Jagadish: Stalin of Iskcons Guru-kula school

And now for Jagadish.
Let’s say your studio hired a security company to watch over your place. Let’s say the manager of the security service used those guards to steal from you and molest your employees for 20 years. Now imagine seeing that same manager saying the company “didn’t know what (it) was doing” because they had poor security.

Jagadish was “the system” Prabhupada put into place to safe guard us. Jagadish instead bullied parents and children into his schools to build his own power base within the society far beyond what Prabhupada intended. We paid the price for his campaign, a campaign that continues to this day, 35 years later, in your show that once again gives his skewed account of “Prabhupada.” Why not ask us for our accounts of Prabhupada & guru-kula? I can send you some of the many essays I ’ve written.

Providing Jagadish a national forum to make excuses and blaming others for his crimes was infuriating. Could you think of a greater insult to Jews then asking Hilter for his opinions on Jewish concentration camps? And then airing it nationally. Jagadish is the only common link to all child abuse throughout the movement and may have the distinction of overseeing more child abuse then anyone else in the Western world of the last 40 years.

It was Jagadish who pressed for having children separated from their parents. The best example is in Jagadish’s official handbook on gurukula. There he changes Prabhupada’s quote from saying children can stay with parents to stating children can’t.

If Prabhupada was indeed so insistent about separating parents and children, why would Jagadish have to make such changes? I bring this up to answer points raised on the show. Other more gruesome controversies would take many pages to cover whether changing many a “Prabhupada said” or the time he beat me severely or transferred a number of sexual molesters from one school to anther.

Subject: Letter to Turley - Nirmal Stole My Day in Court
Date: 03.Sep.2000, by Raghunatha Anudasa

Nirmala Has Stolen My Day In Court
Prabhupada vs. Jagadish

Dear Mr. Turley,
I was ready to join the lawsuit. Then I met Nirmala Chandra, Mr. Hickey and his Dad, Jagadish, the ex minister of education. No one in the last 5 years has been more abusive with me then Nirmala and his father Jagadish. The teachers ended up abusing the children of the local leaders. This was Jagadish's doing, not the leaders whose children where abused by his teachers. >> complete story <<

Subject: Defending Prabhupada More then "Conditioning"
Date: 13.Dec.2000, by Raghunatha Anudasa

Actually, there is a 4th reason: not allowing Jagadish to hide his guilt (of promoting and protecting severe abusers) behind the mantle of Prabhupada. Nor do I want these monster teachers to hide their criminal abuse behind Indian culture. If you had actually read my letter to Turley, you would known this. If you were not so mislead by Jagadish's propaganda of blaming Prabhupada, you would be allowed to see Jagadish's role more clearly--which would leave you as disgusted about Jagadish as I am. I only hope the courts don't overlook Jagadish's role as you have. This is one of my primary concerns.

You asked where I was when you were being abused? So I ask: where you were when I spent 80% of my effort trying to expose all these abuses when kulis were not interested in discussing it, devotees would not hear of it and the GBC condemned me as the lone voice on the issue?

Where were you when I was spending 50% of all my money on printing and distributing the material for exposing the abuse of all my friends? I told of all my friends, not just my own abuse which was severe. Where were you when I was dealing with devotee, GBC and guru condemnation for being "monkey's" simply because of the reunions? I even faced gurukuli apathy in starting these reunion forums which have lead to finding our identity as a community? Again, costing me hundreds of dollars, lots of time and effort and little appreciate by way of cash or tangible help from either kulis or devotees.

As soon as there was money offered by ISKCON--every other gkuli was employed in the number of projects but me. Where were you then? Where were you when we where bullying the GBC to create new organizations to fight child abuse in the movement--and succeeded? I spent about $8,000 dollars in two years when my income was hardly $7,000 a year. Did you bother to give even $70 dollars for the cause then or now? Where were you 10 years ago when I stood alone for this cause with no other prospects but great personal financial lost, condemnation from the GBC and isolation from uninterested devotees and kulis?

You like most of my friends where getting an education, starting families, making money. I put all these things on hold so these issues about us would finally be heard. Today, I stand alone, once again, with no career, no formal education, no money and no family. What I see is someone jumping in now that it is highly fashionable to condemn the movement, when they can receive high profile media attention, when they have powerful attorney's to back them up, a sympathetic audience among the devotees, a large group of kulis to support their ideas and hundreds of millions of dollars to cash in on.

Yet, I have non of these advantages in my position and still I speak out against the abusers, by name, date, place and in accordance with other witnesses. I now do this concerning Prabhupada's role as much as I did in presenting other people of our guru-kula history. Devotees respond with some kind words or mumble how I am simply feeding Turley with information and failing to recognize the importance of the concensus created. Others insist I should do more to defend Prabhupada. Yet, these same devotees will not offer so much as $25 dollars though I now have $5,000 on my credit cards and 8 months of my life spent on these issues.

Devotees spend their time and money on everything but this. The GBC is mute to all my efforts while they spend tens of thousands for legal posturing -- not on clarifying the issue of Prabhupada's role. Gurukulis who do support me are quite in public while the younger kulis who know little of Jagadish or Prabhupada condemn me for sharing my first hand accounts of both. Now for the final insult, I have to hear some devotee (pretending to be a guru-kuli) tell me that I do all of this out of "conditioning." I'll take their opinion seriously when they have committed 3 years, full time and about $13,000 of their out-of-pocket money to this cause. Until then, they are blowing hot air like the rest of those on both sides of the issue.

Turley has put his money where his mouth is. Devotees should consider doing the same much as the writer who sent me the letter. I have followed my words with financial commitment--everything I have plus all my remaining credit. Nirmal dedicated his money. Manu did the same. So has Anuttama and Turley. Besides them, everyone else is just entertaining themselves. Here's where I'm getting at. There are 2,000 kulis. If we each threw in just $35 a month, we would have $800,000 a year. With that, we could buy ourselves large community properties, produce our story as a movie, get a boat to sail the world, hire a small force to shake down our abusers or what ever we decided we wanted. Some kulis will have $, some won't, but on average, it is possible.

If 500 devotees pitched in just $35 a month, we would have $200,000 a year to do things with. This personifies what I'm getting at: consensus and financial commitment--even if it be small. Until then, if your not ready to take action, then at least be more apprediative of the sacrifices made by others for the cause you will now cash in on.

Raghunatha Anudasa