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

"DON'T TELL ME ABOUT IT"

THE JADURANI INCIDENT

In the summer of 1980, Jadurani became convinced that the eleven gurus had never been appointed by Srila Prabhupada. So she left the LA temple to join devotees in Pittsburgh who were attempting to form an association to rid the movement of the eleven gurus. She began to work on her papers, explaining why the eleven gurus could not possibly be bona fide. Foolishly she allowed Jayadvaita, the editor of Back to Godhead, to convince her to take shelter of Kirtanananda. She agreed to make some paintings for the Palace. However, she could not refrain from telling anyone who would listen that Kirtanananda was not a bona fide guru. Two New Vrindaban women complained to Kirtanananda. These women, Parayani and Isani, wanted to physically attack Jadurani. They were given the go-ahead by Kirtanananda, who said: "Do the needful, but don't tell me about it." They fell upon Jadurani and severely beat her, kicking her in the face and not stopping until she was literally drenched in blood. Then, they attempted to take her bloody sari to hang on a post as a warning to anyone else who would "dare to blaspheme" Kirtanananda. Svarupa dasa managed to save Jadurani and took her to the hospital. She stayed in Pittsburgh until she joined devotees in Buffalo who were also involved in the anti-"guru" campaign.

After completing her guru papers, she went to the LA Rathayatra in 1981 to distribute them in hopes of awakening some of the other Prabhupada disciples. At the behest of Ramesvara, several women pickers attacked her, but this time fortunately they were chased away by Radha Mohan dasa. Next morning Trivikrama was lecturing on this incident, warning devotees to stay away from Jadurani. Bahubhavani dasi suggested that Trivikrama debate Jadurani in the temple room that evening. He agreed. Minutes later Ramesvara rushed into the temple room and loudly forbade Trivikrama to allow her anywhere even near the LA temple, what to speak about a debate. No doubt he remembered that he had himself been defeated by Jadurani and was obliged to remove his throne from the temple. The other "gurus" however, headed by Bhagavan, threatened that if he didn't put it back he would lose everything. So, for the second time, he was appointed a "pure devotee." Shortly thereafter many devotees left LA, having seen the truths in Jadurani's papers. This began the exodus of devotees from LA to San Francisco on the promise that Atreya would defend Jadurani's cause. He invited Jadurani and her friends to join him in San Francisco, but she intuitively felt he wasn't sincere. Nothing ever came of Atreya's promises to stop the guru conspiracy.

Note: Although it is certainly a great shame that Jadurani again took shelter of "ISKCON," at least she will go down in history as one of the staunch resistance fighters in the continuing battle to stop the conspirators who are bent on destroying Srila Prabhupada's mission.

"My grief for Kirtanananda isn't anything personal but I am sorry that he has become like a Mayavadi in spite of my best efforts to help him." (Jadurani, 10/26/67)

"Kirtanananda was awarded the position of a sannyasa because he wanted it although I could understand it that he wanted to be a spiritual master himself, Lord Caitanya wanted that everyone should be a spiritual master provided he follows the order of Lord Caitanya. Anyone following the order of Lord Caitanya under the guidance of His bonafide representative, can become a spiritual master to spread Krsna consciousness throughout the whole world. I want it but Kirtanananda was to much puffed-up and artificially he took up a certificate from me that he has been awarded the order to a sannyasi. In the spiritual field nobody can become a bonafide spiritual master by dissatisfying his spiritual master... Kirtanananda wanted to become a spiritual master by dissatisfying his spiritual master and as such he has fallen down... I very much appreciate your version that Rayarama is roaring like a lion-cub. I wish that every one of you should be Lion's descendent. Our Lord Krishna assumed the form of lion and killed the atheist, Hiranyakasipu, and by disciplic succession we shall also kill all impersonalist atheists. Absolutely there is no Krsna consciousness for the impersonalist." (Madhusudhana, 10/27/67)

Note: Here Prabhupada confirms that Kirtanananda was never sincere since he only wanted to be guru himself. In this regard, Prabhupada writes: "When a Krsna conscious person is elevated to a responsible position, he never becomes puffed-up. Just like a tree when overladen with fruits becomes humble and lower down, similarly, a great soul in Krsna consciousness becomes humbler than the grass and bowed down like the fruitful trees because a Krsna conscious person acts as the agent of Krishna, therefore he discharges his duty with great responsibility." (Gajendra, 1/27/70)

It is also significant here that Prabhupada is referring to Kirtanananda as a demon like Hiranyakasipu, which means gold and soft bed. Prabhupada is also suggesting here that we all become like a lion's descendent to kill all such atheist demons.

"Regarding Kirtanananda's article, I do not know what he has written but I can guess that it must be polluted with impersonal poison, so for the time being you can keep this article aside. I was so glad to learn that you are acting exactly like a lion cub and I know that in the future you shall conquer over many jackals. We have got experience in lndia that the jackals roar four times at night without any influence but the one roar of a lion drives away many elephants." (Rayarama, 11/3/67)

"The quarrel amongst yourselves, the Godbrothers, is not very much palatable. I am now thinking about our society. We were very smoothly going on but this disruption created by Kirtanananda has plagued and disturbed the situation...

