Exposing ISKCON Mumbai’s propaganda of lies and deception – Part 2

In the previous article of this series, we had begun to expose the ‘black and white’ lies of the fanatic disciple of His Holiness Jayapataka Swami and the compulsive liar, Varada Krishna Dasa, who has been ISKCON Mumbai’s favored instrument in maligning propaganda of Srila Prabhupada’s ISKCON Bangalore and the devotees working to restore the glorious position of Srila Prabhupada in ISKCON, especially the president of Srila Prabhupada’s ISKCON Bangalore, Sri Madhupandit Das. Readers may recall how Varada Krishna Dasa has been repeatedly lying about Madhupandit Das and other devotee leaders of ISKCON Bangalore and trying to defame them in various public forums. This series of articles will once and for all clarify and expose of each one of these lies of Varada Krishna Dasa, for the benefit of uninformed people in the devotee community. Continuing with the prominent lies of Varada Krishna Dasa: 2. Lie No 2: The management of ISKCON Bangalore temple is being done currently by a committee headed by Justice Raveendran, appointed by The Honorable Supreme Court of India and not under Madhupandit Das.

Varada Krishna Dasa very well tries to cloud the minds of the public and media by this blatant lie. A bench of judges of Honourable Supreme Court of India, comprising of Hon'ble Mr. Justice Altamas Kabir, Hon'ble Mr. Justice Surinder Singh Nijjar, Hon'ble Mr. Justice J. Chelameswar had heard the Special Leave petition(SLP) filed by ISKCON Bangalore on 6th June 2011, and passed the interim orders as follows: “In the meanwhile, the parties shall maintain status quo, as of today. However, the Bangalore Society with its present officer bearers shall continue day-to-day management of the Society but would not take any major and policy decision creating liabilities of any kind for the Bangalore Society.” (Excerpt from Supreme Court order on 6th june 2011) ISKCON Mumbai filed a petition demanding for a vacation of these interim orders and grant them the day-to-day management until SLP is heard by the Court. The Bench then passed another fresh order appointing an oversight committee for the ISKCON Bangalore temple. The

orders are as follows: “In the meantime, in addition to the interim directions, which had been given in the order of 6th June, 2011, we appoint a Committee to oversee the management of the temple and its properties. (Emphasis added) The said Committee shall consist of:- 1. Hon'ble Mr. Justice R.V. Raveendaran(retd.) as Chairman. 2. Shri Ananda Thirtha Das, Member. 3. Shri Stoka Krishna Das, Member.

The said Committee shall oversee the management of the temple and its properties by the petitioner-society and shall be entitled to advise the said society on matters relating to the management of the temple and its properties. (Emphasis added) Please note the clauses that are emphasized. The orders clearly were only an addition to the earlier orders which gave the ISKCON Bangalore’s current management with Madhupandit Das as the President to continue the day-to-day management. The said committee was only advisory in nature and to oversee the management.

It is also noteworthy, that the committee headed by Hon’ble Justice R.V. Raveendran is very happy with the management of current office-bearers. In fact, with good intentions of settlement of this dispute the committee’s Chairman has also worked for mediation. However, it did not end amicably. (The reasons and details of mediation can be found here: please provide links regarding ‘Struggle for Peace’).

Despite the reality being clear in ‘Black and White’ in the orders of Hon’ble Supreme Court, this patient of ‘Pseudologia fantastica’, the compulsive liar, Varada Krishna Dasa intentionally continues his blatant lies with a clear motive to bring disrepute to the leadership of ISKCON Bangalore, especially Madhupandit Das.

We will cover other prominent and regular lies of Varada Krishna Dasa in the next articles under this series.

Editor’s Note: The views expressed in this article are the authors. This article does not claim to represent the various legal positions of either ISKCON Mumbai or Bangalore in full, it just attempts as an independent observer to present to the reader some of the relevant aspects based on some of the publicly available information. It is written without prejudice to the rights of either of the litigating parties.