The "leadership" of the Dallas Hare Krsna community is abusive, and they are presently in the process of purging their "community" of any and all devotees whose loyalty to their temple council regime is in question. I know of two devotees who have been banned from the Dallas temple in the last couple of weeks, one of whom was even forced to move. If the Hare Krsnas in Dallas want the rest of the world to believe that they're not a destructive cult, then they're going to need to try harder than they do, and if they want to be taken seriously as a mainstream religion then they're going to need to be able to stand up to some scrutiny.

As things are now, ISKCON of Dallas does not stand up to scrutiny at all. The main problem, as I see it, is a general lack of accountability on the part of the temple management council and temple president, to the general congregation. The temple president and the local GBC (Governing Body Commission) representative are the same person; as a consequence, there is (chain of command wise) nobody to whom devotees can go, if a problem with the management arises. It's a closed, and self-sealed system they have in place, in Dallas. For another thing, the temple president is temple president in name only: the REAL temple president is the older Chinese lady who runs the restaurant. She's the one who's holding all the strings, on a day to day basis.

The management of ISKCON Dallas seem to not want nobody around who might have a mind of his or her own, and who does not depend on them like children depend on their parents. A lot of devotees stay silent, out of fear. Not me; these people do not scare me. They've been to used to getting away with too much, for too long. Devotees are tired of the abuse and total lack of accountability, and are beginning to organize against them a little bit. Presently, the Dallas temple president is sick with Covid-19. I hope he takes this time to re-assess whether it may be an appropriate time to resign his position as temple president, to retire or something like that. It might be a good time to step down, prabhu.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 11/17/2020 05:29AM by The Whirlwind.

PS: Here's what the Dallas temple management council is like: they're like a group of Mafiosi in an Italian neighborhood in the old days (minus the threat of overt violence). They run the dhama as if they are a law unto themselves, they are accountable to none but themselves, and they try to handle everything "in house" and involve law enforcement in certain matters, only when absolutely necessary. If you cross them, they won't kill you or even break your legs, but they WILL try and ban you from the temple and/or force you to move out of the neighborhood. They've done that to two people lately: both were banned, and one lost their place to live. And it's wrong, how they abuse devotees.

It's doubtless that certain people are going to be able to figure out who I am; some devotees who are reading this will be able to figure out my identity. But I do not give a damn, and I am not scared. I am protected, and I don't just mean by Lord Narasimhadeva. :-)



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 11/17/2020 05:54AM by The Whirlwind.

Somebody who is on the Dallas temple council (I will not say who), once told me that he believes that Lord Brahma administers the affairs of this material world, through the disciples of Tamal Krishna Goswami. This is his mentality, and this is the mentality he operates under. That is simply insane, that idea.

ISKCON in Dallas is virtually shut down right now: the temple, restaurant, and schools are all closed, and the only people allowed in the temple are the pujaris. Hopefully they'll take this time to re-organize the temple management structure, so as to greatly enhance accountability and reduce the abuse of devotees. Word on the street is that the Chinese lady is no longer on the temple council, and that's a good thing. Now we need a new TP and/or GBC rep, as well. That'd be progress.

The Whirlwind Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ISKCON in Dallas is virtually shut down right now:
> the temple, restaurant, and schools are all
> closed, and the only people allowed in the temple
> are the pujaris. Hopefully they'll take this time
> to re-organize the temple management structure, so
> as to greatly enhance accountability and reduce
> the abuse of devotees. Word on the street is that
> the Chinese lady is no longer on the temple
> council, and that's a good thing. Now we need a
> new TP and/or GBC rep, as well. That'd be
> progress.

Correction: the restaurant is open after all, but the school and temple are not. They do not use the restaurant as a preaching platform whatsoever, as they'd rather cultivate repeat customers, than make devotees. They'll take your money, and will not attempt to "recruit" you. There's no ashram anyway, so there's nothing to recruit anybody TO.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/18/2020 05:00AM by The Whirlwind.

Once the temple president of Dallas told me that a "cult" is any group that's teaching somebody to not love God. I laughed on the inside, because the man didn't know what he was talking about, but I bit my tongue since I didn't want to start a fight. Now I'll clear things up: a "cult" (in social/psychological terms) is any abusive and controlling group in which one person (or a group of people) has absolute authority over others, without any meaningful accountability. That's exactly what we see in Dallas: the temple council and its individual members have absolute control over the dhama, without being accountable to anybody outside of their neighborhood. The temple president and GBC are the same man, so it's a closed-loop, self-sealed leadership structure in place and as a consequence, there is nobody to whom devotees can go if there are complaints to be made.

