New Leadership for Costa Rica, Part 2
BY: YADU DAS
Dec 30, COSTA RICA (SUN) — A complaint and a request.
Letter from Virabahu Prabhu
“I Said it, and I Repeat it Again”
TO:
Sannyasis,
GBCs,
Regional Secretaries,
Temple Presidents,
Srila Prabhupada’s disciples,
Senior members,
ISKCON Authorities,
And Concerned Members of ISKCON,
Respected Vaisnavas, Please accept my most humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
There is a great need for a new international leadership for Costa Rica, and I have suggested the name of HARINAMANANDA.
In our second article we ended with a question about how the local devotees in Peru reacted to Virabahu’s letter accusing Daru Krishna of being a swindler. Here you can find the answer plus another letter from Virabahu Prabhu, set in the context of a series of articles which, when taken together, constitute a case study. Please read this paper.
Virabahu, the fallible man - Part 3
The next part of a documentary presented by Yadu das to preserve the farm in Costa Rica, of 50 acres, worth four to five million dollars.
Dear devotees of ISKCON worldwide. Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
Let us continue with this case by answering the questions at the end of Part Two.
How did the local devotees react to the accusations and directions from Virabahu?
Was Daru Krishna Prabhu informed about his letter? And if so, what did he do?
Gita Govinda Das showed Virabahu’s letter to the Board of Director of ISKCON Peru. In the Board there are still devotees who have great respect for Daru Krishna Prabhu and who know him since the time he was in charge of the Yatra. These devotees did not agree with the accusations Virabahu made against Daru Krishna Prabhu, and they showed him the letter.
Then Daru Krishna Prabhu wrote a letter putting everything in the right perspective. He narrated how in the past Virabahu lend money to ISKCON Peru, receiving in exchange interests and other benefits, like extra money. Daru Krishna also asked the devotees who had been at the Board during his time if they still remembered the details.
In answer to Daru Krishna Prabhu’s letter many devotees wrote to Virabahu, protesting for the false accusations and clarifying that Daru Krishna Prabhu did not go away leaving behind a personal debt in Peru. They said that Daru Krishna Prabhu had never acted improperly, and that they have the greatest regard for him for his unquestionable honesty, his innumerable tapasyas and the many personal inconveniences he had undergone for developing Srila Prabhupada’s movement in Peru. Of all these things they were direct and personal witnesses, for they had lived together during those times.
Among the devotees who wrote in defense of Daru Krishna Prabhu were: Kamadeva, Jaya Sri Krishna, Avadhuta, Rama Saundarya, Raghunath Das, and others.
They all wrote letters protesting against Virabahu’s accusations and attesting the exemplary integrity of Daru Krishna Prabhu. In all these letters they declare that the debt was not a personal debt of Daru Krishna, but a debt of the Yatra.
In answer to these protests Virabahu writes another “magnificent letter” to the Board of Directors. The letter could be qualified as “as it should not be”, but for the information of our readers we present it here as it is.
Third Letter of the Exchange
From Virabahu to the Board of Directors of ISKCON Peru
Introductory note: In this letter Virabahu reiterates his accusations against Daru Krishna Prabhu.
From ISKCON New Dvaraka, Los Angeles
For Daru Krishna and other vaisnavas receiving this message:
Please accept my obeisances and my blessings, as it may correspond.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
Due to the many letters of support that Daru Krishna Prabhu has received from devotees who were members of the Administration and Finance of the Yatra of Peru, at the times of the loans, I offer my apology to him and to the devotees who have felt offended for what does not apply in the accusation. Judge by yourselves what is applicable as I explain it.
I did not reach any agreement with the administrators. Anything other than that Daru Krishna Prabhu himself was responsible, was decision taken without my consent.
It is true what I said, and I repeat it: since the moment I understood that Daru Krishna Prabhu did not accept the responsibility to pay back the debt, I cut my relationship with him. It is also true that I gave him my credit card based on the trust that I had specifically in him. All of you must agree that I had this kind of relationship only with him, and therefore, I was counting on him to ensure the payments.
Unfortunately, with the exception of the bank reports that I still keep in printed form, now everything else has been consigned to our memories, and it is depending on what the different participants can remember. There are certain things that I myself do not remember.
The very letters of support testify about the debt-no one has negated it-and the truth is that the person to whom I gave my credit card imposed upon me such a debt without my consent. The sacred land of Vrindavan was a witness to my surprise when I saw there the account reports with the expenses of the tickets he has bough without telling me. And the same and sacred Vrindavan was a witness of my conversation with him on this regard, in which I expressed my surprise and immense preoccupation with the amount of the debt. Vrindavan is a witness of the responsibility that he assumed there.
I never made any arrangement of this type with any other devotee of the Administration of the Yatra, who have now sent the letters of protest. I would have never made a loan to the Yatra without any guarantor. My act of offering my credit card was exclusively to him, trusting in his honesty as a guaranty for the payments. But it did not happen. He forgot it all and never talked to me again about this. He did not show any interest or concern for the situation he had left me in. For this reason I used the word “swindled”, for I have felt that way during all these years. The proof of this is that I cut my relationship with Daru Krishna Prabhu.
