Letter to:
Gajapati Maharaja Dibyasingha Deb: Chairman, Sri Jagannath Temple Managing Committee Sri Nahar, Puri
Mr. Suresh Chandra Mohapatra: IAS Working Chairman Shri Jagannath Temple Office, Puri
Mr. Bhaskar Jyoti Sarma: IAS Collector & Deputy Chief Administrator Shri Jagannath Temple Office, Puri
Sailendra Narayan Sarangi: Chief Administrator, Jagannatha Puri Temple
November 25th, 2008
Dear Gentlemen,
Please accept our respects. Jaya Jagannatha!
I am offering a personal response to the recent developments in Jagannatha Puri Dhama.
With great dismay we have received the news that representatives of the Jagannatha Mandir in Puri have burned an effigy of the Founder Acarya of ISKCON, Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.
This highly, inappropriate and seriously, offensive action took place� as part of their protest against ISKCON holding Ratha Yatra festivals all over the world on different dates. ISKCON has been conducting such festivals for over forty years and they are an established tradition in major capitols of the world, dates may vary because of local government permissions and climatic conditions. Anyway, disagreement can be found anywhere on any level in this world, even among devotees of Lord Jagannatha; but the current behavior is totally unacceptable, not only by the social standards of man in this world; but by the standards of the Supreme Lord.
Among many scriptural references there is the following quotation from the Skanda Purana concerning the blaspheming of a Vaisnava:
yo hi bhagavatam lokam upahasam nrpottama
karoti tasya nasyanti artha-dharma-yasah-sutah
nindam kurvanti ye mudha vaisnavanam mahatmanam
patanti pitrbhih sardham maha-raurava-samjnite
hanti nindati vai dvesti vaisnavan nabhinandati
krudhyate yati no harsam darsane patanani sat
In a conversation between Markandeya and Bhagiratha, it is said, �My dear King, one who derides an exalted devotee loses the results of his pious activities, his opulence, his reputation and his sons. Vaisnavas are all great souls. Whoever blasphemes them falls down to the hell known as Maharaurava, accompanied by his forefathers. Whoever kills or blasphemes a Vaisnava and whoever is envious of a Vaisnava or angry with him, or whoever does not offer him obeisances or feel joy upon seeing him, certainly falls into a hellish condition.�
Furthermore scriptures state that by the laws of karma the superior shares in the reactions caused by the offensive behavior of his subordinates; the recommended remedy would be to publically denounce the perpetrators and to impose other restrictive measures in regards to them.
Srila AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada is known around the world as one of the foremost saintly personalities of the modern era, he has been received and honored by heads of state, he has established� temples and made followers all over the world, he published 92 spiritual books during his lifetime of which over 500 million copies have been sold. Srila Prabhupada has clearly been blessed by the Supreme Lord, Sri Krsna.
Lord Jagannatha is our topmost worshipable Deity, Lord Sri Krishna; we are respecting all His servitors. Unfortunately disagreement has been there between the Brahman community of the Jagannatha temple and ISKCON; for years we have come to Puri and have been denied acces to the temple and we have offered our obeisances from a distance to the Cakra on top of the temple, we have peacefully respected the temple policies. This time however the matter has gone beyond the level of disagreement to the level of vaisnava aparadha, thus we felt compelled by the gravity of the incident to bring the matter to your attention. We regret the inevitable inconvenience involved in favorably responding to our request, however we are certain that Lord Krsna will bless the effort.
Thanking you for kindly considering the above.
We hope that one day in the future we may host you in one of our ISKCON temples in India or abroad.
Yours in service of Lord Jagannatha,
Kadamba Kanana Swami