Today's report on the attempt to sell Srila Prabhupada’s Sri Sri Radha Govinda temple in Brooklyn, NY without ISKCON's approval.
From Madhumangala prabhu,
"Misinformation or blatant Dishonesty?"
"There has been a rash of misinformation presented to the devotee community as well as to the GBC regarding the sale of Radha Govinda Mandir. It is important to note that a lot of this deception has come not just from Ramabhadra das but from Romapada swami as well. Shouldn't ISKCON leaders be held to the highest standards of Honesty?
FACTS
From Madhumangala prabhu,
"Misinformation or blatant Dishonesty?"
"There has been a rash of misinformation presented to the devotee community as well as to the GBC regarding the sale of Radha Govinda Mandir. It is important to note that a lot of this deception has come not just from Ramabhadra das but from Romapada swami as well. Shouldn't ISKCON leaders be held to the highest standards of Honesty?
FACTS
1) Srila Prabhupada’s Brooklyn Temple was contracted for sale on August 15, 2014 without the knowledge of the GBC.
2) Then on April 16, 2015 the original contract for sale was revised (quite possibly for more money) with the approval of both the buyer and the sellers, Romapada Swami and Ramabhadra prabhu.
3) Shortly thereafter it was brought to the attention of Jayadvaita Maharaj that ISKCON's Brooklyn temple was being sold and a contract to sell was in place.
4) This was later confirmed because the real estate multiple listing service showed that Srila Prabhupada’s Brooklyn Temple was no longer available to be purchased by any other potential buyer.
5) Romapada Swami and Ramabhadra das explained that listing Srila Prabhupada’s ISKCON Brooklyn temple in the for sale NY real estate multiple listing service was simply an exploratory venture to gauge the current value of the ISKCON Temple property.
5a) This, however, was not the truth. The listing disappeared because a contract to sell had been signed.
6) Upon the ISKCON GBC becoming aware of a contract to sell off Srila Prabhupada’s Brooklyn temple, both Romapada Swami and Ramabhadra das then stated there would be multi-million dollar penalties if they didn't honor the contract.
7) Upon investigation this was deemed to be another deception. There are no legal penalties in the contract. Various Penalties could have been written into the contract sale language. But upon an examination of the sale contract no such wording was found to be present.
8) New York Real estate laws concerning churches and other religious buildings are slightly different than non-religious real estate law. This means that the same rules don't always apply.
9) The Brooklyn ISKCON Temple was under a contract for sale without the ISKCON GBC approval.
10) Ramabhadra das and Romapada swami tried to conceal the above facts with great vigor. Yet somehow Sri Sri Radha Govinda found a way to expose the deceptive and defiant behavior of both Romapada swami and Ramabadra das.
11) The ISKCON GBC's have voted 3 times over the past couple of years and have denied permission to sell the Brooklyn ISKCON temple each time.
11a) In March of 2017, there was a closed door meeting of the "Bharati Center" board of directors (Romapada swami, Ramabadra das, Satya dasi, etc) . They held their own vote and once again decided to sell Srila Prabhupada’s ISKCON Brooklyn Temple against the wishes of the ISKCON GBC.
11b) At the time of this "Bharati center" vote Romapada Swami was the chairman of the "Bharati Center" board. This is a point of major importance, because the "Bharati Center" by-laws state that if there is even one vote 'not to sell', the sale CANNOT go through.
11c) There is factual proof that Romapada Maharaj voted to continue with the sale.
11d) Yet later Romapada swami claimed to the ISKCON GBCs that he didn't have all of the needed information to vote against the sale, even he could have used ISKCON's in house attorney to better understand the situation. (Romapada Swami always seems to have an excuse for every situation in which he is caught being untruthful.)
12) Even more bewildering is the fact that after all this, Romapada Swami wrote a letter to the NY State Attorney Generals office stating that he was against the sale.
QUESTIONS :
2) Then on April 16, 2015 the original contract for sale was revised (quite possibly for more money) with the approval of both the buyer and the sellers, Romapada Swami and Ramabhadra prabhu.
3) Shortly thereafter it was brought to the attention of Jayadvaita Maharaj that ISKCON's Brooklyn temple was being sold and a contract to sell was in place.
4) This was later confirmed because the real estate multiple listing service showed that Srila Prabhupada’s Brooklyn Temple was no longer available to be purchased by any other potential buyer.
5) Romapada Swami and Ramabhadra das explained that listing Srila Prabhupada’s ISKCON Brooklyn temple in the for sale NY real estate multiple listing service was simply an exploratory venture to gauge the current value of the ISKCON Temple property.
