BY: NITYA SIDDHA DASA
Sep 25, 2011 — UK (SUN) —
In recent articles on Sampradaya Sun, the esteemed Vaishnava community worldwide have just been informed of the business activities of a well known sannyasi in our beloved ISKCON. We are told that the aforementioned sannyasi has squandered millions of dollars of Krishna’s laxmi in a vein attempt to satisfy his materialistic ambitions.
But wait how can that be? I hear you ask. A sannyasi with materialistic ambitions? Surely not, I mean a sannyasi should be renounced and preaching Krishna consciousness without any personal desires for name, fame, women or wealth. He should be leading a simple life and only requiring the bare necessities supplied to him by God for his sustenance. Well this is what the shastra tell us, is it not?
Is this a new phenomenon in ISKCON, that some sannyasis and gurus are acting like squirrels and hoarding away millions of dollars of donations given by other people and their disciples into their own private bank accounts? Is the money they are secretly hoarding going to be used for the purpose that it was intended for? Well from what we read here on Sampradaya Sun, apparently at least in some cases the answer is no.
So what is wrong with this? Is giving money to some of these ISKCON sannyasis and gurus like giving a child a box of matches to play with in the middle of a tinder dry cornfield on a hot summers day? It appears to be so. Clearly some of them are acting like children inasmuch as that they are spiritually and materially immature and do not know how to properly respect and utilize the spiritual master’s and Krishna’s assets.
Let’s be clear about this point… It is not their money to play with! As we learn from the shastra, Krishna is the Supreme Proprietor of all that be. Devotees that are simple and honest respect this fact. So should we the Vaishnava community bail out these fools and throw good money after bad into a black hole of debt brought about by foolish attempts to gamble with someone else’s money. Is this intelligent?
My advice would be to keep your hands firmly in your pockets, prabhus, at least until some of these so called gurus and sannyasis grow up and become conscious enough to realize that honest people’s donations are not supposed to be used to satisfy their materialistic ambitions.
Yes, they are breaking the regulative principles, yes they are disobeying the orders of the spiritual master and yes, they are committing offenses against the Holy Name. Finally, I would like to leave some quotes from Srila Prabhupada’s purports in the Shrimad Bhagavatam for the reader to ponder for future discussion and debate.
“The Lord is seated in everyone’s heart, and He knows the devotee’s motive and arranges everything achievable. In other words, the pseudo devotee, who is anxious to achieve material gains, cannot attain the highest perfectional stage because the Lord is in knowledge of his motive. One merely has to become sincere in his purpose, and then the Lord is there to help in every way.”
(Srimad Bhagavatam 3.13.49)
“Thus the Supreme Personality of Godhead sends great cheaters who mislead them in the name of yoga and render their lives useless and doomed. In Bhagavad-gita, therefore, it is clearly stated, in the Sixteenth Chapter, verse 17, that rascals of self-made authority, being puffed up by illegally collected money, perform yoga without following the authoritative books. They are very proud of the money they have plundered from innocent persons who wanted to be cheated.”
(Srimad Bhagavatam 3.21.7)
Begging to remain in the service of the Vaishnavas and the Spiritual Master,
Nitya Siddha dasa
Nitya Siddha dasa, this is iskcon / GBC version of how a sannyasi
should carry out his sadhana. Obviously this people have no idea. Totally laughable !
pamho agtACBSP
Another proof that one should take shelter only of SRILA PRABHUPADA to avoid the frustation to be cheated in this age of kali-yuga.
All of us are helpless until we surrender to SRILA PRABHUPADA – therefore it is best to make SRILA PRABHUPADA the centre and goal of our lives because HE is free from all this cheating propensity.
Wake up to the real business only with SRILA PRABHUPADA KI JAI
ys seva das
haribol
Dear Prabhu’s
Kindly help me understand one thing. After I read about the BCS banktrupty commitee mail, I was (and still am) under the impression that it is a spoof mail. But I see few devotees responding to it (i.e. taking it seriously). Could some one let me know whether that BCS mail was genuine or just for fun?
pamho rajesh prabhu agtACBSP i’m also getting some suspect that is fake email because i was talking with a senior disciple of HDG ACBSP in mayapur dham this morning and she told me that the voice around mayapurcandra doya mandir regarding the bankruptcy of H.H bcs is not true,so is better to not say nothing anymore until we get the real puport agtys ys seva das haribol
Bhakti caru is a jack ass liar,and a sunnyass not sanyasi.feeding milk to a serpent causes poison effect.
For any of you who think this is not true you are sadly mistaken. BCS does owe a LOT of money to a lot of devotees he promised to repay and can’t do it. Just speak to his disciple Sudipto Dasa in Calcutta. He is the head of BCS business arm. Also speak to Diarama Dasa in Mayapura who knows a lot about this.
Nov 23, 2011 — NEW DELHI, INDIA (SUN) — Letter of clarification – Bhakti Charu Swami, McPhar Geosurveys, Sudipto Mukerji.
