Visit to Akshaya Patra

BY: MAHASRNGA DASA

Approximately six months ago, being heavily under the modes of passion and ignorance, I unknowingly or subconsciously became envious of Madhu Pandit prabhu and under the banner of ‘false ego’, I sought to expose ‘the truth’ according to my understanding based on hearsay information.

I was given some mis-information in the form of facts, figures, and documents along with rumors and foolishly swallowed them hook, line and sinker; then leaping before looking intelligently, investigating thoroughly, or speaking with the accused.

Some of the things I wrote were actually liable for action by the court system, but because of our past relationship and Madhu Pandit’s soft heart, he called off the legal beagles before they would have made my life miserable.

A week ago, on April 16, 2009, while travelling through Bangalore, Madhu Pandit contacted me and asked if I would like to visit the Akshaya Patra account office and look into the accounts myself.

I went to the Bangalore Temple the following day and attended the morning program. I was greeted with respect and had a wonderful spiritual experience with the assembled devotees. At 12:30 pm we had a meeting and I presented Madhu Pandit with my information, documents and half-truths that I had been told, and was actually shocked with his responses. He showed me court documents, explaining what really happened while gently rebuking me in a way so that I wouldn’t make such a fool of myself in the future. In the end I was embarrassed that I had not personally contacted him before shooting off my mouth.

After lunch I was brought to the accounting department of Akshaya Patra and introduced to the head accountant. He was instructed to answer all my questions and to show me whatever account books I requested. Previously I was told that Madhu Pandit was making millions of dollars from Akshaya Patra and that he was funneling the access into land deals all over the world. I couldn’t have been more mislead or hoodwinked. The Akshaya Patra project is operated by 8 Trustees who are from the top rung of society. Three are from INFOSYS, one is the CEO of Narvana Technologies, one is a successful industrialist, and three are from ISKCON Bangalore, which means the devotees don’t even have a majority vote.

Their accounts are audited by a group of chartered accountants in India called BSR & Co., who are a subsidiary of the Global firm KMPG, who audit NASDAQ. There are 17 prasada distribution centers in India which each has a chartered accountant, who in turn sends their accounts to the Bangalore office to be doubled checked and verified by another 10 accountants. Then there is a 3 man audit committee set up by the Board of Trustees to triple check the accounts for discrepancies, errors, or to find ways to increase distribution efficiency. And above all, there is the control of the government auditors, who are equivalent to the IRS in America, who periodically make unscheduled and surprise audits of their own.

When I asked the chief accountant what direct role Madhu Pandit played in handling the finance and accounts in the whole scheme of Akshaya Patra, he simply stated that he was the least person in the picture. There is even an advisory board chaired by the ex-Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India along with the Secretary of Education, a commissioner of Education and two prominent industrialists who give advice based on the vision of the Trustee/Board of Directors of Akshaya Patra.

I had also heard the complaint that the menu and quality of prasadam being distributed was of inferior quality. However after further investigation, I found out that there is a BED (Block Education Officer) who immediately checks into all complaints for the government, to insure quality control. The bottom line is that the Akshaya Patra project is not the money making machine I so wrongfully accused it of being. In fact, the accounts showed a 1.73 cr. deficit for the year 08/09.

I feel in all honesty that I must apologize to the world, and personally to Madhu Pandit prabhu for not thoroughly investigating my sources of information, and for not contacting him personally as a godbrother before going public, and also to the organizers, workers and participants of the Akshaya Patra Foundation. Please forgive me for my ignorant and foolish offenses.

Mahasrnga dasa

ISKCON Bangalore wins the Court Case!

In a breaking news, on April 17th 2009, in the Trial Court of Bangalore, the judge finally passed an order in the matter of ISKCON, Bangalore vs ISKCON Mumbai. He ruled in favor of ISKCON Bangalore Society giving it the ownership to the Hare Krishna Hill and famous temple atop it. He thereby once for all put to rest all allegations of wrong doing or corrupt family dealings among the leadership of ISKCON Bangalore.

This ruling again reiterated the fact that ISKCON Bangalore, under the leadership of Sriman Madhu Pandit Das, is on the path shown by Krishna separate from the corrupt ISKCON Mumbai Society and its GBC leadership. This result will further enhance and deepen the quality of service of all the residents of Hare Krishna Hill to Sri Sri Radha Krishnacandra for the benefit of all humanity without unnecessary influences.

