What is ISKCON? - Incompatibility with ISKCON

[Guest guest]

Dear Jagajivan Prabhu.

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

 

> However, I would like to point out to you, Prabhu, that

> ISKCON, as an organization, does have "Laws" which govern every aspect of

> ISKCON's functioning. Are you aware of these laws?

 

Thank you for your reply. Yes, I well aware of ISKCON Laws.

Unfortunately, I was still not able to carefully study entire ISKCON Law,

but I studied carefully parts of it, especially as part of my local

educational presentation on "Guru" and "Srila Prabhupada" in our Bhakti

school since some years ago. Thats when certain things came to my attention,

especially connected to spiritual masters and other spiritual authorities.

Anyway, that another thing.

 

My point is, that ISKCON laws, althought they may exist, are not practised.

They may be well formed, but in reality nobody cares much for them, or even

not many even know about them or study them, not even parts of it.

 

> As a member of ISKCON

> you should first know what that really means and this is delineated in our

> Law Book.

 

Exactly. When I proposed, that we locally present ISKCON law within local

educational programs, idea was rejected by local leaders with argument, that

not even GBCs follow their own laws, so why should we. The fact is, that

local leaders are at this moment free to decide if they want to follow GBC

laws or not. But actually, they should take care, that ISKCON laws are

followed in practice. And if Law cannot be followed, they should propose

changes to GBC. Instead, local leaders create their own laws, visions,

mission statements, and thus act independently of GBC. But they excercise

their authority on strength of "bonafide by GBC", saying that whatever they

do, is authorized by GBC. I'm of course more limited in my opinion towards

my local area, but I do not want to point fingers, so I will prefer to write

in generalized way, at the risk of overgeneralizing. But probably some

traits of leadership independence can be seen in other parts of world too,

so it may be a valid point even worldwide.

 

> Yes, it is a deficiency of our Movement that every member and

> future member doe not know the Laws of ISKCON, but as Srila Prabhupada so

> many times pointed out "Ignorance of the Law is no excuse." I hope that

> this will be corrected this year.

 

This is great news, what you are saying, that correction will come this

year. If GBC finds ways, that all local leaderships work strictly under GBC

Law, and inside its boundaries, then faith of local congregations in their

local leaderships will be vastly increased. And faith in GBC will be

increased too. I would be more than willing to cooperate in any possible

way, to help establishing strong connection between local leadership and GBC

Law.

 

> After looking at the "Laws of ISKCON",

> you may have some objection as to whether what is written is true to

> Srila Prabhupada's instructions, then you may propose some change. That

> facility is also there.

 

This is clear. ISKCON Law will start forming properly only when it is really

being followed. Then mistakes will show out, and will be corrected as they

come. But first Laws must be followed, in a unified ISKCON way. There cannot

be separate Laws for India, America, Europe... thats not unified. What is

culturally dependent, cannot be part of ISKCON Law itself. Those local

things can be part of local managment, but must be in agreement with

universal ISKCON Law. The question is, what is the plan of GBC, to make

local ISKCON leaders follow Global ISKCON Laws. What system is proposed for

this to work. Is GBC working in this direction at all?

 

> And if someone is not following the rules and

> objectives of the Society, then, he may be dealt with accordingly. "Laws

> of ISKCON" also delineate how they should be dealt with.

 

Yes, but this brings in the question of definition of membership. What are

the duties of ISKCON member, and what are his rights. This is most

important, and I beleive it is not defined yet. Somebody please correct me,

but right now, I think ISKCON membership is defined on local level, or

better said, we have no idea who is ISKCON member and who is not, and we

have no idea what makes one bonafide ISKCON member, and when one stops being

bonafide ISKCON member.

 

> And yes,

> Srila Prabhupada was not adverse to using techniques that would be

> favorable to executing Krishna Consciousness. You may say that is being

> "Modern", others might say it is innovation, which is not really wrong.

 

I understand, that Srila Prabhupada was not adverse to using techniques that

would be favorable to executing Krishna Consciousness. But at the same time,

he was teaching the prefered techniques, and expected same thing from future

ISKCON. Srila Prabhupada could do so many things, that we do now for

preaching, but he didn't. He had man power, he had experts, he had

everything he needed to start inventing new techniques, but still he didn't.

(Maybe some examples would be needed here, of what we do now, and that Srila

Prabhupada could do same thing then, but he didn't. I can provide some

examples, if needed.) I think everybody may agree, that Srila Prabhupada

could adjust presentation of KC much much more, but he didn't. And I

believe, he had very specific reasons, why he insisted on traditional

methods. And ISKCON cannot overgrow Srila Prabhupada! Therefore I wish, that

those non-traditional methods and presentations be defined in time and

place, in order to avoid confusion regarding what is ISKCON and what not,

and in order to prevent traditionalist ISKCON members from alienating

themselves from overly westernized ISKCON.

 

> On the other hand when you speak of our principles being broken within our

> Temples, by certain authorities, then that should be dealt with by our

> Justice Ministry, and certainly is not accepted in our "ISKCON Laws" or

> was it accepted in Srila Prabhupada's presence.

 

I am certaily speaking of principles being broken within our Temples, by

certain authorities. Again, I will maintain global disposition, at risk of

overgeneralizing, in order to avoid premature pointing in local direction.

 

I was not aware that ISKCON has Justice Ministy. This is most promising. Is

it operating? What can one expect from it? How to propose a matter to their

investigation. Any procedures? Who to contact? Can please somebody help with

this information.

 

> I think we should also

> separate what are official "ISKCON activities" and peripheral activities

> not supported directly by the Society. Social events between devotees

> need not, per se, be directly supported by our Society, but rather by

> individual devotees. In this way we can avoid some of the criticism you

> are mentioning.

 

Is it somewhere defined, what is official "ISKCON activity" and what is

peripheral activitiy not supported directly by the Society? Based on what it

can be decided? I would surely like to have more information in this regard.

 

> Now, concerning how a particular disciple views how his

> own Spiritual Master is presenting Krishna Consciousness and doubts that

> might arise from one's perception of said presentation, the rule of thumb

> is usually to ask him. I have no doubt that he understands and can

> justify spiritually and philosophically, what he is doing. Better to ask

> than to doubt! We should become expert at seeing Krishna's hand in

> everything and being strict with ourselves and merciful with everyone

> else. That is the way of the Vaishnavas.

 

Thank you for this point too. May I present one additional point, not

necesarily my personal case, but observed in lives of some of my friends. As

you said, best is to ask. Of course, asking is usually performed, and

spiritual master justifies his actions. That may help disciple and remove

his doubts and have full faith in Guru. But what if Guru's justification of

his activity doesn't help. What if it only increases doubts and leads to

partial following and lack of faith? And what if this specific thing is not

defined by ISKCON law, although seems to be well defined by Srila

Prabhupada, but there are still different opinions about it even between

Srila Prabhupada's disciples? Sorry for a bit theoretical mood, I prefer not

to give specific examples here in public, since they may be a bit

confidential. If you need more specific information, I can try and send it

privately.

 

your servant Giri-nayaka das