Saturday, May 2, 2015

Basu Ghosh Writes Wrongs (update)

Bangalore timeline -- the court case -- how it evolved

April 28, 2015 [by Basu Ghosh Das]



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Basu Ghosh Das was born as Bryan Davies in Chicago, America. He was initiated by Srila Prabhupada. Who has spent 38 of his 54 years of life in Gujarat. Basu Ghosh Das, president of the ISKCON temple in Vadodara, is currently in Ahmedabad to participate in the All India Sanskrit Elocution Competition.

Dressed in a white dhoti and upavastra, he speaks chaste Sanskrit as he walks on the SGVP International School campus, taking a break to communicate in Hindi and Gujarati with those who perhaps don’t follow Sanskrit entirely. It was Indian culture and language that drew him to India when he was 16. - See more at: 

http://iskconleaders.com/basu-ghosh-prabhu-acbsp/#sthash.OJNppquh.dpuf

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BG: About a week ago, a devotee wrote on her Facebook page asking about the status of ISKCON at Bangalore. She was unaware of the history of the goings on there. What I wrote herein below was for her benefit (I have done some editing on what I wrote her).

Tomorrow, April 29, 2015 [delayed a day due to travel problems], at ISKCON Juhu there will be another mediation between ISKCON GBC members and ISKCON India's legal advisor, with Madhu Pandit Das, an ISKCON rebel who propagates the posthumous initiation concept known nowadays as "ritvikism". He is also the branch manager -- by court order -- of ISKCON at Bangalore, Hare Krishna Hill, Rajajinagar. ISKCON seeks to remove and replace him with someone loyal to the ISKCON institutional policies.

[PADA: The first problem is that ISKCON's "institutional gurus" are often NOT behaving like actual gurus, and they are often falling into illicit affairs, if not criminal behaviors. And thus even ISKCON's leaders like Badrinarayan das have said -- as long as the ISKCON GBC's gurus keep falling down, we (the GBC) will have no credibility. Right! Neither will ISKCON! Then again many of us "non-liberated neophytes" behave a whole lot better than Basu Ghosh's alleged pure devotees of God. 

And now the Basu Ghosh program has buried Kirtanananda's dead carcass in Vrndavana, where he is worshiped in "a samadhi." And the Basu Ghosh program's folks are marching around doing "parikramas" and chanting -- for Kirtanananda. Why doesn't the Basu Ghosh program know that we are not supposed to worship deviants in a "samadhi" in the holy dham? 

This is merely another example of how the Basu Ghosh program alienates the mass of devotees, since the mass of devotees do NOT want to see Kirtanananda being glorified as a "samadhi saint," and as a representative of ISKCON, especially at this point in time. Then the Basu Ghosh program wonders why everyone is running off to the Sridhara Maharaja program, Narayana Maharaja program, or Mahanidhi's sahajaya-vada program etc.? Well for starters, they no longer want to be associated with Kirtanananda and his dead carcass?

Pushing forward so many deviants as acharyas, including Kirtanananda, is also very disgusting to many of the former New Vrndavana resident victims, who are very upset that the leader of such a corrupt regime is still being worshiped. Never mind also that Kirtanananda created terrible media problems for ISKCON. Why does the Basu Ghosh program worship these people -- still?    

As we ALL know by now, from time to time members of  the Basu Ghosh "guru sabha" (like Kirtanananda) are causing all sorts of horrible media stories when they have spectacular failures, which is hurting the public image of ISKCON. We STILL need to worship the very same people who have been giving Krishna a bad name all over the place? 

And! Where did Srila Prabhupada "order" that ISKCON would now have these "institutional gurus" -- gurus who are being "2/3 show of hands voted" to be: managed, advised, voted in, censured, monitored (for having illicit affairs), suspended, voted out, excommunicated, and so on? And where were any of these institutional guru "policies" established by Srila Prabhupada? And didn't Rupa Goswami say we have to reject the institutional gurus process? Which previous acharyas were "2/3 show of hands" voted in, suspended, censured and etc.?]

1. A branch of ISKCON was begun at Bangalore during 1977 with Shankhabhrit Das, a Tamilian who was initiated by Srila Prabhupada, as branch manager/temple president. Unfortunately he was/is not an honest person. By 1980 he cheated local life members in a scam and ran away.

