Sulocana's Murder - For the Record
BY: HRISHIKESH DASA
Jan 3,
PENNSYLVANIA, USA (SUN) [Revised]—
Although I had originally intended the following
information to be revealed only after my book "
New Vrindaban: The Black Sheep of
ISKCON" is published, I think--considering the
current circumstances with new information being
admitted by eyewitnesses practically daily to the
Sampradaya Sun--interested Vaishnavas may appreciate
reading the parts of my book dealing with Sulochan's
murder in installments. To the best of my
knowledge, the information below is not conjecture,
but documented fact, and may shed some light on what
actually transpired in New Vrindaban in the 1980s.
Materials in quotation marks are actual quotations
from published or unpublished writings or interviews,
and reflect the opinions (accurate or inaccurate) of
the individuals quoted.
Sincerely Your Servant,
Hrishikesh dasa (Henry Doktorski)
Excerpt from New Vrindaban:
The Black Sheep of ISKCON
by Henry Doktorski (Hrishikesh dasa)
Copyright 2002-2007 by Henry Doktorski
Chapter 24: Trials and Tribulations
"Although Bhaktipada
and the New Vrindaban Community had faced trials and
tribulations since the community’s inception in 1968,
nothing (with the exception perhaps of the gang attack
and shooting on June 5, 1973) had remotely approached
the magnitude of the difficulties which beset the
community in the mid-1980s and early-1990s."
Glory days of New Vrindaban: seven-year wave of
good fortune.
As described in Part
One, the community had been riding a seven-year wave
of good fortune since the opening of Prabhupada’s
Palace in September 1979. In 1981, based on the number
of bus tours, Prabhupada’s Palace was rated the fifth
most popular tourist attraction in West Virginia. In
1982 it jumped to third, superseded only by the
Wheeling Jamboree country music festival and the
Ramada Inn in South Charleston. During the 1982 Labor
Day festival, so many tourists came that the community
hired two local policemen to direct traffic in front
of the Palace. One year, some 500,000 tourists
reportedly visited the Palace. (1)
Many ISKCON devotees,
excited by the temple building projects and preaching
opportunities, moved to New Vrindaban, until the
population (including children and employees)
approached 700. (2)
Several dozen
full-time sankirtan fund-raisers (sometimes over one
hundred devotees would be sent out during periodic
sankirtan marathons) developed and utilized innovative
and creative techniques to obtain donations which
brought in up to five million dollars per year. (3)
The community
employed 187 local Marshall County residents to work
as secretaries, gardeners and construction workers.
Because of the community’s rising political clout, New
Vrindaban appeared as an unincorporated village on the
official 1983-84 West Virginia state map, and the
government actually re-paved the rutted access road.
Everyone loves a winner.
In April 1979,
Bhaktipada announced plans to build the largest
Radha-Krishna temple in the world at New Vrindaban,
the Shri Shri Radha-Vrindaban Chandra Temple of
Understanding and the adjacent Land of Krishna theme
park: a spiritual Disneyland. In 1983, a “temporary”
temple was built for the deities which dwarfed most
temples in ISKCON in beauty, size and craftsmanship.
In 1985, Bhaktipada finished writing his first three
books: Song of God, Christ and Krishna and Eternal
Love. Also in 1985 was the groundbreaking ceremeony
for the Temple of Understanding, which was attended by
local and state politicians, and a United States
Congressman from West Viriginia.
Sulochan, a fanatical whistle blower.
Soon however,
Bhaktipada’s luck would take a turn for the worse. One
New Vrindaban resident, who was initiated by
Prabhupada in Detroit during July 1974,
and--according to the Palace Manager--happened
to be one of the top tour guides at the Palace, (4)
Sulochan Das (Steve Bryant), had serious disagreements
with the community management as well as marital
discord with his wife, Yamuna Dasi, who had taken
initiation from Bhaktipada on December 25, 1980
without her husband’s permission. He blamed Bhaktipada
for ruining his marriage, “I had been living a rather
disheartened married life. My wife had been devoting
her heart to another man (5) and so, naturally, this
killed any chance of our having a meaningful
relationship.” (6)
Sulochan’s attorney,
David Gold, remembered him, “There was definitely
something different about him. I had talked with a lot
of disgruntled Krishna devotees over the years, all of
whom had tossed out various insults and accusations
about the Swami. But regardless of how angry or
disillusioned they were, they still referred to
Kirtanananda in tones of respect, even awe. In
contrast, Bryant spoke without fear or reservation.”
