This is not the book that I wanted to write. By all accounts it is exactly the opposite of the conclusions which I would like to have drawn. I would have loved to have lived out my life believing that Srila Prabhupada died of natural causes and that his movement went on in his absence as it did due to the combined shortcomings of his followers and their various (ill)motivations. I have long tried to follow my spiritual master’s advice and cooperate with the leaders of ISKCON even though in many times and in many ways I either felt, or was certain, that they were in error. I have demonstrated this even recently by taking on the responsibility for leadership at the Vancouver, B.C. temple. I state this to make a case that I am not a person who is against ISKCON, and this report itself is not against ISKCON, although there are undoubtedly some within the institution who will cast it in that light.I am simply for the truth, and having found the truth I must report it, to borrow a phrase, as it is. Not the way I want it to be, or hoped it would be, or would like it to be. The truth is not always pleasant or even palatable, but it nonetheless it needs to be spoken. This is Prabhupada's instruction to us from his Bhagavad-gita:
"Nothing should be accepted blindly; everything should be accepted with care and with caution. Satyam, truthfulness, means that facts should be presented as they are, for the benefit of others. Facts should not be misrepresented. According to social conventions, it is said that one can speak the truth only when it is palatable to others. But that is not truthfulness. The truth should be spoken in a straightforward way, so that others will understand actually what the facts are. If a man is a thief and if people are warned that he is a thief, that is truth. Although sometimes the truth is unpalatable, one should not refrain from speaking it. Truthfulness demands that the facts be presented as they are for the benefit of others. That is the definition of truth." Bg. 10.4-5I have published this book using the medium of CD-ROM because it will give my readers and listeners direct access to the information. Do not accept it blindly but review it thoroughly with care and caution. I have found the information and brought it to you. Listen to it, ponder it and draw your own conclusions.Discovery
In the fall of 1997 I was residing in the Denver temple, and most ironically I was reading a book about the skullduggery of the assassination of Pope John Paul I, In God's Name, when some of the devotees brought news to me suggesting that Srila Prabhupada was intentionally murdered by poisoning. I immediately dismissed the entire idea as rubbish. It was too incredulous. Who would have done such a thing, or moreover, who close enough to Srila Prabhupada would have even thought such a thing, what to speak of do it? I refused to believe any of it or have anything to do with it, and did my best to convince those who brought up the subject that it was nothing but foolishness.Soon however, the opportunity presented itself whereby I could prove to myself, if to no one else, that the concepts were invalid. When the so-called whispers of poison were posted on the internet I downloaded them to examine them by means of Reverse Speech analysis. I had studied this amazing phenomena with the person who developed it, David John Oates, for fifteen months over 1995-1996. Having a good deal of experience with Reverse Speech, enough to convince me beyond all doubt of its absolute veracity, I knew that it would be the very best tool which could be used to confirm or deny whether Srila Prabhupada was poisoned because Reverse Speech always and unerringly reveals the truth. I reversed the whispers and listened for any cognizant, meaningful words or phrases which are often found when normal speech is listened to in reverse. It is a gross understatement to say that I was shocked by what I heard. I was mortified; devastated.
The devastation was not so much due to the content of what I had heard as its immensely profound implications. To acknowledge that Srila Prabhupada was poisoned immediately not only cast those closest to him at the time in the worst possible light, it meant that the Movement itself had been hijacked, and if Prabhupada had been killed and the movement usurped, then to what end, or who, in God’s name, were all of the innocent and hard working devotees actually serving? Moreover, could the obvious continually diminishing results of the Movement be understood in this perspective? — that the results were gradually diminishing because of this greatest of offenses?
Truth is often very difficult to accept, after all, we are living in a world of illusion. Nonetheless it is essential that we find and honor the truth. Isn't that what Krishna Consciousness is all about? Distinguishing truth from illusion for the welfare of all; no matter how great our attachment to the illusion might be. But attachment to illusion is very strong. Studies have repeatedly found that when information is brought to the forefront which threatens a persons status quo they are unlikely to be able to accept it no matter how airtight and obvious the conclusions may be. Those who have established a secure position for themselves within the institution of ISKCON unfortunately may have more of an interest in the status quo than in the truth, and will likely receive this report as a great threat, or an attack against ISKCON itself. In fact, this mentality has already been demonstrated, and the entrenched have revealed that they have greater interest in what they think is the "truth" or want to be the "truth," than any other "truth" which may upset the circumstances that they have become comfortable with. Let me tell you a short story about this.
