In order for you to better understand the nature of the conflict between myself and those of my esteemed peers, who have so arrogantly overstepped the bounds of their so-called positions of authority in the matter of attempting to unceremoniously, initiate this legal action, which would, unconditionally, restrict me from "trespassing" on God's property, or from, so much as even occupying any space, anywhere near the place, even if just for the purpose of friendly association with other members of the movement, whom I've known for years, I feel it necessary to share with you a brief account of several incidents, which have occurred throughout the history of my affiliation with this organization, involving the nature of not only what I've heard, but also the first hand experiences I've had personally witnessing what's actually going on in our movement as well, and that have lead up to the present circumstances, which the plaintiffs claim have provoked them to their present course of action:

In April of 83, after proposing some ideas, which differed with the opinions of others like Narahari Maharaja (Howard Welfeld), the Temple President at that time, of the ISKCON Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, and Vallabha-Sena Prabhu (Neils Hertz), another one of the temple authorities, decided to evict me from the monastery. Considering their reasoning completely unjustified, and their attempt to misrepresent our religious, spiritual philosophy, by exiling a practicing member from the monastery, I did not agree to leave the premises peacefully, so they contacted the police, who were unable to convince me that I should not return. Although, from that point on, I never again, entered the front gate of the property, prior to the day, a few weeks later when I was welcomed back into the community, and although, at no time, had I perpetrated any form of physical violence, two members (one of whom, I might add, was very large), apparently became exasperated because of my persistence in returning to the outer jurisdiction of "their" front gate, attempting to plead for a little compassion, saw fit to take it upon themselves, to inflict punishment upon me and thus, proceeded to punch me several times in the face and numerous other places on my body with their fists until I finally consented to leaving the neighborhood for good. When I looked back from part way down the street, I saw the two of them standing sturdily at the gate staring at me, while one of them was repeatedly slapping his hand firmly, with a billy club.

Shortly after I was initiated later that year, I decided to move to our ISKCON Hare Krsna Temple asrama (monastery) in Los Angeles, California, where, several months later I had an argument with one of my godbrothers about his obnoxious tendency to obstinately, habitually refuse to ever clean up after himself, despite my repeated attempts to convince him otherwise. Although, I had even often reminded him of the quote made by Srila Prabhupada, who emphatically declared that cleanliness is not next to godliness, but rather, is godliness, he defiantly continued leaving our living quarters a shambles and hanging his dirty, smelly clothes everywhere. One time, he decided to hang them on the door of his locker, which, he chose that day to leave open, thus forcing me to have to move it, in order to open my locker. At this point, I admittedly became rather upset, and angrily threw his clothes on the floor. When he exited the restroom and noticed what I had done, he began repeatedly striking me severely with his fists. Naturally, a fight ensued. Later that day, Bhagavata Akincana Prabhu (The Temple Commander, at that time, of the Los Angeles ISKCON Hare Krsna Community) instructed me to vacate the property, and advised me to move to our Laguna Beach ISKCON Facility. By the way, as opposed to the written testimony, previously submitted to the court by Badrinarayana Prabhu (Robert Morrill), I was never asked to leave the Laguna Beach ISKCON Preaching Center, however, after spending a few days there, I opted to venture on to our ISKCON Hare Krsna Temple, here in San Diego, which is where I first met Badrinarayana Prabhu (Robert Morrill), who at that time, early in the year of 84, was the Temple President of the San Diego ISKCON Center. I lived in the San Diego ISKCON Hare Krsna Temple asrama (monastery) for a few months, before being attacked by a devotee, named Sarva-Drk Prabhu, with a large kitchen utensil, because I had refused to desist from presenting a philosophical inquiry which involved a healthy amount of skeptisism on my part, regarding the authenticity of Sarva-Drk Prabhu's ability to accurately represent the philosophy, what to speak of his highly questionable, so-called authority to belligerently demand that I immediately stop speaking, seemingly, in spite of Srila Prabhupada's instructions, recorded in one of his purports (explanations) of a verse, in a sacred scripture, called the Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, wherein, he clearly stated, that "if one wants to approach the philosophy of Krsna consciousness with logic and argument, that is welcome." In this same passage, directly following the above statement, he continued to write: "Please put Lord Caitanya's (God's) mercy to your crucial test." Shortly after returning from the hospital, where, as a result of the injury inflicted upon me by Sarva-Drk Prabhu, several stitches were sewn into my scalp, Badrinarayana Prabhu (Robert Morrill) informed me that, based on what he had heard, he felt I must have provoked the attack, and would therefore, have until the end of the weekend to make whatever arrangements were necessary for me to move out of the San Diego ISKCON Hare Krsna Temple Community. Having previously donated all my money to ISKCON, I ended up having to do something I never dreamed of doing, ever before, and that was to live in a dreaded, homeless shelter. Believe it or not, up until then, I had never, even heard of such a place. A social worker I spoke with, at a hospital I wandered into seeking assistance that day, was the first person to ever inform me that such places actually even exist.

