New Website – PrabhupadVision.com: The Hidden History of ISKCON

BY: KRSNACANDRA DASA

Aug 01, 2010 — VRINDAVAN, INDIA (SUN) — I am pleased to announce the launch of the PrabhupadVision.com website. The PrabhupadVision website will attempt to provide a service to the devotional community that has a historical and referential base as opposed to a more news based service.

This website is aimed at providing a more pragmatic and honest viewpoint as opposed to the viewpoint that has been presented to the Society from the ISKCON leadership.

The methodology of the ISKCON leadership to date has been to sanitize, censor, or to cover-up the truth of their errant plans or nefarious activities, which is natural for a corrupt organization. They also constitute and enforce laws of strict obedience to their totalitarian authority and punish perceived threats with ruthless heavy-handedness.

However, our stories and realizations need to be told and listened to in a constructive and methodological manner. The more we begin to talk about the situation that we collectively face, the more light is shone on our problems and the easier it will be to find solutions.

We need to feel safe and at home in the house that Srila Prabhupada has given us to give our lives to and live in. We need to feel wanted and needed, united and single-minded of purpose as we grow and develop our spiritual lives and our devotional community. We need to be listened to with love and compassion and with maturity. We need to feel that we and our children have a future in ISKCON and that we are wanted and cared for by our leaders.

In order to change the present situation in ISKCON it is going to take a united front and a strong, wise and emotionally mature leadership - qualities that the present ISKCON leadership do not possess - to take the necessary steps to reestablish the rural agrarian vision that Srila Prabhupada wanted us to have.

If ISKCON is to survive into the twenty first century, it will take tremendous effort and the complete rededication of ISKCON leadership, manpower, resources and finances. The predicted global economic, social and geographic breakdown may soon be upon us and we must now seriously take stock of our situation and make the necessary changes, as soon as it is practical.

In order to do this, we have to admit that the present ISKCON leadership, both managerially and spiritually speaking, has intentionally ignored Srila Prabhupada's instructions and transcendental vision on how to manage, grow and develop the ISKCON Society. They have instead chosen to take the council of career/business minded devotees and non-devotee professionals/academics and have disregarded and/or ignored the advice of many older devotees when they implemented and instituted an urban based business stratagem for the growth and development of our Vaisnava Society, at the expense of a rural agrarian orientation.

We have to realize that no matter how many academic qualifications we may possess or how many diacritical theological papers we have had published or how many jobs we may hold or how much money we have in our bank accounts or how many interfaith meetings we have attended - should the social and economic climate collapse, we will be left with nothing.

The stark reality is that the ISKCON Leadership has left us with no real self-sufficient farming communities to give shelter to the many thousands of devotees of ISKCON should this collapse occur. Sure we have temples and farms, but when push comes to shove, the majority of devotees would be left to fend for themselves. What to speak of the indisputable fact that the ‘house' that Srila Prabhupada established for us needs to be situated in an Agrarian Vedic setting and not a secular urban setting.

It must also be duly noted that the very leaders who have stolen our children's future, along with ours as well, have all made very sure they their standard of living and economic security will not be affected - having abundant manpower, resources and funds at their immediate disposal.

For now, all that the vast bulk of the devotional community have is an information network to assist in the grassroots education of the devotional community. Although there are many powerful and informative websites in existence (like the Sampradaya Sun), I would like to offer a website that is more ‘reference' orientated. The topics provided on the sidebar are there to focus the reader to specific issues that need to be either addressed or require representation in the form of testimonies or need to be pragmatically elaborated on in order to gain a better understanding of the issue. As the website develops, it will take on an evolution of its own, so please feel free to suggest subjects or offer your advice, testimonies and researched elaborations.

PrabhupadVision is also hoping to provide an ‘official document' archive for any official ISKCON documentation that will assist in gaining a better understanding of the legal status of our Society.

So please send in any articles of association or other legal documents that you have access to, that we do not already possess.

The website address is PrabhupadVision.com.

Yours in the service of Srila Prabhupada,

Krsnacandra dasa