(7)
Sulochan leaves New Vrindaban; his wife and
children remain
During June 1984,
after heated arguments with Bhaktipada and community
leaders, Sulochan decided to leave New Vrindaban for
good. It was very difficult for him to live at the
community as only devotees who professed (or pretended
to profess) absolute allegiance to Bhaktipada were
welcomed to live there. Sulochan ordered his wife to
join him in exile. She refused and later explained:
(8)
He . . . began
having various disagreements with the management
especially concerning his service. Although he was
smoking marijuana steadily, he also began writing
critical letters to Shrila Bhaktipada presenting his
own ideas about how New Vrindaban should be run. He
became especially upset because the New Vrindaban
board of directors decided not to place him in charge
of the guest house, and he had a heavy disagreement
with Shrila Bhaktipada.
Thus, in late June,
he decided to leave again. Steve [Sulochan] ordered me
to accompany him and told me that I would not be
allowed to come to New Vrindaban ever again, not even
to visit [my son] Krishna Das, who we were planning to
leave in the school there. I refused to accompany him,
and although the decision was mine, Steve began at
that time to falsely accuse Shrila Bhaktipada of
stealing me from him. . . . He called me a few days
later and threatened that if I still refused to go
with him, then he would do everything in his power to
destroy New Vrindaban and Shrila Bhaktipada. . . .
Because he was continually threatening to kidnap the
children, I decided to get legal custody of them by
applying for a legal divorce. That divorce was granted
in November of 1984, giving me full legal custody of
the children. . . . This man is insane, selfish and
violent. He is unbalanced. Shrila Bhaktipada, on the
other hand, has always been a kind and loving father
to me and is worthy of all respect. Steve’s groundless
criticism of such a wonderful person is simply another
indication of Steve’s insanity. I am sorry that I ever
had anything to do with this crazy person.
Within a year or so,
Yamuna had been remarried to one of Bhaktipada’s loyal
followers (Raghunath Das), and became pregnant with
his child. Sulochan told the story from his
perspective, (9)
Finally, in June
of 1984, with plenty of encouragement from the “guru”
she had been devoting herself to, namely one
Kirtanananda “Swami,” my wife decided to leave me to
devote her life to him, even though I have two baby
boys by her. At the time, I knew very little about
Kirtanananda, so I was a little cautious about openly
criticizing him for his interference in my marriage.
The fact that his “disciples” have more weapons than
brains also discouraged me from openly challenging
him. My wife also knew very little about him, except
for the hype that’s drilled into all the gullible
guru-pies at his camp, such as, “He’s the oldest and
first sannyas disciple of Prabhupada” or, “He built
Prabhupada’s Palace, so he must be a pure saint.” That
kind of stuff. In effect, neither of us really knew
anything about him at all, so she agreed that I would
go to LA and do some research, and if I found out
anything suspicious, I would let her know. She said
she would then join me if that was the case. I agreed
to rejoin her at Kirtanananda’s camp if his slate was
clean.
Searching for dirt on Kirtanananda.
After returning to
Los Angeles, Sulochan acquired, with much difficulty,
a pirated microfiche set of copies of the complete
letters of Prabhupada (the original letters were
carefully guarded at the Los Angeles-based
Bhaktivedanta Book Trust) from a sympathetic devotee,
which gave him the inside story of the history of
ISKCON, a revealing perspective which had been hidden
from nearly all the rank-and-file devotees by the
leaders of ISKCON. Sulochan wrote, “As I started to
read through Shrila Prabhupada’s personal letters to
his disciples, I was primarily looking for quotes on
marriage. At the time I was desperate to try and save
my own marriage. Although that was my main motive, I
also knew it was my moral duty to try and save my wife
and children from possible danger [from Kirtanananda].
In this way, I began my research with the blessings of
the Lord of morality, Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Since
I was approaching His topmost representative, Shrila
Prabhupada, for guidance and inspiration, I knew the
outcome would be auspicious, whatever it was. I had no
idea where my research would lead me. I only knew that
something was going to burst, and I didn’t want it to
be me. I was not especially concerned with the broader
‘guru-issue’ facing ISKCON’s ‘leaders’ today. Mainly,
I wanted to save my own family, hoping that was part
of the Lord’s plan.” (10)
Sulochan began
meticulously studying the voluminous archive of
Prabhupada’s letters to see if he could find anything
about Kirtanananda Swami which might convince his wife
to lose her faith in him, leave New Vrindaban and
return to him. He wrote:
Knowing that
Kirtanananda had attacked Shrila Prabhupada in the
late sixties in his first attempt to take over the
movement, I figured that if I could get all the
letters dealing with that incident, then I would have
something tangible to show my wife about the real
character of her new “protector.” . . The letters
contained all the secrets I had been hoping for-and
more. I knew then that it would be my assigned duty to
make the truth in these letters known to all. . . .
So, on October 11th,
1984, I mailed a letter to all ISKCON centers openly
declaring war against Kirtanananda and the entire
Society if my family was not returned to me intact.