For the next few months, until I was able to afford a plane ticket back to our ISKCON Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, I regrettably, lived on the streets of San Diego, often finding the smell of the homeless shelters so unbearable, that I would sleep outside in a sleeping bag. Somehow or other, I was able to maintain all my vows throughout all this, although finding vegetarian food, without money, usually near places, like right next to dumpsters outside produce warehouses, was extremely difficult. Sometimes, the San Diego ISKCON Hare Krsna Temple devotees would set up a Food For Life distribution stand in the little park, just in front of where Horton Plaza is now, and where a good number of homeless people would hang out. One time, when Badrinarayana Prabhu (Robert Morrill), decided to attend the distribution program, he asked one of the devotees to go to the Rite-Aide Drug Store right there on the corner of Fourth Ave. and Broadway, to fetch a pair of scissors, which he used to cut off my sika (the little tuft of hair, you see many Hare Krsna devotees [mostly the monks and priests of our movement, who live in the monasteries, but there are numerous exceptions] growing in the back of their heads.

I stayed at our Honolulu, Hawaii ISKCON Hare Krsna Community, for some time, before they decided to have me transferred to a farm project we had at that time, just outside of a little town called Ninole, on the Big Island of Hawaii, where I continued my routine of questioning the so-called, authority of those, who blatantly, misrepresent the philosophy of our good religion. After a few months of that year (1985) had passed, I found myself in an argument with some of the devotees living there, which resulted in Narahari Maharaja (Howard Welfeld), who, at that time, was also the Temple President of the Hawaii ISKCON Hare Krsna Farm Community, forcefully pushing me and yelling at me, in an attempt to persuade me to stop arguing with the devotees. When I assumed a non-confrontational, defensive posture, to avoid being aggressively pushed further back, a devotee named Kanva Prabhu punched me in the face. Shortly thereafter, I was instructed to pack my belongings and leave. When I threatened to contact the media, Narahari Maharaja (Howard Welfeld) decided to have my somewhat, newly grown sika cut off. During the course of the conversation we were having about my imminent departure, a member of the movement, named Advaita Prabhu, went underneath the temple building and retrieved a sawed-off shot-gun he had hidden there. When he returned with it, he pointed it at me, and, in this way, informed me of the consequence I would have, inevitably, had to face, if I had refused the order to leave at that point. Years later, Kanva Prabhu told me, that he too, was later, kicked out of that temple and that, at that time, Avaita Prabhu fired the shotgun right over his head, while standing directly in front of him.

After leaving the ISKCON Hare Krsna Farm Community in Hawaii with no money, having, once again donated everything I had to the movement, I moved to Hilo, Hawaii for a short time, where I met up with a devotee named Prema Bhakti (formerly known as Bhakta Mike Prabhu, prior to the time we were initiated together), who had become inimical toward the philosophy of Krsna consciousness, but still felt enough compassion for me, to arrange for my free lodging with a friend of his.

After acquiring sufficient funds, I travelled to many of our Centers located here on the Mainland, where I always encountered similar difficulties. In Spanish Fork, Utah, during the winter of 85, I was forcefully pushed several yards back, by a devotee named Nityanatha Prabhu, for persistently requesting some training, prior to the time I was scheduled to perform the service of broadcasting on our KHQN Radio Station, located at that Center, before I finally lashed out and punched him. Needless to say, regardless of my repeated apologies, I was instructed, by the very same Sarva-Drk Prabhu who had attacked me in our San Diego ISKCON Hare Krsna Community, and who had, seemingly, coincidentally become the Temple President of the Spanish Fork Center, and also by Caru Prabhu, the owner of the place, who is also a higher authority than anyone else who stays there, to move on.

After travelling on to our centers in Denver, Colorado and Miami Beach, Florida, I journeyed back to Hawaii, where I finally decided to take the advice of Srila Ramesvara (Robert Grant), the one who had initiated me, and that of Gunagrahi Maharaja, who, at different times, had both advised me to live outside of a temple.