[PADA: Shankhabrit das and many others had a tendency for falling down all along. And the GBC's "gurus" have emerged from the same "tendency for falling down" stock, and thus many similar fall downs, bogus and illegal activities (etc.) have occurred within the GBC's post-1977 "self realized acharyas" program. 

Since it is now known, and has been well known all along, that many of ISKCON's members have a tendency to leave or "bloop"; if not to fall, fail, to commit illegal actions, and maybe run away with money and women etc., then why is the Basu Ghosh GBC program constantly "appointing" these types of people -- from this dubious sector -- as their messiah like gurus and acharyas? Since the GBC admits they know that ISKCON members are prone to fail (as Basu Ghosh admits herein) why do they keep rubber stamping these "fallible soldiers" as their messiah - like infallible gurus and acharyas?]

2. In 1978, after the disappearance of Prabhupada, Jayapataka Maharaj became the GBC for South India.

[PADA: No! JPS was not declared as the manager or GBC, he was declared as the "appointed successor to Krishna acharya" (for South India) in 1978.  Yep, this was the infamous "zonal acharya" deviation, where JPS and the other 10 were given "zones" to be the acharyas. Basu Ghosh has never explained to us, what is a zonal acharya -- and why do these zonal acharyas still have "zones" appointed to them every year at Mayapura?

Thus in 1978 the GBC was essentially disbanded and replaced by the 11 member "acharya board." The "acharya board" then ruled ISKCON and over-ruled the so-called GBC. Jayapataka swami said he was one of these 11 appointed acharyas, but Srila Prabhupada did not appoint any acharyas, or 11 acharyas, nor did he ever mention the "acharya board." Rather amazingly, Basu Ghosh says in this article that he agrees with PADA, that Jayapataka was never appointed as an acharya, zonal acharya, etc. Their whole "guru" program is based on a lie.  

Yep! I repeat! Later on in this article Basu Ghosh himself admits that no acharyas were EVER appointed at ANY time by Srila Prabhupada. There never was ANY AUTHORITY for Jayapataka and the ten others to claim to be acharyas.

This has been the question all along, "Where is the evidence that 11 gurus were appointed, and that an acharya board had been appointed, and so forth"? We have never seen this evidence, and Basu Ghosh admits herein -- this evidence does not exist, because there was no acharya appointment. That means Basu Ghosh is STILL supporting the guru appointment -- that does not exist?] 

3. In the early 1980s, ISKCON preaching in South India was overseen by then Swami Bhakti Ananda Swarup, who was working under Jayapataka Maharaj. Under him ex Swami Mahashriga (now Das), Tattva Darshan Das, and others were running the center at Bangalore.

[PADA: This is a smokescreen and has nothing to do with the actual fact, no acharya appointment exists. Nor has any acharya ever been subordinated to a Governing Managerial body?]

4. Madhu Pandit Das and three other students (Dayaram Das, Mahasundar Das, and Radhacharan Das), newly graduated from IIT Powai, Bombay, joined ISKCON during 1981, and were thereafter initiated by Jayapataka Maharaj, whom they met at Mayapur.

[PADA: Now we have switched gears again, we first of all had a managerial body, now we are discussing acharyas who are giving diksha. Where was Jayapataka told he was going to be the diksha guru of South India?]

5. Of these four, two of them settled at Bangalore, one of them being Madhu Pandit Das. By 1984,Madhu Pandit Das became the Temple President / branch manager of ISKCON Bangalore.

[PADA: Correct, Madhu Pandit was supposed to be a temple president being managed by a managerial body, but there was no managerial body, there was now the acharya board and its various alleged acharyas, most of whom fell down into illicit behaviors.]

6. Property to construct an ISKCON temple at Bangalore was obtained with the help of then Karnataka Chief Minister Ramkrishna Hegde (He was the CM from 1983-1985, then again from 1985 until 1988). The property he sanctioned for ISKCON is the Hare Krishna Hill property at Rajajinagar, where Madhu Pandit Das is still "branch manager" (aka Temple President). Thereafter sanction to construct the temple was obtained, and construction begun. Design was provided by Jagat Chandra Das, an architect disciple of Jayapataka Swami, who resides at Kerala.

