Bhaktin Rachael – UK: PAMHO AGTSP – Dear devotees I am moved by your replies thank you. I did not know what I hoped to achieve from my plea but felt I needed to say something. I am practicing my spiritual life and going to the Temple as often as I can. I deflect the advice of those who would want me to take an ISKCON guru but my devotional life, my real devotional life, is a secret from them.
Some prabhu asked what plan I had to solve this problem. I am sorry I don’t know of any plan because I have never fought them I have only kept quiet in fear that I will be kicked out or angrily ignored so I keep to myself and say to them I have not chosen a guru yet and for now taking shelter of Śrīla Prabhupāda.
I am a no one and who will care for my uninformed opinion in ISKCON but the older devotees are someone in this society and they can speak out against the corruption. I read on the internet so much stuff but at the Temples I have heard not a word spoken. Of course I hear rumors of some older devotees who the Temple devotees consider to be demons and guru aparadis. Even when I read on this site about Prabhavishnu das resigning it seemed no one at the Temple knew for months and even then it was whispered but there was no confirmation from the Temple authorities even after the GBC made their announcements. It was as if it never happened.
The internet is a powerful tool to educate devotees like me who would not have known anything was wrong so please don’t listen to devotees who say it is wrong to educate people on these matters in the society it is the only way things get changed so please I beg you to keep on educating us as it is a godsend for us.
My parents once joined with parishioners to have their local priest removed as he was suspected of molesting little boys at our church when I was young. Not all the parishioners joined but the richest ones and the out spoken ones did and it worked. The Bishop had to remove him and they put very nice priest in his place. So this form of action can work if there is enough support from the senior devotees.
A devotee suggested that I join with the Bangalore Temple? I do not know much about this but if this is the Temple that is in court with the GBC then I am not sure if I want to be involved with such a Temple. Not that it is wrong to be in court with the GBC, who all quite possibly need to be in prison, but it is more from what I can understand that it broke away from ISKCON and started its own ISKCON society. I am very uncomfortable with this I am afraid and it does not sit well with me to join a group of devotees no matter how well intentioned who is trying to set its self up as a similar society to the original ISKCON society. No, this is not the answer to me, I want to be in Śrīla Prabhupāda’s original society the one he founded and worked so hard to build from nothing.
Anyway please keep on exposing the corruption inside ISKCON and I am sure that one day we will have success.
It is a shame that devotees have fought for years against these people without much success but this shows how strong māyā is within our society.
I am still of the opinion that the older and more senior devotees need to join together and oppose them in a more organized way much like my parents did when I was young. I really cannot do anything myself except write like I am doing a plea for help but if there is something organized then please count me in as I cannot sit back and do nothing but ignore the problems, as some devotees suggested. To continue concerning myself only with my own spiritual life is not the example set by my parents who spoke up against the child molester priest. They explained to me that they had a right to worship God in their church without having to worry about the priest being a child molester. So I choose to remain at my Temple in secret until there is a time when I no longer have to hide my feelings from everyone around me.
Thank you again for your support and I feel that I am more involved now and not alone anymore. Please accept my humble obeisances and all glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda – Bhaktin Rachael
