Statement on the status of Harikesa dasa's services in ISKCON part

[Guest guest]

GBC Executive Committee, International Society for Krishna Consciousness

 

12 August, 1998

 

To all members of ISKCON:

 

Please accept our obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

 

The GBC executive committee, after over a month of investigation and careful

deliberation, has with much regret decided it has no choice but to place

Harikesa Prabhu on probation as a spiritual master and to suspend all his

functions as a member of the Governing Body Commission. These decisions are

binding until the entire GBC body reviews them at the annual meeting in

Mayapur.

 

In spite of our reluctance to say unpalatable things about a devotee of the

stature of Harikesa dasa, we must give here a summary of the major facts

which have compelled the executive committee's actions:

 

1. Harikesa dasa has given up his position as a sannyasi. He did this

without seeking sanction or approval. He expresses his fixed desire to

become married to a particular woman who is not a devotee of Krishna.

 

2. During the month of July, Harikesa dasa claimed that his true identity

has been first, Skandha, then Lord Caitanya, and then Lord Krishna.

Assigning various identities to other persons in his life, he engaged in

what he regards as spiritual "lilas." One of these "lilas" brought about a

(thwarted) sexual approach to a female disciple (whom he identified as

Rukmini). The woman he wants to marry he has regarded first as an expansion

of Parvati, then as Laksmipriya, finally as Radharani.

 

Even though the intense period of "lilas" seems to be over, it is clear to

the executive committee from direct association with Harikesa Prabhu that he

accepts those activities a genuine transcendental experience, and that he

still considers himself to be transcendentally situated in a spiritual

identity in Vrindaban lila.

 

The executive committee and senior god-brothers of Harikesa dasa are certain

that these are not genuine spiritual lilas. Harikesa's identification with

transcendental personalities, and his evincing of sexual desires, are

incompatible with the characteristics and conditions of bona fide

transcendental experience.

 

3. More recently, for several days Harikesa dasa spoke openly of Srila

Prabhupada in a critical and disparaging manner, sometimes questioning his

motives, sometimes his authority, sometimes his competence.

 

In almost all circumstances, any leader who displayed the above three

characteristics would have been removed swiftly and permanently from all

positions and probably expelled from ISKCON. However, in Harikesa dasa's

particular case there are unique conditions which suggest that these acts

may be the expression of an unusual period of extraordinary stress and

severe emotional upheaval. Judgment from mental health professionals gives

support to this view. At the same time, the content of Harikesa's ideas and

the volatile nature of his thought suggests that he is locked in a profound

spiritual struggle which could end, God willing, in a great victory for him.

In short, there is hope that this state of turmoil and of uninhibited

emotional and mental expression is a transitory one from which Harikesa dasa

may emerge restored and renewed in healthy condition.

 

To stress this hope, the executive committee has invoked the lightest

possible sanction available to it. Harikesa dasa has been only suspended

from his GBC position, not removed; he has only been put on only probation

as a spiritual master. While his disciples should not accept siksa from him

absolutely, they may, if they desire, continue to honor him as their

spiritual master in gratitude for his mercy and guidance in the past and in

expectation of his restoration in the future.

 

We undertake these acts with a heavy heart. We are mindful of the

extraordinary service Harikesa has performed for Srila Prabhupada, and the

praise Prabhupada lavished on him for it. Therefore we shall always view him

with honor and respect, and we pray to Prabhupada and Radha-Krishna to help

him in his time of struggle and need.

 

 

Ravindra Svarupa dasa,

For the executive committee of the GBC