Sadhusangananda Prabhu and the Susan Murphy case.

[Paramananda das]

Dandavats

Jaya Srila Prabhupada

I am going shortly to Puerto Rico, there is a godbrother of mine that many still remember well Sadhusangananda Prabhu.He was a fixed up bookdistributor for many years in Austria and later became TP, after he left due to unfair and totaly false accusations against him, ISKCON Austria dissolved and have never been revived.To this day ISKCON has no temple in Austria this is certainly also due to vaisnava aparadha to great souls like Sadhusangananda Prabhu.Actually Sadhusangananda replaced Maharama das a complete madman from Germany ,a disciple of Srila PRabhupada that liked to beat up karmis even while in a Dhoti for unprovoked reasons ( HAHA -Rama is his nickname in ISKCON Germany by some devotees)

Later Sadhu took over management from him (thanks to Krsnas mercy) .And when that ended he got another important job as the TP of ISKCON Boston.I worked with Sadhusangananda Prabhu though I was  in Washington DC for   almost 3 years and was a top bookdistributor for ISKCON Boston.After he left I never have been inspired to work with any other ISKCON leaders in the matter of bookdistribution as they have no clue how to push bookdistribution or maintain it.  (plus they deviate in so many ways)

Anyhow one of the great accomplishments of Sadhusangananda Prabhu is his settling the Susan Murphy case that had been going on since 1977 and again refiled in court in 1990.

http://masscases.com/cases/sjc/409/409mass842.html

see also :

http://surrealist.org/gurukula/timeline/index.html

Sadhusangananda  resolved the Susan Murphy case a lawsuit against ISKCON and setttled with 100.000 dollars with 90.000 from his own pocket, from money he inherited from his mother in Austria, he is such a rare soul and did so much wonderful service for ISKCON ,,under him IKSCON Boston was still a "brahmacari temple " (with mostly brahmacaries serving there)and sometimes number one in USA in bookdistribution.......,though a small temple.Now I doubt they have one fulltime bookdistributor left in ISKCON Boston. ....

   Now he runs an organic farm in Puerto Rico

http://www.organicfarm.net/

One interesting thing about the Susan Murphy case was that Visnujana Swami condoned a 13 year old Susan Murphy and her 19 year old boyfriend to be like a married couple:

this is from the court documents:

This case originated in Randolph in the winter of 1971 when Susan Murphy, then thirteen years old, began to explore the beliefs of the Hare Krishna religion, also referred to as Krishna Consciousness. [Note 3] At this time Susan occasionally attended Sunday feasts at a Krishna temple located in Boston. During the summer of 1972, Susan began to attend the temple more frequently after she became acquainted with Doug Hewer, a nineteen or twenty year old occasional practitioner of Krishna Consciousness. At some point during the fall of 1972, Susan and Doug became girl friend and boy friend.

   Susan's mother, Mary Murphy, remained unaware of Susan's interest in Krishna Consciousness or her attendance at the Boston Krishna temple until February or March, 1973. Mary forbade Susan from visiting the temple again, but Susan continued to attend the temple without informing her mother. 

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   In February, 1973, Susan and Doug met with Vishnu-Jana, a Krishna sannyasi, or swami, [Note 4] to discuss Susan's desire to become "Krishna conscious" by living according to the principles of Krishna Consciousness. Susan also told Vishnu-Jana of her mother's unwillingness to allow Susan to attend the Boston temple. Vishnu-Jana told Susan and Doug that the most important goal for Susan was to become Krishna conscious, and that she should do what was necessary to attain that goal. After the meeting, Susan and Doug considered themselves married to each other by the power of Vishnu-Jana's advice. From then on, they presented themselves as a married couple, with Susan wearing traditional Krishna symbols of marriage. At this time, Susan was fourteen years old.

