“Because you cooperate with all those guys that murdered Srila Prabhupada. Therefore you better boogie, because I'm going to come over there.”

CHAKRA – 21 March, 2000: In light of the new book which reviews not only Balavanta’s report, but also new medical evidence presented to the GBC Body in Mayapur this year, CHAKRA officially declares the theory that Srila Prabhupada died by poison a “dead issue.” Unfortunately, death threats keep the issue alive.

It is unfortunate that not all agree with the GBC's ultimate conclusion, as the insistence of Naveen Krishna to resign from the GBC this year demonstrate. Perhaps Naveen Krishna has not seen the full report of Balavanta, nor the second report produced by Deva Gaura Hari dasa – now in book form. Balavanta’s report is inconclusive, and other evidence clearly indicates Srila Prabhupada had all the evidence of kidney failure, not poisoning. Even Srila Prabhupada’s spoken words on the topic, mentioning the word “poison,” when analyzed in context, do not point to a conspiracy. (See CHAKRA article.)

But the theory that Prabhupada was poisoned is dangerous in other ways besides changing the history of how Srila Prabhupada passed from this world. Obscure, obsessed and perhaps questionable persons occasionally threaten ISKCON leaders with violence because of it.

So far, I have received three threatening phone calls by someone who goes by the name “Yamaraj das” and claims to be in New York. “You better boogie,” he told me in our first conversation. He had phoned long distance to speak with me. “Because I’m going to come over there and rip up your asshole.”

“Why would you want to do that?” I naively asked after having innocently answered the call during a meeting with a devotee friend in my office.

“Because you cooperate with all those guys that murdered Srila Prabhupada,” he told me. “So you better boogie, because I’m going to come over there [to England].”

He has since called twice more, with similar threats.

If that is true for someone like me, who wasn’t even in Vrindavan during Srila Prabhupada’s final days (I was at Bhaktivedanta Manor), then what dangers might be ahead for devotees like Tamal Krishna Maharaja, Bhakti Caru Swami and others who have been pointed out by poison theorists as people who may have been involved in the alleged conspiracy?

Therefore, we at CHAKRA implore all reasonable people to put the issue to rest, once and for all. It’s a “dead issue.”

© CHAKRA 21-Mar-2000

Go to the “Poison Issue Page”