Clarifications on SHKMS
BY: ADHOKSHAJA DASA
Mar 07, ISKCON BANGALORE (SUN) — This article is in response to the posting of March 5th “ISKCON to Take Legal Action against SHKMS.”
ISKCON South India Divisional Council Chairman and ISKCON Hyderabad President, Vedanta Chaitanya das, has irresponsibly and in a state of frenzy aired many baseless accusations. This particular act comes as no surprise, as he is known for high-handed decisions and raising false charges against devotees. He has time and again proved to be a very good attack dog of the Bogus unauthorized guru regime of ISKCON.
I have served in Hyderabad temple from 2003 to 2005 under his leadership, and have first-hand experience of working with him. I wish to clarify some of the issues raised by him. My wish is to clarify so that the readers are not misled.
What is SHKMS?
SHKMS is the Sri Hare Krishna Movement Society, which is as affiliate of ISKCON Bangalore (regd 1978). It is an independent society governed by its own board. The governing body consists of some senior full-time devotees of ISKCON Bangalore Group, like Madhupandit dasa, Chanchalapathi dasa, Stoka Krishna dasa, Chitranga Chaitanya dasa and others.
Under its banner we have various centers all over India. The Hare Krishna Movement already has independent centers in Chennai, Jaipur, Delhi, Mumbai, Vrindavan, Tirupathi Ahemadabad, Puri, Hyderabad and Vishakhapatnam. Apart from this there are many centers in Karnataka which are associated with it. HKM centre was recently opened in Hyderabad and has been functioning for the past 6 months at the following address:
No 12-71-1, Sri Krishna Nilayam, Shanti Nagar, Patancheruvu, Hyderabad-502319.
Under the auspices of HKM Hyderabad, Akshaya Patra programme is currently running and feeding prasadam to over 25,000 children everyday. This programme has been operational since October 2008. It is going to be scaled up to 40,000 children shortly. There are plans to scale the program to over a lakh of children.
Recently, the Government of Andhra Pradesh, through its Endowments department, allotted 5 acres of land to HKM, Hyderabad. This sanction was given after seeing the activities of ISKCON Bangalore and its allied centers, especially the program of Akshaya Patra. So it is far from truth to say that SHKMS is a phony organization and its leaders are caught in a fraud network.
ISKCON Hyderabad - A Brief History
ISKCON has been in existence in Hyderabad for the past 3 decades. The temple has Sri Sri Radha Madan Mohan Deities personally installed by Srila Prabhupada. But the sad thing is that after the physical departure of His Divine Grace, the temple has made little progress. In fact, the temple has been riddled with factions and infighting ever since the bogus guru regime has taken over the temple. ISKCON as a movement is not respected very much in Hyderabad, for its reputation has been wiped out due to various nefarious activities of some of its past and present inmates. It has a very bad record in the eyes of the public. The life patrons are very much unhappy with the treatment meted out to them. Besides all thi,s the leaders of the temple are being changed very often.
It was earlier lead by Mahasundar dasa, Samba dasa, Srivatsa dasa, Vishwakeerthi, and Satya Gopinath dasa, and the list runs on and on. Vedanta Chaitanya was the recent addition to the list of leaders, but the state of the temple and its activities have not improved much. Vedanta Chaitanya is doing very little with respect to Book distribution and Prasadam distribution. The Hyderabad temple cleanliness is pitiable. Rats will be running in the kitchen. One Pujari does Arati in all the 3 altars during Rajabhog Arati, Balya bhog Arati and Shayana Arati. This is the standard in Hyderabad temple.
At least 9 devotees have left Hyderabad temple including myself, because of his lack of care for devotees and his monarchy. The devotees names are:
1. Krishnarchan dasa
2. Radhajivan dasa
3. Bhakta Raghavendra
4. Bhakta Venkat Reddy
5. Bhakta Prabhakar
6. Bhakta Venkat
7. Adhoksaja dasa (myself)
8. Sridhar Srinivas dasa
9. Sanatana Goswami dasa (a Russian devotee who single-handedly was carrying out book distribution in Hyderabad temple for quite some time)
10. Abhimanyu dasa
11. Uttam Madhava dasa
12. Narahari Thakur dasa
I think we should give a round of applause to Vedanta’s management “skills.”
