“I was therefore shocked to learn that some over-zealous people, without our knowledge or encouragement, none of whom were connected with Bhaktivedanta Manor’s administration, decided to take action by physically removing your placards.”

— VIPRAMUKHYA SWAMI
Temple President of Bhaktivedanta Manor

Bhaktivedanta Manor was donated to Srila Prabhupada by George Harrison.

Bhaktivedanta Manor Did Not Mishandle Protestors
By Vipramukhya Swami, temple president

Dear Devotees

Please accept my humble obesiances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

I am the temple president of Bhaktivedanta Manor. Recently much has been said on the Internet regarding how the Manor handled protestors during our recent and highly successful Janmastami festival attended by an estimated 50,000 people. Below is a statement by me, as the temple president, which explains what happened from my perspective.

About 10 Narayan Maharaja followers were making an unfortunate but peaceful demonstration with placards and leaflets outside the Manor gates and property. They were aggressively stopping cars to give them their leaflets, but they were not violent with anyone. I was called to survey the situation, so I went out with Dilip, one of our two festival organizers, and surveyed the situation. Atmanivedana Swami was already there.

I determined that they were outside of our property, and that there was nothing we could do about it. Atmanivedana Swami consulted with the police, who said that if they interfered with the flow of traffic then they should be informed, so we decided that was really all we could or should do about it. Like summer wasps, we thought it was a petty problem, not worth much of our attention, since their pamplets wouldn't interest the vast majority of visitors to the Manor on Janmastami.

Then I returned to the grounds.

Sometime later I was contacted on a festival walkie talkie by Atmanivedana Swami who said that a group of Indian boys had shown up unannounced and without our knowledge and permission, and were "talking" to the Narayan Maharaja followers. Atmanivedana Swami told me he feared the situation was tense, and suggested I should come out and try to diffuse it.

Because of the heavy traffic on the access road, there would be little chance of me getting to my car to drive out there (it's about a kilometer), so I asked Maharaja to come and get me on his motorcycle. When we found each other, I jumped on the back and the two of us went out to the gate.

When I got there, I found that the group had already dispersed. There were stories about the Indian boys taking away their placards. I was disappointed and felt angry that anyone took this kind of action. But I decided not to talk to the Narayan Maharaja followers at that time. Rather, I returned to the Manor with Maharaja, and then typed up an apology letter. Then I returned to the gate for a third time and personally spoke to the leader of the group, Asta Sakhi. I told her that I heard what had happened, and apologized. I said it was done without our knowledge or support, and I was shocked. I then gave her the letter, along with three copies. The letter also reaffirmed that we wanted to keep the Narayan Maharaja followers off of the Manor property because of their actions, which included the present protest, but I made it clear that I was very sorry that someone had done any action against them.

I don't know the names of the persons that participated in this escapade, but I did later speak to one of them who told me that there was no violence whatsoever, and he accused Asta Sakhi and the others of sensationalizing whatever happened. He claimed that they had asked for the placards, and they voluntarily gave them to them, and they then destroyed them. He addmitted that they might have felt intimidated, but that there was no physical violence at all.

In any case, this action was done foolishly, without our knowledge or permission, and on behalf of the Manor, we feel very sorry. Whatever took place out there, whether violent or not, was inappropriate in my view. This vigilanti group, taking the matter into their own hands, has not helped the situation in the least.

The following is the letter which I personally delivered to the followers of Narayan Maharaja when I met Asta Sakhi after the incident:

Dear followers of Narayan Maharaja,

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

While I disapprove of your recent, peaceful protest outside the gates of Bhaktivedanta Manor on Sunday, 27 August 2000, upon examining the circumstances and seeing you were outside of Bhaktivedanta Manor property, we decided your protest was nothing more than a petty annoyance. It was my decision to ignore it unless you stopped vehicular traffic, disrupting the flow of traffic, in which case we would inform the police, who assured us they would take action.

I was therefore shocked to learn that some over-zealous people, without our knowledge or encouragement, none of whom were connected with Bhaktivedanta Manor’s administration, decided to take action by physically removing your placards.

Bhaktivedanta Manor is open for all people, of all walks of life. Unfortunately, as this protest of yours and previous incidents prove (see enclosed letter), the followers of Narayan Maharaja are so bent upon proselytising your particular beliefs that it becomes untenable to have you visit or perform service on Manor premises or functions conducted by the Manor.

If this seems like discrimination, you are correct. We have discriminated against you in much the same way as a Catholic school would discriminate against an evangelical Christian bent upon converting the students on school premises. Such behaviour is unacceptable in any religion, what to speak of Gaudia Vaisnavism.

In fact, behaviour such as yours is unacceptable among all true Gaudia followers, and would not be permitted in any Gaudia Math or ISKCON temple.

We therefore stand by our ban of followers of Narayana Maharaja. You have no one to blame except yourselves for your own misbehaviour.

Yours in the service of Srila Prabhupada,

 Vipramukhya Swami

© CHAKRA 2-September-2000

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