ISKCON Exposed

It has been interesting, to say the least, learning of various passages, their details, and outrageous events that have taken place over the years performed against Sri Krsna Balaram Swamiji by ISKCON leaders, that went beyond just character assassination but also included direct physical attacks.

After reading some recent Facebook comments and adding all the history and details that I have come to know so far, it made me quite curious to know more about the actual reasons for ISKCON leaders and their affiliates to be so viciously against Krsna Balaram Swamiji, and for so long. So I thought to myself that obviously there must be some hidden reasons behind all of this.

Apparently these rascals, cheaters, and criminals acting as devotees in ISKCON do not care what will happen to them after their death by engaging in such obnoxious criticism and non-Vaishnava acts against a natural devotee, Krishna Balaram Swamiji. Therefore in trying to better understand the hidden reasons for all of this, I humbly approached Swamiji and inquired directly from him about why he has been criticized by and treated by ISKCON people so badly. He told me the following in his own words, transcribed here as follows:

KRSNA BALARAM SWAMI SPEAKS OUT

Practically speaking, none of the ISKCON leaders of today or their followers can be said to be real Vaishnavas. If they were, they would actually take advantage of the association of a Vaishnava who is very rare. But these leaders have instead become so envious since the very first week when I joined Srila Prabhupada in Vrindavan. When I would ask Srila Prabhupada for initiation, each time he would tell me that I was already a Guru and I do not need initiation (because I am a Vrajavasi), and those who know of these words coming from Srila Prabhupada himself became very envious of me ever since.

I joined Srila Prabhupada, already having a Vaishnava education from birth, also having 30,000 Sanskrit verses memorized, and an exceptional knowledge of the Vedic scriptures and culture. When I would recite from these verses every morning after bathing to keep them in memory and they would hear it, they became instantly envious just by seeing that and called me a Mayavadi just by seeing that, especially because in those days they did not know even one Sanskrit text, what to speak of thousands. This made them very envious.

I am born in the holiest land on the planet, Sri Vrindavan Dham (Braja Land) in a Shrotriya Brahmana family and I am the only Vrajavasi disciple of Srila Prabhupada. Upon learning this they acted enviously.

Because I never ate not even touched onion or garlic, nor tea or coffee, needless to say any meat, fish or eggs, or any alcoholic drink in my entire life, while they all took all of those things and worse, including eating the holiest animal, the cow, who Krishna loves; this has made them very envious of me.

In the last 5,000 years of the history of Vrindavan (Braja Land), I am also the only Vrajavasi Bbrahmana who wore saffron clothes and took initiation in the Unbroken Chain of Disciplic Succession (Parampara). Knowing this, all of the ISKCON leaders have always acted very strangely towards me.

When it comes to knowledge, it is a fact that even after including all of the ISKCON leaders and all of their ‘yes men’ devotees combined, they do not have as much spiritual knowledge as I carry. Every activity of Vaisnavism I am expert in I am expert in every activity of Vaisnavism required for liberation, and that is yet another reason why they are so envious.

On the day of my initiation Srila Prabhupada took my own used beads and chanted three rounds on them and initiated me in his room alone and gave me back the same beads, whereas Srila Prabhupada would chant only on three beads of a new set of beads and would give them to all other new initiates. I am the only disciple of Srila Prabhupada on this planet whose used beads Srila Prabhupada chanted three rounds on or who Srila Prabhupada initiated privately. Srila Prabhupada himself said to his western devotees that he had chanted three rounds on this mala, and this made them become very envious of me.

In my lectures, all the devotees would become mesmerized and wanted to hear more, while in their lectures everybody was skeptical. Seeing this happening, ISKCON leaders all became very envious of me. When they gave lectures, if I happened to be sitting in their lectures, they would feel intimidated by my presence. This made them very envious.

Srila Prabhupada asked me to collect money to help build the Krsna Balaram temple in Vrindavan. I was the biggest collector of money in India among all the Indian and non-Indian devotees at the time, and that made them so envious.

I am the only disciple of Srla Prabhupada who came out of a true age-old and real Gurukula school, and knowing this they became envious.

Because they realized their impossibility of going back to Godhead and they know that my seat in the spiritual world is actually reserved, this made them become very envious.

When our Ekadasi book was printed and distributed, all the whole of ISKCON everywhere was following Ekadasi and even remaining awake at night even. Seeing that this Krsna Balaram Swami was being followed so much, even though he was not one of their top leaders, they became so envious.

