GGG=Gold, Guns and God; K4K=Killing For Krishna; ENE=Eleven Naked Emperors, followed by page numbers of print editions

September 1, 1896: Abhay Charan De (later known as His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada) is born into a Gaudiya-Vaishnava family in Calcutta, India. His father, Gour Mohan De—a cloth merchant—wants him to grow up singing bhajans (religious songs), playing the mrdanga (a two-headed Indian drum made from baked clay and cowhide), and preaching from Srimad-bhagavatam. (GGG1 141, ENE 8)

June/July 1903: Six-year-old Abhay Charan De, with the help of his father, organizes a miniature Ratha Yatra (chariot procession) festival in his Calcutta neighborhood. (GGG1 142)

1916: Abhay Charan De enrolls in Scottish Church College in Calcutta, the oldest continuously-running Christian liberal arts and sciences college in India (founded in 1830). (GGG1 143)

1916-1920: Abhay Charan De learns from his professor at Scottish Church College, Rev. Dr. William Spence Urquhart (1877-1964), that “the brain substance [in men] has been found up to 64 ounce, while brain substance of woman has been found, highest, 34 ounce. Therefore woman class (laughs) is not so intelligent as man. There is no question of competition. It is actual, scientific fact.” Abhay believed this fiction for his entire life and years later taught it to his disciples. (GGG4 29)

March 14, 1917: Richard Rose is born in Benwood, West Virginia. In the spring of 1947 he experiences a mystical revelation. In 1967 he attempts to form a nonsectarian ashram on his wooded Marshall County land, and in March 1968 Kirtanananda Swami and Hayagriva first visit his back farm, which becomes known as New Vrindaban. (GGG2 16)

1918: Abhay Charan De, a 21-year-old third-year college student following the orders of his father, marries eleven-year-old Radharani Datta. (GGG1 143)

At the age of forty-four, Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur Prabhupada (1874-1937)—a prominent Gaudiya-Vaishnava scholar and theologian—establishes the Gaudiya Math (the word “math” refers to an ashram or place of spiritual practice), which expands into a confederation of sixty-seven temples and ashrams in India, including a few preaching outposts in London, Berlin and Rangoon, Burma. (ENE 4)

1920: Abhay Charan De passes the exams for his BA degree, but refuses to accept his diploma as a protest against British foreign domination. (GGG1 144)

1922: Abhay Charan De meets his spiritual master for the first time, the founder of the Gaudiya Math, Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur Prabhupada. Bhaktisiddhanta orders Abhay to “preach Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s message throughout the world.” (GGG1 145)

1929: Child marriage is outlawed in India; the legal minimum age of marriage is set at 14 for girls and 18 for boys. (GGG4 318)

November 21, 1932: Abhay Charan De formally accepts diksa initiation from Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur Prabhupada and is awarded the name Abhay Charanaravinda. (GGG1 146)

1936: Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Prabhupada observes his disciples quarreling amongst themselves at his Calcutta branch and predicts a forthcoming crisis in his Society: “These men [my senior disciples] . . . are simply after the stones and bricks [of my Calcutta temple]. . . . There will be fire in this Gaudiya Math.” (ENE 5)

January 1, 1937: Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur Prabhupada passes away in Calcutta, India, at the age of sixty-two. He appointed no successor, but asked his disciples to form a Governing Body Commission to govern the Gaudiya Math in his absence. (ENE 6)

c. January 1937: When Marjorie Ham and her husband, a minister for the Conservative Baptist Church, attempt to conceive their fifth child, she prays “to God to have a preacher as a son.” (GGG1 4, K4K 135)

May 1937: Wallace Edward Sheffey (later known as Umapati Swami) is born. In the 1960s he becomes a close associate of Keith Ham and Howard Wheeler and lives at their Mott Street apartment. (GGG1 108)

September 6, 1937: Keith Gordon Ham, the fifth child of Reverend Francis Gordon Ham (1903-1979) and Marjorie Grace Clark Ham (1905-1988), is born in Peekskill, New York. Marjorie Ham, when questioned by her mother, “Why another child?” responds, “This child is going to be a great preacher.” (GGG1 4, K4K 135)

1939: The Gaudiya-Vaishnava Society of India (Gaudiya Vaisnava Samiti) recognizes Abhay Charan De’s philosophical learning and devotion and honors him with the title “Bhaktivedanta,” with bhakti meaning “devotion,” and vedanta meaning “the end of knowledge.” (ENE 9)

September 2, 1940: Howard Morton Wheeler, III (later known as Hayagriva) is born in Pensacola, Florida; an only (and spoiled) child of middle-class Roman Catholic parents. Howard’s father, Howard Morton Wheeler, II, works as a newspaper editor; his mother, Edythe, is a youthful and pretty Southern housewife. (GGG1 27, K4K 135)

November 5, 1943: Dennis Frederick Gorrick (later known as Dharmatma) is born in Vancouver, British Columbia. He is initiated in 1972 and moves to New Vrindaban a year later. He becomes the notorious women’s sankirtan leader (and abuser), and is involved in the conspiracy to murder Sulochan by providing funds for the hit man’s travel expenses on at least two occasions. (GGG4 115, K4K 169)

1944: Abhay Charan De founds Back To Godhead, a newsletter for preaching Krishna consciousness to English readers. (GGG1 148)

1945: Around the age of eight—if not earlier—Keith Ham discovers he is irresistibly attracted to the male sex organ. Years later, his older sister tells a devotee, “When you were sucking your mother’s breast, Keith was sucking something else!” This was confirmed by Keith himself who boasted to a younger godbrother, “I was sucking cock before you were born.” Around the same time in 1945, five-year-old Howard Wheeler discovers that he experiences an amazing and mysterious pleasure in his genitalia when wrestling with a boy playmate. (GGG1 27, K4K 136))

July 22, 1947: John Anthony Sinkowski (later known as Janmastami) is born in Carle Place, a hamlet in North Hempstead, Nassau County, on Long Island, in New York. Years later, he becomes a disciple of Kirtanananda Swami and an important member of the conspiracy to murder Sulochan. (K4K 164)

January 1948: Gary L. Gardner (later known as Sri Galim) is born. He joins ISKCON in Austin, Texas, receives diksa initiation in July 1971, and goes on to teach children at the Dallas gurukula. He becomes headmaster of the Nandagram gurukula at New Vrindaban in 1979, and beginning around 1980, sexually abuses some of the boys under his care. (GGG4 237)

January 24, 1948: Ronald Nay (later in 1973 known as Gopinath dasa and in 1986 as Radha Vrindaban Chandra Swami) is born in a small mid-western American town. He becomes Bhaktipada’s secretary, treasurer, confidant and most-obsequious sycophant. (GGG10 126)

November 2, 1948: Terry Ray Sheldon (later known as Tapahpunja Swami) is born to atheist labor-union-organizer parents in Detroit, Michigan, and grows up in a “poor, working-class neighborhood.” Years later, he joins the New Vrindaban community, becomes a swami and a prominent member of the conspiracy to murder Sulochan. (K4K 142)

November 10, 1948: Thomas A. Drescher (later known as Tirtha Swami) is born out of wedlock in Buffalo, New York. His mother puts her infant up for adoption, and he is adopted by a married couple. Tom’s step-mother suffers from mental illness and dies in an insane asylum when Tom is still young. His father, Tom claims, sometimes beats him up. Tom becomes a rebellious kid, and has his first arrest and conviction at the age of eleven. Years later, he joins ISKCON New Vrindaban and murders two devotees. (GGG5 34, K4K 152)

1949: Twelve-year-old Keith Ham has his first “real religious experience.” He is “born again” and attempts to convert his classmates to the Baptist faith. (GGG1 10, K4K 135)

January 29, 1949: Tim Lee (later known as Puranjana) is born in Buffalo, New York. He receives diksa in July 1971 in Detroit, Michigan. In 1976, he meets Sulochan in Los Angeles and the two become best friends.

February 8, 1949: Arthur John Villa, Jr. (later known as Kuladri) is born into a wealthy, “affluent and Roman Catholic family” in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Years later, he becomes president of New Vrindaban and a prominent leader in the conspiracy to murder Sulochan. (GGG2 159, K4K 145)

February 28, 1949: Abhay Charan De explains the Varnashram System in a letter, “By the modes of nature different persons are imbued with different qualities and the scientific way of division of human society, from the qualitative aspect, by the caste system is quite natural. . . . That makes a real classless society.” (GGG2 6)

1950: Abhay Charan De unofficially retires from family life at the age of fifty-four. (GGG1 149)

February 25, 1950: John Edwin Favors (later known as Ghanashyam dasa, and then Bhakti Tirtha Swami Krishnapada) is born in a ghetto in Cleveland, Ohio. Years later, he becomes an ISKCON sannyasi, guru, and Bhaktipada’s chief supporter on the GBC. (GGG9 17)

December 7, 1950: Richard Slavin (later known as Radhanath Swami) is born to Jewish parents in Chicago, Illinois. Years later, he becomes an ISKCON sannyasi, and an important member of the conspiracy to murder Sulochan, and after that, a prominent ISKCON guru. (GGG 147, K4K 168)

February 4, 1951: Joseph Pollock, Jr. is born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He serves in the U. S. Navy as an electrician’s apprentice. He joins ISKCON in San Diego, California in 1974, but moves back to Pittsburgh to be closer to his parents. He lives in the Pittsburgh temple and receives diksa at New Vrindaban and the name Jyotirdhama dasa in July 1976. In 1981, Bhaktipada asks him to work for him at New Vrindaban. Jyotirdhama installs a massive telephone system at New Vrindaban and becomes known as “New Vrindaban’s Telephone Man.” He serves in the conspiracy to murder Sulochan by helping route calls through the main switchboard from the hit men hunting Sulochan to senior New Vrindaban management. He tells of his involvement in the conspiracy to murder Sulochan in a ten-page Addendum in the book Killing For Krishna. He claims, “Radhanath ordered the murder of Sulochan.” (K4K 517)

July 10, 1951: Robert Grant (later known as Ramesvara Swami) is born in a wealthy Jewish family and raised in the affluent village of Roslyn Estates in Nassau County, New York, on the North Shore of Long Island. He becomes an ISKCON guru and becomes involved in the conspiracy to murder Sulochan. He orders his ksatriya disciples to cooperate with the New Vrindaban hit men who are hunting Sulochan in his zone. (K4K 173)

June 23, 1952: Keith Ham graduates from Drum Hill Junior High School (ninth grade) in Peekskill, New York. He takes piano lessons and performs in student recitals at the Studios of Musical Art for Serious Study in Crompond, New York. (GGG1 11)

July 4, 1952: Steven Leslie Bryant (later known as Sulochan), the son of Jack and Helga Bryant—a United States Air Force officer and a German-born high school teacher—is born in Laramie, Wyoming. He grows up in Royal Oak, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. Years later, after joining ISKCON, he initiates a smear campaign against Kirtanananda Swami and the other ISKCON gurus and is murdered by a Bhaktipada disciple. (GGG6 75, K4K 1)

September 1952: Keith Ham enrolls in Bob Jones Academy in Greenville, South Carolina. He contracts hepatitis and returns home. (GGG1 12, K4K 135)

January 1953: Keith Ham enrolls in Stony Brook School on Long Island. (GGG1 12, K4K 135)

May 16, 1953: Fifty-six-year-old Abhay Charan De holds a grand-opening celebration for the League of Devotees at the Bharati Bhavan in Jhansi, India, with continuous readings, kirtan and prasadam (food offered to Krishna) distribution. In the evening, when attendance is greatest, Abhay lectures from Bhagavad-gita. His student and first initiated disciple, Prabhakar Mishra—a university principal, Sanskrit scholar and medical doctor—conducts a fire sacrifice, and brahmins chant mantras from Brahma-samhita. Hundreds of visitors attend and the event is chronicled by articles in local newspapers. (GGG1 149)

Summer 1953: Keith Ham contracts polio. He misses a half year of high school. Muscles in his legs and abdomen are permanently damaged. (GGG1 15, K4K 135)

Spring 1955: Keith Ham graduates from high school. His classmates remember him for his courage in dealing with the crippling disease polio, and also for drinking prodigious quantities of beer at parties, forbidden, of course, by his conservative Baptist parents. (GGG1 17, K4K 136)

Autumn 1955: Keith Ham begins classes at Maryville College in Maryville, Tennessee. (GGG1 20)

January 30, 1956: Henry Doktorski, III (later known as Hrishikesh and in this timeline as “the author”) is born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, to middle-class Polish-American Roman-Catholic parents. He exhibits talent in music and later becomes a disciple of Kirtanananda Swami. In his old age, he completes twelve non-fiction books about his spiritual master, New Vrindaban and ISKCON.

May 1956: Abhay Charan De proposes a community, which he calls Geeta Nagari (today spelled “Gita-Nagari”), to serve as a model society which would teach men and women how to realize the purpose of human life. He outlines his vision in a two-part article in his fortnightly newspaper, Back to Godhead. Twelve years later, New Vrindaban (ISKCON’s first farm community) is established. (GGG2 8)

June 4, 1958: Howard Wheeler (and his mother) rides the train for 800-miles from his home in West Palm Beach, Florida, to the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, where he enrolls as a freshman English major. (GGG1 30)

November 20, 1958: Abhay Charan De advocates child marriage in an article in Back To Godhead. (GGG4 318)

May 20, 1959: Keith Ham graduates magna cum laude as a history major from Maryville College in Maryville, Tennessee. Keith subsequently receives a $2,000 Woodrow Wilson Fellowship to study American history in a graduate degree program at North Carolina University. (GGG1 21, K4K 136)

September 17, 1959: 63-year-old Abhay Charan De accepts initiation into the Gaudiya-Vaishnava sannyasa order from his godbrother Bhakti Prajñana Keshava Maharaja (1898-1968) and becomes known as A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaja. (GGG1 152)

December 8, 1959: Eleven-year-old Thomas A. Drescher is convicted of his first crime: Trespassing and Malicious Mischief (Buffalo, New York). (GGG5 34, K4K153)

October 1960: Howard Wheeler, an undergraduate English major in his junior year at North Carolina University, meets his lifelong friend, partner, and lover, Keith Ham, a history major in graduate school three years his elder, at Tanya’s, a gay bar in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. (GGG1 33, K4K 137)

February 3, 1961: Keith Ham and Howard Wheeler drop out from their studies at the University of North Carolina after the administration begins an investigation regarding a “sex scandal.” Rather than appear before the investigative board, the two resign from their degree programs. At first they live in a house in West Palm Beach, Florida, for about a month, perhaps with one of Howard’ s friends. (GGG1 44, 48)

March 1961: Keith Ham and Howard Wheeler move to the Ham residence in Merrick, Long Island, for a week or two, and finally find their own apartment on 76^th Street in Manhattan for $25 a week. (GGG1 48, K4K 138)

May 10-20, 1961: The Congress for Cultivating Human Spirit is held in Tokyo, Japan. A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami preaches interfaith in his book, The Light of the Bhagavat, which he writes for the convention. He says, “In this age of a godless civilisation, the sages of world-recognised religious sects who believe in God, must come out of their secluded places and preach the science of God to the people in general. Hindus, Muslims and Christians and members of other sects that have convincing faith in the authority of God, must not sit idly now and silently watch the rapid growth of a godless civilisation. . . . Responsible leaders of religious sects must meet together and form a common platform of a league of devotees of the Lord.” (GGG8 250)

June 1961: Keith Ham and Howard Wheeler move to a “vastly superior” apartment on West 20^th Street in New York City. (GGG1 51)

September 1961: Howard Wheeler begins his Master’s Degree program at the New School for Social Research, and Keith Ham attends classes at Columbia University in Manhattan. (GGG1 52)

October 1961: Keith Ham and Howard Wheeler celebrate their first anniversary as a couple by drinking two liters of champagne, listening to records by Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane and Johnny Griffin, and making love in their apartment. (GGG1 54)

July 1962: After an argument with the 20^th Street apartment managers, Keith Ham and Howard Wheeler move to apartment 3-A at 274 Mott Street in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. The two brew homemade beer in their bathtub and later discover marijuana, peyote and LSD. Both imbibe heavily. They are not monogamous and often have casual sex with other young men, sometimes several acquaintances in one day. For a time, they keep an attractive, homeless seventeen-year-old boy (Jimmy) in their apartment. They provide him food, lodging, beer and marijuana in return for sex. (GGG1 55)

December 31, 1962: Keith Ham and Howard Wheeler celebrate New Year’s Eve in Times Square. At the stroke of midnight, Howard is aghast when Keith impulsively approaches every man between the ages of 18 and 23 in the huge crowd and “feels their cocks and balls.” (GGG1 57)

January 1963: Howard Wheeler finishes his course work at The New York School for Social Research, receives his undergraduate degree and immediately plunges into graduate studies at New York University. (GGG1 65)

June 1963: Keith Ham, Howard Wheeler and a gay friend hunt for sex partners in a Coney Island gay bath house. (GGG1 72)

December 1963: Keith Ham and Howard Wheeler discover marijuana, if not earlier. (GGG1 82)

January 1964: Keith Ham and Howard Wheeler discover peyote. (GGG1 100)

February 1964: Wallace Sheffey meets Keith Ham and Howard Wheeler. (GGG1 92)

c. May 1964: Howard receives his Master Degree in English. Keith drops out of school. (GGG1 92-93)

July 16, 1964: Bhaktivedanta Swami’s professor at Scottish Church College in Calcutta, Rev. Dr. William Spence Urquhart (1877-1964), who taught Abhay De that women’s brains are only half the size of men’s brains, dies in Scotland at the age of 87. (GGG4 28)

c. Summer 1964: Keith, Howard and Wally discover LSD. Keith becomes an LSD guru. (GGG1 112)

September 1964: Howard gets a job teaching English at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. Keith and Howard move to “America’s Heartland.” Wally stays at Mott Street. (GGG1 120, K4K 138)

July 6, 1965: Sixteen-year-old Thomas Drescher is convicted of his second crime: Robbery, First Degree, 3 Counts, Grand Larceny, First Degree, 1 Count (Amherst, New York). (GGG5 34, K4K 153)

August 13, 1965: Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaja boards a steamship freighter in Calcutta, India, for New York City. He is 68 years old. The Scindia Steamship Company gives him free passage aboard the freighter S. S. Jaladuta, and Bhaktivedanta Swami leaves India with a suitcase, a crate of his books including Srimad-bhagavatam and Easy Journey to Other Planets, a three-tiered brass cooker, a pair of kartals (cymbals) and forty rupees (worth at the time about seven U. S. dollars). (GGG1 152)

August 23, 1965: On the tenth day of his journey on the steamship Jaladuta, Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaja encounters great difficulty, and notes in his diary, “We are floating now on the Arabian Sea. My seasickness again began. Headache vomiting tendency no hunger dizziness and no energy to work. It is continuing.” The symptoms persist, but it is much more than a simple case of seasickness: he has two heart attacks. (GGG1 152-153)

August 31, 1965: Eight days after his heart attacks, Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaja writes in his diary, “Passed over a great crisis on the struggle for life and death.” (GGG1 153)

September 19, 1965: After a 38-day sea voyage, Bhaktivedanta Swami disembarks at the port of New York City and travels by bus to Butler, Pennsylvania, where he stays for a month under the care of his American sponsors, Gopal and Sally Agarwal. (GGG1 153)

September 29, 1965: Keith Ham and Howard Wheeler board the steamship M. V. Jaladhir in New York City and begin their journey to India. (GGG1 121, K4K 138)

October 18, 1965: Bhaktivedanta Swami leaves the small, rural Pennsylvania town of Butler and travels to New York City, where he stays with an Indian “uptown swami” acquaintance, Dr. Ramamurti Mishra, in his yoga studio at 100 West Seventy-Second Street, near Central Park. (GGG1 153-154)

October 31, 1965: After a 32-day sea voyage, Keith Ham and Howard Wheeler arrive in Bombay. They spend time in Bombay, Hardwar, Delhi and Calcutta. They remain in India for two-and-a-half months, smoking hashish, flirting with homosexual teenage Indian boys, and trying to find answers to their questions. (GGG1 126, K4K 138)

January 1966: Keith Ham and Howard Wheeler return home to New York City after their first visit to India. (GGG1 134, K4K 138)

February 4, 1966: Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaja writes to a godbrother in India and expresses faith in the holy name, “Yesterday evening. I have prepared some tape record[ing] of my personal kirtan. When one of this tape record was played the audience became practically charmed by that, although not a single word of my language was understandable by them. So I am confident of the statement of Srila Haridasa Thakur that the transcendental sound of Lord Chaitanya’s harinama can do good even to the birds and the beasts.” (GGG9 44)

February 15, 1966: After four months living as a guest of Dr. Mishra, Bhaktivedanta Swami rents his own place, a barren, windowless third-floor room two floors below Dr. Mishra’s yoga studio, at 100 West Seventy-Second Street. The rent is $72 per month. Although the room has water and a toilet, there is no bath or kitchen. He still has to cook at Dr. Mishra’s apartment, but at least he is free to preach as he likes. His first audiences consist mainly of people who had heard about him or met him at Dr. Mishra’s yoga studio. (GGG1 154)

April 1966: When Bhaktivedanta Swami’s room is ransacked by a thief (he loses his typewriter and tape recorder), he moves into a loft at 94 Bowery Street which he shares with a young artist who attends his programs. Unfortunately, the seventeen-year-old roommate becomes deranged from LSD and Swami abandons the loft and moves in with another follower. “He was taking LSD. . . . Then one day that boy . . . he showed some crazy features. So I thought it is dangerous to live with him.” (GGG1 156)

July 1, 1966: With the help of a handful of sympathetic followers, Bhaktivedanta Swami moves into an apartment and a small storefront at 26 Second Avenue. Word soon spreads among young hippies and seekers of spiritual truth that an Indian Swami has come with a “far-out” yoga method: chanting Hare Krishna.

July 13, 1966: Bhaktivedanta Swami incorporates the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, Inc., a Gaudiya-Vaishnava religious society. (GGG1 156, ENE 11)

c. Mid-July 1966: Howard Wheeler meets his spiritual master on a street corner just a few blocks from his home on Mott Street. Howard Wheeler, Keith Ham and Wally Sheffey begin attending Bhaktivedanta Swami’s evening classes at 26 Second Avenue. Within a week, Howard becomes Swamiji’s chief editor. (GGG1 138, K4K 139)

August 1966: Keith, Howard and Wally begin attending Bhaktivedanta Swami’ s morning programs at his apartment behind 26 Second Avenue. (GGG1 179)

August 26, 1966: Bhaktivedanta Swami explains, “We don’t use anything for my personal comfort; everything for Krishna. That is called renouncement, not a single farthing for my personal comfort, but millions of dollars for Krishna.” (GGG4 90)

Summer 1966: Bhaktivedanta Swami takes his disciples on a weekend retreat to Ananda Ashram, the upstate New York countryside yoga retreat center operated by Swamiji’s acquaintance and benefactor, Dr. Ramamurti Mishra. (GGG2 11)

September 9, 1966: Bhaktivedanta Swami holds the first initiation ceremony at 26 Second Avenue. Among others, Howard becomes Hayagriva and Wally becomes Umapati. Keith is unable to attend, as he has unwittingly signed himself in to Bellevue Mental Hospital. (GGG1 196)

September 14, 1966: During a lecture, Bhaktivedanta Swami explains what is a “showbottle devotee,” “In India we have got some show bottles in the medicine shop. Some red water put into the big bottle and with electric light. . . . So red water will not cure the disease. You must have really, actually, a mixture, fever mixture. But that fever mixture is very difficult [to make]. . . . But showbottle demonstration will not make you successful. . . . Showbottle demonstration will not make you successful. You have to be really bottle of medicine. Then it will cure.” (GGG5 2)

September 15, 1966: Seventeen-year-old Thomas Drescher is convicted of his third crime: Petite Larceny (Amherst, New York). (GGG5 34, K4K 153)

September 22, 1966: Keith tricks his father into signing the papers and releasing him from Bellevue Hospital. (GGG1 199)

September 23, 1966: Bhaktivedanta Swami holds a second initiation ceremony. Keith becomes Kirtanananda dasa Brahmachari. (GGG1 200, K4K 139)

November 17, 1966: Eighteen-year-old Thomas Drescher is convicted of his fourth crime: Public Intoxication (Amherst, New York) (GGG5 34, K4K 153)

November 25, 1966: Bhaktivedanta Swami posts a hand-written paper on the wall at 26 Second Avenue describing the four regulative principles and other rules for disciples to follow. It is likely that Kirtanananda strictly follows these rules. (GGG1 202)

January 17, 1967: Bhaktivedanta Swami travels to San Francisco where he opens the second ISKCON temple. Kirtanananda and Hayagriva soon follow. (GGG1 203)

January 29, 1967: At the Mantra Rock Dance organized by Mukunda (Michael Grant) at the San Francisco Avalon Ballroom with music by the Grateful Dead, Moby Grape, Big Brother and the Holding Company, Jefferson Airplane and Quicksilver Messenger Service, Bhaktivedanta Swami declares, “This is no place for a brahmachari.” (GGG8 191)

Early February 1967: After about six weeks in San Francisco, Kirtanananda returns to New York. (GGG1 206)

March 1967: Kirtanananda and his godbrother Janardan (Janus Dambergs) open the third ISKCON temple, in Montreal, Quebec. (GGG1 206)

March 14, 1967: In a letter to a disciple, Bhaktivedanta Swami explains why women are never awarded the title of sannyasa, “A female is never awarded the order of sannyasa. Because a female is never considered independent and sannyasa was never awarded to any female in the past by the great acharyas like Sankara, Ramanuja, etc. The female sannyasins are to be immediately understood as pretenders or prostitutes.” (GGG9 51)

April 9, 1967: After three months in San Francisco, Bhaktivedanta Swami returns to New York City. (GGG1 211)

May 31, 1967: Bhaktivedanta Swami is afflicted by a severe and unexpected stroke. Kirtanananda serves as nurse. (GGG1 211, K4K 139)

June 8, 1967: Bhaktivedanta Swami begins to recover from his stroke and asks his disciples to get him out of the hospital, one way or another. He complains, “They are simply sticking needles.” He is taken briefly to the New York City temple, then to a rented cottage near the Atlantic Ocean in Long Branch, New Jersey. (GGG1 212-213)

June 25, 1967: Bhaktivedanta Swami’s disciples take their master to a rented cottage at Stinson Beach in California, but the weather is cloudy and cool. (GGG1 213)

June 29, 1967: Bhaktivedanta Swami explains, “Vrindaban is the only solitary transcendental abode within this universe where Krishna consciousness automatically reveals.” (GGG1 172)

July 22, 1967: Bhaktivedanta Swami leaves the United States on a flight from New York to New Delhi, with stops in London and Moscow, accompanied by Kirtanananda, who, on Swamiji’s order, wears a gray flannel suit made from wool, with white shirt and red necktie. On the same date, Kirtanananda writes to his brother Gerald, “As soon as I reach India, I will be taking that long awaited step, the taking of sannyasa.” (GGG1 218)

August 1, 1967: After a week in Delhi, Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaja and his disciple Kirtanananda arrive in Vrindaban, India. They stay in Swamiji’s rooms at the Radha Damodara temple. (GGG1 222-223)

August 28, 1967: Kirtanananda dasa Brahmachari becomes Kirtanananda Swami during a fire sacrifice on Krishna’ s birthday (Janmastami) at the Radha Damodar Mandir in Vrindaban, India. Bhaktivedanta Swami conducts the sacrifice. (GGG1 224, K4K 139)

September 1967: With Swamiji’s encouragement, Hayagriva accepts a position as an assistant Professor of English at Luzerne County Community College in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. (GGG2 12, K4K 140)

September 5, 1967: Bhaktivedanta Swami shows confidence in his new sannyasa disciple. In a letter to Umapati, he writes, “Kirtanananda is now a fully Krishna conscious person as he has accepted sannyasa on the birthday of Lord Krishna with great success. He is the first sannyasa in my spiritual family and I hope he will return back home to begin preaching work with great vigor and success.” (GGG1 226, K4K 141)

c. Mid-September 1967: Kirtanananda Swami leaves India and returns to New York City, although his master instructs him to go to London. Upon arriving in New York, Kirtanananda tells his godbrothers and sisters that Swamiji will likely die in India, but as he has been initiated into the sannyasa order, he should lead ISKCON in Swamiji’s absence. Kirtanananda begins adding Western cultural elements in an effort to “Westernize” Krishna consciousness. When Swamiji hears about this, he declares that his rebellious disciple is “a crazy man.” (GGG1 233, K4K 139)

September 27, 1967: Bhaktivedanta Swami, after hearing that his first sannyasa disciple has disobeyed him and returned to New York City, declares, “It has certainly given me a great shock. . . . It is all my misfortune.” (GGG1 234)

October 6, 1967: Bhaktivedanta Swami explains, “Kirtanananda has lost his link on account of disobedience. . . . His lecture anywhere now will bear no spiritual sequence. . . . By lips he says that he is a surrendered soul but by action he is thinking differently.” (GGG1 237)

October 9, 1967: In a letter to the New York ISKCON temple president Brahmananda, Bhaktivedanta Swami writes, “I never took Kirtanananda into complete confidence. . . . If he at all wants to render service to Krishna he may be engaged at washing dishes.” (GGG 245)

October 11, 1967: In a letter to Brahmananda, Bhaktivedanta Swami writes, “Do not try to follow the unauthorized advice of Kirtanananda. . . . Kirtanananda is the first man in our Society who cleanly shaved and kept the sikha on the top of the head and now he has begun to keep beard again. This is not good. . . . Now he appears to be out of my control and therefore I advise you not to follow his principles unless he shows practically something wonderful. I gave him a chance to do this in the matter of opening a branch in London, but he has failed to do it.” (GGG1 243)

October 13, 1967: Bhaktivedanta Swami writes to a disciple, “Translation of prayers into English is good.” (GGG8 130) To another disciple, he writes, “‘Money is the honey’ goes so far as it is employed for Krishna consciousness.” (GGG3 114)

October 14, 1967: In a letter to a disciple, Bhaktivedanta Swami describes the essential features of a Vaishnava, “I have no objection if members of the Society dress like nice American gentlemen; but in all circumstances a devotee cannot avoid tilak, flag on head, & beads on neck. These are essential features of a Vaishnava.” (GGG9 46)

October 16, 1967: Bhaktivedanta Swami writes to Brahmananda, “It is clear that Kirtanananda has not rightly understood Krishna consciousness philosophy & it appears that he does not know the difference between impersonal & personal features of Krishna. The best thing will be to prohibit him to speak in any of our functions or meetings. It is clear that he has become crazy & he should once more be sent to Bellevue.” (GGG1 245)

October 19, 1967: Bhaktivedanta Swami writes to a disciple, “If he [Kirtanananda] does not rectify himself immediately his future is very dark. . . . I shall request that you save this poor creature from impersonal calamity.” (GGG1 245)

Bhaktivedanta Swami requests Hayagriva, who currently lives in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, to save money and investigate purchasing property for an ashram. He pledges $3,000 from the Society’s savings account toward the project. (GGG2 12)

October 26, 1967: Thomas Drescher is inducted into the United States Army. He fights in Vietnam as a member of the 101^st Airborne Division, where he participates in seven major campaigns. He receives the Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross with Bronze Star and Oak Leaf Cluster, the United States Bronze Star for bravery in combat, the U. S. Air Medal for repeated combat air assault, the U. S. Purple Heart for wounds sustained in combat and the National Defense Service Medal. (GGG5 35, K4K 153)

October 27, 1967: Bhaktivedanta Swami attends the Sri Vyasa Puja (birthday) festival for his senior godbrother Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Swami at the Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math in Navadvipa, India. Shortly after his visit, Bhaktivedanta Swami asks Sridhar Maharaja to be the president of his one-year-old ISKCON Society. (ENE 80)

On the same day, Bhaktivedanta Swami writes to a disciple in New York and says Kirtanananda, “must be polluted with impersonal poison.” (GGG1 246)

Late-October 1967: New York ISKCON temple president Brahmananda refuses to allow Kirtanananda to enter the temple. Some devotees spit on Kirtanananda. He moves to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, where Hayagriva teaches English at a community college. Kirtanananda steals Swamiji’s Bhagavad-gita manuscript, rips out the page with Bhaktivedanta Swami’s name, puts his own name in the book as author, visits New York City religious book publishers, and attempts to get “his” book published. (GGG1 254, K4K 139)

November 2, 1967: Bhaktivedanta Swami explains, “Regarding Kirtanananda, I cannot allow him to become Keith again. He is my spiritual son and I shall never allow him to fall down. When I return [to the United States] I shall drag him forcibly and make all right again. Anyone who has once come to me has become my beloved son; temporarily one may display some Mayic affliction, but that cannot prolong.” (GGG1 259)

November 9, 1967: Bhaktivedanta Swami writes, “We were very smoothly going on but this disruption created by Kirtanananda has plagued and disturbed the situation. . . . The separation of Kirtanananda and Hayagriva is not a very happy incident. I was practically in tears for their attitude of separation on such flimsy grounds. . . . Kirtanananda is a crazy man. That is proved. He says that he has become equal to the spiritual master but he is such a fool that he does not understand the principle of disciple even in ordinary worldly affairs.” (GGG1 256)

November 11, 1967: Bhaktivedanta compares Kirtanananda to the stars which provide insignificant light at night, and his faithful disciples to the moon which provides profuse light. (GGG1 250)

November 15 1967: Bhaktivedanta Swami tells Brahmananda, “The Kirtanananda incident is certainly very unhappy. . . . Anyway, forget the chapter, there is nothing to be lamented if thousands of Kirtananandas or Hayagrivas come and go.” (GGG1 259)

November 23, 1967: Bhaktivedanta Swami writes to Umapati, “We shall silently pray for them [Kirtanananda and Hayagriva] to Krishna and shed tears for them for our inability to save them.” (GGG1 261)

December 1967: Kirtanananda Swami reads a letter in the counterculture newspaper, The San Francisco Oracle, by a West Virginia landowner, Richard Rose, inviting spiritual seekers to join him in creating a “non-profit, non-interfering, non-denominational retreat” in rural Marshall County. It’s a landlocked 19^th-century farmhouse in the Allegheny Plateau with no paved roads surrounded by forest and a few fields. Kirtanananda writes to Richard Rose expressing interest. Kirtanananda and Hayagriva also mail a letter to Bhaktivedanta Swami in India, telling him they have left ISKCON and are starting their own ashram in West Virginia in competition with ISKCON. Swamiji weeps while reading the letter. (GGG1 258, GGG2 19)

December 13, 1967: After five months recuperating in India, Bhaktivedanta Swami leaves Calcutta on Pan American Airways flight No. 846, and returns to America, arriving in San Francisco the next day after a twenty-four hour stop in Tokyo. His strength has returned and he is eager to continue his preaching work in the United States. (GGG2 3)

December 17, 1967: Bhaktivedanta Swami returns to New York and his disciples, like Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Prabhupada’s disciples before them, begin addressing their spiritual master by the honorary title “Prabhupada”—“one who has taken shelter at the pada (feet) of the prabhu (master).” Bhaktivedanta Swami begins using the title “His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada” on the covers and title pages of his books and publications. (GGG2 3, ENE 11)

December 29, 1967: In a letter to a disciple, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada requests that devotees should accommodate Kirtanananda and Hayagriva if they come back to the temple. (GGG1 261)

December 30, 1967: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada suggests that a compromise may be worked out with Kirtanananda and Hayagriva. (GGG1 262)

January 15, 1968: In a letter to Hayagriva, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada explains, “Kirtanananda made everything topsy-turvy. . . . He was also very eager to take sannyasa and I awarded him the sannyasa order; and I do not know, he wanted a certificate of his sannyasa. We never took any certificate of our spiritual master or anyone, but he told me that it was required for facility of preaching, so I gave him the certificate, but unfortunately the whole thing was smashed by different doctrine. Now it is understood from Umapati that Kirtanananda does not believe in parampara or in the necessity of scriptural authority. He seems to feel that this is a sort of tyranny.” (GGG1 236-237)

January 22, 1968: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada coins the name “New Vrindaban” in a letter to his disciple Hansadutta (Hans Jürgen Kary), suggesting that he purchase land for a country ashram. (GGG2 12)

February 1, 1968: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada writes to a disciple, “No other language of the world is so perfect as Sanskrit. Any language near to Sanskrit language (like Bengali) is nearer to perfection.” (GGG9 45)

On the same day, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada writes to another disciple, “You can sing prayers in Sanskrit, but prayers in English can also be pronounced because the Lord accepts the motive. Even if some effectiveness is lost in translation, it will make no difference.” (GGG8 130)

March 13-25, 1968: AWOL from ISKCON, Kirtanananda “Swami” visits his brother and sister-in-law—Gerald and Elsie Ham—at their home in Madison, Wisconsin. They observe Kirtanananda smoking marijuana. (GGG2 21)

March 17, 1968: In a letter to Hayagriva, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada suggests that he and Kirtanananda abandon their idea to create a nonsectarian ashram in West Virginia, and instead create an ashram under the auspices of ISKCON. (GGG2 20)

In the same letter, Prabhupada also suggests he might permanently make New Vrindaban his world headquarters, “If Kirtanananda endeavors to utilize the 320 acres for turning it into New Vrindaban, I may permanently stay there and try to serve you in constructing a New Vrindaban city in West Virginia.” (GGG3 5-6)

March 30-31, 1968: Kirtanananda and Hayagriva visit Richard Rose’s ashram in West Virginia. Hayagriva returns to Wilkes-Barre to teach, but Kirtanananda stays in West Virginia. (GGG2 21, K4K 140)

April 17, 1968: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada flies from San Francisco to New York City. Along with others, Hayagriva greets Prabhupada at the airport, and speaks with him about New Vrindaban at the ISKCON temple. (GGG2 40)

May 13, 1968: Kirtanananda, after two months without attracting followers to his West Virginia ashram, writes to Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, apologizes for his offenses, and begs forgiveness for leaving ISKCON eight months earlier. (GGG2 42)

May 23, 1968: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada replies to Kirtanananda’s letter, “I was so glad to receive your letter . . . and my gladness knew no bounds, exactly like that when one gets back his lost child. You have written to say that you think of me often and now it is confirmed that you cannot do without thinking of me, because I was always thinking of you. Sometimes I silently cried and prayed to Krishna that how I have lost this child, Kirtanananda. But I am sure that you cannot be lost because you chanted very nicely in Vrindaban [India]. Anyone who once sincerely chanted the Holy Name of Krishna cannot be separated from the Krishna consciousness atmosphere. So I was sure that you were never lost and you would come back.” (GGG2 42)

