She wrote:

Hello Mom and Dad,

I just wanted to send you a quick report. Kd and I gave our speech before the entire GBC. It was a powerful presentation. So powerful we thought we might get banned. But to our surprise, they mostly responded favorably. Vipramukya Swami is supposed to put it on Chakra, but has not done so yet. We have been anxious to put it on the internet because we want it to reach as many people as possible. I can't wait for you to read it. I love you both very much. To contact me please write me at my local Vrindaban address: shakuntala's@iname.com Hare Krsna. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

Shakuntala dasi
>Click Here

© CHAKRA 6-Mar-99

The Arsenic Crisis
in West Bengal
By Vipramukhya Swami

The Arsenic Crisis in West Bengal
by Vipramukhya Swami

CHAKRA (Mayapur) March 1, 1999— According to a new website (http://bicn.com/acic), there is a dangerous environmental health disaster unfolding in West Bengal and Bangladesh: arsenic poisoning.

"Tens of millions of persons in many districts are drinking ground water with arsenic concentrations far above acceptable levels," the site reports. "Thousands of people have already been diagnosed with poisoning symptoms, even though much of the at-risk population has not yet been assessed for arsenic-related health problems."

The web site reports that over the last two decades in Bengal, untreated tube-well water was heavily promoted and developed as a safe and environmentally acceptable alternative to microbiologically unsafe untreated surface water. However, in the 1980s, scientists began finding evidence of arsenic contamination. Even more recently in the mid-1990s the crisis emerged into broad public awareness.

"The origin of the arsenic pollution is geological in this case," the site reports. "Recent investigations indicate that the arsenic is released to groundwater under naturally occurring reducing conditions in aquifers associated with specific sedimentary materials."

The page has several articles and links and can be found at:

http://bicn.com/acic

The horror apparently began in the late 1970s when people began dying with mysterious skin lesions. Dr. Dipankar Chakraborti told village residents that it was leprosy. Scientists and doctors speculated pesticides seeping into well water caused the malady. No one, however, suspected arsenic.
>Click Here

© CHAKRA 3-Mar-99

Arsenic: What is
ISKCON Doing
about It?
from Paramananda (das) HKS (Mayapur Proj, Human Development)

Note: the following was received in response to a query by Madhusudani Radha Devi Dasi about whether ISKCON Mayapur is taking any steps to deal with the problem of arsenic in the well water in West Bengal.

Yes, Pancharatna has designed a program where we test all, i.e. ALL, the wells in the area. Thousands! We paint the wells in different colors according to the water quality and our Village Health Workers, who anyway work in the community with the Mother-Child Health Programme, inform that for drinking water only use the green wells (or whatever). In places where there are no green wells there will be filters attached to the wells, and for long term, a program of collecting rain-water in tanks.

Although it has not yet materialized it appears that we have two sponsors for this programme: India Canada Environment Foundations, ICEF, and BENGO, the German Government development agency.

Your servant

Paramananda Das

© CHAKRA 3-Mar-99

Ritvik Rhetoric
from Aniruddha dasa

I just read the latest report regarding the rtviks' expulsion from ISKCON, which was posted recently on the WWW.

Unfortunately their rhetoric is self-serving and aggressive. Despite concerns stated to them personally and collectively by the GBC they have twisted and misrepresented a carefully worded statement designed to engender dialogue. They were deliberately given a chance to discuss and negotiate. Predictably they have interpreted it to come up with the opposite of what was intended. The GBC spent hours crafting their resolution so dialogue would be an ongoing and automatic result. An opportunity to mediate with men who have spent many years fighting for and on behalf of Srila Prabhupada.

The GBC as a group and individually all appreciate their service and don't want them to leave ISKCON. They did not want to expel them immediately. Why would they bother to ask them to come to Mayapur and address the Body itself? Why would they set dates as deadlines other than to open some form of dialogue?.
>Click Here

© CHAKRA 3-Mar-99

Correction on Changes
in Krsna Book Explained
from Dravida dasa

Report on Poland
from a letter by Indradyumna Swami
printed with permission

Daily reports by Vipramukhya Maharaja are coming out on the GBC meetings. It's a nice thing and enables the devotees worldwide to keep in touch. A number of Polish devotees have commented to me how they appreciate these messages on the internet.

