New Vrindavan Body Count, For the Record
Unedited by Navadvipchandra Das | Published 01/8/2007


For more than a month we have all been witness to daily shocking confessions and revelations about the Sulochan murder and Radhanatha Swami's link as the leader of the murder conspiracy. Despite such important breaking news, which has serious implications for the entire GBC and the guru system in ISKCON, both of ISKCON's main news websites were busy with much more important news.

Tirtha das - Thomas Drescher, notorious Iskcon devotee murderer
mass murderer Tirtha
in prison, first trial

After nearly a month of murder confessions flying all over the internet and daily front page coverage on the Sampradaya Sun, Chakra.org provided us the breaking headline of a new health spa opening up in Mayapur. Not to be outdone, Dandavats.com took investigative journalism to an all new level with the front page headline of Steve Jobs' Interest in Krishna Prasadam, a reprinted article from perhaps 10 years ago. The question that all the devotees are asking is why the great silence from ISKCON on this most serious case? Well what would you do if you knew one of your biggest gurus (with 5,000 disciples) was a murderer, and that a large number of GBC members had been involved in the murder conspiracy? You would probably do just what Dandavats.com and Chakra.org did, remain silent and hope for everything to just disappear.


While repairing the temple pond a construction crew accidentally discovered human remains. The FBI came to investigate and found numerous unidentified bodies, one without a head. This picture is a reporter asking Kirtanananda about those bodies that had just been discovered. In reply, he said:
"A dead body is no different than any other dirt. What does it matter what you do with dead bodies. We just put them in the ground in unmarked graves and forget about them." That was his explanation as to why there were unidentified dead bodies under the construction site of Prabhupada's Palace of Gold. 		 

Unfortunately for them the news didn't go away. With each day more witnesses and participants in the conspiracy confessed providing even more incriminating evidence against Radhanatha Swami and other GBC members. Finally, after a month of such revelations and many devotees asking the GBC for a public statement, Ravindra Svarupa was forced to say something. Even then, the GBC refused to put a public statement on record, because they don't want to be stuck on a sinking ship. Instead they had Ravindra Svarupa put his own neck out in an attempt to silence the noise. Exactly who this Ravindra Svarupa is, and what his connection to the New Vrindaban conspiracy is, we will deal with a little later. First let us look at what he had to say to all the "full time fault-finders" who dare to ask questions about ISKCON's dark past.

Warning: Some of the things you will hear in this article will be shocking for the weak sentimentalists, so if you fall in that category it is better for you to change the channel now.

The sum and substance of Ravindra Svarupa's letter is about the notorious devotee murderer Thomas Drescher, whom Ravindra Svarupa likes to call "Tirtha Prabhu". From the very first line he sets the tone, that Tirtha is a devotee and should be respected with such titles as "Prabhu" (master). This is more of the same we had already heard from Malati and Umapati, who both glorified Tirtha as a great devotee, completely reformed from intense absorption in chanting of the holy names. Ravindra Svarupa obviously thinks the same. He states:

"In my experience, Tirtha Prabhu, in jail, shows much evidence of sincerely cultivating the Holy Name. I have had much more association with H. H. Radhanatha Swami. In my experience, he clearly exhibits the symptoms of one advanced in sincerely cultivating the Holy Name."

Ravindra Svarupa then goes on to sugest Tirtha should be forgiven because he has acknowledged his sins and is full of regret:

"When there is full acknowledgment of sins and deep regret, Krishna accepts his fallen servant back…"

What Ravindra Svarupa doesn't inform our readers is that Tirtha has never acknowledge his long list of "sins", which in this case are primarily murders, nor has he ever felt any regret. In fact, in every single interview Tirtha has ever done, he has ridiculed Sulochan time and time again. He still hates Sulochan and feels Sulochan deserved to be killed. Till today, he has still not apologized to Sulochan for the murder.

What else Ravindra Svarupa doesn't tell you is this: Tirtha killed Sulochan not because of fear for his gurus safety or any other devotional sentiment, but because he was offered $80,000 US dollars to carry out the hit. Tirtha was not a practicing devotee at all at the time of the murder, he was just a pot smoking low class criminal bum who happened to hang around New Vrindavan because Kirtanananda needed a strong man. Being in the court room at the time of Tirtha's cross examination, Ravindra Svarupa obviously is familiar with the following FBI wire tap, which is a conversation between Tirtha and Randall Gorby (one of the main witnesses against Tirtha and an FBI informant, who was later found murdered before he could testify in the Kirtanananda trial). In this conversation, Tirtha tells his close friend Randall Gorby that he was offered $80,000 US dollars to kill Sulochan:

Randal Gorby: "What agreement did you make...

Tirtha: "Well its just that 8 figure.... they actually thought that was a bargain basement price and they were all happy with it.… It was bargain fuckin' basement. I mean you couldn't get any lower than that.... But I don't think he is setting me up. I really don't think Bhaktipada is trying to set me up. That's who Tapahpunja was with."

Of course Ravindra Svarupa is familiar with this FBI wiretap recording, but for some reason he doesn't want to mention it to our readers. Why? Because it shows that Tirtha is the scum of the earth, a low class money grubbing dog, who killed devotees just to get paid. But he did it at "bargain fuckin' basement" prices. So maybe Ravindra Svarupa takes that into some type of devotional consideration when referring to Tirtha as a great devotee.

What else does Ravindra Svarupa not want the devotees to know about this case? Well for starters, it wasn't just the murder of two people. If you counted the New Vrindavan bodies on your fingers you would need to continue on your toes. Here are a few of the unsolved murders linked to New Vrindaban and the leaders of that time (which include Radhanatha Swami, Devamrita Swami, Malati, Umapati Swami, and others):

1) Todd Schenker (former security chief of New Vrindaban for over 10 years) – found shot with a bullet to his brain on April 5th, 1988. Kirtanananda called it a suicide, but amazingly this devotee managed to shoot himself in the head, dispose of the gun, and then set his body on fire - all before dying. Another witness who wouldn't make it to the trials. The police were 100% certain it was a murder:

Sheriff Donald Bordenkircher is not sure whose body was found on property bordering a Hare Krishna commune, or how the man died, but he is certain the death was not suicide.

"While some want us to believe the person found dead was Todd Schenker and that he inflicted a gunshot wound to his head," the sheriff said, "the tale they weave does not seem plausible."

"It was impossible for the victim to shoot himself in the head, burn himself and then dispose of the weapon," he said.

Bordenkircher said authorities recovered two barrels from a semiautomatic pistol and spring and hammer parts from a revolver but failed to find a gun frame.

Bordenkircher said a .22-caliber slug was extracted from the brain. A search through fire debris produced gun parts that were not relative to the case. He said it appears someone took measures to plant evidence at the scene.

What's more, the sheriff said, the fire marshal's office determined the fire was not sufficiently hot to melt the steel or gun frame alloys.

Based on those findings, Bordenkircher said he concluded the death weapon was not to be found but "it appears that some effort was made to put evidence at the fire site.

"The real basis of our investigation is that it's impossible for the victim to shoot himself, burn himself, and then throw the gun away," Bordenkircher said. "It wasn't spontaneous combustion."

Next on the list of murder victims:

2) Taru Das, Thomas Meyers (frequent writer for Back To Godhead and Brijbasi Spirit) – disappeared without a trace in November of 1980. The FBI has been searching for his body for 25 years without any luck. Everyone knew he was murdered, but without a body the FBI has no case. How would the FBI ever find his body under all that concrete? The Palace of Gold had been opened in 1979, but there was still plenty of construction going on to cover a body or two. Ravindra Svarupa, were you the one who made the deal with the FBI not to dig up Prabhupada's Palace of Gold to look for bodies? What was the other deal you made, something about not seizing New Vrindavan's drug money? That money disappeared pretty quickly with the creative accounting at New Vrindavan. Why don't you let the readers know, what was your cut?
 
