Jayadvaita Swami, « “Making a Scapegoat”: A Letter to Prithu Prabhu » (« “Faire de quelqu’un un bouc émissaire” : lettre à Prithu Prabhu »), 1997, publiée sur Chakra le 24 juin 2006

Copy of http://www.chakra.org/discussions/RenewalJun24_06_03.html as it stood on 2006-07-19. Saved for the record; page
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                           'Making a Scapegoat': A Letter
                           to Prithu Prabhu
                           by Jayadvaita Swami

                           Posted June 24, 2006

                           [This letter from Jayadvaita Swami was sent to Prithu in
                           1997]

                           Dear Prthu Prabhu,

                           Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila
                           Prabhupada. You have sent me a message you have written
                           about Dhanurdhara Swami, and you write: "I would be glad
                           to hear what you have to say."

                           I'm not very familiar with the exchanges concerning
                           Dhanurdhara Swami on the "GBC Discussions." In March I
                           suspended my membership in that conference, and I've
                           kept it suspended ever since.

                           What little I know of the issue comes from having read
                           Nirmal Candra's web pages, having spent some time with
                           Dhanurdhara Swami and having spoken briefly about the
                           matter with some GBC friends.

                           I can, however, add something from my personal
                           experience.

                           Back in 1986 when I was on Padayatra in South India, a
                           Western devotee joined our party named Ananta Rupa
                           Dasa. The party consisted of a grab-bag of Westerners and
                           Indians, most of whom had a hard or impossible time
                           communicating with one another. So when we got Ananta
                           Rupa, who was fluent in Hindi, fluent in Bengali, and
                           capable of getting things done, we were pretty happy.

                           But soon we starting getting letters from Dhanurdhara
                           Swami. He had found out that Ananta Rupa had been
                           sodomizing the kids in Vrindavana. And after kicking Ananta
                           Rupa out of Vrindavana, Dhanudhara Swami was adamant
                           that Ananta Rupa should not only be out of Vrindavana and
                           away from every ISKCON school, but out of India entirely,
                           and pretty much out of ISKCON.

                           In keeping with the ethos of the day, those of us on the
                           padayatra thought: Well, first of all we haven't heard all the
                           evidence. And second-ok, even if he might have buggered a
                           kid or two, there weren't any kids on padayatra, and this is
                           where people come to do austerities and be purified, and
                           the man's got to do "something", so why not let him stay?

                           But Dhanurdhara Swami was adamant: This man has got to
                           be out. And Dhanurdhara Swami was so strong and
                           persistent about this that soon Ananta Rupa was out; he
                           was off our party.

                           But from what I later heard, Ananta Rupa didn't quite leave
                           India. Instead he went to Secundarabad, where the local
                           GBC man then put him in charge of their school.

                           When Dhanurdhara Swami got word of this, he was
                           outraged. He at once sent a clear, strong message to those

responsible for Secundarabad: Ananta Rupa has got to go.

But he didn't go. The leaders kept him. And so Dhanurdhara
Swami brought the matter to the ISKCON Ministry of
Justice, and later went to Mayapur to appeal to the GBC to
get Ananta Rupa out.

But those were the days when ISKCON took child abuse
lightly. So the GBC men he appealed to did nothing.

So where does that leave us?

Is the then-GBC man for Secunderabad-still with us-ready
to resign from the GBC? To give up initiating? To give up
preaching? To live outside ISKCON?

And how about the other GBC men who failed to act when
Dhanurdhara Swami appealed to them to get Ananta Rupa
out? Are they ready to resign? To forget about initiating and
preaching? To live outside?

For the better part of two decades, Dhanurdhara Swami
was among a small handful of devotees who kept pleading
with the GBC for men and money for the Gurukula: "We
should be giving the Gurukula our best men! We should be
investing our best resources in these kids!"

And meanwhile our GBC leaders, if they gave any men at
all, usually gave their rejects. And as for money: Remember
the days of the "11 pure devotees"? And the pure devotees
who came next? Remember the Rolexes and the silver
plated and the swanky cars and the knock-'em-dead
lunches and the closets full of kashmir sweaters?
Remember how our authorized pure devotees derailed Srila
Prabhupada's society, luxuriated in its resources, lorded it
over their godbrothers and godsisters, and drove so many
sincere people out?

Some of these pure devotees are still with us, right on the
GBC. Are they ready to resign? To forget about initiating?
Give up preaching? Live outside of ISKCON?

Even in more recent memory, some of the pure devotees
sitting right with us on the GBC body are the same people
who had thousands of dollars to spend on their own
constructions projects but who were perennial deadbeats
when it came to paying Dhanurdhara Swami the nominal
fees for their sons in the Vrindavana gurukula. Are such
men now among the noble leaders demanding that
Dhanurdhara Swami dissolve into virtual nonexistence for
the sake of ISKCON's integrity?

To take things further:

Some of our North American GBC leaders now putting on
the pressure for tests and investigations and justice are the
same men who not long ago were playing "Krsna and the
gopis" with their female disciples. Resignations, anyone?

And as you and I know, as most GBC men know, and as it's
common knowledge outside the GBC, we've got at least one
or two devotees on the GBC body right now who, almost
unquestionably, don't even chant 16 rounds a day. And yet
on they go, initiating more and more disciples, and getting
them to vow strictly to chant at least 16 rounds daily.

So if your on a campaign for justice, and honor, and
responsibility, and the reputation of ISKCON, and
detachment from position, then great-bully for you.

But then the blade should cut evenly. As the English saying
goes, "What's good for the goose is good for the gander."
That is: The same principle that applies to the accused
should equally apply to the accuser, and to everyone else.
Not merely that for the sake of "protecting ISKCON" we
make one man the scapegoat and skin his hide, while
carefully protecting our own. A society willing to stoop to
that is a society from which any halfway bright member of
our second generation-and most of them are very bright-
would want to keep a long distance.

Thank you for inviting me to comment.
Hare Krsna.

Hoping this finds you good health,
Your servant,
Jayadvaita Swami.