Суд над Бхагавад-гитой / Attempt to ban Bhagavad-gita

THE END

THE TRUTH ABOUT THE "PALACE OF GOLD"

"Why was the Palace built?" Most devotees think it was built to glorify Srila Prabhupada. Many of those Prabhupada disciples who helped build the place most likely had that in mind. But Kirtanananda's inner motive may not be so easily surmised. He is no ordinary man. The above letters reveal a side to his character that, to say the least, is highly suspicious. Seven years ago it may have been hard to present this case but the time factor has now revealed all."It is easy to be wise after the fact." As such we are not claiming to be wise in our/this analysis of Kirtanananda's character. The evidence is staring us in the face. All we have done is taken the time to open our eyes, see it, and put it in writing with the sole aim of helping other devotees avoid him.

Over the years the atmosphere of New Vrindaban has gone from bad to worse. The Appendix section of this book reveals some of the more corrupt events that take place there. This deep-rooted undercurrent of corruption reveals an entirely different purpose for the Palace of Gold. Casual devotees and tourists generally see the external show, the glitter and colors, and are very impressed. Most visitors, including devotees, have no reason to try and see beyond that. Therefore they assume that Kirtanananda must be very advanced because he appears to have been the inspiration for such a beautiful monument supposedly to Srila Prabhupada. But if we go deeper into the spirit of the New Vrindaban community-the actual minds and activities of the persons who live there and manage the place-we see something entirely different from the spiritual community and lifestyle that the Palace is supposed to represent.

WHY WAIT FOR HARD EVIDENCE?

Earlier on Prabhupada said about Kirtanananda, "By lips he says that he is a surrendered soul, but by action he is thinking differently." Prabhupada could always understand the heart of Kirtanananda. From this statement we know that Kirtanananda has it in him to be a very devious and cunning man. Past and present activities clearly reveal that. He may have humbled himself somewhat when his attempt to usurp the movement failed, but there is no indication that he changed at heart. So although we don't have the kind of hard evidence that ISKCON leaders seem to require, we will herein show logically that Kirtanananda has not changed in the least. His one and only desire is still to be worshipped as the guru and he doesn't care how many devotees he steps on to accomplish that aim. It is important that devotees start recognizing this. It should not be necessary for us to see hard evidence before we can act to rectify a corrupt situation.

Take Bhavananda for example. Many devotees knew he was engaging in homosexual activities. Some knew intuitively that he was fallen just by his speech, behavior, movements, etc. A few knew of his habit from directly hearing about it. But nothing was ever done about him because he was not caught in the act of a gross falldown. The GBC knew all about him. That's why he was kicked out of Vmdavana. In fact, even the townspeople of Vmdavana knew of his homosexuality but the GBC continued to cover up for him. So devotees should not have to wait for such gross evidence to manifest before they act. Devotees are meant to see spirit. What is the question of seeing and understanding spirit if we can't even see subtle manifestations of corruption staring us in the face. Brahmins are supposed to be able to see the subtle movements of others. So in the case of Kirtanananda, it is true that no one has seen him personally handing deadly drugs to a customer, personally aborting a child, personally killing a cow, personally raping a woman, personally stabbing a Godbrother in the back, but he commits all these crimes. He does it on the subtle plane. He puts out the subtle energy, and those around him, Kuladri, Dharmatma, Dulal, Advaita, Sudhanu, they manifest the corruption on the gross plane. To the gross materialists, he has kept up a good front and has fooled most of the devotees thus far. But just a Bhavananda was finally caught, so also Kirtanananda will eventually be caught. If we wait for the corruption to come to the gross plane however, it will go public and do much more damage to the movement than if it's nipped early in the subtle stages. Now that Bhavananda has been grossly exposed, all the people who have been worshipping him all these years are outraged. You can better believe that many of them are going to file lawsuits against ISKCON for keeping such a debauch propped up on a throne.

