Friday, 15 August 2014

Deviations of ISKCON Bangalore group of temples from the original teachings of Srila Prabhupada

 Article written by Prabhupadanuga devotees of Hare Krishna Community.

(to know more about Hare Krishna Community - visit www.harekrishnacommunity.org)
Posted on the auspicious day of Srila Prabhupada’s appearance (19th August 2014).


We are writing this article with all respect to Madhu Pandit Prabhu and other devotees of Iskcon Bangalore group of temples but we are trying to follow the following principle for everyone’s benefit - 

So there is no harm if these facts are discussed in the society of devotees. Devotees always humbly offer respect to everyone, but when there is a discussion on a point of sastra, they do not observe the usual etiquette, satyam bruyat priyam bruyat. They speak only the satyam, although it may not necessarily be priyam.

Srila Prabhupada’s letter to Sumati Morarjee  --  Valencay, France, 7 August, 1976


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In all future references we will use HKC for Hare Krishna Community, IB for Iskcon Bangalore, A.P for Akshay Patra, FOLK for Friends of Lord Krishna (a program of IB group to provide hostel facilities to students) and MPP for Madhu Pandit Prabhu.

Note: We have reproduced some mails written by MPP to Dayalu Nitai Prabhu in this article. These mails were uploaded by A.P, Jaipur devotees on Facebook in January 2014.

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The purpose of writing this article is twofold:

1. To protect the faith of many innocent devotees around the world who are taking shelter of ISKCON Bangalore (IB) group thinking that they are the alternative to the current ISKCON which has deviated from so many original teachings of Srila Prabhupada. But the fact is that IB group is also becoming another version of the current ISKCON since they are also deviating from many original teachings of Srila Prabhupada. 



Please refer to the following quote of Srila Prabhupada in this connection -

"A devotee should have intelligence to know who is deviating. Surrender by your intelligence but don't surrender your intelligence." 

Srila Prabhupada letter to Bali Mardana,1974

2. To appeal to IB group of devotees so that they can correct themselves and align themselves again in the line of Srila Prabhupada’s original teachings for everyone’s benefit.
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Somebody may question at this point that to achieve purpose no. 2 one could have simply had a meeting with devotees of IB group and conveyed them these points instead of coming in an open forum like this. The answer to this is that many devotees have tried several times to point out these deviations so that things can be set right but in response to that devotees have been blocked on the facebook, branded as bogus, threatened about facing the consequences, false propaganda has been done to malign the devotees who are raising these questions etc. etc. A typical deviant ISKCON GBC response. So finally for the benefit and purification of everyone we have decided to raise these issues in public forum.


We have taken some case studies to substantiate our claim of devotees being ostracized by IB group whenever these devotees raised some questions/issues. Click on the following link to see the details – Case Studies of ill-treatment by A.P “devotees”.



Any other devotees who have had similar experiences can write to us on hkc.jaipur@hotmail.com and we will include their experiences also in the current list of case studies after confirming their authenticity.

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Another question which can be raised is that why we have noticed these deviations suddenly. Where were we from all these years? The answer to this is that we have been preaching in Jaipur since last 15 years but since last 5-6 years after Akshay Patra also started preaching in Jaipur their devotees have been doing negative propaganda against us just because we are not part of their group. Please see the article Jaipur Struggle for truth part I and II published on prabhupadanuga.eu on 29th April 2014 for details.


We were ignoring, tolerating and requesting the senior devotees to intervene and correct the situation but mostly we were concentrating on our preaching services and never went into the details of the working of IB group and A.P. and what Srila Prabhupada has said about the activities of IB group. We were thinking that although the A.P devotees are behaving like neophytes but at least they are following Srila Prabhupada’s instructions. 



But in the last few months since the news about ill treatment of Hare Krishna Community (HKC) devotees by Akshay Patra (A.P) “devotees” has come out in the public forum, lots of devotees who were there with A.P earlier and many devotees who are still visiting A.P centers have been asking us lots of questions/doubts and telling us about their observations with regard to the working of IB group and A.P. They have been asking us whether all this is approved by Srila Prabhupada or not.



