IRM LATEST: "THE INSTITUTIONAL MECHANISM" OVER-LORDS THE ACHARYAS?
1) POISON ISSUE IN THE MEDIA (from www.giantrobot.com issue 27)
2) THE MATERIAL WORLD (pada)
3) Yesterday's hari nama on Hollywood blvd was pure bliss.
4) A RECOLLECTION:
5) <aprakrit@hotmail.com> Hare Krishna We just want to inform you that:
6) <hdg@krishna.org> 1972 Teachings of Lord Caitanya Back in Print
7) POISON TAPE TRANSCRIPT Pt.2

Dear folks, PAMHO. AGTSP.

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IRM LATEST: "THE INSTITUTIONAL MECHANISM" OVER-LORDS THE ACHARYAS?

The IRM is now stating that the acharya is made by "an institutional mechanism." Wrong. Srila Prabhupada says Krishna makes, i.e. He personally empowers, the acharyas, thus the acharyas appear by Krishna's mercy, and not any contrived IRM or Papal voting "institutional mechanism" of a GBC and such -- neophytes? And in sum the IRM says Krishna Kanta's neophyte's "college of cardinals" will be voting with a papal "institutional mechanism" system, which makes the acharyas appear with a puff of white smoke and presto, the new acharya! No, the acharyas are never made by such IRM contrived "institutional mechanism"? The acharyas speak as Krishna dictates, not as the college of cardinals vote?

There is no IRM "institutional mechanism" for any acharyas, past or future acharyas, rather this is all smarta and college of cardinals, this does not apply to the acharyas? They are working directly "under" Krishna and not the contrived bogus mundane institutional law of mechanism of neophytes. The IRM folks also said that if a bona fide diksha acharya appears, he will have to be driven out and forced into a separated institution. They are going to harass and drive out the future pure devotees? So, if Haridasa thakura appears, the IRM will boot him out of their buildings by their "institutional edicts"? Umm, is this not what the smartas, the Gaudiya Matha, and the Pharisees do? Maybe you IRM guys should find a better mechanic than Krishna kanta to work on your institutional machine which controls the acharyas here, Krishna is simply waiting with bated breath for your IRM voting system of institutional mechanism to allow Him to send or not send another pure devotee? This is laughable. So that means, the IRM is: Krishna's boss? Yas think so boys and girls? ys pd

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1) POISON ISSUE IN THE MEDIA

The "poison issue" was mentioned recently in a self advertised "Asian Pop Culture And Beyond" magazine called "Giant Robot" (Issue 27). They have an internationally distributed magazine, and a store in Los Angeles (310-478-1819), and a web site called (of course): www.giantrobot.com. In an article about the Krishna's rock band, "Shelter" (and they mention the Cro-Mags and 108), there is a sidebar about the ISKCON institution. In the sidebar article it says: "...And there were problems. Ex-member Tim Lee acquired tapes of Prabhupada's last days in which the swami (hanging out in India with future members of the GBC) says that he is being poisoned. Since sharing the information, Lee's life has been threatened. The Krishna's themselves commissioned a report by Burke Rochford Jr. regarding instances of child abuse, neglect and molestation. Ex-ISKCON publicist Nori Muster later wrote "Betrayal Of The Spirit" in which she was asked to be more positive after publishing the report in the Krishna paper. Meanwhile, Dallas attorney Windle Turley is spearheading a $400 million lawsuit on behalf of hundreds of children who were allegedly abused and raped in an ISKCON school."

So we are glad that the "poison issue" is gradually being accepted not only by more and more of the devotees, but it is also seeping out into the public. Of course, we first of all said in 1978 that the GBC were not appointed as gurus. And I think this is gradually being universally accepted even in the darkest parts of hardcore GBC land. Then we said there was a molestation problem due to worship of homosexuals pedophiles as "Jesus like saints" and the Windle Turley case has proven that to be: the fact. Now, the only big issue left to establish is the poison case, and it is gradually being done. Of course we had wanted this to be done sooner, but that it is ALL being done, and in our lifetime, is actually nothing short of a miracle. We hope this poison case is broadcast more and more, since we think that the fact that the founder was saying he was being poisoned makes all of the other subsequent criminality very easy to comprehend. This was a criminal hijack takeover.

Now personally I think that this "poison plot" will also make Srila Prabhupada all the more glorious. He preached to the "most fallen" and some of them became envious and they wanted to kick him out and take over, so he said he was being poisoned. He extended his mercy even to the envious, even to the people who would try to kill him. And this is exactly what Jesus did. So this has made Jesus very appealing and famous, since it takes a great deal of compassion and mercy to preach to the faithless like this. And it is a great act of kindness, even the greatest act of kindness. "Forgive them father for they know not what they do." Very similar situations? Srila Prabhupada also said, just like they killed Jesus, they may kill me also. That is correct.

