Srila Prabhupada's "Direction of Management"

BY: Nara Narayan Viswakarma das

Aug 10, USA (SUN) — Presented at Gathering for Apologies to Gurukulies,
New Dwarka, August 5, 2005.

My dear Gurukul alumni, fellow parents, and GBC representatives.

I feel deep appreciation for the opportunity to address a subject of such great importance to the healthy continuation of our Krishna Conscious Society. The subject at hand is the “Direction of Management”, introduced by Srila Prabhupada in 1970, with the first GBC meeting held in the spring of 1971 at New Vrindaban. This vital document, virtually unknown to the Temple Presidents and Congregations of our Iskcon society, was meant by Srila Prabhupada to be the Constitution of Iskcon for the next ten thousand years. Its absence has created a great chasm in this movement; and its introduction, after a lapse of thirty five years, will help to heal the wounds suffered by one and all during that exact same span of time.

Today, the GBC is appearing before us to deliver a formal Court ordered apology to you, the abused victims of a Gurukula created by Srila Prabhupada to bring you to the highest order of Brahminical training. And what was this Brahminical training supposed to do?

You were meant to not only take up the management of the world wide Iskcon Movement, but to lead the Humanity at large Back to Home Back to Godhead in His name.

This Brahminical training was effectively crushed by those who wished to remain in perpetual power in non-elected positions that guaranteed two things:

    1. No accountability to your mothers and fathers for how you were being treated in the Gurukula.

    2. A virtual guarantee that the unelected GBC’s would cover up (to protect Iskcon!) any crimes committed against you.

Did Srila Prabhupada provide a protective “safe place” for you, your parents and your families?

YES HE DID!

What was this called?

It was called “THE DIRECTION OF MANAGEMENT”, and although well known by the GBC and the leaders of Iskcon, your parents and temple leaders were never shown a copy of it or told you and your families that the Direction of Management GUARANTEED YOU CERTAIN PROTECTIONS AND “GOD GIVEN RIGHTS” that were kept secret over the last thirty five years.

It may surprise some of you to learn that after a 1970 attempt by four sanyassis to overthrow Srila Prabhupada and declare themselves to be Acharya, Srila Prabhupada, together with the remaining loyal Iskcon leaders created a document which He named “THE DIRECTION OF MANAGEMENT” by which He created the GBC…the same GBC that covered up your molestations and abuse two or three years after this sacred document was created by Srila Prabhupada.

So, What is the “Direction of Management” and why should we be interested in this neglected Order of the Spiritual Master thirty-five years later?

The Direction of Management does two things:

    1. The Direction of Management creates a democratically elected GBC to represent the Iskcon Temples, just as the US Senate represents the 50 states of the United States. The GBC is to be elected every three years from a slate of candidates nominated by the Temple Presidents. Far from having “Absolute Powers” the GBC is meant to be the SERVANT of the interests of the Iskcon Temples and their Congregations.

    2. The Direction of management PROTECTS the individual temples and congregations from potential abuses by the GBC. If the GBC were not subject to “checks and balances” from the Temple Presidents and Congregations, abuses would inevitably occur. The very significance of the meeting in which we find ourselves today rests on the fact that THESE ABUSESDID INDEED OCCUR!

I attended a 1971 meeting in New Vrindaban where the Direction of Management was introduced to the GBC and the first GBC meeting took place there with Rupanuga prabhu as the chair of the meeting. He showed me the DOM and proudly stated that it was the “new constitution for Iskcon”. I read it, and remembered many important passages. I particularly read the part about the GBC being an elected body.

So what happened to the DOM?

After 1971 I tried to find a copy, but there were none nor were the GBC of 1975 willing to let me see a copy.

Even to this day, I do not know of anyone who had ever seen the Constitution of Iskcon (DOM) at that time. (Surely, each and every Iskcon member would be given a copy of it before taking initiation…no?)

1n 1972, a secret GBC meeting (referred by Srila Prabhupada as a “conspiracy”) effectively replaced the DOM with a centralized corporate structure. Srila Prabhupada was neither informed of the meeting nor invited to it. When Srila Prabhupada learned of the meeting, He disbanded the GBC and ordered all temples to ignore any directives generated by the GBC until further notice.