   About March, 1973, Susan ran away with Doug to Toronto, Canada, and then to Los Angeles, California. During their travels, Susan and Doug received the assistance and friendship of several Krishna Consciousness practitioners. Susan, after speaking with her mother on the telephone, returned to Massachusetts in the fall of 1973 with Doug and resumed living with her mother. Approximately two months after returning to Massachusetts, Susan and Doug ran away again to Toronto. From Toronto, Susan and Doug traveled to Los Angeles, where they remained for several months. During this time, Susan and Doug regularly visited a Krishna temple in Los Angeles. Susan and Doug then moved to Hawaii until late 1973 or early 1974, when they returned to Massachusetts and took up residence together. Several weeks after their return to Massachusetts, Susan and Doug left once again for Los Angeles. They remained in Los Angeles for several weeks before traveling to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where they resided in a local Krishna temple.

   The defendant ISKCON N.E. was incorporated in Massachusetts on February 19, 1974. Some time during the summer 

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of 1974, Susan returned to Massachusetts with Doug to assist Mary in certain legal proceedings unrelated to the present case. For one month Susan and Doug lived together in a rented room. They then moved into the apartment of Traidas and Pramada, members of ISKCON N.E.'s temple. Susan testified that at this time Traidas was the president of the temple. Susan attended the defendant's temple and participated regularly in temple activities. On August 14, 1974, Susan celebrated her sixteenth birthday.

   Around September, 1974, Susan and Doug moved into the apartment of Carol and Larry DeGregory, two other members of ISKCON N.E.'s temple. Evidence indicated that Larry was the temple's treasurer. In November, 1974, after moving to another apartment, the two couples requested permission from the temple's president, Adi Kesava, to move into the defendant's temple. Adi Kesava told Susan that she could live in the temple only with her mother's permission, and only if Susan would adhere to the Krishna practices of a vegetarian diet, no illicit sex, no intoxicants, no gambling, and regular participation in temple activity. Susan agreed to these conditions and arranged for Adi Kesava to speak with Mary Murphy who, on certain conditions, consented to Susan's living in the temple.

   In November, 1974, Susan and Doug moved into ISKCON N.E.'s temple. Susan slept in the women's quarters; Doug slept in the men's quarters. Doug left the temple shortly thereafter, apparently in response to a disagreement with Susan regarding her desire to remain celibate in accordance with Krishna principles. After Doug left the temple, Susan no longer considered herself married to him. During her stay in the temple, Susan participated regularly in chores, rituals, and classes associated with the temple and the practice of Krishna Consciousness. This continued until December, 1974, or January, 1975, when Mary asked Susan to sleep at home on weekends. Susan agreed, but continued to spend most of her time at the temple. Shortly after Susan was formally initiated as a Krishna Consciousness "devotee" in January or February, 1975, Susan began spending every

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night at Mary's house, although she continued to spend her days at the temple.

   In April, 1975, Mary discovered a letter written by Susan which alluded to a "plan" by several members of the defendant's temple to send Susan to West Germany without Mary's knowledge or permission. At this point, Mary telephoned the Weymouth police department and spoke with Officer Henry Vanasse, who agreed to speak to Susan. Mary telephoned Susan at the temple and asked Susan to come home on the pretext that Mary was ill. When Susan arrived, Mary told her that she could not go back to the temple. A brief struggle ensued, but Mary was able to restrain Susan until Officer Vanasse arrived. He informed Susan that she risked legal action against her if she continued to run away. Mary demanded that Susan sever all ties with the defendant's temple, to which Susan reluctantly agreed.

   Evidence was presented regarding Susan's emotional condition after her withdrawal from the defendant's temple. This evidence showed that Susan remained quite angry with her mother for several months, and that Susan expressed a desire to return to the temple. Susan and Mary's relationship began to improve after approximately six months when Susan decided that she no longer wanted to associate with the temple or its members. Additional evidence was presented which, the plaintiffs claimed, established that Susan's experience with the defendant caused Susan to experience "post-traumatic stress disorder," a low sense of self-esteem, and an inability to maintain a healthy relationship with men.