So we have done some research in this matter in the last few months and the findings of this research are shocking which we are publishing in this article for everyone’s benefit. Please refer to the following quote of Srila Prabhupada in this connection:

“So many mental speculators and word jugglers who have misled so many people. Now it is your task to find them out and expose them, so that the people may appreciate the real philosophy. We must become now very serious to save the people of the world from this very dangerous situation.”

Letter to Locana, Delhi, 24 November, 1971

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Firstly we are reproducing below some of the observations/questions/doubts being raised repeatedly by many devotees about the working of IB group and A.P : 



1) Is Akshay Patra secular? If Akshay Patra is secular then how are they distributing Prasadam and having temples in Akshay Patra campus? What does Srila Prabhupada say about secularism? 



2) Most of the employees who cook food in the A.P kitchens take intoxication in the form of bidi, cigarette or gutkha, many of them eat either meat, fish, eggs etc. then how can we call it prasadam? What does Srila Prabhupada say about it?



3) Why this so called prasadam is distributed by employees and there is no sankirtan, preaching or book distribution done along with this ‘prasadam’ distribution? What does Srila Prabhupada say about it?



4) A.P devotes get all the grains from the Govt. to cook this so called prasadam and also they are getting big money from big corporate houses then why do they collect money from the public in the name of feeding hungry children? Why do they give the receipt of ‘Hare Krishna Movement’ to most of their donors while the money is collected in the name of A.P for feeding children? What does Srila Prabhupada say about utilizing money collected in the name of food distribution?



5) Why A.P is engaged in philanthropic activities like selling customized food to patients in the hospitals (like sugar free food to diabetes patients etc.), organizing medical camps, participating in polio vaccination drives, giving money to poor children in the name of scholarship to pursue material education, organizing programs under the banner of WAHTS (We are here to serve) where girls are being trained in self-defense, drives for clean and green city etc.? What does Srila Prabhupada say about it?



6) Why does IB group of temples organize programs where it is advertised that for counteracting bodily diseases and material pains, in-fighting between family members and mental disturbances devotees will come and conduct sankirtana in the house? What does Srila Prabhupada say about the purpose of doing sankirtana?

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Note: The above 6 questions are covered by us with proofs and solid evidences backed by the teachings of Srila Prabhupada under the heading Deviation 1 – “Engaging in philanthropic activities to get land and money from the Government and the public.” Please click on the tab “Deviation 1” given at the end of this page to know the details.

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7) Why IB group is building luxurious villas and apartments with gymnasium, spa etc. in Vrindavan, for making money? What is the result of providing  facilities for doing sense gratification in Vrindavan Dham?



8) Why IB group is claiming to make a skyscraper temple in Vrindavan Dham instead of establishing farm communities centered around cows and agriculture, opening gurukulas and establishing daivi varnasrma dharma? What does Srila Prabhupada say about life in Vrindavana?  



9)Even after earning huge amount of money from real estate businesses, selling flats and properties, selling food items etc., why IB group is not building any temples on the huge pieces of land acquired from the govt. in the name of A.P? Bhoomi Poojan is done on most of these lands and some little construction is started and then they are just lying as 3-D drawings since so many years and these drawings are being utilized to collect money? Where all this money is going? What does Srila Prabhupada say about building costly temples?   



10) Why  FOLK hostels of A.P (which is the major source of all the young boys joining A.P) practice the following cut throat professional approach -  

à Giving reduced or free food and accommodation to the students who can later on join A.P full time and collect money for them.

à If someone is showing signs of joining then he is given extra facilities, name, fame and all the brahamcharis treat him very nicely but if the same boy somehow decides not to join A.P but practice K.C while working outside then he is condemned, ostracized and made to feel miserable. Some boys have even committed suicide and many have developed psychiatric problems due to the pressure of guilt, obligation and “surrendering” everything to Krishna.  

àA.P brahamcharis go to the extent of preaching in their closed circles that whatever money we are putting in to get some boy ready for joining will be recovered within a month when he goes to collect funds for A.P and if after putting in so much money he refuses to join then these ‘devotees’ openly say that we have invested so much money on you, given you free Prasadam and accommodation on reduced rates in our hostels for so many years, how can you refuse to join and collect money for A.P!!! 



