ISKCON Guru Review

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 ...

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-gi...

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 ...

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...

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 Englis...

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 h...

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 emph...

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 th...

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.

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 consciousn...

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 be...

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 n...

The following conversation of Srila Prabhupada’s clearly explains the reasons for ISKCON’s decline after Prabhupada’s departure. Though Srila Prabhupada was speaking about the failure of the Gaudiya Matha, amazingly it perfectly matches ISKCON’s own post-samadhi history, line for line. Seven sentences have been numbered for direct comparison to ISKCON. " 1) Why this Gaudiya Matha failed? Because they tried to become more than guru. 2) He, before passing away, he gave all direction and never said that 'This man should be the next acharya.’ But these people, just after his passing away they began to fight, who shall be acharya. That is the failure. 3) They never thought, 'Why Guru Maharaja gave us instruction so many things, why he did not say that this man should be acharya?’ 4) They wanted to create artificially somebody acharya and everything failed. 5) They did not consider even with common sense that if Guru Maharaja wanted to appoint somebody as acharya, why did h...