By Parvati devi dasi ACBSP

This leap year, we observe Purushottama Adika Mas, or the auspicious leap month. In Vrndavana, it runs along the same benefits as Kartika Month, with benefits of one’s austerities thousands of times more than usual. And the offences are also multiplied accordingly, depending on your intentions. One can do parikramas, refrain from shaving and cutting the nails, give regular charity, etc. My vrata is to make sure I daily get to Prabhupada’s Samadhi mangal aroti and Krishna Balarama’s mangal aroti, donate to the cow seva program, do Govardana parikrama daily at the Radha Damodara Temple, and take bath at the ever receding Yamuna. This I do before 7 a.m. because the temperatures rise to 120 degrees for the rest of the day. I don’t have a lot of energy, but this much I can do. I also attend an evening class of either BG or Acarya classes.

While resting before the evening class on the full moon day, which in Purushottama Month is the same as the Rasa Purnima day, I thought I was being disturbed by workers on the two houses going up next door. After a while I looked out my window to witness what I hope I will never see again:

30-50 goondas (hired ruffians) were over the wall at the Prabhupada Vani Ashram (previously Prthu’s Ashram) all with lathis and other arms, shouting, screaming in their native language, and beating a couple of bhaktas. Then I saw them, waving their sticks, forcibly move all the resident bhaktas out of the ashram-herding the bhaktas of Vrndavana. I immediately got on the phone to notify the management. Then I started looking around at some of my empty rooms, counted up the mattresses, the extra bathrooms, the water supply and the drinking water supply, and came to conclusion that I could offer 12 of the 24 emergency refuge.

I went over to the offices to make my offer while the Temple President was on the phone with legal counsel and the police department. He was convinced that things would be over and in control very soon. In my experience in Vrndavana, I hardly believed that.

But believe it or not, the police actually arrived in good time, and the TP simultaneously brought over 100 brahmacaris (some of whom have previous experience in goonda control methods). The goondas escaped but the organizer of this whole charade, Sri Laxman das, a Malaysian national, was arrested. You may know Sri Laxman das as a former Gour Nitai pujari here who also makes Deity dresses and deals in real estate. In his role as a realtor, he is under the impression that he can purchase a property which is not for sale. In fact, by trickery, he avoided the actual authority of the property and gave some very small token money to a person who was not authorized to receive it, refused to take it back, invented a court case, lost it, and has now violated the stay order, over and above violating 25 bhaktas-and in the month of Purushottama. I really liked him better when he was a pujari.

The moral of the story is that it is not a good business to do business in Vrndavana, as Prabhupada instructed us, and it is definitely not good business to deal with this person, whose modus operandi have changed radically whilst doing this business. So please consult with our temple authorities or at least some senior persons with savvy if you need direction in your dealings with such things. This man is crooked enough to hire so many goondas to make his losing battle look like he has the upper hand. Don’t deal with him. Life is too short.

Hoping your Purushottama Mas is more glorious than his.

Your servant,

Parvati devi dasi

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