors that Bangalore temple was going to initiate many people as disciples of Srila Prabhupada, but that IRM leaders have stepped in to block it. Could someone from IRM explain the real story behind this, and if its true, what was the reason for stopping the initiations?

2) Already Bangalore temple has initiated hundreds of people as disciples of Srila Prabhupada. What is the IRM's opinion on these past initiations? If they are still considered valid, then why stop new initiations?

3) Who exactly are the leaders of the IRM, who has appointed them and when? On the website there is no clear indication about a leadership hierarchy. It seems to describe IRM more as a grass roots movement, with anyone who follows Srila Prabhupada being a member. But then we see there is a seperate forum "for leaders of IRM to post" (who seem to be only Yaduraj and Krishnakanth) and we see that there are obviously some leaders acting, for example in the Bangalore initiation case.

4) There have been rumors that the Singapore temple has left the IRM and has already started giving ritvik initiations to people independently. Could someone from the IRM make a clear statement on what has happened and what is the disagreement?

Rather than getting an honest answer from the IRM leaders (Krishnakant and Yaduraj), I was surprised that they immediately banned me from the forums and deleted all past messages I had ever posted. The forums are personally administered by Yaduraj, so it became obvious that he had something to hide and didn’t want these questions being seen by anyone.

Seeing that I wouldn’t be able to get an answer from them directly, I posted the same questions on a neutral forum (http://www.bhaktiforums.com/harikatha/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=152) and emailed the link to both Yaduraj and Krishnakant. In an attempt to hide the truth, Yaduraj began posting under the fake name of VISNU (which was latter proven to be himself here: http://www.bhaktiforums.com/harikatha/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=897#897) saying it was all just rumors, and that he had just spoken with “Yaduraj” who told him there was some technical problem with their forums resulting in their forums being disabled. He further went on to glorify Krishnakant concluding that “Krishnakant is leader of the IRM worldwide.” He also said: “The IRM Forum Admin [Yaduraj] told me the forums are down, and some posts were deleted, but they are working to get it back up - perhaps in a new Q&A style for those interested in the philosophy.”

I went to their websites front page and saw they had removed all links to their forums. I thought, “This is amazing. They are so scared of these four simple and honest questions, that they have removed their entire forums from their website instantly.” They tried to cover this up by saying it was a “technical problem” and the forums weren’t working any more. But I remembered the direct URL to the forums, and went there to see. It turned out they had only removed the link to the forums from their website, but they had forgotten to actually disable the forums. I again pointed out in the above thread that the forums are fine, and anyone can visit them using the direct link.

When Yaduraj saw this, he went and deleted every single message from the IRM forums, literally thousands of messages. All that he left was the “IRM Leaders Forum” where only himself and Krishnakant could post. I began to wonder what were they trying so hard to cover up. At this point I didn’t know the complete answer to my four questions, but I realized it must be very bad or they wouldn’t be making this frantic attempt to hide it.

Around this time it was revealed that the poster VISNU who was glorifying Yaduraj and Krishnakant in the thread above was none other than Yaduraj himself. I posted evidence of this, and in response Yaduraj completely removed even his “IRM Leaders Forum” as well and hid all signs of past communication – which is still the present status as of now.

It seems I had accidentally stumbled upon information that they didn’t want the world to know at any cost. After contacting other devotees I was able to piece together the answers to my four questions.

The first thing Krishnakant and Yaduraj don’t want anyone to know is that they are self appointed world leaders of IRM. No one has authorized them or appointed them to be the leaders of the Prabhupadanugas worldwide, nor even of the IRM. When you speak to the actual Prabhupadanugas, people who sacrificed their lives preaching and pushing forward Prabhupada’s movement, they want nothing to do with these characters. What did Krishnakant sacrifice for Prabhupada? Has he ever been a member of an ISKCON temple? Has he ever been initiated, either by Prabhupada, a ritvik or an ISKCON guru? The answer to all of these questions is no. Actually he hasn’t had any real connection to ISKCON or Prabhupada through service. Then what makes him the worldwide leader of IRM, and what gives him the right to prevent devotees like Sundar Gopal in Singapore from carrying out ritvik initiations on behalf of Srila Prabhupada?

The real leaders of the Prabhupadanugas are those devotees who have sacrificed their lives to spread Prabhupada’s movement. Those are people like Sundar Gopal in Singapore, Madhu Pandit in Bangalore, and so many other devotees in America who have been sincerely serving Prabhupada’s movement independently. But along comes Mr. Krishnakant Desai, who thinks he is the automatic worldwide leader simply because he sat at a computer and wrote an article called “The Final Order”. Why should devotees like Sundar Gopal tolerate the interference from such self appointed pretenders?

Krishnakant borrowed what was already developed by devotees like Yasodanandana. They had researched and debated this topic from 1980 while Krishnakant was still a nobody worshipping his father's Ganesha statues. After Srila Prabhupada's disciples struggled and fought the corrupt GBC and gurus for years and years, suddenly Krishnakant shows up to claim himself as the leader of the Prabhupadanugas. Singapore temple, which has struggled preaching, for many more years than Krishnakant has been around, was interested in bringing devotees to Prabhupada. But Krishnakant wanted that stopped. So Sundar Gopal just gave a boot to Krishnakant and told the small boy to get out.

The "worldwide IRM" are temples where real devotees have struggled and preached. It has nothing to do with Krishnakant. Did Krishnakant preach and develop Bangalore temple? Did he preach and develop Singapore temple? Did he preach and develop Calcutta temple? No. He simply came and took the credit for making a "worldwide" IRM, and then appointed himself the leader. There were thousands of Prabhupadanugas throughout the world, due to the hard work and preaching of many hundreds of Prabhupada disciples. But somehow Krishnakant and Yaduraj think they are the self appointed leaders of everyone. They tried to stop Sundar Gopal from giving ritvik initiations in Singapore, but he wasn't interested in listening to them. He had been preaching Prabhupada's system from before Krishnakant had touched a bead bag.