The "Poison CD"
After realizing the truth of the poisoning by my initial Reverse Speech analysis I agreed to work with several devotees to bring the facts together as we could determine them at the time, January 1998, for the benefit of those who did not have access to the free flow of information being distributed over the Internet. Over the course of a month we conducted interviews with devotees from all over the world, consulted experts, had elaborate forensic tests done, and had attempted to contact the principals involved for their direct statements. We assembled this information into a report to be published on a CD, but the CD was not released for several reasons. However, certain parties in ISKCON got a hold of this recording and sought to head off the release with a rebuttal of their own, written by Janhu Dasa and Hari Sauri Dasa.Hari Sauri’s rebuttals had some validity which we would have welcomed and included in our material, because we were trying to be extremely objective in our presentation, but those who had jumped to the foregone conclusion that the poisoning was impossible had no such a sense of cooperation at the time. (Those whom we called for comment for the most part wouldn't speak on the record about the allegations). What was most disappointing however, was not the rebuttal—after all, that was the minimal expectation—but the fact that those who created the rebuttal did so in the name of "The Committee to Defend ISKCON." It is indeed the saddest thing that some have assumed that the endeavor to find the truth in Prabhupada’s death is somehow synonymous with an attack on ISKCON, and by corollary to make such investigators into attackers and enemies of ISKCON.
Srila Prabhupada created ISKCON and the institution represents what he established and what he stood for, therefore that which is in Srila Prabhupada’s interest is automatically in ISKCON’s interest. Those who manage the institution however think that ISKCON is synonomous with themselves, and will see anything which threatens them or their seeming security in the institution as an attack on ISKCON. Or perhaps we have the guilty parties (who are still in management positions) manipulating the situation to make the others think that an investigation into their activity, surrounding the passing of Srila Prabhupada, is an attack on ISKCON itself. This would provide them with a shield of ISKCON's management defending the entire idea of an investigation.
I contend that the managers are not factually ISKCON, but the caretakers of ISKCON, and that each personality within the institution is quite separate from ISKCON. However, because of their perspective that they are ISKCON, they imagine a duality of us vs. them, and by their view, good vs. bad. Some would say that anybody who acts to expose any deviation in their behavior, even rightfully so, is attacking ISKCON. Wrong. But by showing this mentality, they have demonstrated that they do not understand that they are servants of Srila Prabhupada's mission, that the truth should hold the highest ground, and that all of Prabhupada's followers must together serve the truth.
Given this introduction into the mentality of the those in control of the institution I have no doubt whatsoever that both myself and my work will be attacked vociferously, and that I will be made out to be some sort of demon for "attacking" these "pure devotees", yet I truly hope that there are still some honest men and women who having heard this evidence will demand appropriate action from the GBC. While I may hope that these leaders will deal responsibly on this matter I am afraid that my faith in the GBC body has come to the point where I no longer expect them as a body to honor or even seek the whole truth. This work is therefore less for the institution of ISKCON than for those who have no such vested interest, or rather for those whose interest is simply the truth. There are many thousands of well-meaning devotees of Lord Krishna and Srila Prabhupada who will understand the truth when they hear it. I pray that they have the courage to follow their hearts, that they will find the means to continue to spread the message of Lord Chaitanya and Srila Prabhupada, and that their faith in the process of Krishna Consciousness and sadhana bhakti will prevail.
Speaking of the original CD, since it became known that I would publish this work, my collaborators on the "Poison CD" have requested me to include as much of that material as possible, and I have included it in its parts, and the transcript can be found by following this link. You may also want to follow this link to Hari Sauri and Janhu's rebuttal and my response to their comments. Additionally, I will make the CD available to anyone who requests it from me (See ordering information).
Krishna's Amazing Potency Reveals Everything
An extremely significant fact that is introduced by this work is the understanding that the truth of any matter is now available to everyone. To put it another way, the mind is no longer a private place, where a person can harbor all manners of evil but show a very different face. Advancing technology has opened the minds of everyone (including our own) to public scrutiny so that the truth be known, and honest men and women will welcome this. Those who are corrupt will condemn it, deny it, disparage it, vilify it, attack it and so on, but honest people will pay little attention to them, knowing that they have full and unfettered access to the whole truth. Access to the truth will give people power, and it is this power which the controllers and manipulators fear. Let me encourage all of my readers to make wide use of technology to make the truth known, and then use that knowledge and power for the betterment of all.In the twenty-two years since Srila Prabhupada’s departure many of the men who have inappropriately assumed an "absolute" position as diksa guru have fallen from that position, and each and every time it happens the disciples and institution are heavily tested. As I write this ISKCON is currently facing such a test with the departure of Harikesh Prabhu, a long time stalwart of ISKCON. We have heard that many of his disciples are sticking with him to the point of threatening mass suicide. Many others have given him up as their link to the parampara and are seeking shelter within the institution and looking for another guru.
