BY: ROCANA DASA
Nov 17, CANADA (SUN) — A weekly response to Dandavats editorials.
In the recent article, "ISKCON Juhu Host GBC Meetings", Dandavats again presents an article informing the community of devotees that the GBC is meeting, yet again. This time they're in Bombay, for what they call a “Strategic Planning meeting.”
The devotee who’s writing this report, Parijata devi dasi, gives the false impression that such meetings have been going on since the beginning of the GBC's inaugurated role in the society -- as if they've been meeting like this since Srila Prabhupada organized things this way, in 1970. One might assume from this article that the GBC have always gotten together on two separate occasions besides their regular meeting in Mayapur - that they have always flown themselves to some location on the planet to engage in these meetings.
Now I know for certain, because I was present during that period of Srila Prabhupada’s lila, from 1970 to 1977, that Srila Prabhupada did not approve of, condone, encourage or suggest that the GBC function in this manner, having all these management meetings. In fact, he said that such meetings are a total waste of time and money. In his instructions to the GBC, he restricted them from frequent meetings, having them meet on just one occasion each year, just before the Festival of India. Those meetings ran for 4 or 5 days, sometimes a bit longer. His primary concern was for them to simply share with each other the ideas and experiences that they'd had throughout the year in their zones. He even suggested that they change zones every year. So this whole idea that the GBC today is follow the standards that Srila Prabhupada set when he was present, and he would approve of how the GBC is operating today, is totally absurd. And it's not only absurd, but dishonest.
ISKCON today is comprised of so many devotees who were not present during Srila Prabhupada's lila period, and they’ve been trained up and are gullible enough to accept what is essentially propaganda spun by the GBC and their close supporters. We’ve been reading these meeting announcements and reports time and time again on Dandavats, and I’ve been making the same points, time and time again. First of all, one has to consider the expense of having all these individuals fly to these meetings, and then the time it takes for them to participate in the meetings. It always comes as a great astonishment to me that the same topics appear on the agenda over and over… the same committees, the same work groups… and we’re getting absolutely no results. Considering the fact that they're spending all this money of Srila Prabhupada's, doesn't it seem that there should be some significant, tangible results?
When we look at the long list of Sub-committees that Parijata devi mentions, we find that the first item, A, is the "Establish Srila Prabhupada’s Position Committee." This particular committee has been meeting for the last two years, and it's been 30 years since
Srila Prabhupada's manifest departure, so why can’t they just sit down and write a philosophical paper on who Srila Prabhupada is? It’s very simple. One can only assume that the committee is unable to produce results because no one agrees about who Srila Prabhupada is.
I wrote a paper, many years ago now, establishing Srila Prabhupada as the Sampradaya Acarya. I qualify the term, explaining the scope of it to mean what I’m stating regarding the qualities and pre-requisites associated with a Sampradaya Acarya. I've stated that the previous Sampradaya Acaryas, going back to the time of Lord Brahma, are all included on the List of 32, and that I consider Srila Prabhupada's having added his own name to that list to be indicative of his exalted spiritual status. Therefore, I call the personalities on this list "Sampradaya Acaryas".
Now for the most part, one of the pre-requisites, especially as it relates to Srila Prabhupada, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati, and Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur, is that they are nitya-siddhas. In other words, they were sent to perform the mission of spreading Krsna consciousness throughout the world, as it was predicted by the Lord Himself, Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Now why is it that ISKCON can’t or won’t agree with this? I’ve been waiting for years to hear their position on the matter. It's quite likely that the reason they’re having such a problem coming to a consensus about Srila Prabhupada is that the gurus are worried about their own disciples, who might think they're not as exalted as they’d like them to believe they are. And this is part of the guru hoax - in fact, they’re not very advanced devotees. I’m not saying their not diksa gurus, but I am qualifying the fact that a Sampradaya Acarya - someone of Srila Prabhupada’s status -- is more exalted then a regular diksa guru. Our Sampradaya has survived since the time of Lord Brahma on account of the appearance of these Sampradaya Acaryas. It's not because there’s an unbroken line of disciplic succession. There have been many breaks in the succession and it has been re-established, just as Krsna says in the Bhagavad-Gita that He comes again and again to establish religious principles. The same applies to the Sampradaya Acaryas.
Item “B” on the meeting reports is about the Succession Committee. We find here another nebulous term with a one-line explanation. I'm very curious to know what it is that they’re trying to accomplish here, when they say they want to “identify future leadership, inspire and train them.” Of course, the way Srila Prabhupada established our movement, there was no need to have a committee of the GBC to meet in this regard because devotees were judged by the results. If a devotee is excelling in whatever type of devotional service they've chosen, or that has been chosen for them by Krsna, then they are recognized. Now the GBC themselves say they're 'looking for leadership qualities' in people. We've recently heard that they’ve chosen a devotee, who voluntarily joined and re-joined for assignments in the U.S. armed forces. This person is preaching within the context of the Army in Iraq. Now he’s going to become a GBC. This is their idea of leadership. We're not sure how they'll be able to train him when he’s off in Iraq, shooting guns and killing people, but this is apparently their idea of identifying people and training them up.