June 14, 1968: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada declares that the “special feature” and “main business” of New Vrindaban is to care for cows, calves, oxen and bulls. He insists that the economic problem will be solved by tilling the land and protecting cows. In a letter to Hayagriva from Montreal, he explains, “Give all protection to the cows, and that should be the main business of New Vrindaban.” (GGG2 46)

June 22, 1968: Kirtanananda Maharaja, after three months at New Vrindaban, writes to Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada about the difficulties with Mr. Rose the landowner, Rose’s insistence on having a “nonsectarian” institution, and the “backwards and suspicious” neighbors. He also requests some assistance to help build the community. Specifically Kirtanananda requests Prabhupada to send one hundred brahmacharis to help at New Vrindaban. In response to his disciple’s specific request for one hundred brahmacharis, Prabhupada answers, “I think no brahmachari will agree to go there.” (GGG2 51)

July 7, 1968: Disappointed that Richard Rose refuses to grant a long-term lease to Kirtanananda and Hayagriva, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada suggests to another disciple to acquire land in Florida and call it “New Vrindaban.” (GGG2 53)

July 10, 1968: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada suggests to Hayagriva that he abandon the New Vrindaban project and come and live with him. (GGG2 53)

July 13, 1968: The Wheeling News-Register publishes an article about the “hippies” living on Richard Rose’s property. Rose achieves some notoriety and many curious readers drive to his farm. This unwelcome intrusion to his privacy contributes to his anxiety. (GGG2 27)

July 16, 1968: The “Shoot Out” at Richard Rose’s goat farm. This incident removes Rose’s stubbornness to grant a long term lease to Hayagriva and Kirtanananda on his back farm, as Rose needs quick cash to hire a lawyer. (GGG2 54)

Late-July 1968: Kirtanananda and Hayagriva travel to Montreal where they humbly apologize personally to Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Prabhupada “forgives his renegade disciples with a garland of roses and a shower of tears.” (GGG2 58, K4K 140)

August 7, 1968: Hayagriva, along with Richard Rose and his wife Phyllis, signs a 99-year lease on Rose’s 132.77 acres Marshall County rural property for four thousand dollars, with an option to purchase for ten dollars when the lease expires. Hayagriva puts down a $1,500 deposit. (GGG2 60)

August 17, 1968: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada warns about industrial development, such as mining coal or drilling for oil, at New Vrindaban: “I do not know what is written there in the Clerk’s office in Deed Book 98, but on common sense, it appears that the area is coal mine or oil mine. Under the circumstances, if in future coal industry is developed and if it is required, the government may at once ask us to vacate and no law can stop it. Even if the government does not acquire our land, if in our vicinity some such industry (coal or oil industry) is started, the whole idea of Vrindaban will fade away.” (GGG10 34)

August 21, 1968: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada warns his disciples not to be in a hurry to become spiritual masters. If they begin initiating disciples before they are spiritually qualified, they will cause havoc. “The first thing, I warn . . . do not try to initiate. You are not in a proper position now to initiate anyone. . . . Don’t be allured by such Maya [illusion]. I am training you all to become future spiritual masters, but do not be in a hurry.” (ENE 17)

September 1968: Hayagriva begins working as an English teacher at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. He teaches from Tuesday through Thursday, and comes to New Vrindaban from Friday to Monday. (GGG2 65)

September 5-6, 1968: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada sends Brahmananda, a senior disciple and president of New York ISKCON, to inspect the New Vrindaban premises. When Brahmananda reports back to his spiritual master, Prabhupada approves ISKCON’s first farm project. (GGG2 66)

September 24, 1968: During a lecture in Seattle, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada declares that prostitution should be allowed, “Those who are after sense gratification, according to Vedic scripture, they are, I mean to say, recommended to go to the prostitute. Therefore in Hindu society, still, there is a prostitute class. They are allowed.” (GGG4 154)

October 1968: Back To Godhead publishes the first article about New Vrindaban in issue No. 19. (GGG2 70)

October 2, 1968: Hayagriva writes to Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada and asks how to best combat lust. Prabhupada decides to get his homosexual disciple married, but Hayagriva refuses. (GGG2 77, 79)

October 16, 1968: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada writes to Brahmananda, “Regarding Hayagriva: I think you can open direct correspondence with him in the matter of his willingness to marry, and I think he is serious about rendering service to the Society.” (GGG2 78)

November 13, 1968: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada condemns the worship of many gods as practiced in temples of Paramahansa Yogananda, “This is all conglomeration of nonsense ideas. Practically, this Yogananda has no philosophy or authority, he simply drags in Buddha, Jesus Christ, Gandhi, and whoever else he can think to put, so that whatever you like it is in his shop. He is just a good shopkeeper.” (GGG9 48)

November 18, 1968: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada instructs Hayagriva to build New Vrindaban into a place of pilgrimage “one mile long and one mile broad.” (GGG2 69)

In the same letter, Prabhupada also tells Hayagriva if he refuses to get married, he can no longer visit his parents in Alabama during the Christmas holidays. (GGG2 79)

December 8, 1968: Although Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada declares that machines are demoniac, he allows Kirtanananda Swami to use them. “So far as your utilizing machinery at New Vrindaban, if such machinery is helpful then you may take advantage of them. We are not enemies of machines. If they can be used for Krishna’s service then we welcome them.” (GGG5 161)

December 20, 1968: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada explains, “So we should not become religious fanatics, nor dry mental speculators. Both these classes of men are dangerous.” (GGG9 xix)

December 23, 1968: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada explains, “For the service of the Lord you can collect millions of dollars, but for your livelihood you cannot take one dollar from any person.” (GGG4 90)

Winter 1968: Hayagriva writes, “It was a miracle. That first winter, Kirtanananda, Ranadhir, Hrishikesh [Harold Olmstead] and I were the only inhabitants.” (GGG2 75)

December 25, 1968: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada calls Hayagriva to Los Angeles, where he forces his recalcitrant disciple to marry Shama dasa (Cheryl Ann Morris). Neither Prabhupada nor Shama appear to realize that Hayagriva is homosexual, or that the marriage is destined to fail. (GGG2 83)

December 27, 1968: In a letter to a disciple at New Vrindaban, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada describes his plan for Krishna conscious farm projects, “City life, especially in this age of Kali Yuga, is very much polluted. Poet Cowper stated that the city is made by man and the village is made by God. So in the village there is a natural tendency for Krishna consciousness, so we want to develop such atmosphere.” (GGG2 8)

December 30, 1968: During a press interview in Los Angeles, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada explains how he arranges marriages for his disciples, “We select girl, say, about 16, 17 years old, and boys not more than 24 years old. I get them married. You see? And because their attention is diverted to Krishna consciousness, they have very little interest simply for sex life. You see? They have got better engagement.” (GGG2 78)

During the same press conference, Prabhupada warns about showbottle gurus, “They are not interested in religion. It is simply a make show, showbottle. Then how they can be happy? If you do not follow the regulative principles, then where is your religion?” (GGG5 2)

January 1969: Shama dasi leaves California and comes to live with her new husband in Columbus and New Vrindaban. She serves as a typist and works on Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada’s books.

January 12, 1969: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada requests Kirtanananda Swami to establish a gurukula at New Vrindaban, “So you have now taken charge of the sunrise of New Vrindaban. Our program there is to construct seven temples. One—Rupanuga Vidyapitha [Academy for followers of Rupa Goswami]—that is a school for educating brahmins and Vaishnavas.” (GGG4 221)

February 1969: Electricity arrives at New Vrindaban. (GGG2 105)

February 13, 1969: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada discourages chanting the names of any god but Krishna, “Regarding your questions about various names of God, we have nothing to do with Jehovah, Allah, Jesus, etc. . . . as far as we are concerned, we should be satisfied with the Hare Krishna mantra and nothing more.” (GGG9 48)

March 1969: The first cow, Kaliya, arrives at New Vrindaban. (GGG2 107)

April 12, 1969: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada teaches his disciples the verses written by the Vaishnava poet-saint Tulsi dasa (1532-1623), “A drum, an idiot, a sudra, a dog, and a woman are all eligible for a beating.” Prabhupada compares a woman to a dog. “If you become lenient, then she will be troublesome. . . . The husband beats, and she is tamed (laughter).” (GGG4 25)

April 18, 1969: Back to Godhead magazine officially announces that Bhaktivedanta Swami will henceforward be properly addressed as “Prabhupada,” befitting his professed position as a self-realized uttama-adhikari pure devotee of the Lord. (GGG2 110)

April 25, 1969: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada admits it is not possible for all his disciples to become Krishna conscious. However, he explains, “But if there is one moon in the sky, that is sufficient to eradicate the darkness. You don’t require many stars.” (ENE 25)

On the same day, twenty-year-old Thomas Drescher is convicted of his fifth crime: Assault, Third Degree (Buffalo, New York). (GGG5 34, K4K 153)

May 9, 1969: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada arrives at the Columbus, Ohio airport, where residents of New Vrindaban, along with devotees from Washington D. C. and Buffalo and about 200 Ohio University students, greet him. After a short press conference he is chauffeured to the Columbus ISKCON center, which is established and managed by Hayagriva. (GGG2 111)

May 12, 1969: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada shares a program with Allen Ginsberg, beat poet and friend of ISKCON, organized by Hayagriva’s Ohio State Yoga Society at Hitchcock Auditorium on the University campus. (GGG2 112)

May 21, 1969: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada visits the New Vrindaban Community for the first time. (GGG2 113)

June 1, 1969: In a letter to the Los Angeles ISKCON temple president, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada explains, “I have decided that I shall spend four months [per year] in New Vrindaban and eight months in Los Angeles. That will be my regular program.” (GGG2 132-133)

June 9, 1969: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada praises Kirtanananda Swami, “He [Kirtanananda] is educated. He is intelligent. He has studied our philosophy.” (GGG2 151, K4K 141, ENE 123)

June 21, 1969: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada requests Hayagriva to establish a gurukula at New Vrindaban. Hayagriva explains, “Prabhupada calls a special meeting beneath the persimmon tree to discuss the founding of a gurukula at New Vrindaban. So far, at our ‘school,’ there are only four boys. But not for long. Prabhupada wants all the Society’s children sent to New Vrindaban. ‘If you can make just one child Krishna conscious, that will be a great service to the Earth. Krishna will be pleased. Many children will come here, for this place is very nice, and Krishna will give us all opportunity.’” (GGG4 222)

June 23, 1969: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, after more than a month visiting his first ISKCON farm community, departs from the backwoods New Vrindaban commune. His parting instruction: “We must all follow in the footsteps of Kirtanananda Maharaja.” (GGG2 132, K4K 141)

June 24, 1969: In a letter to Kirtanananda Swami, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada writes, “I am always thinking of your New Vrindaban.” Prabhupada also proposes that ISKCON temples finance the purchase of cows for New Vrindaban. (GGG2 132)

On the same day, in a letter to a female disciple at New Vrindaban, Prabhupada outlines the duties of women, “I have advised Kirtanananda Maharaja that girls who are living in New Vrindaban should be engaged in the following activities; (1) taking care of the children, (2) cleaning the temple, kitchen, etc., (3) cooking, and (4) churning butter.” (GGG4 13)

Summer 1969: During a visit to New York ISKCON, Kirtanananda Swami declares, “The devil and the devotee reside in the same body.” (GGG1-GGG10 Front matter)

July 22, 1969: Thomas Drescher is convicted of his sixth crime: Theft by False Pretext (Temple, Texas). (GGG5 34, K4K 153)

July 27, 1969: During a presentation at the Family Dog Auditorium in San Francisco, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada extols the purifying power of Sanskrit, “I am going to sing now an Indian song, and then I shall explain it. Even if you don’t understand the language of the song, still, if you kindly hear patiently, the sound vibration will act.” (GGG9 44)

August 25, 1969: In a letter to Brahmananda, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada implies that Kirtanananda Swami is not yet a highly-advanced sannyasi. (GGG2 155)

September 1969: While staying at John Lennon’s Tittenhurst estate, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada declares, “The tractor, this is the cause of all the trouble. It took all the work from the young men and they went to the city and became entangled in the sense gratification in the cities.” (GGG5 157)

September 30, 1969: An incident between Kirtanananda Swami and the president of Santa Fe, New Mexico, ISKCON causes Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada consternation which he expresses in a letter to Kirtanananda, “I am very sorry for this incident. This non-cooperative spirit between godbrothers is not very encouraging to me. After all, I am old man, and I wish to retire very soon. So you have to work cooperatively.” (GGG2 157)

October 31, 1969: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada explains why there may apparently be gaps in the disciplic succession, “Disciplic succession does not always mean that one has to be initiated officially. Disciplic succession means to accept the disciplic conclusion.” (ENE 4)

November 7, 1969: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada prophetically writes to his professor-disciple, “Please also take care of the children. They are our future hopes, and the adolescent age is the most dangerous age. It is the turning point of one’ s life. In this age, if you take care of the children, surely they will come out first class Krishna conscious devotees.” (GGG4 220)

September 23, 1969: Thomas Drescher receives an honorable discharge from the United States Army, after serving for one year, ten months and 28 days. He returns to Buffalo, New York. (GGG5 35, K4K 153)

December 1969: Hayagriva writes to Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada in London and tells him they plan to build a residence for their spiritual master in New Vrindaban. (GGG3 6)

Early 1970: Kuladri (Arthur Villa), a 20-year-old University of Pittsburgh student, arrives at New Vrindaban. Years later, he becomes president of New Vrindaban and a prominent leader in the conspiracy to murder Sulochan. (GGG2 159, K4K 145)

January 3, 1970: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada is optimistic about his students’ spiritual progress and hopes that within five years “all of his disciples” will become sufficiently advanced to become gurus themselves. “One who will pass this examination will be awarded with the title of Bhaktivedanta. I want that all of my spiritual sons and daughters will inherit this title of Bhaktivedanta, so that the family transcendental diploma will continue through the generations. Those possessing the title of Bhaktivedanta will be allowed to initiate disciples. Maybe by 1975, all of my disciples will be allowed to initiate and increase the numbers of the generations. That is my program.” (ENE 16-17)

February 1970: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada authorizes his senior disciple Bhagavan dasa (William Ehrlichman) to serve as a ritvik priest at Detroit ISKCON and initiate a new disciple on his behalf. This is the first time Prabhupada authorizes a disciple to act as a ritvik. (ENE 47-48)

February 23, 1970: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada shares some of his thoughts about women in a letter to Hayagriva’s wife Shama dasi, “Women are by nature endowed with many artistic tendencies, and from the Vedic age we find high-grade women and girls were highly qualified in sixty-four arts. Srimati Radharani [Lord Krishna’s consort] was fully qualified in those arts, and therefore by her super-excellent transcendental qualities, she could charm Krishna who is the charmer of the three worlds.” (GGG4 8)

Spring 1970: Classes for the children at New Vrindaban are taught by Satyabhama dasi and Devakinandan dasa. (GGG4 222)

June 21, 1970: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada reminisces about his early life, “Although I had immense opportunities to indulge in the four principles of sinful life because I was connected with a very aristocratic family, Krishna always saved me, and throughout my whole life I do not know what is illicit sex, intoxication, meat-eating or gambling. So far my present life is concerned, I do not remember any part of my life when I was forgetful of Krishna.” (GGG2 170)

July 11, 1970: Hayagriva and Shama’s first son, whom Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada names Samba, is born. Prabhupada predicts when the boy grows up he will “defeat all the Mayavadis.” (GGG2 96)

July 20, 1970: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada initiates four brahmacharis into the sannyasa order: Brahmananda, Gargamuni, Subaldas, and Vishnujan. Until this time, the only disciple who had taken sannyasa was Kirtanananda Swami (nearly three years earlier). Four days later, Prabhupada initiates two more sannyasis, Devananda Swami and Kartikeya Swami, his secretary and personal servant, respectively. Soon after, another sannyasi is initiated: Madhudvisa Swami. ISKCON now has eight sannyasis. (GGG2 173)

July 28, 1970: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada signs a document known as the Direction of Management, and creates a committee within ISKCON which he calls the Governing Body Commission (GBC). He appoints twelve disciples to serve on the GBC to help him manage his rapidly-expanding preaching mission. (GGG2 172, ENE 16)

August 1970: New Vrindaban’s population increases to three dozen residents. (GGG2 160)

Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada establishes the ISKCON morning program: all his disciples throughout the world should rise early, chant japa in the temple and attend morning services promptly at 4:30 a.m. The late-night chanting parties are terminated; by ten o’clock everyone has to be in bed. (GGG2 163-164)

August 25, 1970: In a letter to a leading disciple, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada writes, “In a family, if there is one good boy, he can glorify the whole family, and similarly, if there is [a] bad boy, he can turn the whole family into ashes. Similarly in this institution [ISKCON] if there is a bad disciple, he can burn the whole institution into ashes.” (ENE 144)

Summer 1970: An incense manufacturing factory is established at New Vrindaban. (GGG2 191) Kirtanananda Swami insults his spiritual master. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada retorts, “So you do not need me.” Prabhupada subsequently announces he is leaving America for India, and his American disciples will have to manage ISKCON without him. (GGG2 171)

August 8, 1970: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada departs for Hawaii, Tokyo, and India, accompanied by four sannyasis (including Kirtanananda) and one householder, Tamal Krishna dasa Adhikari. (GGG2 173)

August 21, 1970: New Vrindaban’s first annual Janmastami festival. Besides the heavy rains and mud, the festival is memorable for another reason: it is the scene of a great crisis in ISKCON which is precipitated by four errant newly-initiated sannyasis who preach to the devotees at New Vrindaban that Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada abandoned them and fled to India as punishment because his disciples have not recognized that he is actually God. (GGG2 178)

August 29, 1970: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada returns to India for the first time in almost three years, and arrives in his hometown, Calcutta, with Kirtanananda Swami and other disciples. Some of Prabhupada’s godbrothers and old friends receive him, and a kirtan party from the Chaitanya Math helps create an auspicious welcome. The reception is large and festive. During subsequent days, Prabhupada’s party of ten devotees (Prabhupada calls them “dancing white elephants”) chants and dances for several hours daily at Dalhousie Square, the seat of power for state government and the central business district of Calcutta. (GGG2 184)

September 1970: While preaching with Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada in India, Kirtanananda starts a daily program of bathing naked boys (street urchins) at the Calcutta temple. This causes great anxiety to his godbrother Tamal Krishna dasa Adhikari, who tries, without success, to convince Kirtanananda to stop. Prabhupada himself has to personally get involved; he chastises his disciple and ends Kirtanananda’s “bathing program.” Also during this time, Kirtanananda attempts to seduce his younger godbrother Hanuman dasa (Henri Jolicoeur). (GGG2 186-187, GGG4 199, GGG6 230, K4K 129)

Pittsburgh ISKCON is established. (GGG2 187)

December 19, 1970: During a question-and-answer session after a lecture in Surat, India, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada humbly claims to be “the lowest of all the creatures.” (ENE 24)

1971: The ISKCON gurukula in Dallas, Texas, is established at the site of a large former church facility. (GGG4 226)

March 11, 1971 (Gaura Purnima): Giant Lord Jagannath, Lady Subhadra and Balaram deities are carved by Naranarayana dasa from a huge (and partly rotten) New Vrindaban log and installed in Pittsburgh ISKCON. (GGG2 188)

April 4, 1971: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada authorizes a female disciple to serve as a ritvik priest and give brahmin initiation to her husband. (ENE 48)

Spring 1971: Two new farms are purchased with profits from the New Vrindaban incense manufacturing business: Madhuban and Bahulaban. The milking cows are moved to a larger barn at the Bahulaban barn. (GGG2 193)

June 16, 1971: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada visits Detroit, Michigan, and hundreds of disciples come to see him, including Kirtanananda Swami. One disciple notes the loving relationship between Prabhupada and Kirtanananda, “Prabhupada appeared powerful, yet at the same time delicate and soft, like a very wonderful flower. As he moved along very slowly, the devotees lined up and made an aisle for him to walk. He walked up to Kirtanananda Maharaja, put a garland around him, and embraced him. Kirtanananda Maharaja was crying tears of ecstasy, and he looked like a little boy next to his father.” (GGG2 207)

Later that day at Detroit ISKCON, another disciple recalls, “After the kirtan, Prabhupada sat down and asked, ‘Where is Kirtanananda Maharaja?’ He [Maharaja] was just sitting in the crowd. Prabhupada called him forward and had him sit right by the vyasasana.” (GGG2 207)

August 1971: Kirtanananda Swami establishes the Traveling Road Show, a musical/theater production featuring singers, dancers, musicians, costumes, sets, prasadam, and a psychedelic light show. The group performs at churches and other venues in Georgia, Florida, and Alabama. (GGG2 219)

August 13, 1971: The deities Radha Vrindaban Chandra are installed at New Vrindaban at the original Vrindaban Farm. (GGG2 208)

August 14, 1971: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada criticizes the GBC, “I set up the GBC with the hope that I shall get relief from administration of the mission, but on the contrary, I have become the center for receiving so many complaints.” (ENE 215)

August 15, 1971: During a room conversation in London, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada describes his marriage, “I was married, my wife was eleven years. I was twenty-two years. She did not know what is sex, eleven years girl. Because Indian girls, they have no such opportunity of mixing with others. But after the first menstruation, the husband is ready. This is the system, Indian system.”

Prabhupada also explains the rationale for child marriage, “And the psychology is the girl, after first menstruation, she enjoys sex life with a boy, she will never forget that boy. Her love for that boy is fixed up for good. This is woman’s psychology. And [if] she is allowed to have many [boyfriends], oh, she will never be chaste woman. These are the psychology.” (GGG4 319)

September 3, 1971: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada writes to a New Vrindaban resident, “I understand that the incense business is very lucrative there. So get money and develop New Vrindaban to its fullest extent.” (GGG2 193)

October 1971: The New Vrindaban gurukula is closed; the children move to New York. (GGG4 225)

November 18, 1971: Thomas Drescher is convicted of his seventh crime: Possession of Drugs (Pompano Beach, Florida). (GGG5 34, K4K 153)

November 20, 1971: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada encourages his disciples to send their children to the Dallas gurukula, “Don’t spoil your children. The modern educational system [is] without any knowledge of Bhagavan. I may tell you frankly, not only in India, everywhere, they are practically slaughterhouse.” (GGG4 274)

Winter 1971: Hayagriva tells a godbrother that after Prabhupada had given Kirtanananda Swami sannyasa, Kirtanananda “used it as an excuse to steal ever since.” (GGG2 157)

c. 1972: During a morning walk in Los Angeles, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada announces, “Kirtanananda, he is a pure devotee.” The news quickly travels to New Vrindaban and throughout ISKCON. (GGG2 295, K4K 141)

1972: During a visit to Boston ISKCON, a scholar notes the high regard devotees award to Kirtanananda Swami, “At the close of a long interview and taping session with Kirtanananda Swami, the researcher was stopped by a young brahmachari who was busily painting the front door of the temple. He anxiously begged me to reveal some fragments of my interview with Kirtanananda. His interest was so deep and sincere that I repeated a couple of anecdotes from Kirtanananda’s conversation while he clung hungrily to every syllable.” (GGG2 289)

Thomas Drescher meets the Hare Krishna people. “I’d see them chanting and swaying from side-to-side on the sidewalk in front of the big Grants [department] store in downtown Buffalo, New York, while on my way to the main public library. . . . I seemed to admire most anything nonconformist. Their colorful robes and rhythmic chanting and dancing were a far departure from the usual drab downtown scene. So when I saw them I couldn’t help admiring their free, bold style.” (GGG5 36, K4K 153)

January 1972: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada explains how to train children, “We should avoid as far as possible any physical punishment to train children. It is better to use sweet words or if it is absolutely necessary to punish then you may bind with ropes in one place or show the cane, but do not use [force]—like that.” (GGG4 231)

January 10, 1972: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada tells a Dallas ISKCON gurukula teacher how to discipline an unruly child, “If there is need you may shake your finger at them but never physical punishment is allowed. Try as far as possible to discipline them with love and affection, so that they develop a taste for austerity of life and think it great fun to serve Krishna in many ways.” (GGG4 231)

February 1972: The Road Show, with the addition of Vishnujan Swami, is transformed into a Rock Opera. The group performs in Louisiana, Texas, and back to Georgia, then to Washington D. C., Boston, Brooklyn and Pittsburgh. The group is arrested by Houma, Louisiana police while passing out Back to Godhead magazines and soliciting donations. They cook an imaginary feast in jail. (GGG2 243)

February/March 1972: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada speaks to his architect-disciple Murti dasa (William Walsh) in Calcutta, India, about establishing spiritual communities which will develop into spiritual cities for approximately ten thousand people each, in twelve major locations around the world. These twelve cities, Prabhupada says, will be the center of human culture in the future. Fifteen years later, Bhaktipada takes this idea and calls the spiritual cities “Cities of God.” (GGG5 176)

April 1972: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada receives a disturbing report from one of the single New Vrindaban women, that the deities Radha Vrindaban Chandra are being neglected. Hayagriva, the New Vrindaban temple president, disturbed at her unsubmissive behavior unbecoming a woman, orders a brahmachari to tie her up in the barn. One month later, Prabhupada asks Hayagriva to leave New Vrindaban and join him in Los Angeles. (GGG2 259-261)

April 11, 1972: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada writes, “What will happen when I am not here, shall everything be spoiled by GBC?” (ENE 215)

April 18, 1972: During a room conversation with disciples in Hong Kong, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada explains how a devoted disciple submissively obeys the spiritual master, “You know our Jagattarini, wife of Bhurijana? She was a theatrical girl and earning millions of dollars, but she has given up everything. . . . I asked her to go and marry Bhurijana. He never saw her. She never saw him. What kind of husband she is going to accept? But simply on my word, she came, and she came from Los Angeles to Hong Kong and got married. . . . They [my disciples] are so obedient that without any consideration [they follow my order]. . . . The only consideration is how to please Krishna and his representative.” (GGG2 84-85)

May 1972: Kirtanananda Swami leads the Road Show in performances in Massachusetts. (GGG2 251)

Hayagriva resigns from his duties as (1) New Vrindaban temple president, and (2) GBC member. (GGG2 271)

Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada calls Kirtanananda Swami to Los Angeles and tells him that he must abandon the Road Show and return to New Vrindaban. Things have gone wrong in his absence during the past year, and Hayagriva has not done a good job as temple president. There is talk about shutting down New Vrindaban. (GGG2 266-267)

May 25, 1972: During a conversation with GBC members in Los Angeles, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada expresses distaste for the homosexual lifestyle, “The world is degrading to the lowest status, even less than animal. The animal also do not support homo-sex. They have never sex life between male to male. They are less than animal. People are becoming less than animal. This is all due to godlessness.” (GGG4 191)

June 1972: Kirtanananda Swami, on Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada’s order, serves as a ritvik priest and chants on new initiates’ beads at an initiation ceremony in Brooklyn, New York. This is the first time Prabhupada authorizes a disciple to chant on initiates’ beads. (ENE 48-49)

Kirtanananda Swami, on Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada’s order, returns to New Vrindaban. Kirtanananda immediately organizes a festival and the deities are moved from the sleepy Vrindaban Farm to Bahulaban, which has become the bustling center of the community. Deity worship becomes a primary focus of the Brijabasis’ attention. (GGG2 268)

During a visit to ISKCON Boston, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada’s disciples rent the V. I. P. suite for him at the Boston Sheraton Hotel. However, Prabhupada refuses, “I am not going to stay in a hotel. A hotel is a brothel. I will stay in the temple.” As his disciples hadn’t prepared any room for him at the temple, he stays in an empty room near the bathroom, with only a bed and a rocking chair. He says, “It is sufficient.” (ENE 15)

June 20, 1972: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada explains, “I consider this gurukula school to be one of our most important aspects of this movement and it should be given all serious consideration by the members. If we are able to make a whole generation of our children into fine Krishna conscious preachers, that will be the glory of our movement and the glory of your country as well. But if we neglect somehow or other and if we lose even one Vaishnava, that is very great loss.” (GGG4 219)

July 1972: The Road Show performs the Rock Opera at the Ratha-Yatra festival at Delaware Park in Buffalo, New York. (GGG2 255)

Mother Earth News publishes an article about New Vrindaban. (GGG2 75)

July 1, 1972: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada writes to Satsvarupa dasa Goswami in Dallas, “We must develop our Krishna consciousness school . . . to be the model for education in all the world.” (GGG4 220)

August 18, 1972: A resident of McCreary’s Ridge complains about the Krishna’s disregard for private property, “I saw a person in Krishna Society garb picking flowers from my flower bed which I planted in front of my home. I remonstrated him, whereupon he replied, ‘It’s all right, for God made these flowers.’” (GGG2 200, GGG3 69)

August 31-September 8, 1972: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada visits New Vrindaban for the second time during the community’s third annual Janmastami festival, and more than one thousand disciples and visitors attend the event. A pavilion is erected atop one of the hills behind Bahulaban, where inside, the Sri Sri Radha Damodar deities from the traveling Road Show and the giant 51-inch-tall Jagannath, Balarama and Subhadra deities from Pittsburgh are placed on the altar. Prabhupada tells his GBC members, “He [Kirtanananda] is worth ten of you.” (GGG2 304, K4K 141)

One Brijabasi describes the great affection Prabhupada bestows on his first sannyasa disciple, “During an unusually ecstatic kirtan, Srila Prabhupada chanted louder and louder with the assembly of devotees. When the kirtan ended, Srila Prabhupada slowly and resoundingly boomed: ‘Kirtanananda Swami Maharaja, ki jai!! Kirtanananda Swami Maharaja, ki jai!! Kirtanananda Swami Maharaja, ki jai!!’ Prabhupada got off his vyasasana and paid his obeisances to Radha Vrindaban Chandra. Then, instead of turning and walking out of the temple, he reached out and clasped the back of Kirtanananda Swami’s neck very firmly, gripping it over and over. Then he smeared his hand over Kirtanananda Swami’s head and face, back down to his neck, and grasping it again, shook it tightly in great affection. Kirtanananda Swami almost ruptured into tears, and when Srila Prabhupada went out the door, Kirtanananda Swami was freely crying.” (GGG2 314)

September 2, 1972: After the kirtan celebrating his 76^th birthday, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada exhibits symptoms of ecstasy. One disciple notes, “Then he began crying. He tried to chant through his tears. Prabhupada couldn’t hold himself back. Everyone went mad. They began screaming and crying to see such powerful emotions. . . . Then, in one blinding moment, two hundred devotees were driven absolutely and uncontrollably mad: screaming, crying, and swooning at once, crying and crushing into the stage with total abandon. Hundreds of arms stretched out to Srila Prabhupada, all of us crying and chanting, crying and chanting, crying, crying, until there was nothing but tears and love, as the devotees tried to chant, as they cried and whimpered, but couldn’t anymore. . . . We were, all of us, swept up, embraced, drowned, and devastated. . . . It was a divine experience. I cried for an hour.” (GGG2 317)

September 9-12, 1972: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada visits the Dallas gurukula. On the second day of his visit, Prabhupada goes into a classroom and sits on a cushion before the class. Holding a blackboard pointer in each hand, he jokes that one stick can be used for hitting the students’ heads and the other for hitting their hands. The children and teachers are delighted to see Prabhupada’s playful mood. When he asks if anyone wants to get hit, both teachers and students move forward, holding their hands out for a merciful slap from the spiritual master. (GGG4 226)

September 24, 1972: During a lecture in Los Angeles, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada teaches that cheating for Krishna is good. “The cheating propensity is there in God. Otherwise, where we get it? (laughter) But we [shouldn’t] use cheating for our personal sense gratification. But if you use that cheating propensity for Krishna’s satisfaction, then it’s all right.” (GGG4 92)

Autumn 1972: Plans are drawn for the proposed Govindaji temple on a hill behind Bahulaban, the first of New Vrindaban’s seven proposed temples. (GGG3 2)

October 31, 1972: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada warns, “Self-made guru cannot be guru, he must be authorized by the bona fide guru. Then he’ s guru. This is the fact. Nobody can be self-made anything.” (ENE 215)

November 5, 1972: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada orders the Road Show disbanded, “So far the Road Show and this Yoga Village are concerned, these things should be stopped. Simply perform our kirtan. . . . All these things are nonsense inventions.” (GGG2 323)

November 7, 1972: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada explains the duty of a husband, “It is the duty of husband to protect wife in every way from the onslaught of material nature, and he must act always as her spiritual guide by being perfect example of devotee.” (K4K 14)

November 18, 1972: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada explains how to discipline children, “Children should not be beaten at all, that I have told. They should simply be shown the stick strongly. So if one cannot manage in that way then he is not fit as teacher.” (GGG4 231)

November 30, 1972: During a Bhagavad-gita lecture in Hyderabad, India, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada instructs school teachers to slap an obstinate child on the face, “Just like when . . . father always gives, always merciful to his son, but if the son is very obstinate, he gives him a slap.” (GGG4 232)

December 1972: A scholar observes the great respect and adulation awarded to Kirtanananda Swami at New York City ISKCON, “Fourteen Hare Krishna sannyasis around the world spend their time mostly in travel, carrying a three-pronged staff. . . . [One sannyasi is] Kirtanananda Maharaja, who alone among disciples has been authorized by Prabhupada to initiate other devotees. Kirtanananda Maharaja’s arrival provokes the brahmacharinis in the New York temple into a flurry of hero worship. Their eyes get starry. Many of them say to me, ‘Isn’t he wonderful!’” (GGG2 290)

December 14, 1972: In a letter to a disciple, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada explains who can be guru, “Anyone, if he is a pure devotee he can deliver others; he can become spiritual master. But unless he is on that [uttama adhikari] platform he should not attempt it. Then both of them [so-called guru and disciple] will to go to hell, like blind men leading the blind.” (ENE 23)

December 31, 1972: In a letter to a senior disciple, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada explains how fraud can and should be used in Krishna’s service, “We may take money for Krishna using any method of beg, borrow or steal, but . . . . not for any reason shall we decrease the book sales and collection monthly over some small lying about Bangladesh or other things.” (GGG4 87)

Winter 1972-1973: Models of Prabhupada’s proposed house and the proposed temple to Govindaji are made and displayed to the New Vrindaban residents. (GGG3 7)

1973: A non-devotee friend of New Vrindaban, Randall Gorby from Bethany, West Virginia, purchases property for New Vrindaban because the local neighbors refuse to sell to the Hairy Critters. Gorby turns over the deeds to New Vrindaban. Twelve years later, he becomes a prominent member of the conspiracy to murder Sulochan. (GGG5 16)

January 9, 1973: In a letter to a leading disciple, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada declares, “Polygamy is allowed.” (GGG4 145)

January 17, 1973: The property called Guruban, where Prabhupada’s Palace of Gold will eventually be built, is purchased. (GGG2 196)

January 27, 1973: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada declares, “Gurukula is our most important project. If the children are given a Krishna conscious education from early childhood then there is great hope for the future of the world.” (GGG4 219)

February 11, 1973: Richard Slavin becomes Radhanath dasa Brahmachari at a fire sacrifice at New Vrindaban.

March 5, 1973: Kirtanananda legally changes his name from Keith Gordon Ham to Kirtanananda Swami. (GGG2 276)

March 17, 1973: During a visit to B. R. Sridhar Swami’s ashram in Navadvipa, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada praises his senior godbrother, “He is, by age and experience, in both ways he is senior to me. [Sridhar Maharaja lived] in my house, some may say, for few years, so naturally we had very intimate talks, and he was my good adviser. I took his advice, his instruction, very seriously, because from the very beginning I know he’s a pure Vaishnava and devotee, and I wanted to associate with him, and try to help him also in so many ways. He also tried to help me. So our relationship is very intimate.” (ENE 81)

March 23, 1973: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada recommends that the children of his disciples attend the Dallas gurukula beginning at the age of four years. (GGG4 294)

April 11, 1973: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada writes to Satsvarupa dasa Goswami, “Now I am concerned that the gurukula experiment should come out nicely. These children are the future hope of our Society, so it is a very important matter how we are training them in Krishna consciousness from the very childhood.” (GGG4 220)

April 19, 1973: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada explains how a devotee is pleased when a demon is killed, “A sadhu, a saintly person never approves that one should be killed. Never. Even an animal. . . . But . . . a sadhu, a saintly person, is also pleased ... When? When a scorpion or a snake is killed. . . . A sadhu is never satisfied seeing another living entity being killed, but Prahlada Maharaja says, ‘Even a sadhu is pleased when a snake is killed or a scorpion is killed. So my father [the great demon Hiranyakasipu] is just like snake and scorpion. So he’s killed. Therefore everyone is happy.’ . . . Such demon, who simply troubles the devotees, such demon, a very dangerous demon. So when such demon is killed, even saintly persons are satisfied. Although saintly persons, they do not want anyone should be killed.” (GGG6 265, K4K 223)

Prabhupada also insists that his disciples send their children to the Dallas gurukula, “Regarding gurukula, it is not required that parents live there with their children. We can take care of the children, but not the parents. Any parents there must be engaged preaching and selling books, and going on the sankirtan party.” (GGG4 294)

c. May 1973: Bhakta Charles Saint-Denis, a new recruit from California, comes to live at New Vrindaban. He works in landscaping, and becomes Chakradhari dasa at an initiation ceremony just days before the June 5, 1973 “Shooting Affair.” He remains at New Vrindaban a couple years, then moves back to California. (GGG5 20)

May 10, 1973: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada writes to Hridayananda Goswami, “It is a fact that gurukula must be always carefully supervised, it is one of our most important projects.” (GGG4 220)

May 19-21, 1973: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada visits the Dallas, Texas, gurukula, and notes one positive benefit of sending devotee children to gurukula: their parents will be free from child-rearing duties and therefore be able to render more service to Krishna. “For our Krishna consciousness movement, gurukula is a great relief to our men. The children can come to this school and the parents will be free to work for Krishna.” (GGG4 220).