I have spoken about this to the Board, forced by the circumstances. Otherwise I would have not done so. I have accepted all the things that happened as a personal lesson, and I have assumed the payment of somebody else’s debt. It is ironic that, although I have been the person who has really suffered for this-who in fact has to assume the debt and pay it-now it has become the most important thing to condemn my dissatisfaction with the person who was responsible for creating it.
My definition of responsibility is such that, when I gave him my credit card I was assuring the bank that I would pay if necessary, and I did so. With that definition of responsibility I gave him my credit card, and it was supposed that he would act in the same way. I trusted him that the minimum he would do was to make sure that the debt would be paid. It was a “gentlemen’s” agreement. Undoubtedly it was my mistake, which I have always accepted, and for which I have paid so badly.
The behavior of Daru Krishna Prabhu made me lose my trust in him, and I have been forced to express it in my letter answering the question that was made on behalf of the Board.
Other things related to the recent events of the Yatra should be dealt with in a separate letter.
Once again I offer my apology for any uncomfortable feelings or dissatisfaction that I may have caused for expressing my bad and painful experience.
Hoping you are well, I remain
your servant and well-wisher,
Virabahu Dasa
Yadu’s comments:
Virabahu says that he offers his apology, not because he acknowledges that what he has said in the previous letter is false, but because his words hurt many devotees who appreciate and respect Daru Krishna Prabhu.
After his apology for hurting the feelings of the devotees, Virabahu reiterate his accusations, stating again that Daru Krishna Prabhu did not pay a personal debt and illegitimately imposed it to the Yatra, and that this was the reason why he had called Daru Krishna Prabhu a “swindler”. Then Virabahu’s whole letter rotates around this point.
A thing worth noticing is that although the debt is already paid-and that also, through the money collected by his own disciples-Virabahu remains traumatized. In the whole letter there is a constant crying, and he tells us that even now he keeps the little receipts of the printed accounts.
His trauma for an old debt which is already paid doesn’t tell us a lot of Virabahu’s absorption in transcendental topics, but he uses the Holy Dham as a witness: “The sacred land of Vrindavan was a witness to my surprise”. “And the same and sacred Vrindavan was a witness of my INMENSE PREOCUPATION”. “Vrindavan is a witness”.
Do these references to Vrindavan tell us that Virabahu loves Vrindavan a lot, or that he loves the money much more?
In his first letter Virabahu had already told us that “This debt caused me GREAT ANGUISH”. And in this second letter, acknowledging himself as a fallible man, he continues crying: “Undoubtedly it was my mistake”. “...for which I have paid so badly”.
And he concludes his letter with more tears: “Once again I offer my apology for any uncomfortable feelings or dissatisfaction that I may have caused for expressing my bad and PAINFUL experience”.
It is indeed sad that a person with the spiritual status of Virabahu laments so much for money. However, perhaps he is now somewhat happy with the perspective of selling the Costa Rica farm in four or five million dollars. If that happens, most likely he will forget his present trauma. But this is not the correct way to overcomes traumas. He has no right to destroy the program in Costa Rica simply to satisfy the pains of his mind.
Nevertheless, Virabahu wants to impress us as a responsible person, and he says: “My definition of responsibility is such that, when I gave him my credit card I was assuring the bank that I would pay, if necessary, and I did so.
Virabahu paid the debt to the bank but through the endeavors of his disciples. I have heard that in Los Angeles a devotee lady from Latin America had to work so hard and swallow so much smog from morning to evening that one day the pressure was so big that she collapsed and had to be taken in an emergency to the hospital and she spent several days in bed. Another source speaks of a lady in Mendoza (Argentina), who came to such a degree of stress that spoke of committing suicide.
Perhaps it is true that Virabahu has been responsible in paying the debt to the bank, but he has not been equally responsible with these two lady disciples. Instead of expanding his GBC zone irresponsibly, taking Mexico and Costa Rica under his supervision, perhaps he should give more time to his disciples.
There is a devotee named Priya Swarup Das, from Venezuela. Virabahu gave him second initiation during the Mayapur festival when the colossal Deities of Pancha-Tattva were installed. Although Priya Swarup was Virabahu’s personal servant, Virabahu did not have time to tell him the gayatri mantra, and he took 25 days to do so. (!)
If Virabahu has no time to tell the gayatri mantra, and such tiny duty takes him 25 days, how is he going to have time to give more complex instructions? How is he going to find time to monitor closely the spiritual growth of his disciples and guide them in the appropriate way? How is he going to have time to think what is best for Costa Rica, a country that he had never visited?
But Virabahu feels pride in telling us that he had a great sense of responsibility to pay the debt to the bank. Actually, what Virabahu wanted is to have a clear credit card, because he thinks that having a credit card is important. For a businessman or for a householder, yes, a credit card may be important, but Virabahu is neither a businessman nor a householder. Virabahu is an impractical man. He spent years to graduate as an electric engineer, but never worked a single day.
