Bhagavan is Misguided
By Progosa dasa (ACBSP)
Clearly,
Bhagavan Prabhu has lost the "clear understanding of Devotional
Service" that he once manifested. His letter is filled with some of
the weirdest, most illogical, and sometimes just downright bizarre
statements that I have ever heard anyone make, especially from someone who
had such contact with Srila Prabhupada and his wonderful books.
>Full
Story
© CHAKRA 29-Nov-2003
Learn Sanskrit at Home
By Gadadhara dasa
More and more devotees
consider knowledge of the Sanskrit language as important for their
spiritual life. Even in material society, the interest for this language
is steadily increasing, as our experience shows. To offer both groups an
easy, but comprehensive entrance to Sanskrit, the Veda Academy has
developed a six-months correspondence course for people without or with
only basic previous knowledge.
>Full
Story
© CHAKRA 29-June-2000
Stand Together and Bring ISKCON to the
Spiritual Platform
By Bhakta Jerry
When
I heard about the Turley law suit, my heart began to break. I personally
work with abused children, whose parents did the most unthinkable things
to them. So, am I going to approach them with the attitude that, well,
these children aren't really innocent, but are suffering because of their
past karma, and that there really is no hope for them?
If
I brought such an attitude to my job, I would most likely be fired. Is
this really being "full of compassion for the fallen conditioned
souls?" To me it is obvious that some horrendous activities have
befallen Krishna's children.
>Full
Story
© CHAKRA 29-Nov-2003
All Glories to the Assembled
Devotees
By Padmapani das
By
now, most devotees are familiar with the Maha-mantra abuse case. In the
process of bringing this case to justice, many devotees and friends have
stepped forward to offer their support to Shanta-devi dasi and her
daughters. We were delighted to receive so much encouragement from the
worldwide Vaisnava community. The following list of names is being posted
to acknowledge and thank everyone who wrote us and offered their kind
support. Your letters were of great solace and comfort to the victims
during a very difficult ordeal. Thank you kindly.
>Full
Story
© CHAKRA 26-June-2000
ISKCON Breach of Faith
By Arthur J. Pais (San
Francisco)
The
organization finds itself in a holy mess after students file a
$400-milion sexual abuse suit
Controversy
hovers over them like a halo. Two years ago, the International Society
for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) was rocked by reports of sexual and
physical abuse at the society's gurukuls (boarding schools) in both
India and the US. Hare Krishna leaders had immediately moved in with a
series of damage-control measures, including a promise to set aside
$250,000 (Rs 12 crore) annually to investigate the abuse and to
provide counselling and financial help to the victims.
>Full
Story
© India Today June-2000
A Final Farewell
By Bhaktin Teagan
I
recently left ISKCON after seven years of hoping things would change.
I can liken my time in ISKCON to being trapped in an abusive marriage.
My protests have gone unheeded for so many years - that my final
protest is just to say goodbye. This protest has so far caused about
as much of a ripple as all my others in the past seem to have. So I
thank CHAKRA for allowing me to explain my departure, and voice my
final protest. I would like to take this opportunity to bid farewell
to the sincere devotees of ISKCON. I wish you all well in your quest
for spiritual enlightenment, and for those so inclined, your quest to
improve and enrich the experience of the present and future members of
ISKCON.
>Full
Story
© CHAKRA 26-June-2000
Thoughts on ISKCON Child Abuse
By Nityananda Ram dasa
An
example of why we are in the state of affairs with Mr. Wendle Turley
Esq., can be found in many of the sincere letters written by some of
our dedicated and caring devotees. We just keep missing the
point.
What
are they missing? What is "it?"
>Full
Story
© CHAKRA 26-June-2000
It's Been 14 Years Since
I Removed Myself
By Bhagavan dasa
Gaura
Purnima, 2000: To
the wonderful devotees of Radha and Krsna who were disciples and students
of mine, and to my guru godbrothers and sisters who I served with to
accomplish many good things for God and Guru, and to the international
family of Krsna bhaktas, I offer my greetings and respects.
It
has been fourteen Gaura Purnimas since I removed myself from you.
I
am writing this address specifically because I do recognize that I have
displayed such a lack of love and dedication to my sisters and brothers by
not bringing to closure that pain which I am responsible for. At the same
time I do not and will not take the responsibility that my service to God,
Guru and devotees after Srila Prabhupada’s departure is the principal
reason why there is so much alienation amongst devotees today and was done
out of a lust to usurp Prabhupada’s position. Conclusions and
beginnings.
