FAQs about The Little Krishna animated series

FAQs about The Little Krishna animated series

1) Are you aware that Srila Prabhupada did not want Krishna to be represented as a cartoon character?

Ans: Yes we are aware of the letter Srila Prabhupada wrote in 1971.
Srila Prabhupada wrote to Madhusudana, “The point is that these drawings should be realistic. Not that you make Krishna a cartoon character and therefore laughing stock. And hippy ideas shouldn’t be used either. Whatever technique is there, make it realistic. That will be nice.” Srila Prabhupada letter (Aug 18, 1971)
When we initiated the Little Krishna animation project, we spent several weeks and months pondering about this quote and the following thoughts crossed our minds.
1. Animation in the 1970’s when Srila Prabhupada wrote this letter was mostly cartoony with lighthearted, silly, frivolous and merely entertaining characters like Mickey Mouse, Tom and Jerry. Comical and cartoony representations are caricatures of the characters. The style of drawings are not in keeping with realistic physical proportions. But in the last 20 years there has been a sea change in the animation style. With advanced computer graphics and 3D modeling, a great deal of realistic characters and backgrounds and high quality animation has become possible to convey more serious messages, and still be appealing to children’s minds.
2. Prabhupada’s warnings here are:
(a) Krishna should not be made “a cartoon character and therefore laughing stock.”
(b) No hippie ideas should be used.
(c) Krishna should be depicted in a realistic manner
3. In modern times, animation has been a convergence of art and technology and this too can be used to depict and celebrate Krishna and His pastimes in a powerful presentation.
4. Animation is a visual language primarily suited for smaller children of our present times. They are very familiar with this format and quickly relate when anything is presented in animation format. So children at an impressionable age can be taught through this medium, how Krishna is supremely powerful and a great friend who will always come to help us if we call out for Him when we are in danger.
5. In a child’s world animated characters are real and not mere representations. They are very real, lovable and adorable persons that children love to relate with, distinctly different from the cold, harsh world of reality. This is the happy world they love to go to. From this point of view, animation of Krishna and His world fits the bill perfectly for children.
6. One senior devotee in our movement when asked about the Little Krishna project said, “One additional conviction I have is that these are more like 3D video illustrations (and not like cartoons of the type SP wrote about). I compare them to the paintings and dioramas that SP personally directed and approved, except now we have another format for the same as well as animation. So I am not thinking of these as cartoons at all…these are video animated illustrations.”
7. We knew of an Indian family in New Jersey who tried telling their young American-born son, pastimes of Lord Rama from the Ramayana. They had a hard time getting him interested in listening to the Ramayana stories. Around that time, the animated film of the Ramayana by the Japanese film-maker Yugo Sako appeared in the market. After watching this, the child could not take his eyes off the screen and wanted to watch the film again and again. This confirmed our assessment of how powerful an influence an animated film can be on the minds of young children.
8. ISKCON devotees the world over have published several children’s books with illustrations. These illustrations have been made appealing to children’s minds and we have seen that these books have indisputably benefitted the development of Krishna consciousness of children.
9. There are several instances which demonstrate that Srila Prabhupada too realized the immense power of the film media, to propagate Krishna consciousness. The following quotes particularly reveal this:
“Regarding the motion picture, it is a great opportunity, and if they actually want to do something wonderful I can come there personally and see to its direction. If it is an important film I think my personal direction is necessary. If not, then I think you can send me a synopsis of the script so that there may be nothing objectionable from the start. If this film is properly done it will be very profitable, even from the commercial point of view; and if they are interested, we can give them hundreds of stories from Bhagavat which will make wonderful films, and simultaneously the people will be educated to the proper religious and moral standard. So please try very seriously for this and I think Krishna will give you all intelligence and facility.” Srila Prabhupada’s letter to Shyamsundar (Sept 22, 1970)
Vishkha: We plan to make a motion picture of the Bhagavad-gita dance that they do. My husband and I…
Prabhupada: Do it. Apply your American brain how to serve Krishna. That is success.
idam hi pumsas tapasah srutasya va
svistasya suktasya ca buddhi-dattayoh
avicyuto ‘rthah kavibhir nirupito
yad-uttamasloka-gunanuvarnanam
(SB 1.5.22)
Whatever talent one has got… These talents are also acquired after austerity. It is not ordinary thing. So everything should be employed to describe Uttamasloka, Krishna. Krishna is Uttamasloka. So we have got so many Krishna’s pastimes, Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s pastime. We can overflood. Just like you can overflood with this literature, we can overflood… This is art. Art, music, everything we can utilize. In any way one is addicted—let him eat only, let him sing only, let him paint only, let him dance only—we have got everything. That is Krishna consciousness. Let him do business also. Yes. Engineering-construct temple. It is so all-perfect movement, Krishna… That is Krishna, all-attractive. Everyone can be attracted and give up everything. He will be attracted by Krishna in such a way that he’ll give up all nonsense. That is Krishna consciousness. No more other enga… anyabhilasita-sunyam [Brs. 1.1.11]. All other attraction finished. Simply Krishna. (morning walk conversation, Feb 10, 1975, Los Angeles)
7. We discussed this project with a few of Srila Prabhupada’s disciples in Los Angeles like Bharadvaja Das, Parikshit Das and a few others (we forget all their names now) and all of them encouraged us in this project.
All of these considerations led us to conclude that presenting the pastimes of Krishna in animation is an important project and we earnestly hoped that Srila Prabhupada would be pleased.
After Little Krishna was aired on Nick Channel in India, we have had several instances of parents telling us how their children have become “addicted” to watching Little Krishna. We have heard this from the most remote parts of the country. Recently, Madhu Pandit Dasa visited Dharmasthala, a holy place in Karnataka. The Chief Administrator of the temple is a highly respected person in Karnataka and he said, “My grand children are so attached to Little Krishna, can you please send me a DVD set?”
Some of our congregation devotees have told us how their children have seen the film about 100 times!

2) What about the use of the word “fable”?

Ans: We admit, it was a faux pas. When the 13 episodes of Little Krishna were reformatted into 3 DVDs, the production studio which was shifted from the ISKCON-Bangalore temple premises to Pune was under tremendous pressure to meet certain deadlines and the text that appears in the beginning of the DVD was finalized by our co-producers and did not come for our review. In future editions, the text will be corrected.
We must assert here that we, the devotees of ISKCON- Bangalore, who were involved in the making of Little Krishna do not subscribe to the idea that Lord Sri Krishna’s pastimes are fables. We are abundantly convinced that they are real, factual and historical occurrences as our beloved spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada, has taught us. Not only is Krishna a real and historical person with real and historical pastimes but also His pastimes are eternally going on in some universe or the other.
We have been practicing Krishna consciousness in ISKCON for nearly three decades as full-time missionaries and how could we ever think that Krishna’s pastimes are fables or fictitious narratives? In our discourses of Krishna consciousness with internal devotees and in public forums, we strongly present our convictions, as taught by Srila Prabhupada, that Lord Sri Krishna is a real, historical person who performed wonderful pastimes during His descent five thousand years ago.
We sincerely apologize to the worldwide community of followers of Srila Prabhupada for the blunder in using the word fable to describe Krishna’s pastimes. However, we assure them that the ISKCON devotees who are involved in the making of Little Krishna do not subscribe to the idea that Krishna’s pastimes are fables. We too shudder at the thought that our beloved Lord’s pastimes can ever be described as fables.

3) What about the word “legendary heroes”?

Ans: We were careful about selecting the titles for the DVDs and used the word “legendary” to mean “well known, famous and renowned.” The Oxford and Webster’s dictionaries define this word in this way as well.
In all languages, this multiple shades of meanings are possible. For instance in Sanskrit, the word katha can mean conversation, speech, story, fable, feigned story, tale, discussion as mentioned in Sir Monier William’s Sanskrit – English Dictionary or can mean a tale, story, historical knowledge, feigned story, an account, talk, conversation, speech, a variety of prose composition as mentioned in Prof VS Apte’s Practical Sanskrit – English Dictionary. But when we say Hari-katha or Krishna-katha, we take it as conversation or discussion or historical account and not as a fable or tale.

4) Why have you used several other stories in Little Krishna that Srila Prabhupada has not mentioned in the Krishna book? What are their sources?