Next murder victim:

3) Randall Gorby – He was an FBI informant who became the chief witness against Tirtha in several of the trials. Tirtha had loose lips, and would often brag about his crimes to friends. As soon as Randall heard about the murders, he contacted the FBI and agreed to have his phone tapped (thereby becoming an FBI informant). Gorby was found killed in his pickup truck in July of 1990 with a gunshot wound to his head. Looks like he wouldn't make it to testify against Kirtanananda in the big trial, would he? Radhanatha Swami, you were still a big Kirtanananda man at this time, weren't you? Were you the one taking care of Bhaktipada's loose strings?

Randall Gorby had already survived a murder attempt by New Vrindavan hitmen in 1986. The day after Tirtha had been arrested Randall Gorby's house blew up, leaving him in critical condition. The official statement was that someone opened up his gas line and filled his house with gas. When he lit a cigarette, the entire house exploded and became a pile of fiery rubble, with him in it. Kirtanananda's public answer: he must have been trying to get free gas by bypassing the gas meter.

Some people say he was also connected with the Philadelphia temple. I'm sure Ravindra Svarupa remembers him, at least the "him" before there was a bullet in his head. There was one other murder attempt on Randall Gorby which occurred on May 28, 1986 . Ravindra Svarupa knows more details about that one.

Randall Gorby was the person Kirtanananda used to buy up all the land surrounding New Vrindavan. Since the locals didn't want to sell their land to devotees, Kirtanananda paid Randall to secretly buy the land on the devotee's behalf. As a result New vrindavan grew to over 3,000 acres. In the end he was rewarded for this work with a bullet to his head.

The next murder victim:

4) Chakradhari Das (Charles St. Dennis) – Tirtha brutally murdered him primarily due to the fact that he still owed Tirtha a $5,000 payment on a house Tirtha sold to him, and he wasn't paying it. Another proof that Tirtha is a money grubbing scumbag, not a great devotee like Malati, Ravindra Svarupa and Umapati claim. The murder was described by prosecutors as follows:

"Prosecutors said St. Denis was shot a dozen times, stabbed, beat with a hammer and finally suffocated with plastic wrap placed in his mouth before he was buried." - Associated Press (August 31, 1986)

For just $5,000, Tirtha shot him a dozen times, stabbed him with a kitchen knife continuously till the blade broke off inside his chest, then took a screw driver and continued stabbing him with it, and finally (when Chakradhari still wouldn't die) he suffocated him with plastic wrap. Dear readers, does he sound like an advanced devotee absorbed in chanting the holy name of Krishna, or like the lowest scum in the world? Ravindra Svarupa is an insane lunatic if he thinks this man is a saint. Tirtha has engaged in multiple murders, and each time the consideration has been money. This is why Tirtha's trial in Los Angeles was a "Murder for Hire" trial.

Next murder victims:

5 & 6) Radheya (son of Chakradhari) and Rohini (son of murder accomplice Daruka) – Just month's after Tirtha killed Chakradhari, Chakradhari's son is found suffocated in an abandoned refrigerator. Guess who else is found dead in the same refrigerator? Rohini, the son of Daruka, who was Tirtha's murder accomplice in the killing of Chakradhari. Tirtha had decided to kill the only eye witness, his murder partner Daruka (because he knew where the body was – no body, no case). But in this instance, the chance to kill Daruka's son along with Chakradhari's son came conveniently along before he acted to kill Daruka. After killing the kids, Tirtha was stopped from taking out Daruka because Bhaktipada didn't approve. This later proved to be a big mistake for Tirtha, as Daruka was the main witness against him in the Chakradhari murder trial.

Daruka was the one who called Chakradhari for the meeting when he was murdered, and he was also the one who ran inside the house to bring Tirtha a kitchen knife and screw driver after Tirtha ran out of bullets.

The rumor New Vrindavan leaders spread throughout ISKCON was that the children were playing hide and seek. But why wasn't there another kid looking for them? How do you play hide and seek with only two people, when both of you are hiding in the same abandoned refrigerator?

Next murder victim:

7) Nimai Bryant (the son of Sulochan) – In November of 1986 Sulochan's son, Nimai Bryant, mysteriously drowns at New Vrindavan, just months after his father was murdered. He was just three years old and he didn't have any past habit of entering the water at all. Coincidentally, as mentioned above, Chakradhari's son also died mysteriously at new Vrindavan (in 1984) just months after his father was murdered by Tirtha Das. His son was found suffocated inside an abandoned refrigerator. Is it merely a coincidence that the two people Tirtha murdered also had their sons die mysteriously within a few months of their father's being killed? It is much more likely that the conspiracy leader ordered the sons to be killed, knowing that they would grow up to avenge their father's murders, likely killing the New Vrindavan leaders responsible. Tirtha was in prison at the time of the drowning, so there were many other murderers at the command of New Vrindavan's leaders. Randall Gorby had also been killed while Tirtha was in prison, as well as Todd Schenker.

Next victim:

8) Unknown body from 1977 - The morning the Tirtha trial begain, the FBI announced that an informant had told them the location of a body that had been buried in 1977 in the forest. Kirtanananda replies to reporters: "It certainly isn't what's his name… Chuck St. Denis. This body is from 6 years before."

Next victims:

9 & 10) Two unidentified bodies discovered in 1986 – In 1986 a construction crew repairing the temple pond accidentally uncovered the remains of two bodies (a male and a female). The FBI immediately came to investigate. The official reply from New Vrindavan was that one of the two had died from "accidental asphyxiation in his car". After further digging more bodies were found along with these two.

Dear Ravindra Svarupa, is it common ISKCON practice to dump bodies under constructions sites? Is that the official way ISKCON disposes of dearly departed Vaishnavas? All this time I thought we cremated our dead, and put the ashes into holy rivers. But Ravindra Svarupa wants us to believe it is ISKCON policy to dump dead bodies under construction sites. When New Vrindavan had 3,000 acres of land, why did they have to "bury" their dearly departed Vaishnavas under the concrete of Prabhupada's Palace of Gold? They couldn't find empty land anywhere on that 3,000 acres? They could only find a proper unmarked burial ground under the construction site of the Palace of Gold? Ravindra Svarupa, is that how you bury departed devotees in Philadelphia as well? Do you dump their bodies under the Philadelphia temple construction site?

When Kirtanananda was asked by a reporter why the bodies have been desecrated like this, he replied, "What does it matter what you do with a dead body? What's it worth? A dead body, as far as we're concerned, is another piece of earth. We put them in the ground and forget about them. And we don't see any reason to mark them." That's a pretty convenient answer, but unfortunately it isn't what is taught by Srila Prabhupada. Srila Prabhupada never taught us to dump dead bodies under the concrete construction sites of his temple projects.

Next murder victim:

11) Sulochan Das (Steven Bryant) – Killed by Tirtha Das on the order of Radhanatha Swami in 1986. This has already been discussed in detail in previous articles, so we will not get into it here. As mentioned above, his son is also killed just months after he was murdered.

In summary, New Vrindavan was a terrible criminal empire that engaged in every type of illegal activity, and openly killed anyone who got in the way, even if they happened to be lawyers, government officers or devotees. For example, the FBI says Tirtha planned to kill attorney Dave Gold because he was representing a party in a property dispute against Kirtanananda. Tirtha had been overheard bragging that he had followed Gold into the forests at night on several occasions, but the only reason he didn't kill him yet was because he didn't find a good spot for it.

The FBI has also said that Tirtha planned to kill the Marshall County Assessor, Alfred Clark, because he was attempting to levy heavier taxes on the commercial aspects of New Vrindavan.

