chapter 8 : attaining the Supreme position

     it's said there are two paths, one in light and one in darkness.
in india all money is either Ram- white or shyam- dark, and all
behavior is of two kinds, good or evil. macbeth's evil only manifest
itself after opportunity tempted his weak minded egotism with a
fickle materialistic offer. in a striking parallel set of events,
radhanath found himself as the heir apparent to the multi-level fallen
k swa empire, at least the indian and pakistani portions. but first,
he had to out run a murder one indictment.
     dev swa was no neophyte to international travel to avoid prosecution.
back in the states, he was touted as a hero for running the soviet bloc 
countries and for using swiss bank accounts the same way "temple 
devotees" used wax paper. his classic signature was on the list of
places escapees might find shelter. john favors(gyanasham das, bhakti
tirtha swami, blacky tirtha swami, BTS) was with new vrndaban 100%
and he could be counted on to deliver dasarath to the new vrndaban
position. a position statement of the Prabhupada disciples living at
NV had been printed by chakravarti and dina sarana and the remnants
of hansadutta's outlaw band from the left coast. NV purported to
have "the largest community of Prabhupada disciples in the world",
when, in fact, at each initiation, everyone was forced to "renew their 
vows", only this time it was to k swa and not everyone was quite so 
willing to do that. the attendance numbers were dropping so fast that
a once thriving community of over 700 devotees was now finding it
impossible to change The Deities  clothes. two to three dozen people
was all that attended any days mangal arti during the transition
back to ISKCON fundamentalism from k swa's interfaith experiment.
     the rag-tag crew in various dresses banging any variety of
musical instruments did give the kirtans a strange freshness, like
some of ISKCON's earliest operations from the 60's. bedsheets as
dhotis, yellow dhotis, pink pierre cardin dress shirts with cuff-
link holes at the cuffs, worn by penniless brahmacharis...but as 
their numbers dwindled, the growing number of dhoti-wallas was
growing, right outside the temple room doors. radhanath was
organizing a base since he and kuladri and dev swa all knew that
the charges against k swa were true. they knew that k swa was
molesting both male and females that were left in his care. being
alone was the most difficult part of the relationship, that and
the fact that the malaysian towel boys were quite open about their
physical intimacy with the one so many were claiming to want to show 
their love to. like teenagers with a crush on someone, they wanted the
whole world to know. why not? this was, they were being told, the
highest form of rasa and it was above the neophyte four regulative
principles of freedom.
     "as crazy as kieth ham in warwood" became on expression among
those who would inherit the reigns of power if they could be wrestled 
from k swa's grasp. many blamed his behavior on the volumes of pain 
medication he was taking six times a day, but those at the top knew
that the triyogi assault was motivated by the volumes of sinful acts
that were occurring at NV. which came first, the chicken or the egg,
had been changed to "which came first, the guru, the gurukuli, or the
gurukula teacher?"
     all k swa's cash, everything had been put in the care of his
vassal ronald nay(gopinath das, radha vrndaban chandra swami,
RVC swami, RVC). gopinath had to protect k swa's interests since
he had been headmaster at the gurukula and was caught abusing one
of the students he had "under him", so to speak. the abused boy
and his family had to leave NV in the showdown that resulted from
the charges. this pattern would be repeated by this same team on
several occasions in the future and would "set the standard" by 
which all future abuses charges would be met.
     one of the crafters of the palace, joe cappaletti(bhagavat-
ananda das) found out that gopinath was abusing his son and he 
was furious. a tall gaunt individual of italian ancestry from
the south philly area, bhagavatananda came to k swa before he
went after gopinath. k swa came to know bhagavat's mind well
enough to know that one of them must leave new vrndaban. now that
killing was an accepted option at new vrndaban, bhagavat favored
that option. either the perpetrator or the victim was going to have 
to leave, and the sympathies were clearly with the adult pedophile
and not with the abused child. k swa gave up his palace sculptor
to protect his twice fallen former gurukula headmaster.
     the current ISKCON lawsuit settlement offers another level
of abuse to the doubly abused second generation of Prabhupada
disciples. first, the years of abuse, neglect and offenses
dumped on the second generation by those with longevity issues.
then, the denial that such events even occurred. now, a pittance
of a settlement which is less than the rogues in power take as
an annual salary. and that to be drawn over six years of payments,
the first of which is already past due. "a post dated check on 
a failing bank" swami maharaj would often say when referring to
the same proposal when it was offered by the cheaters who propose
such things. now that it has become the ISKCON party line, we are
all supposed to follow the leaders, like lemmings right over the 
edge of the cliff, without so much as a question as to why.
     for all but six of the litigants, the cash settlement offered
was quite enough to satisfy their thirst for justice. for those 
six, the prospect of the same "powers that be", left in place, 
was not acceptable. the threat of the settlement plan was that if
one were to not accept the plan, they would be limited in their
settlement to only one thousand dollars.
when asked in march 2005 by wheeling's federal backruptcy court
judge edward friend,"why don't you issue the check for $ 1,000
to all those that filed?", kuladri and his legal team responded,
"because we don't intend to issue everyone a check, nor do we 
plan to pay the full amount agreed to in the settlement." the
robin george defense strategy still at work, just as amarendra
had promised back in 1992.
     forget about the broken down skamkirtan mothers. forget 
about those millions of dollars in stolen temple assets. forget 
about the THOUSANDS of cases of abuse of devotee babies. just take
the $ 500 and never speak about this again. yeah, right after they 
take the release form, wipe their butt with it and eat the whole
thing. then we will release them from the responsibility for what 
was done to these defenseless devotee children.