May 21, 1973: During a lecture in Dallas, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada declares, “Polygamy is allowed.” (GGG4 146)

June 1-3, 1973: Five fire sacrifices are celebrated at New Vrindaban for: (1) an initiation ceremony, (2) ceremony for the laying of the cornerstone for Prabhupada’s Palace at Guruban, along with a deity of Ananta Sesa, (3) ceremony for the installation of the deity of Ananta Sesa at the site of the proposed Govindaji temple, (4) installation of the deities Radha Madhava on the altar at Madhuban, and (5) installation of the deities Radha Vrindaban Nath on the altar at the Vrindaban Farm. Ronald Nay, from Louisville, Kentucky, visits New Vrindaban for the first time. (GGG3 10)

June 5, 1973: The “Shooting Affair,” also known as the “Motorcycle Gang Attack,” occurs at New Vrindaban’s Bahulaban temple. Six redneck men (four are members of the Sons of Silence Motorcycle Club) cut the telephone line and terrorize the devotees with firearms. Kenneth Elmore, the owner of a Louisville Kentucky tavern, is looking for his runaway 15-year-old daughter, who he thinks ran away to New Vrindaban. Kirtanananda Swami and Dharmatma (the leader of the brahmachari bus party who were stationed in Louisville) are forced to climb the hill behind the temple and are told they will dig their own graves. The other men force the devotees to remove the heavy marble Radha-Vrindaban Chandra deities from the altar. The deities are dropped on the marble floor and crack, creating an incredibly loud sound like gunfire. Elmore, climbing the hill with Kirtanananda Swami and Dharmatma, hears the sound, becomes fearful, runs back to the temple and orders his party to leave. They return to Kentucky. When Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada hears about the attack, he declares, “Our men should have guns and be trained to kill!” (GGG3 20, 40)

June 6, 1973: The day following the raid at New Vrindaban, Kenneth Elmore and his accomplice Joseph Clemons are arrested in Louisville, Kentucky, extradited to West Virginia, and charged with four counts of felonious assault. (GGG3 48)

Summer 1973: Work begins on the construction of Prabhupada’s Palace. (GGG3 63)

July 9, 1973: During a room conversation in London, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada encourages his disciples to send their children to the Dallas gurukula, “Everyone knows that sending boys to the [public] school means spoil them. . . . He learns how to smoke, how to have sex, how to talk nonsense, how to use knife, how to fight, these things; at least at the present moment. Yes, simply slaughterhouse, this so-called school is called slaughterhouse. Yes, slaughterhouse.” (GGG4 274)

July 11, 1973: During a Bhagavad-gita lecture in London, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada explains, “You will see the power of the Hare Krishna movement in due time. . . . Vaishnavas, they do not simply chant Hare Krishna. If there is need, they can fight under the guidance of Vishnu and become victorious. . . . So the devotees of Krishna should be trained up both ways; not only to give protection to the devotees, to give them encouragement, but if need be, they should be prepared to kill the demons. That is Vaishnavism. It is not coward-ism.” (K4K 508)

July 27, 1973: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada praises his first sannyasa disciple, Kirtanananda Swami, “You are Maharaja—Great King. Like Yudhisthir Maharaja and Pariksit Maharaja [two great kings of ancient India]—Emperor. Actually you are doing something very, very big—so you are Maharaja.” (GGG2 xvi)

August 3, 1973: During a lecture in London, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada explains that guru must be authorized by the previous guru, “Chaitanya Mahaprabhu says, ‘amara ajñaya’ (‘On my order.’) That is the crucial point. One does not become spiritual master by his own whims. That is not spiritual master. He must be ordered by superior authority. Then he’s spiritual master.” (ENE 25)

August 1973: New Vrindaban celebrates its 4^th annual Janmastami festival. Vishnujan Swami and his men attend the the big event. Although Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada does not attend, nine ISKCON sannyasis come. (GGG2 324)

September 6, 1973: The Brijabasis at New Vrindaban celebrate Kirtanananda Swami’s 36^th birthday, although Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada had condemned such celebrations. (GGG3 64)

September 21, 1973: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada condemns chanting in the dark, “We do not do anything in darkness. Our everything is open. . . . We take it as bogus. . . . Why in darkness? That is his invention. Neither in Hinduism, neither in Buddhism, there is such recommendation that ‘You pray in the darkness.’ Therefore it is bogus. Not standard. Why darkness?” (GGG9 45)

October 18, 1973: In a letter to Kirtanananda Swami, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada expresses concern about fighting between his disciples, “Now this displeasing of godbrothers [my disciples] has already begun and gives me too much agitation in my mind. Our Gaudiya Math people fought with one another after the demise of [my] Guru Maharaja [Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur Prabhupada], but my disciples have already begun fighting even in my presence. So I am greatly concerned about it.̵ (ENE 27)

October 24, 1973: Fifteen residents of McCreary’s Ridge sue New Vrindaban for half-a-million dollars. (GGG3 65)

November 1973: After five months in jail, Kenneth Elmore and Joseph Clemons are released because prosecutors cannot find any witnesses who will agree to testify during a trial regarding the June 5^th “Shooting Affair.” (GGG3 49)

November 21, 1973: The Marshall County Circuit Court declares New Vrindaban residents guilty of illegal trespass, cutting trees, breaking fences, making roadways, and crossing other people’s private property. (GGG3 70)

December 13, 1973: Ronald Nay becomes Gopinath dasa during a fire sacrifice at New Vrindaban on Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur Prabhupada’s appearance day. (GGG10 127)

December 27, 1973: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada explains some of the duties of a husband, “when the wife is in danger, the husband’s duty is to give protection, at any cost. That is husband-wife relationship.” (K4K 14)

December 30, 1973: During a morning walk in Los Angeles, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada suggests that diplomacy cannot change the world, but revolution can: “Without revolution . . . you cannot change old order.” (GGG6 126, K4K 43)

January 4, 1974: When asked why he snorted snuff (a smokeless tobacco product made from finely ground tobacco leaves which, when inhaled or “sniffed” through the nose, delivers a swift hit of nicotine), Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada replies, “Regarding taking snuff, I myself take it sometimes at night because I am working at night on my books, and sometimes I become dizzy. But it is not for you to take. You should not imitate this, neither you work like me at night.” In other words: “Do as I say; not as I do.” (GGG9 80)

January 17, 1974: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada explains, “So the human law is imperfect always. . . . There is partiality always. But in God’s law there is no such thing, partiality.” (GGG3 57)

March 14, 1974: During a morning walk in Vrindaban, India, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada requests his disciples to establish a Varnashram College for older boys. (GGG4 235)

March 15, 1974: During a morning walk in Vrindaban, India, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada expresses his military spirit, “[We] will teach military art. With tilak, soldiers will [march and chant], ‘Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna.’ (laughter) We want that: marching with military band, ‘Hare Krishna.’ You maintain this idea. Is it not good? When there will be military march of Krishna conscious soldiers: anyone who does not believe in Krishna, ‘Blam!’ [gunshot sound] (laughter) Yes. The same process as the Mohammedans did, with sword and Koran, we’ll have to do that. ‘Do you believe in Krishna or not?’ ‘No, sir.’ ‘Blam!’ Finished. (Prabhupada laughs)” (K4K 507)

March 23, 1974: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada says it is not important to have many disciples; only one pure disciple can work wonders. “If I create one moon, that is sufficient. I don’t want many stars. . . . What is the use of having [great] number[s] of [disciples who want to be guru, but are] fools and rascals? If one man understands rightly, he can deliver the whole world.” (ENE 25)

March 27, 1974: During a morning walk conversation in Bombay, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada expresses appreciation for his female disciples, “These women are not ordinary women. They are preachers. They are preachers. They are Vaishnava. By their association, one becomes a Vaishnava.” (GGG4 9)

April 1974: A Varnashram College is established at New Vrindaban. It folds after eight months. (GGG4 237)

April 3, 1974: A two-year-old New Vrindaban boy dies after receiving fatal trauma to his abdomen. No investigation is ordered. (GGG4 232)

April 12, 1974: During a morning walk in Bombay, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada describes his marriage, “Formerly, when I was married, my wife was eleven years old. So (laughing) an eleven years old girl and I was at the same time twenty-one, twenty-two. One day I captured her hand. She began to cry. A little girl, you see? So gradually, gradually.” (GGG4 319)

April 21, 1974: The first issue of Brijabasi Spirit: the Weekly Journal of the New Vrindaban Community, an unpretentious and barely-legible newsletter run off on an A. B. Dick 350 photo-offset press, is published. It is distributed free to New Vrindaban residents; nonresidents are expected to pay twenty-five cents per issue, or $12.50 for an annual subscription of fifty-two issues (GGG3 339-340)

April 25, 1974: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada visits the famous Venkatesvara Temple in the Eastern Ghats mountain range of Andhra Pradesh. He asks his disciple Vishakha devi dasi (Jean Papert Greisser)—a professional photographer and wife of cinematographer Yadubara dasa (John Greisser)—to take photographs of the Tirupati guest houses and send them to Kirtanananda, to help him make New Vrindaban into a world pilgrimage site. Kirtanananda Swami claims Prabhupada personally writes to him and requests him to make New Vrindaban like Tirupati. (GGG3 74)

May 10, 1974: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada praises Kirtanananda Swami’s efforts to protect the cows and build a palace for him. He also appoints Kirtanananda Swami to the Governing Body Commission, four years after establishing it. (GGG3 77)

May 13, 1974: During a lecture in Los Angeles, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada declares, “Polygamy is allowed.” (GGG4 146)

During the same lecture, Prabhupada also talks about the traditional Indian system of marriage, “My eldest sister was married when she was nine years old, before my birth. She is the eldest. And my second sister was married at the age of twelve, twelve years. And my third sister was married at the age of eleven years. So by the (indistinct) twelve years, the marriage must be finished. That was the duty of the father.” (GGG4 320)

June 12, 1974: During a lecture in Paris, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada explains, “Polygamy was allowed.” (GGG4 146)

July 1974: 22-year-old Steven Bryant becomes a duly-initiated disciple of Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, and receives the name Sulochan dasa at a fire sacrifice at Detroit ISKCON. (K4K 2, GGG6 76)

July 2, 1974: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada declares that tractors (and other machines) are by nature demoniac, and cause unemployment and degradation of human society. “And the machine, it works hundreds of men’s labor and hundreds of men become unemployed. So unemployed means devil’s workshop.” (GGG5 157)

July 16-17, 1974: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada visits the Dallas gurukula. (GGG4 262)

July 18, 1974: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada comes to New Vrindaban for the third time. During his arrival address, he claims, “I am very happy in this remote village. . . . Your guide is Kirtanananda Maharaja, giving expert guidance.” (GGG3 83)

July 19, 1974: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada visits the new barn under construction at Bahulaban. (GGG3 85)

July 20, 1974: During a lecture, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada tells the Brijabasis if they follow Kirtanananda Swami’s guidance, “Everything will go nicely.” (GGG3 85-86)

In a letter to a disciple, Bhaktivedanta Swami defends his first sannyasa disciple, “If Kirtanananda Maharaja speaks what I speak, then he can be taken a siksa guru. . . . I have no objection to your taking Kirtanananda’s instruction. There is no harm in going through Kirtanananda.” (GGG3 92, ENE 124)

c. July 21-23, 1974: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada visits his Palace-under-construction and utters, “These devotees are my jewels.” (GGG3 86) Around the same time, a visiting devotee is shocked when he sees Kirtanananda Swami use a 4,000-volt cattle prod to stun devotees who he thinks are slacking off and not working hard enough. (GGG3 88)

July 24, 1974: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada departs from New Vrindaban. (GGG3 92)

Summer 1974: The first lotus arch for Prabhupada’s Palace is completed. (GGG3 80) In India, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada declares to Kuladri, “All over the world my disciples are creating temples to worship Krishna, but Kirtanananda Swami and you all are building a palace to worship me. This is the proper understanding of our philosophy.” (GGG3 99)

c. Summer 1974: New Vrindaban traveling sankirtan fundraising established. (GGG3 104)

August 1974: New Vrindaban purchases a marble-cutting machine for the construction of Prabhupada’s Palace. It is installed on the ground floor of the four-story Bahulaban utility building and guest house-under-construction. (GGG3 129)

Kuladri, who currently serves as head pujari (priest) at the Bahulaban temple, travels to India, where he purchases silver aroti paraphernalia (trays, bells, ghee lamps, etc.), and makes contacts for silk and jari (gold thread which is used in embroidery) in Benares. He signs a contract with a woodcarving shop for Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada’s New Vrindaban throne to be constructed and silver plated. Kuladri also spends time with Prabhupada in Mayapur, who mentions on five separate occasions that he wants to come and live at New Vrindaban. (GGG3 93)

August 11, 1974: Over four hundred ISKCON devotees, plus a good number of Indian Hindus, attend the 5^th annual Janmastami festival at New Vrindaban. This is considered by many as the major turning point for New Vrindaban: abandoning the ideal of a simple, Vedic village, and inaugurating a massive campaign to develop New Vrindaban as an important place of pilgrimage for Krishna devotees and Hindus in the west. (GGG3 95)

August 31, 1974: During a private conversation with his personal servant in Vrindaban, India, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada laments, “One of my disciples is simply waiting: ‘When will the old man die so that I can become guru.’” (ENE 138)

September 6, 1974: The New Vrindaban Brijabasis celebrate Kirtanananda Swami’s birthday for the second time, and publicize it in the next issue of Brijabasi Spirit. Soon after, the GBC representative for New Vrindaban, Rupanuga dasa (Robert F. Corens), writes to New Vrindaban, “Srila Prabhupada became very upset and said that the celebration of appearance days was reserved for the great Vaishnavas and not for other devotees. So as GBC for the Eastern U. S., I am informing you of Srila Prabhupada’s disapproval of those things.” The Brijabasis ignore Rupanuga’s warning. (GGG3 101-102)

September 12, 1974: In a letter to a leading disciple, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada criticizes the GBC, “I made the GBC to give me relief, but if you [GBC members] do like this [disobey me], then where is the relief? It is anxiety for me. This is the difficulty, that as soon as one [a disciple] gets power, he becomes whimsical and spoils everything.” (ENE 30)

September 24, 1974: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada authorizes all GBC members and sannyasis to chant on new initiates’ beads and initiate new disciples on his behalf. (ENE 50)

October 1974: Terry Sheldon becomes Tapahpunja dasa Brahmachari at a fire sacrifice at New Vrindaban. He joined ISKCON in Detroit months earlier where he became friends with his godbrother Sulochan. Twelve years later, in 1986, Tapahpunja Swami becomes one of the main characters in the conspiracy to assassinate Sulochan, after Sulochan threatens to destroy Kirtanananda Swami and the New Vrindaban community. (K4K 144)

Danavira Goswami establishes ISKCON’s first Bhakta Program at the Los Angeles temple. (GGG8 3)

October 8, 1974: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada warns about a conspiracy within his movement, “I am training some of my experienced disciples how to manage after my departure. So if instead of taking the training, if in my lifetime you people [my senior disciples] say, ‘I am the Lord of all I survey,’ that is dangerous conspiracy.” (ENE 30)

November 12, 1974: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada instructs Kirtanananda Swami, “Develop New Vrindaban to your heart’s content.” (GGG3 103)

November 31, 1974: New Vrindaban residents number 108 people. (GGG3 103)

December 1974: The first New Vrindaban Christmas fundraising marathon. (GGG3 114) The foundation for Prabhupada’s Palace is completed. (GGG3 104)

December 23, 1974: Kripacharya dasa (James Hessler) uses an oxygen-acetylene arc welder to cut through an empty 55-gallon steel paint drum, but neglects to open the top of the drum and allow the paint fumes to dissipate. When the flame breaks through the side of the drum, the fumes ignite, the drum explodes and nearly blows his head off. He sustains severe head injuries: a fist-sized portion of his skull and frontal lobe are destroyed. After several months in the hospital, he returns to New Vrindaban. (GGG3 140)

1975: Sulochan visits New Vrindaban, then goes to Los Angeles to work for the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust (BBT). (K4K 3-4)

Early January 1975: While speaking to the congregation of the Trinity Episcopal Church in Moundsville, Kirtanananda Maharaja explains, “We must be God conscious at every moment of the day. That is our purpose. Our purpose is not to convert you away from being Christians, but to help you become better Christians.” (GGG8 233)

January 27, 1975: In a letter to one of his leading disciples, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada notes, “It is now evident that some of our top men are very much ambitious and there has been so many fall downs.” (ENE 30)

Late January 1975: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada hears that the New Vrindaban devotees place a photograph of Kirtanananda on a step below Prabhupada’s vyasasana (throne) at Bahulaban and offer worship to the photograph. Kirtanananda Swami receives a severe scolding from his spiritual master in Hawaii. Kirtanananda ignores his master’s chastisement. (GGG3 119-120, ENE 125)

February 3, 1975: During a lecture in Hawaii, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada explains the position of women, “Physiologically, within the brain there are brain substance. It is found that the brain substance in man is found up to 64 ounce. They are very highly intellectual persons. And in woman the brain substance is not found more than 34 ounce. You’ll find, therefore, that there is no very great scientist, mathematician, philosopher, among women. You’ll never find because their brain substance cannot go. Artificially do not try to become equal with men. That is not allowed in the Vedic shastra. . . . You have to understand that woman is never given to be independence. Independence means just like child has to be taken care, similarly, woman has to be taken care.” (GGG4 28)

March 1975: Kirtanananda Swami orders Radhanath dasa Brahmachari to never leave the Vrindaban Farm and remain there as pujari to serve the deities until the end of his life. (GGG3 128-129)

March 3-4, 1975: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada visits the Dallas gurukula. (GGG4 262)

March 4, 1975: During a conversation with teachers at the Dallas gurukula, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada tells them not to spank an unruly child on the rear end, but to to slap the child on the face, “Slap here.” (He motions to his own cheek.) (GGG4 232)

March 28, 1975: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada explains how a disciple can “go to hell,” “We are servant of [the] servant. That is Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s instruction. The more you become servant of the servant, the more you are perfect. And if you all of a sudden want to become master, then you go to hell. That’s all.” (ENE 24)

c. April 1975: Kirtanananda Swami’s followers worship him, chant his name, and offer him pada puja (a ritual foot-washing ceremony which is customarily reserved only for advanced spiritual masters) at the Pittsburgh ISKCON temple. Obviously Kirtanananda ignores Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada’s severe chastisement given only three months earlier about accepting worship. (ENE 127)

April 1975: Despite Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada’s declaration that machines are demoniac, New Vrindaban purchases a gasoline-powered cement mixer. One of the Palace construction workers notes, “This machine is helping us out a lot. It pours a lot of cement. It’s Krishna’s mercy. When we did Prabhupada’s Palace, we mixed by hand. This machine can do in one day what a couple of men could do in a week. It takes five minutes to make a mix. By hand it took a half hour.” (GGG5 161)

May 1975: Kirtanananda and assistants travel to New York City and purchase 5.2 tons of Italian marble for Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada’s Palace bedroom and study walls: ten slabs of Italian Creamo, fourteen slabs of Black and Gold, and one slab of Red Levanto. (GGG3 130)

May 23, 1975: The marble floors in Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada’s bedroom in his Palace are cut and inlaid and are being installed. Work on the doors and windows of Prabhupada’s room are also begun. (GGG3 134)

May 26, 1975: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada writes to one of his disciples, “I am very sorry that you have taken to homo-sex. It will not help you advance in your attempt for spiritual life. In fact, it will only hamper your advancement. I do not know why you have taken to such abominable activities. What can I say? . . . You should stop this homo-sex immediately. It is illicit sex, otherwise, your chances of advancing in spiritual life are nil.” (GGG4 191)

July 9, 1975: During a press conference in Chicago, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada cites Chanakya Pandit (c. 370-283 BCE), an ancient Indian polymath who was active as a teacher, author, strategist, philosopher, economist, jurist, and royal advisor, “Never trust a woman and a politician.” During his preaching, Prabhupada cites Chanakya more than 500 times in his books, lectures and conversations. (GGG4 33) During the same press conference, Prabhupada declares, “Polygamy is allowed.” (GGG4 146)

July 15, 1975: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada explains the correct way to treat a guru, “A guru is worshiped. . . . My disciples, they are offering respect [to me] exactly like God. That is their duty. . . . All the sastra [scripture] recommends that guru should be respected as good as God.” (ENE 13)

July 16, 1975: Bhaktivedanta Swami explains how to raise children, “Up to five years the children may have all freedom. Whatever he likes, he may do. But when he is five years old, he must be under training. That is the old system. Gurukula means to send the boy, especially boy, not the girl, to be trained up at the place of the spiritual master or teacher.” (GGG4 293)

Summer 1975: When Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada’s disciples at Philadelphia ISKCON rent a Cadillac for him (hoping to impress him with their devotion), he chastises them, “God rides in a chariot of gold, so my disciples should have provided a golden car for me. This Cadillac is not at all sufficient.” (ENE 13)

Also during the summer of 1975, a women’s construction team for building Prabhupada’s Palace is announced. (GGG3 133)

August 1, 1975: During a room conversation in New Orleans, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada instructs his disciples that if polygamy is illegal in the United States, his disciples should simply call their second and third wives “girlfriends,” and get around the law. (GGG4 147)

August 7-9, 1975: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada visits his temple in Toronto, Ontario, and Thomas Drescher comes from Buffalo to see the Founder/Acharya of ISKCON. Drescher, a strong and muscular man, is recruited to be one of Prabhupada’s bodyguards. (GGG5 36, K4K 154)

September 24, 1975: New Vrindaban signs a contract for white marble to be shipped from Makrana, India, a town in Rajasthan famous for its high quality marble quarries. The teakwood furniture for Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada’s quarters in his Palace is being carved in Bombay. (GGG3 137)

September 29, 1975: The concrete for the last of the twenty-eight lotus arches at the Palace is poured. (GGG3 135)

October 6, 1975: During a Srimad-bhagavatam class at the Vrindaban Brahmachari Farm, Kirtanananda Swami describes the position of women in Gaudiya-Vaishnava society, “Chanakya Pandit says to never trust a woman or a politician. What is the similarity? A woman is devious. So is a politician. Why are they devious? They have motives. It is accepted that a woman’s motive is sex. And the motives of a politician? Sense gratification, or self aggrandizement.” (GGG4 34)

October 28, 1975: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada explains that a disciple can only become guru on the order of his spiritual master, “A guru can become guru when he’s ordered by his guru. That’s all. Otherwise nobody can become guru.” (ENE 25)

November 10, 1975: In a letter to one of his sannyasa disciples, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada criticizes the GBC, “Now, has the GBC become more than Guru Maharaja?” (ENE 30)

December 1975: Dr. Kenneth M. Plummer, a history professor at West Virginia Wesleyan College, visits New Vrindaban with seven students. (GGG3 147) Kirtanananda Swami visits Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada in Bombay. (GGG3 145)

December 8, 1975: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada explains to a disciple, “I want to see my disciples become bona fide spiritual master[s] and spread Krishna consciousness very widely. That will make me and Krishna very happy.” (ENE 17)

January 8, 1976: During a morning walk in Nellore, Andhra Pradesh, India, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada declares, “Vaishnavism means real religion. All other[s], bogus, cheating religions.” (GGG1 160)

January 20, 1976: In a letter to Jayatirtha dasa, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada says the Dallas gurukula should be moved to Vrindaban, India, and once a year during April, May and June, the children may return home to live with their parents. (GGG4 294)

January 21, 1976: During a morning walk in Mayapur, India, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada explains, “We have to kill this civilization of mudhas [foolish men]. That is Krishna consciousness movement. Paritranaya sadhunam vinasaya ca duskrtam [Bhagavad-gita 4.8]. Those who are actually human being, you have to give them Krishna. And those who are mudhas [less than human], we have to kill them. This is our business. Kill all the mudhas and give Krishna to the sane man. Yes. That will prove that you are really Krishna’s. We are not nonviolent. We are violent to the mudhas.” (K4K 507)

January 26, 1976: After the Dallas, Texas, Board of Education threatens to close the ISKCON gurukula, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada tells school administrators to close the school and move the children to Vrindaban, India, where they will be free from oppressive government regulation, and where they can practice austerities and “beg from door to door and collect enough to feed themselves nicely.” (GGG4 228)

February 29, 1976: Dr. Plummer, a history professor at West Virginia Wesleyan College, dies from a virulent strain of hepatitis which he contracted at New Vrindaban two months earlier during a visit with his history students. The Brijabasi Spirit reported, “Regarding the man who reportedly died from hepatitis contracted at our community. . . . He partook of some feast prasada that had been cooked by one of our devotees who had the disease. . . . Such as thing is certainly unfortunately, but in this material word no one can esacpe the ravages of birth, death, old age and disease, whether in New Vrindaban or anywhere else.” (GGG3 147)

March 2, 1976: The governor of West Virginia orders New Vrindaban quarantined to restrict the spread of infectious hepatitis. (GGG3 150)

March 5, 1976: Kirtanananda Swami claims the quarantine is “harassment” from the West Virginia government. (GGG3 156)

March 1976: Vishnujan Swami, a beloved and charismatic kirtan leader, disappears while on pilgrimage to India during the Gaura Purnima festival. Devotees believe he committed suicide by drowning himself in the confluence of the sacred Ganges and Yamuna Rivers at Allahabad. (GGG1 309)

A New Vrindaban enforcer, under orders from Kirtanananda Swami, gives a severe beating to a disobedient devotee. The devotee is incapacitated for a week due to internal bleeding. Kirtanananda Swami later chastises the enforcer, “You shouldn’t have beat him that hard. At the point when he bowed down and asked you to stop, you should have stopped.” (GGG3 154-155)

March 19, 1976: During a morning walk in Mayapur, India, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada explains, “The woman must become a slave. . . . One American woman was speaking that, ‘In India, the women are treated as slave. We don’t want.’ So I told her, it is better to become slave of one person than slave of hundreds (laughter). The woman must become a slave.” (GGG4 14)

March 23, 1976: In a letter to Kirtanananda Swami, Bhaktivedanta Swami makes light of the West Virginia government’s demand that New Vrindaban install a septic system and an approved toilet system, “Concerning the outhouses, if they are not approved then you can . . . pass stool in the open field. I was doing that. I never liked to go to the nonsense toilet, so I was going in the field.” (GGG2 319, GGG3 153)

Spring 1976: The Gopi Bhava Club, a secret society in which members meet and discuss the confidential pastimes of Krishna and the gopis, is formed at Los Angeles ISKCON. Puranjana dasa (Tim Lee) is a leader of the men’s study group. Sulochan joins the club. (K4K 4)

At New Vrindaban, an eight-month-old boy in the nursery begins coughing up blood after swallowing an expensive glass crystal from the jewelry shop. When the boy’s mother comes to pick up her son, the nursery manager tells her, “Kirtanananda Maharaja said you should check his stool every day for three days. If after three days he hasn’t passed the crystal, you’ll have to pay for it.” (GGG4 246)

April 1, 1976: The quarantine on New Vrindaban is lifted. (GGG3 161)

April 25, 1976: During an istagosthi at the Vrindaban brahmachari ashram, Kirtanananda Swami explains the Gaudiya-Vaishnava conception of guru worship, “The spiritual master is offered worship, just like God, but if he starts to think, ‘Yes, I deserve this worship; they are finally recognizing me for what I am,’ immediately he’s dog. It is dangerous. The spiritual master has to accept the worship of his disciple, but he is always thinking, ‘What a fool I am.’” (GGG2 296)

May 14, 1976: Hayagriva, after a year or two in Maya enjoying sense gratification, returns to ISKCON. (GGG2 272)

May 30, 1976: During a conversation in Honolulu, Hawaii, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada explains that a madhyama adhikari has to complete a period of probation before he becomes an authorized diksa guru. (ENE 51)

June 1976: Kirtanananda Swami travels to Los Angeles, where he meets with Hayagriva and orders him to take his eldest son, Samba, from his wife and bring the boy back to New Vrindaban. (GGG2 97)

June 4, 1976: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada explains to a newspaper reporter that his is presently training his most “advanced students” to lead ISKCON as his successors after his passing. (ENE 17)

June 5, 1976: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada in Los Angeles chastises Sulochan and Puranjana (Tim Lee) and orders that the “Gopi-Bhava Club,” which has about 50 members and meets secretly to read the passages from Prabhupada’s books dealing with the intimate conjugal affairs between Krishna and the gopis, be disbanded. Prabhupada calls it “Jumping like monkeys.” The two send a letter of apology to Prabhupada three days later, and then disappear from Los Angeles ISKCON. They move to London where they continue serving Prabhupada and ISKCON. (GGG6 82, K4K 7)

June 10, 1976: During a garden conversation in Los Angeles, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada declares, “Money is so sweeter than honey.” (GGG4 64)

July 14, 1976: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada tells a Newsweek reporter that he is training his leading GBC secretaries to succeed him in the future. He appears confident that his leading disciples will rise to the challenge and become pure devotees, thereby insuring the continuation of ISKCON. (ENE 18)

June 21, 1976: During a conversation with Kirtanananda Swami in Toronto, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada expresses surprise when he learns that Hayagriva and Shama dasi have separated as husband and wife. Prabhupada says, “I thought that he is happy in family life.” This suggests that Prabhupada had no idea that his professor disciple was homosexual. (GGG2 98)

On the same day, during a morning walk, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada explains, “He [a devotee who falls down] is not devotee. He’s pretending to be devotee. One who is devotee never falls down. There are so many false devotees. He falls down.” (GGG2 299)

June 21-July 2, 1976: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada returns for his fourth and final visit to New Vrindaban. (GGG3 167)

c. June 21-July 2, 1976: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada tells Kirtanananda Swami to grow grapes and make wine in order to store the juice. When it comes time to use it, strain off the alcohol, drink the juice and give what is left to the cows. “This will make the cows very happy.” (GGG9 79)

During this same visit, when asked by a disciple, “How can I serve you best?” Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada answers, “If you want to please me, please serve Kirtanananda.” When another disciple asks a similar question, Prabhupada replies, “Just do what Kirtanananda says.” (K4K 141, ENE 123)

June 22, 1976: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada tours his Palace-under-construction. (GGG3 169)

June 23, 1976: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada tells the New Vrindaban residents, “If we take to Krishna consciousness, then our folly will be finished. We are no more interested in unnecessary things. For instance, illicit sex. . . . The babajis in Vrindaban [India], you have seen—siddha deha. They are smoking and having illicit sex with one dozen of women, and they are talking svarupa [eternal spiritual form]. Simply rascals. This is called sahajiya. They are condemned.” (GGG9 114)

June 26, 1976: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada visits Bahulaban and the marble shop. (GGG3 173-174)

On the same day, Prabhupada talks about the place of women in Krishna conscious society, “. . . in the Manu-samhita it is clearly stated that a woman should not be given freedom. That does not mean that women are to be kept as slaves, but they are like children. Children are not given freedom, but that does not mean they are kept as slaves. . . . Actually a woman should be given protection at every stage of life. She should be given protection by her father in her younger days, by the husband in her youth, and by the grown-up sons in her old age. This is proper social behavior according to the Manu-samhita.” (GGG4 13)

June 27, 1976: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada surprises everyone during his morning walk by stating that animal flesh can be used as medicine to cure disease. He even says that karmis can eat any type of flesh, animal or human, as long as they do not kill it outright. It must die naturally. (GGG3 175)

July 11, 1976: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada explains in a letter to a disciple that a devotee (and especially the spiritual master) must behave in an exemplary manner, “Don’t create any awkward situation that may be criticized. Caesar’s wife must be above criticism.” (GGG9 155)

July 20, 1976: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada defends his disciple Kirtanananda Swami and the construction of Prabhupada’s Palace of Gold, “There is no limit to how much one may spend for the spiritual master. There is no question of practicality in this regard, rather it is a question of love.” (GGG3 99)

c. August 1976: The Nandagram Boys School is established. Gopinath (Ronald Nay) serves as the first headmaster. (GGG4 233, 239)

August 31, 1976: Thomas Drescher is convicted of his eighth crime: Unlawful Possession of Noxious Materials (Buffalo, New York). (GGG5 34, K4K 153)

October 1976: Kirtanananda Swami predicts that within a year New Vrindaban residents will subsist solely on the produce grown on the farm. This does not materialize; the community always depends on weekly trips to the Pittsburgh produce market. (GGG5 157)

October 3, 1976: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada explains the duties of a husband, “The husband should give to the wife the topmost protection, and the wife should be so faithful to the husband.” (K4K 14-15)

November 5, 1976: Hayagriva comes into Kirtanananda Swami’s office and says he wants to take his eldest son, Samba, to Mexico. Kirtanananda convinces Hayagriva to let his son remain in Kirtanananda’s care, and Kirtanananda promises to take the boy with him on any trips he might take in Hayagriva’s absence. One Brijabasi who witnesses the conversation remarks, “That boy has some fortune!” (GGG4 180)

November 15, 1976: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada declares that rock music is for “gross outsiders only.” (GGG8 192)

December 1976: The first New Vrindaban community-wide Christmas marathon. The farm is practically emptied, devotees ride like cattle in the back of a truck to New York City where they dress in Santa Claus suits and collect money on sidewalks and on subway trains. So much bad publicity is generated that the GBC prohibits devotees from dressing as Santa. (GGG3 185)

December 25, 1976: On Christmas day, New Vrindaban pujaris decorate the altar and the deities with thousands of dollars in bills and coins which were collected by the Brijabasis wearing Santa Claus suits on the streets and in the subways of New York City. Kirtanananda Swami notes, “When I see the altar like this (pause), I become enlivened.” Everyone laughs loudly. “Not because of the Laksmi of itself, but by all the devotion it took to liberate it from the hands of the karmis.” (GGG3 188)

January 9, 1977: During a morning walk in Bombay, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada declares, “All women, you cannot have freedom. You have got only thirty-four-ounce brain, and man has got sixty-four-ounce. . . . Actually that’s a fact. Where is woman philosopher, mathematician, scientist? Not a single. . . . Up to date in the history there is not a single woman who is a great scientist or great philosopher or great. . . .” At this point in the conversation, an Indian doctor mentions the famous woman scientist, Marie Curie (1867-1934), a great scientist who pioneered research on radioactivity and won the Nobel Prize in 1903. But Prabhupada rudely cuts off the Indian doctor and retorts with a conviction born of his religious beliefs, “All bogus. (laughter)” (GGG4 30)

January 11, 1977: During a train ride from Bombay to Allahabad, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada tells his disciple and personal secretary, Ramesvara Swami (Robert Grant), what will be ISKCON’s foreign policy with atheistic nations once ISKCON, in the future, takes over the United States government: “Surrender to Krishna or else we will drop this atom bomb.” (K4K 508)

January 31, 1977: During a room conversation in Bhubanesvar, India, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada describes the two most important qualifications of a woman, “Educate the girls how to become faithful, chaste wife and how to cook nicely. Let them learn varieties of cooking. Is very difficult? These two qualifications, apart from Krishna consciousness, materially they should learn. . . . And by fifteenth, sixteenth year they should be married. And if they are qualified, it will be not difficult to find out a nice husband.” (GGG4 319)

February 1977: Kirtanananda Swami is arrested for cruelty to animals when eleven New Vrindaban cows die following a severe snowstorm. He spends several hours in jail. (GGG3 189)

February 1, 1977: During a morning walk in Bhubanesvar, India, when asked if a child should see the benefit of going to school, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada replies, “Child cannot see. He’s a rascal. He should be beaten with shoes. Then he will see.” (GGG4 232)

February 19, 1977: During a conversation with disciples in Mayapur, India, Prabhupada explains that women’s bodies have a disgusting “obnoxious smell.” During this recorded conversation, he speaks the word “vagina” 29 times, and the word “lick” or “licking” 14 times. (GGG4 38)

February 27, 1977: During a lecture in Mayapur, India, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada confirms that guru must be authorized by the previous spiritual master, “Guru cannot be self made. No. There is no such single instance throughout the whole Vedic literature. . . . You must be authorized.” (ENE 25)

February 28, 1977: During a lecture, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada suggests that a human demon who opposes ISKCON should be destroyed, just like a snake or scorpion, “A sadhu, a saintly person, never likes killing of any living being. They are not happy. . . . But such Vaishnava is happy when a snake and a scorpion is killed. . . . they are very, very dangerous. Without any fault they bite and create havoc. So there are these snake-like persons. They are envious about our movement, and they are opposing. That is the nature.” (K4K 223-224)

On the same day, during a room conversation, Prabhupada declares, “Money is sweeter than honey.” (GGG4 64)

March 1977: At the Mayapur meetings, the GBC makes a resolution prohibiting male sankirtan leaders from acting as “husbands” to the single women on their sankirtan parties. (GGG4 149)

March 1, 1977: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada asks his elder godbrother B. R. Sridhar Maharaja to take up residence in Mayapur and offer guidance to his disciples in his absence. (ENE 81-82)

April 1977: Hayagriva’s estranged wife, Shama dasi (Cheryl Ann Morris) returns to New Vrindaban to visit her six-year-old son, Samba. When she and the boy disappear, Bhaktipada orders a ksatriya follower to find her and kill her. (GGG4 181)

April 22, 1977: During a room conversation in India, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada agrees that none of his disciples are presently qualified to become genuine gurus, but he hopes that as soon as someone becomes qualified—when his training is complete—he will appoint him. If a disciple begins initiating without being fully trained, he becomes a “rascal guru.” (ENE 26)

April 29, 1977: During a room conversation in Bombay, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada declares, “Polygamy was allowed.” (GGG4 146)

May 1977: New Vrindaban acquires two Salagram Silas. (GGG3 192)

May 17, 1977: Prabhupada becomes seriously ill and decides to spend his last days in Vrindaban, India. “I cannot speak. I am feeling very weak. . . . The condition of my health is very [much] deteriorating. So I preferred to come to Vrindaban. If death takes place, let it take [me] here.” (GGG3 196, ENE 25-26)

May 27, 1977: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada warns his leading men to be on guard lest after his passing some charlatan impostors pose as gurus, bewilder his disciples, and usurp the position of acharya in ISKCON. His disciples most likely think he is referring to the Vrindaban Caste Goswamis or his Gaudiya Math godbrothers, such as Bon Maharaja and others, whom he sometimes criticized as “envious,” but in fact the most dangerous enemy to ISKCON is within ISKCON; from the ranks of his “most advanced” students. (ENE 30)

Prabhupada chastises his leading disciples, “You are all children. None of you has any intelligence.” (ENE 27)

Prabhupada says he is old and ready to die; but Kirtanananda becomes distraught and offers to trade his youth for Prabhupada’s old age, as was done—in ancient times according to Vaishnava mythology—by Purudasa for his father, King Yayati. Kirtanananda believes that Prabhupada has the mystic power to do such a thing if he wants. (GGG3 197)

May 28, 1977: Senior disciples meet with Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada to discuss how initiations of new disciples are to be conducted in the future. (GGG3 203, ENE 33)

June 28, 1977: In Vrindaban, India, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada speaks about chanting prayers in Sanskrit, “The sound must be vibrated. You cannot translate it. . . . Then it will be artha, arthavad. That is prohibited. You cannot interpret or do other way.” (GGG9 45)

Summer 1977: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada laments, “Fifty percent of my work is not complete, because I have not established varnashram.” (GGG2 5)

