Proposal: Restructuring the GBC

[Guest guest]

> ---------- Forwarded Message ----------

>

> Letter PAMHO:11614638 (6 lines)

> Praghosa (das) SDG (IRL)

> 21-May-06 13:38 (14:38 +0100)

> Samba (das) (Mayapur - IN) [22323]

> Reference: Text PAMHO:11604066 by Samba (das) (Mayapur - IN)

> Proposal: Restructuring the GBC

> ---------------------------

> > Dismantling all the current GBC and replace them with a new ones is a

> > vivid wishful thinking. One thing, there has to be a vote of the current

> > GBC for it to happen. The reality is there has never a history of the

> > world where someone will vote himself out of power.

>

> Power? What power is that exactly? I'd love to know :-)

 

Me too

 

I would actually prefer the GBC had more power over ISKCON.

 

ys, jdd

[Guest guest]

Dear Ganesa Prabhu,

 

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

 

Thanks to you and all those who have shared their views about this proposal.

I am glad to see that these ideas are being discussed, even if by way of

mockery. For the sake of honesty and clarity, I must share a few recent

developments caused by this proposal, in particular, what happened this

weekend with Hridayananda das Goswami.

 

First of all, I sincerely apologize to any Vaisnava I may have offended by

presenting these views. I simply tried to be of service, but have realized

that many people are upset with me as a result. I've been called everything

from fanatic to lunatic to ignorant to neophyte to you-name-it. I might be

all of those things combined and worse. I will chant and read more to

correct those faults. I will also stop writing for a while.

 

I went to the Panihati Festival in Atlanta this weekend, with great

expectations and enthusiasm about my hari nama initiation by Hridayananda

das Goswami. However, things turned out not exactly as planned.

 

I had been recommended for initiation by both the temple in Puerto Rico and

by a beloved friend and disciple of Srila Prabhupada's, Mahapurana Prabhu.

For reasons outside of his control, Mahapurana Prabhu could not be present

at the meeting, but his good wife was. From the start to the end of the

longer-than-an-hour meeting, maharaja severely chastised me for having

written this proposal. Although it was his sannyassa anniversy offering, I

must clear his name from thinking he endorsed it. He thought I did a very

poor job in studying the matter carefully and suggested I might have

disrespected (not offended) senior disciples and good GBC officials.

Certainly, that was not my intention, yet I apologize for it. In all

honesty, however, I must add that maharaja admitted not having read the

proposal. I think that, with all due respect, he should have read it before

chastising me. It's simply a matter of fairness, besides being a rational

necessity. Perhaps it was Srila Prabhupada's mercy that my initiation did

not take place.

 

Nevertheless, one cannot help but notice a contrast between the reaction to

this proposal and the reaction to the challenge to IRM in April and May.

Perhaps about a dozen previously unknown devotees to me, including Jaya

Advaita Maharaja, thanked me in Atlanta for challening IRM and lauded my

writing. That doesn't include the dozens of emails I've received with the

same purpose. What is most ironic, though, is that IRM's Krishnakant had

cynically warned me, and I paraphrase, that by writing such a proposal my

future in ISKCON was doomed. I hate to acknowledge Krishnakant was right,

and I can only hope he is wrong.

 

This message by Ganesa Prabhu makes me feel that there are rational devotees

who are willing to objectively look at the facts and understand that the GBC

needs some substantial change. For instance, the GBC must stop harboring

sexual predators by allowing them to continue to tarnish the sannyassa

asrama. For instance, a sannyassi who falls prey to lust or greed should not

be allowed to remain a sannyassi.

 

I believe it was either Bhaktivinoda Thakura or Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati

who taught us that when a spiritual master deviates, it is the duty of the

disciple to request an audience in a solitary place and respectfully

question the guru. If that is the case with one's guru, what about an

administrative body like the GBC? We are following sastra-guru-sadhu by

questioning their behavior and proposing alternatives. We owe it to Srila

Prabhupada and we owe it to ISKCON. If we simply want to ignore the

problems, then I do not see how things will get better. Certainly reading

all of Srila Prabhupada's books will help one to understand spiritual life.

That's why we read them. Their reading will also help us understand

practical matters, like how to properly administer a GBC. However, one need

not read all his books to realize there are problems. What should you do if

you suspect a child is being molested? What should you do if you suspect a

husband will kill his wife? Should you wait until you have all the evidence

to make a decision to remove the child from such a situation or wait until

the woman is dead? That is exactly what we do when we suggest something

analogous to interviewing every past and present GBC and read all minutes

from every GBC meeting as a qualification to offer solutions. That is a very

irresponsible yet clever way to drag the problem. Nevertheless, the problems

remain and will come back to haunt us, as they constantly do.

 

I will add one more thing. A devotee close to the GBC mentioned that, even

though IRM is wrong about its explanation for the falldowns of so many of

ISKCON gurus, IRM nonetheless has an explanation. ISKCON hasn't even

attempted to offer a public theological rationale. And we desperately need

it.

