Praghosa’s Joke
BY: R.A. SADHUDASA ANUDASA
Jul 19, 2011 — SRIDHAM MAYAPUR, WEST BENGAL (SUN) — Here is the story behind the immoral "joke" that Praghosa dasa produced against the children of the International Gurukula (Bhaktivedanta Ashrama) at Sri Mayapur:
On the last day of the GBC meetings at Sri Mayapur this year, Praghosa dasa prepared a farewell ceremony to the GBC that included the presence of about 20 girls and boys from the International Gurukula. All of them were between 8 and 15 year old.
Praghosa dasa asked one of the older boys to read the following dialogue when prompted, reply when asked, ‘I do not feel well. I need the advice of a doctor to heal me.’ Then Praghosa brought the kids to the GBC Conference Room, and they were greeted by all GBC members, who offered the kids their own seats on the most elevated place of gathering of the ISKCON Administrative Council. Then Praghosa dasa introduced to the children, one by one, every GBC member.
He then continued to praise the GBC member's great service in their complete surrender to Srila Prabhupada. After that, he told the boys and girls that there was a last resolution to be approved, and that it was actually the reason why they were called to the Conference Room. The resolution that the whole GBC were about to vote on was to compromise themselves to build a playground for the children's school. He thus asked the children for their vote. The gurukula children immediately answered with a loud "jaya" and raised their hands in sign of approval for the resolution. The gurukula teachers present with the children could perceive the uncertainty in the GBC members' faces, since they were NOT prepared for such surprise. Thus, with mild smiles many GBC's tried to hide their disappointment.
Then starts Pragosha's "entertaining presentation" for everybody. He asks the 15 year old boy that he had previously selected to come forward. The boy picks up the microphone and says that he needs a doctor to solve his health troubles, and hands the microphone to Praghosa, as planned. Then Praghosa, in his roll as Doctor, tells the boy: "I'll cure you. Your problem is indigestion, and the medicine on this case is that you need to prepare a paste containing potatoes, a lot of chilies and curcuma. The mix has to look very red, mixed with the yellow from the curcuma. Then you have to introduce it in your butt and tomorrow come back again to tell me how do you feel."
Kindly observe that this whole episode is being performed in the GBC Conference Room, right in front of the murti of Srila Prabhupada, who presides over such important gatherings. This is the place were the ISKCON "leadership" gather to discuss the future of Srila Prabhupada's mission. Right there were 20 members of the future ISKCON leadership.
Then Praghosa reinitiates the dialogue asking the boy that had returned next day, how he was feeling. The boy answers that he recovered only 70%. Then Doctor Praghosa tells him: "Now you have to chose good broccoli and cauliflowers, boil them and add a lot more of chilly and curcuma, and when it is ready you should introduce it completely through the duct of your butt. Tomorrow you can come again and we'll see how you are doing."
At this stage the original smile on the faces of some of those present suddenly had changed to skepticism and despair. Nobody seemed to understand were this was leading, and the boys and girls as well as their teachers were totally surprised. So were the GBC's, who were meant to stand for the highest degree of spiritual, moral integrity and ethics.
Everybody seemed to think that everything had already finished, and were waiting for Praghosa to explain the purpose of the whole presentation. However, he continued unabashedly with the skit, and next, had the boy say he had only recovered 90% of his trouble, and therefore he needed to continue the treatment for another day. Praghosa then tells the boy, who at this instance only wanted to evaporate from there: "You have to find some big carrots, and cook them with red hot chillies and curcuma. Then you have to introduce them one by one into your anus, thus you'll recover rapidly and will walk like this" … and he began mimicking the posture of a homosexual, with the palm of his hands on his waist, and moving his butt while looking at it behind his shoulders in a lascivious fashion... and began to laugh loudly.
To the astonishment of everyone, the only one laughing about this weird and immoral presentation was Praghosa. The rest were looking at each other in total dismay, without any apparent capacity to say anything in the midst of such a horrible immoral aberration. Then to the audience's astonishment, Praghosa announces that the whole thing was simply a JOKE. He tells the kids that the final resolution about their school playground that they had voted for was also a joke, and that there will be NO playground.
The smallest children were very frustrated and left immediately, running out of the room crying. The older witnesses were lamenting the GBC's bad taste and their total lack of moral ethics before the children and adolescents. The girls were telling their teachers that for this reason they had lost confidence in the ISKCON gurus and the GBC. The only GBC member that accompanied the children outside the GBC Conference Room and excused himself from the low class presentation they had witnessed was Bhakti Marga Swami. He expressed that he did not know anything about such "mental house."
In the evening, some of the GBC's brought ice cream to the children and apologized to them -- except Praghosa dasa. Then the gurukula teachers had a meeting and decided to present a complaint to the Child Abuse Support Office lead by Tamohara dasa, based in Alachua, Florida. After some time they received his conclusion, saying that actually the case wasn't so serious to be catalogued as "abusive", and Praghosa dasa had already admitted his error and "humbly" presented his dismissal as a GBC -- a resignation which was NOT accepted by the GBC body.
Bhakti Charu Swami "solved" the whole situation, and calmed down the immoral incident by donating from his "own pocket" the promised playground for the children.
