This Ain't Hearsay - Part I

BY: RADHA KRISHNA DAS

Nov 22, MEXICO CITY (SUN) — Since Hridayananda wasn't able to dazzle the devotees with his "brilliance," he is now trying to baffle them with his BS (the "Exaggerated Preponderance" diatribe written by his proxy/alter ego "Krishna das"). Therein he tries to discredit Rocana das' work at the Sampradaya Sun of denouncing his life of corruption, exploitation and disobedience.

One point made by "Krishna das" was that Rocana "peddled... a lot of hearsay by others." Rocana rightly replied that "of the various critical remarks recently made about him here in the Sun, the most damaging statements were not hearsay at all." Indeed, Aniruddha and Lalita Madhava's statements were not hearsay, but first person testimonials about Hridayananda's life of debauchery as per the standards of true sannyasa life. But besides those recounts there is much more on Hridayananda's deviations, although he keeps betting on ISKCON's short historical memory to be able to go from one affair to the next without accountability.

While we all read about Hridayananda's sannyasa antics, a group of Srila Prabhupada's disciples here in Mexico gathered to recall another incident linked to Hridayananda's loose sannyasa standards. This ain't hearsay, by the way, but something that we all lived and were witnesses of.

By the time when Srila Prabhupada personally rebuked Hridyananada in Mayapur for letting women in his bedroom, he already knew about another incident involving Hridayananda and the fair sex. That may be the reason why Srila Prabhupada was adamant in stating to Hridayananda that a sannyasi shouldn't freely and at will mingle with ladies.

Back in 1974, Hridayananda had just been appointed GBC of Latin America. At that time his zone consisted of temples in Argentina, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Venezuela. Our temple in Mexico City functioned normally, although it had problems and substandard practices, such as the worship of Sri Sri Radha Madan Gopal, installed just the previous year.

For that reason we were surprised that during that summer, Hridayananda called us from Puerto Rico asking us to send him three plane tickets from San Juan Puerto Rico to Mexico City. He had decided to transfer the local Deities of Sri Sri Gaura Nitai to Mexico because, as he explained, the Deity standard was bad and the Deities would do better in Mexico.

We wired the tickets and shortly, after Hridayananda arrived at the airport in Mexico accompanied by Sri Sri Gaur Nitai. We then noticed that besides himself and the Deities there was another person: Ananga Manjari dd, Hridayananda's former wife and now his widow.

At first we didn't know who Ananaga Manjari was, and Hridayananda didn't tell us a thing about it. The only thing we knew was that she was Their Lordships' pujari. Then, from other sources we found out the real nature of the pujari that had come to Mexico along with the Deities.

And she hadn't come to Mexico just to bring the Deities and install them. She was now here to stay as a pujari. We didn't object to this idea as we appreciated having someone with experience and team spirit join us in the temple service.

The Deities were installed in the altar, replacing another smaller set of Deities made of clay that were removed and were supposed to be sent to Puerto Rico, although that never happened. At the end they were submerged in a river near a farm that the Movement maintained for some time.

Things didn't develop as we thought they would originally. Just like the endless drama between Hridayananda and Devamrta that Aniruddha and Lalita Madhava chronicled in the Sun, a relationship loaded with agitation and duality began developing between Hridayananda and his widow. He would seek any excuse to see her and talk to her. They would fight like husband and wife in front of everyone, or he would have a devotee go and rebuke her on his behalf. He would sometimes criticize her and complain about her, knowing that she was right outside of the room listening to everything. Or he would send someone to tell her how angry and displeased he was with her, etc.

When they talked face to face he would end very agitated and in anxiety. He would then go to the main floor to take it out on the first person he would find, which usually was Maitreya Muni. Once he hit Maitreya with his danda in the head; another time he threw a bowl of prasadam at his face, just because he didn't like the taste of the food. As expected, he never apologized or acknowledged such reprobate behaviour.

As with the Brazilian mataji, Hridayananda used to call his widow into the room and talk to her while wearing just a gamsha. As expected, after some time his gamsha would move around and his "genital load" would become exposed. Devotees would then discreetly signal to him about the spectacle been made, but usually he wouldn't pay attention to them.

The important point here is that Hridayananda never had that type of behaviour with any other pujari or devotee. This was a soap opera in which uncontrollable lust and agitation could be seen in the air. You could also notice his determination to disregard the norms of conduct that a sannyasi is supposed to follow. This romantic drama unfolded in front of everyone's eyes and continued for some time. As one godbrother stated: "We had to put up with all his nonsense just because he was agitated and wanted to take this thing to the limit."