Ans: The main pastimes in each of the episodes are taken from the Krishna book, like subduing Kaliya and the lifting of Govardhana Hill. However in a visual medium, there is a need for short anecdotes (apart from the main story, called Story B by script writers) that help to establish the mood of the story and define the relationship between the various characters. We have been careful to select these anecdotes from authentic sources.
1) The story of the cow Bahula is taken from the Padma Purana and is also mentioned in the Mathura Mahatmya by Srila Rupa Goswami.
2) The story of Krishna growing pearls is taken from the Mukta Charita by Srila Raghunatha Dasa Goswami.
3) The story of Krishna building a bridge is referred to in the Bhagavatam (10.11.59) and more elaborately described by Srila Narayana Bhatta Goswami in Vraja Bhakti Vilasa. Srila Narayana Bhatta Goswami was a contemporary of Srila Vishwanatha Chakravarthi Thakura and lived in Radha Kunda. He is credited to have revealed the glories of various locations connected to Krishna’s pastimes in Vraja Mandala, including Barsana.
It is interesting to note the verse of Srimad Bhagavatam (10.11.59):
evam viharaih kaumaraih
kaumaram jahatur vraje
nilayanaih setu-bandhair
markatotplavanadibhih
“In this way Krishna and Balaräma passed Their childhood age in Vrajabhumi by engaging in activities of childish play, such as playing hide-and-seek, constructing a make-believe bridge on the ocean, and jumping here and there like monkeys.”
This verse is the last verse in the chapter that describes the pastime of Krishna killing the demon Bakasura. The verse talks about setu-bandhiah (constructing a make-believe bridge) and markata-utplavana (jumping about like monkeys). This has been elaborated by Srila Naryana Bhatta Goswami about Krishna building the bridge like Sri Rama built to cross over to Lanka with the help of monkeys.
And based on this, we have used the story of building the bridge as Story B along with the pastime of Krishna killing Bakasura as Story A.
4) Baby Krishna looking at His own reflection in the butter store is an anecdote taken from Ananda Vrindavana Champu by Kavi Karnapura.
5) Krishna and Madhmangala disguising themselves as brahmana boys to conduct the Surya puja for the gopis is taken from Sri Govinda Lilamrta by Srila Krsnadasa Kaviraja Goswami.
6) Srila Vishwanatha Chakravarthi Thakura describes in Sarartha Darshini that the forest fire in Munjatavi was actually caused by a fire demon who was a friend of Pralambhasura. Accordingly we have repersented the fire demon.
7) When Krishna was swallowed by Bakasura, the various demigods like Brahma, Shiva and others attack Bakasura, and this is described in the Garga Samhita.
The pastime of Krishna disguising Himself as the son of Prabhavati is also described in the Garga Samhita.
9) Krishna asking the gopis to pay tax is taken from Danakeli Kaumidi by Srila Rupa Goswami.
10) The peacocks dancing around Krishna and then gifting Him with a peacock feather is described by Srila Vishwanatha Chakravarti Thakura in the Sarartha Darshini.
11) The anecdote of Indra visiting the orchard of Kamsa at Talavana is taken from the Padma Purana, as described in Krishna-avatara Vol 1, by a renowned Sri Vaishnava scholar, Sri Narayanachar.
12) Krishna asking Radha as to who gave her permission to pluck the flowers in Kusumavana and playing a trick on her when she gets lifted off the ground by a branch of a tree – this pastime in Kusumasarovara is described by Srila Narayana Bhatta Goswami in Vraja Bhakti Vilasa.
13) Aristasura attacking the village residents and breaking the embankment of a reservoir is described in Srimad Bhagavatam (10.36.2). Krishna clapped his hands that greatly angered Aristasura is also described in Srimad Bhagavatam(10.36.8).
14) The pastime of the appearance of Radha Kunda and Shyama Kunda is described by Srila Vishvanatha Chakravarthi Thakura in Sarartha Darshini. He also mentions that this pastime is described in other puranas.
15) “Krishna grabbed Dhenukasura with both hand, whirled him around and threw him onto Govardhan Hill.” This is described in Garga Samhita. Similarly such action items and fight sequences have all been taken from different sources.
In this way we have taken the anecdotes for Story B from various Vaishnava literatures. This is only a partial list.
We have also been careful not to depict any confidential pastimes like the rasa dance and the stealing of the gopis’ garments.

5) Why did you have to use books other than what Srila Prabhupada has given?

Ans: Animation film, or any film for that matter, is a visual medium. The basic principle in this medium is that you don’t state, but show visually. For instance, you don’t merely state in the film that Krishna was adored by the residents of Vrindavan, but must provide visual evidence of how He was an adorable boy to the residents of Vrindavan. Hence we needed a lot of information that helps to reveal the qualities of Krishna and other characters, the inter-relation between Krishna and the other characters, the world of Krishna and His associates, and so on.
And we were using only the additional pastimes or such information from other acharyas’ books, and not any philosophical or theological aspects to fear that it may differ from what Srila Prabhupada has taught. We were conscious of the sensitivities and exercised caution while referring to other texts.

6) Have you ever exercised certain narrative freedom in the films?

Ans: Yes there have been certain sections where we have exercised certain creative and narrative freedom. But they are few.
a) We wanted to impress on the children that Krishna is a powerful person although He appears as a simple cowherd boy in Vrindavan. Also we have the information that when Krishna killed these demons in Vrindavan, it was not the Vrindavan Krishna who killed them but the Vishnu expansions in Krishna who killed the demons. To visually convey this, we have made a “warrior Krishna” whom the demons get to see just before the combat.
b) The Krishna book says that Krishna glanced over the boys who were lying unconscious due to the poisonous effects of Kaliya, and revived their consciousness. To make this more visually interesting, we made Krishna touch the boys when a glow appears and the boy is revived. The glance is more subtle which the children cannot appreciate, while the touch of Krishna which causes a glow is more visible and palpable.

7) What about your intentions to make money from these films?

Ans: Our primary and dominant intention has been to depict the glorious pastimes of Krishna in a powerful presentation, using modern technology of 3D animation, music and interesting scripts to engage the attention of children of our times. In his letter to Shyamsundar quoted above, we see how Srila Prabhupada was practical and pragmatic, and did not mind if such a venture was profitable commercially (“If this film is properly done it will be very profitable, even from the commercial point of view…”).
The above explanations that we have given may not satisfy all the Vaishnavas all over the world, in all respects. We are aware that there are alternate viewpoints on this. But we hope that they will see the spirit in which this project was taken up.
We hope and pray that Srila Prabhupada will bless our humble endeavor to glorify Krishna through this project and forgive us for any mistakes that we might have committed in our enthusiasm to use this wonderful animation technology which is otherwise engaging millions of children in topics of maya. On the whole, the fact that children have become fascinated by the “Person” Little Krishna and His little friends, brings a hope that they will carry Him in their hearts all their lives.

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“The Great Guru Hoax, Part 3: ISKCON’s multiple personality disorder”

Back to Prabhupada, Issue 21

BY: KRISHNAKANT | EDITOR BACK TO PRABHUPADA | IRM

In the last 3 issues of BTP we have presented two themes:
a) That ISKCON leaders have now basically begun agreeing with the IRM virtually in toto to try and bait followers with the plea that they are following Srila Prabhupada and accepting him as the Guru, while they are just like ritviks (officiating priests) – please see BTP Special Issue #2.
b) That this tactic of agreeing with the IRM is part of The Great Guru Hoax, Part 3, where a guru re-defines himself like a ritvik to distract from the fact that he is actually taking all the benefits and worship of a regular diksa (initiating) guru (or a ritvik re-defines himself like a diksa guru to get all the benefits of a diksa guru) – please see BTP issues 19 and 20.
These two themes are dramatically illustrated here in a lecture entitled “The Importance of Accepting a Guru in one’s Spiritual Life”, given by ISKCON GBC votedin guru HH Hanumatpresaka Swami (“HPS”), excerpts from which will be given in the tinted panels below.
(http://www.youtube.com/user/108krsnadasi)

