07-28-2005, 12:22 AM
I asked a few ISKCON devotees I know to engage in discussion on this forum, but they refused, saying it was a waste of time. Its a little difficult for folks like Hayagriva and myself, who are not even members of ISKCON, to respond to hate-threads like this one. But here goes:
<b>Mitradena sir</b>,
Bhagavad Gita 18:68, 69:
"For one who explains the supreme secret to the devotees, devotional service is guaranteed, and at the end he will come back to Me.
There is no servant in this world more dear to Me than he, nor will there ever be one more dear. "
<b>Here are some examples of "cowardly" ISKCON "buffoons", and the work they do for Vedic dharma:</b>
----------------
In the 1970s, Tribhuvanatha and some of his godbrothers such as Mahakratu and Padmapani risked their lives <b>preaching in numerous Arab countries</b> such as Lebanon and Syria. They survived heavy bombardment during the Yom Kippur war. Then, due to the mercy of Tribhuvanatha, <b>the first Arabic Bhagavad-Gita was produced in Palestine</b>.
At that time, because the devotees were so successful in their daily activities, they came under the watchful eyes of the PLO, who mistook them for Israeli spies. <b>Tribhuvanatha was wrongly arrested in Damascus and imprisoned in a terrorist cell, with only enough room to lie down. He was tortured and interrogated for one month, finally being released without charge</b>.
----------------
Similar case of one of Bhaktivedanta Swami's Jordanian disciples (Muslim by birth). <b>He and his wife were shot at by Islamists. His wife died.</b> He left Jordan, but continues to preach and write books.
----------------
<b>Outside Moscow, a Soviet-era jailhouse is a place of pilgrimage for ISKCON devotees, because that is the location of the death of the first Russian devotee.</b> Dozens of other devotees suffered state oppression during Soviet days. Now they have to face the politics of the orthodox church.
<b>One of the USSR's premier molecular biologists actually defected to Finland and then moved to Sweden because the KGB was getting wind of his reading of smuggled ISKCON literature.</b> After a couple of threatening interrogations, he defected at an international conference. This person is now a sannyasi preacher, and is heading the construction of the huge ISKCON temple in downtown Moscow:
http://www.moscowtemple.org/
<b>Russia now boasts over 1.2 lakh ISKCON devotees. Interestingly, many ex-KGB employees who were assigned to track ISKCON in the Soviet era later became devotees.</b> I found this particularly funny.
----------------
In 1985 and in 1986 the KGB orchestrated two court cases against members of the society. As a result of these two cases eleven Hare Krishnas' were imprisoned in State prisons, labour camps and psychiatric hospitals. Among them were Karen Saakyan, Armen Saakyan, Suren Karapetyan, Sarkis Ogandzhanyan, Gagik Buniatyan, Agvan Arytyunyan, Armine Hrtyan, Ara Akopyan and Armen Sarkisyan.
<b>One of those imprisoned that time, Sarkis Ogandzhanyan (23 yrs. of age), died on December 27th. 1987, from tuberculosis and malnutrition in labour camp YU-25/"B" situated in the Orenburg Territory of the Russian Republic.</b> He had entered the camp as a perfectly healthy young man and he was due to have been released in January 1988.
<b>Another member, Martik Zhamkochyan (25 yrs. of age), died in a psychiatric hospital in the Sovetashen District of Yerevan in July 1986.</b> In the psychiatric hospital he was force-fed with raw eggs (eggs are prohibited food), which were administered through a tube and he was simultaneously injected with large doses of psycho-pharmacological drugs. After several days of such "treatment" he died.
But end result?: <b>There are now about 250 ISKCON members resident in Armenia and ISKCON maintains congregations in the towns of Gyumri, Kirovakan, Eghnadzor, Kapan and Ashtarak. </b>
----------------
<b>ISKCON preachers in Pakistan were lynched in the street and threatened.</b> But the preaching continued, even through the 1971 war. An Urdu edition of the Bhagavad Gita had been released years ago.
<b>3 or 4 ISKCON preachers in Bangladesh (then East Pakistan) were murdered.</b>
----------------
Despite threats from fundamentalists, young Muslim university students in Indonesia became ISKCON devotees, and some even gave up great career-prospects to start up Farm communities.
----------------
<b>In places like Iran and China, a lot of the devotees conduct their home programs secretly, though in Hong Kong they have public Ratha Yatras.</b>
----------------
On July 10th., 1992 the Hare Krishna temple in Yerevan (Armenia) was attacked by arsonists. Temple members managed to extinguish the fire which damaged the temple building and two cars owned by ISKCON. ISKCON appealed to the Commission for Human Rights of the Supreme Council of Armenia and local police, but the complaint was ignored.
-----------------
On September 23 1993 Mikhael Unjugulyan, a Krishna devotee, was severely beaten before the inhabitants in his village of origin, Oshakan. His assailant was a priest from the local Armenian Orthodox Church, a Father Gevork. A vain appeal for justice was made by the victim to the police in the Ashtrak region. His complaint was ignored. The incident was witnessed and can be verified by many inhabitants of the village.