Just to keep things precise, here is a very good operationalized definition of a "destructive cult". Dallas ISKCON gets a "check" for almost all of these criteria, and especially the first three and the last two:

[www.culteducation.com]

Ten warning signs of a potentially unsafe group/leader.

1. Absolute authoritarianism without meaningful accountability.
2. No tolerance for questions or critical inquiry.
3. No meaningful financial disclosure regarding budget, expenses such as an independently audited financial statement.
4. Unreasonable fear about the outside world, such as impending catastrophe, evil conspiracies and persecutions.
5. There is no legitimate reason to leave, former followers are always wrong in leaving, negative or even evil.
6. Former members often relate the same stories of abuse and reflect a similar pattern of grievances.
7. There are records, books, news articles, or television programs that document the abuses of the group/leader.
8. Followers feel they can never be "good enough".
9. The group/leader is always right.
10. The group/leader is the exclusive means of knowing "truth" or receiving validation, no other process of discovery is really acceptable or credible.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/18/2020 11:35PM by The Whirlwind.

I do not personally believe that ISKCON is Prabhupada's body (in a manner similar to the relationship Lord Jesus shares with The Church). The reason for this is that there is no recorded instance of Prabhupada having expressed that idea, and it's not written in any of his books. I reckon that if Prabhupada wanted devotees to believe that ISKCON is his mystical body, then he would have at least written it down. I believe that this idea (of ISKCON being Prabhupada's body) was a concoction, an invention designed to make criticism of the institutional organization impossible, or even sinful. If it's critical to believe that, then why did Prabhupada not put it in writing?

Look: I'm a devotee too, and an initiated one. But I am a devotee who is not afraid to think for himself, and to question and challenge temple management. Criticism of the organization (at least as it operates on the local level) IS NOT the same as criticism of Prabhupada and his mission.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/18/2020 11:58PM by The Whirlwind.

For a lot of devotees, ISKCON itself is their religion, as opposed to sanatana-dharma, or(better yet) the abandonment of religion altogether (Bhagavad-gita 18:66). When ISKCON is the religion, and Prabhupada is deified and turned into a godman, then this is the point at which a non-sectarian spiritual society turns into a sect, or worse yet a (destructive) cult. ISKCON is not my religion. ISKCON is my sangha. There is a big difference.

But this much from Gelberg I do agree with, wholeheartedly, corboy.

Contrary to what Gelberg is expressing here, there is no recorded instance of Prabhupada having said either "Krishna has appeared as ISKCON" or "ISKCON is my body" either in oral or written form. That is ISKCON apocrypha.

"44

I learned that it is both extremely tempting and extremely dangerous to claim divine status for a religious institution—as in Prabhupada's declaration that 'Krishna has appeared as ISKCON' or 'ISKCON is my body.' On the one hand, such divinizing increases devotees' willingness to sacrifice all for building, maintaining and expanding the institution. But defining ISKCON itself as a divine entity became problematic once the organization began to fail. How does one account for proliferating corruption, scandal, abuse and financial crisis within a transcendental movement? If ISKCON is a divine emanation of Krishna or of Prabhupada, how dare a disciple criticize the organization or justify leaving it? It is the inability or reluctance to differentiate between the core teachings and practices on the one hand, and the outer socio-political institutional shell on the other, that has lead many devotees to cling to the organization well past the point of personal disillusionment."

[surrealist.org]

[www.vaniquotes.org]

[www.vaniquotes.org]



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/19/2020 12:38AM by The Whirlwind.

The Whirlwind Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> Look: I'm a devotee too, and an initiated one.
> But I am a devotee who is not afraid to think for
> himself, and to question and challenge temple
> management. Criticism of the organization (at
> least as it operates on the local level) IS NOT
> the same as criticism of Prabhupada and his
> mission.

There is a good chance that somebody from ISKCON in Dallas will be able to identify me, over what I am writing here. I really do not care, and I'm not worried about what will happen to me when/if I am identified. If they want the world to believe that what they are running is is not a destructive cult, then they're gonna have to try harder than all that. My anticipation is that I'll be banned from the temple, and/or from ISKCON as a whole. If I am banned for life over this, then the management will be proving my point (about ISKCON Dallas' management being controlling and abusive) for me. They're not "servants"; they're dictators, the temple council are.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/19/2020 03:28AM by The Whirlwind.

They kicked one of the pujaris out of the dhama, because the pujari would not work like a slave for them. They gave this person two days to move out of their temple-provided housing; they did not even have the decency to give thirty days' notice to this person. In this age of Covid, I'm not sure that that is even legal. Two days to leave, after thirty years of service. That's awful of them, and they should be ashamed of themselves.

[guides.sll.texas.gov]



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/20/2020 02:52AM by The Whirlwind.