IRM takes claim for all the Prabhupadanugas throughout the world. How much of that preaching they actually did is zero. I can appreciate that they have preached against corruption and self appointed gurus. But then they turn around and self appoint themselves! And if anyone just asks for an explanation, they panic and start deleting all signs of evidence. When people are scared to answer simple questions and want everything to be secret, it is a sign of corruption. Any organization that thinks it is above question, and any organization that tries to silence honest sincere doubts by force is corrupt. Whether they call themselves as ISKCON or IRM makes no difference.

So in summary, after thoroughly researching the answers to my questions myself (because IRM leaders Yaduraj and Krishnakant wouldn’t answer, and tried to cover the truth), this is what I have found:

There are absolutely no ISKCON temples left in the IRM. All ISKCON temples that had been members have removed themselves from this organization and have forced Yaduraj to remove their addresses from IRM websites and magazines. Singapore temple, after leaving the IRM, has completely ignored Krishnakant’s orders and has started initiating people as disciples of Srila Prabhupada. They no longer even hint that they have had any past connection at all to the IRM.

The break up was due to the fact that all of these senior preachers and servants of Srila Prabhupada were being forced to fall in line with Krishnakant’s whims, the same Krishnakant who has never been a full-time devotee and who has never sacrificed anything for Srila Prabhupada’s movement. Rather than listen to the assembly of Vaishnavas, Krishnakant insisted that only he was intelligent enough to instruct the temples how to act.

If we look at the founding resolutions of the IRM, under the resolution titled “Leadership” we see it stated:

“The IRM will be guided in its strategy and provided leadership and authority by the temple presidents body, which will be composed of temple presidents.”

Somewhere along the way Krishnakant decided he didn’t need to listen to the temple presidents, who were the actual leaders of the IRM, but instead all temple presidents should conform to his personal whims. As a result, all temple presidents have removed themselves from the IRM and now there is not a single temple left in the IRM. This is what the IRM (now just the self-appointed Yaduraj and Krishnakant) are trying so hard to hide: the fact that they have no official temples left, only a monthly magazine and a P.O. Box in England.

There are still plenty of Prabhupadanuga temples throughout the world, just no IRM temples, because devotees have seen that the self-appointed leaders (Krishnakant and Yaduraj) are no more honest or transparent than the ISKCON GBC. Next time you ask an honest question and you see a huge frantic effort to hide all traces of it, you should know it is a sign of corruption. As I said before, any organization that thinks it is above question, and any organization that tries to silence honest sincere doubts by force is corrupt. Whether they call themselves as ISKCON or IRM makes no difference.

(Keywords: ISKCON, Hare Krishna, IRM)

Umapati Swami tries to rewrite his history

In Umapati Swami's recent reply we hear the same song that all of Kirtanananda's henchmen have sung for years. Each one tries to pretend he was an ostrich with his head in the sand, not seeing a thing that went on around him. The fact is, these henchmen weren't just common you and me devotees, they were Kirtanananda's right hand men, his enforcers, and his philosophical propounders. They were the one's who actually propped Kirtanananda up and made all devotees accept him as equal to God. As Rochan prabhu pointed out in a previous article, it was the "saintly philosophers" who really gave Kirtanananda the power to control the masses.

At present, practically every former Kirtanananda leader has oozed back into a position of power in ISKCON, completely sweeping their past under the carpet. It wouldn't be too far off to say Kirtanananda is actually running ISKCON by remote control even today. His deviant philosophies and practices have silently seeped into every corner of ISKCON through his faithful "disciples", now all ISKCON GBC and Gurus.

It is a fact that Kirtanananda was a homosexual, and he attempted to install homosexual leadership throughout ISKCON. He did this primarily by awarding sannyasa (a position that was highly respected throughout the movement) to his homosexual disciples and godbrothers. The chances were if you were one of Bhaktipada's close men, or trusted leaders, you were a homosexual. He knew the more sannyasi's you had, the more control you had over ISKCON. So he gave sannyasa to all of them, and then used them to wrestle control of ISKCON.

Bhavananda did a similar thing on the other side of the world in Mayapur. He also installed homosexuals and pedophiles in all positions of authority within his zone, to make it easier for them to abuse and exploit in a very systematic manner. Both Bhavananda and Kirtanananda plotted and executed a plan of systematic exploitation, abuse and molestation in ISKCON.

Umapati Swami wants us to forget his past, and just accept that he was the right hand man of Kirtanananda all by some unfortunate accident. He had no idea what Kirtanananda was up to or what kind of person he was. In his letter he states:

"I did not see any evidence of sexual misconduct on the part of Kirtanananda while I lived at New Vrindaban. The stories of Kirtanananda's sexual misconduct came out long after I left New Vrindaban."

and

"I have never in my life been part of any homosexual-freedom movement. I don't know where you got that one from."

Let me remind the readers that prior to joining ISKCON, Umapati shared an apartment with two other notorious homosexuals, Keith (later to be known as Kirtanananda) and Howard (later to be known as Hayagriva). At that time he was known as Wally, and anyone with a little knowledge of the history knows what Keith, Howard and Wally were into at those times. Umapati tries to pretend he had no idea what type of person Kirtanananda was, but the truth is, he grew up with Keith and he lived with Keith. It wasn't random chance that they lived together either. Birds of a feather flock together, as they say. If anyone knew what type of a deviant Kirtanananda was it was Umapati. All these years of intimate friendship and association between Wally, Keith and Howard, but he can't figure out a thing? He just didn't know what type of a deviant person Kirtanananda was, at least that's what Umapati wants us to believe.

I think everyone can see on these first two points it is clear Umapati Swami is lying, and anyone who studies it objectively (without the guru goggles on) will likely agree.

In his letter he goes on to say:

"When he started deviating philosophically, I opposed him in front of everyone there."

Umapati claims he opposed Kirtanananda's deviations from the very "start", presenting as though he was the stalwart defender of Prabhupada's pure teachings in New Vrindavan. But I would have to say Umapati must have really misunderstood when those deviations "started", because the history shows he was a happy participator. Not only was he wearing the Franscican robes, as he admits in his letter, but he and Hayagriva (his old homosexual buddy Howard) where the master poets who rewrote all the songs and prayers into English poetry. He didn't just participate, he led the way. Every single song from the Vaishnava song book was thrown out and rewritten into English poetry (including the mahamantra), primarily by Umapati and Hayagriva. That doesn't sound like he "opposed Kirtanananda's deviations from the very start". So again, we find Umapati Swami is lying and trying to rewrite the history just like all the Kirtanananda henchmen do.