I know Virabahu. He speaks well and impress, but in reality he is an impractical fellow. We served together for some time at the Spanish BBT under the authority of Radha Krishna Swami. After that I went to Spain to serve with Vedavyasa. Virabahu stayed for ten years at the Spanish BBT, with all expenses paid. He had his office, his equipment, his apartment, his food, all paid by the BBT, and on top of this, a monthly allowance. His sacred responsibility was to translate all of Srila Prabhupada’s books in Spanish, but Virabahu failed to ALL LATINAMERICAN DEVOTEES.
When Virabahu appears in Costa Rica or Mexico with the intention to direct or have a saying on the local programs, then, devotees: “Fasten your seat-belts…this is not going to be a smooth flight!”
Now, let’s return to Virabahu’s accusation against Daru Krishna Prabhu. When Virabahu reiterates and insists to the Board of Directors of ISKCON Peru that Daru Krishna Prabhu owes him personal money, what did Daru Krishna Prabhu do? Has he decided to do some business to pay Virabahu what he claims, or has he decided to answer in a dignified way against these false accusations?
Please read the Fourth Part of this documentary.
End of this Part.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada,
Yadu Das
Virabahu, the fallible man - Part 4
Due to Virabahu’s insistence both in his letter to Gita Govinda as well as in his letter to the Board of Directors of ISKCON Peru, accusing Daru Krishna Prabhu of being a swindler and other things, Daru Krishna Prabhu was forced to write the reply that we present right here. Such reply is very clear and exactly according to the reality of the events. It is as follows:
Fourth Letter of the Exchange
From Daru Krishna Prabhu to Virabahu
From ISKCON Chosica, Peru
Virabahu Prabhu,
Accept my obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
I just received your absurd letter to Gita Govinda and I am very much surprised and annoyed for the low class way in which you have distorted the truth in relation to the debt. Now I will take my time to respond to your accusations and to demonstrate that you have totally deformed the facts. I feel shame on your behalf for what you are doing, which in no way corresponds to the position you have assumed in Srila Prabhupada’s Movement.
THE WHOLE STORY
You were invited to Peru by me at a time when the International GBC determined that certain GBC members that had a zone too big for their administration should work with some other GBC man (co-GBC). It was I who had to select the candidate, who in our case was supposed to become the most active and closely related GBC for our yatra. I chose you, although at that time you have never been a GBC anywhere else, and therefore it was due to this that they made you a GBC. You may remember that you used to joke with me that I was your “godfather fairy”, because it was due to me that you was made a GBC. At that time I did not know that you have never been a leader, and that therefore you did not have experience. In a very short time, for me and for the other members of the Board that became self-evident.
I cannot tell the exact year, but it was at the time when Raghunath Prabhu was in need of buying a car of certain quality to visit certain type of customers with whom he was dealing, that the business transactions began between you and ISKCON Lima (not between you and Daru Krishna Das). This has been corroborated by the then members of the Board of Directors, whose e-mail letters I am sending to you together with this. You offered to lend money and explained that that will also help you to improve your credit status in the U.S.A. Besides paying our monthly installments we were giving you $200 every month as a gift, and you used to call it “the special tax on the beautiful car”.
This lasted a year or more, but one day, on the request of Raghunath Prabhu the loan was pay completely, and you received the benefits of the good credit you were looking for. Then and there you offered to make more loans under another mode. You offered to give us an extension of your two credit cards and to charge a monthly interest for their use.
That business, according to what you yourself told us, will also give you credit points and allow you to get a percentage of the interest.
All the members of the Board of Directors of ISKCON Lima at that time were consulted and dully informed of the agreement, not only by me but also by you. And this is being confirmed in the e-mails. This proves without a doubt that the one defiling the truth is you when you say that I assumed a personal debt.
The money spent and paid back to you during several months was considerable. For example, once we printed books for $6.000, and some construction and improvements were made on ISKCON properties, etc. I remember that one time Mahavirya Prabhu took charge of paying you $20.000. I also remember that no sooner these transactions began, a gift of $ 1.200 was given to you through mother Gobirata, who had collected that money.
The business was convenient to you and to the temple. To the temple because in that way we could solve the problems of having little cash since it was a time in which we were making many expenses and investment. And for you it meant more credit points and profit by interest charges. This continued for a good long time, until one day when I left the Administration of the yatra, and there was a debt of about $12.000 (twelve thousand dollars).
The most obvious proof that the Board of Directors knew about this and that it assumed the debt is that in the last meeting in which I was present this topic was discussed. Present in that meeting were:
Kamadeva P.
Ananta Sri P.
Madhava Hari P.
Jaya Sri Krishna P.
Anuttama P.
Avadhuta P.
Yadu P.
Krishna Harini.
There were also other prabhus and matajis that I may remember sooner or later.
