EDITORIAL
September 15, 2000 VNN6253 Related VNN Stories Comment on this story
Events Precipiting Bhaktivedanta Manor Janmastami Demonstration
BY SRIDAM SAKHA DASA
EDITORIAL, Sep 15 (VNN) — Chronological Account Of Events Which Precipitated Bhaktivedanta Manor Janmastami Demonstration
Since Srila Bhaktivedanta Narayana Maharaja first started to travel outside of India in 1996, few local communities of his disciples have been the target of so much ISKCON maltreatment as of that at Bhaktivedanta Manor, England. GBC policy and local management have forced a situation in which being a disciple of Srila Narayana Maharaja and maintaining relationships with Srila Prabhupada's temples and ISKCON devotees has become mutually exclusive. Hence, although the onus lies on the GBC to stop behaving tyrannically, the claim is sometimes falsely made that if the disciples of Srila Narayana Maharaja living near the Manor don't like the way they are being treated, then they don't have to go. Indeed, for the most part, the disciples of Srila Narayana Maharaja have cut their connections with ISKCON simply because the difficulty they experience in trying to maintain them is frankly not worth the trouble.
However, in the case of the devotees living near to the Manor, circumstances are somewhat different. They are mostly mothers with children, who have a wide network of friends in the local ISKCON community. Moreover, many of them were sending their children to the Manor gurukula (although they have now been thrown out). Even had they wished to leave, these ladies are not wealthy, and to up-and-go is not practical. Besides, four of them are not only long-time devotees of ISKCON but also disciples of Srila Prabhupada who have given the best years of their lives to spreading his movement and serving in his temples, and who wish to continue doing so. Therefore, on principle they do not see why they should bend to the gross injustice of being arbitrarily forced out of their spiritual master's movement, as targets of a politically motivated campaign.
Unfortunately, they have been subjected over the years to what has amounted to nothing less than a policy of outright persecution by the Manor management. In the paragraphs which follow, I will describe, with a couple of examples to illustrate, the Draconian measures adopted in an attempt to drive the disciples of Srila Narayana Maharaja out of the community once and for all. By understanding this, the reader will be able to appreciate what led a number of these local devotees to taking the drastic step of picketing the Manor gates on the day of Janmastami.
As in all ISKCON temples, a sustained smear and slander campaign against Srila Narayana Maharaja has been conducted with great vigour from the outset. However, since in this case some disciples of Srila Narayana Maharaja were regularly on the temple premises, the manor management took ISKCON policy one step further. Approaching the devotees, they threatened them with dire consequences should they so much as mention the name of "Narayana Maharaja" or speak about him in any way. Although this was an imposition against fundamental vaisnava principles the devotees were overwhelmingly outnumbered in a hostile environment, and therefore had no choice other than to comply. While their presence was still being tolerated they kept as low a profile as possible and simply went about their daily business.
However, when certain local devotees approached them with criticisms of Srila Narayana Maharaja, as was inevitable to happen, any attempt to defend him was immediately reported to the authorities as "proselytizing". Upon being censured by HH Vipramukhya Maharaja, when the disciples of Srila Narayana Maharaja would protest that they had been forced into speaking to defend their spiritual master he would declare that *even* if their guru was being blasphemed, they were forbidden to answer back. This situation would happen on frequent occasions.
In an entirely unprovoked incident during the Manor Dussehra festival of 1998, one of our godbrothers, Syama dasa was approached by a devotee called Mahavidya dasa and ordered to leave. Mahavidya dasa, whom the temple management employ for attacking and intimidating unwanted visitors has a criminal history of violence and convictions, including the recent imposition of a restraining order against him. (For an account of his leg-breaking assault of gypsy intruder on Manor grounds see: http://www.vnn.org/europe/EU9903/EU26-3427.html) Syama dasa lived some distance away, had come to the Manor with a devotee in their car, and had also left his jacket in the temple room. He told Mahavidya dasa that he was quite willing to leave but needed to first retrieve his jacket and find his friend. He also invited Mahavidya dasa to accompany him. However, Mahavidya dasa refused to allow him to do even this and insisted that he leave immediately.