I liked the "Good News by the GBC" report and appreciated your report on Poland. But I thought it would have encouraged the GBC men if you had mentioned that the Polish Festival tour put on 64 outdoor festivals last year that were attended by over 250,000 people. The Woodstock festival might have been mentioned as well. 53,000 plates of prasadam were distributed in 3 days and the tent was packed day and night - often with up to 10,000 people for hours on end. Also, ISKCON is mentioned favorably a number of times in Jurek Owsiak's best seller biography. ICP has also done wonders in cultivating leading politicians and the media, as well. And Drutakarma's book has become the number 6 biggest seller in the country.

© CHAKRA 20-Feb-99

The Saraswati Charitable Trust (TSCT)
by Satyanarayana dasa

Unlimited obeisances to the wonderful jewel-like devotees of the Lord. Your association is the only path to real joy and eternal happiness. To put it personally, I know that I will simply never be happy unless I am always in your kind and devotionally intelligent company. I pray to serve you, to learn from you, to share thoughts with you, to laugh with you, take prasad with you, dance and chant with you, to be quietly at peace with you, and to be guided by you back to the lotus feet of the ever-increasingly joyful and loving Sri Sri Radha and Krishna. With the Lord's mercy, I will also do my part to help you.

The Saraswati Charitable Trust (TSCT), an independent private foundation, was established in an attempt to discover some rare opportunities and new "pioneering soil" in which to plant the transcendent seeds of Srila Prabhupada's books (and to provide a clear conduit for others similarly interested). At the present time, it is primarily involved with helping to facilitate the translation, printing and distribution of Srila Prabhupada's books in very specific, undeveloped areas of the world. Areas that currently remain either non-funded or very poorly so. The greatest interest of the Trust is to provide help in the places that Srila Prabhupada noted were of very special importance to him. With participation from interested and philanthropically inclined parties, the scope of this non-profit Trust may widen to also include important areas of Krishna Conscious development other than book distribution. Until that happens, however, due to limited self-funding, the primary purpose of the Trust will be to work with qualified projects similar to those about to be described.
>Click Here

© CHAKRA 20-Feb-99

Granddisciples Are
Not Blind Followers
from Prahlad Nrsmha Das

From the very beginning, when ISKCON gurus start initiating disciples, some skeptical Godbrothers of these gurus were very pessimistic about the spiritual development of the disciples, but by the grace of Guru and Krsna we proved that they were wrong. Hundreds of new devotees have been joining ISKCON in every corner of the world, and the preaching has been strong, is still going strong, and will expand unlimitedly in the future.

The granddisciples, together with Srila Prabhupada's disciples, are opening new temples, distributing and printing millions of Srila Prabhupada's books, enthusiastically accepting austerity and risks just to try to satisfy the desires of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Srila Prabhupada, and their own spiritual masters.

We understand that Srila Prabhupada created this ISKCON movement to declare war against Maya and that he foresaw that in this war some of his generals, commanders, and soldiers would fall on the battlefield, pierced by the unlimited weapons of the mighty enemies guided by rajas and tamas and their countless soldiers like pride, lust, politics, blasphemy, offenses, opulence, adoration, distinction, and philosophical deviation.
>Click Here

© CHAKRA 17-Feb-99

If the Ritviks
Come to Power
(Name Withheld)

The strong stand adopted by the GBC against the ritviks is really very appropriate, appreciable, and precisely what was required at this point of time. There should not be any hesitation in expelling the ritviks from ISKCON if they are not ready to abandon their theory.

The after-effects of expelling the ritviks may be that there may be a legal fight, bad publicity in the media, decrease in the donations, loss of some temples, and maybe even a takeover by the government of the ISKCON temples in India.

But if we allow the ritviks to co-exist in ISKCON, the losses will be much heavier because we immediately become useless and lose the mercy of Srila Prabhupada by compromising with the situation.

The following severe and fatal after-effects can be imagined if the ritviks are allowed to continue in ISKCON:

(1) The ritviks will become the zonal controllers and they will practically create their own fort. Each temple (because no temple at least in India, will ultimately be able to remain aloof because the ritviks have friends everywhere) will become like a separate independent state in the country with a ritvik leader. Or it may also create two antagonistic groups in the same temple itself. Hence the integrity of ISKCON will be jeopardized. In fact, there won't be any ISKCON anymore. Once it is disintegerated, it is very very difficult to reunite it again, as we see in the case of the Gaudiya Math.

(2) These ritviks (and many more who will be created by their preaching and association) will individually exploit the situation to the maximum and will be the cause of many bad incidents, bad media publicity in the future all over India. This is because they would have become completely devoid of any good qualities due to rejecting the instructions of Srila Prabhupada and would act whimsically and independently in every way.