5a) This, however, was not the truth. The listing disappeared because a contract to sell had been signed.
6) Upon the ISKCON GBC becoming aware of a contract to sell off Srila Prabhupada’s Brooklyn temple, both Romapada Swami and Ramabhadra das then stated there would be multi-million dollar penalties if they didn't honor the contract.
7) Upon investigation this was deemed to be another deception. There are no legal penalties in the contract. Various Penalties could have been written into the contract sale language. But upon an examination of the sale contract no such wording was found to be present.
8) New York Real estate laws concerning churches and other religious buildings are slightly different than non-religious real estate law. This means that the same rules don't always apply.
9) The Brooklyn ISKCON Temple was under a contract for sale without the ISKCON GBC approval.
10) Ramabhadra das and Romapada swami tried to conceal the above facts with great vigor. Yet somehow Sri Sri Radha Govinda found a way to expose the deceptive and defiant behavior of both Romapada swami and Ramabadra das.
11) The ISKCON GBC's have voted 3 times over the past couple of years and have denied permission to sell the Brooklyn ISKCON temple each time.
11a) In March of 2017, there was a closed door meeting of the "Bharati Center" board of directors (Romapada swami, Ramabadra das, Satya dasi, etc) . They held their own vote and once again decided to sell Srila Prabhupada’s ISKCON Brooklyn Temple against the wishes of the ISKCON GBC.
11b) At the time of this "Bharati center" vote Romapada Swami was the chairman of the "Bharati Center" board. This is a point of major importance, because the "Bharati Center" by-laws state that if there is even one vote 'not to sell', the sale CANNOT go through.
11c) There is factual proof that Romapada Maharaj voted to continue with the sale.
11d) Yet later Romapada swami claimed to the ISKCON GBCs that he didn't have all of the needed information to vote against the sale, even he could have used ISKCON's in house attorney to better understand the situation. (Romapada Swami always seems to have an excuse for every situation in which he is caught being untruthful.)
12) Even more bewildering is the fact that after all this, Romapada Swami wrote a letter to the NY State Attorney Generals office stating that he was against the sale.
QUESTIONS :
1) Why would Romapada swami have voted as a 'Bharati center' board member to proceed with the sale and then later claim to the State of New York to be against the sale?
2) The next question naturally is, how are so many congregational devotees being banned from entering the Temple due to the claim that they are opposed to the Brooklyn ISKCON Temple sale, yet Romapada swami is allowed to reside in the Brooklyn ISKCON Temple?
None of this appears to make any sense.
As I noted in a previous post, I asked Ramabhadra on the evening of Janmastami why I was being refused entry to the temple?
2) The next question naturally is, how are so many congregational devotees being banned from entering the Temple due to the claim that they are opposed to the Brooklyn ISKCON Temple sale, yet Romapada swami is allowed to reside in the Brooklyn ISKCON Temple?
None of this appears to make any sense.
As I noted in a previous post, I asked Ramabhadra on the evening of Janmastami why I was being refused entry to the temple?
I also posed this question to his security team. (I must say that if they are to be a line of defense I wouldn't want them defending me.)
What was most noteworthy was that no one, especially Ramabhadra das, could give me any answer as to why I or any other congregational devotee had been refused entry. It seems that they must have been coached on how to respond by Ramabhadra's lawyer, Which is to give no response to any questions by any congregational devotees.
The letter of the law states that the "Bharati center" and Ramabhadra das do have the POWER to ban congregation devotees because Ramabhadra das is the Temple president of the "Bharati center".
Yet when reviewed by the State Of New York, this same action by a church leader is viewed as an Abuse of Power!!!!!"
Your servant,
Madhumangala das
Please pray to Srila Prabhupada and Sri Sri Radha and Govinda to save our Brooklyn temple from those who are temporarily under the influence of Kali-yuga.
=================
Here is more news from Brooklyn NY. Madhumangala prabhu is sharing information as soon as it is available.
From Madhumangala prabhu...
"Insanity and deception are on display at Radha Govinda Mandir in Brooklyn NY's Iskcon Temple.
As can be seen in the first photo there are 2 people standing guard, one is a male devotee and the other is a woman. You can also clearly see how the sign (present for the past 30 years) declaring this to be an ISKCON temple has been removed.
I, for one, am wondering why and how this could possibly have taken place given the fact that Romapada Swami is residing there in Srila Prabhupada’s Radha Govinda temple.
Secondly, why is it that Romapada Swami has been leaving the temple to preach, and inevitably to collect money, while the average devotee isn't allowed to enter the temple to worship and serve?
