Message from Adridharana Dasa, Temple President ISKCON Calcutta:

Welcome to the 15th edition of our newsletter . We highlight the huge Ratha Yatra Festival in South India which took place at the IRM centre in Bangalore, as well as another defeat in the courts for the GBC at hands of the IRM.
Please read on:

1. Govt. Minister Inaugurates Bangalore Ratha Yatra 
2. South India IRM Meeting 
3. GBC Lose First Round of Perjury Case 

ISKCON Bangalore has a unique Ratha Yatra every year. The 2 feet high brass Deities of Sri Krishna and Balarama, appearing as six-year old boys, travel in a South Indian styled chariot, about 50 feet high. On Tuesday, March 21st, the devotees of ISKCON, Bangalore organized the annual Ratha Yatra.

The festival was inaugurated by Sri RV Deshpande, Minister for Industries and Sri Srikantaiah, Minister for Revenue, Government of Karnataka. During the inaugural ceremony, both these high-ranking ministers praised the monumental temple in Bangalore while nearly 1500 devotees anxiously waited to pull the Ratha. Sri RV Deshpande, who visits the temple regularly, began his address by making the audience chant the Hare Krishna mantra. Sri Srikantiah openly gave his word of assurance that he would grant a piece of land in Hubli, a city about 500 kms north of Bangalore, where ISKCON has applied for land. He also appealed that ISKCON should build a temple as grand and magnificent as the one in Bangalore.

Sri Madhu Pandit Dasa, the Temple President, presented the glorious accomplishments of ISKCON Bangalore since the inauguration of the temple in 1997. He said that Srila Prabhupada had desired that ISKCON distribute Lord Krishna's mercy in three important forms: Transcendental literature, the Holy Names and Prasadam. He said that since it's inauguration 5.1 million people had visited the temple, 765 tonnes of prasadam and 410,000 pieces of transcendental literature had been distributed. He also mentioned that the guests are enthusiastically participating in the Japa yajna program and in three months 500 million Holy Names have already been chanted by the temple visitors.

This program was inaugurated on January 1st, 2000. Visitors are invited to chant the Hare Krishna mantra 108 times before they enter the temple. The purpose of this program is to engage visitors to the temple in chanting a total of over one billion Holy Names during this year.

The Ratha Yatra was also attended by senior leaders of ISKCON in India. Sri Adridharan Dasa, Temple President, ISKCON Calcutta, Sri Yashomatinandan Dasa, Temple President, ISKCON Ahmedabad, Sri Mahaman Dasa, Temple President, ISKCON Vrndavana, Sri Devakinandan Dasa, Temple Vice-president, ISKCON Bombay and Sri Rasaraja Dasa, Director, Bhaktivedanta Institute also spoke briefly during the one-hour inaugural ceremony. All these devotees are also members of the ISKCON Bureau - the legal entity that actually runs ISKCON.

Devotees had also come from many temples of South India to participate in the Ratha Yatra. The procession started from the ISKCON temple, traversed through the busy streets and returned to the temple after five hours. The City Police had diverted the traffic where the chariot had to pass and this facilitated thousands of people to witness the Ratha Yatra. The streets all along the procession were washed with water and illuminated by special electric lights set up by the devoted residents and shopkeepers to greet the Lord. About 15,000 small packets and 40,000 leaf cups of prasadam were distributed. Devotees performed kirtana enthusiastically all along the route.

Another unique feature of this Ratha Yatra is that people bring fruits, flowers and coconuts to offer the Lord. The Ratha stopped every 50 to 100 feet to receive such offerings. It is very heartening to note that every year the participation of the local people has been increasing. Madhu Pandit Prabhu remarked - 

"We could see long stretches of the streets filled with people waiting to have darshana of the Lord. This year the turnout has been the highest ever."

On the day after the Ratha Yatra, since, as noted above, so many devotees were going to be in attendance, a regional IRM meeting was held at ISKCON Bangalore. In total over 200 devotees attended including 40 devotees from the temple in Hubli, over 100 congregation members, and 4 TP's from temples in the South. They heard from Sri Adridharan Dasa who spoke briefly on the history of ISKCON after 1977 and give a report on the worldwide activities of IRM. Sri Madhu Pandit Dasa then spoke on the genesis of the IRM. Later they both answered many philosophical questions on Srila Prabhupada's position as the diksa guru for ISKCON.

We reported in a previous newsletter (see Newsletter No. 13 - GBC Facing Perjury Charge in Calcutta High Court) about the very serious criminal perjury charge that had been filed against the GBC. In the suit filed we asked for serious measures to be instituted against the GBC including imprisonment. We are pleased to report that the judge has already immediately granted an 'ex-partie order' for one of these 'reliefs' or prayers, which was 'prayer g' in the original suit, and which read as follows:

"The affidavit affirmed on behalf of the concerned respondents on 30th April, 1999 and filed in the instant proceeding along with all annexures thereto be directed to be kept in safe custody of the Registrar, Original Side of this Hon'ble Court."

This shows just how serious the Judge realises the case is, and also that he feels that we have strong grounds for our claim. Otherwise their was no need for the Judge to grant us this relief at such an early stage - he could have just thrown our case out if it had no merit. Contrary to the lie that has been peddled by Jayapataka Swami and others to keep up the morale of the devotees - that the IRM case has been thrown out by the judge - both the original case calling for re-instatement of Srila Prabhupada as the Diksa Guru for ISKCON, and this latest perjury case, are going strong. The full court order reads as follows:

The most interesting thing to note is that since we filed our perjury case the GBC have not made any attempt to contact the court to even oppose our case. This shows that they themselves realise the merit of our case, or then again it could simply be a sign of the same sloppy and lazy work of the GBC that allowed this perjury case to be filed in the first place. It means that we have been given a free hand to move this case forward as we wish, with no opposition. We can see that having JPS and his convicted child abuser right-hand man Satyadhanya in charge of fighting these cases on behalf of the GBC is suiting the IRM just fine.

Thank you for taking the time to read this newsletter, and please keep your letters, and e-mail addresses of other devotees who should be added to our list, flowing in. A hard copy of our main position paper 'The Final Order' is available on request. All other IRM papers can be accessed through the EDITORIAL SECTION of the IRM website at  http://come.to/irm 

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