July 1, 1977: During a conversation in Vrindaban, India, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada discourages silent chanting, “Chanting with mouth is better. You can hear; others can hear. If you chant within, then you’ll remember only. But you chant loudly, others can hear. Others are benefited.” (GGG9 49)

July 9, 1977: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada signs a letter typed by his secretary, Tamal Krishna Goswami, addressed to “All G. B. C., All Temple Presidents,” in which are listed eleven senior leaders whom Prabhupada appoints as “Ritvik Acharyas,” those trusted men who are authorized to initiate new disciples on his behalf. Kirtanananda Swami’s name is at the top of the list. (GGG3 204, ENE 46)

Late-July 1977: Tamal Krishna Goswami, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada’s secretary, prohibits leading GBC members from approaching Prabhupada and asking about initiations in the future. (ENE 53-54)

August 1977: During an istagosthi (discussion or darshan) at New Vrindaban, Kirtanananda Swami explains that a female devotee should “be more tolerant than a tree and humbler than the blades of grass.” He implies, if a woman is slapped or punched or beaten, she should think she “deserved to be hurt a hundred times more.” (GGG4 18)

August 16, 1977:Thomas Drescher is convicted of his ninth crime: Unlawful use of Fireworks (Buffalo, New York). (GGG5 34, K4K 153)

August 28-September 13, 1977: Despite great physical disability, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada travels from India to visit his disciples in London for two weeks. He wears dark glasses as his eyes are sensitive to bright lights. He is incredibly weak and unable to walk, therefore he has to be carried from his personal quarters to the temple room. Sulochan and his godbrother Tirthakara are honored to carry Prabhupada on a palanquin. (K4K 9)

October 1977: Tamal Krishna Goswami again prohibits high-ranking GBC members from talking to Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada about initiations in the future. (ENE 54)

October 2, 1977: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada speaks to his leading disciples, “In this condition [of profound physical disability], even I cannot move my body on the bed. Only chance you should give me—let me die little peacefully, without any anxiety.” (ENE 59)

October 26, 1977: Bhavananda Swami (Charles Bacis), one of the eleven ritvik priests selected by Srila Prabhupada to initiate disciples on his behalf, confesses to his spiritual master during a recorded room conversation in Vrindaban, India, “We have not grown that much. . . . We’re still children.” (ENE 27)

Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada expresses concern about his Society, “That I am thinking, that such a big Society, the aims and object may be dismantled. I am thinking from that vision.” (ENE 59)

c. Early November 1977: Bhaktivaibhava Puri Maharaja (1913-2009), the Founder of Sri Chaitanya Chandra Ashram in Puri, visits his ailing godbrother, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, at Krishna Balaram Mandir. He remembers, “I asked, ‘Maharaja, you have established eleven gurus. There is no harmony. This can be no harmony. Guru must be one. You have selected eleven gurus.’ He said, ‘I have not selected [eleven gurus]. I have appointed eleven ritviks.’ I said, ‘Ritviks, as long as you survive, they are ritviks. After your demise they are gurus. And unless guru blesses a disciple to sit on the throne and continue this service, he cannot survive. He cannot sit then. He must go [fall] down. And that sure it is happening now.’ Then he [Prabhupada] said, ‘What shall I do now? What shall I do now? . . . I have done my duty. Now the rest depends upon the Lord. What can I do?’ . . . Then he stopped discussion. So it was not under his control in the last moment.” (ENE 60)

November 2, 1977: Two weeks before his death, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada’s confidence in his most “advanced students” appears to decline considerably. When asked by a news reporter, “Who will succeed you as the leader of the Hare Krishna movement?” instead of suggesting, as he did earlier, that his leading GBC secretaries and sannyasis would become his successors, he responds with a broad statement, “All of my disciples will take the legacy. . . . It’s not that I’ll give an order, ‘Here is the next leader.’ Anyone who follows the previous leadership is a leader. . . . All my disciples are leaders, as much as they follow purely.” (ENE 18)

November 10, 1977: Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada speaks in Bengali, “Someone has poisoned me.” (ENE 141)

November 14, 1977: His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the Founder/Acharya of ISKCON, passes away at the age of 81 in Vrindaban, India. Some say he was poisoned by his leading disciples. (GGG3 214, ENE 61)

November 19, 1977: During Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada’s funeral services at Krishna Balaram Mandir in Vrindaban, India, his disciple Siddha Svarupa Ananda Swami (Chris Butler), a teacher of the astanga and kundalini yoga techniques who founded the Haiku Meditation Center in Hawaii even before he accepted diksa initiation from Prabhupada in July 1971, emphatically states that Prabhupada did not appoint anyone in particular to be his successor(s). (ENE 70)

December 25, 1977: During a Christmas Day fire sacrifice at New Vrindaban, Kirtanananda Swami becomes the first ISKCON guru to initiate his own disciples. (GGG3 216, GGG6 2, ENE 75)

February 1978: Several senior ISKCON leaders visit their spiritual master’s godbrother, B. R. Sridhar Swami, for guidance. Sridhar gives them some good advice, and also some not-so-good advice. (GGG6 4, ENE 82)

February/March 1978: The GBC appoints eleven senior managers and spiritual leaders, who Prabhupada in July 1977 had selected to serve as ritvik acharyas, as Prabhupada’s successors. (GGG6 5, ENE 73)

March 1, 1978: During a meeting with B. R. Sridhar Maharaja in Navadvipa, India, Jayapataka Swami (John Gordan Erdman), one of the eleven ritvik priests appointed by Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada to initiate new disciples on his behalf, tells Sridhar Maharaja that Prabhupada had appointed eleven disciples “to be initiating spiritual masters or to accept disciples.” (ENE 84)

March 25, 1978: Yasodanandan Swami (Yoland Joseph Langevin), the headmaster for the Bhaktivedanta Gurukula, suggests to Tamal Krishna Goswami that all of Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada’s tape-recorded conversations should be transcribed and published, but his idea falls on deaf ears. (ENE 135)

April 16, 1978: At a fire sacrifice in Columbus, Ohio, Thomas Drescher accepts diksa from Kirtanananda Swami and receives the name Tirtha dasa. (GGG5 37, K4K 155)

May 25, 1978: Kirtanananda Swami gives his followers and disciples permission to address him as “His Divine Grace.” (GGG3 224)

June 1978: Syamakunda dasa, his wife Girindra Mohini (Gregory and Olive Detamore), and their three young children fly to Germany, purchase a Volkswagen live-in camper/bus, and drive 4,000 miles to Afghanistan where they purchase 160 kilos of high-quality hash oil. They drive another 800 miles to India, where they meet Adwaitacharya dasa (Emil “Eddie” Sofsky) who helps smuggle the product into the United States and sell it through his street contacts. The entire operation is funded by New Vrindaban money, and generates a half-million dollars in profits. (GGG3 242-243)

July 1978: Brijabasi Spirit reports on Bhaktipada’s boy servants, “When Maharaja was living in his cabin, it was considered a great privilege to get to stay in the back room. Only a handful of selected boys got the opportunity.” (GGG4 202)

August 7, 1978: Pradyumna dasa (Paul H. Sherbow)—a senior ISKCON scholar “brilliant in Sanskrit learning” who edits the Sanskrit and Bengali passages in Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada’s books and at one time served as Prabhupada’s personal secretary—expresses his grave concerns about the zonal acharya debacle in a widely-publicized August 1978 letter to Satsvarupa dasa Goswami (Stephen Guarino). (ENE 150)

August 1978: Tamal Krishna Goswami and Bhagavan visit Vrindaban, India, and are visibly upset when they, upon their arrival, are not offered their own vyasasanas and worshiped with a foot-bathing ceremony. (ENE 147)

Tamal Krishna Goswami and Bhagavan have a conversation in the stairwell of the guesthouse at the Krishna Balarama Mandir in Vrindaban, India. Yasodanandan Swami overhears the conversation. Bhagavan boasts, “In my zone, it’s simple. It is my way or the highway.” Tamal Krishna responds with a “loud laugh.” (ENE 107)

The author abandons his graduate school music studies and moves to New Vrindaban to study bhakti yoga under the tutelage of Kirtanananda Maharaja. Maharaja tells him he wants to produce magnificent operas at New Vrindaban in the future based on stories from the Ramayana and Srimad-bhagavatam. (GGG3 225, GGG8 45)

A non-devotee resident of McCreary’s Ridge explains, “I’m seventy-two and not much for fighting and scraping, but I caught one of them [Hairy Critters] with his pants down, peeing in the woods [by my house], and I threw him into the briars and scratched him up good.” (GGG3 69)

Kirtanananda Maharaja moves into his apartment/office on the fourth floor of the recently-constructed Administration/Guest Lodge/Marble Shop building at Bahulaban. He forces two eleven-year-old gurukula boys to shower naked in his bathroom while he watches. The boys are “embarrassed and extremely uncomfortable.” (GGG4 203)

August 20, 1978: Hridayananda Goswami (Howard J. Resnick), one of the eleven ISKCON gurus, explains, “I do not want to minimize the spiritual influence of His Divine Grace Kirtanananda Maharaja, whom I consider a pure devotee of Krishna and always my superior.” (GGG2 296)

August 25, 1978: Tamal Krishna Goswami offers his godbrother Guru Kripa Maharaja the position of guru in ISKCON. Guru Kripa refuses the offer. (ENE 153)

September 16, 1978: Giriraja Swami (Glenn Phillip Teton), a recently-initiated sannyasi who serves as the president of the Bombay Juhu Beach ISKCON temple, writes an essay for the GBC in which he describes the exalted qualities of the uttama-adhikari and gives warning that a devotee situated on a lesser stage of realization should not imitate those with the highest realizations. In effect, he questions the extravagant worship of the ISKCON zonal acharyas. “If everyone simply imitates [the uttama-adhikari], there will be only a contradictory result. . . . There will only be failure.” (ENE 155)

September 17, 1978: Tamal Krishna Goswami glorifies the ISKCON devotees who worship the eleven new gurus without question or doubt. “It is really wonderful to see how the new gurus are being fully accepted and worshiped just like Srila Prabhupada was when he was present. . . . Surely I am not worthy of all of this service but I am accepting it on behalf of my spiritual master and the guru parampara.” (ENE 148)

November 5, 1978: At Pittsburgh ISKCON, on his thirty-fifth birthday, Dharmatma dasa, the women’s sankirtan leader, sits in a decorated chair with his feet in a bowl of water, while women take turns bathing and massaging his feet and legs, while other women read their offerings to him from a Vyasa-Puja book they compiled for him. (GGG4 116)

November 7, 1978: At the annual Gopastami festival at the Bahulaban barn, Kirtanananda Swami dresses up as Krishna’s father, Nanda Maharaja, in a turban and cape. Hayagriva’s 8-year-old son, Kirtanananda’s protégé, is there. During the Gopastami festivities at the barn, Kirtanananda tosses a handful of fresh cow dung in the face of Hayagriva’s son. The boy immediately begins crying. (GGG3 227-228)

December 31, 1978: Kirtanananda Swami tells a news reporter, “These kind of people [West Virginians] are pretty backward. . . . They are not educated people.” (GGG 206)

1979: While living in London, Sulochan meets an attractive, young hippie girl, Jane Rangeley, who is interested in Krishna consciousness. Two weeks later they get married. (GGG6 89, K4K 12)

January 1979: Kirtanananda Swami declares, “I would rather die than miss the brahma-muhurta [the time just before dawn reserved for chanting japa and other spiritual practices].” (GGG2 164)

He also declares, during a darshan at New Vrindaban, “Ordinarily we don’t break the law, we should not do anything that is illegal. [But] Sankirtan cannot be illegal, no matter what any policeman or government says. Sankirtan cannot be illegal. That is higher law. . . . They may say it is illegal, but it is not illegal.” (GGG4 84)

February 1979: Yasodanandan Swami challenges the zonal acharyas to a debate at the February 1979 GBC meetings in Vrindaban, India. Kailasa Chandra writes a position paper for the challengers. Pradyumna—a scholar whose knowledge of logic and shastra is formidable—is chosen to be the spokesman for the reform party. (GGG6 16, ENE 156)

March 1979: Kirtanananda Swami adopts the honorific name “Bhaktipada.” (GGG3 230)

The six-month Palace Marathon begins, funded by a half-million dollars from New Vrindaban’s drug smuggling operation. (GGG3 231)

March 13, 1979: Henry Doktorski becomes “Hrishikesh dasa”—“servant of the Master of the senses”—at a fire sacrifice during the New Vrindaban Gaura Purnima festival. Ghanasyama dasa Brahmachari becomes Bhakti Tirtha Swami at the same sacrifice. (GGG3 227)

April 1979: Kirtanananda Swami announces plans to build “Land of Krishna,” a spiritual theme park. Mukunda Goswami (Michael Grant), head of the ISKCON Public Relations Department based in Los Angeles, visits New Vrindaban with his secretary Nandini dasi (Nori J. Muster). (GGG5 177)

Cheryl Wheeler, who suspects her eight-year-old son Samba is being sexually abused in Bhaktipada’s care, returns to New Vrindaban with a court order to take custody of her son. Her arrival at the commune with a Marshall County deputy, however, is forewarned and the boy is spirited off to his father in Mexico. Cheryl returns to California empty handed and empty hearted. (GGG4 182)

August 1979: Bhaktipada snorts cocaine with Hayagriva at his house, gets intoxicated, falls off the porch railing, thereby spraining or breaking his ankle or leg. He ambulates on crutches for a few weeks, as attested by photographs of him at the Palace dedication festival. (GGG4 215, GGG5 16)

September 2, 1979: The Palace dedication. (GGG3 262) New Vrindaban children, under the direction of Mother Yamini, perform Yamini’s Krishna Book Suite during the Palace dedication festival. (GGG8 76)

September 3, 1979: During an interview with a newspaper reporter, Kirtanananda Swami explains, “We want to create a transcendental village here, a little space that would create a Krishna consciousness. There were always [local] people who were a little nasty. . . . Human nature is always the same. There are demons, and there are devotees, and they are always at loggerheads. You’ll never convince the demons to become devotees or the devotees to become demons. So they are always destined to fight.” (GGG2 206)

Late-September-October 1979: The Pope Pick. Dozens of New Vrindaban collectors ride in vans to Des Moines, Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington D. C., New York City and Boston to hawk buttons and other paraphernalia displaying a photo or image of Pope John Paul II to the massive crowds. Tens of thousands of dollars are raised for New Vrindaban. (GGG4 57)

November 1979: Taru dasa (Thomas Meyers), a gifted writer whose articles appear in the Brijabasi Spirit, disappears. Most New Vrindaban residents believe he commits suicide and has his close friend, Kasyapa (John Mowen), bury his body in the woods. (GGG1 310)

Tirtha (Thomas A. Drescher), with New Vrindaban funding, sets up an illegal laboratory in Columbus, Ohio, to manufacture methaqualone, a sedative and hypnotic agent commonly known as Quaalude. (GGG3 246, K4K 157)

December 1979: A devotee woman living in Columbus, Ohio, visits New Vrindaban and sees her seven-year-old son who has been enrolled in the gurukula earlier that year. The boy proudly tells her, “Did you know that I had a great honor when I first came here? Kirtanananda Maharaja selected me out of all the kids to be his personal servant and live with him for a whole week. Do you know what he did? He fondled my genitals!” (GGG4 203)

December 9, 1979: After Tirtha’s Quaalude manufacturing operation is busted by law enforcement, he is convicted of Manufacture and Conspiracy to Manufacture Methaqualone. He serves 15 months in prison, and refuses to implicate Bhaktipada or the New Vrindaban community in the crime. Kirtanananda Swami promises: “If Tirtha takes the whole thing and no other boys get caught, then he’ll go back to Godhead at the end of this lifetime.” (GGG3 245, K4K 156-158)

December 10, 1979: Tirtha is convicted of Trafficking in Marijuana (Columbus, Ohio). (GGG5 34, K4K 153)

1980: A seven-year-old gurukula boy is sexually abused repeatedly by Nandagram headmaster, Sri Galim. The boy claims, “The first time was 1980 when I was about seven. It was at night the first time it happened. I woke up, and my teacher was trying to enter me anally. It was Sri Galim. After that first time, it continued for a long time. It happened frequently enough to say an average of about every other day, and sometimes every day. The sexual molestation, from orally to anally to everything. He would take me to his room mostly, usually at night after everybody went to sleep. He dragged me in there in my sleeping bag.” (GGG4 284)

January-March 1980: The author serves as the president of Pittsburgh ISKCON. (GGG4 60)

January 1, 1980: Bhaktipada suggests to a French-Canadian disciple in Montreal that they can sing the morning program in French. (GGG8 126)

February/March 1980: At the GBC meeting in Mayapur, India, Bhaktipada warns his godbrothers, “Our biggest problem in the world is that we’ve become burdened down by so much overhead, and by so much facility, that we can’t do any preaching because we’re so busy collecting [funds] for our facilities. I think we’re in a slump now.” (GGG8 4)

March 1980: Law enforcement authorities raid Hansadutta’s Mount Kailasa farm in Northern California looking for rifles and handguns purchased with a stolen credit card. They discover a grenade launcher, seventeen rifles and shotguns and thousands of rounds of ammunition. (GGG6 29, ENE 186)

April 1980: At an emergency GBC meeting in Los Angeles, Jayatirtha dasa Tirthapada, the ISKCON zonal acharya for the United Kingdom and South Africa who had been secretly ingesting LSD and leading “ecstatic” kirtans from his vyasasana sometimes lasting nine hours, is forced to abandon his wife and take sannyasa, and is prohibited from initiating new disciples for one year. (GGG6 25, ENE 170)

Jadurani (Judy Koslovsky) is evicted from Los Angeles ISKCON after she “blasphemes” her former husband, ISKCON guru Satsvarupa dasa Goswami. She says he is not equal to Prabhupada. (GGG6 46, ENE 221)

Life magazine publishes a feature cover story about children at New Vrindaban. (GGG3 258, GGG4 17)

April 13, 1980: Chakradhari (Charles Saint-Denis), a former New Vrindaban resident, returns to New Vrindaban from California. He becomes known as “The King of the Fringies,” due to his prodigious appetite for women and recreational drugs. (GGG5 23)

c. May 1980: Jadurani is beaten bloody at New Vrindaban. (GGG6 47, ENE 223)

Spring 1980: Sulochan and Jane arrive at New Vrindaban. (GGG6 93, K4K 15-16)

June 1980: Police discover a cache of weapons and ammunition in a Sacramento rental locker, owned by Berkeley, California devotees. (GGG6 29, ENE 186)

July 20, 1980: Ramesvara Swami, the director of the Los Angeles-based Bhaktivedanta Book Trust and the zonal acharya for Los Angeles, San Diego, Laguna Beach, and Denver, renounces his guru worship. The GBC forces him to resume his extravagant worship, or else face expulsion from ISKCON. (ENE 216)

August 1980: The GBC approves a paper written by Satsvarupa, Jagadish, Bhagavan and Jayapataka. One section, titled “The Philosophical Understanding of Discrepancies and Their Rectification,” explains that even uttama-adhikari devotees fall down from time to time and if there are “failures and setbacks” they should be seen instead as “pillars of success.” (ENE 205)

August 18, 1980: B. R. Sridhar Swami warns the GBC that they are going to have big problems due to the zonal-acharya system. (ENE 110)

Autumn 1980: ISKCON Television (ITV) films excerpts from their adaptation of the Hindu epic Ramayana at New Vrindaban. The Palace of Gold and the autumn deciduous forests are utilized as stunning settings in ITV’s first non-documentary production. ISKCON devotees from New York (Govinda’s American Theater) and Miami (The American Theater of Transcendence) gather at New Vrindaban to rehearse and shoot the film. Many Brijabasis serve as extras. (GGG3 310)

December 3, 1980: A meeting is held at the Pyramid House owned by Nrsimhananda dasa (David Shapiro) in Topanga Canyon, California. A frank discussion ensues between Tamal Krishna Goswami, Hansadutta Swami, Jayadwaita Swami, Dhira Krishna Swami, Kirtiraja, and others, about some of the problems in ISKCON. Tamal Krishna Goswami (currently under discipline from the GBC) declares, “Prabhupada never appointed any gurus.” (GGG6 30, ENE 188)

December 25, 1980: After being pressured by New Vrindaban temple authorities, Jane Bryant receives initiation from Kirtanananda Swami, and becomes Jamuna dasi at a Christmas day fire sacrifice, without her husband’s knowledge or permission. (GGG6 96, K4K 18)

The life-size murti (statue) of Prabhupada at the Palace is adorned for the first time with a gold bejeweled crown and regal attire. (GGG3 322)

1981: A Varnashram College is established at New Vrindaban by Manihar (Matthew Norton), a Prabhupada disciple initiated in London. At its height, 35 students attend. The school disbands two years later, after Manihar sexually abuses a nine-year-old orphan girl. (GGG4 296)

Early 1981: Sulochan comes to live at New Vrindaban; he works in the mold shop casting ornamental pieces for the gardens and walkways at Prabhupada’s Palace. After some months, he becomes lax in attending services and following some of the regulative principles. (GGG6 97, K4K 19)

January 14, 1981: Bhaktipada explains why the murti of Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada at the Palace should be adorned with a jeweled crown, “Because he [Prabhupada] is the King of Kings! Ordinarily kings wear a crown, and he is the King of Kings. He has not conquered any land, but he has conquered the modes of material nature. So all these earthly kings, even though they’ve conquered so many acres and miles of land, they’re all controlled by the modes of material nature. But he has conquered the modes of material nature, therefore he is the King of Kings.” (GGG3 324)

February 15, 1981: Bhaktipada accidentally reveals to a Los Angeles Times news reporter that ONLY TWO MEN attacked New Vrindaban during the June 1973 “Shooting Affair.” (GGG3 58-59)

April 1981: The first issue of Brijabasi Spirit with a color cover is published. (GGG3 342)

July 1981: Back to Godhead magazine publishes a feature article about eight important people who helped build Prabhupada’s Palace. (GGG3 266)

Brijabasi Spirit publishes an article about New Vrindaban’s bovine population. The community currently has 203 cows, calves, bulls and oxen. 47 milking cows produce 275 gallons of milk daily. 170 pounds of cheddar cheese is daily made. 150 acres of corn are planted. (GGG5 163)

Summer 1981: New Vrindaban’s two-story guest lodge (dharmasala) is built about one-quarter mile behind the Palace. (GGG3 302)

September 1981: The pilot program for Bhaktipada’s Sunday morning radio show is broadcast on WANJ-FM, a commercial radio station based in Wheeling. (GGG3 335)

Brijabasi Spirit cites Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada’s godbrother, Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Maharaja, who declares, “Kirtanananda is wise; his opinion should be respected.” (GGG2 295, GGG6 5)

September 6, 1981: A sculpture of Lord Vishnu’s bird carrier Garuda, made by New Vrindaban’s resident sculptor/architect Bhagavatananda dasa (Joseph Cappelletti), is installed in the foyer of the Palace Restaurant and Gift/Book Store. During the installation ceremony, tears come to Bhaktipada’s eyes and his voice chokes with emotion when he glorifies Bhagavatananda’s service for New Vrindaban. (GGG3 316)

September 8, 1981: Hridayananda Goswami claims, “Kirtanananda is . . . always more intelligent.” (GGG2 296)

August 1981: The Brijabasi Players, New Vrindaban’s resident theater troupe which was formed in 1978, achieves recognition when they win a $250 first prize for their performance of “The Pandavas Retire Timely” during the First North American Asian Indian Drama Festival held at Columbia University in New York City. (GGG3 309)

October 1981: The United States Senator from West Virginia, Robert Byrd, visits Prabhupada’s Palace. (GGG3 305)

November/December 1981: The popular ISKCON kirtan leader, Vaiyasaki (Per Sinclair) visits New Vrindaban and records a cassette tape with the gurukula boys. (GGG8 77)

November 27, 1981: Kanupriya dasa Brahmachari, initiated by Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada in November 1975 in Dallas, becomes the first ISKCON devotee to accept the renounced order from B. R. Sridhar Maharaja, who gives him the sannyasa name of Bhakti Kanan Giri Maharaja. (ENE 302)

December 1981: Chakradhari moves in with a married woman, New Vrindaban’s nurse practitioner, Ambudhara (Deborah Gere). (GGG5 23)

December 25, 1981: The Honorable Adam Pierre Adossama, a diplomat, director of the International Labour Organisation Liaison Office with the United Nations, and former president of Togo (the Togolese Republic)—a West African nation on the Gulf of Guinea—visits New Vrindaban and accepts diksa initiation from Bhaktipada. (GGG3 306)

1982: New Vrindaban’s Palace Press prints 500,000 full-color Prabhupada’s Palace of Gold brochures. They are distributed throughout the Eastern United States and displayed at motels, tourism offices, etc., in racks alongside brochures for other popular tourist attractions. (GGG3 304)

February 24, 1982: While visiting Pakistan, Bhaktipada explains why the New Vrindaban child marriages failed: the girls had not been properly trained. He suggests two of his young female Pakistani disciples come to New Vrindaban to train up the young Brijabasi girls how to become submissive wives. (GGG4 329)

February 28, 1982: Jayatirtha Swami leaves ISKCON with his disciples and takes shelter of B. R. Sridhar Maharaja at his Navadvipa, India, ashram. The GBC expels him from ISKCON. (GGG6 25, ENE 171)

March 1982: During the annual Mayapur festival in India, the GBC ordains three new gurus: Gopal Krishna Goswami (Srila Bhagavatpada), Panchadravida Swami (Srila Tridandipada) and Bhaktisvarupa Damodara Swami (Srila Sripada). (ENE 232)

Satsvarupa dasa Goswami, understanding that he is not on the uttama adhikari platform of pure devotion, requests the GBC to allow him to reduce the worship he receives on the vyasasana. The GBC refuses. (ENE 219)

Bhaktipada, while relaxing with a male disciple in his room in the Mayapur guest lodge, rolls a Back to Godhead magazine into a tube and thrusts it under his dhoti, making it appear as if he has a huge erection. (GGG5 4)

March 6, 1982: A GBC delegation confronts B. R. Sridhar Swami. Kirtanananda Swami serves as spokesman. At one point during the conversation, after remembering Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaja’s affection for him, B. R. Sridhar Maharaja begins crying. He tells them, “Don’t think that you have made a monopoly of the truth, of the Absolute Truth.” (ENE 174)

March 7, 1982: The GBC sends Yasomatinandan to speak with B. R. Sridhar Maharaja. Sridhar questions Yasomatinandan on basic Krishna consciousness philosophy and concludes, “You are all primary students.” (ENE 176)

April 1982: The Palace Restaurant opens for business. (GGG3 302) The vacation cabins of Vrindaban Village Estates are constructed on the hill behind the proposed bathing ghat, and cabins are sold as timeshare properties. (GGG3 338)

September 4, 1982: Jayapataka Swami Acharyapada praises Bhaktipada, “In 1971, Srila Prabhupada instructed me to develop the Mayapur project. ‘I have given you the Kingdom of God!’ Srila Prabhupada told me. ‘Now develop it.’ So I went there, but one man couldn’t do it. So they sent Bhavananda, but two men couldn’t do it. So they sent the whole GBC, but during this time Srila Bhaktipada had already constructed the Palace singlehandedly. When I fly around America, people always ask me, ‘Don’t you have a palace in the hills somewhere?’” (GGG3 281-282)

September 5, 1982: At the annual Palace Labor Day festival, Bhaktipada pulls the plug (the electricity) on the Montreal-based Krishna rock band ATMA, and the Palace goes silent. No mode-of-passion/ignorance rock music at New Vrindaban. (GGG8 190)

September 24, 1982: Bhaktipada is arrested in Karachi, Pakistan and charged with smuggling ten 24-karat gold coins (12 oz. total weight). He is released after a few weeks. (GGG4 100)

c. November 1982: Bhaktipada claims to have a dream of a gigantic temple in South Indian style, which he calls “The Temple of Understanding,” to be constructed at New Vrindaban. (GGG5 175)

A devotee walks unannounced into a Fringe devotee’s home, and observes Bhaktipada drinking beer and snorting cocaine. (GGG5 9)

November 3, 1982: Open house festival for the opening of the New Nandagram gurukula in Wilson Valley. (GGG4 289)

December 1982: Sulochan and Jamuna leave New Vrindaban and move to California. (GGG6 98, K4K 20)

1983: A photograph of Prabhupada’s Palace appears on the cover of Bus Bible: A Directory to Aid the Tour Planner and Charter Bus Driver. Also that year a lighted billboard advertising the Palace is installed on Interstate 70 near Wheeling. A life-size cutout of the dome of the Palace extends above the rectangular billboard, and its peak is topped with a real purple flag embossed with an image of Hanuman—the powerful monkey god who figures prominently in the ancient Hindu epic Ramayana—that flaps in the wind. (GGG3 303)

Palace Press publishes their first book: Understanding God Through Bhagavat Dharma, a series of seven lectures by and one interview with Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada during his September 1972 visit to New Vrindaban. (GGG5 141)

The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust (BBT) publishes a new revision of Prabhupada’s Bhagavad-gita As It Is, allegedly to correct errors of grammar and style and make the book more acceptable to the academic community. Bhaktipada adamantly opposes changing the books of the previous acharyas without their permission, raises his voice and thunders, “I want to become known as the acharya who didn’t change anything!” (GGG3 349)

February 7, 1983: New Vrindaban purchases a classified ad in the Wheeling News Register listing nine devotees, including Chakradhari, Dharmatma, and Tirtha, who are “excommunicated” from the community. The expulsions, however, are in name only. (GGG5 28)

February 1983: The architect for the proposed Temple of Understanding, Padmasri Muthu Muthiah Sthapathi, visits New Vrindaban. He suggests the temple be constructed from huge blocks of black granite. (GGG5 176)

March 1983: Chakradhari and Ambudhara, two New Vrindaban fringe devotees, begin their nursery business, called “Blue Boy Nursery.” A month later Chakradhari is murdered. (GGG5 32)

Brijabasi Spirit reports, “New Vrindaban’s cow population has now reached nearly 400, which includes cows, calves and bulls. . . . In 1982 the cows produced 600,000 pounds of milk, which was made into 2,000 pounds of ghee, 1,200 gallons of ice cream, and 7,200 gallons of yogurt. In the cheese kitchen, cream cheese, cheddar cheese and mozzarella cheese are regularly manufactured. Last year, tons of cheese were produced, most of it sold to other temples and at our store. Many of our local farmers can’t understand how we can maintain a herd without slaughtering the old and useless cows. But New Vrindaban is proof that the more cows one protects, the more economic prosperity will come his way. It’s just opposite to man’s speculations on good and bad economy. In fact, we can take any number of cows and feel confident that Krishna will provide for his favorite animal.” Little do the Brijabasis know that in ten years, dozens of New Vrindaban cows and calves will die because of insufficient feed. The local farmers were right. (GGG5 164)

March 19, 1983: The GBC expresses concern about Bhaktipada using the title “Founder-Acharya of New Vrindaban” and worshiping Prabhupada at the Palace with a crown. Out of respect, however, the GBC permits Bhaktipada to continue worshiping Prabhupada at the Palace with a crown. (GGG3 328, GGG6 146, K4K 59)

April 3, 1983 (Easter Sunday): New Vrindaban’s food relief program, Palace Charities (managed by Tapahpunja dasa Brahmachari), hosts an Easter Sunday dinner sponsored in cooperation with the Wheeling Housing Authority. (GGG3 343)

April 11, 1983: Bhaktipada orders Prabhupada’s crown removed, because he claims Prabhupada appeared to him in a dream and asked him to do it. In reality, he was forced to remove it due to pressure from the Palace Manager Mahabuddhi dasa (Randy Stein). (GGG3 330, K4K 60)

April 19, 1983: Two four-year-old boys suffocate in an abandoned refrigerator at Bahulaban. (GGG4 247, GGG5 59)

June 10, 1983: Chakradhari is murdered by New Vrindaban’s chief “enforcer,” Tirtha, and accountant/bookkeeper, Daruka, on community property. Soon after, Daruka moves to Los Angeles. Tirtha moves to Ohio after he is banned from residing at New Vrindaban. (GGG5 84)

July 1, 1983: The installation festival of the deities begins at the newly-built temple for Radha Vrindaban Chandra a quarter mile behind Prabhupada’s Palace. The first ceremony is guru puja. Bhu-Varaha puja is the highpoint of that night, with ten torches lighting the way. The head priest, Gaura Keshava (Gregory Jay), begins a fire sacrifice and offers oblations, bananas, coconuts and incense. Under the newly-built yajña-sala (place of sacrifice), four different fire pits are built with clay bricks and the puja begins. The final event that night is the Mirror Ceremony. Before deities are installed, they are customarily submerged under water for one night, but if that is not possible, the deities are placed in front of large tubs of water, and the pujaris imagine that their reflections are submerged under water. (GGG5 112)

July 2, 1983: The installation festival for the deities continues with a procession for the deities from Bahulaban to the new temple behind the Palace, where they are installed with much fanfare. During the procession, Bhaktipada and Satsvarupa dasa Goswami Gurupada ride in the back of a pickup truck and periodically spray the devotees with water from a fire extinguisher. (GGG5 113)

July 7, 1983: Daruka, a New Vrindaban accountant, purchases a .357 magnum at Sullivan Guns and Cycles; a revolver cartridge hand gun with a reputation for stopping power. He gives it to Tirtha, New Vrindaban’s chief enforcer, an advance payment for setting the fire and burning down Chakradhari’s abandoned house (owned by the community) in order to collect $40,000 from the insurance company. (GGG5 97)

July 8, 1983: During an emergency meeting, the GBC passes a resolution removing Hansadutta from all his ISKCON responsibilities, although he is not officially excommunicated. (GGG6 34, GGG7 90, ENE 193)

July 14, 1983: Chakradhari’s house burns to the ground. Tirtha admits to his non-devotee friend, Randall Gorby, that he had “burned the building, and it pretty near blew me up, running away from it.” (GGG5 97)

Summer 1983: Camp Gopal, a youth camp on the banks of the New Yamuna River (Wheeling Creek), is established. It features kirtans, arotis, Bhagavad-gita classes, arts and crafts classes such as sewing and painting, campfires, and sports such as swimming, horseback riding, hiking, golfing, and table tennis. (GGG3 339)

October 1983: After ten months in California, Sulochan completes construction of his motor home, and his family packs up and heads east. (GGG6 100, K4K 21)

Late 1983: Bhagavatananda (Joseph Cappelletti), a long-time New Vrindaban resident since 1969 who designed Prabhupada’s Palace, leaves New Vrindaban with his family after Bhaktipada refuses to discipline Gopinath for sexually abusing Bhagavatananda’s young son. (GGG3 317-318, GGG4 347)

November 19, 1983: Manilal B. Chauhan is initiated by Bhaktipada in Karachi, Pakistan and becomes Madhusudan dasa. He later moves to India and establishes Anand Vrindavan Dhama in Ulhasnagar. He becomes Bhaktipada’s successor after his guru passes away. (GGG10 114)

December 1983: Sulochan and his family return to New Vrindaban; he soon leaves on business, but Jamuna remains there with the children. (GGG6 100, K4K 22)

1984: Bhaktipada’s first book, Song of God: A Summary Study of Bhagavad-gita As It Is, is published. (GGG5 139)

January-March 1984: Hansadutta and some of his followers come and live at New Vrindaban for a few months. (GGG7 90)

January 15, 1984: Moundsville Chamber of Commerce manager, William O. Sievertson, notes, “I can’t see that the Hare Krishnas really offend anybody around here, but their appearance aggravates some people. We get a lot of calls from people from all over who want to come here and see that gold palace.” (GGG5 221)

January 20, 1984: The New Vrindaban mechanic shop burns to the ground. (GGG3 348)

February 29, 1984: Bhaktipada’s disciple, Sacimata dasi (who was married to Devala), sells her house to her spiritual master for $95,000, instead of giving it to him as a gift. Bhaktipada curses her, “She will take one birth for every dollar she took from me.” (GGG4 64)

March 1, 1984: New Vrindaban temple president Kuladri declares, “We run the Palace at a deficit. We don’t really make any money.” (GGG5 150)

April 1984: Sulochan sets up a little workshop on the third floor of the Bahulaban Utility Building to manufacture pendants for his business. (GGG6 100, K4K 22) He purchases two firearms from a New Vrindaban resident. (GGG6 121, K4K 38)

April 7, 1984: One of the Nandagram teachers discovers a new method to help control unruly boys: pinching them under the arms or on the fingernail. (GGG4 292)

On the same day, two drunk West Virginian men make trouble by the Palace. They are told to leave, but refuse and make threats. Marudeva (Jeffrey Forrester, an ironworker) punches one in the nose. Another comes at Bimbadhara (William Jones, a mechanic) with a baseball bat. Bimbadhara takes the bat away and tells them to leave. They drive away. Bhaktipada follows them in his vehicle, and Dayavira (Dewitt Hill, a construction foreman) follows Bhaktipada in his vehicle. The two drunk men stop on the bridge over Wheeling Creek by Wilson Valley, get out of their vehicle, and begin beating on Bhaktipada’s auto. Dayavira gets out of his vehicle, runs over, and Bhaktipada makes his escape. The police come, handcuff the thugs and take them away. (GGG5 146)

May 3, 1984: Confrontation between the Palace manager, Mahabuddhi (Randy Stein), and Kirtanananda Swami. Mahabuddhi leaves New Vrindaban with about ten other Prabhupada disciples. (GGG6 68)

June 1984: Sulochan is bullied by Kuladri and his thugs. (GGG6 106, K4K 25)

June 13, 1984: Kirtanananda Swami announces during a counselors’ meeting: If community enforcers could “cut off a few hands, a few balls, and shoot a few people,” petty crime would be eliminated at New Vrindaban. (K4K xxii) Bhaktipada also tells the New Vrindaban parents, “You might as well send your children to hell, if they eat karmi candy.” (GGG4 275)

June 20, 1984: The New Vrindaban bus, ferrying passengers from Bahulaban to the RVC temple complex behind the Palace, almost crashes due to lack of adequate maintenance on its brake system. (GGG3 138)

June 24, 1984: After arguing with community leaders, Sulochan leaves New Vrindaban with his two young children (one still in diapers); his wife remains with her eldest son. Jamuna immediately calls Bhaktipada for help, a ksatriya posse is hastily assembled, and she retrieves her two sons in Martins Ferry, Ohio, with the help of three armed New Vrindaban enforcers. Sulochan, defeated, drives to Los Angeles, acquires a pirated microfiche set of Prabhupada’s letters and begins studying them. He focuses on Prabhupada’s quotes on marriage and Kirtanananda Swami. (GGG6 110, K4K 29)