7. Upon completion of the construction, during June 1997, a grand temple on this property was opened by the late, then President of India, Dr. Shankar Dayal Sharma. Madhu Pandit Das basked in much glory for having overseen the grand project. He became the General Secretary of the ISKCON India legal body, the Governing Bureau (not sure of the exact date of this, but around this time). Also, he was annually submitting the ISKCON Bangalore accounts for consolidation (as every branch of ISKCON in India does annually) to the ISKCON India head office at Juhu, Bombay (this was done from 1985 until 2000).

[PADA: Now we have switched hats again, we were discussing how ISKCON leaders are pure devotee parampara acharyas -- giving diksha -- but now we are back to them being minor league Governing Managerial Body members? The acharya is both a pure devotee -- and he is subordinated to a group of managers?]

8. At the time of Sri Krishna Janmastami / Prabhupada Vyasa Puja in August 1998, Madhu Pandit Das in his Vyasa Puja offering to Prabhupada declared that he was actually Prabhupada's disciple, and not Jayapataka Maharaj's disciple. He had never met Prabhupada. He declared that he was now an adherent of what is known as the "ritvik system of initiation ideology" that teaches that Prabhupada can still give initiation, even after he has passed away. (posthumous initiation concept). He this way he considers himself a direct disciple of Prabhupada, thus going against vaishnav tradition regarding initiation and guruship, as well as disregarding the tradition of respect and regard for elders/senior devotees.

[PADA: Except that since many or most of the GBC gurus has fallen down into illicit behavior, they are now declaring that acharyas are often debauchees engaged in illicit behavior. Where was this ever done in the history of India, saying that India's acharyas are often debauchees?]

9. ISKCON Calcutta (then/at that time – he was later on removed) Temple President Adridharana Das similarly declared himself an adherent of the "ritvik system of initiation" -- the same ideology that Madhu Pandit Das adopted as above (the difference being that Adridharana Das had received initiation directly from Srila Prabhupada).

Both these men formally presented this ideology to the GBC (Governing Body Commission) at Mayapur during the annual GBC meeting (AGM) of 1999. The GBC body rejected their views (then and now). Negotiations between them and the GBC went on for a year, until during the 2000 GBC AGM (annual general meeting) these views are declared banned in ISKCON.

[PADA: In 1999 Basu Ghosh's GBC gurus were being sued for $400,000,000 for neglecting the children of ISKCON and allowing abuse, and they lost that case and pleaded "no contest" in court. Why would Basu Ghosh want such "managers" to still be in charge? And does he care that the policy of keeping these good ole boy "managers" in charge is alienating many of the youth who were mistreated by this cadre?]

10. Madhu Pandit Das went to the court and obtained a stay order in the Karnataka High Court -- the highest court in the (South Indian) State of Karnataka -- against ISKCON registered at Bombay, from removing him as branch president of ISKCON Bangalore, during 2001.

[PADA: And now that same court has charged some of the ISKCON Bombay members with fraud, court tampering, theft, conspiracy and so forth. And ISKCON Bombay has been ordered to pay the court costs.] 

His claim is that he was never part of ISKCON registered at Bombay, but belongs to a separate society, ISKCON of Karnataka.

[PADA: OK but since Basu Ghosh and his pals like Jayadvaita are saying that gurus are falling into illicit sex, they no longer represent Srila Prabhupada or ISKCON. These are not the teachings of Gaudiya Vaishnavas or ISKCON, that the acharyas are often debauchees.]

This order could not be vacated until a case filed by him against ISKCON was heard by the local, city court, and then afterwards, district court, and then in the Karnataka High Court. To make a long story short, Madhu Pandit Das lost the case in the city court, won in the district court, and lost in the Karnataka High Court. The KHC ruled in May of 2011 -- after 10 years of litigation -- that ISKCON of Bangalore was a branch of ISKCON registered at Bombay (in an 80 page decision).

11. As per the ruling of the KHC, Madhu Pandit Das filed anSLP (special leave petition) in the Supreme Court of India challenging the order of the KHC. That case is still pending in the Supreme Court of India. During December of 2011, the Supreme Court (SC) order created an oversight committee to oversee the affairs of ISKCON Bangalore.