In 1989, I became extremely remorseful for falling short of the strict, high standard of brahmacari (celibate student) life, I had maintained during my first three and a half years in the Hare Krsna movement, when, for the most part, I was allowed to live in one of our monasteries or another. Late that year, I decided to rectify myself by doing just as I had done when I first joined, so, once again, I gathered up all "my worldly possessions," and took them to the Honolulu ISKCON Hare Krsna Temple, however, this time, when I explained my intention to donate all the money I had, and all "my belongings" as well, which included a 1985 Datsun, in good condition, to the temple, and my eager willingness to surrender to whatever instructions I would receive from the current temple authorities, the new Temple President, who, at that time was Radanatha Prabhu, considered what I was proposing, to be completely crazy, and thus, ordered me to immediately vacate the property.

Since I joined the Hare Krsna movement in April of 83, I have had some extremely unusual experiences, which, if I recall correctly, were always preceded by the performance of some of the more severe forms of penance and austerity, occasionally involved in the spiritual practices of various individuals engaged in certain disciplines of devotional service to God. For example, during the first morning program I attended (after having moved into my first monastery the night before, when I had first met the members of the Hare Krsna movement, after having donated all the money I had in my possession, as well as everything I owned, after having shaved my head, as an act of renunciation, and shortly after the children who were attending the guru-kula (school of the spiritual master) they then had at that temple, scurried into the temple room), I found myself intensely praying for the ability to understand and truly experience what I was having the great and unique pleasure of observing for the first time in my life.

