Enterro de Kirtanananda em Vrindavana

tagged: kirtanananda

Kirtanananda’s Burial in Vrndavan

Posted by Editor in Devotional Community, GBC, Vrindavan

Kṛṣṇacandra Dāsa – Śrī Vṛndāvan Dham: Kirtanananda left his body on the 24^th October 2011 in hospital in Thane, a cosmopolitan city on the outskirts of Mumbai. Out of all of the places in India that this man could have left his body he left his body in Thane which historically was known as a city largely populated by Catholics. This is fitting because Kirtanananda, although calling himself a disciple of Śrīla Prabhupāda while continually disobeying Śrīla Prabhupāda, used his position in ISKCON to launch his own career as an Interfaith Spiritual Preacher much like his right hand man Radhanatha Swami and many other ardent followers of Kirtanananda are currently doing.

Kirtanananda, a well known Pedophile, who it has been claimed molested many little boys under his care, was a practicing Homosexual / murder conspirator and all round criminal – all the while ‘performing’ in the role of an ISKCON Ācārya/Guru. However in recent times since leaving prison he has been exiled from the society that he betrayed and disgraced but even so he still attempted to make disciples and continue with his career as a guru in his own right. However death takes us all and he succumbed to a lifetime of sinful behavior and offensive attitude.

Kirtanananda was one of the original eleven GBC men who illegally appointed themselves as initiating dīkṣā gurus of ISKCON and actively preached that  he was Śrīla Prabhupāda’s replacement on earth and that he and others of his ilk must be worshipped as good as God and Śrīla Prabhupāda.

There are so many nice dedicated souls that have left their bodies while trying to serve Śrīla Prabhupāda. However, somehow or other our leaders seem to value the bad ones, the ones that offended Śrīla Prabhupāda or tried to steal his glory, resources or disciples. The death of this Kirtanananda is inglorious and we should never see that his life and death was glorious nor should anyone take the lead of our so called leaders who glorify such a bad man.

Now that this man is dead they are giving him a burial in Śrī Vṛndāvan Dham. Ignorant people will call this a Samadhi but as he is not a śuddha bhakta but rather an offender or Vaiṣṇava aparādhi – it is merely a grave. Although he did some service to Śrīla Prabhupāda he is fortunate to be buried in Vṛndāvan. Of course it would be more auspicious if he was cremated and his ashes dispersed in the Yamuna…

However what is most disturbing is not his heinous and degraded past, it is how much those who followed him still openly glorify him as if he was a pure devotee who could do no wrong no matter how debauched his life was.

Early on the 26^th morning a contingent of Temple authorities, GBC and Gurus paid their respects to a fallen brother in arms, Kirtanananda. The Trio – Radhanatha Swami, Gopal Kṛṣṇa Goswami and Pancagauda Dāsa made their way from the morning program at Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Kṛṣṇa Balarama Mandir to where Kirtanananda lay in his plywood coffin and all three lay down in the dust of Śrī Vṛndāvan Dham before paying dandavat pranams and circumambulating his body as one would do to honor a saintly personage. (click here for detailed article with photographic record)

It is amazing and at the same time very disturbing that any ISKCON official pays their respects to such a personality but the Temple President of ISKCON Vṛndāvan? What is more amazing is that the Temple President of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Kṛṣṇa Balarama Mandir is the very same Temple President who authorized a huge program in the Kṛṣṇa Balarama Mandir, Śrīla Prabhupāda’s home for Narayana Mahārāja, after his demise. The very same Temple President who has been involved in scandalous activities in the Dham to this day…

After the ISKCON dignitaries honored Kirtanananda, a dozen or so Indian supporters milled around waiting for the burial ceremony to start and lamented that many other people would not be able to attend due to a miscommunication regarding the date of the ceremony. It was beginning to unfold that this burial was not going to be a glorious affair as the troubles became apparent that the Dham was resisting his presence.

The burial site also changed due to a backlash of public opinion on the original plan to have the demon buried in the sacred Radha Gokulananda temple where our authentic Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava saints have been placed in Samādhis – Lokanatha Goswami, Narottama Das Thakura and Visvanatha Chakravarti Thakura.

His body was on ice in a plywood coffin in Mohini goshala on the parikrama path and his followers had previously purchased a plot land nearby, however due to the fact that they had not yet made the payment, they were halted in their plan to dig his grave. This was further complicated by the fact that the surrounding land holders were objecting to burying such a person adjacent to their properties.

Negotiations continued into the afternoon with no resolution in sight. A handful of followers and supporters along with Rādhā Vrndavancandra Swami waited patiently for the news. They got the go ahead late afternoon and so the body was taken to the plot of land opposite Tulasivan Ashram on the parikrama path and was buried by the mercy of his innocent disciples and followers.

What has become of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s ISKCON society under the leadership of these people?

What standing does our Society have within the world religions with such leaders as we have had over the last three and a half decades? We are such a small religion, hardly worthy of a ranking, compared to the other religious traditions and yet we have such a foul and degraded history.

Each leader is almost as worse as the next and each of them will support the other till death do them part. They will never admit to each other’s decadency as that would mean their own deception would be revealed. If any one of them openly declared that one of them is a fallen debauched cheater it would point three fingers back at themselves so they maintain the pretense that they are all pure and can do no wrong, even to the extent of prostrating themselves to such an offensive personality as Kirtanananda in dust of Śrī Vṛndāvan Dham.

The important question to ask is why would our leaders such as Gopal Kṛṣṇa Goswami and Pancagauda Dāsa circumambulate such a vile and despicable person such as Kirtanananda? Of course one can understand how Radhanatha would prostrate himself in the dust as he was Kirtanananda’s right hand man and owes a huge debt of allegiance to him for helping him become the Spiritual Guru that he is today. After all, Radhanatha did seize Kirtanananda’s kingdom and made it his own, leaving his old mentor and śikṣā guru to die bereft of everything he had worked so hard to get for years…