Jul 14, 2014 — CANADA (SUN) —
Following Dayalu Nitai das's Open Letter on the Jaipur Ritviks' battle with the Bangalore Ritviks, as recently as the end of May 2014 there appears to have been no response forthcoming from Madhu Pandit das or the Bangalore GBC. As one poster, Prahlad das put it:
"All they have done since these articles [by Dayalu Nitai das] were published over a month ago is reproduce the article of lies and distortions by the madman Tim Lee (Puranjana/PADA) on their ISKCON "Truth" and ISKCON Times websites & FaceBook pages (and deleted all the comments that were made there by various devotees)."
Raghav Pandit das, the Secretary of Jaipur HKC (Hare Krishna Community, the non-Bangalore Ritvik temple in Jaipur) wrote this on behalf of the HKC members:
"After exhausting all other peaceful means we are coming in public forum which is proving to be very USEFUL and PRODUCTIVE. Because after reading these articles many devotees are coming to know about the TRUTH which is helping them to decide which association to seek. After these articles the negative propaganda of AP Jaipur has reduced (at least for the time being) since many students and donors, equipped with truth, are asking various questions to AP Jaipur devotees which they are not able to answer."
We implore Raghav Pandit das and his associates to continue coming to the public forum, reading and studying information that has long been repressed by Madhu Pandit das and the Bangalore Ritviks. They should begin here: Defeat of Ritvik-vada, and come to understand that they have been lied to by many so-called senior Ritvik devotees. The facts are right there, and they stand without rebuttal. Just as they were never told about the Karnataka High Court's findings on Madhu Pandita & company's activities, so they have likely not been told that the very foundation of Ritvik-vada has been proved bogus. They have been bamboozled into believing that in order to serve Srila Prabhupada, independent from the compromised ISKCON GBC, they have to take up this Ritvik banner. But nothing could be further from the truth.
On the same day that Raghav Pandit das posted the comment above, the Jaipur devotees released a follow-up article: "Jaipur Struggle for Truth - II". In it, a further element of the story comes out:
"In Nov. 2013 Nimai Pandit Prabhu (who was earlier in very good terms with MPP and Iskcon Bangalore) came to Jaipur after many years and started criticizing me that I am doing fanatic brahamcari preaching etc. on the net. MPP came to know about it from Nimai Nitai Prabhu of Ukarine and proposed to help me. MPP talked to me on the phone about it. When I was counteracting Nimai Pandit‟s baseless charges on the net I came in contact with Yasodanandan Prabhu who wrote 3 mails to me asking me to talk to MPP about affiliating with Iskcon Bangalore Group. For details you can see the attached file "YND and DND (Nov. 2013)".
When I wrote to MPP about it he gave the following reply to me on Nov. 8 -
"He is already speculating that I am behind all this. So if u affiliate he will confirm that I did all this. So carry on as u are doing. You are doing well. It is a unique project. I don't think u need to affiliate formally. As if affiliation to New York temple made any crucial difference to cause you to reach the project to where it is now. You can be in touch with us in cordial relationship with our local temple. This is my immediate reaction. If at all you affiliate in future I want that to happen organically by rebuilding relationship with our Jaipur temple. Let it not be a reaction to any of the present events."
In our lengthy series, "The DOM, ISKCON Inc. and Ritvikism", we looked in detail at the preaching and propagandizing of Nimai Pandit das, proving on the evidence that he has been grossly misrepresenting facts about the DOM and related ISKCON history. We also documented some aspects of his association with Madhu Pandit dasa and ISKCON Bangalore -- a relationship that later went off the tracks. But as Raghav Pandit das states above, at one point Nimai Pandit was in Jaipur, agitating against the Jaipur Ritviks. Both Madhu Pandit and Yasodanandana das intervened.
While Madhu Pandit's comment above is not entirely clear, it appears that he is saying, if the Jaipur temple affiliates itself to Bangalore (under the new GBC), then Nimai Pandit dasa will blame Madhu Pandit for interfering. It seems that Nimai Pandit may have wanted to preserve a pre-existing affiliation the Jaipur Ritviks had with the Long Island Ritviks, who are pushing the DOM agenda.
So here is another clear example of the in-fighting among Ritvik camps, in this case involving the drive to get temples to affiliate with a higher authority: Bangalore and their Ritvik GBC, or Nimai Pandit das and the DOM Ritviks/Prabhupadanugas who have not yet surrendered themselves to Bangalore.
Our opinion, of course, is that all sides in this drama are operating on a false platform: Ritvik-vada. Preaching asiddhanta, they cannot be successful in the long run, even if they manage some apparent success in the short term. As we pointed out in great detail in the "The DOM, ISKCON Inc. and Ritvikism" series, adding the DOM to the Ritvik mix will solve nothing. It has only added further complication because just like the post-samadhi ritvik diksa scheme perpetrated on the July 9th Letter, the Ritvik/Prabhupadanuga DOM position is based on a dishonest presentation of documented history and Srila Prabhupada's instructions. Preaching built on lies cannot succeed.