Disgusted, Syama dasa moved in an opposite direction, and attempted to get away. Mahavidya dasa then seized him by the kurta and lifted him off his feet. He did it so forcibly that the kurta broke Syama dasa's neckbeads, cut his neck to bleeding and was reduced to shreds in the process. Being left with no choice other than to leave at once, Syama dasa went to the phone box in the village, phoned the Manor reception and explained his plight. At last an English Indian brahmacari came out with his jacket, and, seeing the state of him pompously delivered his moral of the unhappy incident: "Well, you shouldn't have taken initiation from Narayana Maharaja should you!" Later on, Syama dasa approached the stand-in temple president Vasudeva dasa, and complained about the assault he had received at the hands of Mahavidya dasa. Vasudeva dasa sympathized with Syama dasa and assured him that Mahavidya dasa would no longer be acting in the capacity of Manor security. However, nothing has changed.
Shortly before Srila Narayana Maharaja visited England one year, HH Sivarama Maharaja (GBC for the UK) advertised a meeting at the Manor for "a discussion" on Srila Narayana Maharaja's visit. In order to ensure that Srila Narayana Maharaja would be properly represented, one of his siksa disciples Anandini dasi attended. When HH Sivarama Maharaja began to portray Srila Narayana Maharaja as being philosophically deviant and against the mood of Srila Prabhupada, Anandini dasi raised her hand to counter his false statements. However, HH Sivarama Maharaja studiously ignored her and continued to speak more of the same. When Anandini dasi started to speak out in protest, HH Sivarama Maharaja shouted her down, declaring that it was *his* forum, and that if she wanted to speak she could go and do it on the street. So much for discussion.
In February of this year, during a temple council meeting, HH Vipramukhya Maharaja urged the head pujari to take whatever measures he could to make sure that the disciples of Srila Narayana Maharaja would be excluded from bathing the Gaura-Nitai Deities on Lord Nityananda's appearance day. This prohibition would have gone ahead had not one of the Manor school council members, shocked by the proposition, approached the head pujari and successfully persuaded him to have no part in such offensive behaviour.
Tensions between the Manor management and disciples of Srila Narayana Maharaja came to a head in July of this year, after Srila Narayana Maharaja had departed the UK following his annual visit. While in the country, he was hosted by his disciples in a university in Wales where programmes were held daily. A number of devotee families whose children are students at the Manor gurukula also attended. Although Srila Narayana Maharaja has been coming to the UK every year since 1996, the fact that for the first time significant numbers of devotees from the Manor community attended his programmes caused shock waves of alarm through the Manor management. In particular they were most perturbed that three young women two of whom were teaching in the Manor school, and one young man, all of whom were from the Indian Manor youth forum called the "Pandava Sena" had not only attended but also accepted initiation from Srila Narayana Maharaja. All of these four have been congregational members since early childhood.
Shortly after the programmes in Wales had finished it came to our attention that HH Sivarama Maharaja had arranged a meeting at the Manor with the Pandava Sena. Two of the four young people who had recently taken initiation were present. Since in the past we have seen that the management have no qualms about doing their utmost to destroy the new-found faith of recent initiates of Srila Narayana Maharaja in him by use of false propaganda and blasphemy, naturally we feared the worst. Therefore, on the day of the meeting a group of about fifteen disciples of Srila Narayana Maharaja, headed by one of his sannyasa disciples, Pujyapada Bhaktivedanta Aranya Maharaja, went to the Manor to meet with HH Sivarama Maharaja.
The group found HH Sivarama Maharaja in the car park, and Aranya Maharaja requested if he, as a disciple of Srila Narayana Maharaja could be allowed to attend the meeting so that the Pandava Sena members would be assured of getting a fair and balanced representation of his guru's teachings and position - a reasonable request. Although it was common knowledge that HH Sivarama Maharaja had arranged the meeting - indeed, he was in the car park to ensure a lift there for Manorica, one of the new initiates - he refused the request saying that he could not allow it since he it was not he who had arranged the meeting. However, he said, they could have an appointment with him at some point in the near future to discuss what had happened. Aranya Maharaja then pointed out that since he was present, and that the meeting was just about to happen, what need was there to hold a different meeting in the future? It made much better sense for him to attend it there and then. He then asked HH Sivarama Maharaja who "the organizer" was, so that he could ask him personally, but HH Sivarama Maharaja refused to disclose it, saying that he'd promised to keep it a secret. HH Sivarama Maharaja then complained that an attempt was being made to intimidate him, to which Aranya Maharaja replied that he was only asking that this whole affair be conducted in an open, honest and straightforward manner.
