November 4, 1997
USA (VNN) - On the 20th anniversary of Srila Prabhupada's disappearance day allegations of foul play are running rampant in the Vaishnava world. So-called "Poison Tapes" have been circulated in which Srila Prabhupada is said to be stating that he was being poisoned. Several postings have been made on Internet newsgroups as well as on some web pages about this issue.
VNN has obtained a first generation copy of a complete set
of
original audio tapes of the last days of Srila Prabhupada in
Vrindavan,
1977. The tapes have recently been the center of much
controversy
as they contain recorded room conversations in which Srila
Prabhupada
states that he was being poisoned. This has lead to much
disturbance
among Srila Prabhupada's followers reaching as far as calls to
exhume the body of Srila Prabhupada for forensic testing.
"I was given a complete set of tapes by Satsvarupa
Swami, when
he returned to Dallas in 1977, to copy and send to the GBC and
BBT. At this time I made a set of tapes for myself. Later a few
of the cases were melted in a fire 1980 in the Baltimore temple.
Last week I had them restored. I have given a set to VNN ,
Tamal
Krishna Goswami and Agrani das (Miami temple president) to
review.",
says Isa das, a disciple of Srila Prabhupada.
A few of the original 20 audio tapes had to be put into new
casings
by a professional company because the casings of the original
set of tapes had been damaged in a fire in Baltimore. The
copies
were made before they were sent to the Bhaktivedanta
Archives.
Isa das says: "There was no attempt to hide the tapes from
anyone.
All the senior devotees listened to them in Dallas at the
time."
VNN's preliminary investigation found the following
conversations
on the tapes. Some of the transcriptions match the transcriptions
found on the Srila Prabhupada Folio, others could not be found
on the folio.
(The sound files attached to sections below are in Quicktime format since the Real Audio format had such audio quality loss to make the conversation not understandable. So it may take longer to download but you will be able to understand the conversations.)
(Transcriptions)
Room Conversation, Vrindavan 10/31/77
Prabhupada: Huh. No more, no more trial. Adri-
dharana?
Adri-dharana: Yes, Srila Prabhupada.
Prabhupada: What do you think?
Adri-dharana: About this man?
Prabhupada: Yes. Follow strictly.
Tamala Krsna: Do you agree that we should follow
strictly his advice?
Adri-dharana: From my experience I think he's a very
good man. He's a Vaisnava.
Tamala Krsna: We certainly have... We might as well
try. We've tried everyone
else.
Prabhupada: Hm.
Tamala Krsna: So let us try.
Bhavananda: He did agree with your own diagnosis,
Prabhupada. He said makaradhvaja at this point
would be poison and today you said that it was
poison.
Prabhupada: Yes.
Bhavananda: So that was...
Prabhupada: Mm. Mm?
Tamala Krsna: Satadhanya asks whether he looks like
the man you saw in the
dream.
Prabhupada: He has tilaka?
Tamala Krsna: Yes, he has nice tilaka.
Prabhupada: (indistinct). The other man, he has nice
tilaka?
Tamala Krsna: Govardhanaji has tilaka?
Adri-dharana: No.
Tamala Krsna: No.
Prabhupada: That's all right.
Adri-dharana: Also Govardhanaji was not very,
extremely helpful. He said he
would not come to Vrndavana. He said he would not...
Tamala Krsna: Now this man said in fifteen days
Prabhupada would be better.
Adri-dharana: He said there will be improvement, in a
few days, two or three
days there will be improvement.
Above section in Quicktime Sound File (2.6 MB)
Room Conversation Vrindavan 10/77
Prabhupada: So... Kaviraja he might ...
Tamala Krsna: What Srila Prabhupada?
Prabhupada: That Kaviraja .. some how another it does
not happen.
Tamala Krsna: I don't feel this is conclusively not
happened.
Prabhupada: Simply, one after another.
Tamala Krsna: Yeah.. First we had that Madva.. not
Madva - Ramanuji from Sri
Rangaji temple he seemed to be a cheater... then this one we
got
this medicine from that Shakti...Shakta Kaviraja and that
medicine
turned out to be poison.
Prabhupada: Hmm...
Tamala Krsna: And now this Kaviraja, who is supposed
to be coming from Calcutta
has become a mystery where he is. The temple was called they
said
had left...
Devotee: Twice...
Tamala Krsna: ...they called twice to Calcutta...they
said they left and yet
he is not here.
I don't know what to make of it. A very puzzling situation.
I think if by tomorrow noon they have not arrived, then
Satadanya
can go to Calcutta.
Above section in Quicktime Sound File (2.8 MB)
Room Conversation, Vrindavan 11/8/77
Prabhupada: Sa eva go-kharah. (pause)
Tamala Krsna: Srila Prabhupada? You said before that
you..., that it is said
that you were poisoned?