Srila Prabhupada is the diksa Guru – stupid!
“Of diksa, right, um, if I am serving Srila Prabhupada’s mission, chanting 16 rounds and following everything, why do I need to accept initiation from a spiritual master? Because Srila Prabhupada says that this is necessary to serve his mission […] we know, who diksa guru is ….. we need a diksa guru, we pretty much already know who he is, because he is the person who’s telling us that we need a diksa guru, that’s how stupid we are.”
HPS here tells us that Srila Prabhupada is our diksa Guru because he is the one who tells us we need a diksa Guru, and if we do not understand this, we must be “stupid”.
Srila Prabhupada is the diksa Guru – it’s natural!
“Sometimes for different reasons, that person who is instructing us, this is very natural that we can see that has got the qualifications to …… So has Prabhupada, reading Prabhupada’s books, understanding from him, just take initiation from Prabhupada.”
HPS here says that it is very natural that we should “just take initiation from Prabhupada”, meaning Prabhupada should be the diksa Guru.
Srila Prabhupada is the diksa Guru – Krishna’s representative
“This is the parampara, so who is the diksa guru? Do I mean by diksa guru the person who is giving me the beads, the person who is giving the name, or do you mean the person who establishes the contract with Krishna and, you know, the person who is the representative? Then Prabhupada is the diksa guru.”
Here HPS states that, using the correct definition of a diksa Guru as the person who represents Krishna and establishes the contract between us and Krishna, then Srila Prabhupada is the diksa Guru.
Srila Prabhupada is the diksa Guru – fail-safe option
Guest: “In that case, who will be, I mean, are we considered having diksa guru if your initiating guru falls and doesn’t chant 16 rounds?”
HPS: “Again, if you take Prabhupada as the diksa guru, yes.”
HPS here says that it is permissible for those whose ISKCON gurus have fallen to then take Srila Prabhupada as their diksa Guru.
I am not the diksa Guru – 1
“The contract, like that, it is not that he takes shelter of his previous acharya, but am I a diksa guru or not? No, I am not.”
Having already stated multiple times that Srila Prabhupada is the diksa Guru in ISKCON, HPS now makes it clear that he himself is not the diksa Guru.
I am not the diksa Guru – 2
“So we should only accept a self-realized person as a spiritual master. […] I am a madhyama- adikhari still full of material desires.”
HPS reconfirms that he cannot possibly be the diksa Guru since he is not self-realised, but rather a madhyama-adhikari* still full of material desires.
*a devotee whose advancement in spiritual life is midway between the neophyte (kanishtha) and advanced (uttama) stages.
I am Ritvik
“So I don’t talk with Krishna that much. […] You know on a higher level, like that, so apparently some people in ISKCON, may be on the position where they are having like this intense relationship with Krishna and being guided very intensely by Krishna. No one would say an uttamaadikhari, but even they, publicly and stuff, they won’t, you know, present that as your qualification, like that. So, you know, other than people that, yeah, some people in ISKCON in that sense are ritviks. I am a ritvik! How to define the term? Like that.”
HPS now goes further and says that actually he is only a ritvik, since he is not someone who has an intense relationship with Krishna.
I am a diksa Guru in a sense
“And in terms of some somebody like myself being diksa guru because I can’t handle, hang on to people like Prabhupada, he was strong enough to deal with all kinds of madness, myself at some point I just have to tell people I can’t be your diksa guru in a sense, you have to be more strict.”
HPS here claims that he can be a diksa Guru for some people in some sense, depending on how much he can “handle” and “hang on” to them.
Srila Prabhupada is diksa Guru only “symbolically”
“There is no limit, it is just the idea for taking initiation from somebody in ISKCON, taking names and stuff, we have to be convinced that I am taking initiation from Prabhupada. If there is some doubt about that then that is not. This is an initiation from Prabhupada. And Prabhupada is so clear on that, from me it is an initiation from Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati, I am nothing.”
So now HPS claims that initiations in ISKCON today are actually coming from Srila Prabhupada. But whenever Srila Prabhupada gave initiations he considered them as coming from his spiritual master. Therefore the ISKCON diksa gurus are diksa gurus in the same sense as Srila Prabhupada was for his disciples, which means a full diksa guru. They simply consider that their initiations are coming from their spiritual masters.
I am the diksa Guru
“So on Sunday we are going to have second initiation, gayatri diksa, with Chaitanya Vijaya Das.”
In the middle of the lecture HPS announces that he is actually a diksa Guru since he will be giving a second initiation to a disciple!
I won’t answer
Guest: “Maharaj, re initiations in ISKCON we see that Prabhupada disciples, they are becoming initiating guru, and there are some that argue on the basis of the letter of ritvik representative. So what is the conclusion and real understanding of that?”
HPS: “Ritvik, it is interesting in terms of diksa guru in ISKCON. Kadamba Kanana who was originally initiated by Bhavananda prabhu and then took initiation from, you know, Jayadvaita Maharaja, under the approval of his guru he is now taking disciples.
So there are grand disciples of Prabhupada in ISKCON who are initiating. Krishna Das Maharaja, he was initiated by some very nice Vaishnava in India and came to London as an engineer. Met Prabhupada’s movement, met Prabhupada, wrote to his guru to see if he could participate in Prabhupada’s movement, and his guru wrote back, “Why are you asking this kind of question?” Of course, all bona fide acharyas respect A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. It would be a great honour for me if he accepts you to help his movement. So after Prabhupada left his body he took sannyasa from Sivarama Swami and he is also is initiating in ISKCON. He did not have first or second initiation from Prabhupada, only sannyasa initiation in ISKCON. He is an initiating guru in ISKCON.”
HPS is here asked about the “conclusion and real understanding” regarding those who argue about the need for everyone to only be “ritvik representative” based on Srila Prabhupada’s July 9th, 1977 letter. HPS answers this by saying ritvik “is interesting”, and that’s all! Instead, he goes off on a tangent about the fact that in ISKCON even the disciples of Prabhupada’s disciples are also initiating.
No one actually knows who is the diksa Guru
“Yes, so we realise, you know, I have a diksa guru. Even in ISKCON the GBC give up on this, gave up, on that couldn’t figure it out, yeah, you can give up, the person got the name from and beads, he has some problem not initiating any more, you know, and he has to tell you this whether you can take shelter of someone else or not. Some people do and some don’t, and some people come and say I really want this, I really need this clear connection with authority for my mind and stuff like that. Okay, so sometimes I do it and sometimes I avoid it because of the situation. If it feels proper, sometimes I do it. So it is individual.”
HPS states that actually the GBC could not even figure out who is the diksa guru if an ISKCON guru falls, and just gave up trying to do so, and basically now allow a free-for-all.
The reality
Regardless of the schizophrenic self-contradictory nonsense he has spoken here, in practise HPS knows exactly what he is doing, attempting to act as a fullfledged diksa Guru for his disciples, with worship, Vyasa-puja offerings and all the other benefits which go along with acting as a “good-as-god” ISKCON diksa guru. In practise, he does not act as a ritvik at all, nor allow people to become initiated as Srila Prabhupada’s disciple, with himself acting as the ritvik priest for such an initiation. Rather, he simply gives every possible answer that someone could wish to hear, to be “all things to all men”, and keep the guru show on the road. Anything can be said, as long as in practise the same guru hoax can continue to be perpetuated.
Conclusion
In the SAME lecture, which was supposed to specifically address the issue of surrendering to a diksa guru, HPS has run the full gamut of all possible answers claiming:
SP
Srila Prabhupada: The one initiating Guru for ISKCON
HPS
HH Hanumatpresaka Swami: Identity crisis
a) Srila Prabhupada is the diksa Guru
b) HPS is not a diksa Guru
c) HPS is a ritvik
d) HPS is a diksa Guru
That someone who is supposedly acting as a diksa guru in ISKCON himself, as the transparent via medium to Krishna, could speak such contradictory gibberish in the same talk merely illustrates the entangling nature of the guru hoax. The Great Guru Hoax has, therefore, as it moves into its third phase, evolved in such a way that ISKCON has had to develop multiple personality disorder to even be able to explain and justify it. What makes the situation even more farcical is that the guru hoaxers also have the temerity to tell us that Srila Prabhupada’s desires for initiations after he departed are also very “clear” to them! The only thing which is clear is that they are literally making this up as they go along, as evidenced by the same guru giving every possible answer in the same talk.
The true and clear unchanging path is that given by Srila Prabhupada himself, as documented in his books, conversations, directives for ISKCON and his Last Will and Testament – that the system of initiation he established for ISKCON (the representative ritvik system of initiations, with himself as ISKCON’s sole diksa, or initiating, Guru), would be identical in ISKCON for all time to how it operated when he was on the planet.

Srila Prabhupada: The one initiating Guru for ISKCON

HH Hanumatpresaka Swami: Identity crisis

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New Temple Project- ISKCON Hubli Dharwad

ISKCON will be launching its master plan Project “Sri Sri Radha Krishna Mandir & Bhaktivedanta Heritage and Cultural Complex” in line with ISKCON Temple in Bangalore at Rayapur, Hubli-Dharwad. It will be Glory of India and Pride of Karnataka. The Projects Architectural master piece will be designed by a team of Architects led by Sri Madhupandit Dasa, President, ISKCON Bangalore, who has designed the famous ISKCON Bangalore temple. The phase one of the project “The Akshaya Patra Kitchen” is already ready & is built at the cost of 14 Crore and has a capacity to cook food for 2,50,000 children at a time. At present 1, 80,000 underprivileged children are covered in the scheme. Apart from Akshaya Patra, & a temple of Sri Radha Krishna, the proposed project in Hubli- Dwd will include the following.

ARCHITECTURAL GRANDEUR:

The Grand Cultural complex will showcase India’s glorious tradition of Art, Architecture and Valuable Heritage. The Complex will bear a unique blend of Traditional Hoyasala and Modern Architecture, a beautiful synthesis of traditional South Indian temple architecture and modern facilities.
It will have intricately carved pillars, ornately sculpted figures exhibiting various themes from purana’s, ornamental arches, traditional Gold Kalasha’s crowning the temple. The temple will have one svagata-gopuram (welcome tower, representing the Lord’s feet), one raja-gopuram (grand tower, representing the Lord’s navel), one vimana-gopuram (tower above the deities’ chamber, representing the Lord’s head). The Complex will have a prayer and meditation hall, traditional Kalyani for boat festivals

An Environmental Delight

The complex will be garlanded by lush green, serene garden and landscape. The Musical fountain will have brilliant fusion of light, sound and water amidst beautiful landscape, with colourful gardens and verdant lawns.

Multimedia Theatre :

Inculcating Values through technology. The Complex will house a state of art multimedia theatre which will showcase the values of Vedic culture through films, light and sound shows, Video & Audio animatronics. It will have a capacity of 300 people at a time.

Heritage Auditorium & Open air Theatre:

Nurturing talents through Heritage & Cultural Festivals
Enchanting India is a treasury of art, architecture; philosophy, classical dances and music. India is colorful and vibrant, a land as diverse as its people. It has mosaic of faiths, cultures, customs and languages that blend harmoniously to form a composite whole. It is one of the world’s oldest living civilizations. To give a glimpse & to teach these important values embedded in our Vedic heritage, the Complex will house a Heritage Auditorium & Open Air Theatre with a capacity of more than 500 people each.

Cultural & Spiritual Theme Park :

Showcasing the Glorious heritage through Entertainment. There will be spectacular Walk through experience, Educational boat rides, in themed settings of animated dolls, light, sound and special atmospheric effects.