Maha Mantra Das has also stated that, while looking for a place to dispose of Sulochan's body, Tirtha spoke of hiding other bodies as well, such as the body of Dhira Krishna (former Swami and former president of Los Angeles ISKCON temple).

The day Kirtanananda's first trial verdict was overturned, the main prosecutor, William Kolibash, was fired upon while driving down the road. The bullet only struck the cars tire. The shooter has never been identified, but we don't need to guess who was behind it.

The above list is a small fraction of the murders that have occurred at New Vrindavan during the time Kirtanananda was in charge. Due to the wandering lifestyle of devotees, it was very easy to cover the disappearance of an unmarried devotee by saying they had left for India, or that they had gone to another temple. In most cases we have only come to know of disappearances when a family member had brought up the matter in public. In the case of devotees who had no wives or children, no one would even think for a second where they were if they disappeared. Thus the true number of murdered devotees at New Vrindavan can never be known. Anyone who had disappeared after passing through New Vrindavan is a potential murder victim.

As has been proven by court testimony, many devotees at New Vrindavan were aware that these murders were taking place. It is ludicrous to suggest Radhanatha Swami, a senior leader and right hand man of Kirtanananda, had no knowledge that such murders were occurring. How was it possible for Sulochan to write in his book "The Guru Business" (in 1985 before the trial had even begun) that Tirtha and Daruka killed Chakradhari? He wrote:

"Many devotees within "ISKCON" have been attacked with deadly weapons. Indeed, Chakraddhari was murdered at New Vmdavana by Daruka and Tirtha with the help and inspiration of the Temple treasurer, Dulal Chandra. This incident is well-known to all at New Vmdavana, so much so that Kuladri was having to make frequent announcements to the devotees during Prasadam: "If the police come and ask any questions regarding Chakraddhari, you don't know anything." We personally heard this said." – Sulochan, "The Guru Business" (Chapter 6 was written around July of 1985)

How did he know Daruka was an accomplice in the murder? The reason was because everyone at New Vrindavan knew who had killed Chakradhari. That everyone obviously included the leaders of New Vrindavan such as Radhanatha Swami. Despite having full knowledge that such murders were taking place, Radhanatha Swami continued to support Kirtanananda till 1993, and even personally ordered the murder of Sulochan himself.

Tirtha was one of the main hitmen in Kirtanananda's arsenal, but there were many other's as well. Many of the murders listed above were committed by Tirtha, but some were committed by his partners while he was in prison. In either case, as an accomplice in these crimes he is equally guilty of all the murders that have occurred at New Vrindavan. He is fully aware of the system of corruption and the lead players involved in the killings, but refuses to reveal these truths. The fact that he sits in jail pretending that there were only two murders is proof that he has not repented for his crimes. Ravindra Svarupa is also aware that all of these murders have taken place, but he tries to portray Tirtha as a great saint and devotee fully absorbed in chanting the Lord's holy names. Ravindra Svarupa, you are a bigger fraud than Tirtha.

Let us first look at a few of Ravindra Svarupa's other statements before we talk about his spiritual qualification to judge Tirtha's remorse.

Ravindra Svarupa  states firmly:

"The government is not going to reopen its case."

He speaks quite positively about this, almost as though he hopes his confidence will make it true. But with the number of dead bodies buried under New Vrindavan soil and Prabhupada's Palace of Gold it takes only a single witness to swing things around and bring the FBI back with shovels. In addition to this, there are countless cases that can be filed against individuals involved. For example, Kirtanananda has never been found guilty of child molestation despite being a notorious pedophile. Ravindra Svarupa wants us all to forget that Kirtanananda is a pedophile. He tells us there is no way the FBI will reopen cases against past criminal ISKCON leaders. But the truth is they will open the case the second a witness agrees to testify against Kirtanananda. The same goes for all of the child molesters in New Vrindavan, including Ravindra Svarupa's good friend Sri Galima. They pray that the cases are all closed and that they will never be reopened, but the second a new witness comes to testify, all of these rascals will be back in court waiting in line for their justice. For New Vrindavan it only requires the location of a single body for the FBI to be back with the digging equipment. Are you so sure, Ravindra Svarupa, that no one knows the location of a single body? Do you want to bet on that? Witnesses are coming forward every day now, and if ISKCON does not investigate and punish the criminals who ruled New Vrindavan (such as Radhanatha Swami, Malati, Devamrita Swami, and Umapati Swami) then information will end up coming out in the public, and there may be digging equipment back in New Vrindavan before you know it.

You have never tried to prosecute any of the criminals in New Vrindavan, neither the murderers nor the pedophiles. You are the one rascal who has seriously betrayed the devotees twice: 1) once with your fake guru reform, just to become a guru yourself. 2) twice, when you pretended to investigate New Vrindavan crimes, but ended up taking a cut of New Vrindavan's drug money and reappointing every single Kirtanananda henchman back to power. As long as the Kirtanananda was pushed aside to give you more zone to guru in, you didn't mind who stayed in power. Kuladri, Tapahpunja, Nityodita, Radhanatha Swami, Malati, Candramauli Swami, Varshana Swami, Umapati Swami – every last one was promoted by you! How does that work? In exchange for pushing Kirtanananda aside, you promoted all of his leading criminal henchmen to power – plus you got a cut of the money. Sweet! We get Bhavananda in Mayapur, Ravindra in Philly, and Radhanatha in New Vrindavan. Now the nectar is flowing.

Ravindra Svarupa goes on to say:

"Some time later, Michael Stein told me that he had concluded--from his talk with Maharaja and whatever else he'd gathered from the government's investigation--that Radhanatha Swami was not implicated in any of the criminal activities in New Vrindavan. I think the federal prosecution had better judgment and more disinterested intentions than anyone now calling its decisions into question."

Ravindra Svarupa pretends he doesn't know what happened with Radhanatha Swami's involvement. Let me go along with your game of fake amnesia and remind you. After Kirtanananda went to prison, slowly Radhanatha Swami became the big guru in New Vrindavan, taking over where Kirtanananda left off. One of his main converts was Tirtha, the notorious murderer whom you love. Already Tirtha had been sentenced to death in California for the Sulochan murder, and he had nothing to look forward to in prison. At the same time Radhanatha Swami was getting pressured by the FBI in the case, and he risked being implicated. At this point he got together with his new disciple Tirtha, who was also being offered a deal from the FBI. If Tirtha would testify against Kirtanananda, they would remove his death sentence and he would only have to serve life without parole. Tirtha then spoke to them about his friend and guru Radhanatha Swami. He would agree to testify only if they agreed not to prosecute him at all. The prosecutors did not have a solid case against Kirtanananda without Tirtha's testimony, so they agreed to let Radhanatha Swami go in exchange for catching the "big criminal cult leader". In this way Radhanatha Swami became the real card holder in the case. Tirtha wouldn't budge unless he gave the word, so the prosecutors had no choice but to play to the tune of Radhanatha Swami and keep him completely out of any accusation

Ravindra states:

"As some of you may recall, in 1987 the North American GBC decided that, for the

protection of Srila Prabhupada's movement, it should cooperate with the government in its case against Kirtanananda Swami and others. On several occasions, I was able to observe at first hand the thorough and systematic way the team of prosecution lawyers and FBI agents made their cases not only against Kirtanananda but against many of his lieutenants and foot-soldiers. So far as I could see, the government was thorough and relentless."

Ravindra Svarupa, bogus guru
Ravindra Svarupa explains the philosophical technicalities of the pedophile guru lineage. "He used to be a bonafide guru, but now that he is a pedophile we have voted him out as a guru.

