Ambarisa Das
Legal name Alfred Brush Ford
Ambarish DasAmbarisa dasaAlfred FordAlfred B. Ford
- Chairman, Temple of the Vedic Planetarium, Mayapur
- 2008
Enabled / protected · 1
BhavanandaGave a platform
Record summary
1 entry — 1 allegation.
Last reviewedBio
Ambarisa Das (legal name Alfred Brush Ford) was born in Detroit in 1950, a great-grandson of the car maker Henry Ford (WUFT News). He joined the Hare Krishna movement in the 1970s and was initiated (the project’s team page gives 1974, in Hawaii). The project says he has been involved in ISKCON projects including the Bhaktivedanta Cultural Center in Detroit, and that in 1976 Prabhupada asked him to help finance the Temple of the Vedic Planetarium in Mayapur, which he has chaired since at least 2008 (ISKCON News; TOVP).
While he was chairman the project listed in senior roles two men ISKCON’s child-protection office had found in 2000 to have abused children: Bhavananda, its Creative Director, “working closely with Ambarish Prabhu”, from 2009 to 2016, and Satadhanya, listed for its legal and official work from 2009 and named its Secretary (Legal & Official Relations) in 2017. The record below sets out what is documented, including what is not known about who appointed them.
Sources (3)
- [1]WUFT News (University of Florida), Meet Alfred Ford, the great-grandson of Henry Ford and a Gainesville resident — reprinted by the Temple of the Vedic Planetarium on 7 November 2021, November 2021
- [2]ISKCON News, GBC Meetings 2008, Day 7: Youth Fund, Mayapur Temple and Bhaktivedanta Institute — "Ambarisa Prabhu led the presentation on the current status of the Temple of Vedic Planetarium project in Mayapur of which he is Chairman", Mar 22, 2008
- [3]"Meet the Team", Temple of the Vedic Planetarium website (tovp.org): captures of 19 October 2009, 22 February 2015, 7 March 2016 and 15 March 2016, Oct 19, 2009 (document)
Record
1 entry · most established firstKeeping Bhavananda as the Temple of the Vedic Planetarium's Creative Director after ISKCON's child-abuse finding (2009–2016)
From at least October 2009 until March 2016 the Temple of the Vedic Planetarium, chaired by Ambarisa Das, listed Bhavananda as its Creative Director, "working closely with Ambarish Prabhu and Sadbhuja Prabhu", although ISKCON's child-protection office had found in 2000 that he physically and psychologically abused children. In March 2016 a donor's open letter to Ambarisa demanded his removal; the title disappeared from the project's website that month, but the project kept presenting him as Creative Director in a video in May 2016 and reported his work on the site in 2017. No response from Ambarisa has been found, and no document shows who appointed Bhavananda or what Ambarisa knew of the finding.
What the project published. In its earliest capture (19 October 2009) the project’s “Meet the Team” page lists “His Grace Bhavananda Das - Creative Director”: “Now he is assisting as the creative director of the Temple of the Vedic Planetarium, working closely with Ambarish Prabhu and Sadbhuja Prabhu.” From 2010 the page says “He is now the creative director”. Back to Godhead reported the same role in 2012. Two slides from an undated presentation about the project, known from screenshots, show “Ambarisa Das Chairman / Bhavananda Das Creative Director / Sadbhuja Das Managing Director” under the heading “The Directors”. Ambarisa Das was chairman throughout (ISKCON News, 2008; the team page).
What ISKCON had found. In July 2000 ISKCON’s child-protection office found that “Bhavananda dasa physically and psychologically abused several children”. He had been removed from the GBC in 1987.
March 2016. On 1 March 2016 a donor’s open letter, addressed first to “Ambarish Prabhu”, demanded that Bhavananda be removed from the project and said she would give nothing more while the chairman kept him on it. The letter calls him a “child molester”; the office’s 2000 finding was of physical and psychological abuse. Around 11 March a resolution of the ISKCON India Bureau, as reproduced on a critics’ blog, barred Bhavananda, Satadhanya and two others from “any managerial capacity at ISKCON Mayapur Branch”. The title “Creative Director” is on the team page captured on 7 March 2016 and gone from the capture of 15 March 2016, though he is still listed there under “Design Team”. The project has not explained the change.