So now that we are all in the jolly Christmas mood of celebration, we should recall that this is all due to the mercy of Jesus. He tried to preach to "the most fallen" and as a result he was killed for his efforts. And in our Krishna faith, our guru maharaja tried to preach to these same most fallen class, and he too was attacked. I do not see how this paralell will hurt our guru maharaja, rather it is a sign of his intense love and kindness: to come and preach to these rogue and ruffian class. And Jesus was also a humble person who lived simply and preached constantly, and our Srila Prabhupada also lived the same way, very frugally, and he gave his life to preach for his spiritual "Father in Heaven." Same Father, different sons, same actions on the parts of the sons. Same reactions by the non-devotee class, crucify them, kill them. So this will make Srila Prabhupada more famous for his "preaching to the fallen," just as Jesus tried to preach to the fallen, and this has made him famous all over the planet.

And this poison complaint from Srila Prabhupada will be accepted and it is being accepted, because it is his own words. For example Adridharana's IRM spokeman said that the "only way" that the poison complaint will ever be accepted is: if pada can convince their chicken eating, beedi smoking, high court judge in India? Who cares for what Srila Prabhupada says, they want to hear what their high court judge says? Gaudiya Matha part 2. Yet here we find that even regular people off the street are willing to accept these simple facts: (1) Srila Prabhupada made a poison complaint and, (2) Those of us who bring these type of things out are threatened, if not beaten if not shot. Just like when we brought out the molester issue, the GBC (and at the time the IRM folks) suppressed that, and as a result we were threatened, beaten and shot. And that is what the "Giant Robot" article says in a nutshell, Srila Prabhupada said he was being poisoned, and when Tim Lee (or anyone else) brings that out, they are harassed. So this is very, very simple, as Srila Prabhupada says: simple for the simple and complicated, for the crooked.

Thus we should not be discouraged, Jesus was crucified and so many other saints were also attacked through history and so on. This is a fact of the material world. Rather we should be joyous that Krishna sends us these saints and that they give their all to help us, even their lives. This is a sign of Krishna's mercy to us. He keeps sending these saints, and they keep getting persecuted, even killed, but He still keeps sending them because this is His mercy. And this is also the mercy of His devotees, it is unlimited and endless. So this is joyous and glorious. There is nothing to lament here, the pure devotees know in advance they may be harassed, attacked, maybe even crucified and assassinated, they know better than us what is the activity of this world. Yet they are always in bliss since they simply preach and they are not attached to anything in this world. If they are attacked, they know this is the normal state of affairs of this material world, the kingdom of the rascals, the atheists and non-devotees. And thus if we are also attacked fighting on their behalf, that is also very good for us. "It is all for the best," as Srila Prabhupada says. So we should be happy, just as Jesus was more glorified for being attacked, so will Srila Prabhupada be more glorified for his being attacked. This is also Krishna's plan and we cannot doubt or check it. thanks pd

2) THE MATERIAL WORLD -- A nice lady who lived nearby the pada editor, maybe 38, had just got re-married and she was very happy. Seems her first marriage had ended up as a bust fiasco, along with her relation to her son, now a teen. The sone had become alienated from her and he had not spoken to her for some years due to the break up. All of a sudden, she had to go to hospital with "a bad cold" that instead was getting to be a terrible cough and fever. Meanwhile, the teen aged son came by to patch things up. Yet before he could see her, she died suddenly in hospital: "Complications." So he was not even able to say good bye, or that he was sorry, and patch things up. This was all very sad. So this is the material world, we think we will "fix it later," but -- we may not be here to fix it. Better to fix things now. Nuff said, thanks pd

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3) Yesterday's hari nama on Hollywood blvd was pure bliss.

Hare Krsna Jaya Prabhupada. please aceept my humble obeisances.
Yesterday's hari nama on Hollywood blvd was pure bliss.Our small group of 5 devotees chanted up Highland avenue from Sunset blvd to Hollywood blvd. We then chanted down Hollywood Blvd. to the amazement and delight of the large crowd waiting at the El Capitan theater to see the Santa Clause 2 movie. Somebody said here comes the Krishna Parade, someone else shouted "Hari Bol" as we passed by.

As we passed by the Chinese Theater, Superman, Spider man, Wonder woman, Batman and Star Wars Storm Troopers all acknowledged our presence with a smile and a nod of their heads. Spider man even joined in by dancing to the Holy Name of Krishna. A homeless man was happy to see us as he followed us down the street a block or so, chanting with us. He even tried to lead kirtan and get a group of tourists to chant along with us. Such is the potency of the Holy name. Hope all of you can make it next time, ys Sri mukunda dasa

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4) A RECOLLECTION: I remember the time when I first realized the true extent of ISKCON's deviations since the disappearance of Srila Prabhupada. I had printed out one of Pada's papers (The Betrayal, I think it was) and was reading it. I was also playing some bhangra music on the sound system, and the track that was playing was a rather spooky tune.

