Only we can chastise......

[Paramananda das]

PAMHO

AGTSP

 I wrote a note to Niranjana Swamis Vaisnava compassion , http://www.dandavats.com/?p=9853

http://nimaipandit.ning.com/profiles/blogs/comments-on-niranjana-sw...

The fact is that I spend most of my time in ISKCON Boston from 1990 to 1993 and was a bookdistributor there for that time ,and also when Sadhusangananda Prabhu 

became  the TP I was again distributing book from 1997 to around 2000 for Boston temple ,so the tone of Maharajas letter is that do not find any faults even if there is

bonafide ones and just leave it to us leaders in ISKCON.Sadly however Niranjana Swami failed to chastise a female desiciple and a disciple of Satsvarupa ,that was having illicit

sex in the temple (1992-93) and got this lady pregnant before marriage.At one point there was so much politics and I left and chastised Niranjana Swami that had also tried to pressure me

to marry some mayadevi devotee, that had chased me for some time.So where was his Vaisnava compassion on me? The problem is most of ISKCON's Gurus think they are acaryas

and this is the mood of this article also. Now I know all the good sides of Niranjana Swami and like him ,but he is no acarya.ISKCON Boston used to be a temple full of brahmacaries

and daily bookdistribution ,these times are long gone. Then Niranjana Swami made one Nimai something the TP that had a history of homosexuality and had gone to HH

Nrsingha Maharaja (former Jagat Guru Swami in ISKCON) ,he also found out about this persons illicit  homo sex patterns so a 3th time ,this time he became Niranjana Swamis disciple

and this totally killed whatever sankirtana was left in ISKCON Boston when he became TP. There is many issues I could mentione about past scandals in ISKCON Boston ,but out of love forSri Sri Radha Gopivallabha I have said enough.No Niranjana Swami you are no acarya.Due to my complain to the GBC in 1993 a co GBC was send there for some time,that did not work out

and sadly my godbrother Sadhusangananda Prabhu that even spend 100.000$ of his own money to resolve the Susan Murphy case (settling it out of court) left due to some

controversy. Some  disciples of Srila Prabhupada   think they are all in all and lord of all they survey .Recently Gaura das from Canada an initiated disciple of Srila PRabhupada

stated that Prabhupadas disciples are the dictators of ISKCON, I was so mad with such rascaldom, I felt like running after him with a big stick.Where is there such an instruction?

All Prabhupada disciples are GOD or dictator, they also make lots of mistakes,we should be a bit humble.But the over all lecture is nice for Niranjana Swamis disciples,I for one

is not his disciple....

There is Prabhupada disciples that order the murder of Sulocana and then gave this Tirtha sannyasa in prison and said Kirtananda is a good man, Chandramali Swami also preached Kirtananda is a pure devotee still,it makes me throw up...

There is bingo hall that goes on to this day in ISKCON Brooklyn;;;

There is gas drilling in New Vrindavana ,also set up by the "dictator disciples of Srila Prabhuapda" and other cult deviations all against the instructions of Srila Prabhupada

who needs some chastisement remains to be seen.....

If you follow Srila Prabhupada then why do you change his teachings? Why do you serve grains on Janmastami and allow you disciples to take grains> There is only one answer because you are not an acarya no matter how much you try to take Srila Prabhupadas positition, wait some may say but you just just quoted Srila Rupa Goswami ,yes but I can not stand some think they are acaryas when they are not.....so yes there is others that need to chastise,as long as this kind of nonsens goes on.One Prabhupada disciple told me divorce is boanfide .Where did he find this in Prabhupadas teachings......?I have been chastised enough by lording over Prabhupada disciples, do not ever try again with me,I am not your disciple .....  

your servant 

Paramananda das  

(Payonidhi das)

[Paramananda das]

I usually don't comment on these things anymore, but between me and you, I will make some comments and share some memories about my time in Boston.

 

From what I remember, I arrived in Boston around May 1994. Coming from Europe where our temples had a relatively high standard in all regards, I was shocked at the dilapidated state of the temple (the roof was leaking, there were rats all over the building, the kitchen floor was about to cave in, etc.) and the fact that only a handful of bizarre characters were living in the temple. Without mentioning names, the few residents of the temple at that time were like straight out of a circus show (but not in the good sense). There was hardly any book distribution and no matter the department, the standard was very low. I knew ahead of time that Niranjana Swami would be a relatively passive GBC, so I figured that it was at least possible to clean the place up and turn things around.