Annadana Mantap :

Apart from the Akshaya Patra program, all the pilgrims to the temple will also be able to have Sri Krishna Prasadam at the temple in Annadana Mantap. This will have a capacity of thousand people at a time.
Hari Nam Mantap :
Japa Yajna for World Peace & Harmony. The Complex will have a unique program to make thousands of people chant at least one round of the Hare Krishna maha mantra everyday at the temple for World Peace & Harmony. The Harinama mantap will be designed in South-Indian style, and will have two sets of 108 steps. A recorded voice of Srila Prabhupada chanting the mahamantra with full clarity, will resounds in the mantap, playing off a CD. One full round will take exactly 10 minutes – meaning that 1296 people can pass through the mantap in an hour, each chanting the mahamantra 108 times.

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Iskcon fest for students begins

HUBLI: Rasa Fest – a five-day inter-collegiate festival for students of Hubli-Dharwad, organized by Iskcon, began here on Monday. The fest aims to give exposure to budding artistes, which will help nurture their creativity besides familiarizing them with the beauty of Indian culture.
The fest was inaugurated by philosopher and astrologer Sri Sri Shyamrao Ramrao Jumnalkar in the presence of Raghavendra S Katti, chairman, MAA Group of colleges and ISKCON Hubli-Dharwad president Rajiv Lochan Dasa.
Shyamrao said that in the world of tough competition it is very important for students to have peace of mind and concentration and programmes like Rasa fest will help in this regard.
Raghavendra Katti said, “In earlier yugas, the lord appeared to kill physical demons like Ravana but in Kali yuga the lord has appeared as ISKCON to kill the demon in everyone’s mind.”
Rajiv Lochan pointed out that there were many educational institutions for making a living but not for making a life. ISKCON is trying to fulfill that gap, which is very important in today’s society. Vedic quiz, vocal music and elocution were held.
Read more: The Times of India

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DEAD NEWS COMES ALIVE- SEE OLD ISKCON BANGALORE NEWS FROM NEWSPAPERS

The Indian Express- Iskcon to offer degree course in Vedic studies

BANGALORE, April 20, 1998:The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (Iskcon) is to start a three-year bachelor of Vedic studies degree course in September. There would be an entrance test to access the spiritual inclination of prospective students and the course would be more like the Gurukul system of studies, according to Madhu Pandit Dasa, the temple president.

The Indian Express- ISKCON bhakts wage war against gurus, on the Net

NEW DELHI, July 6, 1998: A cyber war has broken out on the Net over the rot in the leadership of the International Society of Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON). The Society, which was set up in 1966 and boasts of 500 centres across the globe, is not new to controversies. But this time the spiritual ante has been upped in India, and insiders say the ISKCON bubble is ready to burst.
Heading a mini-revolt against the ISKCON leadership is Vineet Narain, Editor of Kalchakra, who says he joined the “faith” in 1992 but was now set to expose the wheeling-dealings of the so-called gurus. Narain says he would be joining hands with the Prabhupad Anti-Defamation Action (PADA) group, whose activists have been flooding the Net with missives against ISKCON leaders.
Narain explains that while unrest in ISKCON has been simmering for years, things were now coming to a head. Devotees had been challenging their gurus all over India — a few days ago devotees in Bangalore “defeated” their American guru — and a historiccongregation to thrash out the issue of degeneration of leadership was being convened tomorrow (July 7).
“The ISKCON gurus are required to follow a life of simplicity and austerity which the founder Swami Prabhupada did,” Narain explains. “Instead they are lording over a multi-million dollar empire, symbolised by chartered planes, Rolex watches and silk robes. I am determined to expose the frauds the ISKCON gurus are committing.”
ISKCON followers in other cities agree that a chain reaction had been set off against the show of ostentation and opulence at their centres and temples. Satish Kapur, a businessman from Amritsar, says that while he continued to follow the basic philosophy and tenets of ISKCON, he felt the new-generation gurus had ruined everything. “They consider themselves to be gods and expect us to renounce everything for them. Why should we donate properties and leave our families for men who have opened shops in the name of religion?” he demands.
Agitated ISKCON followers citeexamples of the series of scandals to which some of the 70-odd gurus of the Society have been linked. Cases of molestation, sodomy and smuggling involving the gurus have been reported in Europe and USA.
Two recent developments have hastened the pace of dissension and the ripples have reached India via the Net. The first lot of documents downloaded by irate followers were the contents of a “discussion paper” on Srila Prabhupada’s instructions for “initiation within ISKCON” which the Governing Body Commission (GBM) had asked for in 1996.

The Indian Express- ISKCON plot gets a poisonous twist

CALCUTTA, AUG 10, 1999: The founder of a worldwide religious cult lies in his deathbed, `whispering’ that he has been `poisoned.’ The `whispers’ lay buried in his last conversations that were taped. More than 20 years after the guru’s death, the tapes are dug out of archives and digitally processed for clarity at laboratories in the USA. The finding, according to a book just published in the USA, is that Srila Prabhupada, also known as Bhaktivedanta Swami, founder of ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness) `was poisoned, but by whom is not yet known’.
The book, by Nityananda Das, a longtime American devotee of ISKCON, has rattled the schism-ridden fraternity as never before. For, although it doesn’t pin the `poison’ charge on anyone conclusively, it does offer a list of suspects who include some of the guru’s `closest’ disciples. And all the suspects hold very senior positions in the order’s hierarchy.
And the book, titled Someone has poisoned me, has come at a time when two ISKCON factions arelocked in a case in the Calcutta High Court where the final hearing is due this Thursday. The official group served an expulsion order on six disciples, including the presidents of ISKCON temples in Calcutta, Bangalore and Singapore, but the court had stayed the expulsions.
The London-based ISKCON Reform Group is also a party to the case and it has accused the official group of usurping the order in violation of the founder’s directives. In its interim order, the court has directed that all initiations into the order would be subject to the final verdict in the case. It was the court case that had engaged the rival factions for several months now. But the book, which an ISKCON devotee described as a `bomb ticking for long’, has caused a `veritable explosion’ in the sect. The rebel group is naturally jubilant, though none would talk openly about it. To it, the book is a damning proof that those who took over from the founder had taken to foul means. The ISKCON gurus of today are all usurpers, the rebelsargue, because Prabhupada never approved of the guru system. To them, he was the only guru and his disciples could at best graduate to ritwiks (priests).
`It’s these ritwik theorists and the ISKCON Reform Group that are also behind the poison theory,’ said Hari Sauri Das, co-director at the sect’s spiritual headquarters over the telephone from Mayapur in West Bengal’s Nadia district.
He dismissed the book as one full of `conjectures and flimsy evidence’. `We dont give it any credibility,’ Hari Sauri Das, a British-born, snapped. But he went on to recall that the author Nityananda Das had been ex-communicated from the order way back in 1990 and had been subsequently arrested for drug-related offences in southern USA where his firm was also confiscated.

The times of India- Kolkata cops search city’s Iskcon temple

BANGALORE, Sep 25, 2003: Kolkata police arrived in the city on Thursday and searched Iskcon temple premises here looking for four persons from Kolkata Iskcon temple against whom there are non-bailable arrest warrants.
However, the search proved futile as none of the wanted persons were present in the Iskcon premises here. The team returned empty handed, Bangalore police who assisted Kolkata police team said.
Four persons identified as Abhidaran Das, Brindavan Das, Manoranjan Das and Uttam Das are accused of indulging in financial misappropriation and falsification of documents in Kolkata’s Iskcon temple. For this, a lower court in Kolkata had issued non-bailable arrest warrants.
On a tip-off that, the accused have been sheltered here, Kolkata police team arrived here.
Kolkata police team’s visit to local Iskcon temple resulted in a drama on Thursday morning.
Initially, temple authorities did not allow Kolkata police to search the temple premises and insisted for search warrant.
Later, they allowed the police team to go around the temple. Meanwhile, somebody informed the media about Kolkata police team’s search. Media members mainly photographers and TV camera crew rushed to the Iskcon temple.

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Obama’s accolade for Akshaya Patra

The US President elect found it a sterling example of ‘what is possible when people work together’
The Akshaya Patra mid-day meal programme run by ISKCON has drawn praise from US President elect Barack Obama. He appreciated the good work done by the Akshaya Patra Foundation in a letter that he wrote to them before he was elected as President of United States.
While Obama was on his campaign trail, he heard about Akshaya Patra mid-day meal programme of India and took time off to send a congratulatory note. In the note sent to the head of Akshaya Patra office in Boston, he writes, “Your use of efficient and innovative business practices to scale up in just a few years from feeding 1,500 school children daily to almost a million is a powerful demonstration of what’s possible when people work together.”
He points out that the Akshaya Patra could serve as a model for other countries as well. The letter reads, “I want to congratulate you and the people of the Akshaya Patra Foundation for the incredible progress you’ve made in feeding the children of India. Your use of efficient and innovative business practices to scale up in just a few years from feeding 7001 school children daily to almost a million is a powerful demonstration of what’s possible when people work together.
“Behavioural, emotional and academic problems are more prevalent among children with hunger. Hunger and malnutrition also make it much more difficult to fight AIDS and other public health challenges. By feeding children now, you are helping to avoid any negative consequences that would be much more difficult and expensive to address later on.
“In just a few years, Akshaya Patra has become the largest single feeding program in the world. Your example of using advanced technologies in central kitchens to reach children in 5,700 schools is an imaginative approach that has the potential to serve as a model for other countries. Thank you again for all of your efforts”. Said Madhu Pandit Dasa, Chairman, Akshaya Patra Foundation, “We hope one day we will be able to showcase one of our large kitchens to Barack Obama and demonstrate how our governments and civil societies are working in partnership for the development of our children to bring about a transformation in the country.”
The other ISKCON authorities too are thrilled to get a compliment from a personality like Obama. They say that he wants to replicate the programme in African countries.