Summer 1984: A few dozen New Vrindaban boys fly to India to study at the Bhaktivedanta Gurukula in Vrindaban. They soon discover they have to defend themselves against sexual predators. (GGG4 306)

August 1984: Hansadutta runs amok. Shoppers in Ledger’s Liquor Store on University Avenue in Berkeley hit the floor when bullets blast through the front window, shattering whiskey and gin bottles on the shelves. When the gunfire stops, somebody outside floors a Ford Bronco. When the cops pull the Bronco over, Hansadutta stumbles out, drunk on ouzo. He also fired 18 shots through the windows of McNevin Cadillac on San Pablo Avenue. (GGG6 35, ENE 196)

August 5, 1984: Bhaktipada unveils plans for the $50 million Temple of Understanding and Krishna Land complex. New Vrindaban president and spokesman, Kuladri, claims the 18-story, 180,000 square foot temple will be twenty times larger than Prabhupada’s Palace and the largest Hindu temple of its kind to be built in the last one thousand years. (GGG5 182)

August 30, 1984: Excavation and construction begins for New Vrindaban’s Govardhan Dairy. (GGG5 165)

September 1984: The Guru Reform movement is born when North American ISKCON temple presidents, at a routine meeting in Towaco, New Jersey, spontaneously begin discussing the problems they have with the zonal acharyas, the eleven senior leaders who, in 1978, were appointed by the GBC as Prabhupada’s successors. (GGG6 155, K4K 67, ENE 235)

September 4, 1984: Sulochan’s Vyasa Puja offering is published in Bhaktipada’s Vyasa Puja book, although he rejected Bhaktipada and left the community three months earlier. In his offering (written some months earlier), he honestly admits that he is unsteady and a “veteran fault finder.” He also expresses what appears to be genuine appreciation for the Brijabasis, whom he considers “advanced devotees.” He implies that he is having problems and wants to leave. He admits that he hasn’t “sufficient intelligence” to stay at New Vrindaban; but he begs the devotees to preach to him and even tie him up with ropes or put sugar in his gas tank if necessary—anything to make him remain at New Vrindaban and adopt the Brijabasi spirit. (GGG6 102, K4K 23)

October 1984: During the height of the Scam-Kirtan era of New Vrindaban traveling sankirtan Citation Line collecting parties, a Columbus, Ohio, woman writes a check for three dollars as a donation to Nandagram Boys School. When she receives her bank statement at the end of the month, she is horrified to discover that the sankirtan collector altered the amount, and $93.00 was deducted from her account. At the time, New Vrindaban was making millions of dollars a year from traveling sankirtan. (GGG4 94)

October 11, 1984: Sulochan sends a letter to ISKCON centers “declaring war on Kirtanananda and the entire Society” if his wife and children are not returned to him. He practices target shooting by firing his guns at a picture of Kirtanananda Swami. Sulochan works on his book, The Guru Business, and periodically mails out damning excerpts to Bhaktipada and other ISKCON leaders. (GGG6 118, K4K 35)

November 1984: Ravindra Svarupa, the Philadelphia temple president who soon becomes known as a leader of the Guru Reform Movement, completes a paper expressing his ideas about the need for guru reform titled, “The Next Step in the Expansion of ISKCON: Ending the Fratricidal War.” (GGG6 158, K4K 69, ENE 238)

November 30, 1984: Jamuna gets a divorce from Sulochan. She later marries a loyal Bhaktipada follower, Raghunath dasa (Ralph Seward), and has three children with her new husband. (GGG6 113, K4K 32)

1985: Bhaktipada’s second book, Christ and Krishna: The Path of Pure Devotion, is published. (GGG5 141, GGG8 14)

Hayagriva’s book, The Hare Krishna Explosion: The Birth of Krishna Consciousness in America (1966-1969), is published by Palace Press. (GGG2 xiv, GGG5 141)

Palace Press publishes Dialectic Spiritualism: A Vedic View of Western Philosophy, a series of conversations between A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada and Shyamasundara and Hayagriva about the philosophies of Socrates, Aquinas, Kant, Nietzsche, Marx, Freud, Jung, and twenty-nine other great Western thinkers. (GGG5 141)

Bhaktipada’s French-Canadian disciples publish L’amour de Dieu: Le Christianisme et La Tradition Bhakti, a series of thirteen question-and-answer darshans with Bhaktipada from 1969-1983. (GGG5 141)

After acquiring a pirate-copy of Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada’s collected letters from a sympathetic godbrother at the Los Angeles Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, Sulochan moves to Berkeley; he lives in his van. (GGG6 115, K4K 33)

February 1985: Bhaktipada travels to Zurich, Switzerland, to examine computer-controlled granite cutting and carving machines for the proposed Temple of Understanding. (GGG5 182)

Lily Pond, an annual gardening catalog, features a color photograph of one of the Palace’s lily flowers on its cover. (GGG3 300)

February 22, 1985: Bhaktipada threatens to resign from the GBC if Sulochan is not discredited. (GGG6 150, K4K 63)

March 1985: The GBC ordains four more gurus: Bhakti Tirtha Swami (Srila Krishnapada), Agrani Swami, Gour Govinda Swami and Jagadish Goswami. (ENE 233)

Sulochan files a complaint with the GBC regarding Bhaktipada initiating his wife without his permission; Bhaktipada files a complaint about Sulochan spewing blasphemous slander. (GGG6 151, K4K 64)

Bhaktipada visits stone quarries in Connecticut, Vermont, North Carolina and Georgia. (GGG5 184)

April 1985: Bhaktipada visits San Francisco ISKCON, Berkeley ISKCON, Atreya Rishi’s proposed farm, and Hansadutta’s Mount Kailasa farm. (GGG7 91)

April 4, 1985: Three men, one from West Virginia and two from Pennsylvania, throw a Molotov cocktail firebomb at Prabhupada’s Palace. Law enforcement authorities are called and the three men are arrested in Moundsville. There is no damage or injuries. (GGG5 146)

April 24, 1985: New Vrindaban News publishes Bhaktipada’s request to Murti dasa, head of the New Vrindaban Planning Department, that he draw “money trees” into the Krishna Land master plan. (GGG4 64)

Spring 1985: Bulldozer operators begin clearing the brush off the proposed Temple of Understanding site. Stone cutting machines are purchased and construction of a stone cutting and fabrication plant are begun at Bahulaban. New Vrindaban purchases an abandoned limestone quarry near Littleton, Wetzel County, West Virginia, and Bhaktipada names it “Silent Mountain.” (GGG5 186)

May 1985: Sulochan teams up with editor Kailasa Chandra (Mark Goodwin); they live in Sulochan’s van for almost three months and stay in Santa Cruz, California, where Kailasa Chandra edits Sulochan’s The Guru Business manuscript. (GGG6 119, K4K 37)

May 30, 1985: Sulochan, living in California, challenges Bhaktipada to a debate. Bhaktipada ignores the challenge. (GGG6 148, K4K 61)

May 31, 1985: The peak of New Vrindaban’s popularity is the historic Sila Ropana (groundbreaking) ceremony for the proposed Great Temple of Understanding, attended by many dignitaries, including a United States congressman. Land of Krishna calls it “the most significant and memorable day in the history of New Vrindaban.” (GGG5 189) The inaugural voyage of New Vrindaban’s Swan Boat on Kaliya Ghat. (GGG5 132)

Summer 1985: During the noon service at the New Vrindaban temple, accompanied by recordings of Bach organ masterpieces on the temple sound system, Bhaktipada reads excerpts from his book-in-progress, eventually titled Eternal Love: Conversations with the Lord in the Heart, a Krishna-ization of Imitations of Christ by Thomas à Kempis (c. 1380-1471). (GGG8 15)

The 35-year-old New Vrindaban temple president, Kuladri, seduces a 17-year-old, dark-skinned, Indian girl with a slender waist who is visiting for the summer. After she becomes pregnant, she is hastily married to a young Prabhupada disciple, Brhat Sloka dasa (James Barbieri), and later shipped back to India. (GGG4 282, K4K 148)

August 1985: Bhaktipada asks his disciples in Eastern Canada to send their sankirtan collections directly to him. This upsets the Eastern Canadian ISKCON temple presidents. (GGG7 117)

August 6, 1985: Bhaktipada visits Schulmerich Bells, a Philadelphia company which supplies tuned cast bells, hand bells, electronic carillons, tower clocks and prefabricated bell towers. He also travels to New Britain, Pennsylvania, and visits the Elderhorst Bells, Inc. company. (GGG5 210)

Mid-August 1985: Emergency GBC meetings held at New Vrindaban; an ISKCON “guru,” Bhavananda Goswami confesses (after being accused) to having sex with a young male devotee; (GGG6 163, ENE 243) Ravindra Svarupa presents his second paper: “Under My Order: Reflections on the Guru in ISKCON.” (GGG6 162, ENE 242) GBC Privilege Committee rules that Bhaktipada “erred” in initiating Jamuna without her husband’s permission. (GGG6 182, K4K 74)

August 21, 1985: During an address to his disciples in New York City, Bhavananda Swami Vishnupada, one of the eleven “divine ISKCON spiritual masters,” confesses that he has “many flaws, inebrieties, [and] material desires.” (GGG6 41)

September 2, 1985: Bhaktipada’s 48^th birthday celebration. Hansadutta leads an ecstatic kirtan. (GGG6 164, K4K 74)

September 16-19, 1985: North American GBC and Temple Presidents Meeting at New Vrindaban. Bhaktipada reads his paper, “On My Order,” a rebuttal to Ravindra Svarupa’s “Under My Order.” Sulochan comes to West Virginia and, on his request, is locked up in protective custody in the Marshall County Jail where he telephones newspaper reporters and sends out press releases about corruption at New Vrindaban. New Vrindaban publishes a partly-fictitious and highly-inflammatory six-page article titled “The Story of a Cheater: The Real Facts on the Sulochan Story.” The GBC expels Sulochan from ISKCON for issuing death threats in “abhorrent” and “blasphemous” language. New Vrindaban leaders quietly begin talking about assassinating Sulochan. (GGG6 165, K4K 77)

September 20, 1985: Tamal Krishna Goswami, one of the zonal acharyas, declares, “New Vrindaban is the holiest place on earth.” (GGG5 202)

c. September/October 1985: During a darshan in Bombay, India, Bhaktipada discourages silent chanting, “That is not so good. There may be some place that you want to chant and you may have to be quiet. But ordinarily, we should have some place that we can chant also that we can hear.” (GGG9 50)

Autumn 1985: Malini, New Vrindaban’s juvenile Indian elephant, supposedly the first of dozens of trained ceremonial temple pachyderms, arrives in the United States. She spends the winter on a farm in Myakka City, Florida. (GGG5 134)

October 1985: Disciples and followers of Hansadutta at ISKCON Berkeley, California, ask Bhaktipada to take over management of their temple. The former ISKCON “guru” Hansadutta—who had been demoted from sannyasa and stripped of his position within ISKCON two years earlier by the GBC—claims he had recently recognized that Bhaktipada is the only pure devotee in ISKCON. He preaches that his disciples should surrender to Bhaktipada, the “World Acharya.” (GGG7 104, K4K 75)

Sulochan’s best friend, Puranjana, meets with Radhanath Swami in Berkeley and intercedes on Sulochan’s behalf in order to get the authorities to allow Sulochan to see his two young sons again. (GGG6 185, K4K 91)

October 4, 1985: The Brijabasi Players perform in Charleston, West Virginia, at “A Festival of India: A Cultural Program” hosted by the West Virginia Department of Culture and History. (GGG3 309-310)

October 17, 1985: During an interview with Sulochan, a former Brijabasi woman describes the treatment of women at New Vrindaban, “Kirtanananda had no respect for the devotees. None whatsoever. Especially the women. He had no respect for the women at all. These women dedicated their lives to him, serving him so nicely for years, but he treated them so badly. . . . [Before darshans with the women, Kirtanananda often joked with the men:] ‘Get out the incense, boys; it’s fish night!’ . . . But the women tolerated it. They thought: ‘Oh, it’s mercy, Prabhu. It’s mercy that he would say such a thing about us.’ . . . Kirtanananda was into the men beating their wives. The women were into their black eyes. . . . The women liked their husbands to beat them. That was their trip. They were into that. They were really into that. A lot of the women had black eyes. ‘Mercy! Mercy!’” (GGG4 21)

October 27, 1985: A mentally-disturbed devotee visits New Vrindaban, Triyogi dasa (Michael Shockman), and smashes Bhaktipada in the head with a three-foot-long iron bar. Triyogi is jailed by police. Bhaktipada is rushed to Reynolds Memorial Hospital in Glen Dale, then to Ohio Valley Medical Center in Wheeling, with severe, life-threatening head injuries. (GGG6 191, K4K 96)

October 29, 1985: Radhanath Swami shares his thoughts about Bhaktipada’s “painful condition” with the assembled Vaishnavas during a Srimad-bhagavatam class at New Vrindaban. Radhanath indicates that “a very divine purpose” was behind Triyogi’s assault, and he compares Bhaktipada to great Vaishnavas and saintly devotees, such as the Pandava brothers, Haridasa Thakur, Jesus Christ and Srila Prabhupada. (GGG6 199, K4K 102)

October 31, 1985: Bhaktipada, still in a coma, is transferred by helicopter to Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh. ISKCON leaders offer support. (GGG6 197, K4K 101)

Late October/Early November 1985: New Vrindaban managers organize confidential meetings to plan and implement increased security measures to protect Bhaktipada. To a man, they all agree that the “demon” (Sulochan) must be destroyed. New Vrindaban leaders begin serious talk about assassinating Sulochan. Tirtha dasa is asked to be a hit man. Tirtha makes phone calls to Los Angeles in search of Sulochan. (GGG6 243, K4K 210)

November 1985: Sulochan mails out a 15-page essay—“Violence In ISKCON: Caution”—claiming that Bhaktipada lives by violence and, if Triyogi recognized the offenses Bhaktipada was committing against Prabhupada, that would have been a noble motivation for killing Bhaktipada. Sulochan claims the ISKCON gurus have more or less declared open season on themselves, and they have no one else to blame. Sulochan predicts it is only a matter of time before each guru is dead or wishes they were. (GGG6 237, K4K 202-203)

November 6, 1985: The author sings “Jaya Jagad Guru Srila Bhaktipada” in the RVC temple and Bhaktipada wakes from his coma. (GGG6 205, K4K 101)

November 14, 1985: Prabhupada’s disappearance day; Bhaktipada’s disciple Jadabharata (Jean Thibeault) places Prabhupada’s crown back on his head at the Palace and announces, “If anyone tries to take off this crown, it will be over my dead body.” (GGG6 211, K4K 113)

November 22, 1985: Bhaktipada is discharged from Allegheny General Hospital and returns to New Vrindaban. He can barely walk and talk, and he has to be spoon fed. (GGG6 206, K4K 109)

December 1985: A 60-minute BBC documentary film titled “Persuaders” is broadcast which tells a story of manipulation and influence, and how elite ISKCON leaders under Bhagavan’s direction persuade celebrities to join the fold. (ENE 240)

Satsvarupa dasa Goswami writes about Bhaktipada, “An attack on his life is an attack at the heart of ISKCON.” (GGG6 201, K4K 104)

Tapahpunja Swami, the president of ISKCON Cleveland, receives an anonymous telephone call from a former New Vrindaban resident in Laguna Beach warning him that Sulochan might attempt to murder Bhaktipada. (GGG6 238, K4K 204)

Hansadutta and a few dozen of his disciples and followers move to New Vrindaban to take advantage of the presence of the “pure devotee”: Bhaktipada. (GGG7 100)

In a moment of uncharacteristic humility, Bhaktipada tells his female housekeeper that after his head injury two months earlier, he compulsively engages in sexual activities daily, even hourly, as he had done twenty years earlier while a graduate student at Columbia University. Bhaktipada admits he drinks alcohol “to cure his pain.” He also claims the house cat causes him to become sexually aroused and that he uses “many different objects” to penetrate his anus and stimulate himself. Very confused, she writes letters to the ISKCON acharyas revealing what is happening behind Bhaktipada’s closed bedroom door. Soon after, Bhaktipada regrets his confession and dismisses his housemaid, who moves back to Columbus, Ohio. (GGG4 355)

December 4, 1985: Bhaktipada, who ambulates with great difficulty using a walker, holds a press conference and calls Triyogi a “crazy fanatic” who had been “influenced” by Sulochan. (GGG6 239, K4K 204)

December 6, 1985: Sulochan claims his life is in danger. (GGG6 239, K4K 204)

December 20, 1985: During a visit with Bhaktipada at New Vrindaban, Hridayananda dasa Goswami Acharyapada (Howard J. Resnick), the ISKCON zonal acharya for Brazil, El Salvador, Uruguay, Venezuela and Florida, explains, “New Vrindaban is actually a great pillar to our preaching all over the world.” (GGG5 202, K4K 112)

December 22, 1985: One month after returning to New Vrindaban from the hospital after his head injury, Bhaktipada begins driving his Chevrolet Blazer around the community. (GGG8 24, K4K 116)

December 29, 1985: The New Vrindaban court declares a New Vrindaban husband guilty of causing physical harm to his wife. For punishment, “he must live in the temple, shave up, forfeit the use of his car, and give up his present service” for one month beginning in January 1987. (GGG4 27)

1986: Bhaktipada’s third book, Eternal Love: Conversations With the Lord in the Heart, based on Thomas à Kempis’ Imitation of Christ, is published. In addition, Bhaktipada’s Song of God is published in a Gujarati edition. (GGG5 141)

January 1986: Sulochan walks into Govinda’s Restaurant on Venice Boulevard near the Los Angeles ISKCON temple. On finding out that Ramesvara Swami, the zonal acharya for Southern California, is in the restaurant, Sulochan goes back to his van, gets a .45 pistol, and tucks it in the front of his pants. He tries to re-enter the restaurant, but is barred from entering. When Ramesvara hears about this, he says, “He [Sulochan] should be transmigrated to his next body.” (GGG6 317, K4K 263)

Back to Godhead, the official magazine for ISKCON, publishes an editorial by Satsvarupa dasa Goswami which compares Bhaktipada to Jesus Christ, Haridasa Thakur, and Prahlad Maharaja. (GGG6 201, K4K 104)

Tapahpunja Swami flies to California and attempts to convince an ISKCON San Diego enforcer, Yudhisthira (Jeff Cornia), to assassinate Sulochan. Yudhisthira says he’ll do it for $5,000 by giving Sulochan a heroin overdose. Tapahpunja, a cheapskate, balks at the price and returns to Cleveland, Ohio. Another hatchet man, a follower of Hansadutta, Vipra dasa (Vladimir Vassilievich), is also asked to kill Sulochan. He declines the offer. Around the same time, Radhanath Swami, the most beloved and respected sannyasi at the New Vrindaban community, visits Los Angeles ISKCON. (GGG6 276, K4K 229)

Janmastami (John Sinkowski), who makes a substantial amount of money for New Vrindaban from his flower-selling business in Philadelphia, visits New Vrindaban after the Christmas marathon and is recruited by Radhanath into the murder conspiracy. Janmastami subsequently drives to California with a handgun and a vial of cyanide, where he searches for Sulochan in Berkeley and Los Angeles. However, Sulochan is no longer in California; he is staying with his parents in Royal Oak, Michigan. (GGG6 257, K4K 216)

January 6, 1986: The deities of the fierce half man/half lion incarnation Lord Nrsimhadeva and the boy Prahlad Maharaja are installed in the New Vrindaban Temple of Understanding. (GGG5 116)

January 12, 1986: Bhaktipada’s former housekeeper mails a second letter to the ISKCON acharyas in which she states that her “spiritual master” drinks alcohol to cure his pain, engages in sex with his house cat, and uses many different objects to sexually stimulate himself. None of the acharyas respond, except for Jayapataka Maharaja, who writes directly to Bhaktipada and suggests Bhaktipada “take legal steps” against her. (GGG4 356)

Mid-January 1986: Bhaktipada travels to India for a two-week preaching tour. At Bombay International Airport, he is picked up in a golden Rolls Royce and followed by a thirty-car convoy led by an elephant. (GGG3 289, GGG6 214, GGG8 24)

Bhaktipada makes sexual advances on his 17-year-old male personal servant. (GGG9 269)

January 26, 1986: Sulochan leaves Michigan and drives to the Ohio Valley with a hand gun “for his own protection.” He rents a room at the Scott Motel in Saint Clairsville, Ohio, and works on press releases and articles for newspapers and television news reporters. He notifies the Marshall County sheriff where he is staying. (GGG6 281, K4K 232)

Bhaktipada decides that the New Vrindaban boys at the Bhaktivedanta Gurukula in Vrindaban, India, should return back home. (GGG4 359)

January 31, 1986: Sulochan telephones the New Vrindaban president, Kuladri, and tells him he is coming to Moundsville to destroy Kirtanananda and the New Vrindaban Community; “to finish the job” that Triyogi had started. Sulochan intends to destroy Kirtanananda using press releases and propaganda. New Vrindaban managers, however, think Sulochan is going to hide out in the woods with a high-powered rifle and shoot Bhaktipada. Kuladri calls Marshall County Sheriff Donald Bordenkircher for professional assistance, who agrees to help protect Bhaktipada and the community. (GGG6 281, K4K 232)

February 2, 1986: Tapahpunja Swami and Tirtha drive to Royal Oak, Michigan, to search for Sulochan. Tapahpunja telephones Mrs. Bryant and pretends to be Sulochan’s best friend, Puranjana. Mrs. Bryant gives Tapahpunja the phone number of the motel where her son is staying. Tirtha and Tapahpunja drive back to the Ohio Valley, where they meet with Randall Gorby, a non-devotee friend of Tirtha’s, and discover Sulochan at the Scott Motel near Saint Clairsville, Ohio. (GGG6 285, K4K 235)

February 3, 1986: Sulochan drives to Wheeling (followed by Gorby, Tapahpunja and Tirtha) and meets with investigators at the FBI office in the Federal Building. He attempts to convince them to begin an investigation of New Vrindaban. While at the FBI office, he also finds out from a phone call from his mother that she gave away his location “to an enemy.” Sulochan checks out of the Scott Motel, and rents a room at another motel in Saint Clairsville, the Fischer Motel. (GGG 292, K4K 241)

February 4, 1986: Gorby watches the Fischer Motel. Sulochan realizes he has been discovered and throws Gorby off the trail. Gorby claims that Sulochan “headed west on I-70 at a high rate of speed,” probably headed for California. Sulochan doubles back and rents a room at a boarding house in Washington Lands, just south of Moundsville. He notifies the sheriff of his location. Tirtha receives from Tapahpunja his first payment of $2,500, flies to Los Angeles, and hooks up with Janmastami to search for Sulochan, who they suspect is headed for California. (GGG6 297, K4K 245)

February 5, 1986: Gorby “discovers” Sulochan’s location at the boarding house in Washington Lands (actually Gorby has a direct line to the Marshall County Sheriff’s Office), notifies Kuladri, and suggests that Kuladri ask the sheriff to arrest him. That night, Kuladri follows Gorby’s suggestion and calls the sheriff. (GGG6 299, K4K 248)

February 6, 1986: Sulochan is arrested by the sheriff’s deputies shortly after midnight and is charged with carrying a concealed weapon. He is taken first to the Wetzel County Jail, and later he is taken to the Marshall County Jail, where he meets his godbrother Triyogi, who is serving a 14-month sentence for assaulting Bhaktipada. He asks Triyogi to personally bring him his meals from the kitchen, because he is afraid of being poisoned by other inmates who might be in league with New Vrindaban. (GGG6 308, K4K 255)

February 7, 1986: Sheriff Bordenkircher invites New Vrindaban leaders to come to his office and examine Sulochan’s telephone and address book. In California, Tirtha and Janmastami meet with the “Campus Cop,” the head of security for Los Angeles ISKCON, Krishna Katha (Jeffrey Breier), and Ramesvara’s personal secretary, Premadatta (Michael Scheffer), and a security assistant, Mahamantra dasa (David Fuller). Ramesvara knows of the murder plot and tells his disciple Krishna Katha to cooperate with the two New Vrindaban hit me. (GGG 312, K4K 259)

February 8, 1986: Tirtha, Janmastami, Krishna Katha and Mahamantra examine abandoned mine shafts in the Mojave Desert where Tirtha and Janmastami plan on dumping Sulochan’s body after the kill. (GGG6 327, K4K 271)

February 9, 1986: Tirtha flies back to Ohio and returns to his wife and son at their trailer park home in Ravenna, and Janmastami begins driving his van back to Philadelphia and his business selling flowers. Tirtha receives from Tapahpunja his second payment for surveillance expenses: only $1,700. He complains to Gorby that New Vrindaban promised him $2,000. (GGG6 328, K4K 273)

February 10, 1986: Bhaktipada travels to New Orleans on a preaching tour. (GGG8 24) New Vrindaban News publishes an article by Kuladri (actually ghost-written by Garga Rishi) titled, “Demon Discredited: The Inside Story.” (GGG6 309, K4K 256)

February 26, 1986: At the Marshall County Jail, Sulochan begins a ten-day hunger strike. He is placed on suicide watch. (GGG6 331, K4K 276) Bhaktipada embarks on a hectic ten-day tour to India, Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan. (GGG8 25)

February/March 1986: At the GBC meetings in Mayapur, during which the 500^th anniversary of the birth of Lord Chaitanya is celebrated, Bhavananda is reinstated as a guru in good standing, although he had been suspended only six months earlier after being confronted with an allegation of homosexual activities with a teenage brahmachari in Vrindaban, India; an allegation to which he confessed guilt. (GGG6 42, ENE 261)

The GBC gives approves twenty-six new gurus in ISKCON. (ENE 264)

March 1986: Bhaktipada acquires two guard dogs: a German shepherd (Gudakesh) and a schnauzer (Gurudasa). (GGG6 236, K4K 202)

March 15, 1986: Malini, a four-year-old two-ton female Indian ceremonial elephant arrives at New Vrindaban. Bhaktipada says she is to be “the first of thirty elephants for New Vrindaban.” Years later, when the community falls on hard times, she is sold to a circus. (GGG5 134)

March 26, 1986: At the quincentennial celebration of the birth of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu at the Mayapur, India festival, the author sets up a New Vrindaban exhibit booth in the vendor area and sells: 450 Palace of Gold Souvenir magazines, 300 Christ and Krishnas, 280 Hare Krishna Explosions, 125 Dialectical Spiritualisms, 100 Plain Living, High Thinking magazines, and 60 Song of Gods. (GGG8 14)

While visiting the New Vrindaban booth at the Chaitanya Expo 500, Harikesh Swami Vishnupada (Robert Campagnola), the ISKCON zonal acharya for Eastern Europe, admires a large print of a painting of New Vrindaban’s proposed Temple of Understanding and declares, “Someday, this will be the greatest temple on the planet!” (GGG5 202)

March 28, 1986 (Gaura Purnima): The two giant 40-foot-tall statues of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Nityananda on the banks of Chaitanya Ghat are dedicated. (GGG5 130)

April 1986: Bhaktipada’s third book, Eternal Love: Conversations with the Lord in the Heart, is published. (GGG8 15)

Indian architect Muthiah Sthapathi comes a second time to visit New Vrindaban; he designs the Maha Dwaram Gate. (GGG5 205)

Devamrita Swami (Jay Matsya)—a preacher who had previously served ISKCON in Eastern Europe under his sannyasa guru Harikesh Maharaja—comes to live at New Vrindaban and serve Swami Bhaktipada. (GGG6 322, K4K 328)

Bhaktipada moves into his recently-constructed new home located between McCreary’s Ridge and the Vrindaban farm. The teenage boys move into the ashram in his house. No adult supervises them; they are under Bhaktipada’s personal supervision. The Brijabasis think that the boys are incredibly lucky to have such close proximity to the “pure devotee spiritual master.” (GGG4 359)

April 3, 1986: After two months in jail, Sulochan goes to trial and is found guilty by a Marshall County Magistrate Court on a charge of carrying a deadly weapon. (GGG6 339, K4K 283)

April 11, 1986: Sulochan is released from jail after posting $5,000 bail and returns to his parents’ home in Michigan. (GGG6 339, K4K 283)

April 16, 1986: During a darshan with the “spiritual master,” New Vrindaban parents complain to Bhaktipada about their children’s lack of discipline and lack of care, especially at the ashram, where the children live when their daily classes at the school are finished. Bhaktipada responds by blaming the parents; it is the parents’ fault if children are disobedient. (GGG4 263)

April 17, 1986: Bhaktipada telephones the author, who is presently out on the pick, stationed at the New Vrindaban satellite center in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, New York, and speaks to him about starting a choir and orchestra at New Vrindaban. (GGG8 47)

April 19, 1986: Triyogi, who tried (and almost succeeded) to kill Bhaktipada six months earlier, attempts to escape from the Marshall County Jail. He is apprehended. (GGG6 193, K4K 98)

Late April 1986: Tirtha and Randall Gorby drive to Michigan and spy on the Bryant residence. Gorby pastes a Snoopy bumper sticker on Sulochan’s van. (GGG6 341, K4K 284)

April 30, 1986: Sulochan leaves Michigan and begins driving to California. (GGG6 342, K4K 285) On the same day, New Vrindaban News publishes Bhaktipada’s bold declaration, “[The Temple of Understanding] will herald in the golden age of Krishna consciousness in the world.” (GGG5 203)

May 1986: Five boys at New Vrindaban are treated for hepatitis. (GGG4 249) Bhaktipada acquires a large compact disc collection of Renaissance, Baroque,and Classical music, and plays the music on the stereo in his bedroom during darshans for devotees and guests. While playing a recording of organ masterpieces by J. S. Bach, Bhaktipada comments, “How can anyone NOT think of God while listening to this music?” (GGG8 xiv, 27)

May 7, 1986: Rev. Demetrios Serfes, pastor of Saint Xenia’s Russian Orthodox Church in Moundsville, writes an unfavorable review of Bhaktipada’s book, Eternal Love, which is published in the Moundsville Daily Echo. (GGG9 87)

May 11, 1986: Sulochan telephones his mother to wish her a happy Mother’s Day. This is the last time Mrs. Bryant hears her son’s voice. (GGG6 342, K4K 285)

Mid-May 1986: Sulochan visits friends in Three Rivers, California, including his fiancée Bhagavati (Cathy Barry). Soon after, he returns to Los Angeles and his van is spotted by temple security, who immediately notify the New Vrindaban hit men, as Ramesvara Swami had earlier instructed. Later, Krishna Katha spots Sulochan’s van again near the Los Angeles temple, and follows him north on I-5. Krishna Katha gives up the chase. (GGG6 353, K4K 294)

May 18, 1986: During a meeting at Hayagriva’s home, Bhaktipada refuses to authorize payment of $4,000 for Tirtha to fly to Los Angeles to “do the deed.” Hayagriva, Kuladri, Tirtha and Gorby have a second meeting to try to figure out how to get the funds. Bhaktipada leaves for Europe. Kuladri claims that, just before Bhaktipada leaves New Vrindaban, while sitting in the back seat of his Cadillac limousine, Bhaktipada tells Kuladri that Hayagriva can have $2,500. (GGG6 345, K4K 288)

May 19, 1986: Tirtha, not Hayagriva, goes to the New Vrindaban sankirtan leader, Dharmatma (Dennis Gorrick), and receives $2,500 to continue his hunt for Sulochan. Sulochan is presently in the San Francisco Bay area. (GGG6 349, K4K 290)

May 20, 1986: Tirtha flies to Los Angeles and rents a car at Ugly-Duckling Rent-A-Car agency at 8:00 a.m. Pacific time. Tirtha telephones Krishna Katha, who tells him Sulochan was last seen heading north on I-5. Tirtha drives north on the freeway in speedy pursuit. Sulochan visits friends in San Francisco and Berkeley, including his buddy, Puranjana. When they part, Sulochan prophesies, “I have the sudden feeling that I am not going to ever see you again, Puranjana.” Sulochan returns to Los Angeles to visit with other friends and say “goodbye,” as he knows he will be killed soon. Sulochan is spotted by Los Angeles ksatriyas. Tirtha is notified by telephone and begins driving back to Los Angeles. In two days, Tirtha puts 1,082 miles on his rented car. According to Jyotirdhama and Janmastami, Radhanath Swami also flies to Los Angeles at this time. (GGG6 351, K4K 293)

May 21, 1986: Tirtha arrives in Los Angeles late in the morning. Krishna Katha shows him where Sulochan’s van is parked. Tirtha and Krishna Katha spend most of the afternoon, evening and night silently observing Sulochan’s van. They wait for the opportune moment to dispatch him to his “next body.” Late that night, K. K. leaves Tirtha and returns to Los Angeles ISKCON, but his curiosity gets the best of him, and he secretly returns to the street where Tirtha watches Sulochan’s vehicle. K. K. hides in the shadows. (GGG6 355, K4K 297)

May 22, 1986: Tirtha murders Sulochan near the Los Angeles ISKCON temple (at approximately 1 a.m. Pacific time). Tirtha drives to LAX, ditches his rental car, calls New Vrindaban, and flies from Los Angeles to Dallas, then to Cleveland. He then probably goes to his home in a trailer park near Ravenna, Ohio (about 50 miles south of Cleveland) to sleep. (GGG6 365, K4K 305)

May 23, 1986: Tirtha, in desperate need of the remainder of the $8,000 payment promised by Hayagriva to purchase plane tickets for himself and his family to fly to India, telephones Dharmatma and asks for money. Dharmatma refuses. Tirtha also calls Hayagriva, Kuladri, and the New Vrindaban comptroller, Dulal Chandra (Howard Fawley), for money, but “they just give him the run-around.” Tirtha drives to Columbus, arrives in the afternoon; speaks to Tapahpunja Swami about getting escape money. Bhaktipada returns to the U. S. from Germany and hears the news of Sulochan’s murder. He arrives back at New Vrindaban that night. (GGG6 377, K4K 316)

May 24, 1986: Bhaktipada delivers the early-morning Srimad-bhagavatam lecture at New Vrindaban. A devotee asks Bhaktipada, “How should we understand it when a demon is killed?” Bhaktipada responds, “A devotee isn’t disturbed when a snake is killed.” Tirtha drives to Youngstown, Ohio, where he meets with his friend Gorby and begs him to intercede on his behalf to get his escape money, which Hayagriva had promised. Gorby telephones Hayagriva, who says, “I can’t discuss this on the phone.” (GGG6 394, K4K 311, 331)

May 25, 1986: Randall Gorby drives to New Vrindaban and personally meets with Hayagriva, who assures him that Tirtha will get his money “through the normal procedure.” Tapahpunja comes to New Vrindaban and tells Dharmatma he and Tirtha need money “to leave the country.” Dharmatma tells him to talk to “Number One” (Bhaktipada) regarding the money. Tapahpunja talks to “Number Two” (Kuladri), who also tells him to see Bhaktipada. (GGG7 1, K4K 334)

Tapahpunja allegedly spends ten hours with Bhaktipada trying to convince him to authorize the funds for escape money. Bhaktipada finally relents but does not have enough cash in his personal safe. Bhaktipada and Radhanath Swami drive to the sankirtan house and Dharmatma gives them several thousand dollars ($6,000 according to Dharmatma’s first recollection) in cash. Bhaktipada returns to his house, where he personally counts out the bills one by one, thereby putting his fingerprints on the currency. That night, or the next morning, Tapahpunja and Radhanath Swamis leave New Vrindaban together and drive to Kent, Ohio, where they meet with Tirtha and give him the cash. (GGG7 3, K4K 336)

May 26, 1986: Tirtha spends the day packing and preparing to leave for India with his wife and son. Tapahpunja assists. (GGG7 19, K4K 349)

May 27, 1986: Tirtha, accompanied by Tapahpunja, his wife and son, goes to Bank One in Kent, Ohio, to change $4,000 in small bills to big bills. At 11:55 a.m., Tirtha is arrested by Kent police on a West Virginia warrant regarding the 1983 disappearance of Chakradhari. Tapahpunja is also arrested. After hearing the news, Kuladri leaves New Vrindaban in great anxiety and flies to New York City, where he hides out with a friend at the New Vrindaban satellite center in Brooklyn. (GGG7 24, K4K 353)

May 28, 1986: Randall Gorby, the government’s principal witness against New Vrindaban and the conspiracy to assassinate Sulochan, is nearly killed at 9:00 a.m. when he lights a cigarette in his house and ignites a gas explosion. (GGG7 42, K4K 368)

May 29, 1986: Radhanath Swami delivers $7,500 to the Cleveland temple for Tapahpunja’s bail. (GGG7 25, K4K 354) Judge Richard A. Warmuth sentences Triyogi, who had attempted to kill Kirtanananda Swami seven months earlier by smashing his head with a brick prying tool, to a fifteen-month term in the county jail for unlawful assault and jail escape charges. (K4K 98)

May 1986: Sulochan’s parents, Jack and Helga Bryant from Royal Oak, Michigan, fearful for their grandsons’ safety, attempt to get a court order to remove them from their mother at New Vrindaban. (GGG4 247)

May 30, 1986: After three days in jail, Tapahpunja is released on bail. Soon he disappears. (GGG7 29, K4K 357)

Early June, 1986: Tirtha’s wife, Suksmarupini (Suzanne Bludeau), leaves him. After her husband’s arrest in Kent, Ohio, on May 27^th, she returns to their trailer-park home in Ravenna. Soon after, devotees bring her and her sons to the Cleveland ISKCON temple. After a few days, a Bhaktipada disciple in Cleveland, Ananda dasa, takes her to New Vrindaban to meet with Bhaktipada. Bhaktipada tells Ananda to “take her away.” Suksmarupini’s sons are enrolled in the gurukula, and Ananda and Suksmarupini move to a furnished house in Scottsdale, Arizona, provided by New Vrindaban. Ananda becomes her new lover. When Tirtha in jail finds out, he orders Janmastami to “whack him” for “stealing his wife.” (GGG7 172, K4K 408)

June 1986: Radhanath Swami confesses his involvement in the Sulochan murder conspiracy to his godbrother Jagad Guru Swami while sitting on a Pacific Ocean beach in San Diego. (GGG10 9, K4K 481)

Tapahpunja flees to Ireland, then Australia, then India, then Malaysia. Other important New Vrindaban managers defect, some never to return. (GGG7 29, K4K 373)

June 1, 1986: New Vrindaban News prints the first published documentation of Bhaktipada’s plan to de-Indianize the music at the temple, build a pipe organ, carillon, etc. (GGG8 40)

June 4, 1986: A big fire sacrifice is held in the New Vrindaban temple. Eight sannyasis are initiated, plus several other devotees take vanaprastha, while others accept first and second initiations, and several couples are married, including the author and his teenage Indian wife. Gaura Keshava serves as priest. (GGG8 332)

