BBT vs Hansadutta

BBT News Release. 18th June 1998.
From the BBT Communications Office.
Radlett, UK.
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Recently, several commentators have spread their opinions widely on the Internet, on the pending BBT court case against Hansadutta das. The BBT Trustees are concerned that devotees may be fully appraised of the facts in this case.

The six BBT Trustees, all devotees in good standing and with many years of experience, strictly apply the rules laid down by Srila Prabhupada for the printing of his books. In a letter of 14th March 1974, Srila Prabhupada writes:

"The BBT can authorise a centre to print, as in the case of foreign translations, with the agreement that when the foreign printing becomes financially solvent they will pay royalties to the BBT. But all printing of ISKCON literature must be by the BBT or under their sanction and approval. If temples print independently it will be at the cost of the books I am, myself printing, and could eventually cause the financial ruin of the BBT, meaning I could not order new books from the printer or have sufficient funds for construction of temple projects."

In pursuance of Srila Prabhupada's stated instructions, the BBT Trustees, after many attempts at negotiation, began a case against Hansadutta das in the Los Angeles Court. Hansadutta has filed a cross-complaint. He is asking the Court to order ISKCON of California and BBTI to turn over to him (and his two alleged "co-trustees," Veda Guhya and Diane Chan) all the money that has been received for the sale of Srila Prabhupada's books since 1988. He also asks the Court to declare that these trustees, none of whom are active in ISKCON, be declared as the holder of legal title to all the BBT copyrights.

This cross-complaint can in no way be described as merely "defensive." It is a fact that the BBTI initiated the litigation. Srila Prabhupada wanted a centralized copyright-owning BBT to be the only authorized publisher of Srila Prabhupada's books. He wanted the temples to buy these books at a mark-up, and that the revenues so generated be used to support building projects such as the ongoing project in Mayapur, and educational projects such as Bhaktivedanta Institute. He did not want even ISKCON temples to publish the books themselves and avoid paying the mark-up, what to speak of non-ISKCON groups such as "Prabhupada Yoga Meditation Centre" ("PYMC"), a small group in Singapore with strong ties to Hansadutta.

PYMC was publishing a magazine (with a picture of Hansadutta on the inside front cover) which used numerous long excerpts from Srila Prabhupada's books without any copyright notices. BBTI's legal department wrote a polite letter in 1990 inquiring about this, and after receiving no response wrote a letter demanding that PYMC cease and desist from infringing the copyrights. At around that time, PYMC gave a printer a copy of the Chinese Bhagavad Gita and had at least 5,000 duplicates made. Finally, in 1992, BBTI brought a small copyright infringement action against PYMC in Singapore. (It should be noted that PYMC made no attempt to purchase Chinese Bhagavad Gitas from the Hong Kong BBT division).

Rather than simply admit to this wrongdoing and apologize, Hansadutta, in 1995 filed an affidavit in the Singapore Court. He claimed he was a lifetime trustee of the May 29, 1972 California BBT, and that this California BBT was the owner of the copyrights, and that therefore BBTI was not the owner and had no right to sue anyone for copyright infringement.

This affidavit was highly disingenuous. Hansadutta was appointed to the May 29, 1972 trust in 1974, but later the BBT Trustees including Hansadutta came to believe that the May 29, 1972 trust agreement was not valid. There had been an earlier trust created by Srila Prabhupada in India, dated March 30, 1972. The California trust was never registered as a tax exempt trust with the US Internal Revenue Service, never had a bank account, and never functioned according to its strict terms. Srila Prabhupada wrote to Hansadutta on December 8, 1974, instructing him that if the BBT in America could not be made tax exempt (it never was), then the L.A. temple could act as the agent of the BBT India, which was already tax exempt.

Most important, although Hansadutta was one of several BBT Trustees (with Srila Prabhupada's and Hansadutta's approval, Ramesvara was added as BBT Trustee in 1975, Tamal Krishna Goswami, Hridayananda das Goswami and Jayatirtha were added in 1976. Gopal Krishna Goswami and Harikesh Swami were added in 1977), Hansadutta completely gave up all his BBT duties when he was expelled from the Movement in 1983. Since that time, he had nothing to do with the BBT, which went on producing books and enforcing the copyrights. The remaining BBT Trustees carried on with their duties without his input for at least 12 years!

