Back To Prabhupada, Issue 85, 2026
In previous issues (BTP 81, 83 and 84), we have exposed the fact that, although ISKCON India and ISKCON Bangalore may have been fighting in the courts over control of the ISKCON Bangalore temple, they are completely united in accepting the authority of GBC guru hoaxer HH Jayapātāka Swami (“JPS”), rather than Śrīla Prabhupāda, in regard to how Śrīla Prabhupāda started prasādam distribution on a large scale. Thus, both accept JPS's story that it happened only due to Śrīla Prabhupāda observing a “garbage incident” of children scavenging for food in the garbage. But, even if this story is not based on Śrīla Prabhupāda's authority, it is a fact that Śrīla Prabhupāda did start prasādam distribution. So why does it even matter why he may have started it, since distribution of prasādam itself is a bona fide activity?
The incidents mentioned below are taken from JPS's first version of the garbage story in Back To Godhead #13-4, April, 1978. And if we accept JPS's story of what happened as being true, then it means that Śrīla Prabhupāda's actions were due to the 3 factors given below.
Śrīla Prabhupāda heard some “commotion” and therefore he looked out of the window and saw the garbage incident, which then led him to order prasādam distribution to be expanded. This means that Śrīla Prabhupāda's supposed order only happened due to a perfect alignment of:
a) Him hearing commotion;
b) Looking out of the window at the correct moment;
c) Seeing the garbage incident.
Thus, it was not that Śrīla Prabhupāda decided to initiate prasādam distribution based just on the principle that it was the correct action to take. But rather, it was brought about due to random chance of looking out of a window at a particular time.
As a result of seeing the garbage incident, Śrīla Prabhupāda's “eyes filled with tears”, and it was being triggered emotionally in this way that caused him to then start “ISKCON Food Relief”. Thus, for example, Madhu Paṇḍit Dāsa (“MPD”), ISKCON Bangalore's Temple President, giving his version of JPS's story, explains that Śrīla Prabhupāda was “especially this triggered by seeing the poor children fighting” over the food in the garbage (MPD, Interview, 28/1/23).
As a result of the garbage incident, Śrīla Prabhupāda proclaimed:
“How very hungry these people are – they are going to such trouble just to get some scraps of food! This is the house of God, the house of Kṛṣṇa – so everyone who comes here to their Father's house should be provided with a meal.”
However, Śrīla Prabhupāda was aware:
i) That hunger and poverty did exist in India;
ii) That the temple was the “house of God” and thus it should feed whomever enters.
But, it still required him to actually see and experience fact i), before he was willing to act, and order fact ii) to be put into action.
Having documented above how JPS claims Śrīla Prabhupāda was motivated to start expanded prasādam distribution, let us compare and contrast that with what Śrīla Prabhupāda teaches regarding how he acts.
Śrīla Prabhupāda states that:
“KC [Kṛṣṇa Consciousness – Ed.] is based on pure understanding, not by any sentimental provocation.”
(Śrīla Prabhupāda, Letter, 19/11/68)
But JPS's story shows that Śrīla Prabhupāda did not act on a “pure understanding”. Rather, his understanding needed to first be “triggered” by “sentimental provocation”. Because only after seeing and experiencing an incident that brought him to tears, did he decide to act, despite already possessing the knowledge that hunger existed, and prasādam should be distributed as much as possible.
Śrīla Prabhupāda teaches that:
“No emotion. […] Yes. So religion without philosophy is sentiment, and philosophy without religion is mental speculation. […] We do not go by sentiment. We accept the superior order of Kṛṣṇa.”
(Discussions with Śyāmasundara)
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HH Jayapātāka Swami: Creator
of stories and the Great Guru Hoax
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But the garbage story claims that Śrīla Prabhupāda did not act based on just the philosophy. Rather, the cause of action was due to a combination of: when he happened to look out of a window, what he saw, and being affected by what he saw. And to emphasise that it was all due only to something as mundane as just looking out of a window:
i) ISKCON Mayapur has built a whole museum exhibit dedicated to this “Window of Compassion”;
ii) MPD posted a cartoon on social media on 11/11/25 which explains that “It all started with a window”.
Hence, not started due to the philosophy or an order of Kṛṣṇa. Because then neither the window nor the garbage incident would have even been necessary.
Thus, Śrīla Prabhupāda would not have acted how the garbage incident claims, and this is corroborated by the fact that there is no proof this “garbage incident” happened:
1) There is no authority for this story from Śrīla Prabhupāda. The story is based on the testimony of JPS.
2) The first recorded instance of this story is from JPS in the April 1978 issue of Back To Godhead, which was around the same time he started to also tell people a fake “story” of how he had just been “appointed” as one of the 11 “zonal ācārya” gurus, and thus perpetrated the Great Guru Hoax, Part 1.
3) There are at least 12 different versions of this story (see BTP 81), with even JPS, the source of the story, giving different versions himself!
Thus, the truth about how and why Śrīla Prabhupāda acts matters very much, since we should never portray Śrīla Prabhupāda as being anything less than the self-realised Ācārya who acts out of pure understanding alone. JPS's garbage story is being accepted as absolutely true, as if it had the same authority as coming from Śrīla Prabhupāda, and thus free from the errors made by conditioned souls. Which then leads to Śrīla Prabhupāda not being correctly portrayed as a self-realised Ācārya acting only on pure understanding.
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