 

You may heed or ignore the words of this fallen soul. You may take the good

ideas of this proposal or discard it in its entirety. However, at least

respect that I meant well and that whatever I did was to help ISKCON. If I

failed, please forgive me.

 

Your servant,

hector

 

On Mon, 5 Jun 2006 12:52 -0400, isckcon wrote

> Dear Dr. Rosario,

> Hare Krsna! Please accept my humble obeisance. All glories to Srila

> Prabhupada.

>

> I appreciate the fact that you realize that there are serious

> problems with the GBC, otherwise why would you be promoting its

> 'restructure'? You are certainly not alone in this realization.

> However; your proposals (below) are laden with the same type of

> ecclesiastical bureacracy that Iskcon presently experiences and

> which has plagued Iskcon in increasing fashion since November 15,

> 1977. More important than that however, is that your proposals -

> like the myriad of GBC resolutions & policies that exist today - digress

> from Srila Prabhupada's.

>

> If one studies Srila Prabhupada's teachings one finds that the

> matter is really very simple. The GBC actually have no spiritually

> inherited power to exert their influence by creating & inventing

> rules the way they do. One's advancement Krsna consciousness can,

> should & must progress independently from the GBC.

>

> For those who have not been able to understand what the Hare Krsna movement

> is ACTUALLY about, the following brief quotes from Srila Prabhupada

> should make it amply clear;

>

> "Krishna Consciousness Movement is for training men to be independently

> thoughtful and competent in all types of departments of knowledge and

> action, not for making bureaucracy. Once there is bureaucracy the whole

> thing will be spoiled. " [sPL 72-12-22]

>

> "GBC does not mean to control a center. GBC means to see that the

activities

> of a center go on nicely. I do not know why Tamala is exercising his

> absolute authority. That is not the business of GBC." [sPL 71-08-12]

>

> The GBC and Iskcon disease of overtly & covertly trying to exercise

> autonomous and sovereign SPIRITUAL and material authority has arisen

> only because of one reason; our individual ignorance.

>

> Had we, the position-less (or lesser) members of Iskcon, been

> serious enough to scrutinizingly study our Founding Acarya's

> teachings, we would not have been duped into believing that the GBC

> has such power. As long as Iskcon's members continue to individually

> allow the GBC that feigned power, they will be subjugated by the

> concomitant tyranny that such power has elicited for so many years.

>

> The only remedy is to realize that the GBC holds no such power. In

> general, the GBC's only business is to see that the basic rules and

> regulations of Krsna consciousness are being followed. As soon as

> one realizes that the GBC HAS NO POWER to control one's life, no one

> will be exploited.

>

> "WHEN FAULTS IN OTHERS MISGUIDE AND DELUDE YOU -- HAVE PATIENCE,

> INTROSPECT, FIND FAULTS IN YOURSELF. KNOW THAT OTHERS CANNOT HARM

> YOU UNLESS YOU HARM YOURSELF." Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati

> Thakura, discourse in Dhaka, Bangladesh, 1935

>

> I hope that the following words of His Divine Grace Srila Bhaktisiddhnata

> Sarasvati PRabhupada about ORGANIZED RELIGION, will perform their

> magic by entering the ears of all those who sincerely wish to

> eradicate the corruption in their own hearts and in the GBC.

>

> ORGANIZED RELIGION

> ..."The bona-fide teacher of religion is neither any product of nor the

> favorer of, any mechanical system. In his hands no system has

> likewise, the chance of degenerating into a lifeless arrangement.

> The mere pursuit of fixed doctrines and fixed liturgies cannot hold

> a person to the true spirit of doctrine or liturgy. The idea of an

> organized church in an intelligible form, indeed, marks the close of

> the living spiritual movement. The great ecclesiastical

> establishments are the dikes and the dams to retain the current that

> cannot be held by any such contrivances. They, indeed, indicate a

> desire on the part of the masses to exploit a spiritual movement for

> their own purpose. They also unmistakably indicate the end of the

> absolute and unconventional guidance of the bona-fide spiritual

> teacher. The people of this world understand preventive systems;

> they have no idea at all of the unprevented positive eternal life.

> Neither can there be any earthy contrivance for the permanent

> preservation of the life eternal on this mundane plane on the

> popular scale.

>

> Those are, therefore, greatly mistaken who are disposed to look

> forward to the amelioration of the worldly state in any worldly

> sense from the worldly success of any really spiritual movement. It

> is these worldly expectants who become the patrons of the

> mischievous race of the pseudo-teachers of religion, the Putanas,

> whose congenial function is to stifle the theistic disposition at

> the very moment of its suspected appearance. But the real theistic

> disposition can never be stifled by the efforts of those Putanas.

> The Putanas have power only over the atheist. It is a thankless but

salutary

> task which they perform for the benefit of their unwilling victims".

>

> ys

> Ganesa dasa