Item Description: 480-page soft-cover non-fiction book.
Gold, Guns and God, Vol. 3: Prabhupada's Palace of Gold
Volume 3 of Gold, Guns and God covers a ten-year span from 1973 until 1983. During this period, due to the construction and completion of Prabhupada’s Palace of Gold, the New Vrindaban community was dramatically transformed from a primitive, often unsanitary, rural farm village of a few dozen people who used horses and oxen for plowing and hauling firewood, into a bustling, wealthy and popular center of Hindu pilgrimage inhabited by several hundred devotees who used automobiles, tractors, bulldozers, dump trucks and computers. Hundreds of thousands of tourists reportedly visited the Palace each year, and this helped bring about an increase in revenue and renown.
Despite the inexorable progress of the community during this decade-long period, there were several unfortunate and serious setbacks. In June 1973, the temple was attacked by a small posse of men armed with a shotgun (some claimed the men also carried pistols and automatic weapons) who stormed the temple, wounded four residents with buckshot, and desecrated the deities in an effort to frighten the devotees into revealing the whereabouts of their leader’s underage runaway daughter who, they believed, had been hidden on the property. Two men were soon apprehended by law enforcement agents, but they never went to trial. The reason why justice was never served may be a surprise to many. After this incident, New Vrindaban management established a Ksatriya-training program to teach able-bodied residents the arts of fighting and shooting guns.
Another complication occurred when fifteen Marshall County residents sued New Vrindaban for $500,000 on charges ranging from trespassing on private property, to other “unlawful and despicable acts, including cutting trees, destroying fences, making threats of bodily harm, littering, urinating and defecating in full view of the plaintiffs.” The community was found guilty on one charge.
The community was inconvenienced also in 1976, when a West Virginia college professor died from a virolent strain of hepatitis contracted at the community, and the state governor ordered the community quarantined to contain the spread of the infection. State police set up roadblocks which prevented travel to and from the community. In addition, when a dozen cows died after a severe winter snowstorm in February 1977, Kirtanananda Swami was arrested by Marshall County sheriff’s deputies on a charge of cruelty to animals and he spent some time in jail.
High points, on the other hand, during this period include the third and fourth visits of the ISKCON Founder/Acharya His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada to the community, in 1974 and 1976 respectively. These visits were a source of great inspiration and pleasure for the Brijabasis (residents, or inmates) of New Vrindaban. During these visits Prabhupada encouraged the New Vrindaban inmates and expressed his approval regarding the progress of the construction of his Palace. He also bestowed liberal praise on his first sannyasi disciple, Kirtanananda Swami, saying “Just follow Kirtanananda Swami. He will take you back to Godhead.” Especially surprising during Prabhupada’s fourth visit were his instructions regarding eating meat and making wine from grapes. In addition, he claimed that a potent Ayurvedic medicine to cure tuberculosis could be made by putting a live goat into a vat of boiling ghee with other ingredients. The goat is boiled alive, he explained, in order to cure hundreds of people.
A very sad and depressing time for all ISKCON devotees was the terminal illness during the summer of 1977 and the death in Vrindaban, India, on November 14th, of their beloved spiritual master, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Kirtanananda Swami played an especially important role in the final pastimes of the ISKCON Founder/Acharya, during which his affection and love for his spiritual mater was revealed to all. After Prabhupada’s passing, the pace of Palace construction increased. For eight consecutive months, beginning in January 1979, the Brijabasis performed great austerities and sacrifices in order to more quickly complete Prabhupada’s Palace of Gold in time for the opening festival in September. Some residents willingly suffered the austerities, while others, such as the children and cows, suffered unwillingly.
The September 2nd dedication of Prabhupada’s Palace of Gold, an incredibly joyous event for all the Brijabasis, is described in detail, and the remainder of this volume delineates the rapid growth of the community and the establishment of a veritable Hindu place of pilgrimage complete with a guest house, restaurant, gift store, rose garden, and parks. The community hosted cultural events for Hindu pilgrims, such as theater, Indian classical music and traditional bhajans, bharat-nayyam dance, and film.
The coronation of the statue of Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada at his Palace of Gold as a king is discussed in Vol. 3, as well as the pressure from Bhaktipada’s ISKCON godbrothers who criticized the crown and successfully lobbied to have the crown removed three years later. The preaching activities of the “Glory Days” of New Vrindaban are described, including Bhaktipada’s weekly radio show, Vrindaban Village estates (the timeshare cabin rental program for pilgrims), the summer camp for Indian children, Palace Press and the various publications (New Vrindaban Newsletter, Cintamani, Brijabasi Spirit, etc.) which promoted the community, and the Palace Charities food distribution program which delivered vegetarian meals to Marshall and Ohio County senior citizens.
The hasty departure from the community in 1983 of New Vrindaban’s preeminent architect, designer and sculptor, Bhagavatananda (Joseph Cappelletti), because of Bhaktipada’s refusal to discipline a former school headmaster who had sexually molested Bhagavatananda’s young son is also noted, with great regret. Finally, the posthumous revision of Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada’s Bhagavad-gita As It Is by the editors of the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust (BBT) is discussed, Bhaktipada’s condemnation of same, and his thundering (yet in retrospect, ironic) admonition, “I want to become known as the acharya who didn’t change anything!”
On the surface, Swami Bhaktipada’s leadership at New Vrindaban seemed remarkably successful, but underneath something was eating at its roots, and this would be exposed in due course.