June 19, 1986: Randall Gorby tells an FBI agent, “Howard Wheeler preferred opium, and Keith Ham preferred to use cocaine.” (GGG5 16)

July 1986: Bhaktipada meets with Radhanath Swami, Tapahpunja Swami, and Janmastami in Bombay to get their story straight in case they are subpoenaed to appear in court and talk about the murder of Sulochan. (GGG7 46, K4K 371)

The Vaisnava Journal, an independent magazine created by Padmapani dasa (Perry McNaughton) in Vancouver, British Columbia, publishes an article by Karnamrta dasa (Brian Soul) titled “The Diksa Guru: A Pragmatic Definition.” This is the first-known article promoting the Posthumous Ritvik System of diksa initiations. (ENE 342)

During a lecture in Bombay, Bhaktipada declares, “You haven’t surrendered, therefore Krishna has left India. Right now, Krishna is more in America than in India.” (GGG9 67)

July 26, 1986: A distraught New Vrindaban mother, initiated in New York in 1971, who discovers that her son has been sexually molested repeatedly by the gurukula headmaster, leaves the community. She says, “I left the community because I found out that my son had been molested by the headmaster, Sri Galim [Gary Gardner].” (GGG4 336)

August 1986: ISKCON guru Tamal Krishna Goswami asks permission from Bhaktipada to print 100,000 copies of Christ and Krishna for distribution in the Philippines. (GGG8 15)

Bhaktipada visits the Dallas ISKCON temple, and boldly brings his German shepherd guard dog Gudakesh in with him. Tamal Krishna Goswami makes a derogatory comment about Gudakesh “licking himself” (his penis) in front of the deities. Bhaktipada retorts, “It’s all right for a dog, but not for you.” (GGG7 129)

August 3, 1986: When a New Vrindaban mother complains to Bhaktipada that the conditions in the nursery are “miserable,” Bhaktipada tells her that she has forgotten what real misery is, and as punishment she should go on sankirtan to see how the materialists are suffering, and consequently see how fortunate she is to engage in some little service, no matter what.” (GGG4 254)

August 17, 1986: Prabhupada’s Palace is falling apart, due to shoddy construction and insufficient maintenance. (GGG10 28)

August 18-19, 1986: Emergency meeting of the North American GBC held in San Diego. Bhaktipada is asked, by telephone, if he will resign from the GBC if indicted by the Grand Jury. He answers in the affirmative. (GGG7 55, K4K 379)

August 20, 1986: A Grand Jury interviewer notes, “[Randall] Gorby described Wheeler as being on a self-gratification trip and Keith Ham as being on an ego trip.” (GGG5 16)

September 1986: Bhaktipada announces, “I do not care about Indian people!” (GGG9 70)

ISKCON GBC member Yasomatinandana dasa criticizes Bhaktipada, “Kirtanananda Swami is an example of external purity, but lack of humility. He is attached to praise and honor and hates criticism. He proudly declares to be no one and ridicules other Vaishnavas. He talks of grass-like humility, but trains disciples to criticize other devotees and creates duality in their minds; separatist mentality. . . . He declares boldly: ‘I am the best. I will practically be the only acharya left pretty soon.’” (GGG9 158)

September 1, 1986: During Bhaktipada’s 49^th birthday festival, Ishani dasi (Ellen Schramm) offers her siksa guru a gold-plated crown and scepter. The author, with assistance from New Vrindaban singers and musicians, offers a contrapuntal music performance of the Bhaktipadastakam Prayers and Jaya Jagad Guru Srila Bhaktipada. (GGG8 52, 55)

September 11, 1986: New Vrindaban lays off 187 employees, nearly their entire work force. (GGG7 57, K4K 381)

September 15, 1986: The Grand Jury meets to investigate a possible connection between New Vrindaban members and the death of Sulochan. Bhaktipada refuses to resign from the GBC when indicted. (GGG7 58, K4K 382)

September 18, 1986: Randall Gorby speaks to the Grand Jury about the position of women in Krishna society, “Well, you have to understand . . . the male position in Hindu society. The male is the authority. It is a patriarchal society . . . and the female has a position somewhere below that of the cow. . . . [The main purpose of a woman is] to serve her husband in all his functions. If she has carried out the function in the Vedic light, she then will be reincarnated at the next higher plane, which would be male.” (GGG4 17)

During the same interview, Randall Gorby explains that Hayagriva was proud of his young male Mexican lovers, and called them his “Treasure of the Sierra Madre” when he brought his lovers to party overnight at Gorby’s backyard guest house. (K4K 142)

October 1986: Bhaktipada declares Saturday as “Women’s Day” in the temple. They lead kirtan, give Bhagavatam class, and dress the deities. (GGG8 202)

October 1, 1986: In The New York Times, Bhaktipada is quoted as saying, “If there is a need for violence, we can become violent.” (GGG6 266, K4K 224) In the same article, Howard “Biggie” Bayard, president of the Marshall County Commission, who had worked with “Pinky” Clark to revoke New Vrindaban’s tax except status, claims, “It’s been kind of like a nightmare. We’ve put up with this for twenty years, hoping it’s going to get better. But it’s only getting worse. . . . If that’s religion, I’ll put a dome on my house and play guitar.” (GGG5 150)

October 3, 1986: Devamrita Swami delivers a lecture at New Vrindaban titled, “The Forest of Secretions and Emotions,” to warn brahmacharis about the illusions of household life. (GGG4 39)

October 14, 1986: New Vrindaban News reports that three bison and a pair of longhorn cattle arrive at New Vrindaban’s Jharikhanda Wildlife Sanctuary. The animals cause trouble from the very beginning. The huge 1,200-lb. male steer lurks in the semi-darkness of the delivery truck, and refuses to budge, even as devotees smack him with a ten-foot-long two-by-four, trying to pry him forward and into the cattle pen. Instead, the bull becomes enraged and shoves back, sending the two-by-four flying and knocking Srila Bhaktipada to the ground. Bhaktipada is unhurt. Both the male and female longhorns escape into the fields behind the barn. Despite their inability to control the two large herbivores, Bhaktipada still plans to acquire five Bengal tigers for the sanctuary. (GGG5 138)

November 1986: North American temple presidents meet in Chicago and request the GBC to expel Bhaktipada from ISKCON. (K4K 382)

November 2, 1986: Four deities, Ramachandra, Sita, Laksman and Hanuman are installed at New Vrindaban’s Temple of Understanding. (GGG5 119)

November 9, 1986: The first rehearsal of the Krishna Chorale, the New Vrindaban choir. (GGG8 56)

November 10, 1986: Marshall County Commissioner Donald K. Mason reduces New Vrindaban’s appraisal of Prabhupada’s Palace from $7,353,300 to $834,900. Over six million dollars is cut from the community’s appraisal, “based on testimony and appraisal of the real estate expert E. Gordon Golden.” (GGG5 151)

November 11, 1986: Bhaktipada declares that women, indeed anyone who understands the science of Krishna, can become guru. (GGG8 203)

November 23, 1986: Sulochan’s three-year-old son drowns in a New Vrindaban ghat. (GGG7 61, K4K 382)

November 27, 1986 (Thanksgiving Day): The author, wearing a white chef’s uniform, hosts a Thanksgiving Day luncheon at Prabhupada’s Palace for a tom turkey named Jiva whom he had purchased from a local farmer. Jiva the turkey eats a meatless meal while newspaper and television reporters chronicle the event, a publicity stunt for Palace Charities Vegetarian Meals on Wheels. (GGG3 344)

November 28, 1986: The first pour for the concrete foundation for the proposed Maha Dwaram Gateway is completed. (GGG5 205)

November/December 1986: During the month of Kartik, while on pilgrimage in Vrindaban, India, Satsvarupa is finally convinced that he should give up the trappings of an uttama-adhikari guru: the big throne, the pranam prayers, the extravagant worship and the honorific name: Gurupada. “We did wrong by acting as zonal acharyas before our godbrothers,” Satsvarupa explains. “And we imitated Srila Prabhupada. As a result, some of us became corrupt, others suffered gross falldowns. Now we are changing, but there must be remorse. . . . The spiritual master shouldn’t think of himself as a guru. According to Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati, if one thinks of himself as guru, he is actually goruh, a cow.” (ENE 274)

December 1986: A fifty-man committee, consisting of temple presidents, sannyasis and other senior Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada disciples who oppose the zonal acharyas, is formed at the December 1986 North American GBC meeting in Dallas, Texas. Tamal Krishna Goswami, one of the original eleven zonal acharyas, is elected chairman. (ENE 278)

Bhaktipada begins his First Amendment Freedom Tour, preaching on radio, television and in newspapers. (GGG7 83, K4K 397)

December 1, 1986: Police exhume a dead body on New Vrindaban property. This was the brahmachari who had, a decade earlier, accidentally fallen from a cable car crossing high over Keshi Ghat Canyon on an aerial tramway from the Vrindaban Farm to McCreary’s Ridge. No one knew where he was from or his next of kin, so he was unceremoniously buried like a pauper. (GGG7 64)

December 2-5, 1986: Tirtha’s trial for the murder of Chakradhari. He is found guilty, although no body is presented as evidence. (GGG7 65, K4K 385)

December 14, 1986: Bhaktipada speaks at the Parliament of the World’s Religions’ convention in Washington, D. C. He addresses the meeting of about 200 people for half an hour on the subject, “Chanting— Yoga for the Modern Age.” (GGG7 83, K4K 397)

December 15, 1986: Tirtha is sentenced to life in prison without parole for the murder of Chakradhari. (GGG7 66, K4K 437)

December 23, 1986: The first performance of the Krishna Chorale, on the sidewalk in front of the Marshall County Courthouse. (GGG8 58)

December 26, 1986: Bhaktipada declares, “I’ve decided that in order to build this temple, I have to give up eating and sleeping.” (GGG5 208)

Late 1986: On national television, Bhaktipada compares women to dogs, “[Wife beating] is not the solution. The solution is [for the husband] to reason with her, instruct her, encourage her, like that, to preach to her. Of course, I can’t say that there would never be a circumstance when it wouldn’t be the best thing in the world to give her a little slap on the face. Just like my dog. I don’t beat my dog, nor do I allow anyone else. I love my dog. But if the dog is very naughty, I might take his snout and give him a little tap to train him.” (GGG4 23)

During the same television interview, Bhaktipada also notes, “Just as I love boys, they love me.” (GGG4 209)

1987: Three more books by Bhaktipada are published:

(1) On His Order (ghostwritten by Sukavak dasa/Brian D. Marvin)

(2) The Illustrated Ramayana (ghostwritten by Sri Galim/Gary Gardner)

(3) Lila in the Land of Illusion: A Retelling of Lewis Carroll’s Alice In Wonderland. (GGG5 142)

January 1987: Marshall County Jail authorities claim Tirtha threatened suicide. He is placed under a suicide watch and allowed to only wear underwear. (GGG7 69, K4K 388)

New Vrindaban parents begin enrolling their children in Marshall County public schools. (GGG7 81, K4K 395)

Bhaktipada visits his newly-acquired property in Tikli, India, which he calls “Dronacharya’s Ashram.” Early one morning he falls in the bathroom, hits his head, loses consciousness and is afflicted by a series of grand mal seizures. He goes into shock and his body becomes cold and rigid. His disciples are at their wit’s end. The chastising words Bhaktipada speaks to his bewildered disciples after he regains consciousness makes them believe that he is an exalted divine being. (GGG6 216)

Bhaktipada orders his disciples in India to leave the ISKCON temples and move to his newly-acquired property in Tikli. ISKCON temple presidents are upset. (GGG7 118)

January 5, 1987: The FBI raids New Vrindaban, confiscates computers, financial records, filing cabinets, cash, and bumper stickers and baseball caps bearing the names and logos of professional and college sports teams used by the traveling pickers. (GGG7 72, K4K 390)

Daruka, a New Vrindaban accountant who assisted Tirtha in the June 1983 murder of Chakradhari on New Vrindaban property, pleads guilty at his trial in Fairmont, West Virginia, to voluntary manslaughter as an accomplice in the killing. (GGG7 66)

The first full-length performance of the Krishna Chorale, at the Temple of Understanding. Bhaktipada attends. The choir sings two four-part motets written by the author, two Krishna-ized choruses by J. S. Bach, four choruses, six recitatives, and five arias from Handel’s Krishna-ized Messiah, and a medley of Krishmas Carols. (GGG8 62)

January 6, 1987: Daruka shows investigators the place where he and Tirtha had buried Cakradhari’s body under a creek nearly four years earlier. (GGG7 66)

February 1987: New Vrindaban and Berkeley ISKCON agree on a settlement. (GGG7 110)

February 1, 1987: The concrete foundation for the proposed Maha Dwaram Gateway is completed. (GGG5 205)

February 13-14, 1987: North American temple presidents, at a meeting at Brooklyn ISKCON, recommend to the GBC that Bhaktipada be expelled from ISKCON. (GGG7 136)

February 17, 1987: A former New Vrindaban gurukula alumni is arrested and charged with two third-degree sexual assault charges. He pleads guilty and serves six months in a youth detention camp. On the other hand, the former school headmaster, Sri Galim (Gary Gardner), also charged with sex crimes, flees the country. (GGG4 341)

February 28, 1987: Bhaktipada claims to have had a series of dreams wherein a spiritual city, the City of God, is revealed to him. (GGG8 268)

Early March 1987: Police unearth the remains of four bodies at New Vrindaban: Sankara dasi, Mathura dasa, and the sons of Chakradhari and Daruka who died at the age of four. They had been buried in unmarked graves and forgotten, until a backhoe operator accidentally unearths human bones, and therefore the police are called. (GGG7 145, K4K 402)

At the Mayapur GBC meetings, the moderate guru reformers, led by Ravindra Svarupa, succeed in ending the zonal-acharya era of ISKCON, but the problem of “rascal gurus” remains. (ENE 280)

March 16, 1987: Bhaktipada is expelled from ISKCON for “moral and theological deviations.” (GGG7 146, K4K 403)

March 18, 1987: Bhaktipada meets a White House aide in Washington D. C. to discuss harassment of New Vrindaban by federal, state and local authorities. (GGG7 158)

Spring 1987: New Vrindaban purchases a used (and decrepit) Möller pipe organ from a Pittsburgh church slated for the wrecking ball. (GGG8 101)

April 1987: During a live radio interview, Bhaktipada claims, “Of course, West Virginia is a little backward. If you’re not born in West Virginia, you’re not very welcome there.” (GGG2 206)

April 8, 1987: During a news conference, Bhaktipada threatens ISKCON with a $100,000,000 lawsuit. He says, “I am the real ISKCON.” (GGG7 161) A news reporter asks him about polygamy at New Vrindaban, and Bhaktipada replies, “We don’t condone polygamy, but according to our scripture, polygamy is allowable.” (GGG4 144)

April 9, 1987: Rolling Stone article, “Dial Om for Murder,” published. (GGG7 169, K4K 405)

May 1987: New Vrindaban hosts a grand parade and chanting party in Moundsville, West Virginia. The parade begins downtown, goes past the West Virginia Penitentiary and ends at the Delf Norona Museum, the site of the ancient Native-American Indian Grave Creek Burial Mound, from which Moundsville is named. (GGG7 175)

May 27, 1987: Bhaktipada and the author travel to Maryville College in Maryville, Tennessee, to see Bhaktipada’s former organ professor and hear the college’s pipe organ. (GGG8 100)

June 24, 1987: 26 major league baseball teams and United Features Syndicate (Peanuts cartoons) sue New Vrindaban for more than $27 million for copyright infringements. (GGG7 170, K4K 406)

July 1987: Bhaktipada changes the building material for the proposed Temple of Understanding from granite to bronze. (GGG8 261)

July 4, 1987: The Swan Boat—and a murti of Prabhupada seated atop Radha Vrindaban Chandra’s flower-adorned hand-carved teakwood Rath Cart—participate in the National Independence Day parade in Washington D. C. Dozens of New Vrindaban devotees pull the two floats through the streets of the nation’s capital with ropes. Bhaktipada also appears in the parade riding in his Cadillac limousine, as does Malini the elephant, who walks the length of the parade route guided by her mahout. (GGG5 133)

July 7, 1987: New Vrindaban hosts a parade in Wheeling, West Virginia. The Swan Boat, the Rath Cart, dozens of devotees, Bhaktipada and Malini the elephant participate in the parade. The parade ends at Market Plaza, where prasadam, dramatic and musical performances are offered. (GGG5 132)

July 22, 1987: Tirtha becomes a swami at a fire sacrifice at the West Virginia State Penitentiary. (GGG7 176, K4K 410)

Late-July 1987: A newspaper reporter writes about Bhaktipada’s visit to Cincinnati during his First Amendment Freedom Tour, and takes special notice of the two young boys with him to keep him company during long drives in his limousine. (GGG4 211)

August 1987: New Vrindaban’s Swan Boat participates in the Pittsburgh Regatta on the Allegheny River. (GGG5 133)

August 15-16, 1987: Bhaktipada announces his intention to build a spiritual city for 10,000 devotees at New Vrindaban. He predicts the imminent collapse of civilization by pestilence and war, but claims the devotees will be protected by Krishna. (GGG8 272)

August 30, 1987: New Vrindaban’s Swan Boat participates in the Stern Wheel Regatta on the Kanawha River in Charleston, West Virginia. (GGG5 133)

September 7, 1987: During his fiftieth birthday celebration, Bhaktipada wears a Franciscan-style robe, instead of a dhoti, for the first time. Within a year it becomes the dominant dress for New Vrindaban residents. (GGG8 200)

In addition, the New Vrindaban Children’s Choir, under the direction of Chakravarti Swami, performs during the annual Janmastami/Labor Day festival. (GGG8 78)

September 10, 1987: Triyogi writes a letter to Bhaktipada and apologizes for trying to kill him two years earlier. (GGG6 194)

September 16, 1987: Bhaktipada and Tirtha Swami are indicted by a federal grand jury for ordering and executing the July 14, 1983 burning of Chakradhari’s house to collect $40,000 insurance. (GGG7 182)

September 27, 1987: Bhaktipada suggests that New Vrindaban should have an accordion ensemble. (GGG8 93)

October 8, 1987: Bhaktipada and Tirtha plead not guilty to the arson charges. (GGG7 187)

November 1987: New Vrindaban announces (fake) plans to build a “Palace of God” in Atlantic City, New Jersey. (GGG8 296)

November 8, 1987: A professor of religion at Glassboro State College in New Jersey, after visiting New Vrindaban, shares his thoughts with a reporter from the Atlantic City Sunday Press, “Residents there seemed ‘less spiritual’ than other Krishna sects. Family life is practically non-existent. Families constantly fall apart. The men see marriage as an obstacle to serving Krishna. They really treat the women poorly. The divorce rate makes the outside world’s look good.” (GGG4 4)

November 10, 1987: Bhaktipada visits rural property in Lawrence Township, New Jersey, allegedly to purchase for a “City of God.” (GGG8 298)

November 13, 1987: Former ISKCON guru, Jayatirtha Swami Tirthapada, is beheaded on his 39^th birthday by a disgruntled disciple. (ENE 412)

November 14, 1987: Real estate magnate Donald Trump is invited to help Bhaktipada build a City of God in New Jersey. (GGG8 300)

November 15, 1987: Bhaktipada visits Flagstaff Mountain Park in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, with the (fake) intention of purchasing the property to build a City of God for 10,000 devotees. (GGG8 301)

November 16, 1987: Bhaktipada initiates the first two women, Ishvara Swami and Ananta Swami, into the order of sannyasa. (GGG8 208)

November 18, 1987: Bhaktipada holds a press conference in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, and meets with the owner of Flagstaff Mountain Park, regarding purchasing the property for a City of God. (GGG8 302)

November 21-22, 1987: New Vrindaban hosts a “Religious Freedom Gathering,” the forerunner of the Interfaith Conferences. (GGG8 234)

November 24, 1987: A public meeting at Jim Thorpe’s Memorial Hall draws more than 1,000 people who oppose the Flagstaff Mountain Park’s proposed sale to develop a City of God. (GGG8 305)

November 26, 1987 (Thanksgiving Day): The author, dressed in a white chef’s uniform, hosts a second Palace Charities Thanksgiving Day luncheon at Prabhupada’s Palace, this time for six white domesticated turkeys from the Farm Sanctuary, an animal protection organization. The turkeys eat a meatless meal while newspaper and television reporters chronicle the event. Unfortunately, after their service is finished, the turkeys are neglected and members of the Farm Sanctuary come to New Vrindaban to retrieve the birds. (GGG3 344)

December 8, 1987: Bhaktipada and Tirtha on trial in Clarksburg, West Virginia, for eight charges, including conspiracy, using an incendiary device to commit a felony, malicious destruction of a building (Chakradhari’s house) and mail fraud. (GGG7 189)

December 16, 1987: A jury finds Tirtha guilty of burning Chakradhari’s house, but finds Bhaktipada innocent of ordering the arson. (GGG7 193)

New Vrindaban announces that (fake) plans to purchase Flagstaff Mountain Park in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, are “on hold,” due to (fake) fears for Swami Bhaktipada’s life. (GGG8 310)

December 1987: A teenage New Vrindaban gurukula alumnus and a few community leaders, including Radhanath Swami, meet with Bhaktipada to discuss legitimate reports that he is giving fellatio to gurukula teenagers. Bhaktipada throws the charges back at them, and counters, “You’re envious of the guru. You’re offensive to the pure devotee. You want to become guru.” Consequently nothing happens; the investigation is stifled. The boy receives death threats and leaves New Vrindaban. (GGG4 366)

1988: Five more books by Bhaktipada are published:

(1) A Devotee’s Journey to the City of God


(2) Joy of No Sex (ghostwritten by Rukmini dasi/Cynthia Shaffer)


(3) Bhaktipada Bullets (excerpts from Bhaktipada’s classes and darshans, edited and published by Devamrita Swami)


(4) Excerpts from The Bhaktipada Psalms, a pamphlet


(5) Le pur amour de Dieu: Christ & Krishna (Montreal: 1988) French edition of Christ and Krishna

In Los Angeles, a gurukula alumnus, Raghunath (John Giuffre), who had attended the Dallas and Vrindaban, India gurukulam for an entire decade and received diksa as a boy late in the summer of 1977 from Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada in Vrindaban, India, organizes the first ISKCON Gurukula Reunion, which helps bring together a group that had dispersed after the collapse of ISKCON’s gurukula system in the mid-1980s. (GGG4 425)

January 1988: Bhaktipada purchases a new Allen digital church organ for $25,000. (GGG8 102)

February 1988: New Vrindaban is expelled from ISKCON. (GGG7 163, K4K 412)

Spring 1988: The author takes the City of God Children’s Choir on a trip to Toronto, Ontario. (GGG8 79)

April 1988: New Vrindaban announces they may consider purchasing the recently-closed West Virginia Penitentiary in Moundsville and use it for a “Food For Life” outpost and preaching center. (GGG8 316)

Bhaktipada suggests that the mahamantra can be chanted in English. (GGG8 130)

The design for the proposed Temple of Understanding changes from a traditional South-Indian Dravidian-style black-granite temple to a glass cathedral with mirror walls. (GGG8 262)

April 5, 1988: A body thought to be Tapomurti (Todd Shenker), a New Vrindaban security officer, is found dead in his backyard in Viola, West Virginia. There is a bullet hole in the head, the body has been burned in a fire, and partially eaten by Tapomurti’s own dogs. (GGG7 195)

May 10, 1988: New Vrindaban holds a “Day of Prayer for the Earth” in an effort to avert a predicted earthquake disaster. (GGG8 277)

June 10-12, 1988: New Vrindaban hosts its first Interfaith Conference, titled “Religion in the Year 2000.” A total of fifteen Interfaith Conferences are held between 1988 and 1994. (GGG8 235)

June 17, 1988: New Vrindaban representatives, including the author and the City of God Children’s Choir, attend and perform at an interfaith festival at the New Jerusalem Roman Catholic Community in Cincinnati, Ohio. (GGG8 79)

June 18, 1988: The Palace Rose Garden is accredited by All-America Rose Selections, a nonprofit association of rose growers dedicated to the introduction and promotion of exceptional roses. (GGG3 300)

Summer 1988: The Krishna Chorale records two cassette tapes, titled Jagad Guru and Blessed Assurance. (GGG8 73)

July 4, 1988: The New Vrindaban publicity department announces the “De-Motorization” of the community. Bhaktipada purchases a beautiful horse and hand-crafted Amish carriage, and uses it for transportation within the community, until the cart accidentally tips over, the horse runs away, and Bhaktipada is dragged along the ground, sustaining minor (but bloody) injuries. (GGG8 279)

Mid-July 1988: The morning program is sung in English for the first time at New Vrindaban. It remains the standard for six years, until July 1994. (GGG8 135)

August 1988: Bhaktipada suggests that devotees, instead of using traditional counter beads, use clickers while chanting their japa. (GGG8 133)

Late August 1988: The name for the proposed Temple of Understanding changes to the Cathedral of Understanding. (GGG8 263)

August 12, 1988: Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Maharaja, the elder godbrother of Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada and the founder of the Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math in Navadvipa, India, passes away. (ENE 419)

September 3, 1988: After months of delays, the steel frame for the proposed Maha Dwaram Gateway is erected on Krishna’s birthday. (GGG5 206)

November 1988: Monkey on a Stick: Murder, Madness and the Hare Krishnas is published. (K4K 413)

Bhaktipada begins teaching his disciples and followers to chant japa silently, in the mind, as recommended by Sanatan Goswami (1488-1588) and Bhaktivinode Thakur (1838-1914). (GGG8 221)

Sri Galim, former Nandagram headmaster, charged with sex crimes two years earlier, returns to the United States, hires the best lawyer he can find, and turns himself in to police authorities.

December 1988: Bhaktipada tells his sannyasis he wants them to initiate new disciples as his ritvik representatives; but not just yet. (GGG9 28)

December 25, 1988: A murti of Jesus Christ is installed with much fanfare in the New Vrindaban temple on Christmas Day. Festivities include an organ recital, congregational hymns, and guest speakers. Bhaktipada begins giving English names to new initiates. (GGG8 86)

1989: A gurukula alumnus, Raghunath (John Giuffre), publishes a newsletter for gurukula alumni, “ISKCON Youth Veterans.” (GGG4 425)

Bhaktipada’s book, One God: The Essence of All Religions, is published in India. (GGG5 142)

January 1989: New Vrindaban Worldwide claims the book Monkey on a Stick is “a spurious, malicious attack on a religion new to America, . . . fiction masquerading as a ‘true crime story,’ . . . mad, rife with exploitation, murder, drugs and child abuse.” (GGG7 194, K4K 413)

January 4, 1989: The installation of Jesus Christ festival is repeated for the traveling sankirtan pickers, who were unable to attend on Christmas Day. (GGG8 87)

January 14, 1989: In a letter to the GBC, Ravindra Svarupa warns that Bhaktipada’s liturgical reforms are “spooky, sinister and ominous,” and that Bhaktipada might force a deadly confrontation with law enforcement at New Vrindaban in order to die a “martyr’s death.” (GGG9 20)

February 25, 1989: The author takes the City of God Children’s Choir to an accordion festival at King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, where they sing. (GGG8 79)

March 21, 1989: Bhaktipada’s “Rule,” a set of rules for monastic life similar to the Rule of Saint Benedict, is introduced on Gaura Purnima. (GGG8 323)

April 29, 1989: The author takes the City of God Children’s Choir on a tour to Washington D. C. (GGG8 80)

May 1, 1989: Three days before his trial is scheduled to begin, the sexual child abuse charges against New Vrindaban school headmaster Sri Galim are suddenly and unexpectedly dropped. District Attorney Tom White explains the charges were dismissed due to “technical flaws.” (GGG4 340)

June 10, 1989: One of New Vrindaban’s illegal Latin American workers is murdered on community property at the Frazier Smith house near Wheeling Creek. (GGG7 199)

July 1989: The name for the proposed Cathedral of Understanding is changed to the Cathedral of Healing. (GGG8 263)

August 1989: New Vrindaban announces (more fake news) to the news media that Bhaktipada intends to purchase the Golden Gate Bridge connecting San Francisco and Marin County, California, and spray paint it gold as a publicity stunt for Prabhupada’s Palace of Gold. (GGG8 317)

August 31, 1989: Hayagriva Swami (Howard Morton Wheeler), co-founder of New Vrindaban and longtime friend and lover of Keith Ham, dies at New Vrindaban from cancer of the spine. (GGG8 171)

September 1989: Bhaktipada begins leading guided meditations during the noon service at New Vrindaban. (GGG8 225)

September 4, 1989: Cellist Susan Kemper performs in recital at New Vrindaban during the annual Labor Day festival. Bhaktipada attends the recital and afterward tells the author to start a classical music recital series at New Vrindaban and call it “Music at the Palace.” (GGG8 107)

October 1, 1989: Radhanath Swami (in Pune, India) writes an inspiring letter to Sulochan’s murderer—Tirtha in prison—and explains, “Without a goal worth dying for we have nothing worthwhile to live for. Any shallow creature can speak these words. Very few most fortunate souls have the courage and integrity to engrave these words within the heart of hearts and remain faithful in the face of life and death.” In the same letter, Radhanath glorifies Tirtha’s book, Meditations on the American Gulag, which Tirtha had written in prison, “Your beautiful book is THE MOST POPULAR BOOK amongst your godbrothers and godsisters in India. It is even more sought after than any other book.” (K4K 390)

November 17, 1989: The City of God Accordion Ensemble and the City of God Children’s choir perform at the Wheeling City of Lights parade. (GGG8 80, 94)

December 1989: Nityananda dasa (Nico Kuyt), the former president of the New Orleans temple and the New Talavan farm in southern Mississippi, and the editors of Vedic Village Review issue a “Challenge Horse” to ISKCON and challenge them to refute the Posthumous Ritvik System of initiations. (ENE 355)

December 10, 1989: Members of the Krishna Chorale sing with the Wheeling Symphony and Wheeling Symphony Chorus in a performance of George Friedrich Handel’s Messiah at Capitol Music Hall. (GGG8 89)

1990: Three more books by Bhaktipada are published:

Heart of the Gita: Always Think of Me, a rhymed poetic version of Bhagavad-gita (ghostwritten by True Peace)

How to Say No to Drugs (ghostwritten by Rukmini dasi)

Spiritual Warfare: How to Gain Victory in the Struggle for Spiritual Perfection, a sequel to Eternal Love (GGG5 142)

In addition, Hayagriva Swami’s book, Vrindaban Days: Memories of an Indian Holy Town, is published posthumously. (GGG5 141)

January 7, 1990: At the North American GBC meeting in San Diego, Nityananda debates the GBC regarding the Ritvik-In-Absentia system of initiating new disciples. (ENE 355)

January 13-15, 1990: During a New Vrindaban interfaith conference, a Native American peace pipe ceremony with tobacco is held. At the same time, a Native American sacred rock lodge is celebrated. (GGG8 246)

January 15, 1990: Bhaktivedanta Narayana Maharaja, a disciple of Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada’s sannyasa guru, confirms that a madhyama adhikari can serve as guru, “[The] uttama adhikari [guru] can [bestow Krishna prema: unadulterated love of God upon his disciples.] But the madhyama adhikari, if he gives initiation, by practicing will show the disciple the way he is going personally, and by following this the disciple will [also] achieve Krishna prema. It can be done.” (ENE 131)

January 31, 1990: During a darshan, Bhaktipada explains, “Obedience to guru is more important than chanting the Holy Name or telling pastimes about Krishna. . . . If the guru asks you to do something that you don’t like to do, you should do it. It means you have no desire of your own.” (GGG5 31)

February 1990: The name for the Cathedral of Healing is changed to the Cathedral of Healing and Light. (GGG8 263)

March 1990: ISKCON officially denounces the Ritvik-In-Absentia theory as a “dangerous philosophical deviation,” and threatens excommunication to anyone who “advocates” or “supports” its practice. In addition, ISKCON publishes a collection of seventeen essays, interviews and testimonies “exposing the proxy-initiation fallacy” in the first issue of the ISKCON Journal. (ENE 357)

Dharmatma is sentenced to three years in federal prison for his involvement in the copyright lawsuit against New Vrindaban, for printing and selling bumper stickers and hats with copyrighted logos illegally. (GGG4 164)

April 1990: A set of chimes on a gold-plated stand is added to the temple orchestra. Bhavisya begins playing a troubadour harp. (GGG8 113)

The Marathon Monks program is started in New York City. It quickly fizzles. (GGG8 248)

April 5, 1990: Members of the Krishna Chorale perform Mozart’s Requiem with the Wheeling Symphony and Wheeling Symphony Chorus at Capitol Music Hall. (GGG 90)

May 1990: The name for the Cathedral of Healing and Light is changed (again) to the Cathedral of the Holy Name, an organic rock-based structure with Native-American influences. (GGG8 263)

May 13, 1990: The first season of Music at the Palace begins with a concert by the West Liberty State College Chamber Choir directed by Professor Alfred R. DeJaager. (GGG8 108)

May 24, 1990: A federal grand jury returns an eleven-count indictment charging Bhaktipada with racketeering: kidnapping, running a fraudulent charity scam, mail fraud, and conspiring to murder two devotees—Chakradhari and Sulochan. (GGG7 212, K4K 414)

June 1990: One of the City of God’s first interfaith members, Rev. George David Exoo, moves to New Vrindaban with hopes to establish an AIDS hospice. (GGG9 76)

June 6, 1990: Bhaktipada appears (for the second time) on the Larry King television show. (GGG7 213)

June 7, 1990: Bhaktipada pleads “not guilty” to racketeering charges and is released on a $250,000 bond. He is ordered not to leave the United States. (GGG7 214, K4K 415)

June 10, 1990: The second Music at the Palace concert features organist Thomas Soplinski. (GGG8 108)

June 14, 1990: After four years in hiding, Tapahpunja is apprehended in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lampur by U. S. Marshals from Hawaii. (K4K 359)

July 1990: Bhaktipada horrifies City of God interfaith members when, during a noontime lecture, he condones deception, theft and killing, when done for Krishna or Krishna’s representative. (GGG9 77)

July 4, 1990: Members of the Krishna Chorale sing with the Wheeling Symphony and Wheeling Symphony Chorus during a concert of patriotic music at Riverfront Park in Wheeling. (GGG8 90)

July 14, 1990: Flutist Maheshvara (Manuel Roberto) performs at the third Music at the Palace recital. (GGG8 108)

July 16, 1990: Bhaktipada holds a darshan at his house for visitors recruited at the recent Rainbow Gathering held at Superior National Forest in Minnesota. After the darshan he selects one of the young male guests, takes him arm-in-arm into his bedroom, and gives him an unnaturally long embrace which is witnessed by several devotees. (GGG4 366)

July 22, 1990: Ravindra Svarupa refers to the religion practiced at New Vrindaban as “New-Age goulash.” (GGG9 49)

July 24, 1990: Randall Gorby, one of the conspirators in the plot to murder Sulochan, is found in his pickup truck: dead from carbon monoxide poisoning. (K4K 369)

c. Summer 1990: Bhaktipada slaps a disobedient disciple on the face at the John F. Kennedy International Airport. The disciple claims the force of Bhaktipada’s hand, “shattered all the illusions of pride in my demented mind. Upon receiving that sudden, split-moment contact with your lightning hand against my cheek, shock waves of spiritual energy were sent throughout my body. Indeed, I never felt so happy before in all my life.” (GGG3 90)

August 4, 1990: Cellist Susan Kemper performs at the fourth Music at the Palace recital. (GGG8 108)

August 28, 1990: The author performs an accordion recital at the fifth Music at the Palace recital. (GGG8 108)

September 1990: During a darshan, Bhaktipada cites the American poet Walt Whitman, “Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.)” (GGG6 232, K4K 131)

September 3, 1990: New Vrindaban devotees celebrate Bhaktipada’s 53^rd birthday. (GGG7 220, GGG8 120)

September 26, 1990: During a darshan at the temple, Bhaktipada explains, “The spiritual master is the representative of Krishna. If the spiritual master tells me to stand on my head, I stand on my head. If he tells me to marry this girl, I marry this girl. If he tells me to do this work, I do this work.” (GGG9 347)

October 1990: New Vrindaban hires organ builder, Joseph Humpe, to repair the Möller organ for $29,600. (GGG8 104)

Three City of God interfaith residents, George Exoo, Sister Piety, and Leonard Willoughby, incorporate their own church, The Interfaith Friends, a federation of Unitarian-Universalism, Taoism and Quakers. (GGG8 258)

October 6, 1990: The musical Journey to the City of God by the author debuts during the Fifth Annual Interfaith Conference. (GGG8 121)

November 14, 1990: The giant statue of Prabhupada behind the Palace is dedicated on the 13^th anniversary of Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada’s disappearance. (GGG8 328)

The musical The Journey to America by the author debuts. (GGG8 124)

November/December 1990: Tirtha’s trial in Los Angeles for the murder of Sulochan; when the jury cannot reach a decision, a mistrial is declared. (GGG7 202, K4K 435)

December 5, 1990: During a lecture, Bhaktipada explains, “If the spiritual master deviates, he is not a spiritual master any longer. Then you don’t have to follow, but you have to prove that he has deviated.” (GGG9 160)

December 7, 1990: Radhanath Swami’s followers at the Chowpatty Mumbai temple publish a Vyasa Puja book to commemorate his fortieth birthday. They honor him with the title “His Divine Grace.” (GGG9 210)

December 9, 1990: Members of the Krishna Chorale perform a second performance of Handel’s Messiah with the Wheeling Symphony and Wheeling Symphony Chorus at Capitol Music Hall. (GGG8 90)

December 15, 1990: New Vrindaban dedicates an interfaith center on Saint Mark’s Place in Manhattan called “The Sanctuary.” (GGG8 319)

December 29, 1990: Bhaktipada surprises the Brijabasis by singing (during the height of the English music era) Vishvanath Chakravarti’s Sri Sri Gurvastakam Prayers while playing harmonium at the evening aroti at Prabhupada’s Palace. (GGG9 61)

February 20, 1991: Bhaktipada declares, “I’m going to build that temple, or die trying.” (GGG5 208)

February 21, 1991: George Exoo, a Unitarian Universalist minister and interfaith member of the City of God, and True Peace, a former Bhaktipada disciple, stage a protest against the “City of Fraud” on the steps of the Marshall County Courthouse. (GGG9 73)

March 1991: Bhaktipada purchases a harpsichord and five autoharps for the temple orchestra. (GGG8 116)

