Governing Body Members Elected for ISKCON Bangalore Group Temples

BY: BHARATHARSHABHA DASA

Oct 19, 2011 — BANGALORE, INDIA (SUN) — The ISKCON Bangalore group of temples elected its new Governing Council for the next three year period. The election was conducted recently in ISKCON's farm in Mahadevapura near Mysore. The elections were conducted as per the Direction of Management issued by Founder Acharya of ISKCON, His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada on July 28th 1970.

In Direction of Management Srila Prabhupada states:

"The purpose of the Governing Body Commission is to act as the instrument for the execution of the Will of His Divine Grace. And further,

1. The GBC oversees all operations and management of ISKCON, as it receives direction from Srila Prabhupada and His Divine Grace has the final approval in all matters.

2. His Divine Grace will select the initial 12 members of the GBC. In the succeeding years the GBC will be elected by a vote of all Temple Presidents who will vote for 8 from a ballot of all Temple Presidents, which may also include any secretary who is in charge of a temple. Those 8 with the greatest number of votes will be members for the next term of GBC. Srila Prabhupada will choose to retain four commissioners. In the event of Srila Prabhupada's absence, the retiring members will decide which four will remain.

3. The commissioners will serve for a period of 3 years and they may be re-elected at the end of this period.

The election was conducted by an Election Commissioner, Sri Gangadharappa, a retired IAS officer who has served in various capacities in the Governments of India and Karnataka for over thirty years. The election process involved two phases. In the first phase, the existing Governing Council members selected three out of ten among themselves to remain in the Council for the next three year term. The three who were selected in this stage were Sri Madhu Pandit Dasa, Sri Chanchalapathi Dasa and Sri Jai Chaitanya Dasa. In the second phase the retiring Governing Council members (apart from the selected three) and the Temple Presidents' Body which totaled to twenty two members elected from among themselves the balance seven members. The top seven members who received the highest votes were elected as the remaining Governing Council members.

The Governing Council members who were elected after this process for the next three year term are:

The new Council will oversee the functioning of over twenty temples in various parts of India like Bangalore, Mysore, Mangalore, Bellary, Chennai, Hubli, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Vrindavan, Guwahati, Bhillai, Puri, Bhubaneswar, and many more. The new Governing Council will serve for a term of three years from now, after the completion of which a new council will be elected.

Each of the Governing Council members will oversee a zone consisting of many temples. The zonal assignments are slated to be done shortly in the next Council meeting.

Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada,

Bharatharshabha dasa
Head Communications and Public Relations
ISKCON Bangalore