If that is true, then please show me the big list of pedophiles, murderers and criminals who are now serving the life sentences that they deserve. The funniest thing is that the only criminals who were implicated besides Kirtanananda all happen to be current ISKCON leaders. Can you please give me the long list of names that you consider Kirtananada's many lieutenants and foot-soldiers? Since you have made a very particular verifiable statement, please give me the long list of Kirtanananda's evil criminal henchmen who have been caught and punished by the government. The truth is all of Kirtanananda's leaders escaped without punishment at all, except for some ridiculous plea bargain cases for "mail fraud". This was a criminal empire of murder, drug smuggling, rape and child molestation – but all you can show me is one man who pleaded guilty to mail fraud and served one year in jail. You're an idiot Ravindra Svarupa, that's all I can really say about you. You're a PHD certified idiot.

Ravindra Svarupa goes on to say:

"I am certain that any investigation of our own will serve only to cause distress, agitation, doubts, and so on, without getting us one millimeter closer to a firmer resolution."

Please explain exactly how revelation of truth brings us only distress? From what the rest of the worldwide devotees can see, the only distress will come to the criminals who you are propping up and protecting – the pedophiles, murderers and rapists. Hiding the truth about corruption, murder, rape and child molestation does not bring us closer to resolution, it takes us away from it. You have attempted to hide the truth for the last 20 years because the truth includes some unpleasant facts about yourself – how you sold out ISKCON for a cut in Kirtanananda's drug money, how you propped up a known murderer to keep the silence amongst your gang of ex-Kirtanananda henchmen, how you put an AIDS infected lesbian on the GBC because she and her friends knew your involvement in the post-Kirtananada "restructuring" of the zone.

Regarding murderer Tirtha, your letter is filled primarily with lies:

"Concerning Tirtha Prabhu: Shortly after the "Winnebago incident" in 1993 had undeniably disclosed Kirtanananda's sexual transgressions and shattered his facade for good, I happen to be at a former New Vrindavan center in Ohio. I was told that Tirtha was on the phone, and he wanted to talk to me. Speaking from jail, Tirtha told me that now he understood that Kirtanananda was not a pure devotee, and therefore that he himself, who had killed two devotees on Kirtanananda's order, was guilty of murder."

You make it out as though over night Tirtha had changed after hearing about Kirtanananda's sexual problems - suddenly he was a changed man. The "Winnebago incident" occurred in 1993 and Tirtha testified against Kirtanananda in 1996. Three years elapsed between the time Kirtananada was publicly exposed as a homosexual and when Tirtha testified. The Winnebago incident was not what led Tirtha to testify against Kirtanananda, it was the offer from the FBI: no charges against Radhanatha Swami, and no death penalty for him.

When he gave death to others he was a tough man, but when it came to his own death sentence he was a coward. Rather than accept it as " Krishna's wish" like you claim in your letter, he worked hard to get out of his due punishment. When he killed Chakradhari, he cited the 7 aggressors who are fit to be killed – one of which is a murderer. Why then does he back out of this and no longer think he should be executed? He is a shameless coward who killed people for money. In other words he is the lowest scum of this earth, and anyone who tries to paint him as a saintly devotee is of a similar nature.

You wrote:

"I said to him at once that truth is the best prayascitta."

On one side you say we shouldn't speak any of the truths surrounding this case, because it will only cause "distress", then you immediately say telling the truth is the best form of atonement. So make up your mind. Which one are you, a hypocrite or a liar? If you really are saying both things, then you are clearly a hypocrite, or if you don't actually believe that telling the whole truth is the best form of atonement, then you are a liar.

You said:

"He should go on record, answer all the government's questions truthfully, and he should ask for nothing in exchange. Tirtha said that other devotees had told him the exact same thing."

But you left off the real facts of the matter. Tirtha did not go to them asking for "nothing in exchange". Tirtha specifically asked for his death sentence to be dropped and for Radhanatha Swami to be protected from prosecution.   What you have done here is tried to intentionally mislead the readers. You knew Tirtha did ask for these conditions, yet you carefully worded your letter so readers would assume Tirtha never asked for anything.

Just see the nonsense you have attempted here: "He should ask for nothing in exchange" …… and "Tirtha said other devotees also told him to ask for nothing in exchange"….. but you left off the real fact that Tirtha actually did ask for everything in exchange for his testimony. What you told him to do and what the other devotees told him to do is not what he actually did. But you intentionally left that out to fool the readers.

This was without doubt intentionally done on your part to mislead the devotees into thinking Tirtha was selflessly interested in testifying only for the sake of truth. He killed for money and he testified to save his own neck – these are the real facts of Tirtha Das.

You state:

In jail, Tirtha told me: "I belong in here."

Then why don't you go ask him why he and Malati have been working on getting a pardon so he can be released? Everything you people say is just rubbish and lies to fool the kind and trusting devotees.

You state:

"When there is full acknowledgment of sins and deep regret, Krishna accepts his fallen servant back, for which undeserved mercy the servant feels unlimited and unending gratitude. In this way the fallen soul goes back to Godhead."

But in the case of Tirtha Das, he has never fully acknowledged his roll in the dozens of murders that have occurred at New Vrindavan. He has never acknowledged his roll in any of the crimes, except for the purpose of being freed from his death sentence. In all of his personal trials he has always declared himself completely innocent. Only in the trial of Kirtanananda has he admitted to the murders, and that also only to have his death sentence dropped. He has never felt regret for his killing of Sulochan. In all of his interviews he has always blamed Sulochan for the killing saying he deserved it for what he was doing. He has never publicly apologized to Sulochan for the terrible offense he has committed against him and to all the devotees in the world whom he has harmed. He is a greedy hitman who killed devotees just to get money to buy drugs. Ask anyone who knew him at the time and they will say the same thing. If you gave him money and told him to kill Srila Prabhupada, he would have tried it. That is how much of a wretched scumbag this person was.

Up till this day he has been unable and unwilling to acknowledge his sins in this matter. Additionally, you also have been unwilling to acknowledge your sins in the New Vrindavan plunder that followed Kirtanananda's arrest. You yourself state in your letter the following, which fully explains why you have stopped progressing:

"If, however, a devotee becomes unwilling or unable to acknowledge his sins and offenses, his progress stops."

Instead of seeing you progressing in spiritual life, the devotees are seeing videos of you throwing a water bottle at the face of another devotee and yelling "how is your slut wife and your bastard kids". Quite shocking language coming from an ISKCON guru who is supposed to be a pure devotee of the Lord. The obvious reason for this fallen behavior is because you are unwilling to acknowledge your sins and offenses to Srila Prabhupada. By reinstalling all of Kirtanananda's criminal henchmen as leaders of New Vrindavan in exchange for a cut of the drug money, you have offended all of the victims of their past crimes.

In an attempt to keep the secrets of your past covered you are again coming to the protection of Radhanatha Swami, even though all evidence points to him being the leader in the Sulochan murder. Radhanatha Swami is a sinking ship, and whoever comes to prop him up is going to go down with him as well. It is wonderful that you have come forward to make your defense of him public, so that when the truth is fully revealed you will have sunk along with him.

Let more of your gang of conspirators come forward to pat each other on the back in public, because when the FBI files are released to the devotee community you will be the ones on the Titanic.

Ravindra Svarupa concludes his letter by threatening all of the devotees searching for the truth behind the Sulochan murder:

"I pray to Srila Prabhupada and Krishna to send one of their agents to help these two devotees before they fall further and further into mortal danger."

Which agent does Ravindra Svarupa plan to send to threaten us about our impending mortal danger – that danger that brings mortality or death to our physical bodies? Now that Tirtha is in prison for life, has Ravindra Svarupa found a replacement hitman to take care of all the truth seekers? Does Ravindra Svarupa plan to bury all of us whistle blowers under the Philadelphia temple construction site like they used to do in New Vrindavan? Who can tell for sure, but I am certain Ravindra Svarupa will explain his threat more fully in his next letter.