The GBC does not mention the fact that Srila Prabhupada had hundreds of trained leaders who were expelled, discouraged, or ignored, and who are therefore not part of ISKCON anymore. There is absolutely no attempt made on behalf of these disenfranchised godbrothers, although their potential, preaching abilities and leadership qualities are very well know, and much needed today. Instead we have this committee, out looking for new talent - prabhus who will never criticize the leaders or rock the boat.
Then there’s the Constitution Committee. Well gee whiz, that’s been going on for quite a while, too. It's been 30 years since Srila Prabhupada's manifest lila, and over 40 years since ISKCON started, and they still haven't managed to put together a Constitution. It took far less time for the Constitution of the United States to be written!
D,E,F,G,H… one can read on and on about this list of committees and management projects. Basically, the biggest problem the present GBC has is that they want -- almost desperately -- to establish a functional bureaucracy. But Srila Prabhupada has made it abundantly clear that he doesn’t want that. They want centralization, they want the ability to tax, they want to fill up these bureaucratic positions with friends and allies. In different zones and circumstances around the world today we find that they’ve done their best to circumvent the roadblocks Srila Prabhupada put in their way, and these meetings are part of that attempt. Their conception of the GBC and Srila Prabhupada’s conception are so different, although they like to give the impression that’s not a fact.
So now we must have committees to maximize the efficiency of management, although Srila Prabhupada set-up a perfectly efficient management system. He established the GBC, who were instructed to go traveling around to different temples in their zone, giving spiritual association and guidance to the local leaders, and to ensure that the local management is going on according to Srila Prabhupada’s idea of management. You have the temples, and the temples have Temple Presidents, and they have different secretaries and devotees in charge of various departments, and it just goes on like that. What is the problem? But instead, under the leadership of the present GBC, we have temples that are just totally neglected, GBC’s who seldom come around and when they do, they come mainly in their capacity as gurus, not as GBC’s. That’s certainly the case where I live. On the infrequent occasion when they come to town, you can’t get a meeting with them because they’re busy, off having private get-togethers at the homes of their various disciples. They’re never available to discuss what the local problems are, they don't hold open istaghosti sessions, and they never have time to meet with godbrothers or deal with significant problems. But they always find time to go to all these GBC meetings…
Now they have GBC Team Building meeting, and they have the Guru Seminar; they have the Kirtana Standards meeting, and the Building meeting, and the Lawbooks meeting. So really, it’s just a vacation, because there’s no results. They jet off to a nice location, get treated like royalty, get to meet up with all their old buddies and have a good time, and no one is pressing them to show some tangible results. Consequently, the results aren’t forthcoming, especially when it comes to items such as who is Srila Prabhupada, which I contend is the essence of all the problems that ISKCON has.
We need a Constitution. You can’t have all sorts of Laws and Resolutions unless you have enshrined the absolute principles in a Constitution, and laid out what the rights of the constituents are. We still don’t know what our individual rights are, how it's determined if we're a "member in good standing", or what guarantees we have for justice and fairness from our leaders.
So all in all, Parijata devi dasi is saying very little here. She's mainly just telling us… 'Here’s your GBC, again wasting time and money.' Never mind the fact that individual temples are in disrepair, the book distribution and major programs are being cut back everywhere and the yatras are very short of money. Of course, there are the exceptions, mostly in the cases where one of the Zonal Acarya/Gurus resides permanently in a particular place. And in those cases, it is that program, that formula - not the GBC formula - that brings in the results. It’s not based on GBC, it’s based on Guru, The traditional formula. Of course, the "collective Acarya" GBC claims they’re transcending the traditional formula, and now they have a multi-guru system, all working under the GBC banner. But it's not that way at all. This is just a smokescreen.
I hate to be the one who always speaks out on this matter, but this is my experience and my perspective. Of course, this is also why I can’t be a part of the ISKCON institution -- because I don’t agree with this hoax, with this crazy, concocted system they’ve come up with. I can’t be part of it because I know what Srila Prabhupada wants, and it’s not a big secret, either. He has made it abundantly clear. And he has given us a system that works, if only you'll follow it. It is not outdated and doesn’t need modernization. So even though my words will go unheeded and I’ll be identified as some kind of crazy man, still I have to speak up. And as always, I invite any and all of my GBC godbrothers to come and challenge what I’m saying here, proving it not to be the truth. Thank you.
Obeisances to Dandavats, and to the members of the GBC.