 

By Krsna's mercy, some of the worst characters left, book distribution spirit came back (we were best small temple in the US, and even the world for four or five years in a row), new devotees came (many of them were really nice), and we paid off the Murphy case (about 90k of my donation were inheritance money from my mother, 10k were raised by me privately, mostly from donors in Austria). Although there's a plaque for every donor that ever gave more than a few hundred $$, I never got a "thank you" or official recognition for that donation. Only when I pointed it out to Niranjana Swami before I left, he managed to say "thanks".

 

Managing under Niranjana Swami was ok as long as he didn't interfer. Although I liked him in many ways as a person, I found him to be a poor manager himself, and what really irritated me was that he often supported some of the worst characters that caused the temple harm over years. Some of them were outright nasty people who knew that they were protected by him and who took full advantage of it. Although everyone else could see it and was unhappy with it, NSwami didn't care much and continued his unconditional support of these people. I still don't know whether this was just lack of judgment or whether he just couldn't hide his being biased. Whatever the case is, it harmed the temple in many ways, and discouraged good people. Fortunately, he generally didn't try to interfere with my management - after all, everything improved so fast and on all levels (standard of cleanliness, harinams, deity worship, cooking, sankirtan, preaching engagements, making the most bhaktas in over a decade, etc.), that he respected those facts. He didn't spend much time there when he came (instead, he usually went to Hartford when he was in the area), so from that perspective it made management much easier.

[Paramananda das]

After I left, he kept making the same old and relatively foolish mistakes of putting people in charge who had absolutely no capacity or qualification to run a temple in a dynamic way. On one hand, he is very steady in his support of the Boston temple - after all, he grew up there; on the other hand, he often held it back unnecessarily by being biased and having bad judgement. I think things would be a lot better if he would be more realistic in understanding his lack of being able to understand temple management. I honestly think, he still doesn't understand it, even after so many years of having to directly or indirectly deal with it. 

 

My leaving was not because of a controversy but because after having been a TP for a total of 14 years, I was quite burned out with managing and with the way ISKCON had developed over time. I saw one "guru" after the other fall down, including my own, and I still had to officially defend various GBC policies that I did not agree with. So, my service, especially during those last years, was at least in my heart primarily for Srila Prabhupada and definitely not the GBC or any other so called ISKCON authority. 

 

I do have to admit that the constant scandals and bad ISKCON leadership weakened me over time and I very consciously wanted a break for good from the institution. Despite all of that, I offered to continue to manage for some time, with the hope of finding a good management successor, but NSwami became impatient, and proposed that the change should be made immediately. The history of the last (almost) 12 years is generally known....one disaster management after the other, and now again a weak temple that isn't going anywhere.  The lack of book distribution spirit has many causes, and at least in my mind, Niranjana Swami is not innocent in this regard. He was critical when I began to read from book distribution literature during the marathon time (after reading the Bhagavatam verse + SP's purport), and didn't really seem to care much in what direction the temple would develop or whether there was any book distribution at all.

 

Other than that, I mostly had a good time there, to a large degree because we improved all standards and made more new devotees than any of the other small temples in the US during that time. So, I look back with mixed feelings....a partially very beautiful time interlaced with lots of bizarre stuff.

 

I don't know why you even mention the term "acharya" in relation to ISKCON leaders, but I thought that this term was discontinued after 1986 or so. If it is still not obvious to everyone that there has never been an acharya in ISKCON after Srila Prabhupada, there really can't be any hope for the movement whatsoever. At best we had some decent preachers and some decent managers, but that's about the best we can call the movement's leaders.

 

Sadhu
www.organicfarm.net

[Paramananda das]

Because of Sadhusangananda Prabhus inspiration I kept distributing Srila Prabhupadas books for ISKCON Boston up to he left and did around 33.000 medium books a year from 1997 to 2000 ( I had become a grhastha and lived outside the temple from that time far away from Boston here in Maryland)

around 100.ooo medium books