If Romapada Swami were actually representing and working on behalf of the best interests of Srila Prabhupada's ISKCON, how could he possibly fail to object to all of This?
It should also be noted that on the evening that Ramabhadra das took the temple and Sri Sri Radha Govinda hostage, Romapada Swami was supposed to assist in the removal of Ramabhadra das as Temple President as per the GBC body's decision.
On this Sunday night, July 23, Romapada Swami was not only the ISKCON GBC of the Brooklyn Temple, he was also still the Chairman of the Bharat Hill Corp. This means he was in fact the Topmost authority and thus had all power to see that Ramabhadra das complied with the GBC decision to remove him as president.
However, what ensued was an extremely weak and dishonest display by Romapada Swami. After announcing that the GBC Chairman HH Bhakti Caru Swami wished to address the congregation, Romapada Swami slithered into the shadows, away from the situation and didn't exert the authority which he possessed.
This clearly indicated that he, Romapada Swami, wasn't honest in telling the GBC that he would work with them to prevent the sale of the Temple and the removal of Ramabhadra prabhu.
It should also be noted that somehow or another Ramabhadra das and his wife Satya dasi were made aware of the fact that something was going to take place on that very day, Sunday the 23 of July.
Romapada Swami's disciples were phoning others to let them know about this. How else could they have possibly obtained such information? Could it possibly have come from their Guru, Romapada Swami or his representative?
Also an amazing coincidence, was the changing of every lock in the Temple on the 23 of July, just prior to the normal Sunday Program.
Try to guess who made it known to the gbc devotees that were coming to remove Ramabhadra that the locks were being changed, yet HE (Romapada swami) did absolutely nothing to prevent This?
Even if you and I are not geniuses, I'm sure that the one and only answer that you and I could possibly come to is, that the NY gbc and Bharat Hill chairman Romapada Swami, was the culprit.
So many remarkable coincidences conspired to prevent Ramabhadra das's removal and more importantly to prevent the sale of the Temple for the astronomical sum of $60,000,000. When the CIA investigates a breach of security, they have one overriding cardinal rule, there is no such thing as a coincidence.
As has been made public by the GBC, Romapada Swami and Ramabhadra das both voted in November of this past year to push forward with Temple sale, even though the GBC voted against this 3 separate times in a row.
It now seems as if Romapada Swami has had a change of heart about preventing the sale of Srila Prabhupada's Brooklyn ISKCON temple. This is clearly evidenced by all of his subsequent actions.
This is an absolutely disgusting situation given that it is Jhulan Yatra (Sri Sri Radha and Govinda's swing festival), as well as the upcoming appearance of Lord Balaram and Sri Krishna Janmastami.
Never has such an outrageous series of events ever taken place in Srila Prabhupada’s ISKCON society. When, if ever, have the congregation of devotees ever been told they would be charged with trespassing if they didn't immediately leave the temple room in the middle of an advertised Sunday feast?
The congregation of devotees were subsequently banned from entering Srila Prabhupada’s Brooklyn ISKCON temple, and that continues from Sunday, July 23, until now.
These acts are in no way pleasing to Srila Prabhupada, nor to Sri Sri Radha Govinda. The entire world is watching as this mess becomes worse and worse every day. A change of management has been needed in NY for longer than 20 yrs. And now the former president, Ramabadra das, has created a Hostage Crisis where by Sri Sri Radha and Govinda are being held captive by renegade former ISKCON members.
Not only should Ramabhadra das be forced to comply with the decision to remove him as Temple President, Romapada Swami should also be stripped of all position in ISKCON, especially those of initiating Guru and GBC member.
How could the current behavior of these two men warrant anything less?
This is Srila Prabhupada’s Sri Sri Radha Govinda ISKCON temple.
The Sri Sri Radha Govinda temple of Brooklyn, NY does not belong to a couple of immature disciples who have been caught in a compromising and probably illegal situation.
Enough is Enough."
What was most noteworthy was that no one, especially Ramabhadra das, could give me any answer as to why I or any other congregational devotee had been refused entry. It seems that they must have been coached on how to respond by Ramabhadra's lawyer, Which is to give no response to any questions by any congregational devotees.
The letter of the law states that the "Bharati center" and Ramabhadra das do have the POWER to ban congregation devotees because Ramabhadra das is the Temple president of the "Bharati center".
Yet when reviewed by the State Of New York, this same action by a church leader is viewed as an Abuse of Power!!!!!"
Your servant,
Madhumangala das
Please pray to Srila Prabhupada and Sri Sri Radha and Govinda to save our Brooklyn temple from those who are temporarily under the influence of Kali-yuga.