Because I was not stealing money, nor taking any commission from my collection, nor misusing even a penny, nor was I paid any type of bribe, nor did I demand to get first class tickets, nor was I interested in luxurious living, while they were and are all doing and interested in those things, this made them feel very uncomfortable and they remained envious.

I was and still am the most simple devotee who was not (and is not) interested in any position whatsoever, but they have always acted against this rule written by Srila Rupa Goswami in the Bhakti Rasamrita Sindhu (Nectar of Devotion).

When I started writing books such as the Vaishnava Kantha-Hara (1987-1988), they asked me to pay them $10 an hour for doing editing by putting the text into proper English standards. They practically destroyed the Vaishnava Kantha-Hara, even though it took hundreds of billable hours, and that was all because this book carries too many Vaishnava rules unknown to them, and due to their envy they did not want me to become famous because of it, so they did the best they could to destroy the correct message of the book. Because of this, we do not make this book (over 400 pages) available on the website to the public, even though we have it in stock in abundance.

Once His Holiness Jayadvaita Swami brought the manuscripts of the Bhagavad Gita As It Is to me in my room to get my opinion, showing me that he was now editing the Bhagavad Gita As It Is because the previous editor did not know what they were doing. When I looked at the manuscript he gave me, I observed that it was partially typed and also partially handwritten, so I asked Jayadvaita Swami whether the manuscripts had been typed by Srila Prabhupada himself. Srila Prabhupada was an Indian, and English was not his native language, so for any manuscript coming from him he would have wanted some editing done so it could be accepted internationally. But Jayadwaita Swami replied that no, the manuscript was not typed by Srila Prabhupada, it had been typed by somebody else, Hayagriva. Therefore it was concluded that Srila Prabhupada’s own typed material is not available anywhere, and what we have today is all completely edited material. I told him he should not do that the editing, and that by all means it is very offensive to work on a book which was already published while the author was living and proceed to make changes to it when the author is already gone. Hearing that, Jayadvaita Swami became very disturbed and angry, and told Hridayananda, Tamal Krishna, Ravindra Svarup, Gopiparanadhana, Dravida, and other like-minded people about this, and ever since then they together decided to work together against me. Isn’t this enough to show their non-Vaishnava character and their uncontrollable envy?

From then on they were looking for any way they could find to destroy my good name and character before the public, but they could not find anything because I was seen as the most honest, simple, and straightforward devotee in ISKCON at that time. So they plotted with one of their girlfriends to turn her against me, and built up a whole bunch of lies that they could try to sell to the community of devotees in order to accomplish their nefarious objectives, namely tarnishing my name and character. They also did not let her come before me to be confronted regarding her accusations that I was having sex with her, and their excuse was that if they brought her in front of me I would turn her into a frog. How ridiculous of an excuse. I was not even afforded the opportunity to defend myself appropriately by confronting the accuser in front of them all. Those untruthful allegations further proves their uncontrollable envious nature and enmity towards me. The Niti Sastra states,

DURJANENA SAMAM SAKYAM DVESAM NAPI CA KARAYET
USHNO DAHATI CANGARA SITAH KRSNAYATE KARAM

“One should neither make friendship nor quarrel with a wicked minded person, because the wicked will always be dangerous regardless, just like if hot charcoal is touched it will burn, and if it is cool it will leave black marks on the body.”
Once in the morning in Vrindavan, I returned from circumambulating Vrindavan and entered in the ISKCON guesthouse where I saw my white American-born godbrother Riktananda Prabhu, and I was happily welcoming his arrival in Vrindavan. Even though I was so happy and jolly seeing him, he was burnt with envy and said to me, “We once made a mistake by letting the blacks go free. We cannot make the same mistake again by letting you go free.” It took me a few minutes to understand this statement because I am an Indian. I was in ISKCON and there was no open turmoil against me at that time. Until this day I did not know that Indians from India are thought to be equal to Africans from Africa in ISKCON. Till this day, I did not know I was black. I thought I was brown. Also on this day, I found out that they were working against me, unbeknownst to me. What could be worse envy than this?