Next, Umapati Swami tries to escape the charge that he gave sannyasa to notorious murderer Tirtha Das. He states:

"It was Kirtanananda who awarded sannyasa to Tirtha, although I performed the ceremony."

Oh, I see. After Tirtha Das was convicted in a court of law for murdering devotees, Umapati Swami went and awarded him sannyasa in the prison – but only as a ritvik representative of Kirtanananda. Now that clears up everything, why would I have ever thought anything of such a small trivial thing?

For the record, Kirtanananda was expelled from ISKCON in March of 1987, and Umapati Swami performed the sannyasa initiation ceremony for murderer Tirtha Das in August of 1987. So even after everyone in the world knew Kirtanananda was a criminal engaged in murder, child molestation and all sorts of crimes, still Umapati didn't see anything. He obviously thought the ISKCON GBC were rascals, and he obviously thought the court that convicted Tirtha Das were fools, and so he felt it was just fine and dandy to act as Kirtanananda's ritvik to personally give sannyasa to murderer Tirtha Das in prison. Again, it's an obvious case of Umapati trying to rewrite his past. After all, now he is a guru who is supposed to be as good as God. He has to keep the image up or business won't be good.

Umapati goes on to say:

"After I left New Vrindaban, I openly repudiated Kirtanananda on more than one occasion."

Everyone repudiated Kirtanananda once they saw he wasn't the winning party. For years you propped him up, and then when you saw the grass was greener on the other side of the fence you hopped over and repudiated him. Why did you do this repudiation "after you left New Vrindavan"? For so many years you went along with his deviations, and then once you got a better place to stay, you left and repudiated him. Is that supposed to impress all the children who go molested under your nose? Or were you simultaneously repudiating him while you wrote poetry in his glorification? "All glories to you, Bhaktipada, Lord Krishna's servant dear, You worship at His feet and spread his message far and near." Yes, that was one of your all time classic poetic compositions. Some how the history you try to present just doesn't tally with your past actions.

In his letter, Umapati then switches to a strawman argument, smashing a statement we never made:

"I never accepted Kirtanananda as God. I defy you to show me any statement I ever made accepting him as such."

Nowhere did we say Umapati Swami accepted Kirtanananda as God, so there is no point in him denying it. What we did say was that he worshipped Kirtanananda as "equal to God". As everyone knows, in our Gaudiya philosophy the guru is respected as good as God. This was even more true during the times of the zonal acharyas, those same times that Umapati was propping up Kirtanananda as the purest devotee of Lord Krishna on the planet. When "saintly philosophers" such as Umapati and Radhanatha Swami were pushing everyone to surrender to the lotus feet of Kirtanananda, what could the innocent devotees do? It was the philosophers who really gave homosexual pedophile Kirtanananda the appearance of saintliness. And after growing up with him, and living with him for years, Umapati can't pretend he didn't know anything about him.

Umapati continues his letter:

"Concerning the article about JonBenet, Srila Prabhupada wanted devotees to write Krishna-conscious comments on the news, and I intend to write more."

I will let the readers go through the article and decide for themselves if it is a source of Krishna consciousness. I also find it revealing that you had not updated your website since October 6th, but the day after I sent my letter pointing out your mundane articles, immediately you post an article on "The Mercy of Srimati Radharani". An obvious attempt to make it appear as though your website had been focusing on high Gaudiya philosophy all along. Two and a half months without an update, and suddenly the next day you are covering your tracks with the topmost philosophical discussions in Gaudiya vaishnavism. Quite a jump from JonBenet Ramsey to the Mercy of Radharani.

"As far as my being a jet-setter with a credit card, well what is wrong with that? A sannyasi is supposed to travel, isn't he?"

How sannyasis are supposed to live is perhaps the subject of another article. But I find it further revealing that your idea and example of a sannyasi is someone who wears pants and shirts, has a full head of hair, works a regular 9 to 5 job like Mr. Smith, and lives outside the view of devotees or ISKCON temples. What you do with your personal life is of course your right, but this artificial show will only fool the ignorant.

Someone may complain why we are asking such difficult questions to you. They feel it would be better if we all sit together in a room with balloons and pretend everything is really swell and dandy. But you are not just the average Joe, you were and still are a leader of ISKCON. When disaster occurs under your nose, you can't just run over to the other side of the globe and start a new mess over there pretending nothing ever happened. Once the New Vrindavan mess became too much, you ran away to China to start creating new messes there. And once these new messes get big enough, you will again run away to some other place pretending none of it ever happened, and that you didn't know anything at all. We have seen these patterns in ISKCON regularly. Pose yourself as a Guru, as Lord Krishna's pure representative, create a mess, and then run pretending you never saw anything. You have a lot of experience with this yourself, as we can see from the complaints of Chinese devotees ( http://www.vnn.org/world/WD9812/WD07-2627.html). Already most of Tamal Krishna Goswami's Chinese disciples have rejected him and have taken to the Ritvik system, all under the nose of your spiritual guidance. And now rumors from Narayana Maharaja's people say all of your disciples in Hong Kong have rejected you and taken reinitiation from Narayana Maharaja this month. Can we really blame them? When you put on the Guru show, while trying to hide and cover up your past, it is only natural that the cover will eventually be blown.

In closing let me put one more revealing question to you:

We find from your history that you worshipped Kirtanananda as Krishna's pure representative for many years, and you encouraged all others under you to do the same. While he was engaged in child molestation, murder and all sorts of criminal acts, you worshipped him as equal to Krishna. How is it that someone who was so foolish as to worship a homosexual pedophile is somehow qualified to act as a guru and deliver spiritual knowledge to their "disciples"? What spiritual knowledge can you deliver to them? You couldn't even see the difference between a child molestor and a guru. How are you qualified to remove the spiritual ignorance of your disciples? This is just a case of blind leading the blind, and it is only a matter of time before your disciples find out your true history and reject you. Better for you to honestly turn your disciples over to Srila Prabhupada voluntarily, or they will end up leaving for Narayana Maharaj or some other Gaudiya Matha guru as they are starting to do already.