>Full
Story
© CHAKRA 22-June-20000
Mormons Caught Up in Wave of
Pedophile Accusations
By Paul McKay
Houston
Chronicle May 08, 1999: The
church that is known for placing a spiritual premium on family values is
under increasing attack for an alleged failure to protect its children
from pedophiles.
>Full
Story
© 1999
Houston Chronicle May 08, 1999
Suhotra Swami Requests
Leave-of-Absence as Guru and GBC
By the GBC Executive Committee
Date:
21 June, 2000: H.
H. Suhotra Swami, who serves as an initiating guru and as a GBC regional
secretary in several European countries, has requested the GBC Executive
Committee to grant him a one-year leave-of-absence from his
responsibilities as GBC and guru.
As
a letter from Suhotra Swami appended below explains, a recent sequence of
trying events in ISKCON has brought him to an acute awareness of certain
personal emotional issues, which for many years he had not confronted and
which are rooted in an extremely difficult early family life.
>Full
Story
© CHAKRA 23-June-2000
CHAKRA in Russian
By Vipramukhya Swami
CHAKRA (Atlanta, Georgia) - June 21,
2000: Russian devotee Ganga devi dasi has decided to publish CHAKRA
articles appearing on the PAMHO.NET conference CHAKNEWS into Russian,
according to Vaidyanatha dasa.
"Not every article will appear in
CIS [PAMHO's Russian counterpart], but it's always good to know what's
going on in ISKCON," says Ganga dasi.
CHAKRA has given the go ahead that the
articles may be translated.
© CHAKRA 21-June-2000
I Am Worried About Your
Spiritual Safety
By Murlidhar Dasa
Dear
CHAKRA,
I
am writing with regard to a
number of articles you have posted to your website of late,
particularly in regard to Om Visnupad Srila Bhaktivedanta Narayana
Maharaja.
For
your own spiritual safety, I worry.
>Full
Story
© CHAKRA 21-June-2000
Sixth Annual Llama Fest July 15th
By Caru das
Saturday
July 15th from 4pm onwards, KHQN Radio and Utah Valley Llamas will host
the 6th Annual Llama Fest one mile south of Spanish Fork on Main St. Last
year 4,000 celebrants enjoyed the food, live music, crafts, and lore of
the South American llama.
>Full
Story
© CHAKRA 21-June-2000
Letter from Me
By Anuttama dasa
June
16, 2000 - Washington, D.C.:
As
we all know, there are countless biographies and statements by
scholars and devotees who attest to Srila Prabhupada's loving concern
and kindness upon everyone he met, and who verify Srila Prabhupada's
personal loving, caring, and pristine saintly qualities.
Whatever
the falsities may be in Turley's excessive claims, we do know that
many of our children were abused during the 1970's and 1980's. And, we
continue to have a moral responsibility to help them.
Regardless
of the outcome of this case, we need to reach out to the young members
in our communities.
>Full
Story
© CHAKRA 20-June-2000
Dravida's Response to Aranya
Maharaja
By Dravida dasa
Recently
His Holiness Tridandi Svami Bhaktivedanta Aranya, a disciple of Srila
Narayana Maharaja, posted a lengthy paper on VNN entitled “The
Difference Between The Teachings Of Badri Narayana Prabhu And Srila
Prabhupada.” In that paper Aranya Maharaj provided two
“refutations” of issues I raised in my paper “Two Troubling
Issues Concerning the Teachings of Narayana Maharaja,” and I’d
like to comment on those here. The two issues are Srila Prabhupada’s
supposed omniscience during his manifest pastimes, and that old
favorite, the fall of the jiva.
Srila
Prabhupada is my life and soul and worshipable deity (gurv-atma-daivatah).
My spiritual life--and indeed I’m convinced my very life
itself--depends on my effort to please Srila Prabhupada and to avoid
offending him. On a very practical level that means not accepting
philosophical views that go directly against his (such as the idea
that no soul in the spiritual world can leave devotional service to
Krsna or Visnu), and not accepting false views of him
(“omniscience”) that lead one into aparadha masquerading as
glorification.
>Full
Story
© CHAKRA 20-June-2000
Children of Krsna vs. ISKCON et al.
By Ragaputra dasa
My
name is Vincent R. Ross, AKA Ragaputra dasa (ACBSP). I just downloaded
a copy of the complaint filed by the Turley Law Firm against ISKCON.
As a former member of ISKCON and a practicing lawyer, I am curious
just what David Lieberman, esq., was talking about when he referenced
"exaggerations, fabrications and misrepresentations" in that
complaint.
