PADA TO RAGHUNATHA DASA c/o Roopa
Dear Raghunatha prabhu,
Srila Prabhupada: The harmful, foolish and passionate cannot be devotess of the Lord, however the may advertise themselves as devotees by outward dress. A devotee is always qualified with all of the good qualities of God." (SB 1.2.19) This means that the child molester problem in ISKCON has evolved due to people who are show-bottle devotees, devotees only by outward dress. Actually they are not devotees at all but deviants.
Now we find that some of the ex-gurukulis are expressing a lot of anger and resentment towards the movement, its founder, and even Krishna, and we are presenting one example letter below to illustrate how frustrated and angry some of these victims are. To be abused and to be told "this is your karma" sounds like the rationalizations that are used by evil rogue "religious" leaders, inquisition torturers, evil dictators etc., "we are making you suffer, that is your fault." In modern terms this is called blaming the victim. We actually had an interesting exchange with Sulochana on this very point around 1982, he was giving the then New Vrindavana argument that the people who are being victimized by the GBC are just getting their karma, so what is the trouble? So we argued back, that even when bona fide bad karma is there, for example a cow is getting it's karma by being made into a hamburger, we still cannot kill these cows and eat these hamburgers. Very sinful. In other words, it is not the job of one conditioned soul to inflict karma upon other conditioned souls, and to think we are the agents to do that is dangerous, dictator-like, cult-like etc. This is also the theme of many horror films, some guy thinks it is his job to teach people a lesson, and he gets a hatchet.....
So now that this bogus philosophy (that these children were due some VERY evil karma, so what is the trouble if they are tortured?) has been exposed as fraudulent, the problem is that some of these children are blaming Srila Prabhupada for this bad philosphy and the resultant suffering they incurred. After all, the kids were told that Srila Prabhupada said they were due some bad karma, Srila Prabhupada said they should worship homosexual pedophiles, and this and that. Yet is seems to us that many of these children have not been told, yet, that Srila Prabhupada himself was also another victim of the GBC's bad philosophy? Some of these leaders may have tortured and even killed him, thinking that Srila Prabhupada also had some bad karma to incur for not making them his guru successors, and they were the bona fide agents to inflict it. And perhaps this is where this bogus argument came from in the first place?
One of our associates was talking to an ex-gurukuli recently and this boy was still saying that Srila Prabhupada caused all of this. Why? Well, that is what his father (a big Prabhupada devotee?) told him. So this blaming of Srila Prabhupada has been ingrained into many of the youth, by the GBC and some deviated adults. Yet our associate stunned this boy by saying, well you know that Srila Prabhupada was poisoned, so how were the GBC following his orders? This boy had not been confronted with this point like this before, so he was stunned. It certainly nullified his enthusiasm to blame Srila Prabhupada.
We may recall that when we initially brought out the poison issue in 1997, it was your associates who attacked us the most, saying we were attacking the GBC. So there is this idea, that the GBC are the dedicated servants of Srila Prabhupada, and that is how Turley got the idea --from your associates, and they imbibed this from the GBC and some of their adults. So this how the blaming of Srila Prabhupada argument has evolved, from the GBC, some adults, and then it filtered down to the youth, and now to Turley. Yet this blaming of Srila Prabhupada really started with Tamal, and guys like Jaggadisha who spoon fed this idea into the society, so much so that your own friends were like rabid dogs defending the GBC, thinking, they were defending Srila Prabhupada. Well, what if these leaders did poison him?
So these ideas are all connected: "Srila Prabhupada wanted the GBC to be his guru successors, and they are cruel, mean people who were giving kids their bad karma and torturing them. Therefore he is to blame for all of the torturing." But wait, what if he too was tortured and put to death by these same leaders, then this above "blaming him" argument falls apart at the root. So the evidence is that some of these ex-gurukulis are not very familiar with the poison case argument or it has not been explained to them very well. So we were rather hoping you would put more emphasis on this point to your associates and circle and try to get some pressure placed on this point, to focus it.
