ISKCON Scrubs Disciple After Viral Casteist Video

Rupesh Gauranga Das calls low-castes “peons” who should “serve” higher castes

When Twitter handle @DalitChief shared a video of Rupesh Gauranga Das — also known as Rupesh Gaurang Prabhu — it racked up nearly 400,000 views in two days.

Rupesh, a disciple who is apparently closely affiliated with the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), raised many eyebrows for his description the caste system. Detailing the mythological view that humanity originated as four parts — consisting of Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, and Shudras — Rupesh went on to argue that, while “all the parts are very much equal,” the Shudras are analogous to “peons” whose duty is “to do the services” for the three higher castes.

As Rupesh’s casteist speech went viral, causing embarrassment to ISKCON, it didn’t take the organization long to throw their young disciple under the bus.

Gaurav Mohnot swiftly wrote on my own re-posting of the video: “Stop your fake propaganda! Who is this guy? As the Social Media head of ISKCON, I will like to put the record straight. This guy does not belong to ISKCON temples.”

Notably, Mohnot did not disavow the content of Rupesh’s video, but merely disavowed Rupesh himself.

Within hours of Mohnot’s claim, Rupesh had been scrubbed from ISKCON’s social media accounts — at least, inasmuch as possible considering he had a rather extensive presence on those accounts.

Rupesh’s original pro-caste viral video is branded with a link to ISKCONDesireTree.com and was distributed (according to the end screen) via IDT’s official Youtube account, which has 1.14 million followers. The organization’s Facebook page, through which Rupesh’s videos were also distributed, has 352,000 likes — and describes itself as “the largest & most famous Krishna conscious multimedia portal.” IDT apparently hosts the cable news channel Hare Krsna TV.

Rupesh, however, may not have gotten the memo about his burn notice.

While his profile was being scrubbed, on 18 July 2020 he posted a new video to his Facebook page which is branded with the IDT logo.

The day before, Rupesh had posted another video which also carried the IDT logo.

It’s unclear when Rupesh began his association with ISKCON or what level of leadership he may or may not have held, but posts on the official Twitter account of Hare Krsna TV indicate he was heavily involved at least as far back as 2016 when the media outlet was sharing IDT-branded videos by him.

Rupesh’s videos — all IDT-branded — were also featured on the Bhagavad-gita Facebook page. Describing itself as “our effort to send the message of Bhagavadgita all over world by small article, photo, audio, video and live classes from various Iskcon Temples,” the page has over 2 million likes. Rupesh’s featured videos — such as “Importance of preserving semen” and “Why to Control the Mind?” have racked up tens of thousands of views.

Rupesh appears to hold — either now or in the past — some sort of an administrative role on the ISKCON page as he has gone live on it at multiple times in the past, including in the past year.

After his pro-caste video went viral, however, stirring controversy and gaining attention of ISKCON executives like Mohnot, his presence has been scrubbed from virtually every ISKCON site. That includes, in particular, ISKCONDesireTree.com. Mohnot pleads ignorance about Rupesh’s identity (asking: “who is this guy?”) and all links to Rupesh’s posts on IDT — such as “Who is Real Brahmana?” — now return 404 errors. They’ve been deleted.

Yet there is no question that Rupesh Gauranga Das is associated with ISKCON. A simple Google search of his name on the IDT website returns a host of links to posts featuring his videos.

So then the question becomes, why is Gaurav Mohnot, ISKCON’s Social Media Chief, lying about Rupesh’s association with the organization? For the answer to that, perhaps we need to read the full transcript of Rupesh’s casteist speech:

It is said that Brahmanas are the head of the society. Then the Vaishyas — then the Kshatriyas, are like the hands of the society. Then the Vaishyas are the chest or the stomach of the society. And the Shudras are the leg, you know?

We know in the human body, all the parts are very much equal. We do not say these legs are least important of all. No, we cannot say like that. Similarly, in the social caste system, we cannot disrespect. We cannot say that we do not need the Shudra. We need the Shudra to do the services to all the three Varnas and Ashramas like that.

So, just take example of any educational university.

In the educational university, we have, you know, the top-class professors, which can become part of the Brahmana. We require them also. In the educational university, we have the administrative class, who are administrating everything. They can be compared to Kshatriyas. Then we have the people who are taking care of the, you know, fee structure and collecting all the fees like that. Now, money-related matters, they can become part of the Vaishyas.

We cannot stop here only. We need the people who are service-oriented. We need the peons also. Peon, here, can be compared to the Shudra.

So if we want the society to function well, we need to you know, follow this Varnashrama system. We must have the Shudra also. We are not derogating or disrespecting people by saying they are the Shudra, you know? But they are also equal, responsible part of the society like that.