After 2016. A presentation video the project published on 4 May 2016 still lists “Bhavananda Das - Creative Director”. In May 2017 the project reported that “Bhavananda prabhu … rushed to meet” the engineers assembling its domes’ finials, and in 2021–22 it published his recollections. The current team page still says its head architect works “under the guidance of Sadbhuja and Bhavananda Prabhus”. His present role, if any, is not confirmed.
What is not known. No document has been found that shows who appointed Bhavananda, whether Ambarisa Das knew of the 2000 finding when he did, or any response from him to the 2016 letter. In 2023 a report commissioned by the GBC found, without naming anyone, that people “previously identified, through internal investigations, to be child molesters have been allowed to feature as high-profile spokespersons for flagship projects such as TOVP”.
Sources (10)
- [1]"Meet the Team", Temple of the Vedic Planetarium website (tovp.org): captures of 19 October 2009, 22 February 2015, 7 March 2016 and 15 March 2016, Oct 19, 2009 (document) original
- [2]Two slides from a presentation about the Temple of the Vedic Planetarium naming Bhavananda Das as Creative Director ("The Directors" and "Personality: Bhavananda Prabhu, Creative Director"), January 2023 (document) original
- [3]Official Decision of the ISKCON Central Office of Child Protection on the case of Bhavananda dasa, decided 1 July 2000, Jul 1, 2000 (document) original
- [4]Review of Safeguarding and Child Protection in ISKCON Mayapur and Vrindavan schools (Mayapur and Vrindavan Gurukula Inquiry Report), 8 February 2023, Feb 8, 2023 (document) original
- [5]Pray Like Prahlada (praylikeprahlada.wordpress.com), Call for TOVP Accountability from Donors (Vaishnavi Devi dasi) — open letter addressed to Ambarisa Das, the devotees of ISKCON and the members of the GBC; critics' blog, Mar 1, 2016 original
- [6]krishna1008.blogspot.com, Mayapura Update: Radha Jivan / Bhavananda — critic's commentary (PADA), Feb 25, 2016 original
- [7]krishna1008.blogspot.com, Bureau Mayapura Resolution — text of an ISKCON India Bureau resolution of March 2016 as reproduced on a critics' blog; the original has not been located, Mar 11, 2016 original
- [8]Back to Godhead, The Rising Moon of Mayapur (Abhijit Toley) — "He now serves as the creative director for the ToVP", March 2012 original
- [9]Temple of the Vedic Planetarium (tovp.org), Sadbhuja Prabhu: Architecture & Design Department, Pune, India — presentation video; its opening slide lists "Bhavananda Das - Creative Director", May 4, 2016 original
- [10]Temple of the Vedic Planetarium (tovp.org), Kalash Assembling Commences — "When Bhavananda prabhu heard of the beginning of such work, he rushed to meet them", May 20, 2017 original
Timeline
Each status change in this record, on one axis, with the periods of the cases Ambarisa Das is involved in.
- 2016
- Documented allegationMar 1, 2016 Keeping Bhavananda as the Temple of the Vedic Planetarium's Creative Director after ISKCON's child-abuse finding (2009–2016) On 1 March 2016 an open letter addressed "Dear Ambarish Prabhu", by a donor, called Bhavananda "a known child molester, as confirmed by our ISKCON Child Protection Office" and said he "MUST be removed at once from the TOVP"; it asked whether "Ambarish Prabhu still, as the chairman of the TOVP" would keep him on the project. Critics' commentary in February 2016 also named the chairman for keeping him. (The office's 2000 finding was of physical and psychological abuse.) The project's own team page had listed him as Creative Director, working closely with the chairman, since 2009.