>Full
Story
© CHAKRA 20-June-2000
I Apologize
By Vipramukhya Swami
Long
Island, New York – June 14, 2000: In a recent article on CHAKRA
calling readers attention to the fact that the VNN web page was
apparently down due to technical difficulties, I feel I gave the
impression of ascribing “villan-hood” to persons who participate
on VNN or other persons not affiliated with ISKCON, including those
with the Gaudia Math.
>Full
Story
© CHAKRA
14-June-2000
The Straw that Broke The Back of my
Opinion of CHAKRA
By Vraja Kishor das
"Is
VNN Finally Offline," an article written and rushed to
publication by Pujyapad Vipramukhya Swami, was the straw that broke
the back of my opinion of oldchakra.com.
>Full
Story
© CHAKRA 29-Nov-2003
Krishnas Respond to "Gross
Exagerations" in Law Suit
By ISKCON Communications
June
13, 2000 - Washington, D.C.: A lawsuit alleging that child abuse
occurred in the 1970's and 1980's at several parochial schools and
temples affiliated with the International Society for Krishna
Consciousness (ISKCON), known as the Hare Krishna movement, was filed
on June 12, 2000, in the Federal District Court in Dallas, Texas. The
suit seeks $400 million dollars in damages.
"Mr.
Turley has deliberately fabricated, distorted and misrepresented much
of what actually occurred in order to conceal serious deficiencies in
his case," said David Liberman, an ISKCON attorney. "As an
attorney, he may be held accountable for that at the appropriate time
in the future," Liberman said.
>Full
Story
© CHAKRA 14-June-2000
Sex Abuse Case Could Ruin Hare
Krishnas
By David Usborne
THE
INDEPENDENT, LONDON
New
York - 14 June 2000: The Hare Krishna movement, which sends its
saffron-clad devotees on to the streets of Britain and America to chant
its name and collect donations, faces possible financial ruin from a $400m
sexual abuse lawsuit filed in Texas by former pupils of its boarding
schools.
>Full
Story
© The
Independent, London 14-June-2000
Girls "Raped at Hare Krishna
Schools"
By Ben Fenton
London,
England - 14 June 2000: CHILDREN
at schools run by the Hare Krishna movement were raped, placed in
cupboards crawling with rats and forced to eat maggot-infested food, a
court was told yesterday. In a $400 million (£266 million) damages suit
brought by 44 former pupils of 11 boarding schools in America, lawyers
claimed that girls aged 12 or 13 were "given" or
"promised" to older male members of the movement. The commission
of even trivial "sins" identified by the cult's teachers could
result in a child as young as six being put into a dustbin with the lid
closed for two or three days, the plaintiffs' complaint said.
>Full
Story
© The Telegraph, London - 14-June-2000
Hare Krishna
Schools Sued
By Susan Parrott - The Associated
Press
Federal
Suit Involves 44 Plaintiffs Alleging Abuse
DALLAS,
June 12 - More than three dozen former students of Hare Krishna boarding
schools filed a $400 million lawsuit against leaders of the religious
community today, alleging years of sexual, physical and emotional torture.
The 44 plaintiffs in the suit allege child abuse over two decades at
boarding schools in the United States and India. The federal court suit,
filed in Dallas, names the International Society of Krishna Consciousness
(ISKCON) as lead defendant, along with 17 members of the group's governing
board of top leaders and the estate of the movement's founder, A.C.
Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Plaintiffs' attorney Windle Turley called
the abuse "the most unthinkable abuse and maltreatment of little
children we have seen. It includes rape, sexual abuse, physical torture
and emotional terror of children as young as 3 years of age."
>Full
Story
© Associated Press 12-June-2000
Hare
Krishnas Respond to Law Suit
By ISKCON Communications
Washington,
D.C.—"It
is terrible that child abuse has infected public and private schools,
neighborhoods, churches, and families," said Anuttama Dasa, Director
of ISKCON Communications. "Sadly, some children of the Hare Krishna
society have also been victimized. If the events alleged in this suit did
occur, we regret that they did, and we will make every effort to help
address the needs of the young people named in the suit," said Dasa.
“At
the same time, numerous allegations made in the suit by the lawyer, Windle
Turley of Dallas, are gross exaggerations and outright falsehoods,” Dasa
said.
>Full
Story
© CHAKRA 29-Nov-2003
Krishna Meditation (SB
10.21.2,5)
By Dravida dasa
Vrndavan's rivers, lakes, and hills
Rang out with lovely hums and trills
As flocks of birds and maddened bees
Rejoiced among the flow'ring trees.
>Full
Story
© Dravida dasa 13-June-2000
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