-----------------
In April 1994, thirty tons of religious books were dispatched from ISKCON in Moscow for the temple in Yerevan. The books were seized by the customs at Masis station before they reached Yerevan. Despite many appeals to the Council for Religion Affairs which is supposed to give permission to receive religious literature, the books are still being detained by customs at Masis station.
------------------
On April 18, 1994 Hare Krishna member Artur Khachatryan was attacked by a group of fifteen members of the Armenian Army in an Officer's Club in Yerevan. He was severely beaten and had to be hospitalised. The religious books he carried with him were burned.
------------------
On July 4, 1994 two female members of the Hare Krishna Society in Yerevan, Anaite Arzumanian and Mariana Dorunz, travelled to the neighbouring town of Sisyan, to distribute religious literature and minister to local sympathisers. They were intercepted on route by two priests of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Father Narek from Sisyan and an American priest of the Avat Mission (a branch of the Armenian Apostolic church), Father Zenob. Supported by soldiers of the Armenian army, the priests confiscated more than 150 books and proceeded to light a bonfire with them, an act which attracted much local attention. <b>The priests and their supporters then forcibly ripped the clothing off the women, twisted their arms, tore their religious neckbeads off their necks and threw these articles into the bonfire. This scene was witnessed by many of the local people.</b> This incident was reported to Mr. Robert Patterson of the American embassy in Armenia, and to the special correspondent of Espress-chronika in Armenia, Michail Dabasyan.
------------------
On July 26, 1994 another ISKCON member Karo Mkrtchyan was seriously beaten and threatened with murder by six members of the Dashnaktzusyun Party (a nationalist political party). Again any religious books or paraphernalia he carried were confiscated. He was also told that if he was seen again in the city after twenty four hours, he would be killed on the spot.
------------------
On August 28th. ten armed thugs stormed the Hare Krishna Temple in Yerevan. They completely vandalised the place of worship, desecrated the altar, and severely assaulted the temple President, Ivan Dallakyan. The attack lasted more than twenty minutes.
------------------
As a result of the attack on the temple one Hare Krishna member, Boris Agagabyan, was hospitalised with head injuries and a severely damaged nose. Another member, Mkrtchyan Karo has suffered severe head injuries, inflicted by a metal bar. Others also had to receive hospital treatment.
On the 3rd. September a member called Grigoryan Kamo was arrested by the local police and taken into custody. During the night he was badly beaten in his cell by the same policemen who had beaten the others on the 31st.
------------------
And much more...
<b>Mitradena sir</b>,
Bhagavad Gita 18:68, 69:
"For one who explains the supreme secret to the devotees, devotional service is guaranteed, and at the end he will come back to Me.
There is no servant in this world more dear to Me than he, nor will there ever be one more dear. "
<b>Here are some examples of "cowardly" ISKCON "buffoons", and the work they do for Vedic dharma:</b>
----------------
In the 1970s, Tribhuvanatha and some of his godbrothers such as Mahakratu and Padmapani risked their lives <b>preaching in numerous Arab countries</b> such as Lebanon and Syria. They survived heavy bombardment during the Yom Kippur war. Then, due to the mercy of Tribhuvanatha, <b>the first Arabic Bhagavad-Gita was produced in Palestine</b>.
At that time, because the devotees were so successful in their daily activities, they came under the watchful eyes of the PLO, who mistook them for Israeli spies. <b>Tribhuvanatha was wrongly arrested in Damascus and imprisoned in a terrorist cell, with only enough room to lie down. He was tortured and interrogated for one month, finally being released without charge</b>.
----------------
Similar case of one of Bhaktivedanta Swami's Jordanian disciples (Muslim by birth). <b>He and his wife were shot at by Islamists. His wife died.</b> He left Jordan, but continues to preach and write books.
----------------
<b>Outside Moscow, a Soviet-era jailhouse is a place of pilgrimage for ISKCON devotees, because that is the location of the death of the first Russian devotee.</b> Dozens of other devotees suffered state oppression during Soviet days. Now they have to face the politics of the orthodox church.
<b>One of the USSR's premier molecular biologists actually defected to Finland and then moved to Sweden because the KGB was getting wind of his reading of smuggled ISKCON literature.</b> After a couple of threatening interrogations, he defected at an international conference. This person is now a sannyasi preacher, and is heading the construction of the huge ISKCON temple in downtown Moscow:
http://www.moscowtemple.org/
<b>Russia now boasts over 1.2 lakh ISKCON devotees. Interestingly, many ex-KGB employees who were assigned to track ISKCON in the Soviet era later became devotees.</b> I found this particularly funny.
