ISKCON Leadership Now Facing Court Case From Inside the Movement
by ISKCON REVIVAL MOVEMENT (6/2000)
Press Release
A widely publicised $400 million child abuse case was filed this week against ISKCON (International Society For Krishna Consciousness, or Hare Krishna Movement) and its leaders by former pupils of its boarding schools. The movement has so far issued various statements ranging from admitting to problems with abuse to saying that the case is 'exaggerated'. However what is not widely known is that the movement's leadership has a long history of disobeying the teachings of the movement's saintly founder - A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami or Srila Prabhupada as he is commonly known - in order to perpetrate abuses against its innocent members, and
that this court case was a direct result of such flagrant disobedience. Srila Prabhupada was very clear on the policy that should be followed at the schools which were set up in ISKCON. Very early on he ordered:
"The important matter is that the children are taken care of nicely. [...] If they are not healthy then how they can prosecute their education? If they are undernourished it is not good for their future activities. [...] A big building is also very good for the children's health. They can move freely and run and jump."
(Letter sent to ISKCON leader and child abuse defendant, Steven Guarano a.k.a. Satsvarupa Das Goswami)
"Now the thing is, children should not be beaten at all, that I have told. They should simply be shown the stick strongly. So if one cannot manage in that way then he is not fit as teacher."
(Letter sent to a Teacher at the first ISKCON School in Dallas in 1972)
Thus Srila Prabhupada was emphatic on how the children should be treated and continually instructed that the children were never to be mistreated. Instead these clear instructions as well as many others were disobeyed by the movement's leadership as they set out to enjoy themselves at the expense of Srila Prabhupada's movement. This disobedience of Srila Prabhupada's instructions by his disciples in their mad pursuit to exercise power over innocent victims was executed by many of the same named defendants in the child abuse suit when, following Srila Prabhupada's departure from this world in 1977, they deposed him as the Guru for the movement, and instead set themselves up as his Guru successors. This despite Srila Prabhupada having left clear signed instructions to the contrary. This has led to a landmark court case currently before the High Court in Calcutta, which is the birthplace of the movement's founder, Srila Prabhupada.
Nexus Between Child Abuse and Guru Court Case
The ISKCON Revival Movement (IRM), a world-wide group of ISKCON members set up to provide an alternative to the abuses and corruption that has been present in the movement, had filed a case in the Calcutta High Court, over a year ago, against many of the same defendants named in the child abuse suit. This case had been filed against the defendants for having illegally usurped Srila Prabhupada from his position as the Guru of the movement, and instead installing themselves as his successors and grabbing control of the movement. Unlike the child abuse case which is a civil suit only, the IRM has filed criminal charges as well as a civil suit. With clear signed evidence from Srila Prabhupada, it is believed that the IRM has a great chance of winning, and thereby helping to clean up the mess the movement is in by kicking out the present Gurus in ISKCON, some of whom, as previously mentioned, are also named as defendants in the child abuse case.
That there is a nexus between these two cases is highlighted by the fact the man selected by ISKCON's leadership to defend them in the Calcutta 'Guru' case was one Stanley Fedorowski, a.k.a. Satyadhanya Dasa, who was known by the ISKCON leadership to have committed acts of anal sex on children. Recently the former headmaster of the Vrindavan Gurukula, Dhanudara Swami, who is also one of the current Gurus, was allowed by the movement's leadership to carry on accepting disciples and act as a Guru, when he had already been convicted of child abuse, and in doing so they overturned the recommendation of their own Child Protection Office. It seems clear that the issue of child abuse is merely one of a larger issue of the excercise of power by those who have joined the movement simply to use the great spiritual movement set up by Srila Prabhupada for their own aggrandizement, and this is symbolised by the setting up of an unauthorised Guru system to replace Srila Prabhupada.
ISKCON Revival Movement Vows to Purge Movement of False Gurus
The genesis for such a court case came about in 1996 with the publication of a philosophical treatise entitled "The Final Order". This paper, which carries a foreword by Dr. Kim Knott, Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies at Leeds University in the UK, and an academic authority on ISKCON, revealed how a massive hoax had been perpetrated by the movement since the departure from this world of Srila Prabhupada in 1977. Citing directly from the books and the recorded and transcribed words of Prabhupada, it revealed that there had been a cover-up over Prabhupada's final wishes, which would have kept him as the sole Guru for the movement. Instead his leading western disciples, most of whom are also named as defendants in the child abuse case, mis-represented these final orders to the movement and assumed power for themselves. The paper immediately captured the attention of many of the movement's temple presidents and members around the world, particularly in India where, for example, The Calcutta Statesman - India's oldest English language newspaper - published a damning expose on this 'guru hoax'. As a reaction to suppress the dissident uprising, the ISKCON leadership announced bans on supporters of the 'The Final Order' paper from entering ISKCON temples and censured all discussions of the paper amongst its own rank and file devotees. In some areas, ISKCON leaders ordered the burning of the document in scenes not too far removed from Berlin in 1933. This however only increased support for a fledgling movement that was to become the IRM - for as the great American transcendentalist and student of Vedic thought Ralph Waldo Emerson said:
"Every burned book enlightens the world."
The movement's leadership was also not expecting that support for the 'Final Order' paper would take hold within its main temples, who would then use the newly discovered information to file the court case mentioned to restore the movement back onto its righteous path. As well as Calcutta, the IRM has branches inside ISKCON in many countries of the world, and controls ISKCON's largest temple situated in Bangalore. Some other prominent IRM branches are the temples in Vrindavana, India and Singapore.
The IRM deplores the stain that has been cast on the great spiritual movement founded by such a pure and saintly teacher as Prabhupada. The IRM has dedicated itself to rooting out the abuse and corruption that exists in the movement, which is epitomised by the presence of the self-appointed Gurus currently occupying a seat that rightly belongs to Prabhupada. We believe that the case we have filed will go some way to achieving this. The avowed goal of the IRM is simply to restore the Hare Krishna movement to its original purity, potency and philosophical chastity by reinstating the Founder, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, as the sole Guru for the movement, while purging all the corrupt elements, as highlighted by the self-appointed gurus, from ISKCON.
Following the filing of these court cases, the membership of ISKCON is having a crisis of faith in the movement's leadership and is turning to the IRM in increasing numbers, as the only means to save ISKCON.