Kirtanananda is many, many times worse than Bhavananda as these letters reveal. Even Bhavananda never attacked Prabhupada so viciously. Kirtanananda must be recognized for what he is now-before the evidence becomes so gross that the whole world finds out about it. When contamination comes to the gross plane it always manifests in either killings, rapes, child molestation, wife-stealing, drug dealing and abuse, etc. All these things have/are going on at New Vrindaban. They just haven't manifested so grossly yet that the whole world wants to hear about it. But if it continues, it will come out. If Kirtanananda gets desperate, he could try something comparable to the Jim Jones insanity.

In this next section of our analysis of Kirtanananda we will go into the psychology of a tactic commonly known as "bait and switch." Kirtanananda is very expert at this technique and has used it to perfection in attracting devotees as well as tourists, Indians, etc., to spend their time and money to build Kirtanananda an empire.

EVERYONE HAD FORGOTTEN

New Vrindaban never really got off the ground until the Palace was completed several years after Srila Prabhupada's departure. Prabhupada didn't outright condemn New Vrindaban but he never promoted it in any substantial way either. Especially when it became apparent that Kirtanananda and Hayagriva were not going to transfer it into the Society's name. Therefore New Vrindaban remained small, austere, and out of the picture, with very little solid expansion right up through 1977. During all this time Kirtanananda enjoyed a relatively good reputation since very few of the devotees who were around during the 1967-68 incident were still in the movement. Those who were, did not five at New Vrindaban. Most of the new devotees thought of Kirtanananda Swami as the first sannyasi and the oldest disciple (age wise). These qualifications gave him respectability since many of the newcomers were young enough to be his sons.

During these early years Kirtanananda was preaching that no one could approach Srila Prabhupada except through him since naturally, "No one could know Prabhupada as well as Kirtanananda did." The older disciples, the GBC, etc., who knew of Kirtanananda's previous envy, were not awed by Kirtanananda's self-proclaimed air of divinity. But the workers at New Vmdavana were so isolated from the rest of the ISKCON world that they never dreamed that Kirtanananda could be anything other than the "dearmost" of Prabhupada and a pure devotee. They were easily fooled by the seeming maturity of Kirtanananda. Few devotees knew of his black side. Add to this, the fact that devotees in general are trained to ignore the faults in others, it is no wonder that Kirtanananda's past was practically forgotten.

MUST GET HELP

Around 1974 Kirtanananda had an idea. He wanted to build a great temple to attract thousands of devotees. He had money coming in from various sources, including drug sales, and he was getting a few steady workers, so he began construction. Originally the Palace was intended to be a Radha-Krsna temple. It was a major project and would take years to complete. Generally there were only five or ten devotees working on it. Then one day in June-they say-Kirtanananda had the revelation that first he must build a home for Srila Prabhupada, stating: "One can only approach Krsna through guru." This sentiment certainly sounded good and it impressed some of Prabhupada's disciples. Thus more devotees came to assist Kirtanananda in his "noble" project. But even at the time of Prabhupada's disappearance, it was still just a dirty construction site unrecognizable as a building. Not only was Prabhupada not able to ever live in it, he never even set foot in it.

BAIT AND SWITCH TACTIC

Kirtanananda certainly has a certain degree of charisma but he didn't have the purity to attract very many devotees to New Vrindaban. But he knew that if he was going to expand his project in a big way, he was going to need a lot of help. He realized he was going to have to attract Prabhupada's disciples to work for him. If he could convince them that New Vrindaban was actually very dear to Prabhupada, then in that way he could trick them to come and work for him. This strategy worked very well. The more the Palace got built, the more he was respected as a great disciple of Prabhupada. He became very expert at glorifying Prabhupada with his mouth, "but thinking something else." He is the world's greatest expert at bait and switch. During construction of the Palace emphasis was always either on Prabhupada or pleasing Prabhupada through Kirtanananda. But the property was never transferred. Imagine-all that free labor simply by saying, "Jai Prabhupada." Prabhupada however was never fooled by the hp service of Kirtanananda. He was interested in seeing whether the deed to the property had been transferred to the Society's name. He certainly hadn't forgotten Kirtanananda's inner "designs." In fact, there was only one mention of the Palace in all of Prabhupada's personal letters.