Kirtanananda is a crazy man. That is proved. He says that he has become equal to the spiritual master but he is such a fool that he does not understand the principle of disciple even in ordinary worldly affairs." (Rayarama, 11/9/67)

"The incident created by Kirtanananda and Hayagriva may not disappoint us in the least. Let us remain sincere to Krishna and His bona fide representative and we are sure to carry out our mission successfully...

The Kirtanananda incident is certainly very unhappy and your dealing with the situation is quite appropriate... We should never tolerate any insult or blaspheme to Krishna or His representative. So your action was quite all right. Anyway, forget the chapter, there is nothing to be lamented. If thousands of Kirtananandas or Haygrivas come and go. We have to prosecute our real program of being sincere to Krishna and Krishna Caitanya." (Brahmananda, 11/15/67)

"The incident of Kirtanananda and Hayagriva chapter may now be closed. We shall always pray to Krishna for their recovery and we should not seriously take their counter-propaganda. I am sure they will flap for some time without any effect on our Krishna consciousness service." (Rayarama, 11/15/67)

Note: In an unrelated but applicable incident Prabhupada writes: "Yes, you are right, he is third class man, so we should not waste time with him further. Stirring stools does not help. Anyway, you have done right. The jackals may howl, but the caravan will pass on."

We all must adopt this mood in relation to the conspiracy being propped up by the jackals who simply trailed our spiritual master. Kirtanananda, when he found his effort going nowhere, is supposed to have again surrendered to Srila Prabhupada. That is the belief of many, but actually he has never surrendered. His counter-propaganda continues today. His actions do not indicate that he surrendered his craziness in actuality, but "by lips" he may have done so after his rebellion did not catch on with the devotees. Kirtanananda is every bit the impersonalist today that he was then.

"I beg to inform you that Kirtanananda and Hayagriva's recent standing is being directly dealt by me; at least Hayagriva is not as fanatic as Kirtanananda. His latest letter reveals that he is not out of Krsna consciousness as we understand. The whole episode was generated by personal grudge." (Brahmananda, 11/18/67)

"Killing proposal is not good. We have to kill them with arguments and reasons not with sticks and weapons. Jadurani, I am very glad that you want to kill the nondevotees. You should, however, leave the matter to your good Godbrothers who will take care of it. I am pleased to learn of your spirit of protest, but sometimes we have to tolerate. Hope you are well." (Pradyumna, Satsvarupa, Jadurani, 11/21/67)

Note: This is the way in which Srila Prabhupada recommended the devotees, specifically Jadurani of all people, deal with Kirtanananda, who deserved to be killed what to speak of beaten. When Jadurani was criticizing Kirtanananda in the 1980 incident narrated above, she must have thought Kirtanananda would at least have the decency to debate her instead of have her beaten. Kirtanananda could have told those two women to defeat Jadurani with reason and argument. But neither these women nor Kirtanananda know much philosophy, so Kirtanananda advised them to beat her. Even if Kirtanananda tries to claim now that he did not directly authorize the beating, he never apologized either. In fact he was proud of it. This one act alone proves beyond any shadow of a doubt that Kirtanananda is sub-human. Of course, this is just one incident. There are hundreds of similar incidents to expose about Kirtanananda if necessary.

"It is better service to Krsna and the Spiritual Master in a feeling of separation; sometimes there is a risk in the matter of direct service. For example, Kirtanananda was giving me direct service by massaging, by dictation of maya, he became puffed-up, so much so that he though his Spiritual Master a common man, and was existing only on account of his service. This mentality at once pushed him down. Of course, those who are devotees, they take direct service as an opportunity. (Madhusudhana, 12/28/67)

Note: In this connection Prabhupada writes; "There are some of my Godbrothers here in India who had constant personal association with Guru Maharaja, but who are neglecting his orders. This is just like the bug who is sitting on the lap of the king. He may be very puffed-up by his position, but all he can succeed in doing is biting the king." (Satadhanya, 2/20/72)

"He (Hayagriva) has committed a great blunder, but just so that he may be encouraged to come back you may mention his name also along with Rayarama's. [As coeditor of Gita.] He is not so convinced of his impersonalist philosophy. It is only due to Kirtanananda's influence that he has left us." (Brahmananda, 12/29/67)

Note: Some devotees still believe it was Hayagriva who contaminated Kirtanananda. Here the truth comes out.