Response to Sampradaya Sun
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
About a month ago I was informed that the ‘Sampradaya Sun’ had published scandalous articles about me, stating that I was involved in business and lost $11 million. These articles implied the money was taken from ISKCON. The articles agitated the devotees and tarnished the reputation of ISKCON and myself. My initial reaction was that, nowadays, so many untrue things are published on the internet that we cannot possibly take them seriously or pay much heed.
However, soon I began to realise that those articles have been taken very seriously by many of my well-wishers and acquaintances all over the world, therefore, I want to set the record straight.
In summary, I want to categorically state that:
1. I was never involved in the management of McPhar Geosurveys, nor was I ever a director, business partner or shareholder.
2. I did not solicit or receive investments (loans, equity or otherwise) from anybody for McPhar Geosurveys.
3. No ISKCON property under my supervision has ever been encumbered or mortgaged to procure any loan for McPhar or any other business.
4. ISKCON has not lost any money as a result of McPhar’s bankruptcy.
5. I am not, and never have been, associated with the so-called “BCS Bankruptcy Appeal Committee”.
This is a hoax implemented as part of a coordinated attack to damage my reputation.
Srila Prabhupada gave me the service to translate his books into Bengali, which I had been doing for many years. However, when ISKCON was plunged into major crises in the mid-1980s, I was asked to join the GBC and take care of several zones around the world.
As a GBC I had to resolve many crises, for example, I was asked to resolve the bankruptcy of New Mayapur in France. After much hard work of rallying the devotees around the world to raise funds and negotiating with the banks we managed to buy New Mayapur back which was liened for about $2 million.
ISKCON was transitioning from a sankirtan-centred economy to a congregation-centred economy. Many of my GBC Godbrothers found themselves spending time arranging for funding of projects that were crippled by the sudden diaspora of temple devotees. It was at that time that I started to encourage qualified and capable devotees to start businesses to support the activities of ISKCON.
Around the year 2001 one of my disciples Sudipto was looking for business opportunities. Eventually he came across a Canadian company, McPhar Geosurveys, and agreed to become its agent in India.
After some time, Sudipto with the help of Ambarisa Prabhu managed to buy McPhar in Canada. At that time Sudipto decided to offer 50% of the profits to help ISKCON.
Sudipto asked me if I could recommend trusted devotees to help manage this global business. So I asked some of my qualified and competent disciples to join McPhar and help Sudipto.
After a few years the global economy started to decline McPhar developed cash-flow problems. The company began to acquire private loans. These loans had extremely high interest rates – mostly over 20%. I never initiated any of these purely business loans.
At this point, McPhar was managed globally by many devotees and it was through their efforts and contacts that private financing was secured. Some individuals in this network saw an opportunity to get a good return on their capital while helping to grow a business that pledged its support to ISKCON. Although I personally did not solicit any loan from anybody, when I got to know that some of my disciples and friends had given loans, I thanked them and expressed my gratitude.
A piece of land in Ujjain owned by some of my accomplished friends and disciples involved in McPhar, was mortgaged. That non-SKCON land was earmarked for an IT park and a shopping complex, and they intended to give 50% of the profits to Krishna. No ISKCON land was ever mortgaged.
Unfortunately, McPhar went bankrupt. I have no idea how much money McPhar lost since I was not involved in the management of that company.
I am deeply distressed that the Sampradaya Sun would publish such an article containing such a false and malicious attack on my character. I urge Sampradaya Sun to remove the article and apologise to its readers for printing such misleading information. I hope that this open letter will clarify and remove any doubts about my involvement in this company and reverse the tarnish to my reputation and that of ISKCON.
As a sannyasi, I have no personal motivation and have committed my life in service. All of my activities were intended to serve ISKCON and to please Srila Prabhupada.
Yours in the service of Srila Prabhupada,
Bhakti Charu Swami
New Delhi
21 November 2011
Bhakti Caru Swami clearly states that he officates as GBC. As a GBC it is his responsibility to instruct the devotees from spiritual point of view what to do and what not do. This is why the GBCs was installed by Prabhupada from begin with, what else do we need a GBC? To give spiritual guidance and avoid material entanglement.
BCS’s duty therefore as GBC would have been to instruct the devotees not to get involved in such kind of chancy business Prabhupada never would have adviced. Prabhupada always warned his followers, not to indulge in risky business but stick to book distribution.
Prabhupada: “Our first business is this book distribution. There is no need of any other business. If this book distribution is managed properly, pushed on with great enthusiasm and determination and at the same time if our men keep spiritually strong, then the whole world will become Krishna conscious.”
Then BCS states, “ISKCON was transitioning from a sankirtan-centred economy to a congregation-centred economy.” This is pretty much in need of explanation since Prabhupada always wanted sankirtan and book distribution as main activity of his movement. Since BCS is officiating as GBC it is his duty to disclose, why ISKCON was changed into a “congregation-centred economy”?
“Sudden diaspora of temple devotees”, as if the devotees had left out of their own. Meanwhile it is well-known known that all over Europe thousands of devotees were forced to leave ISKCON. But BCS carefully avoids to mention why there was a “sudden diaspora” and he never saw any need for action to uncover the reason and why it happened? In sum, his reply gives rise to more questions than are answered.