In that meeting it was agreed that the payment of the debt was a priority. Nobody told me at that time, or later on, that the debt was mine or nothing like that. Therefore, it is an official thing that ISKCON Lima had a debt to you, not I. The letters that I have just received from Kamadeva, Jaya Sri Krishna, Avadhuta and Rama Saundarya-which I attach to this one-put you on a bad light and leave you without any argument. To avoid disturbing her mind, I have preferred not to ask your lady disciple Krishna Harini to write to you. But, as everybody else, she is also aware of what happened.
A year later or so, when due to some reason the devotees in charge of the new Administration did not keep the payment of your debt as a priority, you sent them a letter informing them that you were raising the interest rate to 27% or 28% and that they have to pay this rate not only from that moment onwards but also retroactively for all the months they have fell behind. Due to this the debt took astronomical proportions, and it became apparent to the devotees that it was impossible to pay it. So, it seems that you did not apply a good strategy to ask for the payment.
But pay attention to this, here is something that deserves noticing: You and I met in Miami in 1998, two years after I have left the direct Administration and Finances of Peru, and at least six months after I have rendered my resignation as Regional Secretary. I took you in the company car I was using for working, from Miami to Alachua. During the five hours trip we have a very friendly conversation. Then you thanked me for the ride and told me that the trip has been very pleasing. Among the many things we talked about I told you that in the last payment we had made to your credit card I had included the money that corresponded to my personal expenses, and that in order to make such a payment I have borrowed from Raghunath Prabhu. Even while I was explaining this, you helped me to finish a sentence, saying that I had transferred a loan from one person to another.
I remember that later on I told Raghunath that I preferred to owe to him and not to you. Many times Raghunath had lent me good amounts of money, without interest, to help me after I left Peru, and with whatever I am able to get from my work I have paid him back little by little. Like the rest of the devotees, he knows very well that in all the years in householder life I had not taken care of my personal economy, because I was a 100% dedicated to the service entrusted to me, and that I have come to the U.S.A without any resources to begin my new life. Every business I created and all the money produced was for the ISKCON yatra, and I never claimed one penny or put anything in my pocket. Of this everyone is a witness. In that trip from Miami to Alachua it was clear to you that by borrowing from Raghunath I have paid to you all the personal expenses I have made from Wong, etc. -which you mentioned in your letter-and it was clear to you also that whatever debt remained was the expenses of the yatra.
But let us suppose, only suppose, that there remained in your debt any personal expenses from me that I did not pay back. The fact that the loans or business-and consequently also the debt- was accepted by the temple, it means that the temple would be paying for the expenses of its leader, who at that time used to receive an allowance for being a 100% dedicated to the service of the institution. Even if it would have been so (that a personal debt of mine would have remained unpaid) you could not accused me of anything, much less treating me as swindler and cynical.
On the other hand, if somebody is responsible for the economic growth of a project, then he should not be made to pay only the debts, but he should also be allowed a share in the profits. In other words, if-as you say-the debt should be put squarely on my shoulders, then at least some of the income and benefits produced by the project should also be mine. If that would be the case, ISKCON Lima would owe me dozens of thousands of dollars from the profit produced from the selling of paintings, from the restaurants, and from “Govinda Natural Products”. Don’t you think so?
Regarding the airfare tickets, it was very clear for the devotees what the arrangement was, and that was done according to the rules that were always followed for such loans. One of tickets was for Jagadish, who never paid it back. And in the case of a couple of prabhus or matajis, the cash that they gave for the tickets was used, among other things, to do some shopping in India for the temple.
Then, in 1998, as I already said, you acknowledged that the debt was the yatra’s, not mine. (Proof of this is that in that occasion you perfectly knew that I was in Zero Economy and that I was in no position whatsoever to pay it, but in the conversation you never suggested that I should pay.) Then, how is it that after some time you came up with such a barbarous language? Simply because those who accepted the commitment to pay you did not do so, has that debt automatically become my responsibility?
When after some time you came to me and complained why the temple was not paying you, I reminded you of how things had been arranged, I reminded you of the agreement, and you never answered my arguments. At that time you just kept silent.
Prabhu, I invited you to the Peru yatra when it was already a flourishing project. I gave you all my friendship and trusted you. I entrusted a group of devotees who were very close to me to be initiated by you. When I resigned you were still the GBC and I left a project worth more than $700.000 (seven hundred thousand dollars) in properties, two restaurants, an enterprise of natural products running smoothly, and also I left the best image that the Hare Krishna Movement has ever had in Latin America and in a great part of the world. You yourself were highly impressed from the beginning and said that the Lima yatra was the best example for all other temples. But it so came to be, that now you are such a miser that the only thing you want to see is that I left a debt of perhaps 15 or 20.000 dollars.