You conclude your letter with the following:

"I do find it disgusting, though, that people like you delight in harping on Kirtanananda's problems while conveniently ignoring all the help he gave to many devotees."

I find it really amazing, and I mean speechlessly amazing, how after everything you know about Kirtanananda, you still want to glorify him and "all the help he gave to many devotees". He is a criminal who was never properly punished for his crimes. He has murdered devotees, molested countless devotee children, and destroyed hundreds of devotee families. He is single handedly responsible for destroying the devotional lives of thousands and thousands of devotees. Many gurukula children later committed suicide after the abuses they suffered under him. He has personally destroyed the good name of ISKCON throughout the world. There is absolutely nothing good about this demon. I know this is something you will never accept, you being his old buddy from when he was Keith. Keith, Wally and Howard could never go against each other. Just close your eyes, or look the other way so you don't see anything. You're still doing it after all these years, only now you're posing as a guru and spiritual leader while you do it.

"I hope this answers your questions. Now please get the hell out of my life and stay out."

This is the usual response from the GBC Guru mess makers. After destroying the lives of countless people, they always turn to the victims and say "why are you bothering me, can't you see I'm trying to enjoy my loot in peace? Get the hell out of my life and stay out." But you should learn that the longer you try to avoid your past and rewrite history, the more this will come back to haunt you. The victims are real, and those of you who enjoyed as leaders under Kirtanananda were directly responsible for these crimes.

(Keywords: ISKCON, Hare Krishna)

Umapati Swami's Request: "Get the Hell Out of My Life"

My dear Navadvipchandra das,

Please accept my best wishes. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

I normally do not answer crank letters, but I will make an exception in your case.

You ought to get your facts straight. After I left New Vrindaban, I openly repudiated Kirtanananda on more than one occasion. I even wrote an eight-page letter that was circulated all over the movement. Unfortunately, I no longer have a copy of it.

I never accepted Kirtanananda as God. I defy you to show me any statement I ever made accepting him as such. When he started deviating philosophically, I opposed him in front of everyone there. The reason I wore the monk's robes, though only for a short period, was that someone I trusted told me there was an old letter from Srila Prabhupada saying that if it would help the preaching, the devotees could wear robes like Vivekananda.

"All glories to you Bhaktipada" was simply a translation of the normal pranam prayer so his disciples could recite it in English. And the prayer says that he is the servant of Lord Krishna, not Krishna himself. The pranam to Srila Prabhupada was also translated into English.

it was Kirtanananda who awarded sannyasa to Tirtha, although I performed the ceremony. The stories of Kirtanananda's sexual misconduct came out long after I left New Vrindaban. When that happened, Tirtha rejected him and testified against him in court. Tirtha also wrote a letter to the GBC renouncing all claims to the title of sannyasi.

I did not see any evidence of sexual misconduct on the part of Kirtanananda while I lived at New Vrindaban.

After I left New Vrindaban, I cooperated with the Los Angeles police in the investigation into the murder of Sulocan, and I was a witness for the prosecution in Tirtha's trial and in Kirtanananda's trial, although I had no firsthand knowledge of the crime.

As far as my being a jet-setter with a credit card, well what is wrong with that? A sannyasi is supposed to travel, isn't he? Do you expect me to walk across the Pacific? Srila Prabhupada also flew, and although he did not have a credit card, someone still had to pay for the tickets.

Concerning the article about JonBenet, Srila Prabhupada wanted devotees to write Krishna-conscious comments on the news, and I intend to write more. If you don't like what I write, don't bother reading my blog. No one else has complained about this article.

I have never in my life been part of any homosexual-freedom movement. I don't know where you got that one from.

I do find it disgusting, though, that people like you delight in harping on Kirtanananda's problems while conveniently ignoring all the help he gave to many devotees. There are many devotees active in our movement today that were helped by Kirtanananda when they had nowhere else to go and were ready to leave.

Oh well, I guess I should expect it. Srila Prabhupada says that bees go for honey, but flies go for open sores.

I hope this answers your questions. Now please get the hell out of my life and stay out.

Umapati Swami

(Keywords: ISKCON, Hare Krishna)

A question for Umapati Swami

With Rocana Prabhu's recent article on Radhanath Swami, it brings up a lot of questions surrounding Kirtanananda's leaders and henchmen, many of whom have slipped back into ISKCON in recent years as top leaders. I don't have a complete list of all the Kirtanananda henchmen who are presently ruling ISKCON, but here is a partial list:

Umapati Swami
Malati
Devamrita Swami
Radhanatha Swami
Bhakti Tirtha Swami (now deceased)
Candra Sekhar Swami
Bhaktisiddhanta Swami
Kuladri
Varsana Swami

It would be nice if someone could provide additional names of ex-Kirtanananda leaders who have infiltrated ISKCON. One thing they all have in common is not one of them has explained their past association with Kirtanananda. These people spent years as his leading promoters, fighting against ISKCON, even when Kirtanananda was convicted and in prison. They all try to ignore those years they spent in the Franciscan robes, with the female sanyasis, and all sorts of other deviations. Some have even held onto their Bhaktipada deviations. For example, GBC leader Malati to this day will only wear saffron color saris, obviously connected to her having been given sannyasa by Kirtanananda.

New devotees in ISKCON are fooled into thinking none of this ever took place. When the new devotees are taught how great these gurus are, they always leave out that small detail about how they were rascals promoting a homosexual pedophile (Kirtanananda) as equal to God. Radhanatha Swami's disciples even made up a story that it was all Krishna's divine arrangement for Radhanatha Swami to protect New Vrindavan and bring it back to ISKCON after Kirtanananda was thrown out. That's the real reason he was supporting Kirtanananda for all those years, or so they tell us.

