Letter by congregation member to ISKCON GBC members
Hare Krishna
All Glories to Srila Prabhupada
This email is in context to bring to your kind attention, the concerns we have in relation to the current New Vrindaban management and the untimely passing away of our dear Venkatachalapathi Prabhuji.
I will start by introducing myself, I am just a simple practicing devotee living in Pittsburgh which is about 1 hr drive from New Vrindaban community. We have been connected to NV for more than 9 years.
We are not resident devotees and that is why the problems we can see externally are truly issues which visitors should not see. We have supported New Vrindaban by donations and also by serving in different ways for so many years. We have made meaningful and loving relationships with devotees here, And that is why we expect to get a response for this email.
In our opinion, I am saddened to say that New Vrindaban management is totally corrupt, or is not competent to positively inspire its employees or people. They are just running a business. But a devotee losing his life due to unknown circumstances or being pressured/threatened or overworked is totally unacceptable. To be specific, I am referring to Venkatachalapathi Das. He was like family to us. We and many more hundreds if not thousands of devotees around the world are devastated by his death at such a young age. We don't know the details but NV first published on facebook that it looks like an accident and now they are saying they found a note.In any case, there seems to be negligence from the management. To note he was a happy and healthy devotee with no history of depression, leading him to commit suicide.
Like to give a quote before going into details -
"The single biggest way to impact an organization is to focus on leadership development. There is almost no limit to the potential of an organization that recruits good people, raises them up as leaders and continually develops them." -John Maxwell
Under Jaya Krishna Das's leadership as president, we have witnessed many dedicated/amazing devotees have left the temple.
To really insist on a pattern here, I will list out a few devotees who have either been thrown out in very unprofessional manner or forced to leave due to some pressure on them -
- Yugal Kishore Prabhu
- Parampara Prabhu
- Gaura Natraj Prabhu and his wife Sundari
- Abhinandan Prabhu (Pujari department)
- Jayaram Prabhu (Jaya krishna's cousin)
- Prema Bhakti Prabhu
- Mangala Mataji
- Mahasundar Prabhu
- Chitranga Chaitanya Prabhu
- And now Venkat prabhuji committed suicide under this management
- and many more
I hope we are not naive to believe that each of the above devotees was wrong or guilty, instead we can clearly see that the leadership is lacking something to sustain these people.
Needless to say, we as an organization that promotes Vedic culture, promotes different Ashrams(Brahmacharya, Grishastha, Vanaprastha, Sanyasa), I don't think we are setting the best example to the world by appointing a president who accepted grihastha ashram at advanced age of 60+ years, when he is supposed to be in Vanaprastha ashram and motivate others by his example. I am in no way judging him for his personal choice to get married at any age, but I think he should not be in the place of authority.
Please find attached screenshot from New Vrindaban's public posting, please note there is nothing rosy about a suicide, if he was very happy with family life and management, what could be the reason for him to take such a drastic step. And also lets break the stigma of suicide and not try to hide it or cover it.
And also inflict so much pain to Srila Prabhupada if no action is taken.
We kindly request GBC to conduct a detailed inquiry and take required actions in this matter.
Note: This issue is visible to many people outside of the community who have spoken to me but are either scared to speak up or don't want to be part of any politics.
Thankyou
Your servant and concerned ISKCON member
Ekta Mukker
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