----------------
In 1985 and in 1986 the KGB orchestrated two court cases against members of the society. As a result of these two cases eleven Hare Krishnas' were imprisoned in State prisons, labour camps and psychiatric hospitals. Among them were Karen Saakyan, Armen Saakyan, Suren Karapetyan, Sarkis Ogandzhanyan, Gagik Buniatyan, Agvan Arytyunyan, Armine Hrtyan, Ara Akopyan and Armen Sarkisyan.
<b>One of those imprisoned that time, Sarkis Ogandzhanyan (23 yrs. of age), died on December 27th. 1987, from tuberculosis and malnutrition in labour camp YU-25/"B" situated in the Orenburg Territory of the Russian Republic.</b> He had entered the camp as a perfectly healthy young man and he was due to have been released in January 1988.
<b>Another member, Martik Zhamkochyan (25 yrs. of age), died in a psychiatric hospital in the Sovetashen District of Yerevan in July 1986.</b> In the psychiatric hospital he was force-fed with raw eggs (eggs are prohibited food), which were administered through a tube and he was simultaneously injected with large doses of psycho-pharmacological drugs. After several days of such "treatment" he died.
But end result?: <b>There are now about 250 ISKCON members resident in Armenia and ISKCON maintains congregations in the towns of Gyumri, Kirovakan, Eghnadzor, Kapan and Ashtarak. </b>
----------------
<b>ISKCON preachers in Pakistan were lynched in the street and threatened.</b> But the preaching continued, even through the 1971 war. An Urdu edition of the Bhagavad Gita had been released years ago.
<b>3 or 4 ISKCON preachers in Bangladesh (then East Pakistan) were murdered.</b>
----------------
Despite threats from fundamentalists, young Muslim university students in Indonesia became ISKCON devotees, and some even gave up great career-prospects to start up Farm communities.
----------------
<b>In places like Iran and China, a lot of the devotees conduct their home programs secretly, though in Hong Kong they have public Ratha Yatras.</b>
----------------
On July 10th., 1992 the Hare Krishna temple in Yerevan (Armenia) was attacked by arsonists. Temple members managed to extinguish the fire which damaged the temple building and two cars owned by ISKCON. ISKCON appealed to the Commission for Human Rights of the Supreme Council of Armenia and local police, but the complaint was ignored.
-----------------
On September 23 1993 Mikhael Unjugulyan, a Krishna devotee, was severely beaten before the inhabitants in his village of origin, Oshakan. His assailant was a priest from the local Armenian Orthodox Church, a Father Gevork. A vain appeal for justice was made by the victim to the police in the Ashtrak region. His complaint was ignored. The incident was witnessed and can be verified by many inhabitants of the village.
-----------------
In April 1994, thirty tons of religious books were dispatched from ISKCON in Moscow for the temple in Yerevan. The books were seized by the customs at Masis station before they reached Yerevan. Despite many appeals to the Council for Religion Affairs which is supposed to give permission to receive religious literature, the books are still being detained by customs at Masis station.
------------------
On April 18, 1994 Hare Krishna member Artur Khachatryan was attacked by a group of fifteen members of the Armenian Army in an Officer's Club in Yerevan. He was severely beaten and had to be hospitalised. The religious books he carried with him were burned.
------------------
On July 4, 1994 two female members of the Hare Krishna Society in Yerevan, Anaite Arzumanian and Mariana Dorunz, travelled to the neighbouring town of Sisyan, to distribute religious literature and minister to local sympathisers. They were intercepted on route by two priests of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Father Narek from Sisyan and an American priest of the Avat Mission (a branch of the Armenian Apostolic church), Father Zenob. Supported by soldiers of the Armenian army, the priests confiscated more than 150 books and proceeded to light a bonfire with them, an act which attracted much local attention. <b>The priests and their supporters then forcibly ripped the clothing off the women, twisted their arms, tore their religious neckbeads off their necks and threw these articles into the bonfire. This scene was witnessed by many of the local people.</b> This incident was reported to Mr. Robert Patterson of the American embassy in Armenia, and to the special correspondent of Espress-chronika in Armenia, Michail Dabasyan.
------------------
On July 26, 1994 another ISKCON member Karo Mkrtchyan was seriously beaten and threatened with murder by six members of the Dashnaktzusyun Party (a nationalist political party). Again any religious books or paraphernalia he carried were confiscated. He was also told that if he was seen again in the city after twenty four hours, he would be killed on the spot.
------------------
On August 28th. ten armed thugs stormed the Hare Krishna Temple in Yerevan. They completely vandalised the place of worship, desecrated the altar, and severely assaulted the temple President, Ivan Dallakyan. The attack lasted more than twenty minutes.
------------------
As a result of the attack on the temple one Hare Krishna member, Boris Agagabyan, was hospitalised with head injuries and a severely damaged nose. Another member, Mkrtchyan Karo has suffered severe head injuries, inflicted by a metal bar. Others also had to receive hospital treatment.
On the 3rd. September a member called Grigoryan Kamo was arrested by the local police and taken into custody. During the night he was badly beaten in his cell by the same policemen who had beaten the others on the 31st.
------------------
And much more...