If a rotten part of the body is not exterminated quickly, it makes the whole body rotten very quickly. So no amount of pressure should convince us to allow the ritvik heresy to continue in the ISKCON movement.

© CHAKRA 17-Feb-99

Be a Reporter
for CHAKRA

Want to be a reporter for CHAKRA? Great! You can report on important events in your temple or area and have it posted on CHAKRA.

To be a reporter, you need to know a few basic and simple rules. Being a reporter is not the same as writing us a letter. Here are some tips for preparing an article.

Articles are usually news items. They don't express opinions. Editorials do that, but news articles are simply reports of the news, so be objective.

Give your article a title on the first line.

Be sure to let us know where the article was written. Give us the karmi name of the place because not many people may know where New Nilacala is and there are at least two places known as New Govardhana.

Let us know the date the article was written and the name of the person who wrote it.

The first paragraph should summarize the content of the article. Then begin your article. Keep your paragraphs short just like I've done here.

Carefully spell-check your article.

Watch your punctuation. Commas (,) go inside quotes "like this," and DON'T USE CAPITAL LETTERS TO MAKE YOUR POINT. It only annoys the reader. Just keep standard capitalization. If you want something emphasized, put an asterisk before and after the word or words, and we will put it in italics for you.

We also don't like multiple exclamation marks!!!!!! or multiple question marks. Get it??????????

Don't use abbreviations. They are okay in a headline, but not in the body of the article. Not everybody may know that a TP is a temple president and that NY is New York.

Look at some of our CHAKRA articles to see how we do it.

Articles may be edited for grammar, punctuation, paragraphing, spelling, and the like. This is standard journalistic practice. But articles will not be edited for content without the agreement of the author. In other words, we may fix your grammar a bit, but we will not change what you say or delete any parts of the article without your agreement.

Send your articles to news@oldchakra.com

Haribol!

© CHAKRA 17-Feb-99

GBC Resolution

CHAKRA (Mayapur) Feb 24, 1999—CHAKRA recently posted a GBC resolution concerning Adridharan, Madhu Pandit, Sattvik, Cancalapati, and Navayogendra Swami. The resolution as posted, however, turned out to be only a draft, and the final resolution is different. The final resolution is as follows:

"In consideration of the above findings, the individuals Adridharan das, Sattvik das, Madhu Pandit dasa, Cancalapati dasa, and Navayogendra Swami, as above listed, being members of ISKCON India, are hereby deemed as unfit to be members of ISKCON India. This shall take effect after 31 March, 1999, unless the Executive Committee of the GBC Body deems them rectified sufficiently to remain as ISKCON members and issues a written statement to that effect."

CHAKRA regrets the misunderstanding. The above resolution is the final one.

The complete GBC resolutions are not yet available, but will be posted on CHAKRA as soon as possible.

© CHAKRA 27-Feb-99

Women in ISKCON
from Michael Warren

Dear Sirs/Madams,

I have read your issues on women. I'm no longer "involved" with ISKCON (not because of women!) but must say that it was "women" who kept me invoved to begin with! Not sexually, but emotionally. I love the women of ISKCON. Praise to the "female" devotees of Krsna! I love all of you godly women who sacrifice for God!

Hare Krsna!

(Especially Maha Bhagawat of Portland, OR)!

Michael Warren

© CHAKRA 20-Feb-99

We Are Hooked

Here at the Freeport Nimai Nitai Temple, we are reading Chakra daily. Unfortunately we were unable to attend the Mayapur Festival but you are so kind that you brought the Mayapur Festival to us. Thank you very much.

Your servants,

Goura Krsna dasa and Lilananda dasa

© CHAKRA 17-Feb-99

CHAKRA GBC reports
from Ramananda Raya Dasa

Dear Maharaja,

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

Thank you very, very much for your really extraordinary, wonderful service you are rendering by supplying the daily reports of GBC-meetings etc. It is touching all of us.

Your humble servant,

ramananda raya dasa

© CHAKRA 15-Feb-99

Koti Thanks
from Ajamila das

Dear Maharaja,

PAMHO AGTSP

Koti thanks for your excellently presented Chakra reports, which allow me to share the inspiring progress of the meetings. By your mercy, I'm gathering the essential discussion points. All glories to your service.

