“Bhakti Ananda Goswami: Protect the Children of Srila Prabhupada’s Movement”

5 May, 2010: Hari bol! Sri Sri Guru and Gauranga ki jaya!

“Our mission is to protect the children of Srila Prabhupada’s Movement from child abuse and neglect. By doing so, we strengthen the future of the Movement —the children—while providing an example to the world of a spiritual society that practices compassionate caring and protection.”

This mission statement is PR for the ‘Movement’ and totally impersonal and movement-success and/or organization-centered, not CHILD-centered.

“Can anyone give a single example of how the CPO has given support to a victim?”

Both of my children were victims, and the miserly ISKCON bankruptcy settlements that they are SUPPOSED to receive are an insult. The Gurukulis received nothing from the Settlement last year due to the bad economy! They were abused and neglected at various “safe gurukulas”, while I was purposely kept out-of-contact with them (as a single working parent) and repeatedly lied-to about their health, happiness and education. The wealthy and powerful leaders of ISKCON COULD have tried to do right by the Gurukulis, but even after being court-ordered to make token payments to them from the assets of the congregations, the Leaders are still trying to find ways to avoid their own personal responsibilities.

Another moral issue about the abuse suit and bankruptcy settlements is that it makes absolutely NO dharmic sense for the innocent congregations of devotees to pay for the sins and crimes of the people who were actually responsible for them. This is also what is happening to Catholic congregations everywhere where there has been a successful child molestation suit. Whole congregations have lost their churches, schools etc. because of a few abusers in their local positions of authority.

Just as in ISKCON, WHY should the congregations pay for the crimes and sins of their corrupt leaders, who were placed over-them? It is happening. The criminals have escaped making restitution and just punishment or even removal of their ‘priestly’ privilages! Abusive Iskcon leaders were wealthy due to the enslavement of the devotees, yet their wealth was not the target of the settlements. They went free and their wealth untouched, while small temple congregations struggled to stay ‘alive’ under the weight of the ISKCON USA Bankruptcy Court Gurukuli abuse-restitution rulings.

It is wrong to abuse and dis-able people, and then to leave them without the means to live a decent life. It is also wrong to stash ill-gotten wealth away and make innocent devotees pay for someone else’s sins and crimes. Thus the ISKCON leaders who have done this are guilty of both kinds of sins and crimes. They have greviously harmed God’s and Srila Prabhupada’s precious children, leaving them with ruined lives and little or no help, and these same men (and some women) have then also victimized countless innocent devotees by making them pay for the financial ‘abuse and neglect’ Judgements against ISKCON.

What a nightmare.

We must pray and work for the healing and empowerment of the abused and neglected Gurukulis, and for the healing and empowerment of all of the other devotees who have been injured, neglected, oppressed and dis-empowered by corporate ISKCON and in the wider ISKCON ‘Movement’.

May the Lord and our Lady comfort, heal and empower the Gurukulis and ourselves as well! +Amen, Aum & Hare Krishna! Shanti Shanti Shanti…