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In India, the World’s Largest School Lunch Program- Time Magazine

Time Magazine

Narasimha Das is on his way to feed 169,379 hungry children. A devotee of Lord Krishna, Das oversees operations in an industrial-size kitchen in the Hindu religious town of Vrindaban, about a three-hour drive from New Delhi. As he reaches work, the pebbles on the facility’s driveway crunch softly in the semidarkness of a nippy October morning. It’s only 3 a.m., but the kitchen, run by the Akshaya Patra Foundation, already exudes the warm fragrance of freshly baked chapati. Thirty men in overalls and mouth and hair guards silently labor over tons of wheat flour and dough. They have less than five hours to make tens of thousands of rounds of Indian flatbread that will be loaded onto heat-insulated, dust-free delivery vans and transported to 1,516 schools in and around Vrindaban.
As the world’s cameras focus on India this week, with U.S. President Barack Obama making his first visit to New Delhi, scenes like this one — and the problems it underscores — are not likely to capture much of the international spotlight. Despite its optimistic economy and growing geopolitical clout, India continues to be home to more undernourished children than any other country; 42% of the world’s underweight children under age 5 live here. A global hunger index released this month by the International Food Policy Research Institute ranked India 67th out of 84 countries on indicators like child malnourishment, child mortality and calorie deficiency.
It’s hardly a new problem. To address the enduring and intertwined problems of hunger, child malnutrition and illiteracy, India launched the Mid-Day Meal Scheme, the largest school-lunch program in the world, back in the 1960s. Today the program feeds 120 million students every day across the nation. Akshaya Patra, a Bangalore-based nonprofit, is its largest nongovernmental partner, running 17 kitchens across eight states and providing hot meals to more than 1.26 million children every day at their schools. The program aspires to feed 5 million children by 2020; described by Obama as a “powerful demonstration of what’s possible when people work together,” it today runs on a public-private partnership model, with 65% of its funds provided by the government.
Das, president of the Vrindaban operation, tells TIME the Vrindaban kitchen now makes 250,000 flatbreads, four tons of rice, more than two tons of lentils and between five and six tons of vegetables each morning. The menu, developed with the needs of growing children and local food habits in mind, consists of rice or chapatis and a different kind of Indian soup, like daal or kadhi (a soup made from yogurt and flour), with vegetables and, once a week, dessert.
The subject of a 2007 Harvard study about time management, Akshaya Patra began providing cooked, nutritious meals on its own initiative for 1,500 schoolchildren in Bangalore in 2000, a year before India’s highest court made it mandatory for the government to provide cooked meals to children in all government and government-assisted primary schools each day. “It was shocking how much a meal, which we take for granted, meant to these children,” says Chanchalapathi Dasa, vice chairman of the Akshaya Patra Foundation. In 2006 the NGO hooked up with the federal Mid-Day Meal Scheme, which has been a huge success and is seen as key to helping India meet its Millennium Development Goals of eradicating extreme poverty and hunger and achieving universal primary education. That program’s funds increased from approximately $670 million in 2005-06 to slightly more than $1 billion in 2006-07. (See pictures from Obama’s Asia trip.)
Despite its success, Akshaya Patra’s guiding principle has remained the same: that no children in India will miss out on education because they are too hungry to attend. For more than 13 million children in India, attending school is not a priority because if they don’t work they will go hungry. Despite repeated requests from other parts of the developing world, Akshaya Patra wants to remain focused on India. “We have enough hungry children to feed in India,” Dasa says.
Later in the morning, the Akshaya Patra delivery van arrives at the Gopalgarh Primary School, a little more than a mile away from the kitchen. The children look out expectantly as the familiar thud of the food containers being unloaded from the truck reach their ears. Laxmi Binodini, the headmistress, says attendance has increased from 120 to 200 students since the program started in her school four years ago. The number of girls has doubled. “Parents now have an incentive to send the girls to school. Previously they would be taken off after [age 9] to stay at home and do the cooking and other chores,” Binodini says. A survey by Akshaya Patra showed that since its kitchen started in Vrindaban in 2006, attendance in the town’s schools rose from 80.6% to 92.4% and the proportion of underweight children dropped from 38% to 26%.
When the gong sounds for lunch break at noon, the children tumble out of the classrooms. They wait while the teachers dole out the soft chapatis and steaming lentils and vegetables. Laxman, a 12-year-old boy, returns for seconds. In keeping with its name, which means an inexhaustible bowl of food, Akshaya Patra allows as many helpings as the children want — as long as they finish what’s on their plate.
Read more: TIME

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New Hare Krishna temple opens today – FIGI

The Hare Krishna Movement in Fiji has invested $4.7 million in the country by building its temple in Sigatoka town.

Spokesperson for the Movement Dr Rajesh Maharaj said construction works of the Shri Radha Damodar temple started three years ago and work is still underway.
However, he said the decision to have the opening this weekend is due to this auspicious month in the Movement’s calendar.
He said the initiative to have the temple constructed came from two female members of the Hare Krishna Movement and this act is the first of its kind in the Movement’s history.
He said the temple will cater for the homeless and elderly too.
The Hare Krishna temple opening will take place today with various prayers and installation of statues.

Report From FIGIVILLAGE

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Arrested ex-ISKCON president remanded in police custody

Imphal, November 15 2010: Ousted ISKCON president Ajit Das, who was arrested by police on the charge of attempting to commit suicide, has been taken 15-day remand into police custody after producing in a local court here Monday.

Ajit Das has been on fast since November 12 last expressing strong decry on the charges level against him while ousting him from the post of president of the ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness), Manipur. Maharaja Gopal Krishna of the ISKCON charged him of misused of funds while he was taken out from the post of president.
Ajit Das strongly refuted the charge level against him and started indefinite fast stir demanding withdrawal of the charges.
Police rounded up him yesterday from his fasting place in front of Mani Mandir of ISKCON temple in Imphal and produced him in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Imphal after booking him under section 309 (attempt to commit suicide) of Singjamei police station of Imphal west.
The court released him on bail with a surety bond amount of Rs 500 but he refused to furnish the surety amount.
Following the non-furnishing of the amount, court ordered him to keep in the police custody for 15 days, that is, till November 29 next.
Source: Hueiyen News Service

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Where did the Hare Krishnas go?

News from CURTIS RUSH/TORONTO STAR

So, whatever happened to the Hare Krishna movement?
Back in the 1970s, robed members of the sect were frequently seen on street corners, chanting the “Hare Krishna” mantra, with their hair shorn.
These days, you are more likely to see robed Anglican bishops occupying a corner of Bay and Front Sts. and passing out literature.
Krishna devotees haven’t gone into hiding, but they have toned down the missionary zeal from those crazy days of counterculture movements.
As one senior devotee says, “we are now more interested in quality than quantity.”
Formed by his Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada in 1965, the Hare Krishnas of the time were full of brashness and ideals. Now, you see a gentler side, with mostly South Asians attending the temple with their young children.
This fresh injection of Hare Krishnas has brought to the temple the most affluent and educated members in the movement’s history. They are young bankers, computer consultants, software developers, dentists, PhD students. They drive Mercedes, Audis, BMWs, wear Western clothes and live in opulent homes, some with altars built so they can worship at home.
The Hare Krishnas worship Krsna, thought to be the source of all incarnations of God. An offshoot of Hinduism, the movement teaches followers that through chanting and meditation they can achieve true bliss, a higher state of consciousness and self-realization through the instructions of the spiritual master.
Lifetime members not only chant a 16-word mantra to Hare Krishna, sometimes lasting hours a day, they agree to abstain from meat, gambling, alcohol and illicit sex.
The decline of the movement began in part with revelations of child-abuse scandals at boarding schools in the U.S. and India in the 1970s and 1980s. Money troubles followed, and their world changed.
Another setback came earlier this year with a California Supreme Court ruling that kicked the Hare Krishnas out of Los Angeles International Airport.
In Toronto, there are believed to be 300 to 500 hard-core members, although leaders say actual numbers around the GTA are much higher.
David Arthur Reed, professor emeritus at Wycliffe College who studies religions and spirituality, said he’s not surprised the movement has shifted away from its highly evangelistic phase.
“Many such groups that were part of the idealism of the time have dwindled away,” he said.
A big draw is the weekly Sunday feast at the temple in the tony Rosedale neighbourhood on Avenue and Roxborough Rds. The event includes a service, kirtan (chanting and dancing) and a heaping vegetarian meal.
This emphasis on good food, also served six days a week to the general public, prompts followers to quip that their movement is the “kitchen religion.”
The Hare Krishna movement has long appealed to 58-year-old Bhaktimarga Swami, formerly John Peter Vis, who is among 15 monks living in the temple. In 1972, fresh off the farm in Blenheim, Ont., and repulsed by the slaughtering of animals, Vis came to Toronto expecting to see hippies but noticed something different on the street corners.
“At the time people had all this long hair, and there were these guys singing and dancing with no hair and I thought this was a bit odd, actually shocking,” the monk recalls. The fine arts student at Cambrian College in Sudbury latched on and never looked back.
The higher education of new members is used to counter any argument that the membership is being brainwashed, or that this is a cult.
“These people are too smart to be brainwashed,” a senior devotee says. “They’re no dummies. They are graduates of universities.”
And they are tech savvy as well. The have Facebook pages and their videos are posted on YouTube.
Bhaktimarga Swami maintains his own blog ( www.thewalkingmonk.org) and the international temples compete to see which one can produce the more attractive website.
Wealth doesn’t clash with the simplicity and austerity of the movement says another devotee, Dr. Haleh Ashkevari, a Markham cosmetic and implant dentist.
The faith teaches her “that if I’m good at what I do, I should keep doing it.”
The members believe that only when you misuse your material wealth, or use it for only self-gratification, will you get bad karma.
The wealth effect — some would say the snobbery effect — has turned up as a small issue inside the temple’s walls.
When a new devotee is introduced, the first question often asked is: “What do you do for a living?”
“Who cares what you do? It’s the consciousness that counts,” says a devotee, who did not want to be named. “It’s not what you own, it’s what you know.”
Although the membership is rich in material wealth and the temple is ornate inside, there is still a reverence for simplicity and sacrifice.
Yet that doesn’t always translate into life outside the temple.
“We haven’t seen anybody give up their Rolls-Royces,” the swami said with a wry grin.

