Is evidenced by the following video and transcript, the Vice President of ISKCON Bangalore, His Grace Cancalapati dasa, declared on November 2, 2008 the result of a meeting of leaders of ISKCON Bangalore and affiliated organizations, who have accepted Srila Prabhupada's Direction of Management as the process by which GBC members will be elected to serve the Bangalore yatra.
Following is the text of Cancalapati dasa's statement, transcribed as accurately as possible from the video by Sun staff.
"So the last four or five days, here in Bangalore, all the leaders of the different temples that we have started in the last 10 years, they're all here. The GC members are here, not all of them, some are here. And there were also some senior devotees, older devotees who have been having, rendering responsible services in this temple in our organization, meaning all over India. And they may not be Temple Presidents, but they are shouldering important responsibilities and showing commitment to Srila Prabhupada's movement.
About 26 of us have had a few meetings, and we debated and discussed these matters. What shall be the future, how shall we have a GBC? Whether we will have a solid GBC which is unshakeable, unchangeable, no election, whatever happens they will continue to be GBC's, or, shall we have an election process like Direction of Management says?
In Kali-yuga, seeing the example of secular organizations, it is found that power corrupts people. So naturally in the secular organizations they have election every few years. Like we know the Prime Minister of our country or the Pr… Chief Minister of our states are all elected every few years, and the people who are governed have an opportunity to decide who will be governing them.
So this is a, election is considered election and periodic election, and being elected to power is considered a safer way, especially in Kali-yuga. And we see that Srila Prabhupada also had those kind of ideas when he made the Direction of Management. But Prabhupada's criteria was, qualified people elect the GBC, so he said the Temple Presidents will elect the GBC.
Prabhupada criticized democracy, especially when incompetent, unqualified people are allowed to elect their leader. But we see Srila Prabhupada used the principles of democracy, but he used the principles of qualified democracy, is that qualified people should elect. And that is what we see in Direction of Management.
So this committee of, this ad hoc committee, I'm using the word "ad hoc committee", which consists of the GC members of ISKCON Bangalore, it consists of senior devotees who have been doing ten and more years of service in this temple in a responsible way, holding responsible positions, and we had Nimai Pandit dasa who is from ISKCON Inc. New York, so, and a few other trustees of ISKCON Inc. New York, so we were about 26 of us, we have been discussing and debating these subjects, and we had working on all these matters. And it was found that by majority, or probably by consensus of all, it was decided that we go by the Direction of Management that Srila Prabhupada gave, especially for future, after this time, and since it is a process _?_by which every three years the GBC's have to be elected by the Temple President body, which is a more appropriate way of going forward for our organization.
So unanimously, this group, this ad hoc body, has accepted that, has decided that we shall follow the Direction of Management which Srila Prabhupada has given, as that is the way for forming the GBC for our organization.