Retired Supreme Court Justice Raveendran was appointed as Chairman of the oversight committee, along with one representative each from Bombay and Bangalore. Justice Raveendran is a famous proponent of mediation, and he has organized several attempts at a mediated settlement of the case. But so far, without success. Another attempt at mediation --a meeting between some ISKCON GBCs, and Madhu Pandit Das and his secretaries is to be held on April 29, 2015.

12. Between the years 1999 and up to the present, ISKCON has opened three smaller centers in Bangalore, where those who are loyal to ISKCON congregate.

[PADA: Are these folks from the same group of people being charged with fraud, court tampering, theft and etc.?]

13. During these same years, Madhu Pandit Das has opened 20 centers in various cities of India, i.e. Chennai, Hyderabad, Vrindavan, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Guwahati, etc. He runs the Akshaya Patra mid-day meals for school children charity in all of these places, with temples coming up in a several of them. Since he is acting on his own, outside of ISKCON, he has registered the centers in the name of "Hare Krishna movement".

As I write this, nearby here, at Ahmedabad, they are opening their temple on a 10 acre plot of land, somewhat outside of the town. They have some good fund raisers, both in India and abroad. What we understand is that everyone in his organization is being paid a monthly salary.

14. Srila Prabhupada clearly desired that ISKCON devotees work unitedly under a Governing body. For this reason he did not appoint a successor acharya.

[PADA: Now you are arguing with yourself? You say -- on the one hand -- that the leaders are diksha acharyas, - on the other hand -- you are saying, no, they were never appointed as diksha guru acharyas? If they were never appointed as diksha guru acharyas, how did they become diksha gurus? You are going to court to "prove" the 11 were appointed as diksha gurus, while admitting there is no evidence the 11 were EVER appointed as diksha gurus? You are confuting -- yourself!]

After Prabhupada's disappearance during November 1977, there have arisen crises within ISKCON at certain times, and places. The actions of several leading members of ISKCON between 1978 and 1987 was errant, and at that time some of them left, and three were expelled.

[PADA: Oh great -- acharyas are creating crises, acharyas are errant, acharyas leave the process, acharyas are expelled. That means acharyas are ordinary conditioned souls, told ya!]

However, through the years since Prabhupada disappeared, ISKCON has largely remained united, despite various trials, tribulations, and adversities and in fact, it has flourished, both in India and worldwide! The fall downs of leading devotees that was seen in the 1970s -- even in Prabhupada's presence -- and after his disappearance have diminished as ISKCON matured over the years.

[PADA: Now Basu Ghosha is saying that the fall downs that have happened all along in the 1970s have continued in the form of his alleged "guru parampara." The people who were falling down all along in the 1970s are equal to acharyas, and acharyas are STILL falling from time to time in their system. OK that is their whole platform all along, acharyas are conditioned souls who are failing and falling left, right and center.] 

In conclusion, Madhu Pandit Das is NOT a "team player". He wants total domination. In his breakaway group he is the absolute authority, and even Justrice Raveendran told him, "in your group, you are the "guru", even if you do not use the term/name"guru" to describe yourself! It’s clear to me that Madhu Pandit Das is using the concept of "ritvik system of initiation" as a smokescreen to establish his absolute control over his breakaway faction. This is the reality of the situation.

Additionally, neither side wants to make concessions that would be necessary for a mediated settlement of the present dispute. The ISKCON GBC, and the ISKCON India Governing Bureau have time and again refused to recognize in any way, shape, or form, the "ritvik system of initiation". That is Madhu Pandit Das's demand for handing over his assets to official ISKCON.

If the upcoming mediation on April 29 fails to bring about an agreement between the two parties, then a date has been fixed on July 18 in the Supreme Court of India to resume hearing the Madhu Pandit Das’s SLP. The SC already heard the case during two separate sittings/sessions, and after the hearings of the arguments of both sides are completed, they will issue a judgment. That judgment will be final and binding upon all the parties to the dispute.

We in ISKCON can only hope for the best. We are confident that we will prevail in the SC and that the SC will uphold the decision of the Karnataka High Court of May 23, 2011.

[PADA: OK, so what happens with some of the temples the GBC already has full control over? Lots of these temples seem to be suffering from lack of manpower, lack of maintenance, if not city code violations, if not reports of sometimes rats, bed bugs and broken plumbing etc. And now they want to seize even more temples, when they are not taking good care of the ones they already have. 