This spooky tune played at the exact time I got to the part in the paper which spoke about Kitty. At that moment, the full shock of Kitty's exploits got to me. I remember that it was the most horrible feeling I have ever experienced, my heart literally sank. It was almost as if I was in a sort of bubble in which I was conscious of ISKCON's wrong doings but was under the impression that it was relatively minor and would be corrected over time, but Kitty's exploits was the thing that hit me hard that ISKCON (under Kitty's influence) was beyond all repair.

I'll never forget that moment. It was also a defining moment in my spiritual life because right then I had to make a decision whether or not to stay "within" this "corrupt" movement. What could I do? I have the books, but without association I would die. Most people nowadays are blissfully unaware of the heydays of the Zonal Acharya era. Discussions nowadays are almost always about Krishna-katha. This is how I like it. I never want to experience that horrible feeling ever again. I don't know what else to say.

====================

From: aprakrit@hotmail.com
5) Hare Krishna We just want to inform you that:

1) The CD "Chant And Be Happy" Produced by George Harrison More than 30 years later, this recording is still ever fresh and sounds wonderful, thanks to the expert digital mastering. Only few copies are available and you can purchase it for only $15 US (handling and mailing included). Please contact: aprakrit@hotmail.com

2) Greetings. For those of you who might be interested, a daily class delivery program is available. It's absolutely free. All that is required is your keen interest in reading Srila Prabhupada's lectures' transcripts: http://www.PrabhupadaVani.org

3) NEW -- SRILA PRABHUPADA JAPA CD with MAYAPUR SHENAI. JUST RELEASED! ENHANCES YOUR JAPA MEDITATION BEYOND COMPARE. $5.95 Incl. shipping (USA only), others add $2.-. Ekanatha@Prabhupada.com Bhaktivedanta Archives, PO Box 255, Sandy Ridge, NC 27046 336-871-3636

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From: "hdg" <hdg@krishna.org>
6) Subject: 1972 Teachings of Lord Caitanya Back in Print

1972 Teachings of Lord Caitanya Back in Print Dear Prabhu Hare Krishna! Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. Hope you are well.

I'm just writing to let you know Srila Prabhupada's 1972 "Teachings of Lord Caitanya--The Golden Avatara" is now available again. This is one of the most essential books. It is a single volume summary of the Sri Caitanya-caritamrta and contains so much transcendental nectar. If you can get one case of these books and distribute them to your friends and family members and whoever you may meet it will be a great service to Srila Prabhupada. If we can all distribute at least one case of these books Prabhupada's mission will certainly go on and expand.

Please order your case now by clicking here. One case is ten hard-cover Teachings of Lord Caitanya. The price is $64 + 15 p&p [in USA] You can also order by phone by calling me on 917-204-7522 or email me at krishna@krishna.org

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7) POISON TAPE TRANSCRIPT Pt.2

...So I know that that area is a little confusing, but if you listen very carefully you'll hear Bhakticharu, who is now currently Bhakticharu Swami, one of the ISKCON gurus by the way, he is translating what Prabhupada had just said, "someone gave him poison here. Someone gave him poison here." This is not, "Oh, he has a liver problem which is causing poison." No. Someone, a person, an individual, has tried to get rid of Srila Prabhupada. That's what he says.

Of course, Bhakticharu, at this point, for 20 years he's been silent on this issue. So this is a major problem that we're having right now. Here is one of the key witnesses, he's there, he's one of the few people who understands Hindi and Bengali and English, and yet instead of saying at the time, "Whoa, let's hold on a minute, folks. Srila Prabhupada just said that he is being poisoned by someone. Let's make a big investigation."

He could have gone out and recruited many devotees to help him. He didn't say a word, though, to the rank and file devotees. He did not try to recruit any help here. So this is very strange, and we're not sure legally even how this works. If you know someone says "I'm being killed" and you're just not helping that person, not demanding help and investigating the cause of this person being killed, are you implicated legally? I'm not sure, according to different laws. We're studying this issue right now.

Kaviraja: Dekhiya bat ye hai, ki, ho sakta hai kisi rakshash ne diya ho. [Look, this is the thing, that maybe some rakshasa gave him poison.]

[2003 Update: Again, that idea that some "rakshasa" (a demoniac person) is consciously and purposefully administering poison to Srila Prabhupada is repeated. Again, the GBC keeps saying that this was a complaint about a bad liver, but this is clearly not the case. The complaint has to do with the "demoniac" intent of persons giving poison to Srila Prabhupada.]

Bhakticharu: He's saying that someone gave him poison.

[2003 Update: Again notice, "He (Srila Prabhupada) is saying that someone gave him poison." So this was how the conversation is going, he is being poisoned, and it is intentional, and it is being administered by "someone." Oddly, Adridharana dasa of Calcutta, one of the people in the room at the time of the poison complaint, he has subsequently tried to agree with the GBC that this above conversation is not a poison complaint. He says that the people in the room were misunderstanding the complaint, since there really was none? Yet, if he was in the room at the time, and he understood Hindi and Bengali, why did he not clarify this "misunderstanding" at the time? And why didn't he clarify it later on but he remained silent for 20 years, until we brought it up?