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ISKCON president on hunger strike

Imphal, November 12 2010: Following accusation for misuse of temple fund, ISKCON Manipur president Ajit Das along with some other devotees have launched a fast unto death stir demanding resignation of GBC Gopal Krishna Goswami demanding his immediate resignation who reportedly made the allegation of fund misuse first.

Gopal Krisha Goswami (Fake guru)

Speaking to The Sangai Express, Ajit Das said that GBC Gopal Krishna Goswami took blind allegations made by one Eknath Das of the North East regional governing council about misuse of temple fund. Taking the words of Eknath Das, Gopal Krishna Goswami asked Ajit Das to resign from his post yesterday.
However, Ajit Das maintained that he has no qualms to give up his post if concrete evidence can be produced against him for misuse of fund.
“But I would not resign because of some baseless allegations”, Ajit Das said.
Even as Gopal Krishna Goswami was appointed GBC more than a year back, he has not visited ISKCON Imphal even once and, as such he has no idea about the activities of ISKCON Imphal.
He said that the fast unto death stir was launched demanding his resignation to teach Gopal Krishna Goswami a lesson.
Source: The Sangai Express

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Govardhana puja @ ISKCON Bangalore: News from Newspapers

THE TIMES OF INDIA

BANGALORE: It was celebration of a different kind at Iskcon on Saturday. The temple celebrated Govardhana festival on its premises with a 1,450-kg vegetarian cake, a replica of the Govardhana Hill.
The cake, of different flavours and topped with various cookies, was baked in the temple bakery.
The festival commemorates the pastime of Lord Krishna balancing the Govardhana Hill on his little finger to protect his devotees and the residents of Vrindavana. The deity was decorated in Giridhari alankara, holding a small replica of Govardhana Hill on his left hand.
Hundreds of visitors offer ghee lamps to Sri Radha Krishna-Chandra during the auspicious month of Karthika.
Read more: 1,450-kg cake for Lord Krishna – The Times of India

Express Buzz

BANGALORE: ISKCON, Bangalore, prepared a cake weighing about 1,200 kg – resembling Govardhan hill – and worshipped it.
As per legends in Vishnu Puran, people of Gokul used to worship Lord Indra for sending rains. But Lord Krishna told them that it was Govardhan hill and not Lord Indra who sent the rains and thus the latter should be worshipped. Thus the people started worshipping the hill, much to the anger of Lord Indra. An infuriated Indra lashed Gokul with heavy rain. That is when Lord Krishna lifted the Govardhan hill on his little finger and the people of Gokul took shelter under it.
The 1,200-kg cake made at ISKCON resembles that hill.
The fourth day of Diwali is celebrated as Anna Koot, which literally means mountain of food. On this day, people prepare 56 or 108 different varieties of dishes to offer Lord Krishna.

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Letter to Gopal and Sally Agarwal

Letter to Gopal and Sally Agarwal

"So far I have studied the American minds they are eager and apt to receive Bhakti Cult of Srimad-Bhagavatam because the Christian religion is based on the same principle. My mission is not turn any one from the affiliation of a particular religion but I want to let them know more knowledge about God and devotion."

Saturday, November 6, 1965
New York, New York
My dear daughter Sally,
I am so glad to receive your very affectionate letter of the 3rd instant and have noted the contents carefully.
Yes I have got this nice typewriter by the Grace of the Lord and I am very much satisfied with it working. Before receiving your letter under reply I have sent two letters both to you and Gopala. I understand that you have received them. In one of them I have requested Gopala to dispatch 25 sets of books to Paragon Book Gallery and I am anxious to know if the books are already dispatched.
Regarding your reminder for my good cooking, I am very much thankful to you and next time when I shall go to your home, I must serve you with good lunches without fail. Now I am far away from you otherwise I would have at once gone to you and entertained you with such lunches. I am anxious to learn about the health of you all specially of your little children. How is your naughty daughter Kamla. Please offer them my love and blessings and so also accept both of you.
Please write to me occasionally and as Gopala is not accustomed to reply promptly I shall henceforward write to you. Did you meet your good father and mother in the meantime? If you meet them please offer them my respectful regards. Both your father and mother are good souls and therefore you are a good daughter of your parents. I remember all of you always.
Please offer my good wishes to your friends who still remember me. I shall meet them again when I go to Butler. I like Butler more than New York and specially the quarters in which your home is situated. Had I had the means to rent a house independently I would have gone back again to Butler and hold my Bhagavatam discourses daily with good friends.
So far I have studied the American minds they are eager and apt to receive Bhakti Cult of Srimad-Bhagavatam because the Christian religion is based on the same principle. My mission is not turn any one from the affiliation of a particular religion but I want to let them know more knowledge about God and devotion.
Dr. Rammurti Mishra is also very kind gentleman and I am living very comfortably at his care. He is keen after looking my all kinds of comforts. I am negotiating with some booksellers and publishers and I hope I shall be able to settle something before I leave for the next station. I shall be New York still for a few days more and I shall let you know when I leave the station.
I am so grateful to your kindness and surely I shall ask you if I need anything. I have left my hearth and home in India but here by the Grace of the Lord I have got good sons and daughter like you. So I do not feel any foreign complexion.
Hope you are all well and awaiting your early reply,
Yours affectionately,
A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

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Harvard Business School Does Case Study On Akshaya Patra

“The Akshaya Patra Foundation, the worlds largest school meal programme today announced that it has been honoured with an case exclusive study done on its operation by none other than the prestigious Harvard Business School
, USA.”

(1888PressRelease) April 23, 2008 – The Akshaya Patra Foundation, the worlds largest school
meal programme being implemented across six states in India and covering over eight lakh Fifty children in 4,500 schools, today announced that it has been honoured with an case exclusive study done on its operation by none other than the prestigious Harvard Business School, USA. Coming together to present the case study to the media was the chairman of the foundation, Shriman Madhu Pandit Dasa, Chairman,Trustee, Mohandas Pai, Director-HR, Infosys.
The case study has been prepared by Professor David Upton and Christine Ellis, Sarah Lucas, and Amy Yamner after extensive fieldwork, personal interviews with a number of Akshaya Patra officials, school children, teachers and government officials. While HBS cases are developed as a part of the business school’s curriculum and are generally not intended to serve as endorsements, the fact remains that these case studies carry substantial weightage as they represent a clear picture of an organisation, its ability to carry out specific operations, illustrate the innovations that have been undertaken and, overall, provide examples that can be replicated. Akshaya Patra is the first NGO in India to have been selected for a case study and the team has done an excellent job in capturing the soul of the operations.
“We would like to thank HBS for choosing Akshaya Patra as a case study. We are honoured by this distinction. Above all, it is heartening to know that this case study will enable many more people across the globe to know about Akshaya Patra and its yeoman efforts to eradicate hunger and illiteracy in India,” commented Shriman Madhu Pandit Das. He added, “The HBS Case study is one more positive step in boosting our efforts to ensure that we reach out to a million children by the end of this decade. The discussions that will take place and is taking place among students and teachers at Harvard will mean that tomorrow’s corporate leaders will have a deeper knowledge of India’s needs and the activities that are being undertaken indigenously.”
Trustee Mohandas Pai revealed to the media that the foundation presently feeds secure wholesome, nutritious and hygienically cooked school meals for over 8,50,000 children across 14 locations that span six states of India. “The HBS case study provides for an interesting and inspiring read about Akshaya Patra. It is an independent report compiled by the world’s leading business school. The case study will vouch for the transparency in Akshaya Patra’s operations, the dedication of the people behind it, its innovative methods, technically advanced kitchens and its phenomenal success in a span of seven years.”

