Oct 29, Middle East: Rocana prabhu in his article regarding Radhanath Swami’s autobiography, mentions another biography, Black Lotus, written by Satyaraj (Steven Rosen) prabhu, and quoted the following from the book:
“One last point: Some readers might question the propriety, or even the need, of telling Bhakti Tirtha Swami’s life story, and they may wonder why he would encourage such an enterprise, as he does in the Foreword…Still, there is a caveat, an exception, when the writing of one’s own biography—or the willingness to allow another to do so—would not only be approved but enthusiastically endorsed. This exception manifests when the story has a purpose larger than itself, when one’s life might convey the truths of Krishna Consciousness.”
In early August 2005, the request was made for Satyaraj to write this book — information was given, (some of it untrue and/or exaggerated), and payment was made to do the book — all supplied by Bhaktitirtha. Before Satyaraj was to produce this book, I wrote to him requesting that he not write this book. I explained to him why I felt his writing such a book about Bhaktitirtha would actually end up being a disservice to the Vaisnava community and to the world in general. (I had come to know that Satyaraj was to write this book when a number of devotees personally wrote to me, informing me that this book was to be done by Satyaraj, and asking me to “try to put a stop to the production of this book.”
Some of these devotees, (including ISKCON sannyasis, as well as other very senior devotees), were themselves personally aware of some of Bhaktitirtha’s deviations, dishonesty, hypocrisy, and duplicitous dealings because of their own personal experiences with him, separate from my own. I later found out that the GBC in general had been aware of certain specific deviations/falldowns regarding Bhaktitirtha, and were even wanting to get him off the GBC, but had, for their own political reasons, chosen to keep a tight lip in these regards. They kept him on board – the GBC knowing he could make a lot of trouble for them, Bhaktitirtha having been trained in psychology and political science (amongst other things) at Princeton University.
Besides certain devotees stating their specific reasons for asking me to contact Satyaraj in this regard, they asked me to write Satyaraj because years before, I had posted publicly some articles in relation to Bhaktitirtha’s character. They saw that I already knew and had made the effort to publicly address Bhaktitirtha’s real persona, and was not in any illusion about the persona that he was so easily able to fool so many other devotees (and people in general) with. (Please note that many demonic personalities are possessed of extremely great charm and charisma, with many people getting fooled, taken in by such people, manipulated, exploited, even hurt and/or killed by such “charming” and charismatically endowed persons.)
Some of these devotees who had written sent me Satyaraj prabhu’s email address, so I agreed that I would write to him, and did so, asking him to not write this book. Satyaraj and I had quite a number of exchanges in this regard. I gave various details regarding Bhaktitirtha’s character: his (materialistic/demonic) desire for attaining/obtaining complete control over of others, (explaining the techniques Bhaktitirtha used to manipulate, exploit, and exert control); his overall dishonest character, dishonest dealings in general, his philosophical and other deviations on so many levels – including falldowns, his envy of Srila Prabhupada, hypocrisy, and Narcissistic personality disorder. Most importantly, I also explained that Bhaktitirtha had purposely, through another African devotee, arranged the murder of our Godsister, Hladini prabhu. So before coming out with his book, Black Lotus, I told Satyaraj all of these things.
I might also add that in the beginning of 1991, I supplied directly to the GBC Ministry of Justice evidence regarding Hladini’s death as being purposefully arranged. At this time, Sesa was NOT the Minister of Justice, although I also later tried to address these issues though him. There were three others in charge of the “ISKCON Ministry for Justice,” my now remembering only two of the three names given to me by Bhakti Marg Swami, who at that time told me to write to the three people, including Ganapati Swami and Abhirama. I sent to all three of them separately my own statement along with copies of the evidence in this regards. NONE of the three wrote me back, despite my writing SEVERAL times to them.
Satyaraj and I had several exchanges in this regard. Then Satyaraj used as his excuse for discontinuing his writing to me, an email sent to him by another devotee, Sanat prabhu, who sent in criticism of Bhaktitirtha to Satyaraj, criticized him for thinking of writing the book. Sanat prabhu’s email had nothing to do with my writing to Satyaraj, or what I was writing.
So to reiterate, I had written to Satyaraj a number of times, giving him so many reasons why he should reconsider writing this book. He replied to me, and I wrote back with further explanations. A number of exchanges followed. As to exactly why Satyaraj wrote the book – meaning, if he really felt it would serve as an inspiration to the devotee community, or he just wanted the money, or both; or that he just wanted the money and really didn’t care about the facts – I don’t know. Only he and Krsna know. I wrote to him telling him the facts, my knowing the character of Bhaktitirtha (and things he did), my having served under him for so many years, and seeing/experiencing directly what Bhaktitirtha did to other devotees, and to me.