This ruling is further proof that what Krishna promises in the Bhagavad Gita that ” My devotees will never perish”, is hundred percent true even though we may not know His workings most of the time.

Thanks goes to devotees worldwide who stood by the ISKCON Bangalore devotees and their decade long struggle to reinstate Srila Prabhupada in the center of ISKCON inspite of severe hardships.

A message to HH Radhanath Swami, HH Jayaptaka Swami, HH Gopal Krishna Goswami and HH Bhakti Caru Swami: Please take this result, which has come inspite of immense funds sacrificed by you all (to the tune of many millions of dollars) and repeated confident assurances by Doyaram Das as Lord Krishna’s indication that NO ONE CAN DISTURB THE SERVICES OF HIS SINCERE SERVANTS. Hence please desist from further prolonging the case in Bangalore or supporting the dirty cause of Varada Krishna das who is trashing devotees in a tabloid manner through some websites. Please call for an end to all hostilities being undertaken by means of your underlings in Bangalore and let us concentrate on preaching in our own areas and services given to us by Srila Prabhupada. Only pure devotional service rendered for the benefit of the conditioned souls will help us at the time of fast approaching death.  Let us preach by our own strenghts depending on Srila Prabhupada and Krishna and then LET THE RESULTS SPEAK.

The Sad History of the “Zonal-Acharyas”

By Kailasa Candra Das

Continued from “ISKCON” Gurus Initiations and Party Men – Part 1

On Understanding the First Transformation

The First Transformation, or change, started to take place even before Srila Prabhupada left us. When any kind of organization is running powerfully, it is able to do so because one man embodies and exemplifies it. When there is no such man, the organization muddles on in a divided and often semi-disorganized manner. As such, a really powerful corporation is but the shadow of one man. When transformation devolves, it usually does so under one man’s influence.

Two men were vying for this power in the late Seventies: They were Kirtanananda Swami and Tamal Krishna Gosvami (TKG). The latter emerged finally victorious, because he was the best corporate manipulator. He did so in no small measure because he was able to secure the post of “taking care of” Srila Prabhupada in his last days. Something very nefarious took place during those final months (“Someone has poisoned me”). Srila Prabhupada’s wishes were not honored. We shall not go into the poison issue, but suffice it to say that there is plenty of evidence-and that evidence is not weak. Exactly how it all transpired is almost impossible to know without a smoking gun, i.e., without someone who was implicated spilling his guts.

But we do know that Prabhupada ordered that he be taken on parikrama during the last month, and that order was disobeyed. We do know that Prabhupada ordered that all of his disciples be told to come to Vrindavan to see him one last time during the last days, but that order was never relayed. Instead, it was amended to mean that one senior devotee from each temple or zone should go to Vrindavan (the Thanksgiving and Christmas pick could not be jeopardized!).

The actual Krishna consciousness movement had nothing whatsoever to do with change. It was a movement of spiritual rejuvenation, which is a completely different process from change or transformation. Srila Prabhupada was relegated to the position of a figurehead in the last months (or even years), and then eleven powerful men-under the ultimate influence of TKG-created the First Transformation. TKG was very instrumental in the coup of the spring of 1978, and an “Acarya Board” was created as an independent subset of the “GBC.” Yes, Swami B.R. Sridhar was also instrumental; he served as the soil for those eleven seeds of personal glory (“The poison is personal ambition”). There would have been no Zonal Acaryas, however, without the directed influence of TKG. The eleven Zonals constituted just short of half of the votes of the “GBC” during the spring of 1978, but they wielded far, far more than half of the influence on that governing body. The other Commissioners failed us, and they did not stop the eleven pretender maha-bhagavats from their takeover of the movement. This was the First Transformation.

But Kirtanananda Swami set the tone in the run-up to that apocalyptic spring meeting in Mayapur, 1978. The actual big change started just days after Srila Prabhupada’s disappearance, and it began at New Vrindavan. Kirtanananda Swami, without any consultation and on his own authority, began accepting uttama-adhikari worship from everyone there, especially his godbrothers and godsisters. The “GBC,” already in the process of becoming corrupt, did nothing to check him. So, when that governing body convened in Mayapur in the spring of 1978, it had to confront the fact that one of the eleven men named as rittviks in the last days (during July of 1977) was accepting worship as a guru on the highest level of purity and realization. But Prabhupada had said, in late May of 1977, “Regular guru, that’s all.” Kirtanananda Swami was accepting far, far more than the accolades accorded a regular guru according to parampara and other Vaishnava traditions.

