http://www.indlawnews.com/Newsdisplay.aspx?c0692c19-3109-4e5c-85ce-732350ce0d3d
Bangalore, May 24 : The Karnataka High Court today declined to give a stay order on the verdict of a two-member bench which had pronounced that ISKCON Bangalore belonged to ISKCON
A bench, consisting of Justices H M Nagamohan Das and Arali Nagaraj, yesterday, setting aside a Civil Court verdict, had declared ISKCON Mumbai was the rightful owner of ISKCON Bangalore, putting an end to more than a decade old legal tussle on the ownership of the religious property that has now emerged a major tourist landmark in the city.
ISKCON, Bangalore, had yesterday filed an appeal seeking a stay for 90 days to go on appeal before the Supreme Court and this was rejected today.
Directing that ISKCON, Bangalore, would function as per bylaws of ISKCON Mumbai, the Court, however, asked ISKCON Mumbai not to remove from service Bangalore President Madhu Pandit Das and 375 employees for six weeks.
The Srila Prabhupada’s ISKCON Bangalore has decided to go on appeal in the Supreme Court against Karnataka High Court’s verdict.
The Bench had yesterday observed that ISKCON Bangalore had forged documents to claim ownership of the property.
ISKCON had no legal existence to the Bangalore society, it said, adding by falsifying accounts, President Madhu pandit Das had conspired to breathe life into the soceity.
ISKCON Bangalore was set up in 1978 by the Mumbai unit and Madhu Pandit Das was appointed as its President in 1984.
–UNI
Hari Hari,
With this landmark verdict, lets take the original ISKCON to new heights in south india further. South India managing ISKCON GBC team should make all round efforts to make sure that ISKCON Bangalore money goes to Mumbai HQ as envisoned by HDG. Also efforts should be made to distribute few excess money to other temple construction projects (awaiting money like Chennai and other places) so that original ISKCON raises to great heights sooner in the atheistically polluted south, esp tamil nadu.
Hari Hari
Sivakumar/-
This is certainly a convincing victory and a powerful vindication of ISKCON after a hard struggle.
I hope that ISKCON will be gracious in victory though, and not too punitive. The greater community of followers of Srila Prabhupada should not be too deeply divided. ISKCON needs to be chivalrous and take the high road, while sticking to its positive mission of preaching to the innocent people of the world.
There are going to be those who continue to sympathize with the Madhu Pandit group, and we should continue to try to find means of living peacefully together in the same world, aware of our differences but also of the many things we have in common (maha mantra, Prabhupada’s books, four regs, etc.) Though they have treated ISKCON with enmity and sometimes contempt and malice, ISKCON ought to work towards some favorable kind of normalization of relations, as far as possible, and try to establish some ground rules for mutual non-disparagement and dialog, as the Catholic Christians have eventually developed with various Orthodox and Protestant groups.
Otherwise, we may find that wedges are more deeply driven between groups of devotees, martyrs will be made, hostility will increase, and the innocent public will see the Hare Krishna movement as just another quarrelsome religion, rather than what it really is: a beacon of the true science of love of God, and bearer of the panacea for the Age of Quarrel from which the world is now suffering.
Unnecessary and undesirable things happen all the time on the material platform. If we can raise ourselves to the spiritual platform by hearing properly and following properly sruti with great respect for Srila Prabhupada, then all problems can be solved. Otherwise, if devotees don’t grab this essential point of view and yearn to put it into practice daily, it is just a question of time before some other unnecessary and undesirable situation will happen again.
Where there is a will to act truthfully, there is a way. Where there is the sun of Krishna, there can’t be the darkness of maya.
I am hoping that once the lawsuit between the camps is settled, both sides will try to work toward
brotherly reconciliation. In this bitter legal battle, vicious attacks have come from both ISKCON Mumbai and ISKCON Bangalore, criticism filled with hostility and malice. I agree with Akruranatha prabhu that both parties should take the high road and call for an end to the kind of divisive remarks and behavior that has hampered the possibility of cooperation among godbrothers for a decade.
The first undertaking in reconciliation is to find the common ground, which is faith in and obedience to the teachings of Srila Prabhupada. Then, the parties will need to iron out their differences of interpretation, particularly concerning the role of the GBC and initiation protocols.
The GBC must find a way to lovingly convince the Bangalore residents of Srila Prabhupada’s intentions with regard to how initiations should be conducted in his physical absence. This was actually clearly stated in the May 28, 1977 discussion with the GBC.
Question: These ritvik acaryas, they are officiating, giving diksa. The people who they give diksa to —
whose disciples are they?
Srila Prabhupada: They are his disciples.
This exchange refers specifically to that time when Srila Prabhupada would no longer be present.
Those giving diksa would be acting as officiating acaryas, and those receiving diksa from them would be their disciples. Srila Prabhupada did not say, “They are my disciples,” which is what ritvik ideologists want us to believe he said. The conversation continues:
Question: They are his disciples?
Srila Prabhupada: Who is initiating. He’s grand-disciple.
“Who is initiating” refers to the officiating acarya who is giving diksa. Those who receive diksa from him are his initiated disciples and Srila Prabhupada’s grand-disciples. These were the words spoken by Srila Prabhupada and there is no need to further interpret that which has been clearly stated by the Acarya.
Let this be the foundation upon which we finally establish a common understanding of how Srila Prabhupada wanted future initiations to be carried out. With the world in the situation in which it finds itself, it is high time devotees throughout the movement set aside their differences by coming together to propagate Krishna consciousness for the pleasure of His Divine Grace, Srila Prabhupada.
Thanks Locanananda Prabhu for your concise explanation of what the problem has been and the simple remedy for solving it.
Thanks, Maharaja, but it is only by your blessings that I am able to explain what has been missed
by so many interpreters of Srila Prabhupada’s instructions on future initiations. I firmly believe our best bet is to simply accept the terminology Srila Prabhupada himself introduced when discussing the matter in Vrndavana with his GBC select committee. His recommendation to have initiations performed by officiating acaryas, had we followed it from the beginning, would have allowed us to avoid the conflict of non-parallel lines of authority which have been a source of confusion for devotees for the past three decades.
If you will be attending the New York Rathayatra, which takes place in a little less than two weeks, perhaps we can discuss the subject in greater depth. Hoping to have your association again, I remain
Your servant,
Locanananda dasa
*”Normalcy” is an American neologism coined by President Warren G. Harding, who apparently did not realize that the proper word was “normality”. He was making the point that after the hostilities of WWI, the American public wanted to return to normal, peaceful life. The idea of “return to normalcy” has caught on, that after a disruption of some kind the natural rhythms of peaceful, ordinary life should again be restored.