After all this trouble, I left ISKCON, although not yet officially resigned, and went to live in West Virginia (USA) in a small cabin, together with my godbrother and secretary at the time, a white American, Dharma Prabhu. Still not satisfied with the lies and made-up accusations they brought up against me, the then-chairman of the ISKCON GBC at the time, Rupanuga Prabhu, made sure that certain individuals came in the evening near my cabin and started shooting with guns towards the cabin. Doesn’t shooting at an innocent Indian in America show their envy? Being a foreigner from Vrindavan living in America, and knowing that one day I would have to die anyway, I did not care much when this happened, but the American born Dharma (my godbrother) was shaking like a leaf of on a tree on a windy day. What does this tell anyone about their character and uncontrollable envy? When this happened, the sheriff (police chief) was called there and he suggested that I should not stay there if I wanted to live, and after this I vacated the place. Rupanuga’s name was cited by the shooters themselves as being involved with this, so some_time later I met Rupanuga Prabhu, the chairman of the GBC at that time, and approached him in the ISKCON temple near Washington, DC, directly asking him for the reason for all of this that. Rupanuga did not say much in response, and then I told him that “we never sat together and I never did anything against you him, so this enmity should somehow be from a past life, because a Vaishnava does not act like this.” Hearing this, he put his head down in shame.

One day Satsvarupa’s secretary Baladev Das, a white American, approched me in the house of an Indian where I was living staying, just before I officially resigned from the present-day ISKCON, and told me that, “the whole body of the GBC is gearing up to chew you up and spit you out”, in those exact words. Doesn’t this statement alone show the enviousness of these ISKCON leaders? Why would they have to chew me up and spit me out (is this a Vaishnava etiquette?), if also in their own words I was a ‘“stinking little Indian?”’ who I was not interested in any kind of position, name, fame, distinction, or adoration; yet they wanted to chew me up and destroy me?

Around that time before I officially resigned from ISKCON, a day before Janmastami, I got a call from Rupanuga saying that I should not come to the the Potamoc (USA) temple for Janmastami. I asked him the reason for that, and he was unable to give any reason except saying that I should not come, and that that was an order. I said, “we invite non-devotees from the street to come to the temple, we invite to the Sunday feast meat-eaters and drug addicts to the Sunday feast., I am a disciple of Srila Prabhupada living in the USA, a foreign land, why I cannot can’t I come and attend the event and have darshan of Lord Krsna? Since birth, Krsna is the only one I know since birth.” When After hearing this, he simply told me that if I came I would be handed over to the police. These were exactly his exact words. How can a devotee from birth, a disciple of their Guru, and a godbrother who is innocent, totally harmless, be handed over to the police just because I was coming to have darshan of Krishna on the birthday of Lord Krishna? Krishna is not my adopted God, Krishna consciousness is not my adopted religion, it is my tradition, but till today he never gave me any reason why he would want to hand me over to the police. What would he say to the police in the first place? He would have to make something up against me. What would he say to the police in the first place? He would have to make something up against me. What would he say? That I was shooting (I never touched any weapon in my life), that I was stealing, breaking in, quarreling, fighting, punching or running away with their woman; what would he say to the police to have me arrested? I never did any of these things in my life. He had nothing. He must give some reason but he was never able to produce one. Doesn’t this show envy beyond limits?

I once received a hand-written and hand-delivered letter written by Gopal Krsna Goswami saying that I was not to be sold any books, magazines, or pamphlets from the BBT for any price. What kind of decision is that? Books are passed out free on many occasions to non-believers who even throw them in the trash cans, but I was not to be sold any books for any reason or any price whatsoever? Doesn’t this prove their incessant enviousness making them blind even to basic reasoning?

Later when I wrote my commentary on the Bhagavad Gita in English, I looked for an editor and I had found one, but unbeknownst to me, in their typical cunning maneuvers, my editor had been bribed to make a mess out of my Bhagavad Gita, but because, due to living with me often, somehow he understood me and sympathized with me a bit, that is why he did not completely destroy it, but nevertheless he changed a lot of things in it and omitted a lot. Doesn’t this also show their envy? (After this, I officially resigned from ISKCON.)

As long as the Red Stone Temple stands in Vrindavan, and as long as our books are available on this planet earth, I will live that long, even if they manage to get me killed, still I will certainly live forever because of my books. They are so envious knowing that I will live forever, but they will die one day and no one will remember them.

It can only be due to their uncontrollable envy that not long ago some years ago they sent a lady from Poland to our Red Stone Temple, a disciple of Trivrikram Swami (a white American born guru). At first she sat about 12 feet away from my simhasana Vyasasana seat, upon which I was sitting while she asked questions, and then suddenly and out of nowhere she came running towards me and climbed upon the simhasana Vyasasana seat and put her right foot on my head, pressing it down. Is this Vaishnava etiquette? I don’t believe that kind of thing even exists even in the mundane karmi world, but it actually happened like that. Doesn’t this show their envy?