Apart from that, chromic arsenic poisoning is perhaps the reason Srila Prabhupada says, "my only request is that you do not torture me and put me to death" (November 3, 1977). So we have all suffered under the GBC jackboots, but poisoning is also very severe torture. There is also the feeling of betrayal with poisoning that would make one feel very badly. And Srila Prabhupada confirms that the poisoning is causing him "mental distress." In sum, Srila Prabhupada was also one of many other victims of leader's machinations, and if the ex-children could be made to understand that, it might help them nullify their anger at Srila Prabhupada. Right now he is painted as the ringleader of the GBC, rather than a victim of the GBC. So, due to your unique position of influence we hope you will get us to help these ex-kids by making them direct their anger at the culprits and not another victim.
We hope you will do this not only for Srila Prabhupada's sake but we are quite
sure that some of the kulis are suffering from blaming Srila Prabhupada as well,
and this might be a remedy for all concerned. So anyway, this argument, that Srila
Prasbhupada screwed up, is the Tamal Jaggadisha argument they have used all along.
But notice, this argument not only covers nicely for the gurukuli's exploitation,
it gives good reasons why they had to poison Srila Prabhupada, he was screwing
their programs up. And if some of these ex-kids are giving the same arguments
as Tamal, then that means they were poisoned by the poisoners. So let us try to
uproot this and help all round, otherwise, as you can see below, there is a lot
of unresolved anger going on that is going to be a problem for all concerned.
Thanks prabhu, ys pd
[PS see angry ex-gurukuli letter below to illustrate our point.]
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FWD to pada by Kdd
First of all, let me say one thing again...... It pains me to see most of you downplaying our plight. Do you not feel any compassion?
Raghu...you speak of incidents like you were there for each and every claim of abuse.....then where the heck were you when I had my pants pulled down and I was spanked bare-handed and with a belt on my BARE REAR? Nudity may have been frowned upon, but our bare asses were sure beat and molested!!!! I think some of you people are so conditioned into defending SP, that you are trying desperately to overlook, if not AGAIN say that our abuse was either 1. Justified as our karma; 2. exagerated; 3. just plain did not happen.
Well, let me be the first to tell you, none of you were there while I was being raped...the first time at 6 years old. None of you are there for my doctors appointments EVERY 6 WEEKS, to try to fix or at least alleviate some of the pain in my female organs NOW, 15 years later!!!!!!! None of you were there in the days that we cried ourselves to sleep each night, none of you were there to feel the pain we suffered. To those of you that are in fact ex-gurukulis, perhaps you got lucky and didn't suffer the terrible things that some of us did....the plaintiffs list is up to 79 or 89 children now, and the numbers are growing. For the person that stated that he needed to be abused, to be raped, to be beaten....HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT? No one deserves that!!! No one in their right mind says that they deserved that type of treatment, unless you are TRULY BRAINWASHED!!!!!!
I hope, I truly hope there will be cameras in the court room, I hope the entire world knows the gruesome details of the vile acts committed against the children.....America is a country in which the children are usually protected, people will be EXTRMELY ANGRY when the details of our abuses come out into the open. So geez, please stop trying to cover this up more and more, you can't any longer....we are speaking, we are being heard, the entire world is listening, and there is NOTHING anyone can do about it.
Would anyone care to hear the details of some of my abuses? Would anyone care to hear about the pain I go through each and every day? would anyone even for one moment open their heart to the idea that I as a person, am important enough to listen to, and to truly hear me, for what I speak is true and real, what I feel is a crushing pain, and what I want is closure. I want people to stop trying to say that it did not happen, stop trying to flip-flop the blame, stop trying to give the abuse I suffered a swift kick under the rug. The truth is all coming out, and the best IT'SGON can do is sit back and await the fury of the people, because believe me...people are hearing us, and they are MAD! At least karmis can feel the pain we feel, at least they can feel sympathy, more than I can say for most devotees. I don't know at what point it is, perhaps upon initiation, people just seem to lose all feelings and become engrossed in their own quest to become so exhalted. The funny thing is....any god in any religion is compassionate, and any book from any religion teaches compassion. How come devotees skip that chapter?