   On April 19, 1977, Susan and Mary filed a complaint in the Superior Court alleging nine counts of tortious activity against (1) ISKCON N.E., (2) ISKCON, a Krishna temple located in California, and (3) A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the founder of Krishna Consciousness in the United States. The plaintiffs sought $2,500,000 as compensation for their alleged injuries. The defendants filed motions to dismiss the complaint, which were referred to a special master. Following the master's report, the plaintiffs amended their complaint to substitute a Krishna temple in New York

your servant

Paramananda das

[Paramananda das]

I don't remember all the details anymore, but I think that the settlement for the Murphy case was 175k. I collected money personally in Austria for it + I gave some of my inheritance money (which you correctly mentioned). I was actually not in agreement with our lawyer to settle for such a high amount, but I had no choice. During my time we reduced the overall debt of the Boston temple by over $350,000. The Murphy case was entirely idiotic, but so was much of ISKCON USA's history in the 1980's. The fact that they not only had a minor girl in the temple, they also got her married at that time is just mind-blowingly stupid.

When in Austria, I did not directly replace Maharama. For a short time, the new president was Varahadev. After a year or so, I was heading up the new temple with all the brahmacharis. Varahadev went on to live with the grhastas, but eventually they all split up because of various issues.

I do appreciate that you always remember me in a positive way. We all may have our weaknesses but I know that I gave everything I possibly could for 20 years. Vienna was the best small temple in book distribution while I was TP, and then the same thing happened with Boston. I don't think it was a coincident. I left the Austrian temple with plenty of savings, but they squandered everything and things fell apart in no time after I left. Harikesa actually wrote to me many years later how he regretted supporting Caksu who was a nasty character and one of the main reasons I decided to leave Austria. It felt good to hear this from Harikesh, although he should have figured Caksu's lack of character out already at that time and not just 10 years later..

if I look back at Caksu's politics or accusations against me in Austria: yes, they were completely made up. He wanted to become a TP himself, and he did anything he could to tarnish my reputation. I did make some mistakes, but they were insignificant and had nothing to do with a major deviation, what to speak of a fall down. Fortunately, I immediately decided to take shelter of Vrindavan, and I had some of my most memorable time there until the GBC practically forced me to become TP in Boston.

The constant fall downs of ISKCON gurus and sannyasis did have their effect on me over the years. I had less and less taste to sacrifice everything for a movement that is riddled with so many ugly problems like the gurukula issues, GBC and guru power trips, feminist infiltration, etc. Internally, I had left the institution for years already but I still had a strong taste to offer my services to Srila Prabhupada.

It was a relief for me to find out that we (you and me) could co-operate for the sake of pushing Srila Prabhupada's books in the U.S. Just like I was happy to support you, you helped all of us. I always was inspired to hear about the amount of books you distributed and the overall book distribution services really energized the Boston temple at that time. Our program was just book distribution, great harinams and packed Sunday feasts - the peak of Boston's temple history. We had a strong bhakta program and we raised the Deity worship standards. What we were able to accomplish in those few years was half a miracle, especially considering how desolate the temple was when I arrived their first: over $400,000 in bad debt, hardly any devotees, lots of weird characters around and the temple building literally falling apart. Within two years after my arrival we beat not only all small temples worldwide, but even many medium and large temples. Tamal was so agitated that he personally challenged me in Vrindavan :)) We still out-distributed them every year when I was there.

It was an honor for me to be surrounded by so many enthusiastic devotees from '94 to '99. The Boston temple was without a doubt one of the most happening temples in the US and even the world at that time. We didn't even have room to put up all the new devotees who wanted to join. Radhika and Atma had their best book distribution years, and we were able to revive many old devotees who had been away from book distribution for many years. Its all the past now.

Best,
Sadhu
www.organicfarm.net