DURJANO NARJAVAM YATI SEVYAMANO’PI NITYASAHA, “A wicked person will never change their mood and behavior even if he is served regularly for a long time.”

How ironic it is that some of these ISKCON leaders would come to me individually asking me for the answers to certain difficult spiritual questions which nobody could answer,; and I would still give them correct answers, because that is the Vaishnava rule,—to always behave correctly even with an enemy who comes asking spiritual questions. So I would always answer all of their questions, and they only stopped coming when I decided to go public about some of these un-Vaishnava acts being spoken of here.

These ISKCON leaders know in their heart they are not serious devotees, that they are just there for receiving public donations so they can enjoy, live lavishly, and receive respect and adoration from others, but as per Vedic scriptures that is leading them to hell, because that is cheating and in no way that is that authentic spiritual life.

Srila Prabhupada worked hard establishing centers around the world and they are not even able to maintain them right properly, and many of them are being sold and the profits are pocketed or lost, and others are in the market to be sold (the New York temple, for example, is in the market at present). Contrary to their management philosophy, we are working hard to build centers and temples, and by seeing us do this it makes them even more envious. They are also seeing us writing books and printing them in sets. They have become so envious because they see how their translation of the 10th and 11th Cantos of the Srimad Bhagavatam was inappropriately done, while ours was done so wonderfully and correctly. This makes them furious.

Practically no one likes ISKCON in the west today, especially in the USA. ISKCON temples are practically all maintained by Indians and mostly Indians attend the temple programs. Hardly any American is becoming a new devotee. Everyone in ISKCON, including gurus, mostly wears pants and shirts outside of India, and hardly anyone wears devotional clothes even in the temples. Srila Prabhupada’s hard work preaching Krishna consciousness has come to this precarious point all due to these leaders’ misbehavior, while they see us improving day after day having success, this makes them very envious.

The ISKCON Vrindavan temple has been established for about 41 years now, and the locals from Vrindavan do not come there to have darshan, except the outside pilgrams. Those who visit ISKCON in Vrindavan are all outside pilgrims. But at our place, in a very short time of 12 years almost everybody from Vrindavan has come here, and we take out a procession singing and dancing with thousands of local devotees for about eight kilometers (about five miles) every year in the streets of Vrindavan. Ours is the longest procession in Vrindavan, and seeing this they have become even more envious.

All the Mahants and great Sadhus of the four Vaishnava Sampradayas come to our temple, but they do not go to theirs the ISKCON temple. All the Goswamis and great Brahmins, pure people, have come eat with us, but never go eat with them. That is yet another reason why they are so envious.

Out of all of Srila Prabhupada’s disciples, I am the only one chosen by all the Mahants to be a Mahant in Vrindavan, while none of them have been chosen. Srila Prabhupada himself tried to be a Mahant, but because of these strange western followers and disciples, Srila Prabhupada was not selected to be a Mahant in Vrindavan. Knowing this, Srila Prabhupada rolled down tears from his eyes because all of the food that had been prepared for all the Mahants that were invited to come, was ruined. They never came to put Srila Prabhupada on the Mahant’s seat, and all the food had to be destroyed when this happened. This made Srila Prabhupada very unhappy. So when I was selected to be a Mahant due to Srila Prabhupada’s will, to represent Srila Prabhupada among the Mahants, these ISKCON leaders became furiously angry, disturbed, and even more envious.

Some time later I was also selected to receive the title of Mahamandaleshwar, and the envious ISKCON leaders could not believe their ears when this happened. Today we have our Sri Radha Govinda Khaalasaa at every Kumbha Mela, which is officially recognized by all of the Vaishnava societies from the whole of India, and respected even by Mayavadis of India. This is beyond the ISKCON leaders’ comprehension and this alone they cannot digest. ISKCON also opens up their own place in each Kumbha Mela, but it is all rented private land and they have to pay for everything, whereas our land is provided for by the Kumbha Mela authorities.

Srila Prabhupada writes in the last sentence of the preface of his Bhagavad-Gita As It Is that “if even one man becomes a pure devotee of the Lord we shall consider our attempt a success.” When they saw that I would qualify for that sentence, they felt even more envious. This indicates that they want Srila Prabhupada’s mission to fail, that he could not produce even one pure devotee who would be qualified by all the ancient scriptures of India to carry his spiritual legacy forward.

