Jayatirtha Dasa

Jayatirtha Dasa (James Edward Immel, also known as Jayatirtha Swami, Vijaya, Tirthapada, November 13, 1948, Saipan - November 13, 1987, London) was one of the leading disciples of A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada and a guru within the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (commonly known as 'the Hare Krishnas' or ISKCON). A 1987 article in Rolling Stone called Jayatirtha "the most bizarre Hare Krishna guru".

Early years
Jayatirtha Dasa was born as James Edward Immel in Saipan, US Trust Territory of the Pacific. He was a business and philosophy major in college. In 1969, James was initiated into the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition by A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, whereupon he was given the name Jayatirtha Dasa. In the beginning of the 1970s he served as a president of the Los Angeles ISKCON temple and as a president of Spiritual Sky Enterprises, a group of familystyle businesses founded by ISKCON. At the time, Spiritual Sky was the largest incense manufacturer in the US.

ISKCON GBC member and initiating guru
Jayatirtha later went on to become a senior leader and preacher within the movement, a member of its management body known as the Governing Body Commission, and the head of ISKCON in Europe. In 1975, Jayatirtha was sent by Prabhupada "to take over and organise" the Hare Krishna movement in Great Britain. After Prabhupada's death, Jayatirtha was one of eleven disciples selected to become an initiating guru. He was located in London and was responsible for initiating disciples and managing ISKCON in Great Britain and South Africa. Due to his capabilities and organizational power, the Hare Krishna movement has significantly expanded and developed in those countries.

In December 1980, Jayatirtha bought Croome Court, an estate in Worcestershire 25 mi south of Birmingham. He renamed it Chaitanya College, looking to introduce in ISKCON college degree in the Vaishnava tradition. The estate included two-hundred-room mansion, a chapel and various outbuildings. It was build in 1750 for the Earl of Coventry by Lancelot "Capability" Brown. The design of the interiors was made by Robert Adam. The property included 40 acre of fields and landscaped park land. During the World War II, the place served as a residence for Queen of Holland. Jayatirtha spent hundreds of thousands of pounds restoring the property and turning the chapel into the Hare Krishna temple.

Jayatirtha frequently lectured about the divine love of Radha and Krishna. He had been holding long kirtan sessions, during which "he would laugh, roll on the ground and cry out incoherently". He used to tell his disciples that he was experiencing spiritual ecstasy. According to 1987 article in Rolling Stone, until his expulsion from ISKCON, "Jayatirtha was considered unusually pure. His devotees worshipped him for his special relationship with Krishna. Often they sat at his feet, watching what they thought were spiritual journeys highlighted by direct conversations with Krishna." This article in Rolling Stone magazine also claimed that his spiritual journeys "were chemically fueled." "The guru was an acid freak." And that, "While most of his followers lived in squalor, Jayatirtha and a selected inner circle lived high in the both senses of the world".

Soon the Governing Body Commission had found out that Jayatirtha's ecstasies were the symptoms of drug use. According to Nori Muster, on one occasion, during the 1980 GBC meetings in Mayapur, Jayatirtha "went out of control on heavy doses of LSD". Jayatirtha became "the topic of serious conversations among GBC members", who were concerned with the fact that he has breached his ascetic vows. During a GBC meeting in Los Angeles (called to deal with problems of another Hare Krishna guru, Hansadutta Swami) Jayatirtha was relieved from all his responsibilities in ISKCON for one year and required to renounce his wife and take sannyasa. The sannyasa initiation ceremony took place in LA Hare Krishna temple and was conducted by Kirtanananda Swami.

GBC members hoped that taking sannyasa will help Jayatirtha to overcome the problems in spiritual life, but Jayatirtha was unhappy in ISKCON after that. He started to "shift his loyalty away from ISKCON leadership to Shridhara Swami", a godbrother of A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, who lived in West Bengal. At the spring 1982 GBC annual meeting in Mayapur, Jayatirtha was told, that if he did not stop seeing Shridhara Swami and abide by his vows of abstinence from intoxicants, he would be removed from his leadership post in ISKCON. In response, Jayatirtha walked off the ISKCON Mayapur property and took refuge in the Gaudiya Math ashram of Shridhara Swami. Shridhara Swami, being a senior Gaudiya Vashnava leader, was concerned about the growing tension in ISKCON. He tried to mediate various problems, but usually only drew fire on himself as a result. Many Prabhupada's disciples, disillusioned with existing in ISKCON at the time "zonal guru system" left the organization and turned to Shridhara Swami and Gaudiya Math in search of spiritual renewal. Consequently, GBC considered Shridhara Swami a threat, especially when such senior ISKCON members as Jayatirtha took his side.

Excommunication from ISKCON
At the 1982 meeting, GBC decided to expel Jayatirtha from ISKCON for not acting as a "bona fide spiritual master" and for "failing to cooperate with the ISKCON movement". To stabilize Jayatirtha's zone, GBC turned it to another guru, Bhagavan, who reinitiated some of Jayatirtha's disciples. Under Bhagavan's leadership, Hare Krishna devotees in UK went on a year-long marathon to collect funds to save British ISKCON properties. Unable to pay high mortgage payments, Bhagavan eventually had to sell Groome Court estate.

Some of Jayatirtha's disciples fled from London to India and joined their guru, creating "the first formal schismatic offshoot from ISKCON". Jayatirtha's new splinter group became based in London and he renamed his former ISKCON disciples with biblical names. It was a minor schism that didn't last long. Jayatirtha had no economic base to sustain a separate from ISKCON religious institution. Finally, he left his London temple and his followers returned to ISKCON or left altogether. Jayatirtha went to Nepal, where he was wandering around, "seeking chemical highs to boost his spiritual ones".

Death
On November 13, 1987, over five years after Jayatirtna had abandoned ISKCON, he was killed by his follower John Tiernan, who said he beheaded his guru with a kitchen knife because he believed his victim was "the anti-Christ." John Tiernan pleaded guilty to manslaughter on grounds of diminished responsibility. A proposal by an editor to publish his obituary in ISKCON World Review was turned down by the editor-in-chief Mukunda Goswami, in spite of the fact that Jayatirtha was one of the senior members of ISKCON and an early supporter of ISKCON World Review.