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The ISKCON BTG Public Disinformation Campaign Continues

Oct 24, 2010 — TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA (SUN) — Recently in their latest Back To Godhead magazine, Nov/Dec 2010, an article entitled, “The Mission Of Book Distribution” by Karuni Dharini devi dasi failed to inform the public that the Bhagavad-gita As It Is that they are distributing is a massively revised edition of the original 1972 McMillan edition which Srila Prabhupada himself approved.
In fact, nowhere in any literature or publication does Srila Prabhupada specifically approve of the massive changes the BBT has engaged in regarding all of his books.
An early reference in the article points to the fortunate approval of Pavaki dasi, formerly Christina, who in 1976 bought a copy of Srila Prabhupada’s 1976 Gita, which had not been altered. That was 6 years before the defamed Gita of 1982.
Her revelations came as a result of the 1976 edition, but the overall article leads the reader to think that the 1976 edition is the same as the one distributed nowadays by ISKCON simply because the revised 1982 Gita is not mentioned.
Bhrgupati dasa is a Friend of The BBT and makes his living distributing any books the BBT puts out. Very noble indeed, but when the product changes, is it not the job of sincere devotees to inform the public of changes to the original product? ISKCON will talk at length as to why they have made and continue to make changes, but that talk is not for the customer at all in any day-to-day exchanges. That is false representation of the author, commonly called fraud.
In the sub-section entitled “Srila Prabhupada Initiates Book Distribution”, she writes about the 1972 edition of the Gita that was acclaimed by scholars and that “It can now be read in over one hundred languages”. That is more misinformation misleading the public. It cannot “be read in over one hundred languages”, as the original 1972 edition which made devotees like Pavaki dasi has been out of print since 1982.
And ISKCON does not distribute it. Then she mentions the Krsna Book, which we know has also been changed by the BBT and it’s employees.
Nicely it is described how in the early days, Srila Prabhupada’s disciples found ways to distribute his Krsna Books. There are a number of examples of experiences of devotees in relation to Srila Prabhupada’s books, but there is no timeline. Back To Godhead magazine was designed by Srila Prabhupada as a publication to inform with the truth.
So far, by page 20 and the beginning of the ‘Traveling Brahmacaris’ section, the new reader has no idea who Srila Prabhupada is accept that he wrote the books they are encouraged to buy. He is not referred to as His Divine Grace, Founder/Acarya of The International Society For Krsna Consciousness in the beginning or up to this point. One wonders who this article is speaking to?
It seems to simply be a couched report for those in the know and a sort of literary pep rally for book distributors for the BBT. Krsna as the Supreme Personality Of Godhead is not mentioned at all accept for the total title of Srila Prabhupada’s Krsna Book. Regardless of the fact that this article is in the BTG, which recognises Srila Prabhupada formally, the fact is that he is not properly or formally recognised in this article. This inconsistency is unacceptable and misleading to the reader.
Let’s move on.
Disciples of Srila Prabhupada who originally distributed Srila Prabhupada’s books used to wear tilak and traditional dhoti, kurta, or for the ladies, saris while distributing his books. This article does not show the face of one book and it does not even state the titles of the many books it says were sold. No numbers are given.
The title of this article is ‘The Mission Of Book Distribution’. Is it the mission of ISKCON and the BBT to mislead the public to buy books that are illegally revised and edited from the originals, while selling the changed books on the legacy of Srila Prabhupada and his original disciples as if those books were the originals? The public is not being informed, and why not?
The reason is very simple. Not informing the innocent public that the books they are buying are illegally revised and edited while talking face-to-face with the public is done specifically to sell the public the new millennium ISKCON and BBT and their conditioned version of the absolute truth, because they have failed to understand the original. Like Bob Dylan said in It’s Alright Ma, I’m Only Bleeding…
While he who sings with his tongue on fire
Gargles in the rat race choir
Bent out of shape from societies pliers
Cares not to come up any higher
But rather get you down in the hole that he’s in.
In conclusion, not once in this article does Karuni Dharuni devi dasi indicate that Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Nor is Srila Prabhupada introduced to the reader as His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Founder/Acarya of the International Society For Krsna Consciousness, or even the founder of the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust.
She does, of course, give her allegiance and recognition to her ISKCON guru, His Grace Virabahu dasa, but does not publicly thank Srila Prabhupada for the mercy he has given her.

Friends Of The BBT states on their home page:
“Second generation devotees, who comprise over half of BTG/Krishna.com’s staff, are involved in all aspects of this new venture, from programming, to customer service, to writing and graphic design. They also write, edit and run subscriber services at Back to Godhead magazine, which shares the same office with Krishna.com.
But their biggest challenge is preserving the eternal relevancy of bhakti amid changing fads, even as time passes since Srila Prabhupada first brought the seed of Vaishnavism to Western shores. It’s each preceding generation’s job, they feel, to pass that eternal treasure unchanged to future generations, who will then place it in a new bottle.”
The words “unchanged” are false — not true at all. Srila Prabhupada’s books are constantly under attack by the BBT, to be changed endlessly at the whim of a few top corporate bureaucrats whose job is to feed the public what they think the public should be fed from the Vedas and Srila Prabhupada’s original books.
It is extremely important in any endeavour that one search for truth, not simply to be served and accept the truth from others blindly. Searching means to examine in order to find something lost or concealed.
People, please beware of the current ISKCON and its BBT, and consider this in your search for truth.
“For agreeing to be served the truth severely reduces one’s personal and societies collective vision. To search for truth demands intelligence, integrity and wisdom which are all born of sincerity. It is sincerity that provokes the heart to relish the full potency of the truths revealed.
Srila Prabhupada told us never to accept blindly which is the wants of those who wish to be served the truth. Srila Prabhupada said many times that changing means imperfect knowledge, no change indicates that a search is on and those are the individuals we want to associate with. For by their association the search is eternal and an ever constantly expanding ecstasy.”
Srila Prabhupada’s original pre-1978 books can be found at Krishna Books Inc.
YS Hasti Gopala dasa

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Indradyumna Swami Dismisses Need for Physical Presence

The following is taken from an Indradyumna Swami ‘darshan’ – (Text COM:1974636).

My comments follow:
“But I would offer that there is a misconception here in guru-disciple relationship. Of course, it is certainly nice if one can have some personal instruction, a personal direction in one’s life from the spiritual master. But one’s success in Krishna consciousness is not necessarily based on that.”
Here Maharaja very nicely sums up the IRM position – that the absence of ‘personal direction’ does not hinder one’s spiritual life.
“Srila Prabhupada personally interacted with his spiritual master maybe three or four occasions. I think, he wrote two letters to Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati, and received one reply. And if one’s advancement in Krishna Consciousness is dependent upon the personal association of the spiritual master, directing one in one’s daily activities, then what are the chances of me in perfecting my Krishna consciousness because my spiritual master passed away in 1977? I haven’t seen Srila Prabhupada almost twenty years. “
Maharaja again destroy’s the GBC’s current ‘living Guru’ idea.
“So I think there is a fallacy, there is something wrong in this mentality, that the spiritual master is not taking proper care of his disciples if he is not able to answer each and every one of their letters. The spiritual master is not Krishna. He can’t expand himself in 16,108 forms and personally be with each disciple.”
Maharaja here perfectly exposes the falsity of the need for the Guru to have a vapu form to be able to take ‘proper care of his disciples’.
“So if my disciples listen very carefully to the lectures, to the tape ministry, and read the few books that I’ve printed, and carefully study Srila Prabhupada’s books, I feel that they are armed with knowledge to stand and fight against the material energy. I am completely, hundred percent confident of that.”
* So the disciples need to take instruction primarily from Srila Prabhupada – since which Guru can compare with Srila Prabhupada’s tapes and books?
“That’s the way I follow myself in my relationship with Prabhupada, my spiritual master. I had the liberty in one or two occasions to ask from Prabhupada for some personal instruction, but now, if I need to understand something, I read the books or I can solve it with my godbrothers. So then I ask the disciples to do the same.”
So the program is to read Srila Prabhupada’s books, and take siksa from other senior devotees – the same formula given in ‘The Final Order’.
“But we do have the knowledge. It is available in Srila Prabhupada’s books, it is available through our spiritual master’s lectures through Nilakantha’s tape ministry. There is a lot! There is more that comes out from this tape machine than just plastic tapes (shakes a tape). What really comes out of that tape recorder on these tapes is divya-jnana, or transcendental knowledge.”
This of course also applies to Srila Prabhupada’s tapes!
Conclusion
Maharaja has given here a perfect treatise on why the current Guru system is unnecessary. He has admitted himself, that he is not giving any value, and instead leaving it mainly up to Srila Prabhupada. So why not stop pretending and leave EVERYTHING to Srila Prabhupada – including the disciples which belong to him only. We do not need anymore of the “Let Srila Prabhupada do all the work – but let us take the credit” mentality! Maharaja has offered ample justification for cutting out the middle man since he wants us to take shelter directly of Srila Prabhupada anyway

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IRM: You cannot jump over to the superior guru

Quotes, Notes and News (QNN)

