Bhavananda Tyranny
BY: KURMA DASA
May 13, AUSTRALIA (SUN) — In my own memories regarding Bhavananda and his supporters who tightly controlled the Australian temples, I personally (like many I know) would not give so much sympathy to Bhavananda and his henchmen, as was the case with the article entitled "Bhavananda and Early ISKCON History", which was posted yesterday on the Sampradaya Sun.
One of the big problems with ISKCON Australia is that not too much has changed. People in other parts of the world may be surprised to learn that many of the same people who were outspoken cheerleaders of Bhavananda are still in positions of confidence and leadership here in this Country. Some have moved to other parts of the world and others are hiding, but are still supporters of the regime.
Those days were horrible. The so-called leaders and thugs were all paranoid, incompetent bullies who successfully combined tight control of minute details/procedures and who were overall complete "control freaks"!
This category of devotees represent the really nasty beasts of our ISKCON jungle.....that's for sure. And for all the naive people out there who imagine that they went away? Well, they haven't! They are still lurking around within ISKCON like they didn't do anything,.... No apology, no regret, and with such an arrogant contempt that they imagine themselves entitled to ownership of some special type of spiritual privilege.
The Australian Yatra is absolutely overrun with these individuals, who saw, and still see, ISKCON as some type of animal experiment whereby they are the big big spiritual individuals. The ones who supported Bhavananda in his tyranny (that's all it was) were given a license which entitled them to use and abuse the rest of the devotee community both physically and emotionally.
Let us never be complacent regarding those people who disobeyed our Srila Prabhupada, and brought His Society into shame. Let them fully apologize and redeem themselves. Even if they did redeem themselves and apologize, is it wise to place them in positions of confidence?
One thing we might always seriously wish to consider is that Bhavananda, and in fact all of the accused bogus gurus, did not do this on their own!
Where are their assistants today? ....Think about it!
Kurma Dasa (not the chef)
