Letter by Prthu's Wife - a Woman's History

[KBnut 0]

Excellent point, and worth much reflection.

[Srijiva 0]

Hari bol!

 

This letter of Mother Rambhoru's showed up online earlier this week and despite searching for another location online that also had it, I came up empty handed. Requests by myself have gone unanswered as to its origins. And now it has finally been posted today at VNN.org

 

I am not questioning its authenticity. It just seems an odd, round about way to get released, esp. when its dated Oct. 24th?

 

I suppose it can be explained by the nature of the letter, and I don't really want to speculate about ISKCONs wanting to distrubute this letter to everyone as compassionately as they had with Prithu prabhu's.

 

Hmmm... /images/graemlins/confused.gif

[Guest guest]

sad story

[Vanguard 0]

I'm shocked by what I read. Not so much surprised, though. It's amazing that someone who built himself up to be such a maha preacher, the vanguard of ISKCON's ideals, and the preferred guru of grhastas, was a perfectly neglectful "Vedic" husband. Things like this really upset me about the movement. You think this is a rare occurance? Hardly. A lot of devotee families I saw are highly dysfunctional, for one reason or another. I see more decency from the so-called Karmis. But those grhasta families who are on track, and good people, they have my respect and undivided attention. My prayers go to Rambhoru dd and her sons. I even pray for Prthu's soul.

[Guest guest]

Rambhoru wrote this letter and send it to the GBC and others a few weeks ago. I read the original coming from her own hands and I know she wanted people to know. I don't know who posted it here, why it's so relevant to you?

 

Atma

[Srijiva 0]

Since I am not privy to the inner workings of ISKCON, I was just curious as to how it was "released". It surfaced in a different manner than did Prithu's(on-line, that is), whose letter was posted on dipika.org

 

 

I was thinking that in fairness to Rambhoru mataji, her letter might have been shared along with Prithu's, simultaneously.

 

I dunno...its really not the issue at hand, I am funny that way sometimes.... forgive my obsecent need for details.

[theist 1]

Srijiva, coming from Portland I suspect you may have consider Prithu a guru to you perhaps or at least some friend guru's. You may have more than a passing curiousity in this.

[Srijiva 0]

Hari bol!

 

Yes, Theist, I did infact aspire to become a disciple of Prithu's once and do have many friends who are.

 

As the Guru's wife is to be considered as one of our mothers, I have always considered Mother Rambhoru in this way, but I have never had the pleasure of meeting.

[Guest guest]

She speaks of next life Prthu being at the receiving end of such horrid behaviour ....what if in her last life she was an abusive husband.....then does the repition and reverse roles continue .....?i wish we had some support system in society to help her and end her bitterness.

[theist 1]

Every soul has access to such a support system although it is not to found in material society.

[Vanguard 0]

I am a bit jaded, so when I see this being published on VNN, I don't so much see this as the hearts of the VNN staff going out to Rambhoru mataji, but rather an attempt to establish some moral superiority over ISKCON. If the shoe was on the other foot, and a member of Narayan Maharaj's clan had done something similar to Prthu, you can be sure VNN would refuse to publish it, but dipika.org would be all too happy to do so.

 

So as long as there's one camp that wants to establish PR moral superiority over the other, the truth shall be known, it's just a matter of frequent news website hopping.

[theist 1]

I saw that and thought the same thing.

[Srijiva 0]

This does blatently bring that to light. By dipika.org not publishing this letter, it is sadly showing a lack of support to Mother Rambhoru. She did not fall down, but has held up remarkably. In fact, I think she has done a wonderfull job in tactfully bringing this to everyones attention. It is not a smear campaign on her part.

[stonehearted 0]

I'm not so sure that Dipika would be eager to publish some problem a member of GVS had. Umapati Maharaja uses the site to promote ISKCON. I think that he would prefer not to publish anything unnecessarily critical of anyone outside ISKCON because he'd probably feel a need to publish a repsonse from that side. When he published Danavir Maharaja's tirade against Tripurari Maharaja's Bhagavad=gita last year, he did publish my repsonse, largely for that reason.

 

On the other hand, I think it's a pretty safe bet that he won't publish Rambhoru's letter, since he refuses to post anything critical of ISKCON's leadership, and the letter sheds a rather bad light on the culture among many of those leaders. Either they encourage the kind of anti-devotional mentality apparent in Prithu's behavior, they tolerate it, or they have no clue who they allow to initiate disciples and serve on the GBC. None of these is a good choice.

[Guest guest]

"I am a bit jaded, so when I see this being published on VNN, I don't so much see this as the hearts of the VNN staff going out to Rambhoru mataji, but rather an attempt to establish some moral superiority over ISKCON. "

 

the fact is that this letter is published and it depicts a true problem.. better if you think about it than think about politics

[Guest guest]

"the fact is that this letter is published and it depicts a true problem.. better if you think about it than think about politics"

 

The fact is, problems like these have been known since the 1970's, politics and apathy is all that keeps it strong.

[gHari 0]

I wouldn't publish the letter anywhere, even here, because of the last paragraph which I think the mother will soon regret having written.

 

[KBnut 0]

Maybe Ramboru sent it herself to VNN because Chakra wouldn't put it up?

 

What does it matter anyway? The point is, it is most likely true, and is disturbing on many levels for many of us who have either experiences or witnessed such cruelty in the name of "preaching".

[Vanguard 0]

"What does it matter anyway? The point is, it is most likely true, and is disturbing on many levels for many of us who have either experiences or witnessed such cruelty in the name of "preaching"."

 

It matters because we've seen all kinds of highly dysfunctional behavior coming from people in power in our western Hare Krsna movement, especially since Srila ASBSP's leaving the planet, and politics is what excuses the worst, most powerful offenders. People in their own camp turn a blind eye, while people on the other end of the spectrum are looking for any way they can to denigrate the other side, under the sanctimonious guise of trying to help the abused.

[Srijiva 0]

Hari bol!

 

I received word from a GBC that Rambhoru Mathaji is receiving support from the GBC and her Godsisters and Godbrothers. The Vrindavan management is urging Prithu prabhu to share proceeds of the sale of the Vrndavana house with her.

 

This is unfortunate. "There are two sides to the story when husband and wife are concerned, and five sides to the story when ISKCON devotees are concerned." (to quote)