=================
Here is more news from Brooklyn NY. Madhumangala prabhu is sharing information as soon as it is available.
From Madhumangala prabhu...
"Insanity and deception are on display at Radha Govinda Mandir in Brooklyn NY's Iskcon Temple.
As can be seen in the first photo there are 2 people standing guard, one is a male devotee and the other is a woman. You can also clearly see how the sign (present for the past 30 years) declaring this to be an ISKCON temple has been removed.
I, for one, am wondering why and how this could possibly have taken place given the fact that Romapada Swami is residing there in Srila Prabhupada’s Radha Govinda temple.
Secondly, why is it that Romapada Swami has been leaving the temple to preach, and inevitably to collect money, while the average devotee isn't allowed to enter the temple to worship and serve?
If Romapada Swami were actually representing and working on behalf of the best interests of Srila Prabhupada's ISKCON, how could he possibly fail to object to all of This?
It should also be noted that on the evening that Ramabhadra das took the temple and Sri Sri Radha Govinda hostage, Romapada Swami was supposed to assist in the removal of Ramabhadra das as Temple President as per the GBC body's decision.
On this Sunday night, July 23, Romapada Swami was not only the ISKCON GBC of the Brooklyn Temple, he was also still the Chairman of the Bharat Hill Corp. This means he was in fact the Topmost authority and thus had all power to see that Ramabhadra das complied with the GBC decision to remove him as president.
However, what ensued was an extremely weak and dishonest display by Romapada Swami. After announcing that the GBC Chairman HH Bhakti Caru Swami wished to address the congregation, Romapada Swami slithered into the shadows, away from the situation and didn't exert the authority which he possessed.
This clearly indicated that he, Romapada Swami, wasn't honest in telling the GBC that he would work with them to prevent the sale of the Temple and the removal of Ramabhadra prabhu.
It should also be noted that somehow or another Ramabhadra das and his wife Satya dasi were made aware of the fact that something was going to take place on that very day, Sunday the 23 of July.
Romapada Swami's disciples were phoning others to let them know about this. How else could they have possibly obtained such information? Could it possibly have come from their Guru, Romapada Swami or his representative?
Also an amazing coincidence, was the changing of every lock in the Temple on the 23 of July, just prior to the normal Sunday Program.
Try to guess who made it known to the gbc devotees that were coming to remove Ramabhadra that the locks were being changed, yet HE (Romapada swami) did absolutely nothing to prevent This?
Even if you and I are not geniuses, I'm sure that the one and only answer that you and I could possibly come to is, that the NY gbc and Bharat Hill chairman Romapada Swami, was the culprit.
So many remarkable coincidences conspired to prevent Ramabhadra das's removal and more importantly to prevent the sale of the Temple for the astronomical sum of $60,000,000. When the CIA investigates a breach of security, they have one overriding cardinal rule, there is no such thing as a coincidence.
As has been made public by the GBC, Romapada Swami and Ramabhadra das both voted in November of this past year to push forward with Temple sale, even though the GBC voted against this 3 separate times in a row.
It now seems as if Romapada Swami has had a change of heart about preventing the sale of Srila Prabhupada's Brooklyn ISKCON temple. This is clearly evidenced by all of his subsequent actions.
This is an absolutely disgusting situation given that it is Jhulan Yatra (Sri Sri Radha and Govinda's swing festival), as well as the upcoming appearance of Lord Balaram and Sri Krishna Janmastami.
Never has such an outrageous series of events ever taken place in Srila Prabhupada’s ISKCON society. When, if ever, have the congregation of devotees ever been told they would be charged with trespassing if they didn't immediately leave the temple room in the middle of an advertised Sunday feast?
The congregation of devotees were subsequently banned from entering Srila Prabhupada’s Brooklyn ISKCON temple, and that continues from Sunday, July 23, until now.
These acts are in no way pleasing to Srila Prabhupada, nor to Sri Sri Radha Govinda. The entire world is watching as this mess becomes worse and worse every day. A change of management has been needed in NY for longer than 20 yrs. And now the former president, Ramabadra das, has created a Hostage Crisis where by Sri Sri Radha and Govinda are being held captive by renegade former ISKCON members.
Not only should Ramabhadra das be forced to comply with the decision to remove him as Temple President, Romapada Swami should also be stripped of all position in ISKCON, especially those of initiating Guru and GBC member.
How could the current behavior of these two men warrant anything less?
This is Srila Prabhupada’s Sri Sri Radha Govinda ISKCON temple.
The Sri Sri Radha Govinda temple of Brooklyn, NY does not belong to a couple of immature disciples who have been caught in a compromising and probably illegal situation.
Enough is Enough."
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