In the meantime let me bring the readers up to date with Ravindra Svarupa's involvement in truth, reformation and justice. He is the first person I have seen who defined "guru reform" as making himself one of the corrupt gurus. In 1985, while pretending to fight for "guru reform" he ended up throwing out all of his godbrothers after getting the zonal acharya's to accept him as a member of the elite guru club. Even though he knew Bhavananda was engaged in homosexual activities, he still went along with him and supported him to continue acting as a guru in ISKCON. Later after his "guru reform" years, he took to reforming ISKCON justice by bringing the desperado criminals to justice in New Vrindavan. He made an agreement with the FBI so they wouldn't go after the New Vrindavan drug money in exchange for getting Kirtanananda behind bars. But to do that he had to let the entire New Vrindavan criminal leadership off the hook, and left them all in power. Together they divided the left over money from the drug smuggling days, and they declared that justice had been served. He didn't care that not a single pedophile child molester in New Vrindavan had been brought to justice. He did not care that there were dozens of unsolved murders and disappearances connected with New Vrindavan. He did not care that some of the murderers were getting better treatment than the victims. He had to cover for them because they covered for him. Like the old saying of using a thorn to remove a thorn, Ravindra Svarupa expanded his zone and increased his bank balance by using these criminals to remove the big criminal leader Kirtanananda. But in exchange he needed to rewrite the meaning of justice to include promoting all of the past criminals to higher posts, providing high paying salaries to them, letting them take over all of the New Vrindavan lands, and letting the child molesters move next door to him.

For example, rather than pushing for Kirtanananda to be retried for his rampant child molestation, he demanded devotees to not dig up the past. "Let the by gones be by gones" and "forgive and forget". The only problem with this is that all of the victims are out in the road begging while Ravindra and his criminal compadres are enjoying the fruits of Kirtanananda's crimes – all in the name of justice.

Another example, rather than get New Vrindavan's number one pedophile, Sri Galima (Gary Gardner), sent to prison, Ravindra Svarupa told everyone to forget about it, and welcomed him to move next door. He didn't want to disturb anyone by bringing up all the past bad news. Instead he invited him over to Pittsburg, where he has set up his own religious society (Krishna Ministry), and collects around $100,000 USD a year.

If you're in the neighborhood, go ahead and say hello to Sri Galima (Gary Garnder). Mention that Ravindra Svarupa sent you:

KRISHNA MINISTRY
c/o GARY GARDNER
3080 MCMILLAN RD
PITTSBURGH , PA 15205

KRISHNA MINISTRY
620 LEE DR APT 138
MOON TWP, PA 15108-1250

Ravindra Svarupa's pedophile friend Sri Galima spends his free time trying to create another New Vrindavan in Austin, Texas, one where he himself is the Kirtanananda, with over 30 acres of land to molest.
 
But since everyone knows his pedophile past, he now goes by the guru title Sriji instead of Sri Gamila. The good news is that ex-pedophile Sriji offers counseling through email to troubled and confused people, for just $30 per session:

"Here you have various methods to engage in counseling for any problem you may have, either it be spiritual or material, the source is spiritual. You can e-mail Sriji das to setup counseling times, in which you can communicate over the phone or via e-mail. Costs are $30 per hour for phone counseling."

And when he isn't busy trying to spiritually counsel people for $30 an hour, he is looking for a hot date at veggiedate.com. You can see his dating ad here, but for some reason he left off the part about himself being a child molester. In the ad, he states: "Forgiveness and the ability to move on are important to me." Hey, that's the same thing Ravindra Svarupa keeps telling us. Why the hell are the criminals always the ones who say the victims need to forgive and move on? Maybe it has something to do with the fact that they do not want to be held accountable for their past crimes.

So in summary, I would just like to say, "Thank you Ravana Svarupa". Because of rascals like you New Vrindavan's pedophiles and murderers are walking free and being glorified as saints who have "developed strong absorption in the Lord's holy names" while honest questioners like Giri-nayaka Das are criticized as "full time fault finders". Thank you, Ravana Svarupa, for the justice and reform you have brought to ISKCON.

Having concluded my 2 cents worth on "New Vrindavan, for the Record", I will now sit quietly and await your philosophically charged reply: "Navadvipchandra Das, how is your slut wife and your bastard kids." …just wait one second while I get my video camera ready.

 

# Comment #1 (Posted by Ray)

Whew what a long article! Such a catalogue of faults actually found, crimes actually provable. I would love to see RS try this whining on a DA.
"You're just a fault-finder. I will pray that Krsna sends his agents to help you." I want be there to hear the deafening laughter. RS and Thomas Drescher are criminal hypocritical cowards. A real devotee of the Lord has nothing to fear from the truth. He is straightforward and does not engage in duplicity. I thought a devotee was supposed to accept criticism with the tolerance of a tree, not retaliate by claiming that the critic is a fault-finder who is in 'mortal danger'.
RS obviously doesn't care if others are criticized in fact he indulges in that kind of fault-finding quite freely. It's only when the criticism comes too close to home that we have to bear his sanctimonious admonitions.

# Comment #2 (Posted by Kusumpaida Dase)

I am the mother of Radheya and partner of Chakradhari... this reporting is false...Radheya and Rohini were found dead BEFORE Cakradhari was killed.. there are so many errors in this kind of sensationalism...Please find the truth before you put this stuff out into the ether....Dandavats... Kus

 

 

New Vrindaban: It's All Over Now, Bar the Cover-up

BY: KRSNANANDA DASA

Dec 30, 2007 USA (SUN) — The Truth, as we are assured by sastra, has finally come out into the open and somewhat bumpy fields of 'New Vrindaban'.

Tirtha brutally murdered Chakranadi, and a short while later Chakranadi's infant son was suffocated in an abandoned fridge.

Later, Triyogi dasa bashed in the head of Kirtanananda with a heavy pipe, enraged by the realization that the exclusive eleven paramahamsas were never appointed 'to be gurus' by Srila Prabhupada; his anger was compounded by the fact that Kirtanananda was currently an active homosexual pedophile presenting himself as a 'guru'.

Sulocana Prabhu, who had had his wife and children taken away by Kirtanananda's nasty manipulations, was blamed for this head-bashing by Triyogi dasa. Sulocana had written the ground-breaking expose "The Guru Business" (still available on line) and was known as the sworn enemy of Kirtanananda. In "The Guru Business", the guru-fraud perpetrated by the GBC post November 1977 is documented along with Kirtanananda's deep-seated sexual predilections. Triyogi's attack was thought to have been inspired by Sulocana Prabhu.

While Kirtanananda lay recovering in hospital, Radhanatha decided to murder Sulocana. Tapa Punj would oversee the murder. Tirtha, with Janmastami as assistant/driver, would be the killer. Tirtha had proven himself with his murder of Chakranadi, and Janmastami had military experience in Vietnam. This plan went up the line to Kirtanananda in hospital who gave approval. Kuladri at the bedside of Kirtanananda had already consulted with Radhanatha and through Kuladri news of the plan reached the other leaders of New Vrindaban: Malati, Devamrita, Candramauli, and Umapati. However, at the same time, Tirtha was letting the cat out of the bag by informing various persons, such as Yudhistra in L.A., of the coming murder. Tirtha's line was that the murder was bona fide as Kirtanananda was a pure devotee and it would be a devotional plus to assist.