At the same time a number of members of the Basu Ghosh program keep saying that their gurus are suffering from severe illness and fall downs due to "taking karma." Yet Srila Prabhupada said that his followers are not qualified to act as gurus and take karma, they should never do that. Its forbidden. 

It is the direct instruction of Srila Prabhupada to all of us -- not to act as diksha gurus and take karma because "you will get sick or fall down, or both." Thus far, there has been an epidemic of sickness and falling down in the Basu Ghosh guru program. Why do they want members of their own party to suffer constant chronic illness and / or fall down like this?    




Basu Ghosh's karma vacuum cleaner King. He thinks he is another Jesus and he can absorb all the sins of thousands of others, how is that working out for these folks? Srila Prabhupada says these false acharyas end up in the lowest of the hellish planets. There are hundreds of thousands of hellish planets, and these false gurus go to the worst of them, at least so says shastra. 

One self-evident reason, they carry at least a portion of the sinful reactions of their followers with them, and they have to take responsibility for all these sins. The sins of their followers accumulate on their subtle bodies, thus they suffer now for having taken these sins, and they take those sins with them, and will have to account for them. Srila Prabhupada says we take a human birth when our sins are burned off, but these guys will have tons of sins to burn off, which means, they will not be in human forms for quite a long duration. 

Meanwhile the Basu Ghosh program has spent millions on lawyers instead of up-keeping their own temples. At the same time there are a lot of ISKCON devotees who are simply getting older and there is no health care program for them, so a lot of them are begging on "fund me" to get basic health needs taken care of. Someone was asking for money to be able to take the ashes of a loved one to India. Why is it that all these people have to suffer so that Basu Ghosh's lawyers can live in mansions? 


Bir Krishna's -- Planet of Death?

PADA: Yes, this photo found on Hrdayananda's web site is very strange, even for us. I mean really, a photo of a GBC guru with a "temple of doom" scene in the background? 

Meanwhile the GBC itself had to stop the circulation of Satsvarupa's "Life Of Prayer" and "Sanitorium." Bhakti Vikas Swami writes that Radhanath's book is bogus. The writings of Sridhara and Narayan Maharaja were once allowed, now forbidden. Mahanidhi's books are now forbidden. ETC! We cannot even read the writings of their acharyas?

Kirtanananda in "samadhi"?

To sum then, it almost really does not matter what any court decides in the final analysis since most devotees have already rejected the GBC's guru program, -- whether in court or not. I.E. most of the Prabhupada devotees have ALREADY rejected this false guru program, and millions of people in the public are never going to accept it either due to all the scandals its has produced. It cannot be revived at this point. Yep, more people are agreeing with PADA, its that simple. 

Thanks also for your related question Louis Langaganesa Dasa Bernier, "Does Srila Prabhupada and the Vedas support PADA's ideas"? And our idea is -- that debauchees are not God's successors. Not only Srila Prabhupada agrees, but billions of people all over the planet agree with me that debauchees are not God's successors. The real question is, what percentage does not agree with me? 

OK and we all know the answer, its a minor fraction. That is because, at least for most people, Krishna gives them strong enough intelligence to know -- debauchees are not His guru successors. Yep, majority is with me, in spades. You really need to read some of the Vedas once in awhile, then you would not even have to ask about this topic. 

A prospective ISKCON devotee also wrote me this week, asking why I am in disagreement with the leaders of the GBC? I said, they are saying God's successors are most of the time debauchees, he got it right away. Another devotee wrote to ask if he can advertise our blog to all his friends, etc., so our idea is moving along. The debauchees are messiahs program, ok not moving so well these days.


  

ys pd]

Prabhupada, Geneva, June 4, 1974: There are twelve authorities mentioned in the sastra. One of them is Yamaraja. Balir vaiyasakir vayam. This is stated in the Srimad-Bhagavatam. Yamaraja is one of the GBC of Krsna. Yes. As we have got twelve GBC’s, similarly Krsna has got GBC’s. Now,
svayambhur naradah sambhuh kumarah kapilo manuh prahlado janako bhismo balir vaiyasakir vayam [SB 6.3.20]

That twelve men are authorized to preach Krsna consciousness. So we have to follow. Mahajano yena gatah sa panthah. Therefore we have created these GBC. So they should be very responsible men. Otherwise, they will be punished. They will be punished to become a sudra. Although Yamaraja is a GBC, but he made a little mistake. He was punished to become a sudra.