WHO LIVES THERE?

Kirtanananda's inner designs were certainly known to Prabhupada but they were not exactly being kept a secret either. Many devotees who were so-called initiated by Prabhupada openly let it be known that they were really devotees of Kirtanananda. One such devotee is Maha Buddhi dasa (Param Brahma's brother). His ex-wife explained to me her ex-husband's mood, which represents the mood of many at New Vrindaban, was "I had to take initiation from Prabhupada, because Kirtanananda wasn't allowed to initiate me." She even said that her husband resented Prabhupada for his not allowing Kirtanananda to initiate. In the beginning New Vmdavana was made up of a mixture of these foolish neophytes like Maha Buddhi, who were actually worshipers of Kirtanananda, and Prabhupada's disciples, who had been led to believe that new Vrindaban was a bone fide ISKCON project.

As the years went by, the devotees exclusively devoted to Kirtanananda were encouraged and given more and more facility. They increased in number. The devotees more interested In Srila Prabhupada however decreased. Since Nov. 1977, not one devotee of Prabhupada has gone to New Vrindaban and stayed there unless he became a Kirtanananda worshiper. Today New Vrindaban is made up exclusively of Kirtanananda worshipers. This is the proof of what New Vrindaban is all about. It doesn't matter how much love and devotion one many have for Prabhupada and Krsna. If you don't worship Kirtanananda, you're a dog at New Vrindaban. Srila Prabhupada is respected as one respects a statue of an ancient hero. None of New Vrindaban's residents go to the Palace except to take money from the tourists. Kirtanananda used to-and may still-go to the Palace mangala-aratik along with a few brahmacaris. This was / is necessary to keep up the front. Otherwise no one at all would ever go there. Then it would be blatantly obvious that it was built with the sole purpose of, "fooling the innocent public."

DOESN'T NEED PRABHUPADA ANYMORE

In the very important letter to Paramananda quoted earlier, Kirtanananda's use of bait and switch tactics is blatantly revealed. In that letter it is clear that he was trying to convince devotees that they could only approach Prabhupada through himself. In the beginning, devotees are naturally attracted to Prabhupada and his teachings. Attracted to Prabhupada in this way, Kirtanananda convinces them that they can only approach Prabhupada, and Krsna, through himself. Those who are less intelligent naturally wind up worshipping Kirtanananda. Now Kirtanananda has so many of these blind followers that he really doesn't want Prabhupada's disciples to come around anymore. He can now attract new people on the basis of his propped up seat, his tourist attraction, and the material facility he can offer people. Previously he had hoped his sannyasa certificate would be sufficient to prove he was a bona fide guru, but Prabhupada took that away from him. So he had to put up the front again, only this time he did it with the Palace.

This is the real reason why the Palace was built. Today the Palace is a dead monument, maintained like a museum, and used a tourist attraction for which they charge an outrageous fee of $4 per person for the 20 minute tour. Nearly 100 outside workers are on the payroll who build and maintain the entire project. Many of them are also included on the "500" person list of residents that Kirtanananda flaunts. The money to hire all these workers and buy the construction materials comes from drug sales, which include the look-alike drugs such as lydocaine. Kirtanananda was always a drug dealer. We have one testimony that as early as 1970 he started the KSS (Krsna's Secret Service). Much of the Palace was built from the drug money gotten by Charantana, Advaita, Svarupa, Syamakunda (who was busted), Tirtha (who murdered Chakradhari), garbage John and many more. These are just a few of the "devotees" that I personally have talked to that told me stories of their drug dealings for Kirtanananda Swami. There are many addicts living at New Vrindavana who use and sell drugs. When the Palace restaurant burned down, Kirtanananda is well-known to have said, "Krsna must not like that kind of money."