His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami singlehandedly began, organized, nourished, and built up the worldwide Hare Krishna movement from a 1965 beginning in New York’s Lower East Side. Through his society, named ISKCON, in 12 short years, he initiated 5000 disciples, opened 108 temples, published 80 books of Vedic scriptures and philosophy, and distributed 60 million of pieces of literature in dozens of languages across the globe. His health 80 years of age was very good and his vigor and strength was far beyond that of his much younger students. He slept a few hours a day and maintained a challenging schedule of exercise, study, writing, teaching, management, and counseling. Srila Prabhupada had very good health with only minor medical problems.
In July 1976, he suddenly became very ill and weak, with weakness and no appetite. Thereafter his health declined relentlessly in stages. In Feb. 1977 his health again sharply declined, marked by chronic mucus and bronchitis. No doctor (out of many kavirajas and allopathic doctors) could pinpoint the actual problem, as their diagnosis suggestions ranged across the board, from diabetes to kidneys, from nothing was wrong to perhaps asthma. No doctor was engaged for long or allowed to do proper medical tests or x-rays, and his belated death certificate incongruously listed heart attack as the cause
of death. After 10 months of hardly eating, Srila Prabhupada’s physical condition resembled starvation, yet his Krishna consciousness never wavered. It was a mystery illness.
A series of whisperings by Srila Prabhupada’s caretakers about poison was discovered on tape recordings made in Srila Prabhupada’s quarters during his last days. That was sobering enough, but when conversations a day earlier than these “poison” whispers were stumbled upon, which hardly anyone had seen before, where Srila Prabhupada said repeatedly he thought he had been poisoned, and his caretakers discussed homicidal poisoning at length, the dots were connected. Many suspected Tamal Krishna Goswami of foul play, especially after an audio tape interview surfaced of him claiming Srila Prabhupada asked for “medicine to die now.” The GBC leadership of ISKCON was compelled to appoint an investigator and undertake an internal inquiry. Hopes were high that the truth of the matter would be revealed.
A year later, little had been done, so some devotees decided to investigate on their own. Balavanta, the GBC investigator, was ill-funded and a busy attorney, and after 30 long months he made an inconclusive, initial report recommending further investigation. Meanwhile, the poison whisperers and primary suspects secretly organized and funded their own whitewash report with obvious lies, deceit, and fraud. ISKCON hastily endorsed this cover-up and claimed there was no evidence of poisoning. Move along folks, nothing to see here… The “poison whispers” were forensically tested by many top audio labs, and confirmed to be about poisoning. The GBC denied there had been a poisoning and the suspects organized a sham GBC book of poisoning denials.
But the private, external investigation by honest devotees continued. A struggle to conduct a full, honest, and unbiased investigation into this matter was undertaken by a significant spectrum of persons. Many have contributed to the “private” investigation. A forensic breakthrough occurred by chance in 2002 when Srila Prabhupada hair samples that the GBC themselves had arranged to test (and declined to pay the costs) but abandoned were found to have sky-high levels of the heavy metal cadmium. Further audio forensics, research, interviews, and hair tests added to the growing pool of evidence. There was no doubt about Srila Prabhupada being homicidally, maliciously poisoned in 1977 by his own caretakers and disciples. An updated report was made public on this new evidence in 2017.
The “poison issue” is not promoted by a disenfranchised group, nor is it manufactured by those with old grudges to avenge, nor by those with psychological imbalances, or from troublemakers and faultfinders, or emotional, “wounded souls” who are an unpleasant annoyance. ISKCON deceitfully shut out their own honest investigator (Balavanta das), and then, after cooking up a shameful cover-up, they prohibited and penalized any further investigation into Srila Prabhupada’s poisoning. Outside devotees completed the investigation that ISKCON should have done themselves. The resulting evidence stands on its own merits, although it is totally dismissed by ISKCON leadership. The fact of an actual poisoning cannot be honestly denied in the face of the overwhelming evidence.
The “poison issue” is extremely relevant to the health and future of the Hare Krishna Movement. Many follow-through questions naturally arise, which is exactly what the misleaders of ISKCON do not want to face, and why they deviously avoid the issue and will not honestly investigate Srila Prabhupada’s poisoning. The evidence was obscured with Not That I Am Poisoned (NTIAP), published by the suspects in Feb. 2000 and endorsed by the GBC. This alone disqualifies them from continued leadership in Srila Prabhupada’s ISKCON, as they refuse to focus on the actual evidence, fearing an unraveling of the myths and deviations they have propagated since 1978. Then in 2020 a GBC agent published Deception– a book full of deceit meant to discredit the poison evidence.
Ultimately the private investigation outside ISKCON will be continued by secular authorities in pursuit of truth and justice. The debate on the lethality of the arsenic levels found in a 1999 hair test became largely irrelevant due to 2002-05 hair tests revealing shockingly high and lethal cadmium levels. Cadmium was found in similarly elevated levels in three separate forensic analyses of Srila Prabhupada’s hair. These cadmium levels could not be due to accident, pollution, industry, shampoo, medicine, or bad water. It was due to malicious homicidal poisoning by ingestion of contaminated food or drink. Science had found cadmium to be the primary poison, with arsenic secondary. Questions that arise are:
(1) Who did it, who benefited, and has ISKCON GBC colluded with, aided-abetted the poisoners?
(2) Can these leaders be trusted with what they have done since 1977? -their policies, doctrines, or philosophical interpretations? What serious deviancies have they introduced into ISKCON? Can we allow Srila Prabhupada’s poisoners and those who support them to guide his mission forward?
(3) Is it not problematic if those who poisoned Srila Prabhupada are also party to the endless changes to Srila Prabhupada’s books, lying about being successor acharyas who took Srila Prabhupada’s place, making multiple revisions to the initiating guru system, disenfranchising thousands of devotees, and remaining financially unaccountable as gurus that will fall-down?
(4) Was Srila Prabhupada removed for material gain by a few, who then corrupted ISKCON with defective doctrines to enable an elite’s pursuit of personal ambitions? This is ISKCON history.
(5) For 10 years these gurus and ISKCON’s managing body (GBC) caused havoc and huge member defections. In 1987 the GBC admitted there never was any appointment of new gurus- it had been a takeover hoax.
(6) So, shouldn’t everything that has happened in ISKCON since Srila Prabhupada’s departure be re-evaluated? Shouldn’t we start over from square one, like it was the day after Srila Prabhupada left? That Srila Prabhupada was deliberately poisoned with heavy metals to force him out of the scene is evidenced by the facts. We must re-evaluate the existing order in ISKCON, effecting a major institutional housecleaning. If the acharya’s seat was stolen illegitimately, with poisoning and deviant policies enabling the plunder of the society assets, then honest devotees must rectify the situation. The truth about Srila Prabhupada’s final pastimes has yet to be assimilated into the Hare Krishna movement, but this is inevitable as the truths and facts take hold, dispelling the prevailing ignorance and cover ups. When the Sun of the truth rises, all becomes obvious and self-evident.