Prabhupada: No. These kind of symptoms are seen
when a man is poisoned. He said like that, not
that I am poisoned.
Tamala Krsna: Did anyone tell you that, or you just
know it from before?
Prabhupada: I read something.
Tamala Krsna: Ah, I see. That's why actually we cannot
allow anyone else to
cook for you.
Prabhupada: That is good.
Tamala Krsna: Jayapataka Maharaja was telling that
one acarya, Sankaracarya,
of the Sankaracarya line--this was a while ago--he was poisoned
to death. Since that time, none of the acaryas or the gurus of
the Sankaracarya line will ever take any food cooked except by
their own men.
Prabhupada: My Guru Maharaja also.
Tamala Krsna: Oh. You, of course, have been so
merciful that sometimes you
would take prasada cooked by so many different people.
Prabhupada: That should be stopped. (pause)
Above section in Quicktime Sound File (3.1 MB)
Room Conversation, Vrindavan 11/8-9/77
Kaviraja: (Hindi)
Devotee: He's saying that in this condition, Prabhupada
can't take makara-dhvaja.
That any medicine that contains mercury and arsenic is poison ... what Prabhupada
said.
Tamala Krsna: That is a fact. He found that to be true.
Kaviraja: (Hindi)...
Room Conversation, Vrindavan 11/9-10/77
Devotee: What did Prabhupada just say?
Unknown (Indian accent): Prabhupad just said that this
morning his condition was bad.
Bhavananda: SP was complaining about mental
distress this morning.
Kaviraja: (Hindi)... mental distress?
Prabhupada: (Hindi)... poison.
Kaviraja: (Hindi)
Devotee: Some one gave him poison.
Kaviraja: (Hindi)
Tamal Krishna: Prabhupada was thinking that someone
was poisoning him. That
was the mental disturbance.
Kaviraja: (Hindi)
Tamal Krishna: What did Kaviraja say?
Unknown (Indian accent): He said that when Srila
Prabhupada is saying that there must
be some truth behind it.
Devotee: What is ....?
Devotee: That someone gave him some poison - powdered (many voices - hindi)
Tamal Krishna: Srila Prabhupada, Shastraji says that
there must be some truth
to it if you said that. So who is it that has poisoned?
Pause......
Kaviraja: (Hindi - asking SP)
(Hindi conversation)
Devotee: What did he say?
Unknown (Indian accent): He said that it is quiet possible that
Mercury is a kind of poison.
Kaviraja: Very poison...
Bhavananda: What medicine was he taking before that.
Unknown (Indian accent): He is referring to a big case
husband poisoning the wife.
Tamal Krishna: No poison is strong enough to stop the
harinam.
Above section in Quicktime Sound File (2.1 MB)
Room Conversation, Vrindavan 11/10/77
Jagadisa: Srila Prabhupada, can you tell us why
you want to go on the
parikrama?
Bhakti-caru: (Bengali) (break)
Prabhupada: ...good paddy.
Tamala Krsna: This seems like suicide, Srila
Prabhupada, this program. It
seems to some of us like it's suicidal.
Prabhupada: And this is also suicidal.
Tamala Krsna: Hm. Prabhupada said, "And this is
also suicide." Now you have
to choose which suicide.
Prabhupada: The Ravana will kill and Rama will kill.
Better to be killed
by Rama. Eh? That Marica--if he does not go to mislead Sita,
he'll
be killed by Ravana; and if he goes to be killed by Rama, then
it is better.
Tamala Krsna: Who is this Prabhupada's talking
about?
Devotees: Marica.
Tamala Krsna: Srila Prabhupada? I mean, just judging
the symptoms, which is
all that we can do, certain symptoms have certainly picked up.
For instance, you're passing more urine, stool is coming
naturally,
and you're able to drink milk without getting any cough. These
things were never there before.
Prabhupada: Hm. That will continue.
Above section in Quicktime Sound File (2.6 MB)
(End transcriptions)
Amazingly, even though these tapes have been in the possession of the Bhaktivedanta Archives for 20 years ISKCON officials has never made any attempts to investigate the poison references found in them.
Isa das plans to make the complete set of tapes available to devotees. He can be contacted at isadas@equalsouls.org.
Isa das is calling on the Vaishnava community to set up an independent panel of Srila Prabhupada disciples to investigate the tapes in order to put to rest this very painful issue. The VNN has learned that several devotees have already volunteered.
The mandate for the panel would be to:
Any Srila Prabhupada disciple interested in participating in this investigating panel or anyone who can bring eyewitness accounts or any other information to this case please contact VNN at contact@vnn.org or Isa das at isadas@equalsouls.org.
The VNN will continue it's own analysis of the tapes and investigation and will update this story as more information becomes available.