A Plea from the New York Sanctuary
BY: SATCHITANANDA DAS
Jun 10, NEW YORK (SUN) — An Open Letter to GBC Leaders and Concerned Devotees.
Dear Maharajas, Vaisnavas and Vaisnavis: PAMHO; AGTSP.
We are Satchitananda and Krsna das from the Sanctuary at 25 1st Avenue, New York. We are humbly requesting that you please give us an audience in regards to the following. Many of you have dined at our restaurant in the past. It took the blood, sweat, and tears of many of us over more than a decade to build this project, called the Interfaith League of Devotees. Our original motivation was to provide Kirtanananda Swami a nice temple to live in after his release from prison.
In the meantime, Yajna Purusha dasa and his group of brahmacharies took up residence as rent-paying tenents in the Sanctuary. They moved in in 2005. Shortly after taking up residence, Yajna proceeded to undermine the existing Board and install himself as managing director, and then immediately thereafter attempted to evict all residents (including Kirtanananda Swami himself) who were not members of his Bhaktivedanta Ashram.
This was all made possible by Sukavaha (Eternal Love), long time treasurer and general manager of League of Devotees, who abruptly switched her allegiances from the original board members to Yajna Purusha and his group, and by various devices had Yajna installed in a high managerial capacity.
When asked why he is so determined to gain full and final control over the Sanctuary project, Yajna's reply was that seeing as how there is no program for devotee maintenance as they grow old in ISCKON, as the independent managing/financial director of the League of Devotees, he would be set for life. This clearly shows the true motivation of Yajna Purusha.
We are currently in court, wherein the legality of all this switching of Board members is being contested. We are quite confident that the judge will rule in our favor, but in the meantime we are very much desirous that the 'jury' of Krsna's devotees, Srila Prabhupada's family, be enlightened about this case and give YOUR verdict.
We remain strongly committed to the concept of maintaining Srila Prabhupada's legacy of fair, honest, and open dealings amongst devotees, and if Yajna and his men are allowed to gratify their lust for power and control, completely unchecked by the Society's leaders, then the fundamental sense of ethical and moral behavior which Srila Prabhupada so much emphasized for his historically/newly established brahminical order would, once again, be severally tarnished by such a blatantly unscrupulous endeavor (to hijack a project to which they have absolutely no moral, ethical, or spiritual claim). Their only claim is unabashedly shameless greed to steal what is not theirs. All this grief, botheration and financial waste can be immediately ended by some fair-minded leader, instructing Mr. Purusha, to relinquish his bogus claim of propriety over the Sanctuary, and let him simply remain satisfied with his 26 2nd Avenue preaching. And if he wants to expand his preaching domain, then let him do it on his own strength and merit -- not by disgracing himself and the entire movement by such duplicitous behavior as this corporate hijacking, under the hypocritical plea that his only interest is to 'increase-the-preaching'. Those of us who built this Sanctuary will develop this project as our offering to Srila Prabhupada and Sri-Sri Radha Murlidhara.
Thank you for your kind attention. Hare Krsna.
A Lesson in Hypocrisy
Message from the Sanctuary to Yajna Purusha and the Bhaktivedanta Ashram
from Krsna Das and Satchitananda Das
Dear Devotees:
First of all, kindly forgive us for using this happy, devotee-family day of gathering to worship lord Jagannatha's Ratha-Yatra festival, as a venue for presenting this unpleasant news, but after much soul-searching, we remain firmly convinced that the tremendous injustices and hypocritical activities being perpetrated within Srila Prabhupada's society - under the banner of 'increasing-the-preaching', be placed
before the society-at-large for your due considration. LET THE TRUTH BE
HEARD!
We are Krsna das and Satchitananda das - initiated into Srila Prabhupada's society by Kirtanananda Swami many years ago. We represent the Interfaith League of Devotees, a group formed some 21 years ago, and are responsible for the construction and financing of the six-story Sanctuary building at 25 1st Avenue, New York. Many of you have come to dine at our Restaurant during previous Rathayatras. Unfortunately, we are unable to serve you in that capacity this year because our restaurant, along with the entire building, is currently embroiled in extensive court proceedings as we fight to subdue Yajna Purusha's bogus attempt to duplicitously hijack the entire property for his own selfish ends. It is with a heavy heart indeed that we are presenting this to you today; a sad tale of so-called brahmacharies and renunciates in their mad dash to rapidly climb the Hare Krsna corporate ladder, abandoning the idealism, simplicity, and straight-forwardness that their ashram calls for.
As a result of a tremendous collective effort and self-sacrifice by several of Kirtanananda Swami's disciples, over a period of 12 years, the Sanctuary was purchased and transformed into a beautiful temple - meant to serve as home and headquarters for Kirtanananda Swami once he came out of prison. Yajna Purusha and his brahmacharies moved into the Sanctuary as rent paying tenants, aided by Sukavaha (Eternal Love), a prominent member of Sanctuary. Again aided by Sukavaha (Eternal Love), Yajna proceeded to surreptitiously get himself positioned within the existing management structure as president, then attempting to kick out all those devotees who had sacrificed to build the Sanctuary, lived in the building except his own men. It was a most unabashedly lust-for-power move, especially considering that he is already president and in-charge of 26, 2nd Ave., having acquired a majority of voting rights in that project by questionable means.
When asked why he is so determined to fully take over the Sanctuary project by any means necessary, Yajna's response was that, seeing as how there is no program for maintenance of devotees in ISKCON once they become old, as the independent, managing/financial director of the League of Devotees, he would be set for life. This clearly shows the true motive of Yajna Purusha. Here let us quote Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur Prabhupada..." Deceitful and hypocritical persons may exhibit a high standard of external behavior. Motivated by the fulfillment of their own selfish desires, they wear the dress of saintly persons like actors on a stage. Such persons are jealous of others and always planning evil works...".
As the court battle began to determine who are actually the legitimate League of Devotees Board of Directors, we approached Yajna outside the courtroom and asked him - "Why are you doing this - going back on your word, misrepresenting the truth, connivingly playing such power politics; a DEVOTEE would never act like this!" His reply..." I am not a devotee...".
Many of you attending today's festivities can relate to the various issues being discussed herein...(A) the tragic consequences of misplaced faith in less-than-transparent 'spiritual' leadership, (B) institutionalized power-politics regarding 'spoils-of-war', i.e., temples, properties, monies, voting rights, etc., which can only be acquired after (C) totally and unequivocally decimating the opposition (one's own god-brothers!) in hopes of gaining full freedom to 'preach' love-of-Godhead, once the irreverent bhaktas have been fully checked in their efforts to worship Krsna. And so the court battle continues.
Today, we are calling on all sincere devotees to stand with us in our struggle to expose this gross materialism parading in the dress of brahminical culture, which is devastating Srila Prabhupada's movement and ruining the lives of so many individuals who gave their life's blood for this mission, only to find themselves cheated and broken-hearted by such unscrupulous 'brahmanas'.
Sri-Sri Radha Murlidhara are the presiding Deities of the Sanctuary, and ultimately we understand that They will decide who will remain as Their servitors. Thank you for your kind attention.
Please send your comments/suggestions: SaveTheSanctuary@yahoo.com
Check out Radhanath and Yajya Purusha, The Sanctuary Hijackers (or search for ‘Radhanath’ tag on YouTube.Com). [Please note: this video contains some objectionable language.]