In 1974, He issued a paper marked “TOPMOST URGENCY” that ordered that the DOM be added to all Iskcon temple non-profit corporation charters. In other words, in the Iskcon world, the DOM was once again to be introduced as the ‘LAW OF THE LAND” under Srila Prabhupada’s order.

THAT ORDER WAS ALSO NOT OBEYED.

It was only after deep contemplation that it occurred to me that had the Direction of Management been in place, FEW IF ANY OF THE ILLS OF ISKCON WOULD HAVE OCCURRED! (Or at least such things would have been minimal). The molestation and abuse of the Children of Iskcon on the part of such "absolute" leaders as Bhavananda, Kirtanananda, Jagadish, etc. clearly led to PREVENTING THE NEW CROP OF BRAHMINS FROM TAKING LEADERSHIP POSITIONS WITHIN ISKCON, WHICH WOULD HAVE TAKEN AWAY THE FIRST GENERATION’S POSITIONS OF POWER, DUE TO THE HIGHER QUALIFICATIONS THAT SRILA PRABHUPADA CLEARLY STATED THAT THE PURE BRAHMIN GURUKULA GRADUATES WOULD HAVE!

As a result, very few Gurukulies have taken over any positions of power within the movement, even though they themselves are approaching middle age; ages double those of us who started the Iskcon temples in the first place!

Simply put, if we clarify the history of Iskcon into "pre-DOM" and "post DOM" we can see that there is no way that the GBC could have legally or ethically take on the ‘absolute” powers that enabled them to “pull the wool” over your parent’s eyes.

I made my "breakthrough" in the matter of understanding what an ISKCON obedient to the Direction of Management would have been like, by using my imagination to create a “proto-movement” that had joyfully and obediently accepted the DOM starting with summer 1970 and continuing until 1978.

(Of course, if we had accepted the DOM in 1970, we would have probably been observing Srila Prabhupada's disappearance day in 1988!)

I saw good GBC's elected, I saw little, if any, child abuse and molestation, I saw no drug dealing, murders, cults illegal money rackets etc. I saw millions and millions of books printed, and saw many thousands of temples opened. I saw second generation Brahmins training the public in thousands of temples to accept the principles of Krishna Consciousness. I saw 'Nagar Sankirtan" conducted by thousands of men and women daily in all the major cities of the world! Most importantly, I saw the movement run by second and third generation Gurukula graduates who had learned the art of the “Rajarshi” !.. I saw the Gurukula graduates advising current heads of state or become elected as heads of state themselves.

I saw the "Acharya in the center" in hundreds of thousands of Iskcon temples all over the world, and I saw India rising up as a Krishna Conscious nation. I saw whole islands such as Madagascar becoming Krishna Conscious states, I saw the High Court Judges wearing Tilak, and I saw a reduction in war, abortion, animal slaughter, atmospheric pollution... and many other wonderful things.

.....And then I opened my eyes, and saw what greed, sexual perversion and plain stupidity had done to mis-represent what Srila Prabhupada offered to us in the first place....In 1970, he wrote, "I have given you Vaikuntha, and you have turned it into Hell”

He introduced the DOM in 1970 to counteract that “Hell” but the document was never released to the Temple Presidents and Congregations... to the immense loss to ourselves and the entire humanity at large.

This paper has been presented to you for your consideration. I hope that the GBC will make part of their apology an apology for having deprived you of your basic Rights guaranteed by Srila Prabhupada himself at a time that would have made your Gurukula sufferings very unlikely to occur.

Both we, your parents, or those of your parent’s generation as well as the GBC must apologize to you for this!

So I beg all of you; GBC, parents, and graduates of the Gurukula to read this Direction of Management carefully, and to let yourselves dream and imagine a Krishna Conscious world such as Srila Prabhupada envisioned for us when He wrote the Direction of Management; free from the type of abuses for which you are receiving an apology today.

Your humble and eternal servant,

Nara Narayan Vishwakarma das

Read the "Direction of Management" by
Srila Prabhuapda



Homepage


| The Sun | News | Editorials | Features | Sun Blogs | Classifieds | Events | Recipes | PodCasts |

| About | Submit an Article | Contact Us | Advertise | HareKrsna.com |

Copyright 2005, HareKrsna.com. All rights reserved.