You are pretending to rob me from the only thing I have taken: a decent reputation. I understand that the debt caused you great anguish, but that doesn’t mean that you can satisfy your mind slandering me. I will not allow you to do that, and I am ready to go to the last consequences if you continue your defamation, which is a crime punishable even by the norms of the external world. By no means do I think to remain with my hands crossed doing nothing. Rather I will try to find all the available means to present things as they are and to protect myself from your absurd insults. Your e-mail letter is the proof of your infamy in my hands. The e-mails of the devotees who formed the Board at that time are the proof of the falsehood of your statements.
It is worth noticing that you were doing the same kind of business with the temple in Rosario, Argentina. Then the president left leaving a debt of more than hundred thousand dollars, which made this temple to disappear from the face of the Earth. There the debt to you was much bigger than in Lima. Due to this, a group of devotees began to collect to pay you and the pressure came to such an intense degree, especially with your own disciples, that a lady disciple of yours (I think she was the mother collecting in Mendoza) felt so much anguish and pressured that she spoke of taking away her life. This news went around the world and it put you in a very complicated situation. This is something extremely important and instructive if at all we are able to take the bad experiences to learn from them.
In the same trip to Alachua you had a meeting with Kardama Muni Prabhu, a disciple of Srila Prabhupada, member of the Board of Directors of ISKCON Alachua, who besides being an excellent charter accountant, is also very sober, honest and highly respected. Since we worked together, the next day I asked him about the meeting. He told me that you wanted to know certain things in relationship to taxes due to the huge amount of money passing through your accounts and also due to the debts you had. He also told me that he could not see how you, being a GBC, have been doing business with the temples you were supposed to supervise. According to him this was a conflict of interests, and even more so when you have to go around asking the temple to pay you the debts. The last thing he said is that a GBC cannot do that under any circumstance, and that if you pretended to ask that the debt be pay back to you, first you should resign to your position.
Kardama Muni Prabhu told me that you have told him that it was ISKCON Lima who owed you, not I. Any one can contact him to confirm this. We worked together for three years during which he made me his friend and trusted me, and up to the present day he has a good opinion of me and of my honesty in dealing with money and people. When I informed him about the retroactive interest that you have charged to the debt, he told me that this was ridicule, that with the credit that you had you could have transferred the balance between 0% and 4%. And that the best thing you should have done to help the temple to pay back the debt to you, would have been to freeze the interest, but instead you raised it to the clouds and made the debt impossible to pay.
After listening to Kardama Prabhu I realized the mistake that you and all of us as temple devotees had made. We should have never made this kind of business transactions because they interfere and take away the transparency and neutrality in the relationship between authority (GBC) and temple. Srila Prabhupada would have never allowed a GBC do this kind of business. I imagine that you have already considered this and accepted that to a great extend the loss that you had was due to the irregularity of the transactions. What begins badly usually ends badly. Of course this doesn’t justify that the devotees did not pay you back. They also had a responsibility. At the same time we know that you have received many dozens of thousands of dollars to help you to pay the debts, from Havi Prabhu, Bhakti Bhusana Swami and from a disciple.
You call me a swindler and compare me with a sannyasi that mortgaged the Miami temple with forged signatures, committing a grave misdemeanor that put the Movement in great danger in the U.S.A. The paradox here is that you yourself were the GBC for Miami and you had received information of what was going on. You knew well the great visa business. More than 40 visas were sold to Chinese and Indian citizens, and 12 karmis were “sent” from Peru. All of this was timely reported to you by the devotees from Lima. The devotees wanted to make an official complain at the Embassy but I asked them not to do so to avoid damaging the prestige of the Movement, and I sent you an immediate message explaining what was happening between the sannyasi you mention and a Chinese-Peruvian fellow named Choy, who was representing him in Lima, organizing the whole show, shaving these people, disguising them as devotees, taking their pictures in front of the temple altar to show to the Embassy.
All these people of the lowest class lived at Wilson, sharing the house with the brahmacaris. You knew this, but did not answer my message, nor did you take any immediate action. Nor did you do anything even after months, although the situation was self-evident and it was happening under your own nose. These people traveled with their religious visa and established themselves at the temple that you were supervising, and which you were supposed to protect against any illegal act. The great scandal became public because someone complained to law officials. It was only by the infinite mercy of Krishna that the situation did not reach its worst consequences. After this you were forced to resign from your GBC position for Miami, leaving for the new management one of the greatest messes a temple has ever faced. So I ask you: where was “the guardian dog” that Srila Prabhupada said that every one of his GBC men was supposed to be to guard his temples?
Just now you have sent to Phanideva Das your message accusing me of being a swindler. Phanideva is the very same individual you saw acting in the most dishonest and shameless way when he left our Govinda Natural Products factory. He stole all the manufacturing formulae and ideas to later on become the most lethal and disloyal competition that could be done against a productive temple project destined mainly to maintain the Deities. And at the same time, without any shame he pretended to make everyone believe that what he had done was correct and justified. In this regard you did not do anything, as we were expecting from our GBC, but the worst thing is that a few years later you allowed the very same Phanideva to became nothing else and nothing less that the President of ISKCON Lima, and the ADMINISTRATOR of Govinda Natural Products, so that for sure he could continue taking advantage of the temple’s income. This is the same Phanideva that had been just removed from his position by unanimous vote from the many devotees of the Board of Directors who were tired of the abuses perpetrated by him and his wife, abuses you did not do anything to stop in spite of the complains.