     AND the same management in place afterwards as what brought
us to this point. what a brilliant idea! a masterstroke! who 
ever that of such and incredible plan?
     "Srila Ravanath Swami", as heir to k swa's billionaire indian
mafia, had more assets at his disposal than anyone else in ISKCON.
gopal krsna's puny mumbai mafia, headed by his bihari thug/
henchman, devakinandana, posed no threat to radhanath's gang.
radhanath had more control than anyone in ISKCON india outside
of jayapataka and he had control over more financial assets than
anyone in ISKCON. hadn't even third rate assistant mahaprabhu das
shamed gopal krsna into submission on the steps of the juhu temple
at sunday feast time? didn't mahaprabhu now sit dutifully at
radhanath's feet? wouldn't mahaprabhu release "gopal nectar bits"
on his behalf, as he had once threatened to do on k swa's behalf?
wouldn't that information be as damning now as it was then? life 
was good and, as radhanath assured everyone,"KRSNA will protect 
his devotee!", which, for those not speaking the ISKCRIT language
meant,"i have backup big enough to pull this off".
     dr narendra desai(nathji das) was a leader amongst the indian
business community. he was at one time, the 5the richest man in
the world. still in the top twenty yearly, he headed up a crew of
converts from "k swa"ism to "radhanath"ism in typical indian fashion.
"o, the new guru maharaj is as good as the swami prabhupada that
i beat up on, verbally, for so many years.", nathji would tell
all his influential friends, but his train wrecks of the recent
spiritual past have others less than enthused. "simply out of fashion
one should not take a guru", eternal truth, spoken concisely...
     as the lawsuit moved forward, radhanath had promised "if the
lawsuit would just go away, one of my many billionaire disciples
will build a huge new palace to worship Srila Prabhupada. so, the
lawsuit is done, where are the construction crews? was this just
a fraudulent claim to try to make the child abuse suit go away?
"set the date for the construction!" or "admit that you were lying!"
will we get The Absolute Truth only if we ask softball questions?
weren't all the promises really only flowery rhetoric meant to
derail the lawsuit by any means necessary? who but a politician 
would behave this poorly?
     now, with his sexual picadillos erupting like natural disasters
on a displeased earth planet, the cover up must continue until
nathji, mafatlal and company can find a replacement. radhanath
had promised to take them to Srila Prabhupada, now would be an
excellent time to either deliver on that promise or stop making
those same bodacious over statements" again in the future. if only
swami prabhupada maharaj hadn't "died and "left his body", then we
wouldn't be stuck with such poor options. "oh, but wait, he didn't 
have "a material body", so he couldn't have "left it". nityananda
and CSI: Vrndaban not withstanding,the book Bhagavatam has been 
poisoned, and since that goes on even to the present day in many
corners of ISKCON, many believe that devotee Bhagavatam got a
similar treatment.
     when we consider the orders of Bhagavat-gita, the similarities
of the circumstances, the requirements of Gita 4: 7-8, for one to
ignore the "possibility" of an Incarnation at this time, they would
have to be incredibly acute in their understanding of scripture. this
brings us to the timeless question "when is it permissible to kill
on spiritual grounds?". this then was the question that was posed
by the hierarchy of ISKCON in the aftermath of the sulocan murder.
if you were a member of ISKCON at the time and don't remember voting
on the issue, it's because no one got to "vote" on the issue. the
position on the matter was divinely ordained and entrusted to jaya
adwaita to explain to the less intelligent "srila Prabhupada" disciples.
when he came to vrndaban, india on his magical, mythical tour, he
was able to effect the mind of satsvarup, who stopped initiating disciples
right after these meetings, but not k swa, who was expelled by damodara
pandit in Vrndaban from all ISKCON temples for life. DP was only
verbalizing the edict that had been put forward in mayapur by the GBC.
everyone left mayapur before k swa and BTS got there, so their expulsion
was only theoretical until DP gave k swa the personal instruction in
vrndaban. still, the atmosphere was so convoluted that many opinions
were available. many said that if anyone had posed a threat to Srila
Prabhupada, they would have died then and there. maybe jaya adwaita
would not have killed the intruder but someone surely would have.
this was at variance with the ISKCON party line that contends since
the time of Lord Chaitanya, since the mass of people are "all jagais
and madhais", and since they would all have to be killed, the best
course of action was inaction. not everyone agreed so the philosophical
changes that were implemented were not as widely discussed.
     however expeditious this may have been at the time, just like the
taru killing, it was not supported by scripture and it was undertaken,
in part,to protect an individuals misconception that he is his body
and that adverse material circumstances must be indicative of God's
displeasure. these are the mundane miscalculations of petty 
politicians after checking the local temples poll numbers. it must be 
easier to take polls in the temples these days, what with the
membership numbers at record lows, 1st generationists starting to 
expire(not in vrndaban unless you pay your "caregivers" in advance),
and the "reigns of power" in the hands of such an elite few.   
.