The point was also made to HH Sivarama Maharaja by the local devotees that frequent attempts to have meetings with him on these issues in the past have been frustrated, since he has always cancelled them at the last minute or has failed to turn up. Referring to "the organizer" as "Mr X" Aranya Maharaja then asked HH Sivarama Maharaja if he would please go and ask "Mr X" for permission for he, Aranya Maharaja to attend the meeting. HH Sivarama Maharaja disappeared for about ten minutes and returned saying that "the organizer" did not want Aranya Maharaja to attend. Aranya Maharaja then asked HH Sivarama Maharaja if he would please provide them with a tape recording of the whole meeting so that if any false information about their guru had been given they would be able to inform the Pandava Sena of the truth of the whole matter. HH Sivarama Maharaja, who had been struggling to keep his composure now became somewhat agitated, telling Aranya Maharaja (whom he knows from his ISKCON days) "Hey listen, I've distributed books too, so don't try all these mind-game tactics with me!" as if Aranya Maharaja were behaving in a diplomatic and political fashion. Aranya Maharaja pointed out that far from playing mind games, all he was interested in doing was making sure that the meeting with the Pandava Sena on the subject of his spiritual master be conducted on the basis of truth, honour, integrity and vaisnava behaviour.
HH Sivarama Maharaja then departed for the meeting, and the aforementioned Mahavidya dasa approached the group brandishing a stick, indicating that they should all leave immediately, which most of them did. Shortly after HH Vipramukhya Maharaja the temple president appeared, ordering the remaining five devotees to also leave. Among those devotees was one senior local disciple who was initiated by Srila Prabhupada called Yasasvini dasi. Her son was still somewhere on the grounds and she was therefore unable to leave immediately. However, when she tried to go and find him, HH Vipramukhya Maharaja blocked her path, waving his arms up and down. Whichever way she turned he would keep stepping in her path. Outraged by this inappropriate behaviour by one in sannyasa dress she warned him: "Don't you dare lay a finger on me!" After replying "Look - my hands are in my pockets!" HH Vipramukhya Maharaja sent her jolting backwards by butting her with his large stomach. Every time she tried to move in a different direction he would attack her in the same way. HH Vipramukhya Maharaja then told one new young man who was with him to prevent her from going anywhere while he went to call the police.
The young man was very apologetic and shocked at HH Vipramukhya Maharaja's behaviour, and did not restrain Yasasvini who again attempted to locate her son. Upon returning, and seeing that Yasasvini was "escaping" HH Vipramukhya Maharaja became enraged and this time butted her so hard with his belly that she was sent crashing into a wall. He then told two of the men with him in Vaisnava dress to make sure she did not go anywhere until the police arrived. After being allowed to find her son, she was escorted off the property. In the days which followed, Yasasvini was astonished to hear that HH Vipramukhya Maharaja was telling devotees that he had not assaulted her, rather *she* had hit him. Eventually one devotee confronted him and asked him whether he had attacked her in any way, to which he replied "I didn't lay a finger on her - my hands were in my pockets!" It turned out that he had been telling this to everyone, deliberately leading them to misunderstand what had truly happened, by the use of crooked word-jugglery.
Although the disciples and sympathizers of Srila Narayana Maharaja did not realize it at the time, a blanket ban on visiting the Manor had already been imposed on all of them, including their children who were in the Manor school. This decision against them was made while they were all still in Wales in the association of Srila Narayan Maharaja, by a temple council vote. Thus HH Vipramukhya Maharaja's claim in his recent posting on Chakra that the disciples of Srila Narayana Maharaja are proselytizing zealots, whom he compares to evangelical Christians is quite false. Although ultimately a number of Srila Narayana Maharaja's disciples did turn up at the Manor to attempt to protect the spiritual lives of his new disciples, the ban against visiting the Manor was already in place. Before it was declared the local disciples of Srila Narayana Maharaja had never had any other role than that of an oppressed minority at the Manor. Even the most outspoken of them, Anandini dasi, who on her occasional visit was invariably subjected to continual surveillance by a menacing escort, was never accused of "proselytizing". This is for the simple reason that as a matter of course, the paranoid policy of the Manor management would never have allowed it to happen in the first place. Indeed, the only reason that the ban was declared at all was because of news of the initiation of the two young English Indian female Gurukula teachers by Srila Narayana Maharaja. And, to add to the injustice of it all, they had been given permission by the Manor management to attend the programmes of Srila Narayana Maharaja in Wales. They returned to the Manor to find that they had been fired (illegally) from their jobs in the school.