Besides his own narcissistic personality disorders – wanting name and fame to follow him while in the body and doing no matter what dishonest thing it took to obtain it, as well as after he passed, having Satyaraj write this book so that his glorification could be continued even after his death – one of THE MAIN reasons, (if not THE MAIN reason), for Bhaktitirtha’s having that book written, was to keep covered-up the real facts regarding his direct hand in our Godsister, Hladini prabhu’s murder, the reasons for her murder, why and how it really happened, her murder being a direct and purposeful arrangement made by Bhaktitirtha.
Although I served for so many years on the African continent – one of the longest serving under Bhaktitirtha’s jurisdiction – rendering various services, starting various programs, etc., Bhaktitirtha purposely makes no mention of my name as being “one of the devotees serving in Africa”. Now someone here may be thinking, “Oh, she’s saying that because she wanted her name in that book…” This is NOT the reason for my saying this. The reason I’m mentioning this is to prove the points made earlier: Bhaktitirtha purposely made sure to NOT put my name, because this way, anyone reading the book, would either 1) never have known (from the book, since there’s no mention of my name) that I had served in Africa under Bhaktitirtha, and/or 2) that if I was to ever tell anyone that I served in Africa, that it could be discounted or made to seem untrue. My name not being included in Black Lotus, Bhaktitirtha MADE SURE that there would be no mention regarding the person who was in Africa who KNEW the details regarding Hladini’s murder and its “whys”, so that all possible evidence could be kept covered up, even after his death, and hopefully no one would ever find out that Bhaktitirtha was directly involved in this.
Having served on the African continent for so many years under Bhaktitirtha’s direct GBC authority, (this includes being sent to the Middle East by him), and dealing with him directly, I KNOW FOR A FACT that SOME of the things written in his book, and while he was alive, some of the things he would speak or write publicly about himself, are NOT true.
Satyaraj writes above, “This exception manifests when the story has a purpose larger than itself, when one’s life might convey the truths of Krishna Consciousness.” Bhaktitirtha’s desire for Black Lotus to be made manifest through Satyaraj did have a story, whose purpose was much “larger than itself,” and its purpose was certainly NOT to “convey the truths of Krishna Consciousness”. Rather, the main purpose of this book was to COVER UP truth — the truth of the real character behind the person, Bhaktitirtha Swami.
At least with Radhanath, he wrote his own autobiography about himself, not making it seem to be someone else’s biography (commissioned glorification) about him. So while some may feel that Radhanath is writing in a way to glorify himself, at least it can be said that “he wrote it,” and they can call him out directly on it.
It is ultimately to Srila Prabhupada’s glorification that by dint of His mercy, that of our Guru Parampara, Lord Nityananda, and Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, we have been given and have been allowed to take up this process of Krsna consciousness, through which we can obtain the supreme goal of life, despite whatever our backgrounds and impurities. If through such biographies/autobiographies the glories of Srila Prabhupada are stressed to show how by such qualities of Krsna’s purely empowered Patita Pavana Ambassador, fallen conditioned souls like us, have been made able to become inspired to take up the process, as well as to become empowered to attain such accomplishments in preaching, and distribute this Krsna consciousness to others, then this is a true glorification in every sense. But if such glorification is being given to conditioned souls for the sake of the writer’s own glorification, for materialistic reasons and with the intention of making them to appear to be pure, or more pure than they really are – especially where things are written in such a way that the dirty things they’ve done end up getting purposely hidden” – then this ends up being part of the falsity of Kali’s plays. It is a cheating of the realities, a DISservice to Srila Prabhupada, and directly or indirectly, an offense to Srila Prabhupada in detracting from his glories as a GENUINE PURE (Nityanandavesha) devotee, in terms of trying to make it seem that the conditioned souls who are still contaminated by the three modes are ‘pure’ devotees, (“as good as Srila Prabhupada”) when they are NOT.
Bhaktitirtha, in his expertise at deception, didn’t even have the honesty to write an autobiography about himself, but instead wrote out the information – again, some of it either exaggerated or false – which he supplied and commissioned someone else to write about him; thus, he in his narcissistic desires to continue on with his own self-glorification, he expertly got someone else to write the information he had supplied to them, after his death, so that people could think him “so humble” (in that he “would not write out his own autobiography” but was instead so glorious that another devotee wrote a biography of his glorification).