Krishnakant | IRM| In the BTP 24 article “The Divinity Delusion”, we cited ISKCON GBC voted in guru HH Bhakti Vikash Swami (“BVKS”) claiming he should be worshipped as good as God almighty simply because, like any new bhakta (devotee) who joins ISKCON, he will tell people to follow Srila Prabhupada:
“My Vyasa puja [...] So you may think, well, what is my qualification to accept the honour and affection that you are offering to me [...] Well, that is my qualification, that if I can glorify Prabhupada then that’s the qualification …actually, the er… I’m not qualified, intrinsically, but qualified because I can point, “here is Prabhupada, and follow his instructions, and ask you to have faith in what Srila Prabhupada has given.”
(BVKS, “Vyasa Puja” Lecture, Tirupati, January 5th, 2008)
In fact, this philosophy of “act like a bhakta, get worshipped as a guru” was preached nearly two decades prior by the man responsible for “The Great Guru Hoax, Part 2″ (the current GBC guru system), HG Ravindra Svarupa Das (“RSD”). RSD claimed that Srila Prabhupada actually delivers divya-jnana (transcendental knowledge), and one can become a GBC elected successor guru simply by claiming the credit for delivering this divya-jnana oneself!
“For example a spiritual master may instruct a disciple, “Make sure you read Srila Prabhupada’s books for two hours every day…” — then he’s giving divya-jnana. He can do it this way. He need not be able to write those books, but if he keep his students reading the books, and he makes sure they understand what they read, then he’s giving divya-jnana.”
(Ravindra Svarupa Das, Vaisnava Institute for Higher Education, January 21st, 1990,
Vrindavan, published in ISKCON Journal, 1990).
An ISKCON guru is now no different to any bhakta who distributes books.
ISKCON’s guru hoaxers are happy to let Srila Prabhupada do all the hard work of giving divya-jnana and delivering disciples, while they take all the worship and credit and they openly admit it!
ISKCON leader set in concrete
ISKCON UK congregational preaching director HG Kripamoya Das (“KMD”) has again argued that due to the need for “rebuke, correction, and ongoing guidance”, the diksha, or initiating, guru must be: “..in Srila Prabhupada’s own words: ‘concrete’, ‘appearing before the physical senses of the disciple, and someone to whom the disciple can surrender in person.”
(both quotes from The Vaishnava Voice, April 4th, 2010)
As we have documented in previous issues of BTP, KMD continues to falsely attribute to Srila Prabhupada his philosophical misconception that the guru must be physically present before the disciple in order to act as the disciple’s guru. Let us examine the first quotation KMD alludes to:
“Not that in air you make a spiritual master. You make a spiritual master concrete.”
(Srila Prabhupada Conversation, September 23rd,1969)
Here all Srila Prabhupada is saying is that you cannot fabricate a spiritual master out of the air. Is KMD arguing that Srila Prabhupada is a fabrication? If so, he has been the disciple of an imaginary guru for the past 33 years!
Regarding the guru “appearing before the physical senses of the disciple”, KMD later confessed:
“I will admit to being unable to find the specific quote I wanted.”
(HG Kripamoya Das, June 10th, 2010)
As for the need for “rebuke”, “correction” and “ongoing guidance”, KMD contradicts himself, since he has admitted that he himself was never rebuked, corrected or guided by Srila Prabhupada when he was physically present!:
“you (Srila Prabhupada) replied “Jaya” [...] That was the only word you said to me directly [...] One word spoken thirty years previously”.
(HG Kripamoya Das, Vyasa Puja offering to Srila Prabhupada, 2007)
Same quote, opposite conclusion
1) GBC 1998: Srila Prabhupada is NOT the current link
Below, while attempting to refute the IRM’s The Final Order position paper, the GBC claim that Srila Prabhupada stating we must accept the “immediate next acharya” means that Srila Prabhupada is a previous acharya (guru), and we must accept a successor GBC-elected guru:
“[...] surrendering to a living bona-fide spiritual master, is imperative to the proper understanding of Vedic knowledge. This point is made clear in the following quote: “[...] You cannot imagine what my spiritual master said. Or even if you read some books, you cannot understand it from me. This is called parampara system. You cannot jump over to the superior guru, neglecting the next acarya, immediate next acarya.”
(Srila Prabhupada Lecture, December 8th, 1973)
[...] He clearly explains the principal of parampara, and even explicitly states that simply to read books is not enough ( a corner stone of the ritvik-theory), but rather the disciple must understand everything through his own spiritual master, and not attempt to independently understand the previous acharyas.”
(Prabhupada’s Order, Ministry for the Protection of ISKCON, GBC 1998)
2) GBC 2000: Srila Prabhupada IS the current link
However, just 2 years later, the GBC claimed (correctly) that Srila Prabhupada stating we must accept the “immediate next acharya” means that Srila Prabhupada is the current acharya, not a previous acharya:
“Srila Prabhupada said in a Srimad Bhagavatam lecture given in Los Angeles on December 8,1973:
“You cannot imagine what my spiritual master said. Or even if you read some books, you cannot understand unless you understand it from me. This is called parampara system. You cannot jump over to the superior guru, neglecting the next acarya, immediate next acarya.”
This would mean that in answering any difficult question, where there are apparent contradictions that cannot be easily resolved, our primary resource should be the words of Srila Prabhupada our “immediate next acarya.” [...]. If we were capable of independently absorbing sastra, why did Srila Prabhupada write purports to all of his translations? So the first resource should be Srila Prabhupada’s words.”
(Drutakarma Das, GBC Sastric Advisory Council member, The Origin of the Jiva, 2000)
Thus, depending on their agenda, and which conclusion they seek to prove, the GBC have no problem in shamelessly turning Srila Prabhupada’s teachings on their head claiming he is not the “next immediate acarya” when it comes to preserving their own illegal status as self-appointed successor hoaxer gurus, but claiming the exact opposite when arguing a different issue.

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ISKCON Accepts One Ritvik Temple and IRM Disintegrates

At least one ISKCON temple already accepts Srila Prabhupada as the guru. If one visits ISKCON Bangalore there will be no doubt that Srila Prabhupada is living still in sound and still very actively spreading the holy name around!

ISKCON Bangalore has created a positive example showing how nicely things can run if Prabhupada’s orders are followed and Prabhupada is the guru in ISKCON. They don’t want to attack ISKCON and it’s leaders. Rather they welcome devotees and leaders from other temples to visit so they can see first-hand how nicely a temple can run with Prabhupada in the centre.
Recently ISKCON Bangalore has withdrawn from the ISKCON Revival Movement (IRM). They are disappointed with the leadership of IRM and the new direction their preaching has taken. They are also not happy with the result of the IRM’s war with ISKCON in Calcutta. At least for the time being the preaching field in Calcutta has been spoiled. It is now very difficult to preach and distribute books there, the public don’t really understand what’s going on, just that there is an enormous fight within ISKCON and they don’t want any part of it.
Madhu Pandit Prabhu, the ISKCON Bangalore Temple President, says IRM are simply good when it comes to writing papers but they have no ability to work with people. He says, “Ultimately, if you want to preach, you need to work with people.”
Currently the Bangalore temple has a first-class reputation in South India and the public give a great deal of respect to the devotees and very much appreciate the ISKCON temple. Bangalore was once famous as the garden city, but now it’s famous for the ISKCON temple. Almost all the tourists to Bangalore now go to see the ISKCON temple… Considering this the Bangalore devotees don’t want to start a war with ISKCON which would destroy the good name of ISKCON in South India.
The GBC have given Madhu Pandit the guarantee they will not interfere with his preaching in South India but have not yet gone so far as appointing a ritvik representative of Srila Prabhupada to perform the initiations in Bangalore. This means that ISKCON now has its first official ritvik temple.
In the meantime the devotees in Bangalore are being initiated by Srila Prabhupada personally. When the Temple President considers a devotee to be ready for initiation he writes a letter recommending the devotee to Srila Prabhupada. Then the devotee goes before Srila Prabhupada and prays: “Dear Srila Prabhupada currently your ritvik representatives are not doing their service so I am asking you to please accept me as your disciple and inspire me to select a spiritual name.” So in this way the ISKCON Bangalore devotees are being initiated by Srila Prabhupada.
ISKCON Bangalore plans to increase the number of devotees waiting for formal initiation from Srila Prabhupada to one thousand. Then every year they will go to the Mayapur festival and have a grand kirtan and request the GBC to appoint a ritvik representative of Srila Prabhupada as Srila Prabhupada outlines in his July 9th, 1977 letter so the devotees can be formally initiated.
Due to serious leadership problems the IRM has lost most of its support from the worldwide community of devotees however we are all greatly indebted to Krishna Kanta Prabhu and the other IRM devotees for writing and putting so much energy into distributing and preaching about, “The Final Order.” While it contains nothing new [it's basically a summary of what many other devotees had written previously] the devotees distributing “The Final Order” were able to break through the barriers of ISKCON. The “Final Order” convinced Madhu Pandit dasa and many other leaders and general devotees in ISKCON that Prabhupada did establish a system to enable him to continue to accept disciples in ISKCON after his disappearance from our mundane vision.
Previously many devotees outside ISKCON knew Srila Prabhupada established a ritvik system to continue the initiations after his physical departure, but now, thanks to “The Final Order” many devotees living in ISKCON temples also agree, although they may not be able to come out and say it yet publicly. We shall see how things develop in the future…
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy! All glories to jagat guru, saviour of the whole world, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada!

Taken from Krishna.org

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