There were two rows of devotees (those who are devoted to God) on each side of the temple room, swaying side to side, while singing the most beautiful prayers I had ever heard, in the ancient, Sanskrit language. I felt as if I had been transported back to a time when the Israelite masses were chanting prayers to God, and then, practically immediately after praying my own prayers that I previously referred to, I experienced an extremely relaxing sensation. My whole body began to quiver and tremble, like it would if there was a giant vibrator inside of it. After a short time, the sensation subsided, and then it happened, briefly again. Although, I have never had the same experience again since then, I have had many other, very unusual experiences; and even though Srila Prabhupada said, that if you listen very carefully to the congregational glorification of God's holy names, fame, form, pastimes etc., as well as to that of the spiritual masters, saints and sages, who have appeared all throughout history, anything can happen, and although, according to the scriptures, God (Lord Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu) Himself declared, that He personally appeared 500 years ago to make madmen out of all of us, or in other words, to make us all madly in love with Him, there are those, even among us today, who apparently seem to doubt that the followers of the present day and age, can also have, profoundly unusual spiritual experiences, and who therefore consider such experiences to exclusively be symptoms of mundane, rather than spiritual, insanity. Even though my experiences seem quite intense to me, I must admit, that they are absolutely nothing, compared to the experiences of those I have read about in scriptures like the Srimad-Bhagavatam and the Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, nor is it my contetion, that the experiences I've had are positively entirely, or for that matter, even necessarily partly, truly bona fide spiritual experiences, therefore, on several occasions, I have requested undergoing voluntary psychiatric evaluations for confirmation. It all began shortly after I joined the Hare Krsna movement in 1983. After being asked by the Honolulu ISKCON Hare Krsna Temple authorities to leave the temple, I found myself confused and unsure about what my next course of action should be, having, at that point, no place to live, no money or personal possessions and a freshly shaven head. After due consideration of the situation, having spent a considerable amount of time fervently praying and contemplating the idea, that the advice given to me by Narahari Maharaja (Howard Welfeld), the Honolulu ISKCON Hare Krsna Temple President at that time, to seek psychiatric attention, might have indeed, had some hidden, esoteric meaning, and, in fact, may, very well have had something to do with some sort of rather mysterious, spiritual mission, I decided to do whatever would be necessary to convince a particular psychiatric community, that they should agree to provide me with temporary lodging. Having had recent, extensive experience behind me as a Medical Specialist in the Army, while being stationed at a military hospital called Tripler Army Medical Center in Hawaii, I had more than a pretty good idea of what would be required of me, in order to effectively and expediently achieve my desired objective. It might also be pertinent at this point, to mention that, as a standard operating procedure of my military discharge processing, which occurred in November of 82, I was obliged to undergo a routine psychiatric evaluation and that my diagnosis was normal. Although, the military psychiatrist determined that I was to be considered psychologically normal, I admit, that he added, that at that time, I was still immature. Around October of 93, in lieu of several other unusual experiences occurring, as usual, after drastically intensifying my spiritual practices and dramatically improving my sadhana (regulated devotional activities), I decided to demand, that an extensive psychiatric evaluation be conducted by a team of experts at the Castle Memorial Hospital in Kailua, Hawaii. After being interviewed a number of times by numerous members of a psychiatric evaluation team, and undergoing several standard tests everyday for a week, the head psychiatrist of the team, quite frankly said, "Off the record, we don't know, if you are a messenger of God, or are experiencing some psychiatric problem, although," he continued, "we see absolutely no indication of psychosis." Shortly thereafter, I was discharged from the hospital, in spite of the fact, that I wasn't at all, completely satisfied that they had thoroughly completed what I had initially requested them to do, which was to provide me with an accurate and definite diagnosis. Just prior to this week I'm referring to, I had a dream that Srila Prabhupada instructed me, in so many words, basically to seek out a psychiatrist who is also a priest. I once read in a book called Hari Sauri's Diary, that according to Srila Prabhupada, normally dreams are a compilation of certain recollected experiences we've either had in the past, which sometimes even includes previous lives, or, at other times, experiences we are yet to have in the future, however, more often than not, he explained, the true meaning of such dreams can be difficult to ascertain, because, although, for example, we may have, in the past, on one occasion, seen gold, and on another occasion, seen a mountain, we may dream that we are seeing a golden mountain, but, Srila Prabhupada continued to explain in this connection, dreams we have with the spiritual master are significant. Taking this into consideration, I decided to try to find such a psychiatrist, who also happens to be a priest, and much to my surprise, when I finally did find an individual, who is accepted as such, in Billings, Montana, early in the year of 94, he told me, that what I really needed was to find a spiritual community and surrender there. He also added, that I did not need any psychiatric medication or treatment. More recently, on July 14, 1998, after having had some difficulties with various members of the San Diego ISKCON Hare Krsna Community, I visited a psychiatrist named Dr. Gary Weissburg, who's office is right here in the downtown area, on 401 West A Street, for what I guess you could call a confirmation evaluation. He also did not recommend any psychiatric medication or treatment. If you'd like to call him for confirmation of this, his telephone number is: (619) 232-0905. Also, not more than a month or so ago, after a somewhat minor, physical altercation, with a devotee named Symasundara Prabhu (who, at that time, had decided to take it upon himself, to aggresively block my passage, through, what appeared to be, a public thoroughfare, by aggressively attacking me, and who then called the police and somehow or other convinced them, that he felt I needed psychiatric attention) I was escorted to the County Mental Health Facility [CMH], for yet another evaluation, where, after being seen for two hours, was released with no recommendation for psychiatric medication or treatment. The majority of the devotees, especially the ones here in San Diego, have always been excessively apprehensive, almost exclusively because of what they have heard, rather than, what they have observed themselves. They, therefore, tend to panic, or, at the very least, over-react when even the slightest, so-called sign or indication of something they consider, possibly unusual occurs, and, as a result, consistently expect me to constantly live up to a higher standard than anyone else, however, after hearing some of the stories going around, I really can't say, that I'm all that surprised. For example: When I (shocked by his unprecedented and obviously unwarranted, attitude, refused to blindly submit to the authority of Radhanatha Prabhu, who was the Temple President of the Honolulu, Hawaii ISKCON Hare Krsna Community, at that time, back in 1989, when I had gone to the temple with all my belongings to surrender, after telling me to immediately vacate the property, he called the police and had me arrested for trespassing. When the officer saw that I was wearing a dhoti (the bottom portion of the traditional attire, commonly worn by the Hare Krsna devotees), she demanded that it be removed for the purpose of a search. At that time, I promptly informed her, that all I was wearing underneath, was the traditional style of underwear called kaupinas (commonly worn with this particular uniform to keep the genitals tightly in place, so that the practicing celibate student doesn't become sexually agitated), which, as I then explained to her, are very revealing, because, in a way, I guess you could say, they almost identically resemble a g-string bikini. Nonetheless, the handcuffs were put on, and the outer cloth was taken off. Just before that, however, I had been taken away from the crowd of devotees (which had gathered, by that time), to the farthest place in the large yard of the Center, from the temple building. Having had most of my body exposed at that point, I decided that the most decent thing to do, would be to sit down, which is just what I immediately did. Several months later, during my travels to many of our different Hare Krsna Communities throughout the country, the Temple President of the Alachua, Florida ISKCON Farm Community (who, back then, was a devotee named Hansarupa Prabhu) informed me about the time, he had heard about Gauranga Prema Dasa (that's me) running around, dancing naked, all throughout the Honolulu, Hawaii ISKCON Hare Krsna Community.