Jun 10, 2017 — SPAIN (SUN) —
H.H. Bhakti Vikasa Swami has written in his most recent article, "By the way, everything that I have published on Sampradaya Sun has been written by me. I may send articles for review by others prior to publication, and I may incorporate certain suggestions and changes. But if my name is on it, it is by me."
With this understanding, that Bhakti Vikasa Swami takes full responsibility for the articles penned under his name and they are his and his alone, then I would like to present his unedited and untampered statements as he has recently submitted them to Sampradaya Sun. Here are some excerpts from his latest article. Here are his statements:
"A major point has been overlooked in the discussion of corporal punishment in the early days of ISKCON gurukulas in India. Those days were very different indeed: corporal punishment was legal in ISKCON and in India; within India, it was widely accepted and approved of. This of course does not justify corporal punishment, nor is it an endorsement of excesses; but it should be understood that attitudes have greatly changed within one or two generations.
Even more importantly, the standard quotes cited in this discussion were largely unknown until after the period in which corporal punishment was common in ISKCON schools. Srila Prabhupada's letters were not published until well into the 1980s, and even then it took time for devotees to read and research them. The whole collection of Srila Prabhupada's audio recordings was released in the early 2000s (and at a price of $1,800, was not affordable to all) and it would take years to hear them all even by listening to several a day.
Would devotees in the 1980s have administered corporal punishment had they known Srila Prabhupada's position on it? Is it reasonable to hold persons guilty when almost certainly they were unaware that what they were doing was forbidden by Srila Prabhupada? Their superiors (the managers of ISKCON Mayapur and Vrindavan) must have known that they were administering corporal punishment, and they did not forbid it – and in those days the mandate to follow authorities was embedded in the psyche of ISKCON devotees. If authorities approved something, it had to be okay."
Please note that Bhakti Vikasa Swami has taken full responsibility for these statements to enhance his position, namely that of defending the known child abuser, Bhakti Vidya Purna Swami.
So am I right in concluding that Bhakti Vikasa is expecting people to believe these, his own statements: that until 1980 nobody knew the mood of Srila Prabhupada in regard to how one should educate children; that until 1980 people in ISKCON did not comprehend that torturing children and physically and emotionally abusing little children was barbaric; that until 1980 nobody in ISKCON knew what was in the many letters that Srila Prabhupada wrote; that before 1980 there was no ISKCON grapevine; that before 1980 no one in ISKCON was using a telephone or sending a telex or writing letters or using any form of communication; that before 1980 there were no members of ISKCON travelling back and forth relaying news; that before 1980 people who joined ISKCON, a spiritual movement, and who had met Srila Prabhupada or had read his teachings, did not have one ounce of moral fibre nor one iota of common sense to realise that punishing little children in such an abusive, barbaric fashion was just so obviously wrong; that before 1980 anyone in ISKCON who was a decent human being did not know that it was instinctively wrong and barbaric to beat little children so severely and that to inflict horrendous pain both physical and mental upon little children was completely immoral; that the abuse perpetrated on so many little children was in fact an approved mandate and was "okay," and in fact Bhakti Vidya Purna was not responsible for this torture of children because all this abuse and torture was mandated from above and he, Bhakti Vidya Purna was, dare I suggest it, just following orders? Following authorities? Because that's what people in ISKCON did in those days. Just followed the authorities' mandate. It was not Bhakti Vidya Purna in fact, who ought to be found guilty, but those who handed down the "mandate.
Is this what Bhakti Vikasa Swami would have us take as his defence??
The pages of Sampradaya Sun are not to be filled with the vile inquisition like tortures that Bhakti Vidya Purna inflicted upon little children but such accounts are available online for those who are reading this, so they may know just how absurd and ludicrous and grossly pathetic are the words and realisations of Bhakti Vikasa, as enunciated in his own recent submissions. Why does he present such pithy nonsensical statements? Does he really expect that any decent person will accept this drivel? How could anyone use such arguments to excuse Bhakti Vidya Purna for the barbaric torture and misery that he inflicted on little innocent children?
One can also investigate the CPO files and other online references:
"Although there is no conclusive evidence that Bhakti Vidya Purna Swami has sexually abused any of the children under his care there is however, plenty of evidence that he was violently beating the boys, in addition he made no significant attempts to expel and punish the many pedophile teachers and monitors that raped the children while he was the principal of the school.
Bhaktividyapurna is notorious for his expertise in lacerating the skin off the back of the children with one single hit of his special bendy bamboo cane. He would get the boys to kneel forward and hold their ankles with their hands, so as to form an arch of some sort with their body. He would then hit the boys on the back, causing the tip of the stick to whip around striking their chest. Many boys recall that he preceded his beatings with a sadistic ritual intended to increase the fear of his victims. He would smile and wiggle his eyebrows gleefully while bending the cane full circle and making whipping sounds with his mouth. Several boys suffered shock after those canings.
The father of a prospective student questioned Bhaktividyapurna Swami about the sexual abuse that was said to be taking place in the Mayapur Gurukula at the time. Bhaktividyapurna Swami gave him what I call the "Kirtanananda stance on sex". He said something to the effect of, "sex, whether it is between you and your wife, not intended for procreating, or between a teacher and a boy is illicit: It is all sex". As if morally and karmically they are on the same level. This is from a man whose job is to protect and guide the children.
Why has he not acknowledged his mistakes and offered an apology? If he does not feel he has done anything wrong, I am compelled to question his motives and qualifications. Today Bhaktividyapurna Maharaj is an authorized initiating Guru, Sannyas and still runs his own Gurukula in Mayapur specialized in "training brahmanas." The GBC decided a fit punishment for his crimes was to temporarily suspend him from directly interacting with the children at his school. Personally I would like to know in what court of law such a punishment will be considered appropriate and just."
Bhakti Vikasa says, "Is it reasonable to hold persons guilty when almost certainly they were unaware that what they were doing was forbidden by Srila Prabhupada?"
They were unaware that torturing and abusing little children was barbaric?? They were unaware that what they were doing was forbidden by Srila Prabhupada??
How can a sane person even deign to ask such questions? How can one be so obtuse? Who would accept such drivel?
I hereby present to you H.H. Bhakti Vikasa Swami, ISKCON sannyasa and ISKCON Guru. I hereby present to you Bhakti Vikasa, who has no moral compass. I hereby present to you Bhakti Vikasa who, evidently from his own written statements, has no understanding of human dignity. I hereby present to you Bhakti Vikasa, who thinks it reasonable that Bhakti Vidya Purna ought be allowed to torture and abuse children, for Bhakti Vidya Purna did not know that it was forbidden. He was unaware!! I hereby present to you Bhakti Vikasa, who by his own admission accepts that Bhakti Vidya Purna did not know that torturing and abusing little children was forbidden by Srila Prabhupada!!
Bhakti Vikasa is a person who ought not, in my not so humble opinion, be allowed to hold any office in ISKCON where there are children nearby who may be tainted by his association and lack of moral character values, as evidenced by his own recent submissions on the subject of child abuse and child abusers.
