Message from Adridharana Dasa, Temple President ISKCON Calcutta:

Welcome to 6th issue of our newsletter. We announce here an exciting weekend program for the Pacific Rim region in Malaysia. This is the 6th of such meetings we have held all over the world in a year, following our successful programs in Alachua, Vrindavana, Los Angeles, New York, London and now Malaysia. Each program has averaged over 100 participants from all over the world, and this one promises to be the biggest meeting yet with over 100 participants from Malaysia alone already confirmed.
We look forward to meeting some of you there.
Your Servant, Adri

1. Invitation To Malaysia
2. Court Case Update
3. Readers' Challenges
4. Readers' Letters

Inviting All Devotees:

International Seminar at Port Dickson, Malaysia

SRILA PRABHUPADA'S ISKCON

(A full One-day Seminar on the position of ISKCON today)

24 October 1999

Come and hear Srila Prabhupada's views on guru-tattva! An International gathering of over 200 Prabhupadanugas from 17 countries.  Speakers include

• H.G. Radhaprana Das - Temple President from Malaysia

Many other senior devotees are coming from Japan, The Philippines, China, Australia, Singapore and Malaysia for the seminar.

Nestled along the Straits of Malacca, Port Dickson is a famous resort and a haven for sea sports. Devotees can also engage in Vaishnava water sports during the day.  All accomodation and sumptuous prasadam, etc. are provided for.  All for only nominal charges of US $30/- to cover the expenses.

Don't miss this opportunity to enliven yourselves spiritually and understand the significance of the system Srila Prabhupada envisaged for ISKCON.  For further details, please contact R. Jai Simman at rjsimman@singnet.com.sg

(This item is provided by Madhu Pandit das in Bangalore)

CHAKRA has recently posted two articles about court cases involving Adridharan Das, the temple president of ISKCON Calcutta. In both accounts, an attempt has been made to show that Adri has 'lost' these cases. Indeed so keen were CHAKRA to post this congratulatory information, that they even got the date of their postings wrong, stating the 15th September, instead of October. Unfortunately as will now be seen, the celebrations are somewhat premature, just as premature, in fact, as the idea that Srila Prabhupada was no longer the Diksa Guru for ISKCON was in 1977. Indeed we have reports that disciples of HH Jayapataka Swami have been directed to hold feasts in recognition of the 'defeat' of the court case against the GBC.

In CHAKRA's defence we will note that they fully admit that they had not actually seen the court verdict for one of the cases, and that they did invite us to comment. We hope therefore that they will have the honesty to post this explanation, just as they have indicated they will.

CHAKRA's comments will be enclosed in speech marks, with the facts following underneath. We will start with the first article which related to the ongoing case against the GBC, that everyone is already familiar with.

1. What actually happened was that the GBC appealed their defeat in the court case. Adri's lawyers did not attempt to do anything, and thus by definition they could not 'fail' in an attempt they did not even make.
2. The GBC attempted by means of an appeal to get the case thrown out, having already failed once.

1. It is significant to note that CHAKRA will only quote 'unnamed sources', something which alone should make the reader wary that they do not actually have any confidence in what they are saying - otherwise why the fear to reveal who is stating these 'facts'. After all we are only talking about a court decision here - hardly life-threatening material.
2. Then CHAKRA fully admits that as well as having a dubious source they have not even seen a copy of the judgement! Thus this is hardly solid evidence on which to rush forth and hold celebratory feasts!

What actually happened was the following:  

1. In the original judgement given by the Judge, he did not publish a written reasoning for the judgement. Such reasoning is usually only given when there is protest from the losing side, which there was not in this case.
2. However, the lack of an explanation, still gave the GBC a technical ground on which to have the case referred back, so as to receive this reasoning. And this is what has happened here.
3. The case has been referred back purely on technical grounds, not on the actual merit of the case.
4. Thus this legal maneuver by the defendants simply buys them some time, and delays the inevitable rubber-stamping of the original defeat. It is unlikely that with the same facts in play, the same court will come to a radically different decision.
5. Though in such a situation technically the original judgement has to be set aside, the appeal judges have simply re-created the original protection for Adridharan and co., to circumvent the effects of this technical requirement. They have:

a) Made the GBC give an undertaking in court that they would not expel Adri & co.

b) Further still not trusting the GBC, they gave the plaintiffs an even extra layer of protection on top - they said that if the GBC did break their undertaking and carry out an expulsion, the expulsion would be disabled for 15 days, so as to allow the plaintiffs time to go an get an automatic stay order on the expulsion. By giving this 15 day relief, the court has ensured that the status quo will not have changed when the stay order is applied for, thus enabling the stay order to be granted.  

