Bhakti Caitanya Swami

Background. In 2010 the girl Lokanath Swami had touched in 1990, by then an adult, posted a fuller account online, and the GBC took up the case again (see Lokanath Swami’s record). On 8 May 2021 ISKCON’s North American Leadership Council asked for the case to go to the International Child Protection Office (na-council-2021). On 12 May 2021 the GBC Executive Committee suspended Lokanath Swami’s authority to initiate and his role as a GBC minister “pending the completion of the International CPO’s review of Lokanath Swami’s CPO case” (gbc-cp-compilation). Bhakti Caitanya Swami chaired the Executive Committee in 2021.

The recorded call (bcs-call-2021). The recording is a screen capture of a Facebook live: under the picture the bar reads “Bhakti Chaitanya Swami was live.” for its full 13 minutes 47 seconds. He sits at a desk, phones a colleague and gives “a report back” before a meeting. Only his side of the call can be heard. He says:

“we presented to Kamlesh, you know, our idea of having the panel evaluate first, the history and everything … And if the panel somehow says that, you know, whatever has been done is enough, then as long as the GBC accepts that, then that’s it. And if the panel feels more needs to be done by anyone, and then the GBC body accepts that, then that will be done.”

According to the people who published the recording, “Kamlesh” is Kamlesh Krishna, the director of the International Child Protection Office. Bhakti Caitanya Swami says the director was “quite positive” and called the idea “very reasonable”, but would have preferred “a 3-step process”: the panel, then Lokanath Swami voluntarily giving up initiating, then “he would like the CPO to then get in, and get into it”. He continues:

“So we didn’t say, that okay we’ll do that. What we said is there’s a next step and we’re not saying anything until that step has been taken.”

He adds that the director “said no problem”, and discusses with the other speaker how to present this at the meeting “in 20 minutes or something”: “We can keep it simple … we’ve had a good meeting of the minds with the CPO”. He calls the Indian leadership “a missing link” whose “cooperation” they still need.

The panel (gbc-ec-panel-2021). On 14 July 2021 the GBC voted to set up a special panel to review the case and the GBC’s own past handling of it. The statement announcing it, signed “Bhakti Caitanya Swami, Chair” with the two other Executive Committee members, says: “Our current CPO Director agrees with the need for the above-described Panel, and he advocates that afterward the case should be sent to the CPO.” In a letter of July 2021 (gbc-ec-icc-2021) the same three asked ISKCON’s India leaders to name two members of the panel, asking “Was there even a coverup by the Body or members of the group who first investigated the matter?” The panel reported on 1 March 2022. On 20 July 2022 the GBC decided not to reopen the case or send it to the CPO (lns-gbc-decision-2022); by then Bhakti Caitanya Swami was no longer on the Executive Committee (gbc-ec-2022). The CPO never ruled on the case.

What is uncertain. The date of the call, 26 June 2021, comes only from the critics who published it; the earliest known copy was posted on 29 June 2021 (li-2021-bcs), and the commentator said it had first been circulated by Lokanath Swami’s disciples. The original Facebook live is not available. The other speaker cannot be heard; the publishers name him as Devakinandana, an ISKCON lawyer, from the greeting at the start. The recording shows him promoting the panel-first route and not committing to the director’s proposed CPO review; it does not show him overruling the CPO director, who by his account and by the official statement agreed to the panel. That he “blocked” the CPO investigation (the title of the published video) or schemed against it is the critics’ characterisation.

Earlier. In 2010, during the earlier review, Lokanath Swami sent a revised draft of his apology letter to “Bhakti Caitanya Maharaja”; the numbered comments in it, apparently his, mostly press for a fuller admission (“I would suggest: ‘in which she was abused by me.’”) (lns-panel-appendices, Appendix E).

No statement by Bhakti Caitanya Swami about the recording has been found.