Clearly from the audio tape, everyone else in the room is agreeing: "someone gave him poison." And yet Adridharana says he was in the room too, and he was the only one thinking, this complaint is non-existing? Why did he not speak up at the time then? Why did he not come out of the room and notify the other devotees: the people in Srila Prabhupada's room are "making up" a poison complaint, as he now says is what occured? No, there was a poison complaint, and he knew there was one, and now he is trying to "get himself off the hook" of guilt by omission. He should have acted to do something about this complaint.]

Kaviraja: Caru Swami?
Bhakticharu: Yes?
Kaviraja: Kisi rakshash ne diya ho ye ho sakta hai, impossible nahin hai. Vo... Sankaracarya the, unko kisine poison diya, che mahine tak badi taklif paaye. [It is possible that some demon has given it. It is not impossible. Just like Sankaracarya was poisoned over six months with broken glass.]

[2003 update: One of our devotee associates was once eating at a GBC managed restaurant. One of the devotee workers at the restaurant told him to wait, they had some "special food" for him to eat in the back room. Then they brought out a plate of food from behind the kitchen door. He ate it but it tasted "crunchy." The next day, when he passed stool, blood came out. He felt through his stools and, there was finely ground broken glass in it. That means that some of the GBC and their followers were well versed in the techniques of poison and feeding people ground up broken glass and so on. They studied these processes, and since they would use these techniques against Srila Prabhupada, they would use it against some of us.]

- So in this next little section, the kaviraja, the doctor, is saying "impossible nahin," which means "It's not at all impossible that Prabhupada is being given poison because a guru in the Sankara line had been killed by being given broken glass slowly over a six-month period." Someone was putting broken glass into his guru's food preparations in order to kill him. So the kaviraja is saying, "It's not at all impossible that someone also is trying to kill Prabhupada because he's also a guru just like this Sankara guru was." All of this begs the question, why was the killing and poisoning of gurus being discussed a few days before Srila Prabhupada departed, and just after he complained of being poisoned? The malefic administering of poison and broken glass to grurus is being discussed, and the kaviraja says, "this is also what seems to have happened to Srila Prabhupada."

Kaviraja: Abhi bhi ye pakadta hai ki kidney kharab ho gaya hai. Kisi karan se, cahe bimari se ho, cahe graha se ho, cahe poison se. No matter what reason his kidneys are bad, whether from disease, planetary positions or poison, my medicine will counteract it.]

Tamal Krishna: Prabhupada was thinking that someone had poisoned him? Bhakticharu: Yes.

[2003 Update: Rather oddly, again, Adridharana (one of the people in the room when the poison complaint was made) first said in 1997 he agreed with us that there was a grevious poison complaint. Then later, he basically reversed that and said there was no poison complaint, and he joined forces with the GBC and defended them and advertised the GBC's web site. And thus, when we first posted this story and it was read by Adridharana dasa, he went into a complete rage. He said that we were "blaming" him for being a murderer and for poisoning Srila Prabhupada. So this is very odd is it not? He was saying we are right: there is a complaint. He even said he wanted to help us investigate the matter, then he became very much angry, aggressive and attacking us saying: we were fingering him as one of the murderers?

And then he began to side with the main suspects like Tamal Krishna in opposing us on this complaint. Yet, why would he go into a rage and support the main suspects if his hands were totally clean? This looks even more suspicious? We never said he murdered anyone and yet his party said we had called him "a murderer"? Why the rage? Why the misrepresentation? Why the lack of helping the investigation? So this means there were people in the room who knew of the complaint, and they were thinking it was never going to surface. And as soon as it did, they were trying to look surprised and helpful but later their real feelings came out, they were totally enraged that "their little secret" was going public.

Also, why would Adridharana later on say, Srila Prabhupada was not thinking he was being poisoned, when everyone else in the room was confirming he was saying: he was thinking he was being poisoned? Why would Adridharana countermand Srila Prabhupada's statements and try to blame us for linking him to -- murder? And why would he try to change the whole story of what occurred here, first seeming to help us and then supporting and defending the main suspects? And if everyone else in the room was, as Adridharana tries to imply, "making up some insane story about poison just to taunt and torture Srila Prabhupada for no reason," as Adridharana de facto says is what occurred, then, why did he not stop that from going on at the time? Why did he sit back and allow these people to torture Srila Prabhupada with a so-called "made up" story, as he implies is what occurred, when he was right there and he could have said something to stop it? So once again, the testimony of some of the people in the room: does not add up at all? And their subsequent blatant anger and rage makes it look all the more like, there is a cover up afoot? And it seems they are merely angry that the covers have been ripped off their carefully hidden twenty years of secrecy, secret GBC meetings, contrived cover ups, and perhaps longer, maybe thirty or more years of cover up? In any case the above two sentences alone totally defeat these cover up folks, "Srila Prabhupada was thinking someone had poisoned him?" and the answer is, "yes."]