This is the same Phanideva that a day before had agreed in front of everyone that there should be an impartial inventory to corroborate was his debts were, but the next day entered into the boutique of the Govinda’s in Miraflores accompanied by his violent wife, to take absolutely everything that was inside the boutique. The mess was seen by the Govinda’s customers and even the police had to come. To this Phanideva you are supporting until the end, and to him you send your message saying that I am a swindler!!
The devotees from Peru, here and abroad, have been openly speaking for a long time about your inefficiency and inaction, which you have tried to remedy by inviting to this country devotees from Australia, with a great, but really a great, ignorance of the reality of Peru, that due to their blunders ISKCON has lost much more that the debt you are complaining about. There was a time when there were here 3 GBCs and 2 Regional Secretaries, and this produced the greatest chaos that the yatra of Peru has ever seen, especially in the economy. Now tell me, if you are the GBC in charge of Peru, why are you employing so many people to come to supervise and managed this place, if this is the service that logically belongs to you?
You have assumed a series of responsibilities that the facts and history demonstrate that you have not fulfilled. Apart from the above facts about Peru, which-considering the results-are very grave, in Venezuela also, in front of your own eyes and the other GBC’s the Movement began to dwindle until it came a time when the Deities were going to be moved to Trinidad, because in Venezuela there was nothing and no one. It was because mother Vrajaseva remembered Srila Prabhupada’s request to take care of the Deities when he visited Caracas, that she, unable to tolerate that such a thing could happen-that the Deities could disappear from Venezuela-went alone to collect in the U.S.A (without your help and without your support). And she collected the money needed to buy a house for the Deities. Had not been for her, ISKCON Venezuela would have practically disappeared. In Bolivia you were made to know that they no longer needed you. In Alachua the devotees removed you for your lack of participation, effectiveness and identification with the community. Ever since whenever you go to Alachua, you do it incognito and never enter the temple during the programs or when there are devotees. All of this is seen by the community as very improper behavior.
In 1999 the GBC body chastised you for your deficiency and other matters. In Peru, after you took a hostile and whimsical attitude against one of the devotees who was making a mayor personal sacrifice and was collecting the most for buying the ISKCON properties and for the construction of the temple, and due to your arrogance, all the members of the Board of Directors decided to ask you to resign from your GBC post. Then you said that if you were no longer a GBC you would not come any longer to Peru. This put us between the sword and the wall, because just some time before you have initiated a group of devotees who were going to feel very bad if you stop coming. Therefore we had to accept that you continued as a GBC.
One by one, each member of the Board entered your room to talk to you, and everyone told you the same thing. You said that you have received the message and we notice a change in your attitude. But after some time you began to demand something that is obtained automatically when one deserves it: respect. Practically you forced the devotees to call you Maharaja, a title that Srila Prabhupada reserved for the sannyasis. When I mentioned you this, you told me that Prahlada Maharaja y Yudhisthira Maharaja were not sannyasis, but had the title. I told you that they were kings and therefore they have this title. Then you kept silence. A devotee wrote you a letter and called you “Prabhu”, in your answer you sarcastically wrote “from a Prabhu to another Prabhu” as if telling him “do you think that we are on the same level, that you are prabhu and I am also”. The result was that this devotee lost the respect that he had for you.
A good advice even from the mice: Make yourself a favor, stop spitting against the wind. Your message and accusations have caused indignation and rejection from a group of devotees, and the proof is that I myself received it the next day after you sent it. You should act more soberly, think carefully and control what you say. You should understand that what you are so happily expressing can cause terrible consequences in the mind and consciousness of many devotees. Try to imagine what your disciples who know me since so many year and who did devotional service very close to me since the time they came to the Movement, may think of your message. What do you think, for example, that would be the reaction of Krishna Harini and Hari Lila, with whom I still maintain a spiritual relationship. Krishna Harini was a member of the Board and knows very well how things were conducted and managed. She knows the nature of the debt, because she herself was one of the participants. And Krishna Lila knows me since she was thirteen and she appreciates and respects me. How these devotees could accommodate in their minds the barbarities that their guru is saying?
Prabhu, I know very well that I am in an elementary stage of devotional service, that I am a conditioned soul, that I am full of anarthas and that during my years of service I have made many mistakes and offenses. I openly acknowledge all this. Unlike you, I am not presenting myself as a bonafide spiritual master with the power to bestow Krishna-prema and bring his disciples to Goloka Vrindavan. No one can make me a birthday feast like yours (see photo) because my head would fall off out of shame. In other words, I have never swindled anybody by presenting myself as what I am not or permitting people to see me as a liberated soul worthy of receiving the worship reserved for those who have achieved perfection. But you do present yourself as such in the Society, and the truth is that the shoe is too big to fit you. The devotees, especially the senior ones, know who is who. They can see the difference between a self-controlled and equipoise person, a dhira, and someone who is carried away by the mode of passion and acts motivated by his own personal interest. Instead of receiving from you appropriate guidance and Krishna Katha, here the devotees are hearing you chanting “my money, my money”.