TKG backed the conclusion that the eleven men named as rittviks during the last five months while Prabhupada was with us were to automatically become gurus after his disappearance. He never got this clarified by Srila Prabhupada, of course. That the other ten newly-appointed “gurus” would back this line of thought was not improbable; it was in their obvious self interest to do so. However, if one of these eleven men was already accepting exalted worship, then what about the other ten?

“I am in due receipt of your letter, dated September 3 1975, with the enclosed statement about Bon Maharaja. So I have now issued orders that all my disciples should avoid all of my godbrothers. They should not have any dealings with them nor even correspondence, nor should they give them any of my books nor should they purchase any of their books, neither should you visit any of their temples. Please avoid them.”
Letter to Visvakarma das on Nov. 9, 1975 from Bombay

According to some devotee schuttlebutt-and there is no direct or tangible proof of it–Srila Prabhupada was supposed to have said that Swami B.R. Sridhar, a prominent Gaudiya Math leader, could be consulted for his philosophical views in connection with spiritual master. He was consulted, and his advice proved disastrous. He repeated the Bengali cliche mat guru si jagat guru, indicating that anyone who performs the formalities of the initiation ceremony should be accepted by his initiated disciple as a jagat guru (a far cry from what Prabhupada called “regular guru,” i.e., a guru under the regulation of vaidhi sadhana bhakti).

Similarly, Swami B. R. Sridhar in effect said: “Just put on the uniform, and you will become the soldier.” The implication of this bad directive was that just putting on the external pretense of guru would automatically grow you into actually being a guru. This may be New Age philosophy, but it is not the Vedic or Vaishnava process. Swami B. R. Sridhar asked what was the basis of these eleven men being guru. Were they recognized or appointed as such by Prabhupada? Swami B. R. Sridhar was informed that the basis of their claim was that these eleven men had been appointed as rittvik acaryas during the last months of Prabhupada’s manifestation.

Swami B. R. Sridhar then opined: “Rittvik-acarya, then it becomes as good as acarya.” It was his worst advice. This is exactly what TKG was thinking, so “after consultation with higher authorities” (penned by the chief scribe of the Zonals at the beginning of his position paper summing up this new dispensation), it was accepted that the new diksa gurus would only come from the eleven rittviks most recently appointed. This was cent-per-cent bogus, but it was accepted by all but one of the Commissioners. The others, who did not receive an appointment to become guru and a zone in which to initiate, went along to get along.

Swami B. R. Sridhar was also instrumental in setting up and approving the plan to have the eleven pretender maha-bhagavats possess their own zones, and thus we had the First Transformation, which can be called the Era of the Zonal Acaryas. It was a complete disaster!

Now, the question may be raised: “Why do you personally criticize Swami B. R. Sridhar? He was Srila Prabhupada’s older godbrother. You should not criticize the godbrother of your Guru Maharaj.” Our answer to this doubt is as follows: It has been thirty years since the bad advice from Swami B. R. Sridhar was received and applied by the “GBC.” Srila Prabhupada waited for thirty years after the disappearance of his Guru Maharaj before he began to initiate disciples in the West. He was deputed by Srila Prabhupada Bhaktisiddhanta Goswami Maharaj to do just that, but he did not immediately even begin to take up that assignment for three decades. It has been two decades since Swami B. R. Sridhar left his body. We have refrained all of these decades from specifically mentioning him by name in any of our articles. So, we have observed the etiquette with particular restraint for a considerable time.

However, no individual did more damage to Srila Prabhupada’s Krishna Consciousness movement from the Gaudiya Math side than did Swami B. R. Sridhar. His negative influence on Srila Prabhupada’s movement is practically incalculable. All the senior men in the “ISKCON” movement know this to a lesser or greater extent. Most of the older devotees “outside the walls” know it as well. It is not often written about in any official documents, but it has been discussed amongst virtually every one of Prabhupada’s elder initiated disciples to a very substantial degree. It is now agreed by almost everyone that the misconception of the Zonal Acarya scheme was a devastation, and that arrangement has been officially rejected for decades.

Similarly, many of the rittviks-who rarely are inclined toward the Gaudiya Math–know of the damage done by Swami B. R. Sridhar. Some have written about it without any constraint and with considerable vitriol. We remain restrained concerning that style of writing, but we can no longer remain silent about his terrible advice and influence during the late Seventies and early Eighties.