Tamal Krishna: That was the mental distress?
Bhakticharu: Yes.

[2003 Update: Again, the reason Srila Prabhupada is feeling mental distress is that he thinks someone is giving him poison. The GBC and Adridharana try to say that there was no bona fide reason for his mental distress, de facto, they imply Srila Prabhupada was losing his mind. No, he was catching on to the poison plot, and this was causing him to be distressed. On the background "whispers portion" of these tapes Srila Prabhupada hears them saying they are giving poison and he says, "to me"? So he understood they were "giving poison" and he further understood: it was being given "to him." Testimony from Naranarayan dasa is that he heard Tamal say a few years before 1977, "Srila Prabhupada is a senile old man." Thus it seems that some of the leaders were setting up this poison plan, and if Srila Prabhupada caught on to their plot, then they could say that Srila Prabhupada is a senile old man, he does not know what he is saying.]

Kaviraja: Ye bolte hai to isme kuch na kuch satya rai hai, koi sandeh nahi. [If he says that, there must be some truth to it. There's no doubt.]

[2003 Update: This is very odd, the doctor says at the time that if Srila Prabhupada says he is being poisoned, it must be true. Yet some of Srila Prabhupada's "big disciples" are still doubting?]

- Tamal Krishna: What did Kaviraja just say?
Bhakticharu: He said that when Srila Prabhupada is saying that, there must be something truth behind it.
Tamal Krishna: Tssh.

So here we have Tamal Krishna Swami stating that Srila Prabhupada thought someone was poisoning him, and this was confirmed by two different devotees and also the doctor. The doctor said, "If Prabhupada said he's being poisoned, it must be true." So everyone present has understood and has agreed that Prabhupada is stating that someone is giving him poison at this point. One interesting thing is that Tamal Krishna Goswami wrote a book about Prabhupada's final days and in that book he does not mention one word about this episode where Prabhupada said he is being poisoned, neither has this episode been mentioned in any other official publications by the Governing Body Commission members. They've written many, many books about Prabhupada, his life and his pastimes and so many things, and this particular issue somehow or other never gets mentioned.

[2003 Update: After we originally publicly challenged the GBC over the poison issue in 1997, Tamal then published his diary "to counter the poison investigation." He at least admitted that Srila Prabhupada did make a poison complaint, he could not deny it, BECAUSE this was STATED on the tape, but he still gives us no good explanation why Srila Prabhupada had made that complaint, and why was the complaint hidden and suppressed and so on?]

- So very unfortunately, those of us who have had our lives threatened by the Governing Body Commission members are the persons who time and time again have to investigate various important issues and various important statements given by Srila Prabhupada, and this is simply another instance where the Governing Body Commission has covered up an instruction or an important statement from Srila Prabhupada and suppressed it. In any event, it's now very clear that Prabhupada is saying "I'm being poisoned," and this was the understanding that the people around him at the time also got from that statement. It was verified by the eye witnesses present at the time.

Tamal Krishna: What did Kaviraja just say?
Bhakticharu: He said that when Srila Prabhupada is saying that, there must be something truth behind it.
Tamal Krishna: Tssh.
Jayapataka: What did he say about Sankaracarya?
Bhakticharu: That someone gave him some poison like, you know, the powdered glass they put in his food.
Kaviraja: (Hindi) [(Somewhat unclear) He appears to be saying that he will give Srila Prabhupada certain medicine to be taken with pan, cold water or milk and results will be seen in the morning.]
Tamal Krishna: Srila Prabhupada, Sastriji says that there must be some truth to it if you say that. So who is it that has poisoned?

This is the voice of Tamal Krishna Goswami asking Srila Prabhupada, "Who is it that has poisoned you?" Now at this point in time, this is 20 years later, this is 20 years after this tape was made (this is 1997, this tape was made in 1977), many of the Governing Body Commission members are now trying to say that Prabhupada was referring to his general health, he said he was being poisoned because of a kidney failure and so on and so forth; but that's not how the conversation was going. Right here Tamal Krishna is saying, "Who is it that has poisoned you?" "Who" refers to a person. Someone is poisoning him. It is not a general health condition. So we just wanted to make this very clear because, as is often the case, the Governing Body Commission members try to twist and distort and change the emphasis or the wording, or they lose tapes or they hide tapes; and in fact, if we hadn't brought this tape forward, no one would have done it – no one from their side definitely. So anyway, somehow or other, Prabhupada is thinking someone has poisoned him. Tamal Krishna asks, "Who is poisoning you?" and Prabhupada does not answer the question at this time.

