More on ISKCON Philadelphia
BY: CHAITANYA SIMHA DASA
Mar 30, USA (SUN) — After thinking about the article I wrote, "ISKCON Philadelphia" and Visnugada das's response, "More News from ISKCON Philadelphia", I felt I needed to elaborate on a few of the main issues.
The situation with Food for Life, as run my Devideva das (David Dobson), is really a deplorable offence. I feel that Visnugada's attempt to distance ISKCON, and particularly ISKCON of Philadelphia, is futile. What devotees need to know is that all along, ISKCON of Philadelphia has been taking donations from Devideva for various projects, such as Rathyatra and temple projects. This is common knowledge in the community and anyone in the know can verify this reality. In accepting this blood money, literally earned at the cost of poor animals being served to poor and unfortunate people, ISKCON of Philadelphia is knowingly condoning and participating in these nefarious activities.
It's not that this person and organization are unknown to people in this community. It's only logical that nothing has been done about the situation, for all these decades, because they have been receiving funds from this person and organization. In this way, the management is a knowing accomplice and has kept silent in the hope of receiving donations. The sad fact about it, however, is that while Food for Life has a gated compound with multiple mansions, the Deities of the Supreme Lord and His devotees basically live in a slum. A real case of the cheaters and the cheated.
And while the rest of us poor working slobs have to pay taxes on our meager wages, Food for Life and Govinda's Cafe are living tax free as non-profits. This is all under the guise of providing for the needy and engaging in missionary activities by serving prasadam. They all started out as Temple projects, but were more or less hijacked by these individuals. It is a real sin that they are completely misrepresenting our beliefs as Hare Krishna devotees. Do a search on "Philadelphia Food for Life" and one the first hits is "Hare Krishna Food for Life", which is a building in North Philadelphia associated with Food for Life. These organizations and individuals are living tax free and on the donations of others under the guise of being Hare Krishna organizations. This is unfair and probably illegal.
The immigration situation at the temple is just as bad. Devotees are coming over on religious visas and using their time here to squirrel away money by selling flowers. It should be noted that according to devotees I talked to, no other devotees except for these Bengali devotees are allowed to go out and sell flowers. This is all done under permits that state that this is distribution of sanctified offerings, not unoffered flowers, which is part of our religious rights. So many qualified people could be coming from India to preach and instead it is being wasted on people whose main motivation is to make money. I think this is unethical and obviously a violation of their visas. This situation has the potential to really mess up religious visas everywhere in ISKCON.
Letting devotees live in bedbug infested squalor is so offensive. While this situation is being remedied, these devotees need to be relocated to clean housing. Letting devotees get the blood sucked out of them every night is absolutely horrifying. They need to be put in a part of the temple that is not infested or the temple needs to rent out apartments for them to stay in. It is so sad that the management treats devotees like this and they are the first to try to say someone is offensive for objecting to situations like this. It's ironic that in the GBC Resolution report, Ravindra Svarupa is on the Guru Services Committee. Instead of allotting more service to gurus who have a standard of living unimaginable to the average person or devotee, maybe he should serve the poor devotees who are suffering in his own temple.
I am praying that devotees forgive me for disturbing their minds, The last thing I really want to find is faults with this or any other temple. My own faith in this organization, unfortunately, is declining daily. I am hoping that by publicly addressing these points, the management will be forced to have to address these issues. In this way, I may be in some service to Srila Prabhupada and the poor devotees who have to live and deal with this situation.
your servant,
Chaitanya Simha dasa