Where is Krishna Consciousness? Why somebody should be inspired to join the Hare Krishna Movement? What is purpose of dedicating one’s life for Srila Prabhupada’s mission? What is the actual mission of Srila Prabhupada – to make devotees of the Lord with all good qualities of the demigods so that they can escape this cycle of birth and death and go back to Godhead or something else? What is the quality of ‘devotees’ we are going to create if we follow the above mentioned philosophy of “preaching”? What does Srila Prabhupada say about it?



11) Why A.P devotees force the FOLK boys to join the temple full time by even giving them material allurements of sending money to their homes, paying off their loans, giving them commissions and salaries etc.? Why all the devotees who join IB group have only one service i.e collecting money which they call as LLP (Laxmi Liberation Program)? Why none of the full time devotees go for Street Sankirtan or Book distribution? Why IB group keeps paid employees for distributing Srila Prabhupada’s books in order to show some figures?



12) Why the FOLK boys and other full time devotees of IB group taught different tactics from mundane management books about how to extract maximum money from the public? 



13) Why most of the devotees of IB group do not attend evening sadhana? Why the devotees who are collecting money allowed to come late in the night if they are able to collect more money? What does Srila Prabhupada say about the daily routine of an initiated disciple?



14) Why does IB group of temples use Orchesta, rock band etc. to perform sankirtana to attract people? Why professional singers sing in front of the deities even on important festivals like Janmashtmi while full time devotees are busy receiving their big donors? What does Srila Prabhupada say about it? 



15) Why IB group of temples is introducing demigod worship and worship of other Vaisanava Sampradayas like observing ‘pausha bara’ on Hanuman Jayanti, installing and worshipping sudarshan chakra etc? What does Srila Prabhupada say about it?



16) Why IB group disrespects the deities by using them to collect money from public in the following manner -

àDoing Abhishek of the deity 5-6 times in a day on Janmashtmi to satisfy the large number of donors who have given a big amount for Abhishek Seva.

à Conducing Photography competitions of the deities and then given prizes to those photographs which are best while rejecting the other ones which are “not good”.

à Why the devotees are made to stand close to the deities during the festivals who are given the ‘service’ of forcing the public to give money to the deities?

  

17) Why IB group of temples have paid cooks to cook for the deities in spite of having first and second initiated full time devotees who are sent out for collecting money?



18) Why the brahamcharis in their temple allowed to ‘preach’ to matajis if some donation can be raised? Why the matajis allowed to cook with the brahmcharis wearing saffron in the kitchen? Why the brahamcharis who are found involved in acts of illicit relationship with women given protection if they are collecting good money? What does Srila Prabhupada say about it?

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Note: The above 12 questions are covered by us with proofs and solid evidences backed by the teachings of Srila Prabhupada under the heading Deviation 2 – “Creating an illusion of building costly temples to collect money while ignoring the real sankirtan movement of Srila Prabhupada.”Please click on the tab “Deviation 2” ” given at the end of this page to know the details.

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19) Why GBC of IB group of temples does not have any senior devotees from other Prabhupadanuga groups of other countries? Why IB group never invites other Prabhupadanuga devotees where these things can be discussed? Why there is centralized way of working? Why some of the GBC’s of IB group of temples have not even been Temple Presidents what to speak of opening new centers which is the main duty of GBC as per Direction of Management (DOM)? What is DOM as given by Srila Prabhupada?



20) Why the devotees (specially the new bhaktas) allowed to read only selected small books of Srila Prabhupada? Why the new bhaktas trained not to ask questions or quote from Srila Prabhupada’s teachings about anything happening around them and taught to simply surrender to the temple authorities unconditionally since they cannot understand Srila Prabhupada directly?



21) Why IB group of temples do not have the culture of hearing from Srila Prabhupada’s lectures? Why lectures of MPP are recorded and made available to the devotees for hearing when thousands of recorded lectures of Srila Prabhupada are available?



22) Why MPP has created so many trusts like A.P, HKM, SST, Touchstone, Basic Foundation  etc. etc. ? Why he is the main trustee and chairman of all these trusts?