Virtually no new devotees have joined the temple since I left Hyderabad and joined Bangalore temple. He is afraid that if more temple devotees join, his monarchy will be disturbed. He is selfishly enjoying the property and position in Hyderabad temple, which is in the heart of the city and was established personally by Srila Prabhupada. Most of the congregation members are also very much fried with his dictatorship. Preaching to public is almost nil. Recently congregational devotees, mostly disciples of Radhanath Maharaj and Bhakti Vikas Maharaj, have sent a long list of complaints to the GBC about Vedanta Chaitanya’s tyranny.
So in comparison with HKM and its allied centers, the contribution of ISKCON Hyderabad to missionary activities as envisioned by Srila Prabhupada is nothing. Why should they have any objection to someone establishing another temple when they are not able to carry on with their activities as Srila Prabhupada desired? It is no wonder that the government felt happy to allot land to HKM rather than allot the same to ISKCON Hyderabad.
What HKM did in 6 months could not be achieved by ISKCON and its “power packed” group of so-called gurus for the past three decades. They were busy with bogus guru regime glorification and group-ism. Even though the temple has very few devotees, it has that many numbers of groups. Even the congregation devotees are divided amongst the respective gurus. The congregation is having bitter fights with Vedanta Chaitanya since the time he took over as President.
Vedanta Chaitanya earlier was a very strong advocate of Srila Prabhupada being the only guru of ISKCON. Please see this article for evidence of the above. In that article you will find Vedanta questioning HH Jayapataka Swami on Srila Prabhupada’s Will.
Vedanta Chaitanya shifted his position to accepting the unauthorized guru camp in ISKCON for getting and maintaining the position of President of ISKCON Hyderabad. He is in strong cohorts with Romapada Swami who is defending him in spite of his various nefarious activities. I shall bring out a list of all those activities with evidence shortly, in another posting. But for the time being, I request the readers to go through this link, in which various devotees have expressed their feelings about Vedanta Chaitanya, Satya Gopinath, and other devotees linked with them.
It is very unfortunate that this very same Vedanta accuses Chanchalapathi Prabhu of stealing ISKCON Land in Bangalore. There cannot be a better example of people living in glass houses, throwing stones at others.
Contrary to Vedanta Chaitanya’s assertion, Chanchalapathi Prabhu has successfully led the ISKCON Bangalore Group of temples as its Vice President. All these temples are flourishing with over 300 full-time devotees and thousands of congregational members all over India. All of them vouch for his uprightness and know that he has not stolen any land in Bangalore. He has also stood up against the GBC and has not changed his stance that Srila Prabhupada is the only diksa guru for ISKCON, in spite of repeated threats from GBC.
The "stealing" which he is referring to is linked to the ongoing court case between ISKCON Bangalore (Reg 1978) and ISKCON Mumbai (Reg 1971). In this said case, the Honorable High Court of Karnataka, later endorsed by the Supreme Court of India, has given an interim order stating that the ISKCON Bangalore is indeed an independent legal society. I quote below the Order of the Honorable Judge of the High Court of Karnataka:
“On Consideration of the materials on record, I have come to the conclusion that the plaintiff [ISKCON Bangalore] which is a separate legal entity has produced materials which prima facie show that it has been in existence as a legal entity since more than 20 years and it has got right to maintain and administer its properties. [...] The Plaintiff being a legal entity under the Karnataka Societies Registration Act has got its own bye-laws and it has got a Managing Committee to administer its properties and the defendants could not show that under the Karnataka Societies Registration Act, any action has been taken against the plaintiff or its members by the Registrar for any illegal activity etc.”