Devotees from Puerto Rico later told us that taking away the Deities from them was plain arbitrary. They felt that what Hridayananda really wanted was to take his widow to Mexico, because he spent more time here. The argument about the faulty Deity worship standards in Puerto Rica was just an excuse to bring her to Mexico. This also became evident to us while seeing the drama unfolding in front of our eyes.

In Mexico we also had problems with our Deity standards, and so bringing Sri Sri Gaura Nitai from Puerto Rico was not the solution to the alleged problem there. And then, to take care of the Deities came the very same person who was taking care of them in Puerto Rico. So this whole idea didn't make any sense.

This situation became known in the United States and there were bets on Hridayananda's imminent falldown. Different devotees told us that this incident came to Srila Prabhupada's attention, and that he had requested the GBC in the U.S. to do something about it.

Arrangements were made so that Ananga Manjari would leave Mexico immediately, as things couldn't continue this way. So a substitute pujari was sent to Mexico, a mataji from Boston named Nanda dasi, who for the last few years has lived in Alachua. Nanda dasi didn't come to Mexico just because one of us knew her and invited her to come to Mexico, but she showed up one day as a pujari while Ananga Manjari was frisked away from Mexico.

Many devotees remember Ananga Manjari and the circumstances of her arrival in Mexico in 1974. Just a few years back, she and her husband came to the Rathayatra in Mexico. In conversations with local devotees, he stated how previously his wife had lived in the Mexico City temple.

From this we can see how Hridayananda is ready to take his deviations to the limit, to flirt with a falldown, and to stretch the principles to the edge. He did it then in Mexico, and he has been doing it ever since. For some of us who were witness to his affair in Mexico, the Devamrta affair and other misconducts over the years are not a surprise. What is a surprise is his ability to fool followers and well wishers perennially, and set such a bad standard for Srila Prabhupada's movement.

The facts speak for themselves, no hearsay here:

1. What are Puerto Rico's Sri Sri Gaura Nitai Deities doing in Mexico? Is there any justification for having them brought here in 1974? As of yet we haven't found any, other than being the whims of a man in love.

2. According to the devotees from Puerto Rico that some of us got to talk to, the local Deity standard wasn't bad. There wasn't any justification to remove the Deities from there. In any case, if the Deity standard in Puerto Rico was bad it would be the fault of their pujari. But we all saw that same pujari in Mexico doing very competent work, and she along with others could have done that same good work in Puerto Rico.

3. How is it that suddenly Hridayananda tells us of his plan to bring the Deities to Mexico to give them a better standard of worship if we didn't really have a good program here? Why not send them to any temple in the U.S.?

4. How is it that Nanda dasi ended up in Mexico City as a pujari in 1974 and stayed here until 1975, and was present during Srila Prabhupada's visit to Mexico in 1975? No one knew her here and she only arrived after the drama with Ananga Manjari became unbearable and Hridayananda's falldown was becoming imminent.

5. Many Srila Prabhupada disciples here in Mexico were witnesses to this embarrassing affair that Hridayananda insisted on maintaining with his widow. So there is no question of us misunderstanding what really went on. By the way, all along Ananga Manjari behaved much more as a lady than Hridayananda as a gentleman and a sannyasi. He was manipulative, exploitive, and out of control, and we don't need him or "Krishna das" to come and tell us some BS as to what really happened here.

6. The conclusion of all witnesses to this affair is that Hridayananda brought his widow to Mexico because he used to spend more time here, and thus would spend more time with her here. He used the Puerto Rico Deities as a tool to bring his widow to Mexico and be with her.

To wrap this story up, what follows is an excerpt of a letter that Srila Prabhupada wrote precisely to Hridayananda just a few months after the incident narrated here. Could it be that Srila Prabhupada was giving him an instruction concerning this incident and letting him know what he expected from him?

- - - - - - - - -

October 31, 1974

Bombay

My Dear Hrdayananda das Goswami:

Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated September 26, 1974 and have noted the contents.

I am very glad to note that you are seeing that the devotees are maintaining the devotional practices. This is the secret to success. Therefore I am stressing it. And, if you also stress it and show yourself as an ideal Vaisnava, then you are my representative in fullness.

We are not after titles and designations. Lord Caitanya made it a principle that we must teach by personal example. This is what I have tried to do. So if all of you my disciples do this, then the future of our movement will be glorious.



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