You are reading this article because you have a profound desire to understand. This article has not been submitted to, or posted on, any popular or large devotee websites-at least not directly by us. You have earned the right to receive this information. Swami B. R. Sridhar did terrible damage in the form of his malefic advice and directions. The eleven pretender maha-bhagavats ate up that bad advice, applied it, and transformed Srila Prabhupada’s Krishna Consciousness movement in the process. The eleven seeds needed the soil, and Swami B. R. Sridhar supplied the fertilizer.

The movement meant for the rejuvenation of pure spiritual life and realization amongst all of those who joined it-all of whom received genuine initiation from the real bona fide spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada-was transformed into something else in the spring of 1978. It was disconnected from the sampradaya (parampara) at that time, and Swami B. R. Sridhar along with the eleven pretender maha-bhagavats–and especially the Party Men who helped to implement the scheme at the pragmatic level–were key players in this initial transformation or change.

This imposition of eleven powerful men as “maha-bhagavats”–all of whom were loaded with personal and institutional anarthas–was a scheme that appeared unbeatable at first. They all had their own zones of influence. Had they stayed in their turfs and not criticized one another-if they had also not attempted so many outrages-then the concoction might have lasted longer than the eight or nine years it dominated everything and everyone. However, when conditioned souls, loaded with anarthas, imitate guru–and particularly when they imitate the actual self-realized soul–their destruction is arranged for by the demigods. This is, in part, because they are imitating the demigods. The immeasurable pride and audacity of the eleven pretender maha-bhagavats was not merely the megalomania of some powerful leader of a nation-state. No. All eleven of these men were absorbed in the delusion of self-apotheosis.

They were all absorbed in the material mind. They were absorbed in their lusts and desires (kama-sankalpa), thinking these desires to be absolute. They were all absorbed in anger and hatred against anyone who criticized or thwarted them in any way. They were all very insane, but, due to having performed some buddhi-yoga in years past, they were still (generally) shrewd in their insanity. They were completely intoxicated by their great power over others, by the women who danced for them in front of their so-called vyasasans, and by the buzz they received on a daily and hourly basis as objects of worship by hundreds of dedicated fools and fanatics. They were regularly subjected to the fear of their scheme being exposed, especially by knowledgeable godbrothers who could see the faultlines in this unauthorized arrangement. They were very greedy for more and more disciples, more and more power, more and more money (“laxmi”), more and more fame and influence, and more and more “knowledge” of ways to better pull the whole thing off.

In short, all eleven of these men were full-blown sahajiyas.

The very best thing is the Sampradaya Acarya, the maha-bhagavat absorbed in love of Godhead. When the very best thing is perverted and imitated, it quickly degenerates into the very worst thing; this is a universal principle. Each of the eleven pretender maha-bhagavats warped into a terrible caricature of siddha-purusa. They were all pseudo gurus, and, in this monstrosity, their anarthas were supposed to be absolute and praiseworthy. So, instead of eleven somewhat advanced and learned devotees keeping their original initiated names, almost all of them adopted other names, usually ending in “pada.” This was a blatant and ultimately laughable imitation of Prabhu-pada.

Rather than go over their “pada” names-and how ludicrous each of those titles were-it is more efficacious to understand what each of these men became as a caricature, as they attempted to carve out an absolute identity as de facto popes within their zones. So, the fragmenting movement now had to contend with The Vanity Fair Despot, the Scholar, the Teflon Pundit, the Sun King, the Libertine, the Pusher, the Machiavellian Manipulator, the Fanatic Flag-Waiver, the Psychotropic Sahajiya, Das Fuhrer Comet, and the Post-Modern Magician.

They were the great cheaters, and everyone who followed them and actually believed that they were God-realized lovers of Truth constituted the cheated. The “ISKCON” movement devolved into the newest Society of the Cheaters and the Cheated, and, appropriately, they were all called “new gurus.” The Party Men cooperated; at this time, it was not in the personal interest of the Party Men to do anything to expose the arrangement if they did not believe in it. The more powerful became henchmen and enforcers, some became temple officers, some became intimate associates and sycophants, and some of them remained fanatics and true believers.

It was a Fool’s Paradise, and eleven men situated in such an unreliable state of being would not be able to maintain the artificial arrangement for long. They went into each other’s zones to collect, and this led to various reversals and confrontations. They criticized one another, and this led fanatics in various zones to question whether or not such “lila” was really indicative of persons supposedly situated in nikunjayuno ratikeli siddhaye. Remember, however, that Tamal was the man. When he went too far, then the whole edifice of this scheme started to crater.