[Judgment of the Honorable Justice M. Farooq, 20/4/2002]
The fact that ISKCON Bangalore has the right to govern itself and not be under the bogus guru regime is being interpreted by the unauthorized gurus as stealing. Vedanta Chaitanya seems to have lost his independent discrimination and has become a blind follower of the bogus gurus, who think that all properties of Srila Prabhupada belong to them. Chaitanya and Satya Gopinath, being very good faithful dogs of the GBC, have resorted to airing the same views held by ISKCON Mumbai (Regd 1971) and its Bogus Diksa camp.
In fact, it is the Gurus who have unauthorisedly usurped the position of Srila Prabhupada as the sole guru of ISKCON. It is the GBC and its gurus who, through the medium of ISKCON Mumbai (Regd 1971), are enjoying the properties and disciples and their worship, which actually belongs to Srila Prabhupada. Thus stealing is done not by Chanchalapathi Prabhu or HKM, but by ISKCON Mumbai and its blind followers, like Vedanta Chaitanya, Satya Gopinath, and company. Prabhus, please be careful, for guru bhogis do not go far in their spiritual quest.
What is their problem if properties and preaching are managed by another set of devotees, with Srila Prabhupada as the center? What is their problem if it is independently and nicely managed? Is it that their hearts are lusting after the properties in which Srila Prabhupada is glorified in his true position? Why do they want to control the properties of ISKCON when they are not willing to acknowledge the true position of Srila Prabhupada? If they have a right to build temples and preach, then ISKCON Bangalore and HKM also have a right to build temples and preach, too. Mind you, HKM is an affiliate of ISKCON Bangalore (Regd 1978) and not ISKCON Mumbai (Regd 1971). If ISKCON Mumbai can open its branches and affiliates in places where ISKCON Bangalore has its centers, then by law of fairness, ISKCON Bangalore should also have a similar privilege.
Conclusion
It is very apt to quote the following letter of Srila Prabhupada in this context:
“…So why they are obstructing this program? What is the harm to them? … So what is their tangible objection?”
Srila Prabhupada Letter to Sripad B.R. Sridhara Maharaja, Los Angeles, 6 June, 1976.
In the above letter, Srila Prabhupada was requesting his godbrother B.R. Sridhara Maharaja to instruct some his own godbrothers, like Madhava and Damodar Maharajas, to stop their envious activities. This letter was sent in the context of Madhava and Damodar Maharajas trying their very best to obstruct allotment of lands in Mayapur to ISKCON.
ISKCON, under the leadership of the unauthorized gurus, has tried to their very best to stop all efforts centered around establishing Srila Prabhupada as the sole diksa guru of ISKCON. HKM is trying its best to build many centers in all major cities of India, with the understanding that Srila Prabhupada is the Acarya of the Hare Krishna Movement. The main feature of these HKM and other ISKCON Bangalore affiliated centers is that it is directly Srila Prabhupada centric. He is not a figurehead, as it is in the current ISKCON Mumbai (Regd 1971).
This attempt by ISKCON Hyderabad to mislead the press and other followers is a continuation of their agenda to put up as many road blocks as possible in establishing Srila Prabhupada centric temples. We can easily draw parallels between envious godbrothers of Srila Prabhupada like Madhava Maharaj and the current bogus ISKCON guru regime, which cannot do anything good but can only put obstacles on Srila Prabhupada centric efforts. What do they gain by putting obstacles before such efforts?
In my posting I am have not been happy in bringing out many personal criticisms of Vedanta Chaitanya and others, but in view of the ranting by them and in the context of some of the issues they have to brought out, it becomes necessary that some personal issues (like their management incapability, etc.) are put forth. This is done only with a view that the readers understand the real character of people who are making accusations. This will help the readers in clearly making out that Vedanta Chaitanya et al. are raising baseless allegations. Otherwise, the readers of their postings will be misled. With higher interest in mind, I had to mention some personal issues and I hope the readers it in that light. I personally have no grudge against them.
Your servant in the service of Srila Prabhupada,
Adhokshaja dasa