It is very obvious that you are desperately trying to destroy my reputation. Probable you have your own reasons, but the one who is looking very bad is you, and the proof is the indignation that your message has created among those who have read it. Without exception, every devotee who read it o heard about and contacted me, has become upset and strongly disapproved of you insolent and offensive attitude. Your picture with the photo sitting on the vyasasana has already begun to leave some of the altars. They think that you are not only offending a devotee, but also the yatra and its history.
In relation with this, the following is an extract from Virabahu’s letter to a disciple:
“In relation to the temples and devotees of ISKCON Peru, a committee appointed by the Board should talk to him. He should be told that his visits to the community and ISKCON projects in Peru could be restricted if he expresses antagonism towards ISKCON or toward the system of administration and governance established by Srila Prabhupada, or if he does proselytism within ISKCON in favor of other Vaisnava institutions.”
In this regard I want to tell you the following: You and I know very well that there was a time, before you were guru or GBC, that you showed antagonism against the system of administration and governance of ISKCON. There are many devotees who know you since that time, and who have heard directly from you your statements about your views. You and Radha Krishna were known as revolutionaries, and were listed among the reformists in Los Angeles, from where the news would come down all the way to us in Peru. Nowadays criticizing the GBC happens even from within the GBC men themselves. Even GBC gurus like Sivaram Swami and the famous Indradyumna Swami have criticized with crude words one of the gurus who regularly visits Peru, through e-mails that have been sent around and that have never been refuted. But nobody has restricted their visits to ISKCON temples. And what to speak of Jayadvaita Swami and the things that he has said about the GBC and ISKCON Administration. He travels everywhere and preaches in all the temples. And Ravindra Swarup himself when he was the chairman of the GBC criticized the Movement by saying that it was in the process of disintegration. I remember that when I was the president of ISKCON Lima I used to hear from you-gurus and GBCs-criticizing each other, and I had to perform almost an impossible task so that the devotees do not become aware of the type of relationship that the leaders had among themselves, which in the best of cases, was diplomatic. Sadhu-sanga between you and the others was conspicuous by its absence.
That is the reality in which our Society is living practically since Srila Prabhupada’s departure from the planet, and it happens because the chaos in the Movement is such that it creates all this. And who can avoid it? Therefore, if I criticize or comment over something, it is nothing different that what many other people in ISKCON are doing, among whom you find sannyasis, gurus and even GBCs. Since this letter will be read by some devotees I am not going to mentioned what a sannyasi who visits this yatra told me about what he thinks of the present leadership of the Movement, and what he thinks that must happen in a near future. In any case, I myself-as many local devotees here can testify- never do anything that go against ISKCON’s interest. Rather, I try to encourage the devotees in continuing and protecting the programs and projects that they already have. I believe that I am more interested than you in the welfare of the programs in Peru, and it bothers me the neglected condition in which they are, which is the result of the lack of guidance and leadership.
Regarding proselytism, you know well that since the 80’s I have found inspiration in Vaisnava sadhus who were not members of our institution, but not “in other institutions”. In my library there were books of Srila Sridhara Maharaja, from whom you also took inspiration at a certain time, something which ISKCON did not approve. You may remember that the GBC called this Maharaja a demon, but when he left this world, they published in the BTG, the official ISKCON Magazine, a homage to him and said that he had gone to Goloka Vrindavan. Just imagine!! I never did proselytism in his favor, but I did not agree that he should be offended, for I always accepted him as a great Vaisnava. Similarly, I defend any advanced Vaisnava that may be criticized and blasphemed for political reasons or for motives which have nothing to do with spiritual life.
The devotees in Peru know that although I have to deal with many young devotees who “lost” their gurus, and that I had plenty of opportunity to make proselytism in favor of those senior Vaisnavas that inspired me, I always kept this as a private matter. I have been in Lima for the last two months, and you CANNOT find ANYBODY who ever head me doing any type of proselytism. Therefore the Board does not have any need to call me to talk about it. What I may do on my own is to approach the present Board of Directors to explain to them the things as they are, and to give them the e-mail messages written by the devotees who were member of the Board during my tenure and which I am sending to you along with this letter to demonstrate that you are accusing me falsely, and that you are committing a serious fault. I will also inform them that, just as other devotees had done in other countries, in Peru also they have all the rights in the world to invite you to step down as their GBC, if they think that your performance is neither effective nor inspiring .
On the other hand, you should take in consideration that all these years I have been a member of the community of devotees of ISKCON Alachua, and that I have developed a very good relationship with its leaders, including the now president of Gainesville, Kalakantha Prabhu, and our GBC, Sesa Prabhu, for whom some months ago I read his astrological chart. In this community it was never necessary for the Board of Directors to call me to a meeting to impose any of the restrictions you insinuate.