Besides all the other things I knew about him, I knew Bhaktitirtha’s dishonesty, duplicity, and hypocrisy in terms of his ability to speak so convincingly about “love and leadership responsibility,” his ability to charm people by such words, along with the charisma he was endowed with, which added the “oomph” to it. But by dint of his own heart, he did not live according to the words he preached. In many cases of his malicious intent and actions exhibited towards others, I saw directly, and various devotees under his subjugation saw it, expressing to me their experiences to me because I had written some things publicly to expose Bhaktitirtha. Bhaktitirtha was possessed of the sickness of insatiable narcissism, a narcissism which he exhibited both in life, and even while knowing he was going to be leaving his body. For example, he stated that his cancer was a result of his prayer to take on all the sinful reactions of the world.
Considering what I know, having served under Bhaktitirtha’s jurisdiction for so long, things I know directly that happened – going on this alone, putting all of the things that other devotees have come to confide in me regarding their own personal experiences regarding Bhaktitirtha – as per Satyaraj’s (Steven Rosen’s) words, “the story has a purpose larger than itself”. I would agree. I would also say that the word “Black” in the title of the book has a much deeper (darker) meaning.
To prove that there were some exchanges between Satyaraj prabhu and me in this regard, I have included below a few of these exchanges. I’m taking the liberty to give Satyaraj prabhu’s email address used at THAT time, since Satyaraj prabhu has made a change of his email address from that time. The sequence of the emailing is from bottom to top.
Your servant,
B. Radha-Govinda
Dear friends —
Please address all emails for “Steven Rosen” and “Satyaraja Dasa” to the following email address:…………………….
I will no longer have my satchmo868@aol.com account.
— satchmo868@aol.com wrote:
> Thank you for your understanding. I will say that
> the negativity and
> general evil perpetrated by ISKCON leaders should be
> the subject of a
> book, of many books, but I’m not the one to write
> such books. Maybe you
> should. Also, not everything should be told in any
> one book. My book,
> again, is to encourage people in KC. Other books can
> serve other
> purposes.
>
> Regarding this book, it will explain the various
> accomplishments of our
> movement in Africa. If you could, for a moment,
> reflect on your time in
> Africa…You are
> in a unique position to talk about Prabhupada’s
> movement there… that would be
> useful for the book. If you decide not to, I will
> understand. All the
> best. –Satyaraja
>
> —–Original Message—–
> From: Mahavegavati Dasi ACBSP
> To: satchmo868@aol.com
> Sent: Tue, 9 Aug 2005 13:07:46 -0700 (PDT)
> Subject: Dear Satyaraj Prabhu
>
> Hare Krsna Satyaraj prabhu,
>
> All glories to Srila Prabhupada. PAMFO I hope all is
> well.
>
> Thanks for your reply.
>
> No doubt that BT was doing a lot of preaching, as
> was
> Kirtanananda, Bhavananda, Hansadutta, Satadhanya,
> Bhagavan, etc. Caitanya Mahaprabhu is Patita Pavana,
> Who in His causeless mercy allows ANYONE to take up
> the process of Krsna consciousness irregardless of
> their reasons (motive even), and past. And Caitanya
> Mahaprabhu is SO MERCIFUL that He allows ANYONE to
> preach, even child molesters and murderers, some of
> them being EXTREMELY good preachers! (by words, but
> NOT activities).
>
> We BOTH KNOW (VERY WELL) what’s “gone on” within
> ISKCON including child molestation and murder, that
> within the ISKCON organization, more than not, such
> preachers ESPECIALLY in such “high” position, are
> allowed to get away with these “other things”
> they’ve
> done. They still go on preaching and are acclaimed
> as
> “saints.” WITHIN SUCH AN ORGANIZATION/SOCIETY
> specifically created by Srila Prabhupada for giving
> Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s PURE philosophy, don’t you
> think
> these things SHOULD be (PROPERLY) ADDRESSED (AND
> RECTIFIED); NOT simply “pushed under the rug?”
> (WORSE
> is that such personalities are being glorified as
> being “very advanced” even “pure devotees” when in
> actuality they are NOT.)
> …………………………………………………………………………..
> Your servant,
>
> Mahavegavati Dasi
> Hare Krsna
>
> — satchmo868@aol.com wrote:
>
> > My dear Mother Mahavegavati — Obeisance. Jai
> > Prabhupada!
> >
> > However, you should be rest assured
> > that I am NOT presenting him as a pure devotee. I
> > am merely documenting his life and achievements……………..
> > All the best.
