Response to Bhakta Balaram
BY: ISKCON BANGALORE DEVOTEE ASSOCIATION
Jan 22, BANGALORE, INDIA (SUN) — Dear Bhakta Balarama, Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. Thank you for you letter. You said:
1) Regarding the point:
"ISKCON (reg. Mumbai 1971) is not hounding or harassing any Rtviks. In Prabhupada's ISKCON (reg. Mumbai 1971) there are several prominent leaders and temple presidents who espouse Rtvik sentiments to various degrees such as Jasomatinandana Prabhu - TP Amhedabad, Mahaman Prabhu - TP Indore, Rasaraja Prabhu - BI Mumbai and member of the ISKCON (reg. Mumbai 1971) Bureau, and Sevatulya Prabhu who is serving at the Mumbai, Juhu temple for the last year. Sevatulya is openly Rtvik but he is holding a position of authority in the Pujari department. No one has thrown them out or even removed them from their posts because they are espousing Rtvik philosophy. So this is not about Rtvikism but rather about Madhu Pandit's fraud and theft."
Is this a joke? Every one knows the so-called GBC resolutions saying Ritvik philosophy is bogus, deviant, poison, etc., etc., and suddenly we are made to believe that these devotees mentioned above are Ritvik vadi's and are still continuing in ISKCON, and hence GBC/ISKCON has become an 'open' organization? This means either the GBC have softened their stance on the Ritvik position, or these devotees changed from Ritviks to GBCs. Only one of them can be true. If you say they are Ritviks, can you please provide an explanation from the GBC on why they allow 'Ritviks' to be in important positions of ISKCON, even though they are 'bogus' and 'deviant'?"
The ISKCON BDA doesn't represent the GBC, so cannot speak on their behalf.
We should also point out that this seems to be a policy of ISKCON (reg. Mumbai 1971), which is in charge of affairs in India and may not be reflected in other parts of the world. But yes, it seems that they are tolerant in this regard. You can contact the devotees mentioned above for yourself and ask them personally what their stance on the Rtvik issue is. As to why ISKCON (reg. Mumbai 1971) tolerates these people and not Madhu Pandit dasa, this is answered here.
You may also want to consider what the GBC's position on Narayana Maharaja is, yet the head pujari in Vrndavana is a disciple of Narayana Maharaja. So it seems that things are not all black & white. I think in his case he is tolerated because he keeps it to himself and doesn't make a nuisance of himself.
Your wrote:
"2) The argument that ISKCON BDA is trying to put forward is that Madhu Pandit dasa has tried to usurp all of Srila Prabhupada's property for his own purpose. But what the world sees is actually the opposite (Mind you, these are not just some stock market numbers or company revenues which can easily be manipulated.) The success story is open for everyone to see. So where is the thing that shows Madhu Pandit dasa has usurped all the property? If it was the case, then the Bangalore yatra would be on the decline. Rather, it is going in just the opposite direction."
Prabhu please read the contents of the website again. He has, in fact, already usurped the property belonging to ISKCON (reg. Mumbai 1971) for his own proprietorship by using fraud and deceit. And ISKCON (reg. Mumbai 1971) is in the courts to get it back. And it looks like there is a very good chance that ISKCON (reg. Mumbai 1971) will win the case because the evidence is so highly stacked against him.
If Madhu Pandit dasa doesn't agree with ISKCON (reg. Mumbai 1971) then let him go elsewhere and start his own movement, but not steal ISKCON (reg. Mumbai 1971) property. He thinks he is the doer and that it all belongs to him and anyone who disagrees gets kicked out.
You ask:
"So my question is, what wrong has Madhu Pandit dasa done which requires the GBC to spend millions of dollars in court cases, trying to implicate him by all possible means? With that amount of money, the GBC or the Guru camp could have done tremendous other useful service to Srila Prabhupada."
As to what wrong he has done, let's start with: forgery, perjury, fraud and theft. If you think this is the way to do things then there is no point in continuing the discussion. If you respond that so and so also does that, that in no way exonerates Madhu Pandit dasa, but simply confirms that he is a fraud, liar and a thief because you have not proven that he is not guilty of forgery, perjury, fraud and theft. As Sattvik dasa stated, "Madhu Pandit Dasa is worse than any GBC or all of them put together." I thought the idea was to do better than the GBC not worse.
As to the cost of the legal case against him, it is not so costly. Maybe he is spending millions but AFAIK ISKCON (reg. Mumbai 1971) has not spent anywhere near the kind of money you are talking about.
You wrote:
"So my question is, what wrong has Madhu Pandit dasa done which requires the GBC to spend millions of dollars in court cases, trying to implicate him by all possible means? With that amount of money, the GBC or the Guru camp could have done tremendous other useful service to Srila Prabhupada."
The implication is that ISKCON (reg. Mumbai 1971) is going after Madhu Pandit dasa in the courts. This is totally wrong. If you look at all the court cases mentioned, none were filed by ISKCON (reg. Mumbai 1971) against Madhu Pandit dasa, rather it was Madhu Pandit dasa who filed four cases against ISKCON (reg. Mumbai 1971). Naturally anyone who has been attacked, including ISKCON (reg. Mumbai 1971), is bound to defend themselves. So Madhu Pandit dasa is bringing this all down on himself since he is the one who is filing suits not, ISKCON (reg. Mumbai 1971).
He filed the following suits against ISKCON (reg. Mumbai 1971):
- Suit #2180 on March 15, 1999
- Suit #4467 on June 30, 2000
- Suit #1483 on February 26, 2001
- Suit #7934 of October 15, 2001
Click here for details.
The fact that Madhu Pandit dasa was filing case after case against ISKCON (reg. Mumbai 1971) was noted in the courts by the judge, who called Madhu Pandit dasa a "chronic litigant."
I did some research and found out about the amount of money it has cost ISKCON (reg. Mumbai 1971) to defend itself against the suits of Madhu Pandita dasa. It is about 70 lakhs rupees ($140,000) over 10 years. This is an average of about $14,000/year -- nowhere near millions of dollars. As to how much Madhu Pandit has spent, we have no idea.
Your humble servants,
ISKCON (reg. Mumbai 1971) Bangalore Devotee Association
