The Settlement as it Affects Me
BY: RATI MANJARI DEVI DASI
Oct 07, USA (SUN) — A point that was brought up by Matsya in his recent article, and which has been brought up by many over the years, is those evil little gurukulis who sued ISKCON. Just for the record, I am a gurukuli who was abused at Lake Huntington, New Vrindaban, Cincinnati, the list goes on. And I am receiving settlement payments.
I also thought his point of asking whether any of the gurukulis were using their settlement money for preaching was interesting. Well, I have another question. How many employees of ISKCON are using their wages for preaching? Or even a portion of it? People like to blame all of ISKCON's money problems on the settlement. Why do we never hear, "Well, the temple doesn't have any money because of the wages it pays out?"
And often it's the same people who encouraged gurukulis to join the settlement that then turn around and condemn them (directly or indirectly) for it. I remember some time back an official post from ISKCON Communications by Anuttama, stating that no one should condemn anyone who's joined the lawsuit. Then after that, in a town meeting in New Vrindaban, he said how the temple has no money because of the settlement. This was around the same time Malati was quoted in a Pittsburgh paper as commenting on some of the dilapidation of New Vrindaban, how the roof on the palace leaks, saying 'but we don't have the money to fix it because of the settlement'.
It comes from the top and goes all the way down, so that it just becomes the norm to blame everything on the settlement. A devotee heading up the sewing department had asked me to help with the new outfit, which I was happy to do. Then in a later conversation, she said that she was told by the accountant that she couldn't get much money for the fabric, as the temple didn't have much money because of the settlement.
Another devotee was telling me how the temple would not be providing free heating for their employee apartments this year, as the temple has no money because of the settlement. I told her that I found that hard to believe, as the settlement amounts are relatively small. After she quoted a figure that New Vrindaban paid last year towards the settlement, we did a very quick estimation of how much just her department employees are paid a year in salaries, wages, stipends, whatever you want to call it. And we did not include Kuladri's whopping sum, just the other few workers. The amount in wages was approximately $30,000 more for that year. And these wages continue to increase, year after year.
So, really ISKCON's financial problems can't be blamed on the settlement in any way shape or form.