We all know that New Vrindavan was a cesspit of criminal activities, including drug running, murders, prostitution, and child molestation. The people who were responsible for these crimes (and the covering up of the crimes, and the propping up of the criminals) were the leaders under Kirtanananda - those same guys who are now ISKCON GBCs and gurus. What we really need is for each of these people to come clean, explaining their past connection with Kirtanananda and tell us why they deviated along with him. We also need each one of them to publicly reject Kirtanananda, something not one of them has ever done. Instead they want to pretend none of this ever happened, and the new devotees are fed these mythical stories of pure devotees like Radhanatha Swami who were advanced "Shiva bhaktas" from the beginning of their lives.

Since all historical evidence suggest they are corrupt criminals, I seriously doubt any of them would be willing to dredge up their past lilas. But let us try by asking them a few simple questions. My first question is to ISKCON Guru and GBC spokesman Umapati Swami. He is an odd character, who, though a renounced sannyasi, apparently works a full time job as a karmi. Nowadays sannyasis such as him live outside, far away from temples, dress in pants and shirts, keep full heads of hair, and live ordinary lives like any American Mr. Smith. On Umapati's personal website ( http://www.umapati.net/), he even hints at this when he brags about his credit cards and jet set lifestyle: "I am now about the age Srila Prabhupada was when he started his travels, but I travel on nice airplanes with my handy credit card." You can also find some other useless mundane writings by him, such as an article on JonBenet Ramsey. I wonder why Umapati doesn't write more about the fact that he was involved in the homosexual freedom movement prior to joining ISKCON, or why he doesn't write his memories of the time he initiated notorious devotee murderer Tirtha Das into the sannyasa ashram in prison. Yes, it was Umapati who rewarded Tirtha Das for his actions by giving him sannyasa in prison. The same Umapati who is now an ISKCON Guru and GBC leader. But for some reason we don't find mention of those histories in his website.

My question to Umapati Swami is this:

What exactly was your frame of thought when you wrote the English song "Prayers to the Spiritual Master". The first lines of the song go "All glories to you, Bhaktipada, Lord Krishna's servant dear, You worship at His feet and spread his message far and near. " You wrote this song to be sung by all devotees daily in the temple at New Vrindavan during mangala arati in the place of "samsaradava". It appears, if we use our mundane intelligence to analize this, that you were removing the song Srila Prabhupada instructed us all to chant in glorification of him, and instead replacing it with some wacko song you wrote glorifying homosexual pedophile Kirtanananda Swami Bhaktipada. But I know there must have been some higher spiritual reason behind your apparently mundane actions. I request you to help remove all these doubts by thoroughly and completely explaining your role in this divine lila. Since you are an initiating Guru within ISKCON, it is obvious that you must be a very advanced soul, or perhaps even liberated. So I am sure you have a good explanation for writing this glorification of pedophile Bhaktipada.

(Keywords: ISKCON, Hare Krishna)

Murali Krishna Swami and his Guru Decoder Ring Sampradaya

Murali Krishna Swami starts his latest article with the usual put downs one would expect from a guru campaigner, namely that anyone who doesn't accept his guru as a pure devotee is "groping in the dark and lost in mental speculation". Also he points out, as they always do, that all of these unbelievers are "committing serious offenses due to their lack of proper understanding" - the typical aparadha defense. None of this is new, as we have all heard the same arguments in regards to Srila Kirtanananda, Srila Bhavananda, Srila Harikesh, and all the other past and present Divine Graces. In philosophical debate these are the obvious telltale signs of someone who has little substance to offer and has a weak faith.

After firing his volley of personal attacks against all us foolish offenders, he finally gets to the point of his article, that one must hear from a pure devotee's physical lips (not from his books, nor from a recording of his lectures). The entire emphasis is that the physical lips of the spiritual master are the most important aspect and only source of transcendental knowledge. Murali Krishna Swami's position is summarized in his following statements:

"Now one may say, “OK, I accept that in order to truly understand Vedic knowledge one has to hear from the lotus mouth and into the receptive ear, well, I am hearing from Srila Prabhupada from his tapes or CD’s…”. But that is not what Prabhupada says. One must hear directly from the lips, “Just like Sukadeva Gosvami was speaking to Maharaja Pariksit.”

"Srila Prabhupada has in many places spoken of the absolute requirement of directly hearing from the mouth/ lips of a pure devotee as THE process for developing transcendental knowledge (tattva- vijnanam)."

"Some may say, “That is all right, I am hearing from Srila Prabhupada or other past Acaryas from their books.” This sounds good but, when it is recommended to hear in order to receive perfect knowledge, it means hearing directly from the lotus lips/ mouth of a pure devotee into the receptive and submissive inquisitive ear of a bona fide disciple."

As neophytes are only able to appreciate Lord Krishna in His deity form, unable to see Him as Paramatma situated in the hearts of all living entities, in the same way these neophytes identify the source of the pure devotee's transcendental knowledge as being solely from his physical lips (vapu). For them transcendental knowledge cannot come in his writings, nor even in his recorded lectures, as the physical lips are missing from that transmission. Thus we are to understand that if the guru were to get into some accident, whereby his lips were damaged, then that would be the end of his transcendental knowledge. A new guru replacement would need to be found who had the physical lips by which to transmit transcendental knowledge. Or perhaps if the guru was unable to physically speak (due to damaged vocal cords), then he wouldn't be able to be a guru at all, even if he was able to write all of his transcnendental realizations in books. Without the physical lips and the physical opening and closing of the mouth, transcendental knowledge cannot be transmitted. This is the primary teaching of the neophyte vapu sampradaya.

To them the primary duty of the disciple is to carry a tape measure for making sure he is situated within the scripturally required 15 foot distance from the lips of the pure devotee. He should be careful to measure directly from the lips, not from the feet or any other part of the pure devotee's body. If he is somehow out of range from the lips of the pure devotee, then there is no chance for him to develop pure devotion. For them the guru is limited by both time and space, and you must be both physically near to the guru and also “hearing live” for there to be any chance of getting spiritual knowledge. If you later watch a video of the guru speaking, the guru's teachings become impotent due to time lapse. And even if you hear the same lecture live being broadcast through a microphone system (as is done in many ISKCON temples, while devotees do service in the kitchen or pujari room), you will not get transcendental knowledge because you are not within 15 feet of the guru's physical lips.

