Why give an explanation when you can use organizational pressure to silence people?

Please, Krishnapada Prabhu; Gita-nagari is my community. I have a house and a farm here with my family, and we plan to live here for decades. Why would I want to create trouble? I was on the community board, and my wife on the child protection team. There are a lot of girls in our community, and Vakresvara did not seem like a safe person. The first time I spoke to him, the night Bhakti Tirtha Swami passed away, he verbally assaulted me while I was helping to extinguish the fires that lined the path through the woods. He was angry that people were concerned about the fires, unmindful of the fact that it had not rained in three weeks. Seeing his anger, I offered him my humble obeisances, and he rejected it. He told me, "You can keep your obeisances." I'm sorry but I did not think Vaisnavas acted that way.

My wife and I had been trying to address our concerns through the "proper channels" for several weeks, at least two months, and gotten nowhere, before I wrote on the BTSwamil group. I purposely waited until after your guru's death to avoid disturbing him. I know the timing was difficult, but I was not the one who invited someone who was otherwise prohibited from coming because he would not apologize to the child he raped. When I finally sent that e-mail, I was threatened and condemned by your godbrothers. Your guru's disciples at Gita-nagari would not look at me and my family. Most of the Gita-nagari board members lied to me as they were having secret meetings to develop a plan to impeach me from the board, which I learned of when they gave me papers to sign. They secretly called my guru, who also lied to me to keep me from knowing about their conversations. He stopped my training for second initiation because I was documenting these unsavory events on my blog. It's likely that I will never get second initiation on account of this.

I had been thoroughly fired up before Bhakti Tirtha Swami came in the spring of 2005, six months later I was so broken on account of the "mercy" he was giving to Vakresvara that I felt like the ghost of a demon for the next year and a half, unable to chant at all. Before I left the devotees' association, I went to the temple and cried for an hour and a half at the feet of your guru's picture and chair, praying for his forgiveness until I was merged into a puddle of tears and snot on the floor and the pujari came off the altar and escorted me out. He promised me three times that he would write a letter on my behalf to your godfamily to help me make peace with them, but he never followed through. All I could think about Krishna for more than a year was that if the devotees despised me then Krishna must despise me too. In all that time, not one of your godfamily called or wrote to ask if we were ok. Neither has any of them offered me an apology even after I begged forgiveness from everyone.

If Vakresvara was "saintly" and "properly situated in his determination," why did he ignore the rectification plan given by the CPO? Why was he staying up past curfew with young ladies even while he was at Gita-nagari then? (The temple president admitted that fact to me.) Why were he and his friends describing the girl he abused with filthy names? Why does the mercy go to the middle-aged bachelor, child predator, still hanging with girls half his age, while his victim is ignored and a responsible family man and his family, trying to protect the community's children, gets trampled into the dust? We were not even told Vakresvara had a record. I could go on and on, but I suppose it would just be a waste of time.

But of all things, the notion that I would want to create discord in my community where I had moved to raise my family, that is beyond belief. I'm insulted. I dreaded what was happening every moment, but I have integrity that I could not compromise. I was told that Bhakti Tirtha Swami was a pure devotee, and I was beside myself thinking he would be leaving when I hardly knew him. I was offering him service whenever I could, just to please Krishna and Srila Prabhupada. Still, my wife and I had our duty to look out for the community, and a known child molester had come, invited, at his request. For crying out loud, this was just a few months after we had to auction off so much farm equipment to pay for the child abuse lawsuit! The irony was splitting my head and made me sick for half a year. What to speak of the girl Vakresvara abused... Any one of the former gurukulis could look at the fact that ISKCON was apologizing for child abuse while two big gurus were lavishly glorifying an unrepentant child molester. And you want to blame it on what you imagine is my "personal insecurity!" I don't even know you. Hare Krishna.

"Place more emphasis on having loving Vaisnava relationships. See all interactions as a cry for love or an extension of love."

I wonder if this approach had been taken towards Pandu when he posted his question on the BT Swami list, what the outcome might have been?

Regardless of speculations of his personal motive, Pandu's question is a valid one. Further, to my understanding he was a member of the farm's Child Protection Team, in which case to ask a question like this would be his duty; although arguably inexpertly executed, perhaps due to lack of training, experience, and even arguably maturity in interpersonal relationships.

Exceptions to legal frameworks (the CPO is part of ISKCON's legal framework) require explanation and justification, if they are not to become a precedent for illegal action, and undermine the legal framework itself. I have not seen such an explanation or clarification of the legal aspects and ramifications of this situation, to date. Was it an exception to the legal framework? If so, in what circumstances is such a exception justified? These are questions that need to be considered and discussed by brahamanas.

"Whatever actions a great man performs, the common man follows. Whatever standards he sets through exemplary acts, the whole world pursues"
- Bhagavad-gita 3.21

Pandu works professionally as an environmental protection officer, so he is very conscious of the value of legal frameworks as protective measures - it is his job every day to ensure that they are complied with.

My own way of interpreting the situation is the same as your own, however the issue is the way in which the public dialog around it is carried out. I have seen posts that Pandu has written about it; are there any posts or articles available that have been written in response, perhaps by Maharaja's disciples, explaining the situation?

I've waited five years to pop the question - hopefully that should be enough time to look at the situation with some objectivity.