Tirtha's stupid mouthing about the coming murder and requests for assistance only served to advertise further the murder plan back to practically all residents of New Vrindaban. In fact, the plan quickly went all over the ISKCON grapevine. Hence, when Radhanatha was to be approved as a guru to wear the shoes of the incarcerated Kirtanananda, one of the conditions of the well-informed GBC was that he should not be charged as conspirator murderer. (At this point, it is interesting to note that the GBC condition was not that Radhanatha should have had nothing to do with the murder, only that he not be charged with the murder. All the GBC members knew, then as now, that Radhanatha was involved. Apparently, this is a secret GBC standard: to be rubber-stamped an ISKCON 'guru', one can be a murderer of devotees, but not a publicly known murderer of devotees.)

Interestingly, the police were feeding the murder plotters in New Vrindaban information about the whereabouts of Sulocana Prabhu from his captured diary. The police were knowingly encouraging the murder, hoping that this would give them the excuse to charge into New Vrindaban and bust Kirtanananda, thus hopefully bringing down the whole commune. The police, "to protect and serve", cared little about Sulocana - he was just a pawn to them. This activity by the police of knowingly encouraging Sulocana's murder is of course illegal. So, after the murder there was an unwritten and understood pact between the police and Radhanath: Radhanath keeps quite about the police role, and the police keep quite about Radhanath's role - providing of course Radhanath helps them put Kirtanananda away. Radhanath complied.

One night in L.A., Tirtha, with Janmastami as driver, found Sulocana Prabhu parked up in his mobile home. Sulocana was shot in the head through a window while sitting at his word processor (we are informed).

After the murder, Tirtha and Janmastami split up. Tirtha under close police surveillance was soon picked up. Janmastami left for India, Vrindaban initially, and then after a few months settled in the less conspicuous Gurugoan project of Kirtanananda just south of Delhi. Soon at this time, Tapo-punja also turned up in India, following the route of Janmastami. In India, Janmastami started to have deep feelings of guilt and regret for his role and thus is now speaking the truth about the murder. He takes honest responsibility for his role, but feels that he was manipulated by Radhanath into the murder as he was a disciple of Kirtanananda, whom he now rejects.

Following the murder, the word quickly went out all over ISKCON. In North America to ensure silence, a number of devotees were threatened, beaten or had their property destroyed by mysterious fires. In just a few months, Sulocana's son was to drown mysteriously in New Vrindaban. The message was clear.

Immediately after the shooting, there was a sudden requirement for flight from justice money. Dharmatma, the moneyed sankirtana boss of New Vrindaban, was entreated by Radhanatha to supply funds, but Dharmatma, first of all, didn't want to release the large amount of cash, but also feared the legal implications of supplying money to murderers for their flight from justice. As Dharmatma had balked, Radhanath went to Kirtanananda and told him the situation. Radhanatha was particularly desperate at this time because the murderers if caught would implicate him as the mastermind. The solution was that Dharmatma would give the money directly to Kirtanananda, thereby he, Dharmatma, would not have given the money directly to Radhanatha, i.e., Dharmatma had plausible deniability. Thus Kirtanananda received the cash but made the mistake of putting his fingerprints all over it by counting it before passing it on to Kirtanananda. However at the subsequent trial this was not seen as ultimate proof of his complicit involvement in the murder.

With the darkening cloud of legal proceedings hanging over them, all the murder conspirators and leaders of New Vrindaban swore an oath of silence not to implicate one another in the murder and to support one another always. This oath has been followed to this day like a secret society within ISKCON and the GBC.

Subsequently, Kirtanananda and Tirtha dutifully took the fall for the murder. Radhanath who has attained the heights (or depths) as an ISKCON guru is now a protected kingpin with his societal power and influence, helpful to the New Vrindaban cabal, but he recognizes that he is beholding, especially to Tirtha and Kirtanananda; hence he has always kept good relations with these jailmates, knowing that they could really blow his cover. However Janmastami by speaking the truth has bravely put the cat amongst the pigeons. We must praise Janmastami for his honesty. Those that know him personally know that he is a sincere devotee that was badly manipulated by Radhanatha. He is now on the path of purification by telling the plain truth of the whole sordid affair and by living in a mood of repentance.

Can we expect the same truth, penance and repentance from Radhanath, Tirtha, Tapo-punj, Kuladri, Malati, Devamrita, Candramauli, Umapati, even the GBC, many of whom knew that Radhanath was the murder mastermind even as they were rubberstamping him 'guru'? Of course not. All the above New Vrindaban leaders stayed on for years at New Vrindaban knowing well that Kirtanananda and Radhanatha had been involved in the murder of their godbrother, Sulocana dasa. It suited them to keep quiet about the murder, homosexuality, abuse and pedophilia in New Vrindaban then, and it is highly unlikely that they are going to speak the truth now, especially when some have been rubber-stamped as ISKCON 'guru' and reached the GBC body with covert help from one another. Instead, we will get the usual personal denials and ad hominem attacks on Janmastami dasa and the attempts to sweep the matter under the carpet. But, as the lying, maneuverings, and denials go on for months and months, Radhanath, Tirtha, Tapo-punj, Kuladri, Malati, Devamrita, Candramauli, Umapati, and the GBC, should realize that it's too late: we all know the facts now and that by lying and denying they are only further straying from the truth and only serving to disgrace themselves. Better that they resign their positions within the society and go with just a little dignity.

"The Truth will Out" and is now out.

Your servant,
Krsnananda dasa

 

Factual Errors in the article of Krsnananda dasa

BY: ANONYMOUS

Jan 4, 2007 USA (SUN) — This is in reply to the recent article by Krsnananda dasa, "New Vrindaban: It's All Over Now, Bar the Cover-up", which contained certain errors.

Unfortunately, I know a whole lot more about this New Vrndavana murder case than I care to. I will point out what I know to be the inaccuracies in this article. Frankly some points are somewhat inconsequential, but if the writer is wrong on certain very public facts it lends some doubt to the overall presentation. Given the issue being discussed it is clear that every and all effort must be made to make sure the truth is being told and old scores not being revenged through the medium of the Sampradaya Sun using unsupported assertions or gossip.

Quoting from the article:

The first point of fact is that Tirtha was alone when the actual murder occurred. Tirtha was assisted prior to the murder by Los Angeles devotee, Krsna Katha dasa, and at various points that night he was in the company of this Krsna Katha fellow. Krsna Katha several months later was arrested and threatened with being charged as an accessory to the murder. Eventually he was granted immunity in exchange for quite damning testimony, which was instrumental in gaining Tirtha’s conviction.

Janamastami was involved at various points leading up the killing but was not present on the night of the actual murder. Secondly, Sulocana Prabhu was shot immediately upon getting into his van after having exited the home of a devotee he was visiting. I suppose his van could be considered a “mobile home” but it certainly gives the reader the impression Sulocana Prabhu was sitting in his trailer house and was shot through the window.

Third, Sulocana was not working on his computer. According to the homicide detectives who I was initially interviewed by, and eventually became friendly with, the evidence at the scene indicated Sulocana's murder was a classic ambush killing. They were quite certain that mere seconds elapsed between Sulocana getting into his van and Tirtha (who was laying in wait in a nearby rental car) rushing up and firing through the driver’s side window.

They could not have “split up”, again because Janamastami was not there.

Tirtha was never under close surveillance. He was a suspect in a first degree murder case who was being actively pursued by the police, thus the second Tirtha's whereabouts (which Tirtha was making quite the effort to conceal) became known to law enforcement, he was immediately arrested. Thankfully cops don't let suspected serial murderers run around loose so they can "surveillance" them.

Keith Ham did not even come close to taking any kind of a "fall". Quite to the contrary, Keith Ham made every effort to lie his way out of this legal disaster that had landed flat in the middle of his little kingdom, especially, of course, all the murders committed in connection with the criminal enterprise which was laughingly being referred to as "New Vrndavana". The guilty plea he made in his second trial was prompted when Tirtha unexpectedly got up on the stand for the prosecution and began being completely truthful about Mr. Ham's involvement in Sulocana's killing.

