Madhu Bandit News Blog

This a text written some time in May – June  2001  by Ananda Tirtha Prabhu, who was Madhu Pandits personal secretary and treasurer for 11-12 years. It gives a behind the scenes look at what the real Madhu Pandit is like; not very pretty. Madhu Pandit Dasa seems to have some major issues. One gets the distinct impression that Madhu Pandit sees devotees and people in general as simply a means to an end and that end being his own power and glory. It doesn’t matter how long you have served or how faithful you have been if someone can no longer further Madhu Pandit’s ambition they are discarded like a facial tissue after blowing one’s nose. Old friends are then seen as new enemies. Madhu Pandit’s  is a very chilling and ruthless world view.

To,
H G Bhima Das,
The General Secretary,
ISKCON Bureau

Dear Bhima Prabhu,

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

I have been serving the ISKCON Bangalore temple for the last 12 years and served as Madhu Pandit’s secretary for nearly 11 yrs. I have tolerated his dictatorship, arrogance and ill treatment of devotees that has come to its peak after the temple inauguration. I am hereby enclosing a few details about the mental torture and intimidating experiences that I have undergone under the tyrannical rule of Madhu Pandit Dasa.

Point 1: One devotee called Anutamma who was also an engineer left the temple in the heat of the guru (Sept 1999) issue after getting swayed away by Satyanarayan in Vrindavan . He went there and after 2 days called up Madhu Pandit Dasa and told him that he has realized his mistake and wants to come back. Instead of welcoming the devotee Madhu Pandit Dasa tells him to call the next day again and he would have decided whether he should come back or not. I was shocked at this response as Anutamma was a talented devotee having served for nearly 10 yrs . I very humbly raised the issue and requested that he could be pardoned and asked to come back. Just for this I got pounced on by Madhu Pandit Dasa. He fired me for hours telling me how his action on Anutamma was correct and that I am committing offences against Madhu Pandit Dasa as he is directly being instructed by Krishna and Srila Prabhupada. Obviously Anuttama too got a shock of his life and never called back and is now working in Chennai. It was also shocking for me to see the reaction of Chanchala Pathi Dasa who was also there when Anuttama’s phone came. He put his two hands on his head and told in a very hushed tone that “Madhu Pandit it is better that we don’t have older devotees like Anuttama as it is becoming increasingly difficult to handle them“.  [editor: so purge them]

Also on another occasion I was personally told by Chanchala Pathi Dasa that the management feels that “it is better to have more karmi employees than devotees because devotees will show quotes, ask questions, analyze situations and are generally unreliable”.  This clearly shows what the management of Madhu Pandit Dasa feels about devotees who have given their lives for the service of the society!

A similar incident happened earlier also when Shanti Parayana Das had left and wanted to come back after a few months. The response to Shanti  parayana’s request (communicated to SPD through some other devotee) was ” Please tell him (Shanti Parayana ) that he cannot assume that he can come back ”

Point 2: Four young devotees were asked to prepare to go to US and Madhu Pandit Dasa arranged Puripada (of US) to take the devotees. The idea was to open ritvik center in NY and also Puripada was offering his farm for IRM activities. Puripada came to Bangalore with his 2 young daughters and started mixing with the bramacaris and telling how he is very advanced and how he has sex with his wife everyday. Many older devotees objected to these young devotees being sent with such a person. I also was in disagreement but did not open my mouth. In spite of keeping quiet Madhu Pandit understood my mood and called me and said “Just like your old friends were shown the door out for  not agreeing with me, I shall show you also the door out.” This is the statement the TP tells a devotee after serving for 12 yrs. And then what ensued was a few hours of firing which I sat quietly and listened without speaking a word. I was completely traumatized as I never expected him to go to such harsh levels.

Puripada finally could not provide a visa for the 4 devotees who had gone with him to Chennai US consulate. During this trip, one devotee Sarvajna lost one ISKCON letterhead and Madhu Pandit Dasa grilled him for the whole night and even slapped Sarvajna.

All this for a letterhead and I am seeing that no action is taken on Jai Chaitanya Das who stole temple funds and purchased a land in Kerala and built a bungalow worth over Rs 40 lakhs.

On another occasion when one of the temple commanders, Bharatarshaba Dasa, who had fallen out of grace because of his assoication with IRM, was blasted by Chanchala Pathi Dasa at his topmost voice for having goofed up a train reservation worth Rs 180!   This has happened in my personal presence.  And then he has the guts to ask me whether he shouted too much after Bharath had left.  I quietly told him “What is this?  It is not embezzlement and it is not intended.  It is only a goof up and the value is less than Rs 200.  Why don’t you shout like this at Jai Chaitanya Dasa who has embezzled more than Rs 40 Lakhs (which I know of).” For this he had no answer.

On another occasion regarding the same Jai Chaitanya Dasa’s embezzlement scandal, this Chanchala Pathi Dasa has further guts to preach and convince me that “Ananda, actually Jai Chaitanya Dasa has not done anything legally wrong but he is only morally wrong”.  This he is telling me because it is his opinion that Jai Chaitanya Dasa has taken only black money which was given to him for ISKCON farm use!

