Kesavananda Prabhu, Feb 15 2009, UK: The letter below was recently circulated by Parvati dasi in Vrindavan concerning Srila Prabhupada’s rooms at Radha-Damodara Temple. While it is obvious that Parvati dasi is very much concerned about Prabhupada’s rooms (and rightly so), I turn our readers attention to the last paragraph, in which she writes:
“It was Srila Prabhupada’s desire that we maintain his rooms, and it is our duty to fight, if we have to, in whatever way we can to do this-diplomacy, cooperation, court cases, underhandedness-whatever.”
In the past it has been seen in ISKCON that many nefarious activities (including theft, drug-peddling and murder) have been justified by ‘devotees’ with this ‘underhandedness-whatever’ mentality. The way in which His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada conducted his affairs was always as a Vaishnava and a gentleman – there was no ‘underhandedness’ in his dealings with anyone.
It is extremely sad to see a senior Vaishnavi such as Parvati dasi, who had direct association with Srila Prabhupada, prescribing such a low-class, un-Vaishnava way of dealing with a situation that could easily be dealt with in a mature and polite way by having a few senior disciples of Srila Prabhupada in good standing, sit down and talk to the Radha-Damodar Goswamis and come to a harmonious conclusion. Such a simple solution has not even been attempted yet – not even by the Vrindavan GBCs.
Our hope is that the authorities in ISKCON will not follow the advice of Parvati devi and stoop to ‘underhandedness – whatever’ and conduct themselves in a way that Srila Prabhupada would have desired.
Your servant,
Kesavananda das
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WILL YOU KINDLY SEND THIS OUT TO ALL PRABHUPADA DISCIPLES AND TO THE GBC MEMBERS:
RE: SRILA PRABHUPADA’S ROOMS AT RADHA DAMODARA
Dear Maharaja’s and Prabhu’s,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. I am deeply concerned about the fate of Srila Prabhupada’s rooms at Radha Damodara Temple. This is a very serious issue that has really worried me and many devotees for a long time. There don’t seem to be many leaders who are either sufficiently concerned about what is going on there–or even aware of the problems we face-or both. Please forgive my strong words.
The Vrndavana Temple has kept these rooms forever. We paid through the nose forever. We had various austere men take care of these rooms forever. Women have organized for years to clean the rooms. We installed the Deity. We have entered into resourceful court litigation. Somehow we now have to try to establish a nice relationship with Jagat Guru Swami who has managed at least temporarily to bribe his way into the upstairs (though he thinks it is for permanently) and into the seva for these rooms. He has done a lot for the Radha Damodara temple and they were grateful enough to let him build those rooms up there, and at least for now, to let him stay there.
I’m sure we all have hours of Jagat Guru stories to illustrate why we don’t want to re-establish a relationship. But if we don’t try to do SOMETHING, Srila Prabhupada’s rooms will fall through the cracks. We know he bribed his way in, but he is IN there. He keeps asking why our sanyasis and men are not living there and doing seva. We used to, though it did not look like anyone but the sevite cared much about it. It behooves us to start developing our relationship with our old godbrother asap, AND TO START CARING. Then, like a needle through the banana, we are also IN there.
His sevites are very caring and strict, even if they are critical of us. And well they may be critical-Half the people we send for seva use most of their time for taking naps in the kitchen. It seems we only want to send a very few people we think are extra, instead of training them to really understand what it means to serve in Srila Prabhupada’s personal rooms. (This is not just the duty of the Vrndavana head pujari, but of our whole society.) The other half of the pujaris sent there are first class, but must learn to be resilient when dealing with JG Swami’s sevites. At this point, diplomacy could be the better part of valor.
The girls from our temple who have been cleaning there for years and (who were asked by JG Swami since Kartik to) make daily garlands for Radha Damodara Deities, work very tirelessly and are very attached to their service. Srila Prabhupada and the Deities are actually accepting their service. They see the unfortunate difference in attitudes in our two camps. (I’m quite sure, with a little ingenuity some of his old friends could change it so we are in the SAME camp.) We got very excited when we were able to do seva for one month at a time, but after that court case, the whole thing seemed to go into the shadows. I know that Shyama Krishna prabhu was working very hard for this, but there is no evidence that anyone else has come forward who is as resourceful or as supportive. Now JGS’s sevite claims that the judge will favor the Goswamis. I have no idea were this comes from, but we should never rest until we have Prabhupada’s rooms back again. We should not lose interest, which seems to be the overall case, I fear.
Please meditate on how we can get back into Srila Prabhupada’s Radha Damodara rooms before it is too late. Among our international priorities, this should be placed at the top. It was Srila Prabhupada’s desire that we maintain his rooms, and it is our duty to fight, if we have to, in whatever way we can to do this-diplomacy, cooperation, court cases, underhandedness-whatever.
Your servant, Parvati devi dasi
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