Just as we had feared, during the meeting the heads of the Indian youth group Pandava Sena were filled with poisonous propaganda and, since that time Manorica has been persuaded to renounce her connection with her guru Srila Narayana Maharaja, and to give up the chanting beads he gave her. She has also been told not to speak to her sister, Radhika, who also received initiation at the same time. Radhika has received many phone calls from friends, many of whom she has known all her life who tell her "Oh Radhika, please give up your connection with this Narayana Maharaja, because otherwise we are not allowed to speak to you anymore." This emotional blackmail has also been inflicted upon the other young woman, Renuka, and they have both undergone much misery because of it. This is not the first time that this most despicable and unscrupulous behaviour against innocent new devotees from the Pandava Sena has been perpetrated. A couple of years ago the same tactics were employed against a young English Indian man by the name of Devesh Modi after also receiving initiation by Srila Narayana Maharaja.
To this day, HH Vipramukhya Maharaja maintains a page on his Chakra website dedicated exclusively to maligning Srila Narayana Maharaja. Although the material featured, some of it outright libel has been defeated and disproved on VNN many times over, HH Vipramukhya Maharaja shamelessly refuses to take this page down. He even refuses to remove individual papers when requested to do so by their author, such as Payonidhi dasa who once attacked Srila Narayana Maharaja but later saw the error of his ways and accepted initiation from him. Chakra is famous for only posting the ISKCON party line, but not the answers or challenges of its contesters. HH Vipramukhya Maharaja is quite transparently the GBC propaganda front-man, yet, until he was exposed, declared in the introductory text on Chakra's homepage that the site was independent of the GBC: "It's been seen and approved by people in ISKCON Communications, but it is not written by ISKCON Communications Éwe're friends of the GBC, but we're not the GBC." However, a leaked ISKCON COM conference members list (http://www.vnn.org/world/971219-1390/index.html) revealed that the brains behind Chakra included three GBC men, HH Tamal Krsna Gosvami, Ravindra Svarupa dasa, and HH Mukunda Gosvami as well as a number of their disciples. Later on, as can be seen in another leaked document (http://www.vnn.org/world/WD9904/WD26-3703.html), HH Vipramukhya Maharaja admitted about this incident:
'We were "caught with our pants down" when someone did a STATUS on the WSTRAT conference and figured out who was on it. Although the VNN reporting was accurate, it did not serve our cause correctly.'
However, as if being caught out lying was not enough to teach anyone a lesson, he boasted in the rest of the e-mail (entitled "Fight dirty with dirty") how, by "stretching the truth a little Éto defend Srila Prabhupada's movement" he had managed to score a propaganda victory against the ritviks on Chakra. Some people only learn the hard way it seems. Perhaps the most telling of all leaked material can be found on (CHAKRA is Tamal's puppet) where a correspondence record of on-going directions by Tamal Krsna Gosvami to the other conference members show that he was in fact the main player in Chakra's inception, apparently to offset the ill effects of the poisoning allegations against him.
More Chakra dishonesty was exposed in June '99 (http://www.vnn.org/world/WD9906/WD30-4199.html) when it was revealed how the results of Chakra's online vote for the winner of a debate between Adridharana dasa and Ajamila dasa turned out to be rigged. Impossibly, Ajamila dasa emerged as victor.
It is because of complete and final disillusionment with the spiritual qualification of HH Vipramukhya Maharaja and his management that the devotees staged the protest on Janmastami day. The fact that they had been banned was really only the last straw to break the camel's back. As the descriptions of HH Vipramukhya Maharaja's behaviour so amply illustrates, neither he nor his management represent what Srila Prabhupada started ISKCON for, indeed quite the contrary. Unfortunately its innocent followers, including thousands of Hindus, are therefore effectively being cheated of a genuine spiritual life as a result. Although the key members of the management is very small, it exerts an almost absolute power hold and, therefore, the only effective way of combating it is by attracting outside attention to the cause. The child-abuse court case now pending in America is a powerful example of this. And, such tactics are not without devotional historical precedent; Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu Himself set the example by drawing on the help of the local people by leading a civil disobedience march consisting of thousands of people when an oppressive leader tried to suppress street sankirtan.
I will conclude by pointing out that the Manor management's increasing penchant for calling the police whenever they want to humiliate a person who will not agree to submit to them unquestioningly is absolutely against the instructions of Srila Prabhupada. He has stated:
"Another request I have to you is that there have now been two instances of when somebody does not agree you try to get them out by calling the police. THIS IS NEVER TO BE DONE. This is the mistaken policy of Shyamasundar, but do not follow this principle. With great difficulty we get a man. We have to reform them. Our business is to become sympathetic to fallen souls. So in future do not do it all. EVERYTHING SHOULD BE DONE AMICABLY." (Letter to: Mukunda Das: 73-11-06 New Delhi, capitals supplied)
Any correspondence may be addressed to: sridam@mailcity.com
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