March 14, 1991: Dharmatma, the former New Vrindaban sankirtan leader, speaks to the court about the treatment of women at the community, “The mood at the community . . . was that women could be struck. On many occasions, Bhaktipada told husbands to beat their wives. He personally told me to beat my wives, to keep them in order. . . . I was encouraged by Bhaktipada to hit the sankirtan women if they did not surrender. . . . Prior to that time, I had never struck a woman in my life, but the mood was to get them to surrender, to do the things that the husband or leader wanted, that it was okay to do that.” (GGG4 22)

Dharmatma also admits, “Regarding sex with the sankirtan women, Bhaktipada gave me facility and encouraged me to do whatever necessary to look after these girls. The fifteen-year-old girl was very mature, like an eighteen-year-old. It was voluntary [not coerced, on her part].” Dharmatma claims he never had intercourse with the teenage girls. “Some inappropriate touching. That’s all! So many rumors by vicious women.” (GGG4 133)

March 29, 1991 (Good Friday): Bhaktipada is convicted on the RICO and mail fraud counts (the jury fails to reach a verdict on the murder counts). He is incarcerated at the Eastern Regional Jail in Martinsburg, West Virginia and files an appeal. (GGG9 7, K4K 443)

March 31, 1991: Devamrita Swami, Murti Swami and Adi Purusha Swami visit Bhaktipada at the Eastern Regional Jail in Martinsburg, West Virginia. (GGG9 11)

April 1, 1991: Bhaktipada in jail receives three more visitors: Peaceful Swami, Krishna Chaitanya (a disciple of Varshan Swami who serves as a picker in the Far East) and Strong Faith (Steve Padway, who manages Bhaktipada’s Tallahassee, Florida preaching center). Within a week, Bhaktipada begins calling the New Vrindaban front office every day at 12:25 p.m. during the noon service. The telephone operator broadcasts the calls over the temple’s sound system. Bhaktipada usually recites a meditation and devotees then ask questions at a microphone. (GGG9 12)

April 8, 1991: Radha Vrindaban Chandra Swami visits his siksa guru at the Martinsburg Regional Jail, and asks, “Is this happening because we did something wrong?” Bhaktipada replies, “Was Jesus crucified because he did something wrong? Was Haridasa Thakur beaten because he did something wrong? If you are of the world, the world loves you, and if you are not of the world, the world hates you.” (GGG9 13)

April 27, 1991: The traditionalists at New Vrindaban begin agitating to perform more Sanskrit/Bengali kirtan in the temple, and Bhaktipada replies by speaker phone, “Why not think of me and what I like? Isn’t that what Krishna consciousness is really about? Isn’t that what love is about? . . . Once we have determined to love Krishna, or his representative, the spiritual master with our whole heart, with all we’ve got; the pleasure of the beloved is the only reward we want, not this or that. There is no interest in anything material; not Bengali kirtans, not American bhajans, nothing but the pleasure of the beloved.” (GGG9 56)

May 1991: City of God interfaith member and Unitarian-Universalist minister George David Exoo leaves New Vrindaban, heartbroken. He explains, “Perhaps the saddest thing about life in Bhaktipada’s fiefdom is the way his dishonesty and bumbling have destroyed the community. At New Vrindaban it’s every man for himself, scurrying to avoid the Swami’s arbitrary injustice, knowing that no one will help anyone who falls victim. . . . There was but one to come to my aid when I began to speak out against the problems at New Vrindaban. . . . I left . . . in the wake of my windows being smashed, my roof stoned, and my life threatened. Yet it was painful to leave, and it has been painful recently to hear of many of the Krishna devotees leaving, one after another.” (GGG9 254-255)

May 1, 1991: Bhaktipada hires the law firm of high-profile attorney Alan Dershowitz from Harvard, with a $100,000 retainer and $495/hour rate. (GGG9 92, K4K 446)

Bhaktipada calls Nityodita Swami, one of the leaders of the New Vrindaban Bengali kirtan faction, “a pain in the ass.” (GGG9 58)

May 3-5, 1991: During a meeting in Los Angeles, North American GBC members and temple presidents resolve that if Prabhupada’s Palace and other New Vrindaban properties are forfeited to the government, they shall try to get them returned to ISKCON. They pledge $50,000 toward this endeavor. (GGG9 14)

May 10, 1991: At Bhaktipada’s bail hearing, Ravindra Svarupa warns that if Bhaktipada is allowed to return to New Vrindaban, his presence might incite violence in the community. (GGG9 19)

May 22, 1991: While incarcerated at the Eastern Regional Jail in Martinsburg, Bhaktipada criticizes the New Vrindaban devotees for poor attendance at the worship services. (GGG9 59)

May 24, 1991: Bhaktipada criticizes the New Vrindaban devotees for wearing jeans and T-shirts, instead of robes, at temple services. (GGG9 59)

May 29, 1991: Bhakti Tirtha Swami defends his sannyasa guru, “Swami Bhaktipada’s position is like that of Gandhi and Martin Luther King. All three of these men dedicated their lives very selflessly in trying to bring peace to mankind, but in the process they were often misunderstood and even violently attacked. The Swami is a man of the stature of these two great stalwarts of peace.” (GGG9 17)

June 1991: Although New Vrindaban’s interfaith friend Grandmother Pa’Ris’Ha (Parisha Taylor) claims to be the granddaughter of a Cherokee medicine woman, a 1991 investigation into her background by an Ohio newspaper refutes that claim. (GGG10 37)

June 9, 1991: Cellist Cecylia Barczyk performs for the Music at the Palace recital series. (GGG8 109)

June 20, 1991: Judge Robert R. Merhige, Jr. announces Bhaktipada’s sentence: thirty years in prison. (GGG9 22, K4K 445)

July 10, 1991: Judge Merhige releases Bhaktipada on $250,000 bail, pending his appeal, but rules that he cannot return to New Vrindaban. Bhaktipada lives in an apartment in the Warwood neighborhood of Wheeling, where he stays for two years under house arrest with an electronic monitoring device locked on his ankle. (GGG9 22, K4K 445)

August 1991: A jury of six men and six women pronounce Tirtha Swami guilty of first-degree murder and a special circumstance in the 1986 murder of Sulochan. The verdict makes him subject to the death penalty. (GGG7 211, K4K 437)

September 1991: Bhaktipada coins the name “Japatation” for chanting japa silently. (GGG8 226)

September 30, 1991: New Vrindaban World claims that 500 cows, bulls, oxen and calves live in the community. (GGG5 167) Bhaktipada’s dream to have the largest dairy farm in West Virginia clearly seems to have become a reality. Little did the Brijabasis realize at the time that the cattle boom was about to bust.

October 30, 1991: A Baroque trio (cellist Susan Kemper, flutist Tessa Brinckman and harpsichordist/accordionist Henry Doktorski) performs at the final Music at the Palace recital. (GGG8 110)

December 4, 1991: Tirtha sentenced to “life imprisonment without parole” for the murder of Sulochan. (GGG7 212, K4K 437)

December 29, 1991: Bhaktipada commissions New Vrindaban’s Minister of Music (the author) to compose music in the “Ideational” style, something like Gregorian chant, music free from the degrading influence of the modes of passion and ignorance. (GGG8 182)

1992: Nityodita Swami establishes a brahmachari ashram at the rustic Vrindaban farmhouse for new Bhaktas. They wear dhotis and tilak, shave their heads, chant in Sanskrit and Bengali, and play mrdanga and kartals during the morning and evening services. (GGG9 41)

Bhaktipada’s book How to Love God, based on Saint Francis de Sales’ Treatise on the Love of God, is published. Devamrita Swami serves as editor. (GGG5 142, GGG9 58)

February 9, 1992: Bhaktipada has a hernia operation at a Morgantown hospital. (GGG9 26)

February 15-17, 1992: New Vrindaban hosts an “Earth Changes Conference.” Attendees are expected to pay a “donation” of $75.00. (GGG8 282)

February 24, 1992: During a follow up appointment in Morgantown, 54-year-old Bhaktipada tells his surgeon he is impotent; he can’t get an erection. “I don’t get them and what’s more, I don’t WANT them!” (GGG9 26)

March 1992: Bhaktipada and Tapahpunja Swami, both under house arrest, are accused by their probation officer of violating terms of probation. (GGG9 26)

March 18, 1992: Six computer-controlled bronze bells weighing a total of 16,800 pounds and purchased for $70,000 are installed in the Maha Dwaram gateway. They are supposed to play the Hare Krishna mahamantra tune every hour. The bells malfunction. (GGG5 216)

April 21, 1992: Bhaktipada and Tapahpunja Swami appear before Judge Robert Merhige, who issues a stiff reprimand, “If I receive word that either of you violate any conditions of release, I can assure you that you will be picked up by U. S. Marshals and taken to prison to await the outcome of your appeal.” (GGG9 27)

April 26, 1992: Two interfaith members of the City of God, Aravinda and Ariel Fawley, who attempted to establish a Marian Retreat Center, sue New Vrindaban for $25,000. (GGG9 73-74)

June 4, 1992: The weekly newspaper, In Pittsburgh, publishes George Exoo’s article, “How the City of God Became a City of Fraud.” (GGG9 254-255)

June 18, 1992: Bhaktipada’s attorney, the celebrated (and expensive) Alan Dershowitz, presents oral arguments for Bhaktipada’s appeal of his 1991 Martinsburg conviction before a three-judge panel of the 13^th Circuit Court in Charleston, South Carolina. (GGG9 96)

October 1992: Bhaktipada’s Pakistani disciple, Madhusudan dasa, begins preaching in India. Seven years later, he establishes the Anand Vrindavan Dhama Radha Vrindaban Chandra Temple in Ulhasnagar. (GGG10 114)

October/December 1992: Thirty cows and calves die at New Vrindaban due to neglect. (GGG5 168, GGG9 64)

December 1992: While under house arrest, Bhaktipada announces his retirement. He appoints Radhanath Swami as the “World Acharya” for the Worldwide League of Devotees, but Radhanath refuses the offer. (GGG9 30)

December 7, 1992: Radhanath Swami’s followers in India celebrate his 42^nd birthday by hosting a Vyasa Puja festival and an “ecstatic three-day retreat” in Pune, India. (GGG9 210)

1993: Hansadutta dasa, formerly one of the eleven zonal acharyas, publishes a collection of essays, letters and articles, “Srila Prabhupada: His Movement and You,” which presents arguments and evidence in support of the continuation of the disciplic succession as a ritvik, or representative, of Bhaktivedanta Swami. Hansadutta directs all his former “disciples” to regard Bhaktivedanta Swami as their spiritual master. (ENE 359)

Bhaktipada’s book, Joy of Life Without Drugs, a French edition of How To Say No To Drugs—is published by disciples in Montreal. (GGG5 142)

February 1993: While under house arrest, Bhaktipada attempts to fondle the genitalia of one of his young male disciples. The disciple flips out, runs out of the house, hops in the car and quickly drives away. (GGG4 369, GGG9 34)

March 1993: Grandmother Pa’Ris’Ha predicts that Bhaktipada will be released within a month. She also says the reason he is in prison is because he accepted the bad karma of some New Vrindaban devotees. (GGG9 97)

Spring 1993: Radhanath Swami, P. K. Swami, Bhakti Rasa Swami, and Janmastami are subpoenaed to appear before the Grand Jury. Radhanath visits his wealthy father in Chicago, and soon after, all his legal troubles disappear. (K4K 466)

April/May 1993: The Möller pipe organ is finally completed. Unfortunately the organ sounds terrible (sluggish and muddy) due to poor placement of the pipes. (GGG8 106)

May 1993: Native-American healer Charles Chipps visits New Vrindaban and conducts sacred rock lodges for Bhaktipada’s release. (GGG9 97)

May 19, 1993: Bhaktipada compares cows’ milk to the sacrament of Holy Eucharist: the body and blood of Christ, “Milk is our equivalent to wine and bread for the Christians.” Yet six months earlier, thirty cows and calves die at New Vrindaban because he refuses to provide emergency funds to purchase feed. (GGG5 153)

June 1993: Fire sacrifices are conducted at the Venkatesvara temples in Tirupati, India, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for Bhaktipada’s release. (GGG9 97)

June 18-21, 1993: Devotees fast to petition the demigods and the Supreme Lord to permit Bhaktipada’s release. (GGG9 98)

June 28, 1993: Thirty Native Americans protest at Pa’Ris’Ha’s White Buffalo Society headquarters in Cleveland and carry signs which say, “Don’t mess with things you don’t know anything about,” and “You stole our land, don’t steal our religion.” They claim she is abusing the Native American teachings. (GGG10 37)

July 1, 1993: Bhaktipada wins his appeal. (K4K 446)

July 22, 1993: Bhaktipada announces that he will no longer lead the New Vrindaban Community and the Cities of God. (GGG9 100)

Summer 1993: About one hundred gurukula alumni attend the first Annual New Vrindaban Gurukula Reunion. (GGG4 396)

August 16, 1993: Bhaktipada is released from house arrest and returns triumphantly to New Vrindaban. (K4K 446)

August 28-September 5, 1993: Parliament of the World’s Religions’ centennial celebration in Chicago, which Bhaktipada attends. (K4K 446, GGG4 372)

September 6, 1993: Bhaktipada’s 56^th birthday festival at New Vrindaban. Bhaktipada’s chauffeur, however, sours the joyous mood when he tells devotees that, on the way back to New Vrindaban from Chicago during the all-night 380-mile drive, the privacy curtain of Bhaktipada’s Winnebago van accidentally opened, and he observed his “spiritual master” and a teenage male Malaysian disciple in bed in the back of the Winnebago mobile home engaging in prolonged embraces and kisses in a manner which was more appropriate for the amorous relationship between lovers than for the disciplined relationship between a spiritual master and his disciple. This becomes known as “The Winnebago Incident.” (GGG9 108, K4K 447)

When the news spreads throughout New Vrindaban, the community splits into two nearly-equal camps: those who think the story is malicious rumor and continue to support Bhaktipada, and those who believe the story and want Bhaktipada out of New Vrindaban. Tensions flare. Bhaktipada leaves New Vrindaban and retires to Silent Mountain, his cabin near a stone quarry in Littleton, West Virginia. (GGG9 124-125, K4K 448)

Radhanath Swami and Devamrita Swami also leave New Vrindaban after hearing threats uttered by fanatical and angry Bhaktipada disciples, such as: “Coffins should be procured for the blasphemers who dare to spread slanderous lies about the spiritual master, Krishna’s pure devotee.” (GGG9 127, K4K 448)

c. September 9, 1993: Three New Vrindaban residents (Sudhanu, Adwaita and Kumar), using a backhoe, dig up a chest of gold buried at Bahulaban. It is kept overnight in Kumar and Sita Love’s apartment above the bakery in Wilson Valley, then taken to New York City and sold for cash. Where did the money go? When the author speaks to Kumar about this years later, Kumar refuses to comment. (GGG9 129)

September 16, 1993: Bhaktipada writes a letter addressed to “Dear Devotees,” in which he asks his sannyasa disciples to accept the responsibility of initiating new disciples on his behalf (but not just yet). He also appoints a group of eight senior men (and three women) to take over management of the Worldwide League of Devotees because he will be spending his time contemplating and writing. (GGG9 146)

Mid-September 1993: The New Vrindaban English noon and evening services are terminated. The English morning service continues. (GGG9 178)

September 30, 1993: The author—after conducting an investigation and concluding that Kirtanananda has a long secret history of sexual deviations with boys and young men and has no desire to change—confronts his “spiritual master” at his cabin at Silent Mountain, and after Bhaktipada denies any inappropriate behavior, rejects his “spiritual master” and stops serving at New Vrindaban as Minister of Music. The author becomes a vocal spokesman for the grassroots movement at New Vrindaban which questions Kirtanananda Swami’s leadership. By speaking out against Kirtanananda, he encounters the wrath of a few fanatical godbrothers and sisters. (GGG9 150)

In response to the author’s confrontation with Bhaktipada at his Silent Mountain cabin, Bhaktipada writes a letter addressed “To All Devotees,” in which he admits he had been afflicted by “past false pride,” and requests “a leave as your worshipable acharya.” He stops coming to the temple for mangal aroti and therefore stops sitting on his vyasasana. (GGG9 156-157)

October 1, 1993: Thirty-six loyal Bhaktipada disciples and followers sign a letter professing their faith in their “spiritual master.” (GGG9 160)

October 2, 1993: Bhaktipada’s godbrother, Hansadutta, writes to Bhaktipada, “The false prestige of being a guru acharya is haunting you like a ghost. . . . You said you want to save ISKCON, but that requires saving yourself first.” (GGG9 162)

October 4, 1993: Bhaktipada comes to New Vrindaban and holds an istagosthi during which he answers questions. He concludes, “Everyone is acharya!” (GGG9 161)

October 12, 1993: In a letter to a godbrother, Hansadutta explains, “The bottom line about Kirtanananda Swami is he has an overwhelming, deep-seated ambition to be a holy man, . . . a religious mentor—in short, a guru, or to put it bluntly, ‘The Guru of the Gurus.’ In one word, he wants to be Prabhupada.” (GGG9 218)

Mid-October 1993: Two separate morning services are established at the New Vrindaban RVC temple: the first sung in Sanskrit and Bengali with Indian instrumental accompaniment, and the second in English with Western instrumental accompaniment. (GGG9 180)

October 18, 1993: The author drives from New Vrindaban to Elkins, West Virginia, where he examines the transcript of Bhaktipada’s 1991 trial in Martinsburg. He is shocked while reading quite-believable testimony from teenage boys who claim Bhaktipada gave them oral sex. (GGG9 284)

October 19, 1993: Heart Song meeting in the men’s prasadam room of the RVC temple. After hearing criticism of Bhaktipada, Janmastami begins heated accusations: “I heard Bhaktipada say personally that he was innocent and that settles it! Anyone who says anything else is a liar!” His wife chimes in, “According to scripture, I have a right to kill half of the people in this room!” There are about 50 people there. After six-and-a-half hours of emotionally-charged heart talking, the meeting has no conclusion. Nityodita Swami expresses it nicely, “We will go on meeting like this for a hundred years and not come to any conclusions.” (GGG9 285)

October 22, 1993: Gudakesh, Bhaktipada’s faithful German shepherd guard dog, who had served him for more than seven years, dies from old age at Silent Mountain. New Vrindaban Newsletter publishes an obituary. (GGG9 184)

October 26, 1993: Ravindra Svarupa explains, “Although Kirtanananda Swami was very highly placed, still he made the mistake of ambitiously wanting Srila Prabhupada’s place. . . . Like Lucifer, pride has brought him from the highest to the lowest.” (GGG9 159)

October 27, 1993: The author writes a fifteen-page letter explaining what happened during the Winnebago Incident and outlining a course of action for Bhaktipada’s rectification. He mails fifty copies to his godbrothers and sisters around the world. The letter hits a nerve in the devotee community; it is photocopied and passed around to many more devotees, including a few ISKCON GBC members, who subsequently write to the author. In response to his letter, one godbrother in Malaysia calls the author on the phone and threatens, “You will be dead meat,” if you continue blaspheming Bhaktipada. (GGG9 162-163)

November 1993: Tirtha Swami in prison writes an article in his self-produced publication (Brijabasi Spirit) condemning the author’s fifteen-page letter, which Tirtha claims is “mostly a compilation of personal opinions toward Bhaktipada.” Tirtha indirectly threatens the author by saying he is “continually reminded of similar rabid ramblings authored by the late Steve Bryant. . . . The results of his work are now memorialized within a granite headstone.” (GGG9 163)

The Möller pipe organ is sold to the Howland Community Church in Warren, Ohio, for $75,000. (GGG9 222)

Bhaktipada begins his “1993-1994 Winter Teaching Tour” with preaching engagements in Columbus Ohio. (GGG9 185)

November 9, 1993: Hari Sauri (Dennis Harrison) sends a letter to a New Vrindaban resident with a dozen quotations from Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada which contradict Bhaktipada’s reforms. (GGG9 43)

December 1993: Bhaktipada continues his tour with preaching engagements in Tallahassee, Florida; Mobile, Alabama; Chattanooga, Tennessee; Ithaca, New York; New York City; Cape Cod, Massachusetts; Vermont; and a Christmas Day service at Ranaka’s home in Wilson Valley, New Vrindaban. (GGG9 185)

February 20, 1994: Tirtha Swami changes his tune and rejects Bhaktipada as his “spiritual master.” He expresses his personal disillusionment in a letter to Kirtanananda Swami. (GGG9 166)

March 1994: The author travels (for the first time) to Vrindaban, India—where Krishna displayed his childhood pastimes some thousands of years earlier—and experiences a revelation. He finally understands why Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada insisted that his disciples wear dhotis and saris, with shaved head and sikha flags, and accompany kirtan with mrdanga and kartals: because it reminds one of Krishna—the cowherd boy of Vrindaban. He writes an essay about his realizations published in both the Brijabasi Spirit and the Indian publication Sri Vrindaban-Dhama Newsletter. (GGG9 188)

Radhanath Swami, back at the Chowpatty temple in Mumbai which he helped establish eight years earlier, is welcomed back into ISKCON as an assistant GBC and initiating guru, with one important condition: “provided the United States Government does not indict him in its case now pending against Kirtanananda Swami.” The Chowpatty temple joins ISKCON. (GGG9 189, GGG10 6, K4K 475)

March 14, 1994: Bhaktipada’s lawyers meet with Judge Mehridge in Tampa, Florida. The prosecutors offer a plea bargain: if Bhaktipada agrees to plead guilty to one count and accept a five- to seven-year sentence, the government will stop their efforts to fine and seize the assets of the New Vrindaban community. Bhaktipada refuses the plea bargain. (GGG9 231, K4K 448)

March 24, 1994: During a telephone Istagosthi from Bombay, India, Radhanath Swami tells the New Vrindaban residents, “What Prabhupada gave us is perfect. Prabhupada said that the problem with the Western mind is that they always want to change. Indeed, Prabhupada said this many times in a chastising spirit. We are following what Lord Chaitanya brought down from the spiritual world. As far as Gaudiya Vaishnavas are concerned, that tradition is what we will eternally be following, not only in this world, but in the spiritual world as well.” (GGG9 190-191)

Later that same day, sixty-seven New Vrindaban devotees sign a “Statement of Resolution” renouncing their connection to Bhaktipada and proclaiming their devotion to His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. They resolve to abandon Bhaktipada’s changes and follow the directions of Prabhupada. (GGG9 196)

April 1994: The Möller pipe organ is disassembled and transported to the Howland Community Church in Warren, Ohio, by Joseph Humpe and devotee assistants. Humpe says, “I go into that organ twice a year for tuning. All the parts are stamped: ‘Hare Krishna Temple.’ I can still smell the incense when I go into that organ; it’s permeated with that sweet fragrance.” (GGG 9 222)

April 12, 1994: New Vrindaban management distances themselves from Tirtha Swami in prison and announces, “Tirtha’s publication, the Brijabasi Spirit, is not an authorized publication of the community and has no connection with the former publication of that name.” (GGG9 170)

April 16, 1994: Bhaktipada’s wealthy disciple in India, Hridayananda dasa (Hrishikesh Mafatlal), writes to his spiritual master about the intense chaos and conflict in Bombay due to Bhaktipada’s refusal to admit he has broken the regulative principle regarding illicit sex. Hridayananda writes about the Bhaktipada sycophants who attempt to convince devotees to leave Chowpatty and start their own pro-Bhaktipada temple, “All their blasphemies and lies are spoken in your name, and anyone who hears them will lose all respect towards you, Srila Bhaktipada. People who are hearing these utter lies are even becoming hateful towards you for your perceived support. . . . Their words are destroying any shred of sympathy left for you. As far as we know, you have never admitted the truth about your difficulties to these men. They have taped phone conversations where you’ve denied everything.” (GGG9 128)

Mid-April 1994: The author leaves New Vrindaban, his home for nearly half his life, and moves to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (GGG9 259)

May 1994: Bhaktipada attends the first League of Devotees interfaith festival held in Tallahassee, Florida. (GGG9 201)

May 14, 1994: Bhaktipada requests all his disciples retake their vows, including following four regulative principles, chanting sixteen rounds daily (or equivalent), and giving at least ten percent of their income to the spiritual master. He formally renounces those who do not retake their vows. (GGG9 203)

June 1994: Bhaktipada speaks at preaching engagements in Dallas, Texas and Albuquerque, New Mexico. (GGG9 202)

June 3, 1994: During a Srimad-bhagavatam class at New Vrindaban, Bhaktipada explains that whether one wears dhotis or robes makes no difference. “The desire to please Krishna, that alone is pleasing—not doing it for show or to be known as a great devotee.” (GGG9 200)

June 15, 1994: The German scientific journal, Der Pathologe, publishes a paper titled “Normal weight of the brain in adults in relation to age, sex, body height and weight,”—which compares measurements from autopsies of 8,000 adult male and female cadavers without brain disease—and determines that the average brain weight of an adult male is 1336 grams (47 ounces) and an adult female is 1198 grams (42 ounces). The difference is only ten percent, not fifty percent as Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada erroneously claimed. (GGG4 32)

Late June 1994: Radhanath Swami and PK Swami visit Bhaktipada at Silent Mountain and convince him that his reign is over. New Vrindaban will abandon his reforms and return to the ISKCON style of dress and worship. (GGG9 203)

July 2, 1994: Bhaktipada claims to have had a “dream” during which Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada appears before him in an angry mood and orders him to abandon the de-Indianization reforms and return to the traditional Bengali-Vaishnava ISKCON ways. (GGG9 207)

That same night, a group of non-devotees from Moundsville attempts to burn down the New Vrindaban temple. A devotee stops them and gets beat up. He calls the police, who arrest the suspects and charge them with arson and assault. Their bail is set at $10,000. (GGG2 206)

July 4, 1994: Bhaktipada begins a ten-day fast from food and sleep and a vow of silence. (GGG9 209)

July 10, 1994: In a letter to a godsister, Tirtha Swami in prison laments, “My entire experience for the past eight years [in prison] has been minimized to almost nil. For the entirety of this time I was praised and congratulated. However, upon revealing my inner mind to the devotees [and rejecting Bhaktipada], I am now something less than a heretic, and have been labeled as an irresponsible fanatic. So it is in the material world. One day a hero, the next day a goat.” (GGG9 170)

July 11, 1994: Radhanath Swami and Bhakti Tirtha Swami visit Bhaktipada at Silent Mountain to counsel Bhaktipada (as he requested) but they leave after a few hours after they discover Bhaktipada won’t talk to them, as he is still observing a vow of silence. (GGG9 211)

July 13, 1994: Bhaktipada ends his ten-day fast from food and sleep. RVC Swami reports that Bhaktipada lost thirty pounds. (GGG9 211-212)

July 19, 1994: Bhakti Tirtha Swami posts a letter on a New Vrindaban bulletin board listing nine points for Bhaktipada’s rectification. (GGG9 212)

Late July, 1994: Radhanath Swami and PK Swami visit Bhaktipada at Silent Mountain and ask him to sign a letter stating that the worship services at New Vrindaban must return to the style advocated by Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Bhaktipada slams his fist on his desk, and shouts, “How can I sign this? I’m the world acharya. I am the world acharya! I . . . AM . . . THE . . . WORLD . . . ACHARYA!” Radhanath and PK Swamis ignore Bhaktipada’s childish outburst and repeat, “Please sign here, Bhaktipada. It may be bitter medicine, but it is necessary to save the community.” Bhaktipada signs the paper. (GGG9 218)

Late July, 1994: The day the (English Western classical temple service) music dies. (GGG 217)

Summer 1994: The Salagram Silas, acquired in 1977, are stolen off the RVC altar. (GGG9 223)

Bhakti Charu Swami, an ISKCON initiating guru, visits New Vrindaban and leads kirtan at Prabhupada’s Palace. Danavir Goswami, also an ISKCON guru, visits the community and expresses interest in establishing a Vedic College at New Vrindaban. Jayadvaita Swami (the editor for Back to Godhead magazine and posthumous editor for Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada’s books), Mahavishnu Swami, and Bir Krishna Swami also visit New Vrindaban. Varshan Swami (formerly Kasyapa) comes back to live at New Vrindaban. Balabhadra, president and founder of ISCOWP (International Society for Cow Protection) also visits New Vrindaban. (GGG10 2)

August 1994: The author presides over a “fire sacrifice” in his backyard and burns a couple cases of Bhaktipada’s 1993 Vyasa Puja books to cleanse his heart from any remaining sentimental attachment to his former “spiritual master.” (GGG9 258)

August 11, 1994: Tirtha Swami appears before the Federal Grand Jury for the Northern District of West Virginia Investigative Grand Jury, in Wheeling, West Virginia, and testifies that Bhaktipada ordered him to assassinate Chakradhari in 1983 and Sulochan in 1986. Bhaktipada sycophants in prison, egged on by Bhakti Rasa Swami, attempt to murder Tirtha. (GGG4 78, GGG9 234)

September 6, 1994: About four dozen Bhaktipada disciples and followers celebrate their spiritual master’s 57^th birthday at Silent Mountain. A fire sacrifice is held and new disciples are initiated. (GGG9 225)

September 19, 1994: The League of Devotees purchases a 74-year-old, six-story building with 14,700 square-feet of floor space, at 25 First Avenue in Manhattan, for $500,000 and calls it “The Interfaith Sanctuary.” After three years of renovations, the deities Radha Muralidhar move there. (GGG8 320)

December 2, 1994: Radhanath Swami visits New Vrindaban. Bhaktipada disciples and supporters boycott his lectures. (GGG9 227)

1995: Balabhadra, his wife, and his entire herd of cattle move to New Vrindaban from Prabhupada Village in North Carolina. They stay for twenty years. (GGG10 3)

c. 1995: Former gurukula headmaster Radha Vrindaban Chandra Swami is pressured to leave New Vrindaban, as he had physically and sexually abused gurukula boys in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. (GGG10 20)

Former gurukula headmaster and child abuser/molester Sri Galim is forced to take a psychological exam or leave New Vrindaban. He fails the exam and is forced to leave. He moves to Coraopolis, Pennsylvania (near the Pittsburgh International Airport) with his wife and two young children. (GGG10 22)

Bhaktipada’s book, Sense Grataholics Anonymous: A Twelve Step Meeting Suggested Sharing Format, is published by disciples at the New York City Interfaith Sanctuary. (GGG5 142)

March 1995: Nityodita Swami visits Mayapur, India and requests the GBC to admit New Vrindaban back into ISKCON. (GGG10 3)

March 27, 1995: The West Virginia State Penitentiary closes its doors. Tirtha is moved to the Mount Olive Correctional Complex in Fayette County. (K4K 449)

1996: Two ISKCON gurukula alumni, Maya Charnell (the daughter of the former Seattle ISKCON temple president Rochan dasa/Van Charnell), and Nirmal Chandra (Dylan Hickey—the son of the former ISKCON Minister of Education: Jagadish dasa/Jeffrey Hickey), launch the Violations of ISKCON Children Exposed (VOICE) web site. The site contains a lengthy catalog of abuse accounts submitted and posted anonymously by former students. (GGG4 430)

c. 1996: Radha Vrindaban Chandra Swami (Gopinath) is evicted from Brooklyn ISKCON by New Vrindaban gurukula alumnus Bhima Karma dasa Brahmachari, who claims, “Gopinath gave me the beatings of my life when I was just four years old,” at the Nandagram school. (GGG10 65)

February 3, 1996: The GBC appoints a committee to hold discussions with New Vrindaban officials and investigate the community’s initiative to return to ISKCON. (GGG10 4)

March 1996: New Vrindaban settles with the U. S. Justice Department. The Associated Press reports, “Last month, the community agreed to a $100,000 settlement of charges of illegally selling merchandise bearing copyrighted and trademarked logos.” (GGG9 252)

April 16, 1996: Bhaktipada’s retrial begins. His attorney, however, throws in the towel after discovering that Tirtha Swami, who is serving life in prison for the murders of Chakradhari and Sulochan, has lost his faith in Bhaktipada after hearing about his molestation of teenage boys in the community and decides not to withhold incriminating information anymore in order to protect his former guru. Tirtha now claims that he carried out the assassinations of Sulochan and Chakradhari under Bhaktipada’s order. (GGG9 241, K4K 452)

April 18, 1996: Bhaktipada pleads guilty to one count of mail fraud from the federal racketeering charge but accepts no responsibility for the slayings of Chakradhari and Sulochan. He is imprisoned for eight years, at first in the Eastern Regional Jail in Martinsburg, West Virginia, and later in federal penitentiaries in Springfield, Missouri; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; and Butner, North Carolina. (GGG9 246, K4K 453)

May 1996: At the North American GBC meeting in Alachua, Florida, a panel of ten former gurukula students invited to speak by the leadership, details case after case of “heart-wrenching suffering at the hands of school authorities which reduced the entire audience of educators to tears.” (GGG4 424)

Summer 1996: The giant forty-foot-tall Prabhupada statue behind the Palace is dragged off of its pedestal, rolled into a large cigar-shaped mass of steel and concrete, and pushed across to the edge of the plateau where it falls over the precipice into the forest. Its descent is arrested by a large tree. (GGG9 229)

August 29, 1996: Kirtanananda Swami Bhaktipada is sentenced to thirty years in prison—the maximum possible sentence—for racketeering. Federal District Court Judge Robert R. Merhige, Jr. in Martinsburg, West Virginia, also fines Bhaktipada $250,000. He is taken to a Federal Prison Hospital for a physical. He suffers from impaired walking due to Post Polio Syndrome, severe asthma, weak abdominal muscles causing hernia, digestive problems, hearing loss, balance problems, vision difficulties due to traumatic head injury, loss of short term memory, carpal tunnel, and an atrophied leg. (GGG9 247, GGG10 40, K4K 453)

October 1996: Krishnakant Desai submits a paper titled, “The Final Order,” to a select committee of ISKCON GBC members in which he “raises important theological questions concerning spiritual authority and its transmission, the relationship of the disciple and Krishna’s representative, the guru, and the proper objects of devotional worship.” Krishnakant’s paper becomes a “Bible” for Ritvik-In-Absentia advocates. (ENE 359)

Early-January 1997: Bhaktipada is locked down in solitary confinement for two weeks at the Eastern Regional Jail in Martinsburg, West Virginia, after his cell mate reports him to prison authorities for making sexual advances. (GGG10 41, K4K 454)

Mid-January 1997: Bhaktipada is taken to the Federal Transfer Center in Oklahoma City, where he spends a couple weeks waiting for a more permanent place in a federal prison. (GGG10 43)

Late-January 1997: Bhaktipada is transferred to the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri, where he remains for two years. (GGG10 43)

March 1997: Radhanath is appointed as a full GBC member. (GGG10 7, K4K 476)

May 1997: Bhaktipada compares his prison cell to a cave in the Himalayan Mountains where yogis and sages practice austerities and meditate. (GGG10 46)

August 1997: The Allen digital organ is sold at a loss to a church in Ohio for $5,000. (GGG9 222)

August 7, 1997: While incarcerated at the federal prison in Springfield, Missouri, Kirtanananda Swami admits to a disciple that he “had many regrets and had made a lot of bad decisions and mistakes,” especially regarding the children of New Vrindaban. (GGG4 329)

August 31, 1997: The official dedication for Bhaktipada’s Interfaith Sanctuary at 25 First Avenue in Manhattan. Radha Muralidhara deities, originally from Cleveland, Ohio, are installed. (GGG10 51)

January 6, 1998: Bhaktipada’s attorney Nathan Dershowitz appears, along with Bhaktipada, at the Springfield prison facility to argue for Bhaktipada’s early release. His sentence is reduced to twelve years. (GGG10 49)

March 1998: The GBC provisionally readmits New Vrindaban as a member of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, subject to an annual review for two years. Malati dasi (formerly swami) becomes the first female member of the GBC and is appointed as a co-GBC candidate—along with Radhanath Swami—for West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky. (GGG10 4, K4K 476)

The ISKCON Child Protection Office is established. (GGG10 23)

The New York City publication, Time Out, praises the Interfaith Sanctuary restaurant, “The smoke- and alcohol-free Sanctuary feels like an ashram . . . with New-Agey music piped into the airy dining room, hand-crafted jewelry for sale in glass cases along the wall, customers speaking in hushed tones and the menu’s ‘healthy notes’ boasting filtered water and raw sugar. But don’t let the straight edge fool you: customers here flock to get their meat fixes. Uncanny real harmless ham, unturkey, and Fakin-Bacon BLT sandwiches will knock the Birkenstocks off hard-core vegetarians—but not as much as the ‘chick-none’ drumsticks, which are deep fried balls of soy protein on a sugar cane ‘bone.’ At least they left the veins out.” (GGG10 52)

September 1998: After two years at the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri, Bhaktipada is transferred to the Butner Federal Correctional Complex in Butner, North Carolina, where he completes six more years of his sentence. (GGG10 57)

June 1998: The ISKCON Communications Journal publishes an article co-authored by the scholar of ISKCON, E. Burke Rochford, Jr., titled “Child Abuse in the Hare Krishna Movement: 1971-1986.” (GGG4 429)

October 9, 1998: The New York Times publishes a front-page article titled, “Hare Krishna Movement Details Past Abuse at Its Boarding Schools.” (GGG4 431)

March 1999: Dallas attorney Windle Turley agrees to consider taking on the case “Children of ISKCON vs. ISKCON.” (GGG4 431)

ISKCON Bangalore adopts the Ritvik-In-Absentia system of initiations and separates from ISKCON. (ENE 359)

April 23, 1999: The ISKCON Child Protection Office begins an investigation of Kirtanananda Swami regarding sexual child abuse charges. (GGG4 384, GGG10 70)

April 29, 1999: ISKCON pledges $1,000,000 for child protection within the Society. (GGG4 432)

May 1999: The New Vrindaban school closes its doors due to insufficient enrollment. (GGG4 389, GGG9 228)

May 22-23, 1999: The first weekend since 1986 when large numbers of ISKCON devotees come to a festival at New Vrindaban. (GGG10 5)

June 1999: Famed Dallas, Texas attorney Windle Turley accepts the “Children of ISKCON vs. ISKCON” case. (GGG4 433)

August 1999: Police arrest a longtime New Vrindaban fringe resident, Sacinandan dasa (James A. Prins, also known as Sacipita) who is charged with sexual assault against girls and women. (GGG4 374)

August 30, 1999: ISKCON’s Central Office of Child Protection concludes an investigation and determines that Radha Vrindaban Chandra Swami (Gopinath/Ronald Nay), the notorious former headmaster at the Nandagram School, had physically abused and sexually molested boys at New Vrindaban, including forcing at least one to perform oral sex on him. (GGG4 398)

September 3, 1999: Bhaktipada’s Pakistani disciple Madhusudan dasa Bapuji presides at the dedication of the four-story Anand Vrindavan Dhama Radha Vrindaban Chandra temple in Ulhasnagar, India. (GGG10 115)

November 5, 1999: The deities of Sita, Ramachandra, Laksman and Hanuman, which were installed with much fanfare in 1986, are sold to the ISKCON temple at Towaco, New Jersey. As pujaris are in short supply at New Vrindaban, community managers think it is better to move the deities to a temple which can properly care for them, rather than have the deities neglected at New Vrindaban. New Vrindaban residents are very sorry to see the deities leave, and one distraught resident actually kidnaps Hanuman (until police are called) to prevent the monkey-warrior deity from leaving the community. (GGG9 227-228)

2000: Bhaktipada’s disciples acquire an old and dilapidated resort and guesthouse on the shore of Washington Lake near Yulan, New York, which he calls “New Vaikuntha.” Bhaktipada hopes the property will become a League of Devotees Retreat Center, where devotees and guests can visit on weekends or during vacations to chant and meditate in a rural quiet country atmosphere. The property is never renovated nor developed. (GGG10 54)

February 1, 2000: The ISKCON Child Protection Office determines that Sri Galim committed physical abuse to at least five boys. (GGG10 23)

March 2000: The GBC welcomes New Vrindaban unconditionally back to ISKCON. Malati dasi is appointed as an acting GBC member. (GGG10 4, K4K 476)

June 12, 2000: Forty-four children of ISKCON, including twenty-one New Vrindaban gurukula alumni, file a $400 million lawsuit through the Turley law firm at the Federal Court in Dallas, Texas, against the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, along with sixteen ISKCON temples and farms, including New Vrindaban, six executors for the estate of A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, and seventeen members or former members of the GBC, including Kirtanananda Swami Bhaktipada, for permitting alleged multiple forms of child abuse including sexual, emotional and physical abuse. After the initial filing, fifty-one more gurukula alumni join the suit, making a total of 95 plaintiffs. Among the seventeen defendants named in the case, Windle Turley notes, “New Vrindaban was the worst offender.” (GGG4 435)

September 10, 2000: The ISKCON Child Protection Office determines that “Kirtanananda dasa” had molested two boys. (GGG4 384, GGG10 71, K4K 476)

January 2001: Kuladri accepts a high-paying position at New Vrindaban as General Manager, with essentially the same duties as the Temple President. (GGG10 14, K4K 458)

March 2001: Malati is appointed as a full GBC member. Devamrita Swami is appointed a GBC candidate for Ecuador, Peru, Chile and Bolivia. (GGG10 4)

May 2001: New Vrindaban hosts its first “Festival of Inspiration.” (GGG10 5)

June 18, 2001: New Vrindaban fringe resident Sacinandan dasa (James A. Prins, also known as Sacipita) pleads guilty to three counts of first-degree sexual abuse. He admits that more than twelve years earlier he had abused two girls ages eight and eleven and an adult woman, although the actual number might have been in the dozens. He is sentenced to eight months in prison and three years of probation. (GGG4 374)

September 28, 2001: The judge for the United States District Court in Dallas, Texas, dismisses “Children of ISKCON vs. ISKCON.” (GGG4 436)

October 25, 2001: Attorney Windle Turley re-files “Children of ISKCON vs. ISKCON” in state courts in Texas and West Virginia. (GGG4 437)

February 2002: In order to protect their assets from the “Children of ISKCON vs. ISKCON” case, ISKCON files for bankruptcy. (GGG4 446)

March 2002: Devamrita Swami is elected as an assistant GBC member and an official ISKCON guru. (GGG 10 5)

Spring 2002: The author begins writing an article about the English Western classical music which he helped compose during the Interfaith Era at New Vrindaban. Twenty-one years later, the project is completed—twelve books with 1,620,000 words: Killing For Krishna, Eleven Naked Emperors, and ten volumes of Gold, Guns and God.