I no longer am amazed by devotees reactions to this suit, nor do I feel any more pain over what people say about the abuses we suffered. My intentions at first were to get devotees to admit guilt, to accept that this did indeed happen, and to welcome with open arms the idea of helping the individuals abused. I can see that will never happen, so now my goal is to educate the public on not only the past with ITSACON, but the present. How we the abused are treated today is a direct representation of the past.......nothing will EVER CHANGE. TRULY SAD!!!!!!!
OH.....and I AM SO SO ASHAMED OF BEING A PART OF THE HARE KRSNAS, it is something I would never wish upon my worst enemy. WE ARE ASHAMED of our childhoods!!!!!!!!!! In fact, I would LOVE TO LEGALLY CHANGE MY STUPID NAME!!!!! I feel branded sometimes, like when people start asking questions about the origin of my name. I of course would NEVER tell them the truth, I simply make a joke about it. I am so ashamed of my past, so ashamed of my parents for being that stupid....so ashamed of my family for not seeing the truth before it was too late, so ashamed of my ashrama teachers, so ashamed of my guru, so ashamed of myself for not running to the nearest orphanage.
SITES
TO CHECK OUT:
* BOMBAY India: http://www.acbspn.com/
*Book For Sale "Someone Has Poisoned Me," You can get it from: New Jaipur
Press/ POB 208/ Mayodan NC 27027 $10.00 requested donation
* Seattle, Wa (Dhamaghosa dasa 206-729-0111) dasdasdas@aol.com
* MONTREAL, Canada, Hasti Gopala Dasa (for details write to: hasti90@hotmail.com)
* BERKELEY California. Hare Krishna Youth, 510-389-3346 conducts regular harinam
parties, arotikes, cooking classes, college preaching, Prabhupada video nights,
and so on.
* NEW YORK "Prabhupada Sankirtana Society" Headquarters 48 Ave. B NY,
NY 10009 (212) 674-0680, PSS108@juno.com
01) http://mitglied.lycos.de/pada/
pada newsletter archive
02) http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Parliament/3933
Poison tape
03) Poison tape transcript:
03) http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Parliament/3933/19990519.htm
04) http://www.winink.com/tkg/
Poison whispers
05) www.prabhupada.cc
Prabhupada samkirtana site
06) http://tsa.ppp.ripco.net/padaweb/puranjan.html
Puranjana's Site
07) http://mitglied.lycos.de/gbc
GBC expose
08) http://pages.infinit.net/pragosh/home.html
French site
09) http://members.aol.com/gauridas
Gauridasa's site
10) http://www.islandnet.com/krsna/
Rocana's site
11) http://www.islandnet.com/krsna/vada/poison/poison.htm
Poison issue
12) www.harekrsna.de
"Hare Krsna Homepage" (German)
13) http://members.nbci.com/prabhupada/
ISKCON Reform (German)
14) German translation of Final Order (pdf)
14) http://members.nbci.com/prabhupada/final.htm
15) http://members.xoom.com/prabhupada/
(German Expose)
16) http://www.equalsouls.org/tkg
Srila Prabhupada wanted to be poisoned?
17) http://www.surrealist.org/gurukula/
Nandini's history site
19) http://mitglied.lycos.de/gbc/
GBC
20) "illicit sex
guru" rationalizations:
20) http://www.islandnet.com/krsna/vada/iskcon/right.htm
21) http://www.artnet.net/~yasoda/index.htm
Appointment tape fraud
22) http://www.asitis.com
Original Bhagavad-gita As It Is
23) http://krsnabook.com
Original Krsna Book
24) http://www.krishna.org
Prabhupada Hare Krishna News Network
25) http://folio.bhaktivedanta.org
S.P. Folio Infobase CD-ROM
26) http://realaudio.bhaktivedanta.org
Prabhupada RealAudio Archive
27) http://mp3.bhaktivedanta.org
Prabhupada MP3 Bhajans, 2 CD set
28) http://krsna.kgb.cz/hlavni.htm
Prague Czech-devotees (english)
29) http://www.domgbc.org petition for new GBC
30) http://tsa.ppp.ripco.net/das/articles.htm (DAS)
31) http://www.com.org/hb/ptd/cyber_gurukula.htm (Cyber gurukula)