Originally Ham had been offered a quite generous plea agreement which called for a very light prison sentence, something around seven years in exchange for pleading guilty to some of the lesser fraud and copyright charges which the U.S. Attorney had him completely dead guilty on. The other charges, which were not supported by completely airtight evidence, would be dropped, including Sulocana’s murder.

Ham, fresh off having won the appeal which granted him the new trial must have thought he was at the start of a winning streak. After having his first conviction and the 77 year sentence that went with it thrown out, Ham, wallowing in over-confidence (amongst other things) quickly and unequivocally told the Prosecution to go to hell, clearly convinced that he was going to get out of this whole thing unscathed. He soon learned the huge difference between paying famed attorney Alan Dershowitz $300,000.00 to find some procedural flaw in the previous trial, and going forward with the new proceeding facing all of the previously presented evidence, with the addition of the convicted hit man hopping up on the stand and pointing the finger directly at him.

Tirtha began to testify on the morning of the fourth day of the second trial and by lunch break, Ham's attorneys approached the U.S. Attorney to let him know they would be happy to just go ahead and take that friendly little plea agreement that had been offered some weeks before the start of the new trial. This time it was the U.S. Attorney's turn to tell them to go to hell. He countered by saying he would allow Ham to plead guilty to one count, any count of his choosing, but that the judge would then be at liberty to take into account all the other charges and all the testimony that had been heard so far and would have no restriction when passing sentence. This is how Ham wound up with the sentence of 20 plus years for the relatively benign crime of a copyright infringement.

The U.S. Attorney and the FBI guys I spoke to were convinced there were other “fish” who escaped their nets in connection with this case, but exuded a kind of “It goes along with the job” attitude about it. This was clearly not their first case where guilty people had managed to avoid capture and punishment, nor of course would it be their last.

Those are the points I can confidently refute. There are other assertions made by the writer that seem a little too specific, unless he happened to have personally witnessed them. During the time leading up to and during both the trials of Tirtha and Ham, I had access to a pretty good narrative of events provided to me by both the Los Angeles homicide detectives, a couple of FBI agents and, to a small extent, the federal prosecutor Michael Stein. Some of the assertions made by this writer are things I’ve never even vaguely heard about.

As a separate but similar point, the recent Navadipchandra Prabhu article implicating Malati in this mess, he initially refers to the prosecutor as Michael Stein but then erroneously proceeds to refer to as him as Mr. Michael Smith through the balance of the article.

I hope this helps out. This truly was and continues to be an exceptionally low point, not just for devotees, but amongst human beings in general. Simply recalling this handful of details has me feeling quite disgusted and also a bit nauseated.

Your fallen friend and servant,
… dasa

 


Sulocana's Murder - For the Record

BY: HRISHIKESH DASA

Jan 3, 2007 PENNSYLVANIA, USA (SUN) [Revised]— Although I had originally intended the following information to be revealed only after my book " New Vrindaban: The Black Sheep of ISKCON" is published, I think--considering the current circumstances with new information being admitted by eyewitnesses practically daily to the Sampradaya Sun--interested Vaishnavas may appreciate reading the parts of my book dealing with Sulochan's murder in installments. To the best of my knowledge, the information below is not conjecture, but documented fact, and may shed some light on what actually transpired in New Vrindaban in the 1980s. Materials in quotation marks are actual quotations from published or unpublished writings or interviews, and reflect the opinions (accurate or inaccurate) of the individuals quoted.

Sincerely Your Servant,
Hrishikesh dasa (Henry Doktorski)

Excerpt from New Vrindaban: The Black Sheep of ISKCON

by Henry Doktorski (Hrishikesh dasa) Copyright 2002-2007 by Henry Doktorski

Chapter 24: Trials and Tribulations

"Although Bhaktipada and the New Vrindaban Community had faced trials and tribulations since the community’s inception in 1968, nothing (with the exception perhaps of the gang attack and shooting on June 5, 1973) had remotely approached the magnitude of the difficulties which beset the community in the mid-1980s and early-1990s."

Glory days of New Vrindaban: seven-year wave of good fortune.

As described in Part One, the community had been riding a seven-year wave of good fortune since the opening of Prabhupada’s Palace in September 1979. In 1981, based on the number of bus tours, Prabhupada’s Palace was rated the fifth most popular tourist attraction in West Virginia. In 1982 it jumped to third, superseded only by the Wheeling Jamboree country music festival and the Ramada Inn in South Charleston. During the 1982 Labor Day festival, so many tourists came that the community hired two local policemen to direct traffic in front of the Palace. One year, some 500,000 tourists reportedly visited the Palace. (1)

Many ISKCON devotees, excited by the temple building projects and preaching opportunities, moved to New Vrindaban, until the population (including children and employees) approached 700. (2)

Several dozen full-time sankirtan fund-raisers (sometimes over one hundred devotees would be sent out during periodic sankirtan marathons) developed and utilized innovative and creative techniques to obtain donations which brought in up to five million dollars per year. (3)

The community employed 187 local Marshall County residents to work as secretaries, gardeners and construction workers. Because of the community’s rising political clout, New Vrindaban appeared as an unincorporated village on the official 1983-84 West Virginia state map, and the government actually re-paved the rutted access road.

Everyone loves a winner.

In April 1979, Bhaktipada announced plans to build the largest Radha-Krishna temple in the world at New Vrindaban, the Shri Shri Radha-Vrindaban Chandra Temple of Understanding and the adjacent Land of Krishna theme park: a spiritual Disneyland. In 1983, a “temporary” temple was built for the deities which dwarfed most temples in ISKCON in beauty, size and craftsmanship. In 1985, Bhaktipada finished writing his first three books: Song of God, Christ and Krishna and Eternal Love. Also in 1985 was the groundbreaking ceremeony for the Temple of Understanding, which was attended by local and state politicians, and a United States Congressman from West Viriginia.

Sulochan, a fanatical whistle blower.

Soon however, Bhaktipada’s luck would take a turn for the worse. One New Vrindaban resident, who was initiated by Prabhupada in Detroit during July 1974, and--according to the Palace Manager--happened to be one of the top tour guides at the Palace, (4) Sulochan Das (Steve Bryant), had serious disagreements with the community management as well as marital discord with his wife, Yamuna Dasi, who had taken initiation from Bhaktipada on December 25, 1980 without her husband’s permission. He blamed Bhaktipada for ruining his marriage, “I had been living a rather disheartened married life. My wife had been devoting her heart to another man (5) and so, naturally, this killed any chance of our having a meaningful relationship.” (6)

Sulochan’s attorney, David Gold, remembered him, “There was definitely something different about him. I had talked with a lot of disgruntled Krishna devotees over the years, all of whom had tossed out various insults and accusations about the Swami. But regardless of how angry or disillusioned they were, they still referred to Kirtanananda in tones of respect, even awe. In contrast, Bryant spoke without fear or reservation.” (7)

Sulochan leaves New Vrindaban; his wife and children remain

During June 1984, after heated arguments with Bhaktipada and community leaders, Sulochan decided to leave New Vrindaban for good. It was very difficult for him to live at the community as only devotees who professed (or pretended to profess) absolute allegiance to Bhaktipada were welcomed to live there. Sulochan ordered his wife to join him in exile. She refused and later explained: (8)

Within a year or so, Yamuna had been remarried to one of Bhaktipada’s loyal followers (Raghunath Das), and became pregnant with his child. Sulochan told the story from his perspective, (9)

Searching for dirt on Kirtanananda.