The Society ignored me. Hardly did I get one response.
Since silence automatically means acceptance, I knew
that my accusations were correct, and that it was just
a matter of time before the truth would triumph. From
that point onwards I was doomed to live in constant
hiding from Kirtanananda’s worshipers, who would have
killed me in an instant if they knew where I was
parked in my motor home, typing away. . . .
As I began my search
through the letters, I discovered something higher
than my personal marital problems that I knew I should
share that with everyone. I discovered that Shrila
Prabhupada is no ordinary man. . . . I could see in
Prabhupada’s letters how a real saint deals with
people on a personal day-to-day level. . . . Reading
the letters became like an intriguing mystery to me. I
took careful notice of little comments Prabhupada
would make about the leaders, specifically the
Governing Body Commissioners (GBC). For instance,
Prabhupada’s whole strategy changed dramatically in
July of 1970. He freely started giving sannyas
(celibate renounced order) to his male followers
instead of encouraging them to marry. He stopped
encouraging devotees to open temples and instead
encouraged them to distribute books. And he began
writing very heavy letters indicating that the
character of many of his leading disciples was way
below the mark. They clearly show why Prabhupada
became disgusted with these “top men” of the Society
and ultimately why he decided to leave the planet
early. . . .
When Sulochan began
showing these letters from Prabhupada to his friends,
he discovered that many former New Vrindaban residents
had their own horror stories to tell about abuse,
child molestation, drug dealing and even murder.
“You’ve got to understand, Kirtanananda is considered
to be like a God. Infallible. Above reproach. Nobody
questions him. People are in awe of his power. But
when I started showing this stuff to other devotees I
found out everybody had their own story to tell.
Everybody had some dirt on Kirtanananda. It’s just
that they were either too scared or worshipped him too
much to talk about it before. Drugs, people getting
killed, kids getting molested.
David Gold examined
the letters from disgruntled devotees which Sulochan
had collected, “I picked up the first letter and began
reading. It testified to Bryant’s good character, then
it went on to say that the writer was aware of
numerous women who had been beaten at the commune. The
next letter contained similar testaments to Steve’s
sound mind and strong moral character, then the
author, a woman, told how Kirtanananda had
intentionally destroyed a number of families so that
he could use the women for the street begging
operation. The next letter was from a man whose
daughter was molested at the ashram school. Another
man said Kirtanananda had encouraged him to beat his
wife. Another writer, who remained anonymous, said he
was ordered to smuggle heroin from Thailand and turn
over the proceeds to Kirtanananda. Someone else
reported that they knew who the killer was in an
unsolved murder at New Vrindaban.” (12)
“The Kirtanananda Exposé: A Crazy Man”
Sulochan compiled his
research into a book, The Guru Business: How the
Leaders of the Hare Krishna Movement Deviated from the
Pure Path as Taught and Exemplified by its Founder:
His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada,
Founder/Acharya ISKCON. This book, essentially
consisting of Sulochan Das’ candid (and sometimes
inaccurate) commentary on excerpts from Prabhupada’s
letters, was intended to expose the corrupt activities
of the ISKCON gurus, whom, he believed, had usurped
their positions of power within ISKCON. It was first
real hard-hitting collection of essays exposing the
corruption within the movement. One devotee accurately
assessed it, “The Guru Business ranged from
goofy to manic, from paranoid to deadly accurate.”
(13)
Sulochan wrote about
his mortal enemy in chapter ten: “The Kirtanananda
Exposé: A Crazy Man”:
This chapter is
an exposé on one of the new “gurus” in ISKCON. It is
the first, but it most likely will not be the only one
we will have to compile. Kirtanananda “Swami” deserves
first recognition. He was among the first initiated
devotees. He was the first to be given “sannyas.” A
week later, he was the first to attack Shrila
Prabhupada trying to usurp the ISKCON movement for
himself. Shortly thereafter he was the first to sit on
a throne and accept worship of himself even during
Shrila Prabhupada’s physical presence and of course he
was the first to jump on a throne right after Shrila
Prabhupada’s departure. He was the first to begin a
drug dealing operation (the KSS: Krishna’s Secret
Service) and later to set up a counterfeiting
operation. He was the first to organize a women’s
sexploitation party and encourage the leader of that
party, Dharmatma, to keep the women satisfied as their
gigolo. To our knowledge, he is the first “guru” to
authorize an abortion of the gigolo’s child in an
underage girl. He was the first to be utterly
condemned by Shrila Prabhupada. To this day, there are
more letters of condemnation written about him than
all the other bogus gurus combined. He was the first
(and hopefully the last) to put a crown on Shrila
Prabhupada’s murti (marble statue) denoting him as a
mere monarch, although Shrila Prabhupada was not sent
by the Lord for that service. He was the first, and
maybe only, “disciple,” to be so envious as to
directly challenge his guru’s authority by calling him
“a tyrant.” He was the first “disciple” to be
incarcerated in a mental institution (Bellevue). He
was the first to treat Krishna’s cows in such a way
that dozens of them died of starvation, disease, and
exposure (the local courts could not even bear these
atrocities of Kirtanananda and prosecuted him for
cruelty to animals.) These are just a few of his
“firsts.” He is number one in many other ways. Besides
being the oldest “devotee” physically, he was/is the
first full-blown homosexual in the movement and he
even bragged of this to Acyutananda Swami in Mayapur,
1971, when he said, “I was sucking (word for male
genital) before you were born.” Therefore, in
observing his stressed seniority, we believe that he
should be given the first chance to try and clear
himself of the charges we level against him, and the
other bogus gurus as well, which clearly state one
thing: absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Sulochan made lots
of allegations, but were they necessarily true? The
answer to this question may come as a surprise to
some.