Of course for those who have actually read Srila Prabhupada's teachings, this all sounds absurd and completely against his transcendental teachings. Srila Prabhupada never once stressed the importance of his physical lips, nor did he emphasize the need to travel with him to hear in his physical presence. How many of Srila Prabhupada's disciples even met Srila Prabhupada once in their lives? The majority of them did not meet him, but still received transcendental knowledge from him through his books. When someone directly teaches something opposite to what Srila Prabhupada taught, it is obviously a deviation that disqualifies them from being his pure representative. In numerous places Srila Prabhupada has stressed that hearing his teachings are of primary importance over being personally present in front of his physical lips:

"To answer this argument, it is described here that one has to associate with liberated persons not directly, physically, but by understanding, through philosophy and logic, the problems of life." (Srimad Bhagavatam 3:31:48)

"There are two ways of association - by vani and by vapu. Vani means words, and vapu means physical presence. Physical presence is sometimes appreciable and sometimes not, but vani continues to exist eternally. Therefore we must take advantage of the vani, not the physical presence. Bhagavad-gita, for example, is the vani of Lord Krsna. Although Krsna was personally present five thousand years ago and is no longer physically present from the materialistic point of view, Bhagavad-gita continues." (Caitanya Caritamrta, Antya 5 Conclusion)

"I understand that you are feeling my absence. Krishna will give you strength. Physical presence is immaterial; presence of the transcendental sound received from the spiritual master should be the guidance of life. That will make our spiritual life successful." (Letter to Brahmananda and other students, 19/1/67)

Murali Krishna Swami and Gaur Govinda Maharaj go so far as saying Srila Prabhupada's books can never be understood unless you hear them explained physically by a "premi bhakta" (again within a 15 foot distance). By some coincidence, that "premi bhakta" whom they say you need happens to be them. So in other words, there is no way to understand Srila Prabhupada's teachings unless you become their disciples. But why didn't Srila Prabhupada inform his disciples that it was useless to read his books unless Gaur Govinda Maharaj explained them personally? Certainly he was present at that time and Srila Prabhupada could have sent all of his disciples to him to physically hear from his “lips”. While Srila Prabhupada was present he never hinted that his books required another person to explain them to us, nor that we needed to physically be sitting in front of him hearing from his physical lips to receive spiritual knowledge. Srila Prabhupada states the following:

"The instruction given in my books is supposed to be personal instruction. When we read the Bhagavad-gita As It Is, it is understood that we are receiving personal instructions of Krsna. No physical barrier is there in the case of spiritual affairs." (Letter to Dhrstaketu, 14th October, 1973)

Srila Prabhupada says there is no "physical barrier" stopping us from receiving transcendental knowledge when we read his books. It is clear that despite his physical lips not being present, this is not a barrier to the transmission of spiritual knowledge. He also says when we read his books we receive "personal instruction" from him.

Now all of this brings us to a very obvious question. Since Gour Govinda Maharaj is no longer living, why do people like Murali Krishna Swami keep printing his books? By their own teachings a guru's books can only be understood from the physical lips of the guru. Then why waste time printing incomprehensible books (without the necessary guru lips to decode them)? Now that Murali Krishna Swami no longer has a physical set of guru lips to hear from, he must be completely bewildered and unable to understand anything written in both Srila Prabhupada's books and Gaur Govinda Maharaj's books. Oh wait, this is another case of rules only applying to the rest of us, but not to them. For us, they insisted that Srila Prabhupada's books could not be understood by directly reading, but for them, they did not have the same requirement of needing a pair of physical guru lips to explain the purports to them. It becomes obvious that this is just another technique to round up disciples by being the only one with the "guru decoder ring".

The double standard is this: Gaur Govinda Maharaj never needed to physically hear Srila Prabhupada's purports being explained from the physical lips of Srila Prabhupada. He simply read the purports like everyone else and understood them. But for the rest of the world, he insisted that they needed to come to him to understand those purports, as he had the physical guru lips that were absolutely required.

Keeping in line with his guru, Murali Krishna Swami repeats the same propaganda, that only by hearing from a pair of physical lips can we understand any of these transcendental books. “But whose lips?” That’s the question that will naturally come, and unfortunately the answer is always that we must approach them. Now that Gour Govinda Maharaj is not present, will Murali Krishna Swami just get to his point and say we need to hear directly from him to understand anything in Prabhupada’s books? As to why he no longer needs the physical guru lips, who knows the answer? When the very root philosophy is a bogus concoction, why should we expect for there to be an answer anywhere?

If this philosophy had been supported by Srila Prabhupada, certainly he would have instructed all his disciples that they needed to stop everything, come to India and start hearing from his physical lips. But he didn’t. Instead he told them to just keep reading his books, and all questions would automatically be answered:

“In my books the philosophy of Krishna Consciousness is explained fully so if there is anything which you do not understand, then you simply have to read again and again. By reading daily the knowledge will be revealed to you and by this process your spiritual life will develop.” (Letter to Bahurupa, November 22nd, 1974)

“All questions will be clarified if you simply read our books very thoroughly and follow the simple process of devotional service as we have given it to chant regularly and rigidly observe the rules and regulations. This is our principle that the spiritual science becomes revealed to the devotee from within the heart according to the degree of his surrender to Krsna.” (Letter to Ekayani, 25th july, 1970)

“Actually I have already answered all questions in my books such as Bhagavad-gita, so kindly read them and chant Hare Krishna Mantra.” (Letter to Brian Fleming, March 6th 1974)

Actually Srila Prabhupada never even hints that his books are impotent and require a special “guru decoder ring” to understand. In fact he glorifies their immeasurable potency many times:

“I am very keen on the distribution of my books and I am very indebted to all of you for your untiring efforts to see that every man and woman in America get one of my books. If they simply read one page, even if they do nothing else, they can become perfect.” (Letter to Hari basara, April 20, 1974)

“These books are so nice that anyone who reads them is sure to become Krishna Conscious.” (Letter to Sukadeva, March 25th, 1971)

“Simply if one will read our KRSNA book, TLC, NOD, and Bhagavad-Gita As It Is, he will surely become a Krishna Conscious person.” (Letter to Nityananda April 1 1971)

“Even if one does not read the book but simply holds if and sees it, he is benefitted.” (Letter to German Disciples, May 6th, 1977)

What Murali Krishna Swami wants us to believe, is that Srila Prabhupada really meant all of this will happen provided we approached a physical pair of guru lips and heard the proper decoded explanations from them. Seeing as Murali Krishna Swami currently lacks such a pair of “guru decoder lips”, we request him to first locate a replacement for any non-living decoder lips he used to have, and come back for discussion when he is properly equipped. Otherwise his attempts to understand Srila Prabupada’s teachings will be futile by his own admission.