Kaviraja: Sabse bara poison je hota hai, vah mercury ha hota hai. [The most dangerous poison that exists is that of mercury.]
Bhakticharu: Voh to gaya tah unka... voh jo... [Which was given to him]
Kaviraja: Nahi nahi, ye jo Swarupa Guha ka aap parde the na swamiji... Kalkatte me? [No, no. Swamiji, did you read about Svarupa Guha? In Calcutta.]
Srila Prabhupada: Hmm.
Kaviraja: Rupa Guha.
Bhakticharu: Unko malum nahi. Unko nahi pata. [He has not heard about it. He doesn't know.]
Kaviraja: Us ke pati ne diya tha. [The husband poisoned the wife.]
Bhakticharu: Accha.
Kaviraja: Uska koi medicine nahin ata. Itne dose de diya jisko ham raskapoor bolta hai. [He gave her a dose of a poison called raskapoor, for which there is no medicine.]
Bhakticharu: Yehi... Mercury to isme tha, makharadhvaj me. [Right. Mercury was in there, in the makharadhvaj.]
Kaviraja: (?) mercury (?)
Bhavananda: Before that.
Kaviraja: Uska dusra (?).

Kaviraja: (?)
Bhavananda: What did he say?
Bhakticharu: He said that it is quite possible that mercury, it's a kind of a poison...
Tamal Krishna: That makharadhvaja.
Kaviraja: Raskapoor.

[2003 Update: Notice that the doctor is trying to correct people here, there is a bona fide medicine called makharadhvaja, but that is not going to make a person sick. Rather what we should be discussing now is poison, maybe Raskapoor, which apparently contains mercuruy.]

Bhakticharu: Raskapoor.
Kaviraja: Amiras. (?) tate poison ache. It a very poison.
Bhakticharu: Makharadhvaja (?).
Bhavananda: What was he taking, Prabhupada, before that?
Kaviraja: Makharadhvaja to amrit hota hai. In ke liye bhi suitable hota hai (?).
Bhavananda: What medicine was he taking before that?
Bhakticharu: (?)
Kaviraja: Kuch nahin (?).
Bhakticharu: So he was referring to a case, a big murder case in Calcutta. The husband poisoned his wife, yeah.
Bhavananda: Oh, Guha.
Kaviraja: Swarupa...

So at this point, the conversation focuses on a murder case, the husband poisoned the wife. So if we were discussing a problem with Prabhupada's liver or some general health condition, why would we be discussing a murder by poison case? So the word "murder" is brought up, and a famous case supposedly that took place in Calcutta. I don't know the details of this case but a famous lawyer murdered his wife by poison, and so this is being brought up in the context of Prabhupada complaining about his being poisoned. So why is the discussion now moving on and focusing on a murder? So in my view, it seems pretty clear that the conversation is just escalating up and up to the point where it's coming out more and more that Prabhupada, what he's really trying to say is that "Someone is murdering me here. That's what's really going on."

Kaviraja: Kuch nahin (?)
Bhakticharu: So he was referring to a case, a big murder case in Calcutta. The husband poisoned his wife, yeah.
Bhavananda: Oh, Guha.
Kaviraja: Swarupa Guha (Hindi)
Bhakticharu: Yes, Sankar Das Banerjee was.
Bhavananda: Our lawyer is the... (laughs)

So this is a very strange section. It turns out they're talking about murder, and Bhavananda starts laughing. It sounds like you can hear some wheezing type of laughter in the background here. "Oh, yeah, our lawyer is the..." ha, ha, ha. Very funny, very funny thing, isn't it? Yes, Srila Prabhupada is being killed here and it's a very funny joke to some of these people. So you can see why Srila Prabhupada is talking in Hindi to a very select couple of people that he might trust or that he thinks might get the story out or they might be able to help him get out of there, or who knows what. He obviously cannot really trust these Western people because you can see what happens. He says, "I'm being killed here, I'm being poisoned here." There's a murder by poison case being discussed here, and they react by laughing, by thinking it's some kind of a joke. "Oh, yeah, very funny. Prabhupada thinks he's being poisoned. Isn't that hysterical?" So in other words, they are either thinking he's lost his mind and he doesn't really know what he's talking about, he's an old man, he doesn't know what's going on, he's not aware of what he's doing – that's one way of looking at it – or they're very aware of what he's saying and they're very aware that he's catching up to what's going on around here, and their way of dealing with it is to try to make some kind of a joke and shuffle it off because otherwise the whole thing, if there is a plot or conspiracy to get rid of Prabhupada, it's being exposed right now. So now you've got to change the subject, laugh, and move on to another topic, which is what happens.

They try to change the subject, move on to another topic, and basically cover up, forget, hide, and eliminate this whole discussion as if it did not take place. So there are various motives possible for doing that. But it's very ironic also that in 1997, 20 years later, myself and my associate went out with a sign at Rathayatra, which is a big public festival for the Hare Krishna Movement, and we had a sign with a picture of Prabhupada with his statement, "I am being poisoned." And the reaction of the Governing Body members, maybe 20, 30 of them, they all started laughing hysterically. "Ha, ha, ha, Prabhupada was poisoned, ha, ha, ha!"