6. If the GBC's appeal case actually had any merit, the appeal court could easily have overturned the original decision and thrown the case out. They did not do this. They simply referred it back due to allow the original court to close a technical loophole.
7. Thus in conclusion, in effect, nothing has changed:

Adri and Co still can not be expelled, and the case is still very much alive and kicking in the court system, and the case continues.

Moving now onto the second case. This is a new matter and involves the ISKCON 'bureau' which is the legal body that runs the whole of ISKCON in India. Unlike the United States, where each temple is an independent non profit corporation, in India, they are all governed legally by this one society, called the bureau, which is registered in Bombay. Ironically, Madhu Pandit is the current secretary of this body, and Adridharan das is also a member. There are 18 bureau members in total. The bureau's chairman is HH Gopal Krishna Maharaja, and he has attempted to call a meeting with an 'open' agenda. It was suspected that the 'open' agenda was purposely put in place to try and take action against Adri & co., via some other maneuver, involving the Bureau. However there are certain rules and regulations of the bureau that would prevent such action being taken. A case was filed questioning amongst other things, the validity of such an agenda.

The court ruled as follows:

1. That though the meeting can go ahead for now, the validity of the meeting still has to be determined by the court, and its judgement will apply retrospectively:

1. This is saying that a full hearing still has to take place to determine the actual outcome regarding the validity of the case.
2. Any decisions taken at this meeting will have no effect, until November the 22nd, or when the full hearing of the case takes place, which ever is earlier. Here CHAKRA have quoted the court judgement incorrectly. They have quoted:

However they have left out the word "vacation":

"There will be an interim order to the effect that the meeting as fixed in terms of the impugned notice shall be held but effect thereof shall not be given till one week after *vacation* or until further orders of this court whichever is earlier."

This means that all decisions of the meeting are stayed for 5 weeks instead of 1 week, since the vacation period has already begun, and will continue until the 15th of November. This of course makes a huge difference, since the court has given us plenty of time to go and get stay orders on any decisions passed at the meeting. This is a similar protection to that which was given to us in the first case, whereby the court is disabling any decisions taken so as to leave the status quo unchanged when we apply for a stay order, which will ensure that we will be almost certain to be granted the stay order. Thus in conclusion the judgement has yet to be given as to the validity of the meeting, and further any decisions taken at the meeting will be stayed long enough for us to go and get them stayed ourselves. Hardly another 'defeat'.   Thus we can see why, as mentioned at the outset, any celebrations are definitely premature. Both court cases have given us exactly what we wanted.

However we can understand why the GBC should wish to raise false hopes amongst its followers, who are naturally demoralised as they see the society lurching from one disaster to the next. Naturally there is a need to manufacture some 'good news' to convince them that all is well in their support of the current unauthorised Guru system. However attempts to falsely boost morale will simply backfire, once the real truth filters down to these followers, and it becomes clear that the program to reinstate Srila Prabhupada as the Guru of ISKCON continues to march on unabated.

We present some question's asked by our readers:

 

4. Readers' Letters

"Thank you for sending me your newsletter. I find it a valuable source of alternative information on the whole guru / ritvik issue - information that might otherwise be censored (and censorship of information can never lead to truth). The news on the bold 'Manhattan Project' should inspire every devotee who is concerned with Srila Prabhupada's mission, no matter which 'camp' he is in. Shoot for the rhinoceros Prabhus! I look forward to your next issue." (Deepak, UK)

"I am so glad that you are sending this newsletter. As one alone in the world I am always wanting to know what is progressing. It is so encouraging to see your progress in re-establishing Srila Prabhupada in His rightful place, with His lotus feet held high above our heads. Keep up the good work. Trash these demons. You have my full support any time you need it." (Kulasekhara das, USA)

"I must say I find your newsletter most informative and interesting. It gets straight to the point without a lot of excess verbiage, and since there is enough of that already cluttering up the net, it is a great relief. Keep up the good work." (Yaduraja das, UK).

Your comments, questions and feedback is appreciated. Please write to me at adri@cwcom.net

Your Servant,Adridharan Dasa