When they saw that we had inaugurated our temple in Vrindavan and that thousands came in attendence, the first time in the history of Vrindavan when flowers were showered over by a helicopter, they became so envious that they bought a piece of land about 20 yards meters away from our temple and constructed a double storie story concrete building and opened their Sandipani Muni school there, so they would have a better opportunity to criticize us by speaking to those who would come to our place, and bribe them as well, trying to send them away from our place. When they saw that they could not be successful even by bribing our workers and removing them from their jobs (even throwing eggs at our main gate) they dismantled their double storie story concrete building (which cost millions and millions just to break it) and sold the land to someone and went away. Because on our side Krsna is present, that is why the envy of ISKCON leaders is not succeeding. All of this makes them even more mad.

You may be wondering why they named their school Sandipani Muni. That is because a disciple of Gopal Krsna Goswami was named Sandipani Muni das. The construction of the Srila Prabhupada Samadhi was done by one Jewish godbrother and he somehow brainwashed Sandipani Muni das to shoot to kill a Vrijavasi named Khillan in the ISKCON guest house while he was asleep, while the sound of Mangala Arati was going on in the temple. This innocent young disciple of Gopal Krsna Goswami did not know how to handle a gun or how to shoot anyone, and he was taught how to hold a gun and how to shoot. This man shot and blew the stomach of that Vrijavasi brahmana while he was sleeping in the guesthouse during the sound of Mangala Arati, and then ran away. They had already made arrangement for him to live comfortably, and then later when he was dead the Sandipani Muni school was established in his memory. One should ask himself, is this by any means a Vaishnava way to manage or handle anything? Do you think a Vaishnava should act like this for any reason? Because I disagree with all of this type of behavior coming from these so-called devotees, these people cannot tolerate it and subsequently wish to destroy me.

Later I saw my godbrother who gave the gun to Sandipani Muni das during a program of Mr. Patel and Sivaradhya das in New York. When this Jewish-born white devotee saw me, he somehow thought that I knew the whole story, so he panicked and started speaking obnoxiously strangely in the presence of about 25 people that were attending the private program. It is amazing for me to think and see such a kind of ‘“Vaishnava,”’ which has never existed in the whole Vedic civilization.

This is only the tip of the iceberg. I could carry on talking for days and days about many things, but it is not necessary to continue telling about their non-Vaishnava dealings. Even if ISKCON leaders actually believe whatever they think I did, I cannot be criticized so badly like they always do at any opportunity when my name comes up. One Italian devotee couple came to Vrindavan and told me, “after hearing of their obnoxious criticisms of you, how could I hear any of it when their own background is so unbelievably bad; while they are criticizing you, such an elevated category of Vaishnava, having been trained so perfectly from birth? It can only be due to envy and nothing else.”

There are four pillars of sin and they are divided into two categories. Illicit sex and gambling is one, and meat-eating and intoxication is the other. Among these two categories the first is forgivable if atoned, but the latter is unforgivable, but because ISKCON leaders have no higher knowledge except to act as robots that are only programmed to act in a certain way, somehow or other they become engaged in trying to tarnish my name around the world. But social law says that you can fool some people for some time, but you cannot fool all people for all of the time. There might be some intelligent people out there who don’t want to be fooled forever and cheated by these people all the time, or ever at all. And there also might be some innocent individuals out there who had been fooled before and were getting their faith chopped like cows in the slaughterhouse, who may want to come out and follow the truth and the honest path. Social truth alone, however (like saying that the sun rises in the eEast), is not the truth that will take one to the spiritual world; it is the spiritual truth (like saying and understanding that the sun is an eye of God) that will make that happen, and ISKCON leaders are not actually concerned with this.

These are some of the reasons why present day ISKCON hates me and wishes so much to tarnish my name, so that everybody they know will hate me as well, and in their hopes it could become possible that one day, either one of their followers or a person rented by them, could possibly try to assassinate me. This is the way they rationalize. This is their reasoning. It may sound far-fetched to someone new, but the history of their actions speaks for itself. These are the same type of people who used Indians to kill Indians, because Indians wanted independence. These are the same types of people who used Indians to fill baskets of real stool and poured it on the head of Gandhiji Mahatma Gandhi. So please protect your consciousness from being chopped off like animals. They are using your money, your respect, and sending you to hell for sure.

Lord Krishna loves everyone, including those who are mistaken but who want to become reformed. It does not matter how we have dealt, behaved, or acted in the past, if we somehow reconcile our situation at present, then we will surely win the love of Lord Krishna. Let us go forward, marching towards the spiritual world, and stop not until we reach the Supreme Destination.

Thank you. Jai Sri Radhe.

Krsna Balaram Swami
29 April 2016
Sri Vrindavan Dham, India

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