Reply to Hrishikesh dasa
BY: JANMASTAMI DASA (JOHN SINKOWSKI)
Dec 26, USA (SUN) — Having received Hrishikesh’s written request for an interview this week, and then having read his recent posting, we feel some obligation to assist him in resolving his doubts and confusion about a number of issues that he brings up.
He assures us that he "always tries to speak the truth", and while that may be difficult with a plethora of perhaps and maybes, we will take him at his word. We may assume that he is not unique in his pursuit.
First, his admissions indicate a number of points that he finds acceptable that may not find as wide an audience of supporters now as they once did at new Vrindaban. still, it goes to the mentality of the individuals, then and now, and the standards that certain individuals find acceptable.
Examples of these might be his repeated admission of ignorance ("we were in ignorance, we were in denial, we were in love"). His "appeal to authority" arguments might be more convincing were his "authorities" not convicted felons, serial killers, or lifelong pedophiles. Citing Tirtha's self adorations of nobility, based on what we know to be his
acts, may appear as a valid proof to a NV resident raised on such philosophy, but it scarcely makes such reasoning sound. Not unlike the very slanted hasty generalizations he has accused others of.
He does admit to knowing, now, about quite a litany of sexual abuse that was committed at NV. By attempting to set them aside as individual incidents, there seems to be a discounting of their devastating effect on the spiritual lives of the many thousands who are also aware of these occurrences. That he found out too late to stop them seems to have produced a certain air of tolerance, based on the perpetrators’ reported vast accumulations of past pious behavior. Such acceptance would find scant support outside the borders of NV or outside of It's circle of supporters.
He further goes on to admit that Hayagriva and Umapati had known about these things since the days they preyed on runaways and hippies in the East Village with Kirtanananda Swami. Surely they should have seen a return to "old habits" that they had acted on before. Did he not know that Hayagriva brought a load of Mexican lovers back to NV with him each year when he went to Mexico for the winter? Everyone else knew. Undocumented laborers to build the palace and a house full of gay lovers for Hayagriva. "A labor of love".
Some points of less agreement were these more arguable contentions:
"Sulocana believed that Kirtanananda Swami stole his wife and kids...maybe he was in
denial and dysfunctional"--- maybe he was highly correct in those assumptions. Didn't Kirtanananda Swami send two van loads of individuals with guns to take Sulocana's children from him when he tried to rescue them from Kirtanananda Swami’s gurukula? Wasn't Sulocana cent per cent accurate that that was not a safe place to have your children left alone at night? How can Sulocan be cast as the villian in light of what New Vrindaba still works so incredibly hard to cover up, that we all now know (by way of the oft maligned lawsuit; "this is an attack against Srila Prabhupada by a bunch
of dope smoking losers")?
"New Vrndaban has been a black sheep since it's earliest days"-- maybe for those who came to NV and KRSNA in the 80's, that was so. In the late 60's and early 70's, those "early days", NV was touted as "a working scale model" of how all the other farm communities should model themselves. Some still retain that vision, although Hrishikesh and his circle of consorts may not.
"I'm not saying Tirtha is free from illusion" -- shouldn't he be, to "make disciples"? Hasn't he done that? And on that same note, doesn't Bhagavad Gita, 1st chapter, tell us that a murderer is benefited when he is put to death? Why has Radhanatha deviated from this axiom of justice? Is it not because he feels the responsibility for sending those
death astras out after Sulocana and now they have come back to menace him? How does he like it? "NOT WELL!", by the recent resurgence in interest over these topics. Does he still claim, "Janmastami has anger issues"?
Further, the list of those abused by the New Vrindaban gurukula far exceeds Mayapur
and it is the result of the relocation of what started in Dallas, complete with many of the same cast members (try to think of it as a movie sequel; you know all the characters and how they will act and then you bring them all together, let them act, give it your full blessing and protection, and you know the rest...). Hrishikesh had to know that
Gopinath was abusing his head choir boy. Dina Sharana and Chakravarti left New Vrindaban in the rift with Gopinath. Gopinath was a serial pedophile who had Kirtanananda Swami’s full protection and ALL HIS FINANCIAL ASSETS. They were
kind of "joined at the hip", and it appears that they still are, if the most recent reports coming out of NYC are accurate.
Hrishikesh left off his list of Kirtanananda Swami abusees a number of cases that he should also, at least by now, know of. He does mention "others in the late 70's", fondling a boy in 1979, Bhava (which he calls 83, but it was earlier and into two years); Kaliya in 85, Caitanya Mangala in 86, but his list ends there. What about the 26 acres of New Vrindaban that Matthew Harris owns because he balked at a Kirtanananda Swami handjob? What about Maitreya, Paul, Patience, Deet, Lalita Madhava, and Hari Venu? This is still "only a partial list" in his maniacal seven years from 1979 -1986. The signs were there. We were in la-la land. "Don't find fault, we're all in the shower, yada, yada..."
Indian adventures also include pastimes with the notorious Nepali, Prahlad. Nepali Prahlad would pluck out the few chin whiskers he had to give the impression of being about twelve years old. He was well into his late twenties when he and Kirtanananda Swami were together. They were together whenever Kirtanananda Swami came to India, which was then 6 months out of every year. Kirtanananda Swami later subcontracted out the work "in that zone" to Radhanath, much as he had given Africa to Ghanasham (BTS), Canada to Gopal Krsna, Mexico to Tacopada, etc., etc. These are all verifiable facts, not conjecture.
I was on the lam in India for three years to cover up for Radhanath's "OOPS!". And now he tells me "you intimidate me". I told him we should have gotten our stories straight before he went home to daddy and had daddy fix everything. He just wouldn't listen. He and his homeboy, Chandramauli, told my wife and family and I to get out of New Vrindaban in 1994 and I'm a 4-time ISKCON life member. i own an "apartment for life" at New Vrindaban. I paid $ 10,000, in cash for that condo and I got thrown out because I am a piece of Radhanath's past that he would really like to forget. And if I want Srila Prabhupada as my guru instead of Radhanath, i can't come to take darshan of The Deities? We'll see about that.
John Sinkowski
AKA Janmastami das