And what is the timing of this embezzlement, which has so mercifully been ‘authorised’ by both Madhu Pandit Dasa and Chanchala Pathi Dasa:  It is 1996.  The peak of Srila Prabhupada’s centennial preparations.  All the devotees in the temple are working tirelessly like machines with souls  – over 18-19 hours a day and this man Jai Chaitanya Dasa is busy embezzling  funds, materials (for example all door knobs are all with lion heads purchased for temple use!), constructing the bungalow, after construction cultivating the land of 13 acres with pepper!  Very very wonderful secretary we are having, who is completely a law unto himself.  And never checked by both Chanchala Pathi Dasa and Madhu Pandit Dasa.

Point 3: On one occasion about 8 months back Sridhar Swami had called and he was asking Madhu Pandit Dasa whether he could come to Bangalore. Just then Adri called on the other line and Madhu Pandit Dasa kept Sridhar Maharaj on the hold and spoke to Adri who told him to neglect such “rogues and cheaters”. Madhu Pandit Dasa then came on line again with Sridhar Maharaj and told him that he would not be able to encourage Maharaj’s proposed trip. Since I was present all through I humbly told him that we could have had Maharaj ‘s association and we could have got an opportunity to serve a vaisnava. Madhu Pandit Dasa replied saying “Your brain size is small and so you don’t have the capacity to understand my decision. You want to support these rogues and thieves who voted for my suspension during the GBC meeting.”

And what happened exactly after 8 months: After the March 2 peace proposal and later the collapse of peace proposal, when a circular vote was in motion for suspension, Madhu Pandit Dasa told me personally that he has to undo what wrong he did with Sridhar Swami.   He flew to Bombay, brought Sridhar Swami by paying his to and fro air fare and treated him like a royal guest and won his heart.  And all this to gain the vote of Sridhar Swami so that he will not be suspended.  This has been confirmed to me, to SGD,  to KVKD and others by Madhu Pandit Dasa himself.

Point 4: When one devotee called Gopal gouranga pr left the temple (in 1998) I was disturbed as around the same time many other devotees also had left. I went to Madhu Pandit Dasa with a mood of seeking some association and told him how I was disturbed. He immediately shouted at me and said “You have stool in your brain, that is why you are disturbed“. I feel no need to explain further.

Point 5: When Madhu Pandit Dasa was planning to send the letters to life members of Mumbai regarding the guru issue, myself and other senior devotees pleaded with him not to do so. He gave me an explanation that when the sexual abuse case (Turley case) comes to India the life members will identify us as the reform group and will therefore see us different from the scandalous ISKCON. I humbly mentioned that the Life Patrons (LPs) will not understand any such difference and they will only see some fight going on within ISKCON. He went wild with this and started using abusive language and shouting at me.

And what happened after that: The bureau notice was served and the peace proposal was being discussed.   Madhu Pandit Dasa apologized to the Bureau that the letter being sent was mistake. He convinced the hardcore ritviks in the temple that the letter episode was a mistake and gave the same logic that I gave to him earlier as to how the LPs will not understand all this and will only see as some fight within ISKCON. I humbly pointed out to the Vice President Chanchalapati das how Madhu Pandit Dasa changed his stance in a month’s time. When this reached Madhu Pandit Dasa he called me and fired me for nearly one hour and said: “You fool, what you know how Krishna has taken me through these 30 days.  The situation is very dynamic and I have to change according to situations as taken by Krishna!!!”

Point 6: Recently while the peace proposal  was going on I suggested to include some Bureau members like GKG,  Bhima pr etc as trustees of the five deity trust he became wild and started shouting at me saying ” You want these jokers to come and rule the place. What dedication do they have for Srila Prabhupada. You want me to be thrown out of this place. You are such an immature fool. You do not know what will happen to this place if I leave. The whole place will crumble and fall apart. You are shaking the temple with such dangerous ideas.”

And what happened after this incident, when it became increasingly difficult for him to handle the pressure from me and other devotees?  He suggested to Bhima pr that he will include Mahaman pr ,  Bhima pr and Yaso pr as trustees. When I sought clarification  on this matter and asked him what changed his mind he pounced on me saying that he is doing it because of “internal pressure” but at the same time he has ensured that all three are foreigners and so that they can be “knocked off” at anytime when the bureau  turns against him!!!  All glories to the saviour of Srila Prabhupada’s name!!!!

These are some samples of Madhu Pandit Dasas arrogance and pride and I my experience has been traumatic.

I hope that, considering the above facts, you will take quick action on Madhu Pandit Dasa.

Your servant,

Ananda Tirtha Das

Visit: www.ISKCON-BDA.org to find out more about the frauds of Madhu Pandit Dasa

This entry was posted on Monday, February 16th, 2009 at 15:40 and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.