It hasn’t been a pleasure at all to write you this message. Rather it has been a displeasure to tell you all the things I have told you. I feel ashamed for you, particularly because you are the husband of a devotee lady whom I respect very much and consider advanced. But I have to do what I did because I cannot allow your trampling. You were shameless enough to call me a swindler, cynic, dishonest, lacking scruples, etc. It is very sad that you have forgotten your role and without qualms or reservation you are blaspheming a god brother who invited you and welcome you to the yatra he was leading, and who thus gave you the opportunity to perform a good service to Srila Prabhupada. It is a real crime to utilize the position you have acquired in the Society of our spiritual master to abuse and insult, instead of serving with humility and efficiency. Above all it is distasteful that you are blaspheming the person who recommended you for achieving such a position. I will be watching your reaction. If you do not retract your statements I will have to proceed according to whatever it may be required.
I will be in Peru for another month, and later on I will come back to stay here for a longer period, if Krishna allows me. I hope my staying coincides with one of your visits and we can meet, perhaps in front of the Board of Directors and senior devotees. I would like to clarify all this in front of them with all the devotees as witnesses. I can repeat each and every one of the words I have written here in front of the Deities, in the temple.
Trying to serve Srila Prabhupada,
Daru Krishna Das
Yadu’s comments:
Daru Krishna Prabhu’s letter is very lucid ant to the point. And about his truthfulness, please notice how he ended it: “I can repeat in front of the Deities every word I have written here”.
Virabahu’s administrative deficiency is obvious and pathetic. Bolivia, disaster. Venezuela, disaster. Miami, disaster. Peru, disaster. Rosario, disaster. Alachua escaped disaster because the local devotees rejected Virabahu as soon as he appeared in the scene brandishing the title of GBC.
Although Daru Krishna Prabhu did not mention it in his letter, there are other places that testify to Virabahu’s disasters, like Puerto Rico and Uruguay. In Uruguay he closed down the temple, and visits the country every two years. What an efficient GBC!!
In his previous letter Virabahu was proudly proclaiming his sense of responsibility. But from this letter from Daru Krishna Prabhu we can clearly appreciate that Virabahu is not what he pretended that we should believe.
As a GBC for Peru, instead of going to work in the area, he has just tried to give orders from his armchair behind his desk. That is Virabahu’s style. Daru Krishna Prabhu depicts it in the following way:
“The devotees from Peru, here and abroad, have been openly speaking for a long time about your inefficiency and inaction, which you have tried to remedy by inviting to this country devotees from Australia, with a great, but really a great, ignorance of the reality of Peru, that due to their blunders ISKCON has lost much more that the debt you are complaining about. There was a time when there were here 3 GBCs and 2 Regional Secretaries, and this produced the greatest chaos that the yatra of Peru has ever seen, especially in the economy. Now tell me, if you are the GBC in charge of Peru, why are you employing so many people to come to supervise and managed this place, if this is the service that logically belongs to you?”
It is very important to notice this mistake of Virabahu: to invite devotees from AUSTRALIA to come to help in Peru. The devotees from AUSTRALIA did not have the slightest idea of the culture and people in Latin America. They could not possible understand the idiosyncrasy. They could understand the psychology. They could not understand the economy. I have no doubt that the devotees from AUSTRALIA can be very intelligent and very successful in Australia and other countries of the Common Wealth, but in Peru and Latin America they were like fish out of water.
They came because Virabahu invited them, therefore whatever blunders were done by any AUSTRALIAN devotee in Peru, is something we cannot blame him for. The blame and the blunder are Virabahu’s doings, or more specifically, Virabahu’s lack of doings.
The loss of money Virabahu says he had tells us that he is not a good businessman. The blunders in inviting devotees from AUSTRALIA tell us that he is not an expert judge of people. He doesn’t know who is competent for a particular job and who is not. The proof is Phanideva: a thief to whom Virabahu gave the post of president.
Virabahu’s vision to invest money has been a failure, his ability to judge the quality of assistants, another total failure. This is proved in Peru with his invitation of devotees from AUSTRALIA and his support to Phanideva. But it is this same Virabahu, with his lack of vision, who now want to sell the project in Costa Rica and manage the four or five million dollars...!!!
If we, the devotees from Central America and Mexico have complaints about Guru Prasada Swami’s capacity to judge people and circumstances, then we should know that Virabahu is many times worse. Virabahu may impress you when he speaks, but in practice the only things he has managed to do are disasters.
***
Due to the evidence presented by Daru Krishna Prabhu, what was Virabahu’s reaction? Did he continue insisting in his accusations? No. It was impossible. Virabahu tried to retract his steps, but he fell into a swamp.
How was that?
In the Fifth Part of this documentary we will analyze how Virabahu tried to protect himself with another letter, but it was as if trying to cover his face with dirt.
End of the Fourth Part
All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
Yadu Das