So one of the reasons for this type of reaction – laughter or, in other words, make light of the statement, don't take it seriously, this is not a serious statement from Srila Prabhupada, "I am being poisoned," it's something that we can just joke about and push it under the carpet and it will go away eventually if we just ignore it and laugh at it and so on and so forth. Of course, why would people laugh at a statement like this? Their own master says he is being killed, but it's a joke. Why is it a joke? Because as soon as we have to investigate why did Prabhupada say "I am being poisoned," then we have a problem.

[2003 Update: An eye witness in 1977 said he saw some of these GBC leaders laughing and joking outside of Srila Prabhupada's room around the same time he complained of being poisoned. The eye witness went in to the room and privately notified Srila Prabhupada that this was going on and that it was very alarming and it could even be very dangerous. Srila Prabhupada was reported to have said, "They have no respect for me."]

- Some of the people who said that they were also appointed as his "successors" are some of the prime candidates for questioning about this poison issue. So the so-called successors issue is related to the poisoning issue directly. The people who were there when Prabhupada said "I am being poisoned" then claimed to be his successors; and as a result of that, they appointed more successors. There's now 150 persons who are appointed as successors. So to investigate a part of the issue of what Prabhupada was saying in his later days would bring out the broader issue of what else was he saying.

He was saying so many things. He was saying things about how the movement will go on in the future after he departed, and so on and so forth. So this is why at the time the investigation was suppressed and it has been suppressed for 20 years, because people have made literally millions, in fact someone would say billions of dollars by covering up and misinterpreting and changing and ignoring important statements from Srila Prabhupada.

The conversation shifts to the story of Prahlad Maharaja, who was a famous devotee of Krishna. He was given poison also, and the poison did not affect him. So, therefore, the kaviraja is saying that even if Prabhupada is being poisoned, it would not affect him. Of course, there's many different stories and examples of the lives of pure devotees. For example, Prabhupada said that Jesus was killed. He says, "My Guru Maharaja was killed." And, of course, in the Battle of Kurukshetra, people from both sides were killed obviously and many of them were great devotees of Krishna. Krishna's son was killed, and so on and so forth. So there may be some instances where a great devotee will not be killed under certain circumstances, and there may be other circumstances where a great devotee will be killed or will be allowed to be killed according to Krishna's desire.

It's not a blanket, uniform thing. Unfortunately, some devotees have talked to me about this and they say, "Well, in every single case, Krishna protects His devotee from the hands of demons and they cannot be killed." So right away I say, "Well, why then did Prabhupada say that Jesus was a pure devotee and he was also killed?" So they have no explanation. In other words, in Krishna consciousness we have to understand that different things happen to different devotees at different times. It's not one blanket, uniform thing that happens to every single devotee every single time. So the other thing is about Prabhupada's own guru.

He says, "My Guru Maharaja was poisoned," but oftentimes he says, "My Guru Maharaja left in disgust." So the real reason Bhaktisiddhanta left the planet, although he was being poisoned, was not by the poison per se but because he was disgusted that he had some big followers who were trying to kill him. So he was just disgusted. He said, "These people want my property, they want my money, they want to take over my worship. So I'm going to leave and let them take it over." So leaving in disgust is the cause of Prabhupada's departure from the description he gave of his own Guru Maharaja in similar circumstances. Yes, he could have defended himself, he could have done so many things to try to overturn the plot to poison him, but instead he just decided, "Well, I'm being poisoned and what is the use? I came to America to try to give people Krishna consciousness and the result is that some of them are killing me. So better that I just depart now and go back to Krishna. What's the problem here?" So that's also the lila or activity of great devotees at certain times.

So at this point in the tape, I do have quite a few of the tapes from October and November, 1977, and I could actually find a lot of these quotes and have Prabhupada speaking directly. Instead I'm going to just read them in my own voice from the Conversations books which were produced by the Bhaktivedanta Archives, along with some commentary from myself. I just don't have the time or a secretary or anything to deal with all this stuff right now. But I think that many of these quotes are important because they show some of the underlying psychology of how Prabhupada could have been poisoned or how he indicated that some of his leaders might take some action against him or try to overtake him and overtake his position and take the assets of his movement.

A very famous story Prabhupada gave often was the yogi and the mouse. The yogi, he was sitting in meditation, a mouse came up and said, "A cat is chasing me, please make me into a cat." So the yogi snapped his fingers, "OK, you're a cat." Then the cat comes back and he says, "A dog is chasing me." So the yogi snaps his fingers and says, "OK, now you're a dog." The dog comes back and says, "Now a tiger is chasing me." So the yogi, he snaps his fingers and says, "OK, now you're a tiger." The former mouse is now a tiger. So the tiger starts licking his chops and says, "Oh, Mr. Yogi, you look like a nice meal for me." So now the mouse is about ready to jump on the yogi and eat him up. So the yogi snaps his fingers and says, "OK, again become mouse." Punar mushika bhava. This is a story that Prabhupada related many, many times. "Be very careful. Your guru is giving you information, he's helping you. But if you try to misuse that information or use that information against your guru," then bang, he snaps his fingers and again you revert back to your old position.