. . . To be Continued
End Notes
1. Accurate figures
of numbers of tourists are not available. The figure
quoted in the Brijabasi Spirit article,
“Prabhupada’s Palace of Gold,” which appeared in the
March 1983 issue (p. 18) was certainly exaggerated, as
nowhere near that number came in 1982. However,
Mahabuddhi Das, the former Palace manager, thought
that 500,000 people might have come in 1985, the
busiest year for tourism.
The New Vrindaban
Community Income Statement for the Year 1984
stated that Palace donations generated $745,315.21, or
18% of the total annual income of $4,012,224.02. For
the record, membership subscriptions were $310,453.57
or 7.7%.
2. This figure of 700
was most certainly an exaggeration. The author
examined fifteen census reports dated from September
1976 and July 1991 in the New Vrindaban archives and
found that the October 1986 report listed the high
point of the community’s population at 377 adults (213
men and 164 women). If we add 136 children and 187
employees to this number we arrive at 700.
3. The ISKCON New
Vrindaban Community Financial Status Report for
the week ending Sunday, December 8, 1985, stated that
the community grossed $210,047.34 in income during
that week. More than two thirds of that amount
($141,681.94) was from sankirtan pickers. The Palace
gate earned only $2,536.50 that week (1.2%) as it was
during the winter season. The 1985 Sankirtan
Marathon Final Compilation stated that $971,160
was collected between November 21, 1985 and January 4,
1986. The New Vrindaban Community Income Statement
for the Year 1984 stated that sankirtan devotees
collected $2,853,899.94, or 71% of the total income
that year.
William A. Kolibash,
the United States prosecutor for Bhaktipada’s 1991
racketeering trial, claimed that New Vrindaban
sankirtan revenues were substantially higher.
According to his figures, the community collected
$17,871,000 between 1981 and 1985.
1981 - $2,000,000
1982 - $2,436,000
1983 - $3,857,000
1984 - $4,106,000
1985 - $5,472,000
Total sankirtan revenue from 1981-85: $17,871,000.
4. The director of
Palace operations and marketing from 1980 to 1985
wrote, “The top tour guides [at the Palace] were:
Krishna Katha prabhu, Lajjavati Dasi, Jalakolahari
prabhu, Rasavihari Devi Dasi, Damodar Das and Kanka
Dasi, Sulochan Das along with Puru prabhu. There were
others, but these were the best. They were given
training and customer service training as well. Not
just thrown out on the floor.”
Mahabuddhi Das, from an e-mail letter to the author
dated March 30, 2003.
5. In this
sentence it is not exactly clear who Sulochan is
referring to. The man who he believed stole his wife's
heart could have been Bhaktipada, as evidenced by
statements in subsequent paragraphs, or it could have
been Raghunath, as Yamuna reportedly began her
relationship with Raghunath while her husband was
still living at the community. Sulochan knew about his
wife's affair and reported it to Bhaktipada, who
dismissed his complaints.
One former gurukula boy reported: "One of the
gurukulis accidentally observed Raghu and Yamuna
together while Sulochan was still at New Vrindaban,
and told it to me. Later while I was sitting in
Bhaktipada's blazer, Sulochan walked up to the
driver's window and I heard him complain to Bhaktipada
about this, but Bhaktipada was not interested in doing
anything about it, in disciplining Yamuna and Raghu.
Bhaktipada said something like: 'Sulochan, you're just
not my man.' Another time at Bahulaban I saw Sulochan
wearing a pistol around his neck and I asked him why
he was wearing it. He replied: 'To kill faggots.'"
--From conversation with former gurukuli and the
author, January 9, 2007.
6. Sulochan Das,
The Guru Business
