{"id":504,"date":"2006-07-20T19:33:16","date_gmt":"2006-07-20T18:33:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=504"},"modified":"2007-02-04T16:03:54","modified_gmt":"2007-02-04T15:03:54","slug":"missing-the-forest-for-the-trees-a-reply-to-satyaraja-prabhu%e2%80%99s-%e2%80%9ctruth-is-many-sided%e2%80%9d","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=504","title":{"rendered":"Missing the Forest for the Trees-A reply to Satyaraja Prabhu\u2019s \u201cTruth Is Many-sided\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"By Badrinarayan dasa<\/strong><\/p>\n

Satyaraja Prabhu\u2019s reply follows a pattern appearing in the writings of others adamant that no further action should be taken regarding Dhanurdhara Maharaja\u2019s status as an initiating guru. The attempt is like a magician\u2019s sleight-of-hand: the strategy is to divert attention from the essential by focusing on the detail.<\/p>\n

The logic runs something like this. I say to Satyaraja Prabhu, \u201cCan\u2019t you see this forest?\u201d <\/p>\n

He replies, \u201cWhere?\u201d <\/p>\n

I say, \u201cThere, in front of you, all those trees.\u201d <\/p>\n

He replies, \u201cWhat trees?\u201d <\/p>\n

I say, \u201cThe ones with all those brown leaves.\u201d <\/p>\n

He responds with \u201cThose leaves are red, not brown.\u201d <\/p>\n

I say, \u201cRed, brown, whatever. I am talking about the trees right there in front of you.\u201d <\/p>\n

He replies, \u201cFirst you say the leaves are brown. Now you\u2019re saying they\u2019re red. These conflicting claims prove that obviously there is no forest.\u201d <\/p>\n

The magician\u2019s trick is to distract you from the object at hand. Then, lo and behold, he can make it \u201cdisappear.\u201d Lest we lose sight of the forest for the trees, let me re-cap:<\/p>\n

There is no question that there was horrendous child abuse in the Vrindaban gurukula during Dhanurdhara Maharaja\u2019s first tour of service there (from 1979 to 1986). This happened not only before his eyes but sadly, in some cases, by his own hand. If any doubt remains on this point, with Dhanurdhara Maharaja\u2019s permission, I can release the summary of this abuse recently sent to the GBC. I would rather not do this, as I do respect Dhanurdhara Maharaja as a sincere Vaisnava and I also do not want to cause his disciples any more distress. On the other hand, if this attempt to whitewash or explain away the abuse in Vrindaban continues, it will be hard to maintain this restraint.<\/p>\n

As for the pattern continuing up until 1995, the history is that for a number of years before 1995 Sri Rama Prabhu and I (he as the ISKCON Minister of Education and myself as a member of the board of education) had repeated discussions with Dhanurdhara Maharaja, practically every year in Mayapur during the GBC meetings, about introducing child protection training and dropping corporal punishment. We were rebuffed again and again, being told by Dhanurdhara Maharaja that the child protection training was \u201cintroducing Western maya into the school\u201d and that corporal punishment was an essential element for maintaining discipline.<\/p>\n

Finally, in early 1995, Dhanurdhara Maharaja personally promised Sri Rama Prabhu and myself that he would rein in the practice of punishing students by beating them with a stick. Yet later that year I was sent photos of students still being beaten black and blue as punishment. When the situation was investigated, it was discovered that Dhanurdhara Maharaja had never said a word to the teachers about restricting the practice. As confirmation, Maharaja\u2019s failure to communicate this agreement was the reason that no abuse case was logged against the teacher who administered the blows. So whether it was by commission or omission, the results were the same. Dhanurdhara Maharaja could have and should have stopped this suffering of students but he didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Satyaraja Prabhu refers to a letter I wrote to Dhanurdhara Maharaja in late 1995 and asks, \u201cWhat has happened to change your opinion?\u201d Let me list a few key events:<\/p>\n

  <\/p>\n

  • A multimillion-dollar child-abuse lawsuit, the biggest legal and financial threat ISKCON has ever faced. Most tellingly, of the 595 gurukula alumni claimants, by far the largest group, 115, list the Vrindaban gurukula as the location of their abuse.<\/li>\n

      <\/p>\n

  • A series of open forums with members of the North American GBC, gurukula alumni, and their parents (held in New Vrindaban, New York, Alachua, and Los Angeles). Their narrations of anguish, anger, shattered lives, and diminished or lost faith were devastating.<\/li>\n

      <\/p>\n

  • Ananda Prabhu\u2019s suicide and the high potential for more among our gurukula alumni.<\/li>\n

      <\/p>\n

  • A growing chorus from across the range of ISKCON, not just gurukula alumni and their parents, but also temple presidents, sannyasis, and dedicated householders, demanding that the GBC finally address the issue of Dhanurdhara Maharaja\u2019s permanent status as an initiating guru in ISKCON. <\/li>\n

      <\/p>\n

    I would offer that in light of the above, the question here should not be \u201cWhy has Badrinarayan Dasa\u2019s view changed?\u201d Rather the question should be \u201cWhy hasn\u2019t Satyaraja Prabhu\u2019s?\u201d<\/p>\n

    Satyaraja Prabhu argues that truth is many-sided and thus Dhanurdhara Maharaja is more than the sum total of the above events. I agree. Therefore, I wrote, \u201cThere is no doubt that Dhanurdhara Maharaja has another side to him, one where many good qualities are found.\u201d The question now is when will Satyaraja Prabhu admit that there is also the side to him that is a prime cause of the events listed above? It is this element of the truth that he denies, the side that ISKCON as a community is obliged to now face up to and deal with.<\/p>\n

    No one wins by Satyaraja Prabhu and me jousting online. Rather, the wounds on both sides are only deepened and the inevitable offenses increased. My fervent prayer is that Satyaraja Prabhu will turn his keen intelligence toward working with us to find a solution to this situation, one that addresses both sides of the truth, not just the side he likes.<\/p>\n

    I would offer that the closing of Satyaraja Prabhu\u2019s letter, with its appeal to compassion, sheds light on a possible shared path to resolution. Many senior, saintly Vaisnavas have suggested to Dhanurdhara Maharaja that a compassionate way out of this conflict would be if he would voluntary vow to never initiate again. It would be compassionate toward the gurukula alumni, their parents, his disciples, the devotees in general, and ISKCON\u2019s reputation. It does not stifle his ability to preach. Rather, ending the firestorm he is currently in the center of would win him the gratitude of devotees around the world. Thus, taking such a vow would make it a compassionate act even toward Dhanurdhara Maharaja himself. <\/p>\n

    Your servant,
    \nBadrinarayan dasa<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    \"HareBy Badrinarayan dasa<\/strong><\/p>\n

    No one wins by Satyaraja Prabhu and me jousting online. Rather, the wounds on both sides are only deepened and the inevitable offenses increased. My fervent prayer is that Satyaraja Prabhu will turn his keen intelligence toward working with us to find a solution to this situation, one that addresses both sides of the truth, not just the side he likes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,17,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-badrinarayan-dasa","category-discussion","category-ongoing-debates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}