Actually we've seen this in many cases. Many of these so-called appointed gurus later fell away and started taking drugs and running around with various low-class women and getting into crimes and going to jail and so on and so forth. So in other words, they became mice. They were exalted devotees or could have been exalted devotees, but they misused their position, tried to overtake their guru, and as a result they fell down and became discredited. And that will actually happen eventually to all of the so-called "successors to Srila Prabhupada." They will all be very discredited and exposed, and they will be known as very vicious people who attacked Prabhupada, not as his pure successors. This is the inevitable history which will come out of this situation.

So very early on when Prabhupada first started this movement, he was having initially big problems with some of his so-called leaders. For example, in 1970 three leaders put him in a room, locked him up, and tried to take over his movement in 1970. So Prabhupada wrote a letter about this: "It is a fact that the great sinister movement is within our society."

So he was already having problems from square one. And he wrote letters, for example: "So by the grace of Krishna we have got sufficient properties all over the world. So there cannot be any diplomacy or conspiracy by any sane man. All these properties and opulence, whatever we have got, this will not go with me when I go away from this world. It will remain here. I am training some of my experienced disciples how to manage after my departure." That was the GBC, the Governing Body Commission, that he was attempting to train up. "So if instead of taking the training, if in my lifetime you people say 'I am the lord of all I survey,' that is a dangerous conspiracy. I shall do everything in my power to fulfill your personal ambitions." So this was written to a devotee named Karandhar, who was one of Prabhupada's early leaders. So he was saying, "Watch out. You guys are apparently trying to take over my properties and opulence now by a conspiracy." So he was already noting that sort of a takeover attempt. Also there was an attempt to make an umbrella corporation around 1972, I think it was, which would have legally put all of the properties of Prabhupada's movement into the hands of a few people, and Prabhupada disbanded the GBC at that time, being very upset.

So in other words, there were various attempts by some of the leaders to take over the movement of Prabhupada by using various clever means. Sometimes they would even package these things as though they were some wonderful preaching activity. For example, Tamal Krishna had a Radha-Damodara bus project, and he used this project. He had buses traveling around the United States distributing books; but when his buses would go to the temples, they would tell the people in the temple, "You're all in maya, you're all householders living like nonsense. You should be brahmacharis. You should be living strictly and traveling with Tamal Krishna." So Tamal used his bus program as a means of extracting manpower from Prabhupada's temples, and actually Prabhupada's whole movement was being gradually shifted over into the hands of Tamal Krishna by this process. So this reached a point in 1976 where Prabhupada told Tamal to go to China. Prabhupada basically said, "You're ruining my whole movement. You're paralyzing my whole movement by taking the people out of the temples." So, of course, Tamal refused to go to China. This was a famous story of a sort of attempt to hijack the ISKCON movement away from Srila Prabhupada by draining away the manpower, money and assets, and putting these assets into Tamal's control.

In any event, there were various aggressive attempts to start different programs and projects that were designed to unseat Prabhupada's authority and bring the authority into the hands of some of these various leaders. In 1976, shortly after this China incident where Prabhupada told Tamal to go to China, I was standing in the Los Angeles temple room in front of Prabhupada's murti – there's a deity of Prabhupada in the temple. It's still there, by the way. I was standing in front of this murti in 1976. Tamal Krishna came up to me and said, "I know you, Puranjan, you're just waiting for Prabhupada to die so you can sit in his seat."

So in other words, here's his psychology. He's thinking I'm standing by Prabhupada in order to sit in Prabhupada's seat. I'm not standing there to worship Prabhupada, I'm standing there because I'm envious of Prabhupada and I want to pull Prabhupada off of that seat and sit myself in that seat. That's what Tamal was saying. So this is a very Freudian slip on his part because really he was revealing his own mentality. He just can't wait for Prabhupada to leave to sit in his seat, because the actual fact of the matter is that about a year after Tamal Krishna told me that, he was himself sitting in Prabhupada's seat.

He was the person who was thinking, "Who is going to be sitting in Prabhupada's seat after Prabhupada departs?" So it may be because there was some psychology all along really: "Who's going to be sitting in Prabhupada's seat? Who's going to be getting Prabhupada's worship? Who's going to be getting Prabhupada's properties?" There was some consideration of this among some of these leaders all along. They were very motivated, as Prabhupada pointed out in many, many letters. So when they perhaps saw that he was going to live for another six years and this was going to cause them a problem (just like it said in his chart, in his jyotish, it said "you're going to live for six more years"), they may have thought, "Oh, my God, he's going to live for six more years. We want to take over now. Maybe we should poison him, get him out of the way, and take over earlier." So that seems to be a very possible scenario.

[to be continued]

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* Poison Tape Transcript and Analysis by Puranjana das
* Tamal Krishna Goswami's Disappearance 15. March 2002 ++
* Bill Of Indictment Against Tamal Krishna Gosvami ++