chapter 5
      KARMA?, WHAT KARMA?, GURU takes all our karma....

    "they have their opulences, i have my benevolence.  they have
their positions and i have my integrity,  in which way do i suffer
in the comparison?"
                  --- menkus, disciple of confuscius, 400 B.C.

     sunday mornings at New Vrndaban were always a festive time.
the children were returned to their parents for eight hours that
day and a feast was served in mid afternoon. more than the normal 
daily fare of a bowl of rice and a cup of soup to go with it, on
sundays one might actually get a taste of sugar without having to 
break a lock to get access to it.
     household life was as ridiculed and scorned at the higher
eschelons of New Vrndaban power as it was anywhere else in ISKCON
although there were more white dhotis * than saffron at most
gatherings, save and except those at "the top". "at the top" was
an expression at New Vrndaban that refered to the brahmachari
ashram*. "we have subdued our sexual desires and we are superior!",
was the mood of the ashram and women were considered lower than 
insects because at least insects were not committing sinful acts.
women, on the other hand, according to the brahmachari version,
had as their sole mission in life, the seduction of some poor
unsuspecting young male who just happened to stray past the women's
bathhouse or one who lingered a little too long at the halavah* 
pile on sunday.
     halavah is a sweet as common in asia as doughnuts for breakfast
is in the west. if the printing press is "the big mrdnga",* then 
halavah is the newsprint that made the papers roll. no one can 
dispute the significance of halavah offered to The Lord as a
motivating factor for accomplishing tasks in ISKCON. it was one
of Jayananda's* most subversive tactics, but it was also used by 
the likes of matthew norton{manihar das} and his eternal home
boy, naragadev das, to do their bidding.
     one person who was attracted to the foods the devotees eat
was known as taru. he was so much attracted to the prasadam* the
devotees took that he was known as the prasadam addict. after he 
was killed tee shirts were printed and distributed in his honor.
this was an inside the community honor as no one was allowed, 
under fear of expulsion and/or execution to speak about it to the 
outside world. taru's parents and then his sister tried for years
to find out what happened to him. the state troopers have been over
the grounds on dozens of occasions in pursuit of a body, but as yet,
to no avail. what happened to taru and why is endemic to the issues
plaguing ISKCON in general and New Vrndaban in particular. therefore,
after twenty five years, the ghost of tom meyers returns to New
Vrndaban to haunt his hypocritical tormentors.
     "if you even think about having sex with a woman after taking
sanyass, you immediately go kill yourself. there's no two ways about
it!", tamal krsna was telling vishnujnan, in response to vishnujnan's
having revealed his mind in confidence.
     "damn, this dude is hardcore!", thought vishnujnan, but tamal
had quoted a lot of scipture and he, himself, swore that if he ever 
came to that position, that is exactly what he would do. still,
suicide, even if required by scripture, was not the kind of thing
that usually occurred without a significant amount of contemplation. 
tamal would always go to the example of chota haridas and there
was no way that could be denied. sure, subal had fallen from
sanyass and he could come back around, but did he want to be like
subal? he thought not. on the order of his fellow Radha-Damodara
bus captain, tamal krsna, VJS went to india and drowned himself in
one of the holy rivers. when swami maharaj found out what vishnujnan
had done, he was not upset, although it was not spoken of openly
again.
     having done his obligatory six months "on the top", tom meyers,
taru das as he was now known, was initiated into the ashram and the
thinking that motivated it. under the influence of his cohort paul
ferry{param brahma das, P.B.}, he became like what he associated 
with, a thief. burglary had become second nature as PB's henchman, 
so when PB decided to pole his way into the householder/grhasta
ashram, taru dutifully paddled along with his friend. PB took the
stretch-limo model, hoping to end his "chapati problem"* in one
fell swoop.