September 2, 2002: Bhaktipada’s disciples publish a 124-page Vyasa Puja book containing 186 offerings of praise and gratitude from more than 200 disciples and well wishers in Pakistan, India and the United States. (GGG10 93)

December 22, 2002: When asked why, after the 1993 Winnebago Incident, Bhaktipada denied having sex with teenage boys, he responds, “Technically (reminiscent of Bill Clinton) I did not lie; I never had sex. I didn’t have an orgasm.” (GGG4 389)

December 23, 2002: Bhaktipada suggests that his disciples and followers in New York City establish “Inter-Vaishnava Harinama.” He wants his devotees to “approach all the Vaishnava groups in New York, and invite them to join together for big harinama parties.” (GGG10 68)

March 2003: Bhaktipada’s disciples perform harinama in Times Square with some ISKCON devotees. (GGG10 68)

Devamrita Swami is elected as an acting GBC member. (GGG10 5)

Bhaktipada in prison invents the acronyms: TYKPMAII: “Thank You, Krishna, for the Present Moment As It Is,” and WCP: “Willing, Confident and Patient.” Bhaktipada claims that the two acronyms “contain everything” needed for Krishna consciousness. (GGG10 64)

June 2003: ISKCON guru Bir Krishna Swami visits Bhaktipada in prison. Yadubara (John Griesser), the cinematographer who lived at New Vrindaban in the mid-1980s, also visits Bhaktipada. (GGG10 68)

Summer 2003: In an effort to help his struggling disciples, Bhaktipada writes a booklet titled Sense Grataholics Anonymous: A Twelve Step Meeting Suggested Sharing Format. (GGG5 142, GGG10 61)

August 15, 2003: During a telephone conversation with the author, Hansadutta explains, “When most conditioned souls are exposed to immense wealth, unlimited prestige, adoration from women and devoted disciples, we go crazy. We can’t help it. Our constitutional position is not lord and master of all we survey, our position is servant of the servant: dasa dasa anudasa. We go crazy. Nearly any conditioned soul would.” (K4K 125)

August 17, 2003: Bhaktipada admits that after seven years in prison, his health is “good (very stable).” (GGG10 50)

September 15, 2003: Tirtha, serving a life sentence in prison for the murders of Chakradhari and Sulochan, writes to the author, “Radhanath Swami . . . is my closest friend.” (K4K 367)

October 3, 2003: In an email to the author, Sri Galim apologizes for physically and sexually abusing boys at the Nandagram school. He writes, “If a devotee has an accidental fall down and takes shelter of Krishna, Krishna will remove the problem and beautify his devotee. The key is to go on remembering Krishna in all circumstances, no matter what the material energy throws at you. We are on a battlefield, fighting the material energy and sometimes we will be injured. We must get up and continue to fight. Again, I am extremely sorry for being an instrument for abuse. I again, ask the forgiveness of all Vaishnavas.” (GGG4 419)

Winter 2003: Bhaktipada’s disciples and followers, on his recommendation, enroll in the Landmark Forum: a three-day seminar designed to increase the quality of one’s relationships, personal productivity, and enjoyment of life, based on the EST program established by the self-help guru Werner Erhard. (GGG10 62)

2004: Bhaktipada’s disciples in Ulhasnagar, India, publish four books in English by their spiritual master:

(1) On Becoming Servant of The Servant

(2) Divine Conversation, 52 darshans with Bhaktipada from March 13, 2001 to May 5, 2004

(3) The Answer to Every Problem: Krishna Consciousness

(4) A Devotee’s Handbook for Pure Devotion. (GGG5 142)

March 2004: Devamrita Swami is elected as a full GBC member. (GGG 10 5)

June 16, 2004: Bhaktipada is released from prison; he goes to live with his disciples at the Interfaith Sanctuary in New York City. (GGG10 75, K4K 476)

June 17, 2004: On the insistence from godbrother Kevala Bhakti, the author plays accordion and leads the “Blazing Fire of Samsara” English song during mangal aroti at the Interfaith Sanctuary. Both Bhaktipada and the author shed tears. (GGG10 77)

June 19, 2004: The author writes Bhaktipada a candid letter, expressing his affection for him, and also suggests that Bhaktipada should confess his sins and beg forgiveness from his godbrothers, disciples, and associates. (GGG10 78)

June 25, 2004: Bhaktipada gives a morning class at the Interfaith Sanctuary during which he begs forgiveness for his offenses, and even admits some of his faults: “For making mistakes. For criticizing unjustly. For not always being truthful. For not always being a completely pure sannyasi.” (GGG10 85)

June 26, 2004: Bhaktipada admits that he has “broken the regulative principles” in a letter posted on his website. The letter is later removed. (GGG10 87, K4K 476)

September 2004: Bhaktipada’s 2004 Vyasa Puja book consists of 75 pages and includes 190 offerings from disciples in four countries. Based on statistics from this Vyasa Puja book, 58 percent of Bhaktipada’s followers live in India, 33 percent live in Pakistan and only nine percent live in the United States. In 2004, Bhaktipada’s disciples in Pakistan manage ten temples and preaching centers (all in Karachi); in India they manage four temples (this has increased in the meantime) and in the United States they manage only one: the Radha Muralidhar Temple/Interfaith Sanctuary in New York City. (GGG10 95)

October 12, 2004: Tirtha dasa (formerly Swami), the New Vrindaban hit man who murdered Sulochan in Los Angeles on May 22, 1986, writes a letter to the author and apologizes and begs forgiveness from the Vaishnavas. (GGG10 18, K4K 455)

2005: In an effort to save the Interfaith Sanctuary and restore confidence, enthusiasm, discipline, and financial solvency, a party of New York ISKCON devotees who need a place to stay is invited to live in the sixth-floor ashram and pay rent. Some, such as Yajña Purusha dasa (who recently served as the temple president at the newly-purchased ISKCON center at 26 Second Avenue), and Krishna Balarama Swami (an old-time Prabhupada disciple who joined at 26 Second Avenue in the mid-1960s), are invited to become members of the Board of Directors for the temple. Due to the influx of new blood, enthusiasm during the kirtans at the early morning programs increases, but in time the ISKCON devotees turn against Bhaktipada and evict him from the building. (GGG10 97)

The Interfaith Sanctuary restaurant closes due to disputes between ISKCON devotees and Bhaktipada’s disciples. (GGG10 106)

The ISKCON Prison Ministry at New Vrindaban publishes The Definitive Guide to Practicing Krishna Consciousness in Prison, a guidebook written by Tirtha in prison for incarcerated convicts to help them practice Krishna consciousness. (K4K 477)

March 2005: Devamrita Swami is elected to the post of GBC chairman. (GGG10 5)

April 2, 2005: A 30-year-old New Vrindaban gurukula alumnus, Nrsimha dasa (Elijah B. Long), dies from a suspicious fall down a series of outdoor, concrete steps. He suffers abuse in the gurukula from age four to twelve, and in high school rebels against authority, committing juvenile infractions, alcohol and drug use, risk taking, etc. His mother writes an eight-page article in his memory, published on Chakra.org. Nrsimha’s photograph appears on the back cover of GGG4. (GGG4 459)

June 27, 2005: Bhakti Tirtha Swami (John E. Favors) dies in Gita Nagari from complications from melanoma cancer. (GGG9 17)

July 6, 2005: Richard Rose, the owner of 132 acres of Marshall County land who had given Hayagriva a 99-year lease in 1968, dies from natural causes at the Weirton Geriatric Center (Weirton, West Virginia) at the age of 88 after a ten-year battle with Alzheimer’s disease. (GGG6 60, GGG9 229)

August 2005: In Alachua, Florida, Dharmatma is accused by eight former New Vrindaban sankirtan women of mental, physical and sexual abuse of women and girls. Alachua ISKCON bans him from visiting the temple properties. (GGG4 164)

August 5, 2005: ISKCON representatives meet with Turley lawsuit plaintiffs (ISKCON gurukula alumni who had been abused) to offer a court-ordered apology. (GGG4 449)

August 24, 2005: A few days before Janmastami, Bhaktipada attempts to fondle the genitalia of a visiting young man during a private darshan. The Interfaith Sanctuary residents split into two camps: one believes the accusation is a malicious rumor invented by envious ISKCON devotees, and the other believes the accusation is true and tries to evict the “spiritual master” from the building. (GGG10 104, K4K 476)

2006: The New Vrindaban Prison Ministry publishes four more books by Tirtha in prison: Prisoner Me, The Process of Perfect Atonement, Losing the Mind and Freedom from Fear. (K4K 477)

March 10, 2006: Bhaktipada’s disciples lose heart. One disciple writes, “The Interfaith Sanctuary is like a battlefield: Adi Purusha and his bed and breakfast verses the Malaysians who manage the restaurant. Adi causes friction between devotees. Bhaktipada threatened to kick out the Malaysians from the temple. The bottom line is: Bhaktipada treats the devotees disrespectfully. He is constantly mean and nasty.” (GGG10 96)

August 2006: Krishna Balarama Swami, one of the new members on the Interfaith Sanctuary board, sues Eternal Love, who serves as treasurer, in Manhattan Supreme Court for putting their nonprofit status in jeopardy by renting rooms at the temple building to tourists. The temple’s bed and breakfast takes in more than $300,000 a year. (GGG10 103)

October 16, 2006: Malati, the GBC representative for New Vrindaban, candidly states that only “a miracle” will enable New Vrindaban to survive. (GGG10 29)

November 2006: Kuladri begins working for ISKCON North America. (GGG10 16, K4K 459)

December 22, 2006: Janmastami, one of the conspirators in the plot to murder Sulochan who escaped prosecution, breaks his twenty-year silence and announces, in a letter published by the Sampradaya Sun, that in January, 1986, Radhanath Swami ordered him to “neutralize Sulochan.” (GGG10 8, K4K 478)

Late December 2006: Malati dasi, the co-GBC representative for New Vrindaban, compares Janmastami to a “mad dog.” (GGG10 9, K4K 479)

January 3, 2007: Ravindra Svarupa accuses Janmastami of falling into the “quicksand swamp of fault finding.” (GGG10 8, K4K 479)

January 8, 2007: Tirtha, in prison, attempts to discredit Janmastami by calling him the “plumber’s helper.” (GGG10 8, K4K 480)

January 10, 2007: Radhanath Swami announces, “As far as what Janmastami dasa has written on the Internet, every single allegation against me is totally false. I was not involved in any criminal activity.” (GGG10 10, K4K 482)

May 2007: Radhanath Swami visits the Interfaith Sanctuary and is confronted by Krishna dasa (Nark Kumaravelan) who accuses “Radhanath Jack Ass” of taking over the building. (GGG10 107)

June 2007: Bhaktipada, Radha Vrindaban Chandra and devotees from Malaysia are served eviction notices and are told to leave the Interfaith Sanctuary by July 31^st. RVC Swami claims, “The Sanctuary had been taken over by Radhanath’s people. They managed to kick me and Srila Bhaktipada out.” (GGG10 105)

November 2007: Bhaktipada completes his parole and is once again free to travel outside the United States. (GGG10 112)

December 2007: Bhaktipada (and Radha Vrindaban Chandra Swami) travel from New York City to Mumbai, Rishikesh and Vrindaban in India, and Karachi in Pakistan, where he is welcomed by hundreds of adoring disciples and thousands of followers who believe Bhaktipada had been unfairly expelled from ISKCON and sentenced to prison. He remains in India and Pakistan for about two months. (GGG10 112)

2008: Bhaktipada’s disciples in Ulhasnagar publish Bhaktipada’s 306-page hardcover book, Humbler Than a Blade of Grass, consisting of 154 lessons in humility. (GGG10 124)

Radhanath Swami’s book, The Journey Home: Autobiography of an American Swami, is published. (GGG10 10, K4K 486)

January 24, 2008: In a letter, Tirtha in prison threatens the author that if he publishes his forthcoming history book(s) about New Vrindaban, “You will gain nothing but pain and suffering in your life.” (K4K xv)

Tirtha also claims the author is illusioned by Maya, “Moreover, persons in your state of consciousness, lack of Krishna consciousness, would not be capable of understanding their actual import. This is simply a frank assessment of fact.” (GGG6 262)

March 4, 2008: The author visits his former spiritual master at the Interfaith Sanctuary in Manhattan. Bhaktipada explains why he is moving permanently to India: “There is no sense in staying where I’m not wanted.” (GGG10 117)

March 7, 2008: 70-year-old Bhaktipada and his 66-year-old confidante, RVC Swami, leave the U. S. permanently and move to India. Bhaktipada makes his headquarters at the Ulhasnagar Anand Vrindavan Dhama Radha Vrindaban Chandra Temple, managed by his disciple Madhusudan dasa Bapuji on the outskirts of Mumbai. His loyal disciples build a suite for him on the roof of the temple, which they call “Bhaktipada’s Palace of Love.” (GGG10 117, K4K 492)

May 8, 2008: Pittsburgh’s City Paper reports, “The Palace’s exterior, sadly, is succumbing to the elements; the bright paint is flaking and plaster falls away to reveal wire mesh—creating the effect of a slowly rotting amusement park.” (GGG10 28)

August 9, 2008: A New Vrindaban gurukula alumnus claims, “I got molested by Kirtanananda. I couldn’t speak about it to anyone for years until I got counseling. So when I saw the post [on the Sampradaya Sun] glorifying this madman [Kirtanananda], I got nauseated. . . . I still hurt from what Kirtanananda did to me but I’m going on with my life.” (GGG4 202)

October 12-20, 2008: Bhaktipada visits Rishikesh. (GGG10 137)

November 2008: Bhaktipada visits Nagpur and lectures to about a thousand people during a pandal program. (GGG10 136)

December 2, 2008: Bhaktipada visits Ambajogai and speaks to 5,000 people at a pandal program. (GGG10 134)

Mid-December 2008: Bhaktipada visits Parli Vaijnath and Majalgaon. (GGG10 137)

December 27-30, 2008: Bhaktipada and his disciples travel to Vrindaban for a three-day pilgrimage. They visit Mathura City, Nandagram, Raman Reti, the home of Nanda Maharaja (known as the Temple of 84 Pillars), Prabhupada’s Samadhi at the Krishna Balarama ISKCON temple, and they bathe in the Yamuna River. (GGG10 138)

2009: Bhaktipada’s disciples in Ulhasnagar publish his massive 1,800-page hardcover book: The Heart of the Bhagavatam. (GGG5 142, GGG10 125)

June 2009: Manihar (Matthew Norton), the chronic pedophile and child abuser who served as headmaster for the New Vrindaban Varnashram College in 1981 and 1982, collapses in his home in India at the age of fifty-six and dies. Inside sources claim he died from a morphine overdose. On the other hand, the official explanation is nebulous; implying he died from a concussion after a fall. (GGG4 314)

June 21, 2009: The author questions Radhanath Swami at a preaching program in Schenley Park, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, regarding the historical accuracy and truthfulness of his newly-published book The Journey Home. Radhanath remains silent; he refuses to reply. (GGG10 11)

June 24, 2009: Bhaktipada participates in the Rishikesh Ratha Yatha festival. During the parade, he rides in an automobile decorated with flower garlands and passes out sweets to children. (GGG10 141)

July 1, 2009: New Vrindaban’s former interfaith friend, Native American medicine man Charles Chipps, is arrested on four counts of sexual assault in violation of Section 234 of the Oglala Sioux Tribal Code and four counts of child abuse. (GGG10 37)

July 5, 2009: Bhaktipada’s disciples take him on a day trip to the fifteen-acre Shangri La Resort and Water Park on the Mumbai-Nasik Expressway, about an hour’s drive north of Ulhasnagar. The owner of the park personally welcomes Bhaktipada, and Bhaktipada is ushered to a nice room in one of the guest houses. After changing into a white bathing suit, Bhaktipada joins the devotees at the largest pool. He climbs down the ladder into the pool, and amazes everyone by swimming about vigorously. After a game of toss the ball, the devotees all come to a large pavilion for a buffet prasadam dinner. (GGG10 142)

Mid-2009: Ramesvara dasa (formerly Ramesvara Swami) joins forces with GBC Malati dasi and other senior disciples to form the Palace Restoration Committee. (GGG10 31)

September 6, 2009: Bhaktipada celebrates his 72^nd birthday in Rishikesh, where Bhakti Yoga Swami organizes a lavish Vyasa Puja celebration festival in his honor. (GGG10 136)

September 7, 2009: Bhaktipada returns to Ulhasnagar, where his Western-Indian disciples celebrate his birthday with much fanfare. (GGG10 136)

September 29, 2009: Bhaktipada and eleven disciples travel in an automobile excursion from Rishikesh to Badrinath high up in the Himalayan Mountains. (GGG10 144)

c. 2010: Bhaktipada’s Interfaith Sanctuary is taken over completely by Radhanath’s disciples and followers and becomes known as the Bhakti Center. (GGG10 110)

February 16, 2010: Bhaktipada chastises his disciple Mahananda dasa for spreading rumors. (GGG10 145)

March 2010: New Vrindaban signs a contract with Ohio-based AB Resources for Marcellus shale fracking on community property, with a lease rate of $2,500 per acre for about 4,000 acres—and 18.75 percent production royalties when the company begins pumping natural gas. The community expects to receive $10 million in royalties. (GGG10 29)

June 2010: Radhanath Swami visits Dharmatma at his home in Alachua, Florida, and attempts to convince Dharmatma to change his testimony, as Dharmatma claims in May 1986 Radhanath and Bhaktipada came to his house at New Vrindaban to get $6,000 so that Tirtha and his family could leave the United States and fly to India. Radhanath incorrectly claims that the money was for Tapahpunja Swami’s bail a few days after Tirtha and Tapahpunja were arrested. (K4K 486)

July 7, 2010: Deities of the Six Goswamis are brought to New Vrindaban by Varshan Swami, and are eventually placed on the altar previously used by Lord Ramachandra, Sita, Laksman and Hanuman. When Varshan Swami completes his own temple, the deities will reside there. (GGG10 3)

August 16, 2010: Sampradaya Sun publishes the author’s article, “Radhanath Swami’s Alleged Involvement in Sulochan’s Murder.” (K4K 485)

September 6, 2010: Bhaktipada’s 73^rd birthday celebration in Ulhasnagar is a big event which includes guru puja, charan abhishek (foot bathing ceremony), offerings and homages from disciples, and a cake cutting ceremony and kirtan. (GGG10 145)

Mid-September 2010: Bhaktipada leaves India for the United Arab Emirates and RVC Swami departs for Nepal to fulfill Indian visa requirements. They are gone for a few months, then return to India. (GGG10 148)

October 15, 2010: Radhanath Swami telephones a scholar of ISKCON and discourages him from collaborating on a book about the history of New Vrindaban with the author, who eight years later publishes his own book, Killing For Krishna. Radhanath threatens the professor, if he co-authors a book with Henry Doktorski about New Vrindaban, his professional “integrity would be at stake.” (K4K 487)

October 20, 2010: Bhaktipada’s young personal servant, Rajiv dasa, passes away while Bhaktipada is away at the United Arab Emirates. (GGG10 148)

November 2, 2010: The scholar of ISKCON formally terminates his proposed New Vrindaban history book project with the author. He writes, “I am heartbroken that we couldn’t do this together as I believe we make a good team and would have produced a great book.” (K4K 488)

November 22-24, 2010: Bhaktipada visits Goa. He stays at the Estrela Do Mar Resort located on Baga Beach, he bathes in the Arabian Sea and goes on pilgrimage to several famous churches and temples. This is his last excursion, as his health soon takes a turn for the worse. (GGG10 149)

December 24, 2010: Bhaktipada files his Last Will and Testament, and names his disciple Madhusudan dasa Bapuji (Manilal B. Chauhan) as his sole successor to his spiritual and material kingdom. (GGG10 152)

Early February, 2011: Bhaktipada has pains in his neck. He is diagnosed with cancer. (GGG10 154)

February 8, 2011: A tumor is removed from Bhaktipada’s neck. (GGG10 154)

February 26, 2011: Bhaktipada begins chemotherapy. (GGG10 154)

February 28, 2011: Bhaktipada begins radiation treatments. (GGG10 154)

July 28, 2011: Bhaktipada is admitted to Jupiter Hospital in Thane, India. He is semi-conscious and has difficulty breathing. He is put on a ventilator. A CAT scan reveals bleeding in his brain. He goes into a coma and is given a tracheotomy and a nasogastric feeding tube. After a few days when he regains partial consciousness, he is taken off the ventilator but continues to receive oxygen through a nose tube, and nutrients through a feeding tube. His condition looks grim. (GGG10 155)

August 8, 2011: After eleven days in intensive care, Bhaktipada is unconscious, on a ventilator, and a CAT scan reveals some bleeding in his brain. (GGG10 155)

August 10, 2011: Bhaktipada regains consciousness and speaks a few words. (GGG10 155)

August 13, 2011: Bhaktipada’s condition takes a turn for the worse. He’s unconscious again and back on the ventilator. (GGG10 156)

Mid-August, 2011: Jupiter Hospital doctors claim there is nothing more they can do for Bhaktipada, so he returns to his “Palace of Love” in Ulhasnagar. (GGG10 156)

August 22, 2011 (Janmastami): Bhaktipada’s disciples carry their master’s bed into the temple room so he can have darshan of the deities. (GGG10 156)

August 24, 2011: Steady (Salagram dasi), Bhaktipada’s loyal American disciple, visits Ulhasnagar and stays by her master’s side for nineteen days. (GGG10 158)

August 26, 2011: Bhaktipada drifts in and out of consciousness. He cannot breathe on his own. One lung is collapsed; the other full of mucous. A letter is posted on Chakra.org asking all the New Vrindaban Brijabasis and Vaishnavas around the world to forget past differences and pray for Bhaktipada. (GGG10 156)

August 29, 2011: Bhaktipada’s condition seems to improve; he begins to speak again, and gets physical therapy. (GGG10 156)

August 30, 2011: Bhaktipada’s disciples bring him into the temple to see the deities. He is able to nod “yes” or “no.” (GGG10 156)

September 6, 2011: Bhaktipada’s 74^th birthday is celebrated quietly. (GGG10 160)

September 10, 2011: Bhaktipada spends two hours in his wheelchair and goes to sundar aroti. (GGG10 159)

September 11, 2011: Hardly able to breathe, Bhaktipada is re-admitted to Jupiter Hospital. (GGG10 159)

September 14, 2011: Bhaktipada is diagnosed with a lung infection. (GGG10 159)

September 15, 2011: Bhaktipada has a tracheotomy performed in his throat so he can more easily breathe. He cannot talk, but smiles a lot and seems aware of his surroundings. (GGG10 159)

September 16, 2011: Bhaktipada is back on the ventilator, but is able to sit up and asks for his japa beads. (GGG10 160)

September 18, 2011: Hospital doctors take Bhaktipada off the ventilator. He breathes on his own. (GGG10 160)

September 19, 2011: Bhaktipada’s condition appears to improve a little every day for the next month. (GGG10 160)

October 2011: Kuladri is appointed as the Divisional Director of Legal, Accounting, and Regulatory Compliance for ISKCON. (GGG10 16, K4K 459)

October 21, 2011: After forty days in the hospital, Bhaktipada’s condition dramatically worsens. His kidneys and liver begin to fail and he falls into a coma. Disciples instinctively understand that the end is near and begin praying to Krishna, “Dear Lord, either heal Bhaktipada or take him back home, now.” (GGG10 161)

October 23, 2011: Doctors announce that Bhaktipada will die soon, perhaps within 48 hours. (GGG10 161)

October 24, 2011: Bhaktipada dies from kidney failure at Jupiter hospital in Thane, India. As Bhaktipada’s disciples and followers receive the news that their beloved spiritual master has ended his earthly pastimes, they cry tears of separation. Radha Vrindaban Chandra Swami announces that Bhaktipada’s body will be buried in Vrindaban, the holiest pilgrimage place on earth, although they do not know where in Vrindaban they will bury his corpse. Bhaktipada’s body is shipped from Thane to Vrindaban in an ice-filled wooden coffin. The ice melts. (GGG10 161, K4K 497)

c. October 25, 2011: Upon arriving in Vrindaban, Bhaktipada’s body—resting in a plywood coffin refilled with ice and covered with marigold flower garlands—is brought to Radha Gokulananda Mandir where disciples and well wishers offer their final respects. Behind the temple is a small house and Bhaktipada’s body is placed in one of the rooms. Bhakti Aloka Paramadwaiti Swami (Ulrich Harlan, formerly Alanath Swami, a Prabhupada disciple who left ISKCON in the mid-1980s to join B. R. Sridhar Swami’s math) delivers a eulogy. (GGG10 169)

October 26, 2011: Radha Gokulananda Mandir administrators refuse to permit Bhaktipada’s body to be buried on temple property. His body is moved to the Mohini Gosala cowshed, while disciples and followers frantically try to find a suitable burial place for their master’s rapidly-decomposing remains. (GGG10 171)

Radhanath Swami, in the company of two other ISKCON leaders, visits the Mohini Gosala cowshed in Vrindaban, India, where Bhaktipada’s body is lying in state, and offers prostrated obeisances to his sannyasa guru. After a day of negotiations, property opposite Tulasivan Ashram in the Radha Bagh section of the Parikrama Marg is finally purchased. Bhaktipada’s body is brought there and devotees go to their homes and ashrams for the night. (GGG10 173, K4K 498)

October 27, 2011: After the grave is dug and Bhaktipada’s body is buried, a simple above-ground tomb made from clay bricks is constructed on the surface. The tomb is adorned with marigold garlands and covered with flower petals. A corrugated tin pavilion is eventually erected around the tomb and a colorful red, white and yellow sign is hung over the front of the structure: “Krishna Kripa Srimurti Srimad Kirtananand Swami Srila Bhaktipada Samadhi Stal.” (GGG10 176)

November 4, 2012: A television crew from The Investigative Discovery Channel comes to New Vrindaban to tape interviews for a new weekly series titled “Deadly Devotion,” which features stories about religious cults and murders. One of the first season’s episodes is dedicated to the murder of Sulochan dasa. Jaya Krishna dasa, the New Vrindaban temple president, sends out a notice to all the Brijabasis requesting them, “Please do not speak to the crew or give them any information.” (GGG10 36, K4K 499)

2013: With assistance from friends, Tirtha in prison publishes his autobiographical book, 100 Monkeyz: A Monkey Memoir. (K4K 477)

July 2, 2013: Lion Television: Investigation Discovery Channel (cable TV) broadcasts their “Deadly Devotion” episode about Sulochan’s murder. (GGG10 36, K4K 500)

January 20, 2014: Brijabasi Spirit Online reports about Prabhupada’s Palace of Gold, “Today, chunks are missing from the outer wall, wrought iron pieces are rusting, the chatras and other cast concrete pieces are crumbling, and the granite on the steps leading up to the Palace is shifting from faulty concrete underneath.” (GGG10 29)

June 10, 2014: Bhaktivedanta Book Trust trustees prohibit former Nandagram headmaster Sri Galim from purchasing or selling copies of any artworks with copyrights owned by the BBT. He is also prohibited from purchasing BBT books for resale. (GGG4 414)

December 2015: New Vrindaban signs a contract with Ohio-based AB Resources for Utica shale (a few thousand feet below the Marcellus shale formation) fracking on community property. Former ISKCON guru Bhagavan (William Ehrlichman) criticizes, “This is temptation in its most vicious form. For money they are selling their Mother into slavery and going to the temple to worship Radharani. How do they think anything good or auspicious can come from being in bed with the earth plundering, petrochemical industry who are among the biggest polluters on Earth? They should be protectors of the Earth and represent Krishna.” (GGG10 30)

June 14, 2016: A memorial service for Charles Saint-Denis—33 years after his murder at New Vrindaban by Tirtha and Daruka—is held at Prabhupada’s Palace of Gold. (GGG5 107)

November 2016: After several years of confusion regarding Radhanath Swami’s alleged involvement in the conspiracy to murder Sulochan, due to conflicting testimony from Radhanath, Tapahpunja, Janmastami, Dharmatma and others, the author speaks personally with Dharmatma on the phone and soon after experiences a revelation, an “Aha!” moment. He finally understands without a doubt who is lying and who is telling the truth and knows now the extent of Radhanath’s actual involvement in the murder plot. He decides that Killing For Krishna will be the first book published. (K4K xv)

February 2017: Kuladri is appointed as Convener-Secretary for the ISKCON GBC North American Executive Committee Property Office. (GGG10 16, K4K 459)

September 23, 2017: In a Facebook comment, Ramesvara declares, “I was not involved in this heinous murder [of Sulochan], . . . there being no truth to this false accusation.” The author replies to Ramesvara, “Considering your knowledge of the plot, did you try to stop or impede the murder? Did you try to warn Sulochan that hit men were hunting him? I think not. If this is not aiding and abetting, I don’t know what is. You were very, very lucky that you were not questioned or subpoenaed to appear in court. Why don’t you, like your disciple Mahamantra, just say, ’I was misguided and I regret my involvement in this crime.’ Please do not continue to live in denial. Your dishonesty looks very bad for you. Please, I beg you, become an honest disciple of Srila Prabhupada.” (K4K 265)

January 2018: Henry Doktorski’s first book about the Hare Krishnas, Killing for Krishna: The Danger of Deranged Devotion, is published.

May 22, 2018: Memorial Service for Sulochan held at Cheviot Hills Park in Los Angeles on the 32^nd anniversary of his death.

March 21, 2019: Joseph Pollock, Jr. (Jyotirdhama), “New Vrindaban’s Telephone Man,” reads Killing For Krishna and publicly confesses to participating in the Sulochan murder conspiracy 33 years earlier. He confirms that Gaura Shakti, Kuladri, Tapahpunja Swami and Radhanath Swami were involved in the plot. He says, “Radhanath ordered the murder of Sulochan.” (K4K 517)

April 2019: Wondery, a company based in Los Angeles noted for writing and producing top nonfiction podcasts, releases a seven-part podcast series titled “The Hare Krishna Murders.” The author serves as consultant for the production and is featured as guest interviewee in the seventh episode.

August 2019: Sicarios Por Krishna, the Spanish edition of Killing For Krishna, is published.

Nova Religio, a peer-reviewed academic journal of religious studies that focuses on New Religious Movements, publishes a review of Killing For Krishna written by the scholar of ISKCON, E. Burke Rochford, Jr., Professor of Sociology and Religion at Middlebury College in Vermont.

Despite millions of dollars income from natural gas fracking on New Vrindaban property since March 2010, a first-time visitor notes the sad state of the community: “Visited New Vrindavan last week for the first time. A very sorry state of affairs. Abandoned, dilapidated buildings everywhere (including the exterior of the Palace of Gold). . . . I was fortunate to get a tour of some of the ‘off the beaten track’ areas to see the unfortunate neglect, first hand. Even the original temple/farmhouse that Prabhupada stayed in, and performed the early initiations in has been left to ruin. I couldn’t help but feel sad, at how disappointed he would be.” (GGG10 35)

January 2020: The author’s second book about the Hare Krishnas, Eleven Naked Emperors: The Crisis of Charismatic Succession in the Hare Krishna Movement (1977-1987), with a Foreword by Rutgers University Professor Edwin Bryant, is published.

April 19, 2020: Jyotirdhama dasa (Joseph Pollock, Jr.), the New Vrindaban Telephone Man who was a member of the conspiracy to murder Sulochan, meets a man at a rally in Richland, Washington, who claims to be a government agent who had infiltrated New Vrindaban in the 1980s. The man tells Jyotirdhama that Radhanath Swami is a government informant. (GGG6 254)

June 2020: A 38-year-old New Vrindaban pujari drowns himself in Kaliya Ghat. He had recently been disciplined by the temple administrators for inappropriate online behavior with a thirteen-year-old girl. (GGG1 317)

July 7, 2020: The author signs a contract with OSO Studios of Nashville, Tennessee, in which the company options the rights to Henry’s books for a proposed documentary movie production to be titled “Mountain of Gold” and directed by Ondi Doane Timoner, a two-time recipient of the Sundance Film Festival’s Grand Jury Prize.

October 2020: The author’s third book about the Hare Krishnas, Gold, Guns and God, Vol. 3: Prabhupada’s Palace of Gold, is published.

November 2020: The author’s fourth book about the Hare Krishnas, Gold, Guns and God, Vol. 5: The Murder and the Mandir, is published.

December 2020: The author’s fifth book about the Hare Krishnas, Gold, Guns and God, Vol. 1: A Crazy Man, is published.

March 2021: Uccidere Per Krishna, the Italian edition of Killing For Krishna, is published.

May 2021: The author’s sixth book about the Hare Krishnas, Gold Gold, Guns and God, Vol. 2: A Pioneer Community, is published.

June 2021: Bhaktivedanta Swami Madhava, Sri Galim’s sannyasa guru, withdraws Sri Galim’s sannyasa initiation, name and mantra. (GGG4 420)

November 2021: The author’s seventh book about the Hare Krishnas, Gold Gold, Guns and God, Vol. 4: Deviations in the Dhama, is published.

April 2022: ISKCON guru Bhakti Vikasa Swami speaks about Eleven Naked Emperors during a lecture posted on YouTube.

June 2022: The author’s eighth and ninth books about the Hare Krishnas are published: Gold Gold, Guns and God, Vol. 6: The Guru Business, and Gold Gold, Guns and God, Vol. 7: Trials and Tribulations.

October 2022: The author’s tenth book about the Hare Krishnas, Gold Gold, Guns and God, Vol. 8: The City of God, is published.

December 10, 2022: A man from Wisconsin contacts the author and asks to help him find a Bhaktipada disciple who will give him diksa. He says, “I believe that Swami Bhaktipada is a avatar of Lord Krishna.” (GGG10 181)

December 14, 2022: A Bhaktipada disciple in Pakistan writes to the author and expresses his desire to help unite Bhaktipada disciples around the world, expand Bhaktipada’s preaching mission, establish new preaching centers and build a City of God. (GGG10 183)

February 2023: The author’s eleventh book about the Hare Krishnas, Gold Gold, Guns and God, Vol. 9: Pushed Out Completely, is published.

March 2023: Twelve years after his death, Bhaktipada’s “samadhi”-under-construction in Vrindaban, India, can be seen rising behind the wall next to the Parikrama Marg. The concrete Vimana is (appropriately) shaped something like a giant phallus. (GGG10 180)

March 28, 2023: Due to public outcry on Facebook, New Vrindaban administration prohibits pujaris from placing a picture of Bhaktipada on the altar when they offer aroti to the deities. One of Bhaktipada’s loyal disciples, Steady (Salagram), had apparently been placing a picture of her guru on the altar (for years) when she offers aroti. Now, when she offers aroti, she must offer aroti to a picture of Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.

May 27, 2023: Jacob Young, a Morgantown, West Virginia, filmmaker who has visited New Vrindaban many times during the last thirty-some years and noted the sad decay of the rundown buildings and grounds, visits New Vrindaban again and is thrilled to see how beautiful and well-maintained the buildings and grounds have become. The long-overdue promised renovations appear to be restoring the community to its previous magnificence.