A similar trauma is in store for the disciples of Tamal Krishna, Bhakti Caru and perhaps others, as they learn of and hear this report, and I have great compassion for them. No doubt some of them will take this publication to be very offensive, but there will be others who will see the truth of this presentation and outright reject or distance themselves from the person who was their diksa guru. I want to state that I have absolutely no agenda here, and whether their disciples stay with them or leave them is not my concern. I do pray that they will be able to learn and grow from this most difficult ordeal. But I must also say in all earnestness that I hope everyone will understand and remember that I haven’t simply made this all up, and that the voices heard on this publication are those of Tamal Krishna and Bhakti Caru and others—not mine. I have not implicated them—they have implicated themselves. I am simply the messenger.
If there were a limited number of speech reversals, like the few whispers heard on the tapes which initiated this entire ordeal, then there may be plausible denial. There are however more than 400 speech reversals documented on this CD which are mutually supportive and which form a coherent picture and one undeniable conclusion. When the whispers were presented there was widespread denial of hearing the word "poison" therein, and given the limited number of whispers such denial constituted "conclusive" proof that they didn't exist. The situation is far different now. Although the evidence of Reverse Speech is also subjective, that is, dependent upon the hearing ability of the listener, someone may not hear one or two, or ten or twenty of these speech reversals. However, no person can reasonably deny hearing all of them. The shear numbers of speech reversals with consistent meaning also preclude attributing what is heard as shear coincidence of sounds, and as such this study will shed considerable light on the subject at hand, as well as do much to establishing the validity of the phenomena of Reverse Speech in general. The numbers of reversals and their consistent content leaves us with only one conclusion: Srila Prabhupada’s departure from this world was apparently hastened by perhaps many years by those who were the closest to him.
Can a Pure Devotee Be Murdered?
This brings up a difficult quandary that must be addressed in this whole affair—the death of the Lord’s pure devotee. I intentionally say apparently above, because as you will read and hear, Srila Prabhupada was clearly following the Lord’s supreme will in knowingly accepting the poison. So, was Prabhupada poisoned? Undoubtedly yes. Was he brought to an untimely death? Yes. Was his mortal body killed by others? Yes. Are the perpetrators guilty of the grave offense of killing their guru? Yes. But, was Prabhupada's departure from this world caused by the perpetrators? No. He left by his own will. And finally, was this the will of the Supreme Lord? Somehow or other, yes. The Lord Himself is in control of this entire world and not a blade of grass blows in the wind without His sanction. He obviously wanted to bring Srila Prabhupada back to home, back to Godhead. Others had a desire to get Prabhupada "out of the way," and took steps to do so. The Lord served both interests simultaneously.Throughout history we have witnessed that many, if not most, of the preeminent spiritual leaders who visit this world are killed by foolish materialists. It seems to be the norm rather than the exception. Further, the Bhagavatam teaches us how the Lord accomplishes many things through one action, and we can see this clearly played out in this drama. Just as we read in the Bhagavatam Lord Krishna Himself had an apparent attacker who by shooting an arrow at Him assisted Him in winding up His lila here, in the same way Srila Prabhupada had apparent attackers, although from our perspective this is not lila. The speech reversals themselves, which can be said to sometimes be the voice of the soul, or even Supersoul, also confirm that this is not lila, but a sinful, criminal act. Yet we further know that in the case of the Lord and His pure devotee, it is the Lord’s will which is served in all cases. And given the wonderful stories of the Bhagavatam we can be certain that these pastimes of the Lord’s pure devotee will fill several chapters in future editions and will be full of important lessons for those who seek guidance in their spiritual progress.
One More Thing . . .
Because of the dramatic nature of this material the reader may be tempted to skip over the introductory material and immediately listen to the speech reversals. Let me warn you now that doing so will definitely create false understanding and misperception. Although it sounds like English, Reverse Speech is very much its own language and at least a minimal amount of education and background is required to properly understand what is being said. Therefore I strongly urge you to thoroughly read the chapter introducing the phenomena of Reverse Speech before proceeding to listening to the speech reversals.And lastly, in ISKCON’s past we have seen fanatical ideas and behaviors result in the murder of several of Prabhupada's followers. This behavior does not properly reflect the teachings of His Divine Grace. What Prabhupada taught us by his own example was unlimited forgiveness and love. And while the evidence presented herein will be compelling, my request is that everyone who learns of this react with thoughtful meditation, and limit their reactions to demanding appropriate action from authorities. The Lord admonishes us that revenge is His, not ours, and we would all do well to remember this. Let our actions in this affair reflect the spiritual advancement that we have made in the twenty-two years since Prabhupada left us, and reflect all of the wonderful lessons which we have inculcated from our divine master.
With these remarks then I will let you get on with the journey before you. This will be a trip of consequence and I pray it will be one from which we all learn wisely. May we all do well by these lessons so that we have no need of repeating them at any future time.
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