      "marrying her is my sankirtan! she's worth millions and i
will be turning it in as soon as i get some. get my meaning?", PB
had joked with the brahmachari ashram at the buffalo temple. as a
charter member of the he man woman haters club back at "the top", 
PB had feared humiliation at the hands of those he had formerly
humiliated when he was "the top of the top". a notorious woman
beater, PB knew better than to hit his own wife. he couldn't 
expect to win a fight with anyone else's wife, or at least, he
wouldn't expect to win the aftermath if an irate husband were to 
show up, so he chose to work out his aggressions on the unmarried
women with no defenders. the buffalo temple would later close under 
the mismanagement provided by PB and lenny rader{narada muni das, 
"muni"} and their very shady, enron-like accounting procedures.
their highly unorthodox beekeeping practices, under their 501(c)3
requirements are also highly illegal.
     how the taru killing became an FBI cold case is long story
that involved a massive cover up that continues to this day. taru, 
as he was now known, had some serious problems. for one thing, he
believed everything that he read in scriptures, even if he couldn't 
understand it at the time, he had that much faith.
     he was married to a girl called mahara. if you have ever heard
the stereotype of the long haired girl in the flowery long skirt, 
that just sold someone incense or a book at an airport or at a
sporting event,this then is that girl in the vision. not only
figuratively, but quite often, literally. this girl was, as they say, 
"on fire". she was the babe ruth of sankirtan scores of the era.
women all over the movement knew of her;"why not?", she was probably
doing "the pick"* in their "zones". k swa's program for plundering
the planet had been surmised in his pamphlet "easy journey to other
zones", in which he summarily dismissed anyone elses right to an
area of preaching free from his over extended reach. he had the right
as Swami maharaj's self effulgent successor.
     now taru had the experience of being a householder, but unlike 
his buddy,PB, who appeared to be settling quite well into his new
ashram, something was amiss for him. PB's wife was requisitioning
him new clothes every month and thought nothing of it, "doesn't 
everyone get new clothes every month?", while taru's wife brought him
a pillow case full of popcorn once a month for three days while
they took R&R from the hassle of running through the malls with 
a full posse of security in pursuit. by being married to taru, she was
some what free from the amorous advances of the old canadian bouncer,
turned financial director, of new vrndaban, dharmatma. for taru
though, it wasn't turning out as PB had said it would. it was turning
out exactly like scripture had said it would and that was working
out just fine for "the he man women haters club".*
     the he man women haters club, affectionately named after the
little rascals childhood fantasy, was a handful of certain select
individuals who felt a spiritual supremacy over others and were not
the least bit afraid to show it. while most temples had a few of 
these individuals, new vrndaban had an entire farm full of them and
the elite of this crew purported to have reached the advanced stage
of material detachment, such that their lips curled with disgust at
the thought of sex with a woman. for many, the thought of sex with
the same sex was not that repugnant.
     k swa and his then cabin-mate jack mowen{kasyapa das, varsana
swami} had "the cabin". the top of the line as cabins went at new 
vrndaban, it had a stove. there were two seasons at new vrndaban, it
was often said, winter and the fourth of july. global warming had not 
had the far reaching effects that it has today and if someone didn't 
stoke the fire at night, the bath water would freeze. the ice cold
marble floor sent most of the men to the warm comfort of the "pujari
room" *. the pujari room was located directly over the furnace that
heated the entire building, so finding volunteers was not the 
difficult task that it has become, of late, for the leaders. this
was before the era of "too many chiefs, not enough indians", this was 
in the era of "one chief, plenty of indians".
     taru had come to the conclusion, urged on by the he man women 
haters, that marriage was "a fallen condition" and to be avoided
at all costs, if at all possible. to further that end, he sent his 
wife on full time skamkirtan, put on saffron cloth and moved in 
with the he man women haters club. when taru found that he was much
less comfortable with his new bunkmates than he had been with his
even part time relationship with his wife, he faced the fact that
he was not ready for a life of abstinence. he confided in kasyapa
that he was going to renounce the ashram and go back to household 
life. kasyapa told him it was better to commit suicide, rather than
go back to women. there are several versions of what happened next.
there are probably as many versions as there were brahmacharis at
the top, BECAUSE THEY ALL KNEW. they all knew that the handgun
from the pujari room disappeared the same night that taru did.
most knew that kasyapa had brought his backhoe and "did his deed",
much the same as he would do to the thirty five foot high murti*
of Swami maharaj just a few years later. repeat offenders seem to
be almost powerless to stop themselves. at the very least, kasyapa,
k swa and radhanath have obstructed justice and cost the government
and the taxpayers millions of dollars. possibly they are murders.
the body is buried, as they well know, along the property line at
the bahulaban farm, where it borders with what once was floyd
coffield's property, two hundred feet north of Prabhupada's Palace
road. he only took the hoe in as close to the trees as he could until
he hit roots and the rest, as they say, is history. history known to
two or three dozen people, some of whom have already left their mortal
frame. may these ease those sufferings of those affected by this 
tragedy.