Message from Adridharana Dasa, Temple President ISKCON Calcutta:

Welcome to the second edition of our newsletter. We have had a very favourable reaction to our first newsletter, and some of your comments are printed later below. Please continue to send us the e-mails of devotees who you feel would benefit from receiving this newsletter. We have had another 50 names from yourselves in just the last week. Please keep them coming. With over 2000 devotees receiving this newsletter, many of them inside the 'official' ISKCON, we are creating a powerful groundswell of support that is gearing up for the upcoming reform and revival of ISKCON.  

1. GBC Lose First Round of Court Case.  
2. UK IRG Meeting a Success.
3. Readers Comments.
4. Videos Available.

The GBC v IRG Court case was finally heard in the Calcutta High Court on 30/8/99, after weeks of delay tactics by the GBC, who continued calling for adjournments. As mentioned previously, we are currently in the 'interim order' stage, where the plaintiff (IRG) asks for certain reliefs from the court, before the main case is heard. The IRG's main request - that the GBC be prevented from expelling those who support our position - was granted by the court. The GBC's main contention - that this case must be thrown out because it deals with a religious subject matter, which is beyond the jurisdiction of the court - was not granted. The full text of this interim judgement is given below:

The points to note are as follows:

1. Since the court has confirmed the order that prevents the GBC from expelling the plaintiffs (IRG), this effectively gives a 'green light' to those in ISKCON who support our position, but who have hitherto not openly come out in support for fear of expulsion. Even though such individuals may not be specifically named in this suit, the court order can be used as a basis to afford them similar relief, since their circumstances would be similar.
2. The GBC's only hope in this case, was to get it thrown out on the basis that it is a religious matter, and therefore cannot be decided by the court. In not accepting this argument, and instead referring the case for a main hearing, the court has severely weakened the GBC's defence. No doubt the GBC will continue to try and get the case thrown out on the grounds of the subject matter being outside the court's jurisdiction, but after this judgement, their hope of succeeding in this ploy becomes even more remote; and instead the GBC will now be forced to argue the case on the IRG's 'home' ground - the written directives of Srila Prabhupada. This was something that they have been trying to avoid at at all costs since then the court is sure to decide in favour of the IRG, since the July 9th directive and Srila Prabhupada's Last Will and Testament, are both inviolable written directives.

Thus so far, everything remains on track with the plan to reinstate Srila Prabhupada as the acarya of ISKCON. The GBC have already made attempts to settle this case with us, and no doubt will try again, and thus we will keep you informed of the next developments in the court case as soon as they happen.  

The London IRG meeting held on Sunday 5th September was well attended with around 80 guests including prominent patron members of Bhaktivedanta Manor.

The fact that the program was a success is evidenced by the fact that CHAKRA, a website run by one of ISKCON's many Gurus, has gone to all the trouble of trying to discredit the program by making up lies. CHAKRA claims that only 15 people attended, but our taped video evidence will show many more than 15 people there. Anyone is welcome to view this video, and see for themselves the pathetic levels that CHAKRA have now had to stoop to, simply telling straight forward lies, and hoping no one will notice. Indeed the same CHAKRA article provides further evidence that they have simply resorted to lying to discredit a successful program. For they say that the program was held "in a village hall in local Letchmore Heath, right around the corner from Bhaktivedanta Manor". Since the program was actually held in a church in the town of Radlett, which is over 2 miles from the Manor, there may indeed have only been 15 people at this 'village hall' ! 

However we can assure you they were not attending the IRG function in question! You would have thought that CHAKRA could have at least sent their spy to the correct venue. In fact we purposely delayed sending our report to catch CHAKRA lying, since we knew that they were so rattled by our meeting that they would do a story to try and discredit it.

After kirtan and Guru puja to Srila Prabhupada various devotees gave their vyasa puja offerings. In one offering the devotee described how he had made the decision to attend the IRG meeting even though he knew his service at Bhaktivedanta Manor would be threatened. One devotee from the manor said that many more wanted to come but were too scared of the repercussions. Jayananda das from New York, formally with the band the 'Cro-Mags', the most popular of the 'hard core' bands, spoke powerfully about how only time separated us from seeing Srila Prabhupada properly re-instated. He and Brahma bhuta das will be assisting Madhupandit with the IRG's Manhattan sky-scraper Temple project.

After the offerings Krishnakant gave a stimulating and crystal clear explanation of why Srila Prabhupada must remain ISKCON's diksa guru. He pointed out that nowhere in his books or institutional directives did Srila Prabhupada ever even hint that he was to be replaced as ISKCON's diksa guru. He stressed that unless we have specific instructions to change something the guru has ordered, then we must not change it; and that the job of the GBC is to ensure that no system set in place by Srila Prabhupada is stopped or changed in any way for as long as ISKCON exists. He then answered everyone's questions, and one or two challenges, with skill and humility. Next Adridharan prabhu, one of ISKCON's most long standing and respected Temple Presidents spoke inspiringly. In introducing Madhu Pandit he explained how at one point, when the GBC were concerned at the spread of ritvik in India, Ravindra Svarupa sent out an e-mail to all the leaders there telling them the best person to smash ritvik was Madhu Pandit!

Madhu Pandit then spoke about how he had first come to understand Srila Prabhupada's actual instructions on initiations from reading 'The Final Order' paper. He had previously been a little confused by the May 28th tape, but once he understood that the July9th letter came after the conversation, and that it was supposed to present the very outcome of that previous conversation, he soon became firm in his conviction that a huge mistake had been made by the GBC. He explained that when he first declared himself a supporter of the IRG, Jayapataka Maharaja instructed around 800 congregational members to demonstrate outside the Bangalore Temple. However after a year this opposition has practically disintegrated to nothing since everyone can see how successful and inspiring the temple has become since it 'turned ritvik'. Attendance at Janmastami hit record levels (over 100,000), and book distribution is bigger than it ever was under the previous system. Madhu Pandit then showed a fabulous multi-media presentation of the Bangalore Temple that had devotees enthralled. There was then an ecstatic kirtan led by Bhakta Julian, after which a sumptuous feast with nine preparations, with Bhajahari das as head cook, was served. Everyone left the hall with greater enthusiasm and conviction to push on the reforms that ISKCON so badly needs.  

The following are just a selection of the letters we have received in response to our newsletter. We apologise that we cannot include all of them. We would need to produce a separate newsletter just for that, such was the response. Please keep them coming!

As we mentioned earlier, everyone is welcome to view the video of the IRG conference in London, so that they can judge for themselves the accuracy of CHAKRA's latest claims. In fact we have videos of every IRG conference held (except Vrindavana), and they are all available for the devotees to view. We are simply asking for a nominal donation to cover the cost of the copying and shipping. The tapes available are:  

The New York tape in particular has proved very popular with over 50 tapes already distributed. Please contact Brahma Bhuta with your orders: e-mail: adri@cwcom.net   Phone: 212 780 0686

Thank you for taking the time to read this newsletter, and please continue to send us the names of devotees who should also be receiving this newsletter. Your comments, questions and feedback is appreciated.
Please write to me at adri@cwcom.net
Your Servant, Adridharan Dasa