Суд над Бхагавад-гитой / Attempt to ban Bhagavad-gita

NARENDRA'S PERSONAL STORY

Another testimony as to what the Palace represents today could be ascertained by interviewing the devotees who actually built the place. While they were working on it, they no doubt thought they were working for Prabhupada. When they inevitably discovered that Kirtanananda had other designs for their labor, they became outraged. Now they literally curse themselves for having contributed to Kirtanananda's "glory." Take for instance Narendra dasa who designed and built most of the stained glass decorating the Palace today. Here are some of the highlights of his tragedy.

After escaping New Vrindaban he struggled, and is still struggling, to get his stained glass business off the ground. Adding to his financial struggles were the expense of having to see a therapist just to help him get over the hatred he felt for Kirtanananda. Now he is struggling to get custody of his only daughter, Nitya lila, before his ex-wife foolishly takes her back to New Vrindaban. Narendra was so severely mistreated by Kirtanananda that he literally does not want to hear about Krsna consciousness anymore. Who can blame him? The average devotee simply cannot imagine how a religion that supports such a corrupt debauch as Kirtanananda can have anything whatsoever to do with spiritual life. Narendra once built, as a gift for Kirtanananda, a window depicting the Sad Bhuja form of Lord Caitanya worth $5,000. Kirtanananda never even said thank you. Narendra's eyes slowly opened as to the man's real character and so he finally decided to start life over again somewhere else. Kirtanananda had a going away present for him. He sent a fifteen man goon squad to steal whatever they could of Narendra's equipments, or force him to pay a $1,000 exit fee. Narendra had to comply just to get away from the place with his business (This is very common at New Vrindaban). Otherwise he would have been utterly ruined. Memories of New Vrindaban and Kirtanananda are so painful to Narendra that he seldom talks of his twelve years in ISKCON any longer.

So the conclusion is that Kirtanananda has not been purified by his career in Krsna consciousness. This is because his motive was not to serve Prabhupada, but to use Prabhupada's legacy to further his own guru business. One cannot make spiritual advancement by such thinking. Krsna is no fool. He knows everyone's heart perfectly. Eventually everyone has got to pay. Prabhupada sums up the position of these "gurus" very elucidly as follows:

"By a false display of religious sentiments, they present a show of devotional service while indulging in all sorts of immoral activities (1). In this way they pass as spiritual master (2) and devotees of God. Such violators of religious principles (3) have no respect (4) for the authoritative acaryas, the holy teachers in the strict disciplic succession. To mislead the people in general, they themselves become so-called acaryas, but they do not even follow the principles of the acaryas (5).

"These rogues are the most dangerous elements (6) in human society. Because there is no religious government, they escape punishment (7) by the law of the state. They cannot, however, escape the law of the Supreme, who has clearly declared in Bhagavad-gita (16.19-20) that envious demons (8) in the garb of religious propagandists shall be thrown into the darkest regions of hell. Sri Isopanisad confirms that these pseudo-religionists are heading toward the most obnoxious place in the universe after completion of their spiritual master business (9), which they conduct simply for sense gratification (10)." (Sri Isopanisad 12)

From reading the early letters about the character of Kirtanananda, and interviewing several dozen devotees who have been burned by him, we can easily see that this above description is actually a description of Kirtanananda. Here are some of the reasons why this is so:

1. Kirtanananda is a drug dealer. He passes women around amongst his workers as though they were all whores. He does not recognize anyone as a Godbrother and has no respect for the rights of others. He directly tries to break up marriages if it furthers his own profit, adoration and distinction. Whether or not he is still engaged in homosexual activities will all come out in due course of time. There is strong indication that he is.

2. He always wanted to be a spiritual master. Even before joining ISKCON he was the guru in his local clique of friends, most of whom were also homosexual. He was into black magic. This combination earned him the title "weird Keith". After meeting Prabhupada he only waited one year before trying to usurp Prabhupada's movement. He actually attempted to legally keep Prabhupada from entering the country. Even after he so-called came back, there are numerous instances where he was exposed as attempting to surpass Prabhupada. Now he is fully engrossed in posing as a spiritual master. Prabhupada directly stated in one letter that "he wants to be a spiritual master by disobeying his spiritual master."

3. For a sannyasi, the first regulative principle is to not have any connection with women. Kirtanananda violates that principle constantly. He goes so far as to say that all women have an eternal relationship with him, but that their husbands are not important. This preaching is not only a violation, but it is Ravana philosophy. Actually it is worse. At least Ravana wanted to enjoy the women himself. Kirtanananda thinks women smell like fish. He steals women for the money they bring in and to pass around amongst his workers. A sannyasi is supposed to know sastra. Kirtanananda does not know sastra at all which is why he seldom quotes it. It is even rumored that he has not read all of Prabhupada's books. But he constantly concocts statements and policies such as putting a crown on Prabhupada, authorizing women to have sex with the sankirtana leader, authorizing an abortion in an underage girl (because of the previous policy), etc. (Appendix 12)

4. Prabhupada stated that Kirtanananda thinks guru and sastra are tyranny. That means no respect. Why should we think that he changed?

5. Prabhupada set certain standards of moral behavior, compassion, honesty, etc. Kirtanananda does not follow those standards. For example Prabhupada was very compassionate and thoughtful not to interfere in marriages. He always told the women to be fully devoted to their husbands. Kirtanananda openly tells the women to fully devote themselves to himself, even if it means totally neglecting the husband and children. In this way he controls the women and so naturally the husbands have to stay there also.

6. There are many dangerous elements in society. Thieves, rapists, murderers, etc. But here Prabhupada says that the most dangerous are those who exploit others in the name of religion. They are the most dangerous because they hurt people in the deepest way possible-their souls. This world has only one purpose; to teach people to surrender to God. When society is infested with rogues posing as saints, that stops the progress of human life. Thus most people are not inclined to trust anyone.

7. Since the government is demoniac, the demoniac "gurus" also escape punishment. But even the GBC falls in the category of a Godless government. They have allowed these "rogues" to remain in their positions even after having been exposed. For example the GBC determined that Kirtanananda interfered with, and destroyed the marriage of Sulocana dasa. But because the GBC is essentially a Godless body, the GBC had no potency to rectify Kirtanananda and return Sulocana's sons to him. Thus he escaped punishment.

8. Here Prabhupada uses terminology that scares the sentimentalists who permeate ISKCON half to death. We have hardly met a devotee who has the guts to call a spade a spade. But the fact is, the current gurus, and especially Kirtanananda are nothing but envious demons as described above. If they were ever sincere, that remains to be seen.

9. The guru business is certainly lucrative. There is no need to go into the details of how the "gurus" have stuffed their pockets with money and luxuries. It is all too well known. Not a single one of them has even the slightest concept of simple living or austerity anymore. They claim they are beyond all that.

10. As of this writing it is unknown what different kinds of sense gratification Kirtanananda enjoys aside from the profit, adoration, and distinction. For some reason, the GBC always waits for the sense gratification to hit the lower levels before they recognize that the "guru" is actually nothing but a sense-gratifier.