After returning to Los Angeles, Sulochan acquired, with much difficulty, a pirated microfiche set of copies of the complete letters of Prabhupada (the original letters were carefully guarded at the Los Angeles-based Bhaktivedanta Book Trust) from a sympathetic devotee, which gave him the inside story of the history of ISKCON, a revealing perspective which had been hidden from nearly all the rank-and-file devotees by the leaders of ISKCON. Sulochan wrote, “As I started to read through Shrila Prabhupada’s personal letters to his disciples, I was primarily looking for quotes on marriage. At the time I was desperate to try and save my own marriage. Although that was my main motive, I also knew it was my moral duty to try and save my wife and children from possible danger [from Kirtanananda]. In this way, I began my research with the blessings of the Lord of morality, Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Since I was approaching His topmost representative, Shrila Prabhupada, for guidance and inspiration, I knew the outcome would be auspicious, whatever it was. I had no idea where my research would lead me. I only knew that something was going to burst, and I didn’t want it to be me. I was not especially concerned with the broader ‘guru-issue’ facing ISKCON’s ‘leaders’ today. Mainly, I wanted to save my own family, hoping that was part of the Lord’s plan.” (10)

Sulochan began meticulously studying the voluminous archive of Prabhupada’s letters to see if he could find anything about Kirtanananda Swami which might convince his wife to lose her faith in him, leave New Vrindaban and return to him. He wrote:

When Sulochan began showing these letters from Prabhupada to his friends, he discovered that many former New Vrindaban residents had their own horror stories to tell about abuse, child molestation, drug dealing and even murder. “You’ve got to understand, Kirtanananda is considered to be like a God. Infallible. Above reproach. Nobody questions him. People are in awe of his power. But when I started showing this stuff to other devotees I found out everybody had their own story to tell. Everybody had some dirt on Kirtanananda. It’s just that they were either too scared or worshipped him too much to talk about it before. Drugs, people getting killed, kids getting molested.

David Gold examined the letters from disgruntled devotees which Sulochan had collected, “I picked up the first letter and began reading. It testified to Bryant’s good character, then it went on to say that the writer was aware of numerous women who had been beaten at the commune. The next letter contained similar testaments to Steve’s sound mind and strong moral character, then the author, a woman, told how Kirtanananda had intentionally destroyed a number of families so that he could use the women for the street begging operation. The next letter was from a man whose daughter was molested at the ashram school. Another man said Kirtanananda had encouraged him to beat his wife. Another writer, who remained anonymous, said he was ordered to smuggle heroin from Thailand and turn over the proceeds to Kirtanananda. Someone else reported that they knew who the killer was in an unsolved murder at New Vrindaban.” (12)

“The Kirtanananda Exposé: A Crazy Man”

Sulochan compiled his research into a book, The Guru Business: How the Leaders of the Hare Krishna Movement Deviated from the Pure Path as Taught and Exemplified by its Founder: His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Founder/Acharya ISKCON. This book, essentially consisting of Sulochan Das’ candid (and sometimes inaccurate) commentary on excerpts from Prabhupada’s letters, was intended to expose the corrupt activities of the ISKCON gurus, whom, he believed, had usurped their positions of power within ISKCON. It was first real hard-hitting collection of essays exposing the corruption within the movement. One devotee accurately assessed it, “The Guru Business ranged from goofy to manic, from paranoid to deadly accurate.” (13)

Sulochan wrote about his mortal enemy in chapter ten: “The Kirtanananda Exposé: A Crazy Man”:

Sulochan made lots of allegations, but were they necessarily true? The answer to this question may come as a surprise to some.

. . . To be Continued

End Notes

1. Accurate figures of numbers of tourists are not available. The figure quoted in the Brijabasi Spirit article, “Prabhupada’s Palace of Gold,” which appeared in the March 1983 issue (p. 18) was certainly exaggerated, as nowhere near that number came in 1982. However, Mahabuddhi Das, the former Palace manager, thought that 500,000 people might have come in 1985, the busiest year for tourism.

The New Vrindaban Community Income Statement for the Year 1984 stated that Palace donations generated $745,315.21, or 18% of the total annual income of $4,012,224.02. For the record, membership subscriptions were $310,453.57 or 7.7%.

2. This figure of 700 was most certainly an exaggeration. The author examined fifteen census reports dated from September 1976 and July 1991 in the New Vrindaban archives and found that the October 1986 report listed the high point of the community’s population at 377 adults (213 men and 164 women). If we add 136 children and 187 employees to this number we arrive at 700.

3. The ISKCON New Vrindaban Community Financial Status Report for the week ending Sunday, December 8, 1985, stated that the community grossed $210,047.34 in income during that week. More than two thirds of that amount ($141,681.94) was from sankirtan pickers. The Palace gate earned only $2,536.50 that week (1.2%) as it was during the winter season. The 1985 Sankirtan Marathon Final Compilation stated that $971,160 was collected between November 21, 1985 and January 4, 1986. The New Vrindaban Community Income Statement for the Year 1984 stated that sankirtan devotees collected $2,853,899.94, or 71% of the total income that year.

William A. Kolibash, the United States prosecutor for Bhaktipada’s 1991 racketeering trial, claimed that New Vrindaban sankirtan revenues were substantially higher. According to his figures, the community collected $17,871,000 between 1981 and 1985.

4. The director of Palace operations and marketing from 1980 to 1985 wrote, “The top tour guides [at the Palace] were: Krishna Katha prabhu, Lajjavati Dasi, Jalakolahari prabhu, Rasavihari Devi Dasi, Damodar Das and Kanka Dasi, Sulochan Das along with Puru prabhu. There were others, but these were the best. They were given training and customer service training as well. Not just thrown out on the floor.” Mahabuddhi Das, from an e-mail letter to the author dated March 30, 2003.

5. In this sentence it is not exactly clear who Sulochan is referring to. The man who he believed stole his wife's heart could have been Bhaktipada, as evidenced by statements in subsequent paragraphs, or it could have been Raghunath, as Yamuna reportedly began her relationship with Raghunath while her husband was still living at the community. Sulochan knew about his wife's affair and reported it to Bhaktipada, who dismissed his complaints.

One former gurukula boy reported: "One of the gurukulis accidentally observed Raghu and Yamuna together while Sulochan was still at New Vrindaban, and told it to me. Later while I was sitting in Bhaktipada's blazer, Sulochan walked up to the driver's window and I heard him complain to Bhaktipada about this, but Bhaktipada was not interested in doing anything about it, in disciplining Yamuna and Raghu. Bhaktipada said something like: 'Sulochan, you're just not my man.' Another time at Bahulaban I saw Sulochan wearing a pistol around his neck and I asked him why he was wearing it. He replied: 'To kill faggots.'" --From conversation with former gurukuli and the author, January 9, 2007.

6. Sulochan Das, The Guru Business (unpublished manuscript: 1985), 1.

7. David Gold, After the Absolute: Real Life Adventures With a Backwoods Buddha (Writer’s Club Press: 2002), chapter 17.

8. Yamuna Dasi, The Story of a Cheater-The Real Facts on the Sulochan Story (unpublished manuscript: September 18, 1985), 5.

9. Sulochan Das, The Guru Business, 2, 3.

10. Sulochan was unsuccessful in his attempt to entice his family to rejoin him as New Vrindaban temple authorities had helped his wife get a divorce and simultaneously allowed her to marry a new husband, who was loyal to Bhaktipada. Later Sulochan’s three-year-old son Nimai drowned in a New Vrindaban lake while playing with other youths on November 23, 1986. Bhaktipada said, “From a philosophical point of view, we could say that there was some bad karma in the family.”

11. Sulochan Das, quoted by David Gold, After the Absolute, chapter 17.

12. David Gold, After the Absolute, chapter 17.

13. Nori Muster, Betrayal of the Spirit, (University of Illinois Press, Urbana: 1997), 124.