(Keywords: ISKCON, Hare Krishna)

A Reply to Bhagavat Das on Miracles

Regarding the article by Bhagavat Das, he thinks that Gaur Govinda Maharaj supposedly curing someone of typhoid is a miracle equal to Srila Prabhupada curing someone of terminal bone cancer. But we should note that typhoid has only a 1% mortality rate when treated, and untreated typhoid has a 20% to 30% mortality rate. This means that at least 70% to 80% of all people infected with typhoid will be cured even without any medical treatment, and for those receiving medical treatment 99% of the people will be cured. This person was a doctor and he had tried to treat himself with medicine, so he had a 99% chance that he would recover fully.

Srila Prabhupada curing a person of terminal bone cancer is without doubt a miracle. Someone else becoming cured of typhoid is not really much of a miracle. It is 99% more likely that the medicines along with his body's immune system cured him of the sickness.

On another point, we don't need to measure gurus according to how many miracle cures they have performed. This certainly wasn't Srila Prabhupada's measuring stick to identify a bonafide spiritual master. Sai Baba has been reported to have cured literally tens of thousands of people miraculously, and there are doctors' testimonies to prove it as well. Does it prove that he is a bonafide spiritual master? Pure devotees of the Lord can perform miracles, but so can demons and asuras. So this in no way helps in identifying the Lord's pure representative.

(Keywords: Hare Krishna, ISKCON)

A further bit of evidence...

A further piece of evidence:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Practicing-Krsna-Krishna-Consciousness-in-Prison_W0QQitemZ110053307827QQihZ001QQcategoryZ378QQcmdZViewItem

Murderer Tirtha Das' book was actually published by ISKCON, as stated on the above webpage selling the book:

The Definitive Guide to Practicing Krsna Consciousness in Prison

By Tirtha dasa

Published 2005 by The Prison Ministry of The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (New Vrindaban Office).

67 pages. Color cover painting and 22 pencil illustrations by Brian Babinski. Soft cover. Book measures 5.5 x 8.5 inches. Introduction by Candramauli Swami, an ISKCON Sannyasi and Initiating Guru.

A technical question for the GBC

After hearing about the attempt of Radhanatha Swami to meet with notorious devotee murderer Tirtha Das in prison, I decided to look into the matter a little bit to find out what is the official connection of Tirtha Das to ISKCON at present. Amazingly, he is a leading preacher in ISKCON Prison Ministries, and many articles written by him can be found on the ISKCON Prison Ministries website:

http://iskconprisonministries.com/works/essays.html

Also on the top of ISKCON Prison Ministries official website there is a request and link for you to visit Tirtha Das' personal website:

http://www.tirthainprison.com

The website probably should have been named www.tirthainprisonformurderingseveraldevoteesontheorderofkirtanananda.com but for some reason he chose to leave the name a little vague, just tirthainprison.com.

If you go to murderer Tirtha Das' personal website (as advertised on the ISKCON Prison Ministries website), you will see he has written a book on practicing Krishna consciousness in Prison. The introduction to this murderer's book is written by an ISKCON Guru and sannyasi, Candramauli Swami (which can be read at the link below):

http://www.tirthainprison.com/manual/manual0.html

Candramauli, a former leader under Kirtanananda Swami, also happens to be the leader of ISKCON Prison Ministries, as their official website states under their logo: "Under the Guidance of His Holiness Candramauli Swami" .

Also on the ISKCON Prison Ministries homepage it states: "The ISKCON Prison Ministries (IPM) is part of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness' (ISKCON) Congregational Development Ministry ." If we go to the official website of this ISKCON Congregational Development Ministry (namahatta.org) there is also an article by this same murderer Tirtha Das, along with a picture of him as well:

http://namahatta.org/nh2/en/node/2319

So in summary, this is what we have found:

1) Tirtha Das is a leading preacher of ISKCON Prison Ministries

2) ISKCON Prison Ministries is a branch of ISKCON Congregational Development Ministry (ran by Jayapataka Swami)

3) ISKCON Guru Candramauli Swami has written the introduction to a book written by this murderer Tirtha Das.

4) This same Candramauli Swami is in charge of ISKCON Prison Ministries.

5) ISKCON Gurus Candramauli Swami and Radhanatha Swami both tried to visit this murderer in prison numerous times, but have been indentified by a drug sniffing dog, and subsequently banned from entry to this prison.

Now this brings me to my technical question for the GBC.

Why is it that...

1) If you believe Srila Prabhupada is your direct living spiritual master, you are immediately banned and kicked out from ISKCON...

2) but if you kill devotees... and are convicted of it in a court of law... you can still be a leading preacher in ISKCON, still get ISKCON Gurus to write introductions to your books and endorse them, and still have ISKCON gurus visit you numerous times in prison?

Drug screening for all ISKCON gurus?

Recently a letter has been circulated by Tirtha Das, the infamous devotee murderer who killed Sulochan and probably a number of other devotees at New Vrindavan. In that letter we find the following stated:

"Tirtha dasa wishes devotees to read and, if they wish, distribute the following statement which they may send or e-mail to the Governor of West Virginia:

We deplore the fact that H.H. Radhanath Swami and H.H. Candramauli Swami have been repeatedly denied access to the Mount Olive Correctional Complex on the pretext that a drug sniffing dog alerted to the precense of illicit drugs on their persons. This is a great insult and highly disrespectful to such exalted holy men of our religious faith. Especially so when their only purpose for hoping to enter the institution was to uplift the suffering condition of the imprisoned men there. We ask that your honor look into this matter and put a stop to such discriminatory profiling."