> > –Satyaraja Dasa
> >
> > —–Original Message—–
> > From: Mahavegavati Dasi ACBSP
> > To: satchmo868@aol.com
> > Cc: ameyatma@com; Bhakti Vikash Swami
> >
> > Sent: Mon, 8 Aug 2005 14:01:18 -0700 (PDT)
> > Subject: Your Upcoming Book on BT
> >
> > Dear Satyaraj prabhu,
> >
> > Hare Krsna. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. PAMFO
> > I hope all is well.
> >
> > I received this email (as is) from Ameyatma prabhu
> > (at
> > the bottom) – I don’t believe that he and I have
> > met.
> > Obviously he must have heard that I was serving in
> > Africa, and for that reason forwarded this email to
> > me. Some other devotees also sent me the same, but
> > they added their OWN comments/”requests,” these
> > devotees asking me to write to you for DIFFERENT
> > reasons:
> >
> > I think my email reply below to Ameyatma prabhu will
> > explain, since I wrote him back my NOT knowing
> > exactly
> > for what reason(s) he had sent (forwarded) me what
> > he
> > did. I am NOT sending you the other (several)
> > devotees
> > emails to me (with their comments) as I don’t want
> > to
> > get any of these devotees into any trouble, (for as
> > we
> > both know VERY WELL, if someone “doesn’t tow the
> > party
> > line,” – and “worse” – goes “so far” as to make any
> > (legitimate) criticism(s) against such popular
> > ISKCON
> > leaders who are being considered as “great,
> > ‘saintly’
> > personalities” (who have done some HORRIFIC things,
> > to
> > which I believe BG 930,31 may not apply?), there can
> > be some pretty STIFF “repercussions.” Thus, I am NOT
> > sending to you these other devotees’ emails with
> > their
> > “extra added” comments. As I said, Ameyatma prabhu
> > simply sent what he did below, so in my not knowing
> > what was his intention in sending it, I replied to
> > him
> > as I did.
> >
> > I am sending this on to you for what I feel would be
> > very obvious (self-explanatory) reasons.
> >
> > If you feel you want to/should write such a book
> > after
> > reading this – I’m more than willing to elaborate on
> > anything you want to question me about in terms of
> > what I’ve written here, IF you want to know – then
> > it’s all on your head for doing such a DISservice to
> > GENUINE Vaisnavas, (those who are TRULY possessed of
> > Vaisnava qualifications). I say disservice, because
> > to
> > write something which may/can/will MISlead people
> > into
> > THINKING someone to be pure, (or “a ‘pure’
> > devotee,”)
> > when in actuality they are NOT, this MINIMIZES what
> > IS
> > the REAL PURE devotee(s); “building up” those who
> > are
> > CONDITIONED as being “pure” devotees when they’re
> > not,
> > and “pulling down” (REAL) pure devotees
> > “designating”
> > them to a “LOWER” level by dint of IMproper, out and
> > out WRONG comparison. Thus, this will serve as a
> > DISservice to the Vaisnava community on ALL levels,
> > from the very neophyte, to the highest.
> >
> > As it is, because of the IMproper (so-called) – out
> > and out WRONG – “preaching” of MANY of ISKCON’s
> > leaders, (LIARS) so many people, both “inside” and
> > congregational devotees have a HUGE MISconception of
> > what is (really) PUKA Vaisnava, some people THINKING
> > that out and out rogues are “pure” devotees ONLY
> > because of the POSITION they have; NOT SPIRITUAL
> > qualification. I KNOW that BT was NOWHERE “near” to
> > being a pure devotee, but he WAS a GREAT PRETENDER
> > in
> > this regard. He was a CONDITIONED jiva JUST LIKE
> > MOST
> > OF US, but he was BETTER at PRETENDING, PLUS, he had
> > the POSITION to DO such pretenses (BETTER). I don’t
> > think that Srila Prabhupada would appreciate
> > someone’s
> > adding to the pretense by writing such a book about
> > one of Srila Prabhupada’s CONDITIONED disciples,
> > ESPECIALLY because BT wanted to “BE” Srila
> > Prabhupada
> > (at least to APPEAR to “be”… “as good as”…)
> >
> > At the END (AFTER the email Ameyatma prabhu
> > forwarded), I’m going to include two emails I sent
> > to
> > Raghunath prabhu after he had written to me the
> > question included. There is a difference between
> > hating the actions one has done as opposed to the
> > person who has done the actions. Although MANY
> > devotees have NEVER understood my heart – maybe
> > because I was not able to clearly present it? – I
> > did
> > NOT “hate” BT, but what he did. (There’s a BIG
> > difference, and I prayed for his spiritual welfare.
Speak Your Mind