So those who are GBC’s, they should be very, very careful to administer the business of ISKCON. Otherwise they will be punished. As the post is very great, similarly, the punishment is also very great. That is the difficulty. You can see from this example, Vidura. He was immediately punished. He did little mistake at Manduka… Because the rsis, the munis, they will curse. Dealing is very… Even Yamaraja is not taking.

(reads:) “He was to play the part of so-called sudra for years, being cursed by Manduka Muni. He was the incarnation of Yamaraja, one of the twelve mahajanas, on the level with such exalted personalities as Bhisma, Narada, Brahma, Narada, Siva, Kapila, Prahlada, etc. Being a mahajana, it is the duty of Yamaraja to preach the cult of devotion to the people of the world as Narada, Brahma and other mahajanas do. But Yamaraja is always busy in his plutonic kingdom, punishing the doers of sinful acts. Yamaraja is deputed by the Lord to a particular planet some hundreds of thousands of miles away from this planet.”

That is mentioned. He has got a different planet, where the criminals are taken away after death, and he gives the judgment, what kind of body he will have. And not like the theosophists’ thinking, “Now I have got human body. It is permanent settlement.” No, that is not permanent settlement. According to one’s work… Work means all sinful acts. Without Krsna consciousness, anyone who acts, he acts sinfully. There is no doubt of it. Because he is acting for sense gratification, and sense gratification means almost 99.9% all sinful activities.

Duskrtinah. It is very risky job. Unless you act in Krsna consciousness… Yajnarthe karmano ’nyatra loko ’yam karma- bandhanah [Bg. 3.9] This is the stringent law of the nature, that you have to act only for Yajna, for satisfaction of Krsna or Visnu. Otherwise, you will be entangled. And who is serving Krsna? Nobody is serving Krsna. So everyone is being entangled. This is the material world.
(reads:) “Yamaraja is deputed by the Lord to a particular planet, some hundreds of thousands of miles away from the planet of earth, to take away the corrupt souls after death and convict them in accordance with their respective sinful activities.

Thus, Yamaraja has very little time to take leave from his responsible office of punishing the wrongdoers. There are more wrongdoers than righteous men. Therefore Yamaraja has to do (more) work than other demigods who are also authorized agents of the Supreme Lord. But he wanted to preach the glories of the Lord, and therefore, by the will of the Lord, he was cursed by Manduka Muni to come into the world in the incarnation of Vidura and work very hard as a great devotee.”
The punishment was also reward.

Those who are servants of Krsna, even they are so-called punished, there is some motive behind this. Just like Jaya and Vijaya. They were also punished to come down and…, just to become enemy of Krsna. Krsna, when they were very much perturbed that “We are going to the material world from Vaikuntha. So what will be our fate, Sir?

There is some little mistake on our part. What we shall do?” So Krsna gave him that “If you become My enemy, then you will be relieved in three births, and if you become My friend, then seven births.” So the Jaya and Vijaya agreed, “Sir, we shall become Your enemy.” So what is the purport? Krsna wanted some enemy to fight. Just like we sometimes want to fight. So this desire is there, Krsna. Otherwise, where we get this desire?

So actually, it was Krsna’s service, this Jaya and Vijaya. Krsna wanted to have some fight. In the spiritual world there cannot be fight. There is no fight. There is only service. Therefore some of His devotees, this Jaya and Vijaya, agreed to become His enemy, come to this material world and to…, Krsna fought with the Jaya and Vijaya. As Ramacandra, He fought with Ravana, and as Nrsimhadeva, He fought with Hiranyakasipu, and as Krsna, He fought with Yamara…, er, Kamsa.

So similarly, Vidura also, he thought that “I am always busy in this magisterial work, simply to punish. I have no chance to preach.” So Krsna is very kind to His devotee. So He gave the chance to preach. So this was the arrangement, that he was cursed by Manduka Muni, came down to this material world. That is also material. Yamaraja’s planet is also in the material world. Therefore he was given the chance of preaching. (reads:) “He is transcendental to such divisions of mundane society, just as the Personality of Godhead assumes His incarnation as a hog, but He is not hog.”

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