© CHAKRA 12-Feb-99

Post-samadhi
Rtvik Theory:
Out of ISKCON
by Bhadra Balaram (das) JPS

I recently read the paper Rtvik Theory— Out of The Question by His Holiness Jayapataka Swami and was highly impressed by its clarity and simplicity. It strengthened my conviction that there is no way we can allow the rtvik theory in ISKCON. Of course, this is not to say rtvik-vadis should leave ISKCON, but that they should leave the theory they are so stuck on, and which they promote within ISKCON without any authorization, even using ISKCON funds. The purpose of "Post-samadhi Rtvik Theory— Out of ISKCON" is as simple as the name suggests. It explains why rtvik-vadis should give up their misunderstandings and if they refuse, the only way for them to go is out of ISKCON with their concocted theory.

>Click Here

© CHAKRA 15-Feb-99

Ritvik Dreaming
by Jahnu Dasa

Although the ritvik idea, under whatever headings it has been presented, has been officially rejected in ISKCON, ritvik-vadis stubbornly and aggressively keep propagating it as if it were something of value. It is as if they had been trained up by the ghost of Goebbels, who said that if you keep repeating a lie enough times, in the end everyone will believe it.

Do they really imagine that ISKCON will ever accept their concocted doctrine as a standard tenet of Vaisnava philosophy and practice? One is reminded of Duryodhana. Everyone told him that he should give up his illicit pursuits, that there was no way he could win against the Pandavas, for God was on their side. Bhisma told him, Dronacarya told him, Vyasadeva came and told him, his own mother told him, but he just wouldn't listen. He was so stubbornly convinced he could defeat the Pandavas because of his large army with Bhisma and Drona in it to protect him.

When Krishna went to Hastinapura on His peace mission to try and stop the war, he was very kind to Duryodhana. He told him to give up his enmity against the Pandavas and rule the world together with them. He knew that Duryodhana was into power so he told him that together with the Pandavas he'd be invincible. Duryodhana simply wouldn't listen. Like a child, he complained to Krishna that He was always favoring the Pandavas.

Krishna, getting a little impatient with Duryodhana, reminded him that he had behaved very obnoxiously towards the Pandavas. Then Duryodhana said the most amazing thing. He said, "I have looked into my own heart very carefully, and I have not been able to detect even the slightest fault there."

The rtvik-vadis are like that. Depending on their false egos, they think they can defeat the ancient guru-parampara system that was put in place by Krishna Himself and taught by Srila Prabhupada to his disciples. But just like Duryodhana couldn't win, because he was working against the Supreme Lord and His devotees, the rtvik-vadis can't win. They will never succeed in introducing their deviant doctrine in ISKCON. They just don't know it yet, and for some of them, it will be too late when they find out.
>Click Here

© CHAKRA 15-Feb-99

CHAKRA Reports
from Ugresa das

Dear Vipramukhya Swami,

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

I am extremely happy that you make your reports available in public and thus give our movement the transparency which is absolutely necessary to solve problems and avoid new ones.

YHS

Ugresa das

© CHAKRA 12-Feb-99

Two Days
without CHAKRA
from Premananda Goura das

I didn't have Chakra for two days, and my life was not normal. It gives me strength and makes me aware of the dangers out there, and gives me more love to Srila Prabhupada's ISKCON and all the wonderful Vaisnavas of the Lord.

Thanks, and all glories to any devotee engaged in protecting Srila Prabhupada's body!

Yours,

Premananda Goura das

© CHAKRA 12-Feb-99

Desiring to Be with Srila Prabhupada, Part II
by Mahalaksmi Dasi

The Ritviks as the Greatest Imitators

Much has been said about kanistha or madhyama gurus within ISKCON imitating a pure devotee, or rather, an uttama-adhikari guru. Definitely, the assembly of devotees are acknowledging this cause of fall down. However, maya has certainly covered all our eyes in not allowing us to see that the imitation which the rittvik philosophy propounds is even more subtle, and hence, harder to root out, and even more dangerous to one's creeper than other types of imitation.

It is the state of samadhi, of the topmost uttama-adhikari devotee, which they are propounding that new recruits, newly introduced members of ISKCON, should be imitating. This is imitation because it is only the most highly elevated devotee who can feel the nonmanifest presence of Srila Prabhupada, or any other departed Vaisnava, on a moment by moment basis.
>Click Here

© CHAKRA 12-Feb-99

Hate for Women:
A Practice of Celibacy?
By Ratna Sadal

My first shocking observation, when I entered the movement, is the misinterpretation of women roles within Vedic religious practices. The purpose of Lord Caitanya's preaching movement is especially focused on delivering the most unfortunate conditioned souls, such as sudras and women. My most shocking experience is that women are called "matajee," which means mother and are at the same time disrespected.
>Click Here

© CHAKRA 12-Feb-99