23) Why IB group of temples is adopting the following material principles from corporate sectors for management -

à keeping female receptionists and secretaries, 

à men and women employees working together even late in the night

à targets for brahamcharis for collecting money, analysis - appraisals -incentives and promotions even to the full time devotees based on how much money they are collecting, automatic punch machines for recording attendance in Mangal Arti and collection amounts of each devotee and then deducting from the salaries and commissions of the devotees based on their performance.
àkeeping the important devotees who are collecting good money satisfied by giving them extra material facilities like posts, car, air conditioners , luxurious offices, opulent ‘prasadam’ while the other devotees who are not able to collect money are treated as not very important even though they have been in the movement for a long time.



What does Srila Prabhupada say about all this? 

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Note: The above 5 questions are covered by us with proofs and solid evidences backed by the teachings of Srila Prabhupada under the heading Deviation 3 – “Centralization and Fancy Management.” Please click on the tab “Deviation 3” given at the end of this page to know the details.

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24)
Why the High Court of Karnataka, India has given the following order in para 70 of the judgement against Madhu Pandit Prabhu (MPP) -

“Further, Madhupandit Das, his wife Bhakti Lata Devi Dasi, his co-brother Chanchalapati Das, his wife’s sister Chamari Devi Dasi and other close associates cooked up reports specifying the names of these persons as elected office bearers of plaintiff society and filed the same in the office of Registrar of Societies for the first time on 21.08.2001 for the entire period of 12 years from 1989 to 2001. As already stated these reports are cooked up for the purpose of giving life to the defunct plaintiff society.” “

Why has MPP forged the papers for getting hold of the temple of Bangalore? What does Srila Prabhupada say about following the law of the land?


25) Why MPP is drifting from his ritvik stand in his meetings with the Iskcon GBC members? Why MPP has proposed to Iskcon GBC that he would consider the possibility of implementing first initiation by Srila Prabhupada and second initiation by the regular pancaratrika gurus appointed by the GBC? Where does Srila Prabhupada talk about such an initiation system?



26) Why Iskcon Bangalore pays money to some “devotees” to write articles and falsely malign the character of anyone on the Internet who speaks against them even if he is talking the truth directly from the teachings of Srila Prabhupada?



27) Why IB group is installing mostly Krishna Balaram deities while Srila Prabhpada installed Sri Radha Krishna and Gaur Nitai? Why IB group of temples take Krishna Balaram on Ratha Yatra rather than Jagannatha, Baladev and Subhadra? What does Srila Prabhupada say about it?



28) Why in all the temples of IB group Srila Prabhupada’s deity is in a mudra which is normally shown as a sign of devil? Did Srila Prabhupada ever show such a mudra of his fingers during his manifested lila on this planet?

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Note: The above 5 questions are covered by us with proofs and solid evidences backed by the teachings of Srila Prabhupada under the heading Deviation 4 – “In the name of serving Srila Prabhupada.” Please click on “Deviation 4” given at the end of this page to know the details

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So in the past few months we have been spending some time trying to confirm whether the IB group is working in this deviated way or not. To our surprise we have found that almost all the observations/questions raised above are true to the letter and is completely opposed to the teachings and desires of Srila Prabhupada. Finally we decided to bring the result of all this research in public forum for everyone’s benefit. We will be discussing each of the above 28 questions/observations with solid proofs and evidences backed by Srila Prabhupada’s teachings. 



Please refer to the following quotes of Srila Prabhupada in this connection -

A person who knows things as they are and still does not bear witness becomes involved in sinful activities."Cc. Madhya 5.90



We have listed the findings of our research under the headings Deviation1, Deviaton2 etc. Right now the readers have to be satisfied by reading Devation1 only which is also partially completed. The rest of the portions of Deviation 1 and other deviations are being prepared. Very shortly we will upload them also.



Posted on the auspicious day of Srila Prabhupada’s Appearance Day – 19th Augsut, 2014 for the information of all the devotees who have a desire to preserve and propogate the original teachings of Srila Prabhupada since this is the only hope for the suffering humanity.

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Click on the following links to read the details



DEVIATION 2  : Creating an illusion of building costly temples to collect money while ignoring the real sankirtan movement of Srila Prabhupada.      

DEVIATION 3: Centralization and Fancy Management.

DEVIATION 4: In the name of serving Srila Prabhupada.
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1 comment:

  1. when are u people going to publish the deviation 2,3,4 ?

    i am waiting from very long time

    please release it

    hare krihna

    ReplyDelete