Here we have an ISKCON guru who has repeatedly been identified by drug sniffing dogs, to the extent that they will not allow him to enter this prison complex. Police drug sniffing dogs are highly trained and have a very high accuracy level in identifying illicit drugs or traces of them on people. If these dogs have alerted to the presence of drugs on one or both of these ISKCON gurus, in all likelyhood these people are using ilicit drugs. Perhaps it is time for ISKCON to adopt a drug test policy for all ISKCON gurus, so we do not need to be embarassed in public when drug sniffing dogs identify our spiritual leaders.

On another note, what are Radhanatha Swami and Candamauli Swami doing meeting with a convicted murderer who killed a number of ISKCON devotees? There have long been rumors that Radhanatha was involved in the killing of Sulochan (delivering the payment to Tirtha Das). What does ISKCON and Srila Prabhupada gain by these ISKCON leaders going out of their way to meet with a murderer whom they have had questionable connections with in the past? Radhanatha Swami has never gone out of his way to see other devotees in jail, why this special "mercy" to murderer Tirtha Das? It should also be remembered that the ISKCON GBC approved Radhanatha Swami as an initiating guru provided he didnt get indicted in the murder of Sulochan (along with Tirtha Das). So even the GBC has been aware that Radhanatha had questionable links with the murderer Tirtha Das, and they were aware that the US government was considering charging him in the case as well.

The answer to a lot of these questions revolve around Tirtha Das. He took the complete fall for the murder, refusing to testify against Kirtanananda or any of the other leaders under him (such as Radhanatha). As a result Kirtanananda was only convicted of minor offenses such as tax evasion. So Radhanatha Swami is showing his thanks, and paying back the favor to Tirtha Das with his special visits. Unfortunately the drug sniffing dogs have singled him out and he won't be able to meet with murderer Tirtha Das until he kicks his drug habit. At least that is the message that I see in all of this.

Reply to Murali Krishna Swami

Regarding the statement shown by Murali Krishna Swami, wherein Gour Govinda Maharaj says Srila Prabhupada instructed him to become a diksha guru, I would like to offer the following comments:

“You have to accept disciples and train them. You should have your own men, your own disciples. Otherwise how can you manage?” He (Srila Prabhupada) told me that." - Gour Govinda Maharaj

First, there are over half a dozen current ISKCON gurus who make these same claims, that Srila Prabhupada secretly instructed them to become diksha gurus. Off the top of my head, Jayapataka Swami, Radha Govinda Swami and Gour Govinda Swami are some of the main people who have made these claims. Oddly in all cases there is no recorded evidence to back up the claim. Srila Prabhupada apparently has given ISKCON its most important instruction on continued management in a secret unrecorded whisper with no witnesses.

Srila Prabhupada himself has several times said, "if it's not there in writting, then do not believe what 'Prabhupada Said'." So taking his own direct advice, we would have to generally not value such statements as evidence of any sort. But for the sake of argument, let us study this latest claim logically and see if it makes any sense.

One must assume the language being spoken between Srila Prabhupada and Gour Govinda Maharaj would be either Hindi or Bengali, and in both cases the word that would have been used for "disciples" would have been "sishya". In common usage this word does not at all convey the idea of a diksha guru, but rather of assistants or students working under someone. This word is universally found in all languages of India, and it conveys the same meaning in all languages. Certainly the word _can_ be used to indicate a diksha disciple, but the common usage would indicate an assistant or student under a leader as opposed to a diksha disciple. Keeping this in mind, let us see Srila Prabhupada's words again:

“You have to accept disciples and train them. You should have your own men, your own disciples. Otherwise how can you manage?” He (Srila Prabhupada) told me that." - Gour Govinda Maharaj

Srila Prabhupada's use of the phrase "you should have your own men, otherwise how can you manage" make it abundantly clear that he is speaking of management and physical work. The sishyas that he wants Gour Govinda Maharaj to have are obviously just regular devotees who will work under him and help him develop the Bhubaneshwar project that Prabhupada entrusted to him.

What is the actual reason one should become diksha guru? Is it simply to lessen the work load? "Become diksha guru, because there is a lot of physical work to get done and no people to work." Is that the instruction Srila Prabhupada was giving to Gour Govinda Maharaj? Obviously not. One become diksha guru only to deliver pure devotion to conditioned souls, not to make the management of a temple project easier. Thus it becomes obvious that Srila Prabhupada's use of the word "sishya" was in the common indian usage, refering to assistants working and studying under Gour Govinda Maharaj, but in no way implied he should become a diksha guru.

At the time that this whisper was secretly spoken by Srila Prabhupada to Gour Govinda Maharaj, Srila Prabhupada was the only undisputed Acharya in ISKCON, without anyone even considering the need for a replacement. Does this above claim make any logical sense? That Srila Prabhupada at this time, in a secret whisper while passing by Gour Govinda Maharaj, told him to become the next Acharya in such unclear language? And this is the absolute proof that is offered to the worldwide devotee community. I do not doubt that such a statement may have been made by Srila Prabhupada, but the interpretation that it refers to becoming the next acharya and diksha guru is a huge stretch from the direct interpretation and self evident meaning.

"You should have your own men, otherwise how can you manage."

Further Gour Govinda Maharaj states:

"I was not allowed (by the GBC) to accept disciples at that time and some devotees felt disappointed and left and went to the Gaudiya Math and accepted a spiritual master from there."

I would further offer, if his prospective disciples were so whimsical as to immediately leave him and take initiation from the Gaudiya Matha, then he obviously had not inspired them or trained them properly. Was the reason he became a diksha guru simply to stop people from leaving him and going to the Gaudiya Math? Obviously it is not clear, but the argument that he presents here does not appear to be very strong and convincing.