Back To Prabhupada, Issue 34, Winter 2011
The following actions were directed against those who advocate belief in Srila Prabhupada as the guru of ISKCON:
a) They are forbidden from advocating this belief even in their own homes, or they will be banned from the temple. 1
b) Anyone caught even reading literature advocating such a belief will be the subject of serious sanctions. 2
c) They are liable to being beaten up. 3
d) Persons caught distributing literature advocating such a belief were indeed subject to violence and death threats. 4
Clearly these actions are “about repression not freedom”, discriminate against those practising Krishna consciousness in their own homes, and seek to make them feel inferior.
Actions a) and b) were threatened by HH Sivarama Swami, while c) and d) came from his followers in Hungary. Yet we find that HH Sivarama Swami is now complaining that the Hungarian government are enacting laws against his movement in Hungary which are: “about repression not freedom” (ISKCON News, 23/12/2011), and which seek to curtail their right “to practise in their homes without discrimination, without being made to feel inferior to others” (Sivarama Swami, Podcast, 28/12/2011).
Indeed, all over the world, ISKCON, which has been engaging in a campaign of repression against those who advocate the exclusive worship of Srila Prabhupada, has itself complained that they are sometimes the subject of actions by governments and others which are acts of repression against them. If one finds oneself having to combat repression, having first engaged in it oneself, this should not be surprising since Srila Prabhupada teaches that this is the law of karma:
“Karma-jam means whenever there is action there will be some reaction. If one acts in badness, there will be a bad reaction.”
(Krsna: The Reservoir of Pleasure)
Sivarama Swami also claims that the response to such repression is for themto “stand up for our rights, and be determined, vocal, strong and unyielding in our determination to achieve what is right.” (Sivarama Swami Podcast, 28/12/2011). Yet when the IRM does exactly what Sivarama Swami states here in standing up for its right against the repression it faces from Sivarama Swami and others, their response is threats, sanctions and violence against the IRM. Thus, they want to do unto others that which they do not want done unto them (repression), but they want to do that which they prevent others from doing (standing up for their rights). This is sheer hypocrisy, which is a key characteristic of those under the influence of Kali-Yuga, the age in which we live:
“Hypocrisy, simply hypocrisy. Kali means full of hypocrisy.”
(Srila Prabhupada Lecture, 26/11/1966)
1 ISKCON UK headquarters, Bhaktivedanta Manor, issued letters banning those who advocated belief in Srila Prabhupada as the guru even “at home”, and these letters were a result of ”the desire of the local ISKCON, UK Charity Board of Directors, chaired by His Holiness Sivarama Swami”. (Quoted from banning letter).
2 ”Therefore ritviks and their literature should be ignored […] The tone of the above law makes it quite clear that persons who are in breach of it can expect to be the object of serious sanctions.”
(Sivarama Swami Letter to all devotees, 17/7/2008)
3 Devotee: “I also had another question. When we meet these devotees, should we start arguing with them, should we beat them up? I’m sorry to say that but it came up amongst the devotees.”
(Sivarama Swami Istagosthi, Budapest, 17/7/2008)
4 Violence and death threats documented on the IRM homepage.
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