"Kirtanananda's refusal to accept the Parampara system and authority of the scriptures is the cause of his misfortune. His version that the sun and the sunshine are one and the same is right, but when the sunshine is in the room is it not correct to say that the sun is in the room. His knowledge therefore is imperfect and therefore he cannot be a preacher. He is therefore contemplating for starting a nightclub of the psychedelic type. His association is not desirable for the present neither I can think of his future correction. Hayagriva has fallen a victim and l am sorry for this." (Woomapati, 1/14/68)

Note: It is significant here that Prabhupada cannot even imagine how such an envious man could ever become purified. Only nine years later that man is sitting on a throne declaring himself better than Prabhupada. Kirtanananda still doesn't accept the Parampara system, and therefore he has started his own institution as Prabhupada suggested. Quite often we hear the argument that Prabhupada went to New Vmdavana so many times, and that he said so many favorable things about Kirtanananda and New Vrindaban, so how can he not have approved of Kirtanananda? The explanation is very simple. Prabhupada was expert at adjusting everything in such a way that the demons were pacified and the movement went on relatively undisturbed. A good example in this connection is that of a dog biting on one's leg. What can you do? You throw the dog a bone and he goes away. So in cases like this, where Kirtanananda was viciously attacking Srila Prabhupada, Prabhupada more or less just threw him a bone in the form of New Vrindaban. This engaged and encouraged him which kept him from actively attacking Prabhupada-at least openly. It is well-known diplomatic behavior that, if you have an enemy in your camp, the best thing is to give him a position of respect. Giving the "big" devotees sannyasa in the 1970 demoniac attack to usurp the movement was a similar tactic.

Prabhupada could see the suffering condition of Kirtanananda and had compassion on him, but that does not mean that Prabhupada couldn't see Kirtanananda's envious tendency. Prabhupada's ability to keep everyone pacified to one degree or another was just one of the symptoms of his greatness.

"Yes, actually that was the program, but Kirtanananda made everything topsy-turvy. After we reached Vrindavana Kirtanananda became too much eager to return back. He was daily insisting me for his return back and once I told him that I have no money, how you can return? In reply to this, he said that he would go to the American Embassy as Citizen and take money from there and he would return. Then I was obliged to arrange for his return passage money and because he changed his program the society practically lost $1,200 for his going to India and coming back again without any purpose. I thought that some of this money could be recovered if he would return to NY, stopping a few days in London to see the prospect of opening a branch there. He agreed and I gave him the letter of introduction, and required money for immediate expenses, but he had no desire to stop at London and he directly reached you. He was also very eager to take sannyasa and I awarded him the sannyasa order; and I do not know, he wanted a certificate of his sannyasa. We never took any certificate of our Spiritual Master or anyone, but he told me that it was required for facility of preaching, so I gave him the certificate, but unfortunately the whole thing was smashed by different doctrine. Now it is understood from the letter of Woomapati that Kirtanananda does not believe in parampara or in the necessity of scriptural authority. He seems to feel that this is a sort of tyranny. That means, after taking sannyasa and understanding the philosophy for more than a year, he has changed the whole view, and I do not understand how you could like this recent doctrine." (Hayagriva, 1/15/68)

Note: This is no ordinary mentality. Someone who has the audacity to claim to be more realized than Prabhupada and scripture is described in the Chanakya Sloka: "No method can turn an evil-minded person into a gentleman, just as by washing the anus one hundred nines, it cannot be turned into a face." Nature and conditioning is developed in the subtle body over millions of lifetimes and is not so easy to change. Even mundane psychologists appear to know that fact much better than the average devotee in ISKCON.

Of course, Krsna is not limited. He can do anything he likes, but Kirtanananda does not behave like a person who is getting the special mercy of the Lord. Special mercy is reserved for very sincere and humble persons, not for those as puffed-up and offensive as Kirtanananda here. Practical proof that he still feels guru and sastra are tyranny is the way he constantly concocts and does not care to learn the scripture. He could not answer any of our challenges. There are only two possible explanations for this. Either he is less intelligent, or he feels he is beyond guru and sastra as revealed in the above letter. After interviewing many devotees who know Kirtanananda Swami personally, it became clear that he is not stupid. If he wanted to learn sastra, he could. Therefore he must still think his knowledge is superior to Prabhupada's and scripture, combined.

"I acknowledge receipt of Kirtanananda's sannyasa certificate." (Rayarama, 1/18/68)

Note: We don't accept him as a sannyasi. He doesn't have a certificate to prove it. Kirtanananda demanded a certificate of sannyasa but Srila Prabhupada did not want to give him one. Therefore Krsna gave it back to Srila Prabhupada.

"So far I am personally concerned, Kirtanananda was doubtful about my existence because he thought that I am dependent on his massaging, so he thought that there is no necessity of Spiritual Master, because Spiritual Master is an ordinary man, and to depend on an ordinary man is tyranny." (Brahmananda, 1/21/68)

Note: Prabhupada's use of the words "doubtful about my existence," is a polite way of saying that Kirtanananda was jealous and envious of him and thought him to be a tyrant. Kirtanananda, however, is an ordinary man, and the "inmates of New Vrindaban," by depending on him, are depending upon a tyrant and thereby are trying to cross the Pacific Ocean by catching hold of "the tail of a dog."