The way the BBT was run in the 1970s and early 1980s created certain problems, including ambiguity over which BBT owned the copyrights. Therefore, those who were still active as BBT Trustees in 1986 reviewed the situation and recommended that a new company be formed and all the different BBTs transfer the rights to that company. After various meetings in which a cross-section of ISKCON was included, the BBT Trustees met in the presence of the entire GBC body in 1988 and sought spiritual advice about the reconstitution of the BBT. The GBC approved the plan and in 1989 resolved (in resolution no. 51 of that year) that all ISKCON devotees co-operate in transferring the rights to Srila Prabhupada's books to the BBT International.

Hansadutta, who was not active in the Movement at that time and was certainly not active in the BBT or in any other leadership capacity, had no complaint about this responsible action. The directors or "trustees" of the new BBTI were the same people who were the current BBT Trustees at the time of the re-organization. There has been some succession, and the current directors are (1) Gopal Krishna Goswami, (2) Madhusevita dasa, (3) Jayadvaita Swami, (4) Harikesa Swami, (5) Svavasa Dasa and (6) Naresvara Dasa.

The BBT International has dedicated significant resources into its copyright-protection office, which was run very professionally by Sri Rama dasa from 1988 to 1992, and Madhava Puri dasa from 1992 to the present. Thousands of requests for licenses or permissions have been processed by the BBTI, and hundreds of infringers have been pursued and stopped.

Hansadutta's complaints about the BBTI did not begin until his ritvik disciples in Singapore were pursued by the BBTI for copyright infringement. He has responded by trying to upset the entire BBTI apple cart.

BBTI has sought to meet with Hansadutta to try to settle the matter informally. In 1997, a settlement meeting with BBTI's Chairman Jayadvaita Swami was scheduled to take place in San Francisco, near Hansadutta's residence, but Hansadutta cancelled the meeting, saying it was "premature." More recently, Hansadutta has sought to meet with BBTI director Harikesa Swami, but Harikesa Swami's health does not at present permit such a meeting. In any event, Hansadutta's unreasonable positions and deceptive tactics strongly indicate that settlement discussions will prove fruitless.

Hansadutta das claims the BBT copyrights could end up in the public domain, but to this day neither he nor his lawyer has indicated why they believe this. The copyrights were never dedicated to the public domain. The books were published with copyright notices identifying the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust as the owner. The only question was, which Bhaktivedanta Book Trust was the real owner (i.e., the India trust, the unregistered and abandoned California trust, or the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust division of the Los Angeles temple?)

If Hansadutta was really interested in fulfilling Srila Prabhupada's desire for the BBT copyrights, there would be no lawsuit. He would support the BBTI. He is currently attacking BBTI and ISKCON of California in his cross-complaint in Court, and is seeking large sums of money as damages.

The BBTI is not "part of ISKCON," as Hansadutta et al. claim, but is an independent holding company that will not be affected if ISKCON goes bankrupt. Ironically, it was back in the 1970s when Hansadutta was still a BBT Trustee that the BBT became so identified with the Los Angeles temple that it could have appeared to be liable for the debts of ISKCON, for example in the Robin George case.

However, although legally separate from ISKCON, the BBTI's directors and officers are all members in good standing of ISKCON and are loyal to Srila Prabhupada's vision of a united ISKCON under the spiritual and managerial authority of the GBC. This is clearly as it should be.

Why on earth should Hansadutta, after all he has done to hurt the devotees and to hurt ISKCON's reputation, become a trustee of the BBT or have any other high-profile position in Srila Prabhupada's Movement?

The return to ISKCON of former fallen "zonal acharyas" has been an issue that ISKCON's leaders have had to deal with in a careful and responsible fashion. In 1992 the GBC sent Hansadutta a letter responding to his request that the excommunication order against him be lifted. The letter politely requested Hansadutta to follow fourteen guidelines, to keep a low profile as a prerequisite to being welcomed back into ISKCON. Hansadutta took this request badly, declared himself to be a "rittvik representative" instead of an initiating guru, and dashed off a furious response to the Vedic Village Review, which published it along with a plea for "mercy" to Hansadutta by VVR's editor Nityananda dasa.

Devotees like Hansadutta should get credit for whatever favorable service they have rendered, but they cannot demand that they be immediately restored to positions of leadership such as BBT Trustees. They should show some humility and genuine remorse, rather than trying to take this position by force in legal battles, as Hansadutta is now doing.

The BBTI trustees and ISKCON's GBC regret very much that this matter has resulted in costly litigation. However, due to the aggressive and unprincipled response by Hansadutta to a simple copyright infringement matter, there has been no other viable alternative

For further information, please contact Anjana Dasi at the BBT Communications Office, bbtco@netcomuk.co.uk   or anjana.acbsp@com.bbt.se

CHAKRA 18-Jun-98