New Developments at New Vrajamandala: Management

[Guest guest]

New Vrajamandala Management: THE IDEAL.

 

It has sometimes been seen that the methodology of some ISKCON managers

since Srila Prabhupada left the planet, has been diametrically opposed to

the mode that Srila Prabhupada actually wanted. The differences are often

quite subtle, but the results of misunderstanding the spirit of management

that Prabhupada gave us are that devotees rather than becoming encouraged,

and therefore assets to a Krsna Conscious society, instead become alienated.

 

The letter below, while a specific letter to a specific disciple, highlights

the *attitude* that Srila Prabhupada wanted his managers to have. For the

sake of highlighting this attitude I have appended the text with some notes

(in brackets[*]).

 

Letter to: Karandhara : 72-12-22 Bombay

Regarding your points about taxation, corporate status, etc., I have heard

from Jayatirtha you want to make big plan for centralization of management,

taxes, monies, corporate status, bookkeeping, credit, like that. I do not at

all approve of such plan.

 

Do not centralize anything. Each temple must remain independent and

self-sufficient. That was my plan from the very beginning, why you are

thinking otherwise? Once before you wanted to do something centralizing with

your GBC meeting, and if I did not interfere the whole thing would have been

killed. Do not think in this way of big corporation, big credits,

centralization--these are all nonsense proposals. Only thing I wanted was

that books printing and distribution should be centralized, therefore I

appointed you and Bali Mardan to do it.

 

Otherwise, management, everything, should be done locally by local men.

Accounts must be kept, things must be in order and lawfully done, but that

should be each temple's concern, not yours. 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. There must be

always individual striving and work and responsibility, competitive spirit,

not that one shall dominate and distribute benefits to the others and they

do nothing but beg from you and you provide. No. Never mind there may be

botheration to register each centre, take tax certificate each, become

separate corporations in each state. That will train men how to do these

things, and they shall develop reliability and responsibility, that is the

point...

 

[*note. Here we can see how rather than encouraging people to be

independently thoughtful, most manager/presidents have insisted that

devotees in ISKCON surrender to their ideas. The Temple manager typically

has his plan for the development of ISKCON locally, and often is not

interested in the plans or ideas of others. This is not the kind of

management that Prabhupada asked for. He indicated that our managers should

to try to understand the potential that others have, and then mould their

plans around developing that potential. The key to this is not to be

attached, but to be flexible enough to work with what Krsna sends]

 

The point is to be engaged in doing something for Krishna, never mind what

is that job, but being so engaged in doing something very much satisfying to

the devotee that he remains always enthusiastic. He will automatically

follow the regulative principles because they are part of his occupational

duty--by applying them practically as his occupational duty, he realises the

happy result of regulative principles.

 

[*It seems clear that it is the manager who is to be unattached to what job

is being performed, not the devotee. In other words the manager is to be the

detached one, rather than preaching to the devotee to become detached and

'do what I say'. A devotee thus empowered- "realises the happy result of

regulative principles"]

 

So the future of this Krishna Consciousness movement is very bright, so long

the managers remain vigilant that 16 rounds are being chanted by everyone

without fail, that they are all rising before four morning, attending mangal

arati--our leaders shall be careful not to kill the spirit of enthusiastic

service, which is individual and spontaneous and voluntary. They should try

always to generate some atmosphere of fresh challenge to the devotees, so

that they will agree enthusiastically to rise and meet it. That is the art

of management: to draw out spontaneous loving spirit of sacrificing some

energy for Krishna.

 

[*These could be seen as preliminary instructions in the early stages of

transforming a person into someone who is independently intelligent. Once

the person has found his place in the society, with the help of the loving

guidance of the detached manager, and has imbibed the spirit of sacrificing

some energy for Krsna, he can then safely be given a responsible place with

his own resources in a Krsna Conscious community. I find it interesting that

the main duties of the manager are to make sure that the basic necessities

of chanting and regulation are being followed. Not that the manager plans

out the life of the devotee. The devotee is to "enthusiastically agree to

rise and met the challenge with a loving spirit of sacrificing some energy

for Krsna"]

 

But where are so many expert managers? All of us should become expert

managers and preachers. We should not be very much after comforts and become

complacent or self-contented. There must be always some tapasya, strictly

observing the regulative principles--Krishna Consciousness movement must be

always a challenge, a great achievement to be gained by voluntary desire to

do it, and that will keep it healthy. So you big managers now try to train

up more and more some competent preachers and managers like yourselves.

Forget this centralizing and bureaucracy.

 

[*"Krishna Consciousness movement must be always a challenge, a great

achievement to be gained by voluntary desire to do it, and that will keep it

healthy" Our movement today is far from healthy. Most of the devotees who

have the scope to be independently thoughtful have been discouraged by all

the false philosophy they have been fed; i.e. instructions such as those to

'surrender to your authority', 'don't be independent'. The manager's job is

actualy to bring out the best aspects of an individual and encourage the

person to use those skills in Krsna's service, as they are inspired to do.]

 

End of letter.

 

How will we get any service done?

The argument may be brought up "how will we get the temple devotees to do

the needful if we cannot tell them what to do?" This idea stems from the

desire of the managers to have their own pet plans realised using the

devotees at their disposal as a labour pool. This is the basic

misunderstanding that we have. An ISKCON manager's duty is to be a detached

servant whose prime duty is to make others succeed. As it is, each

individual has his own inherent nature, and if he is allowed to act

according to that nature, has the potential to reach great heights. In a

situation where an ISKCON devotee can be placed in an environment where he

can work according to his nature, he will naturally become a great asset.

The message of ISKCON is to be spread by spontaneous individual initiative,

not that the manager takes all the initiative at the expense of the others.

 

After all, the goal for each of us is to become humble surrendered devotees.

Devotees for whom, the will of the Lord is the only thing that matters. The

goal is not for us to become 'great leaders'. Krsna is the actual

controller, and if we are detached, he can then demonstrate His will, and

ISKCON projects can flourish according to His desire.

 

So at New Vrajamandala we are sincerely trying to manage according to this

approach. Of course this is a very simplified explanation of the ideal, and

there are many details that are not touched upon, but the spirit should be

clear.

 

If anyone is interested to discuss any topic regarding New Vrajamandala

please send a text to the newly opened 'New Vrajamandala Discussions'

conference. You can respond to this text by forwarding it to that conference

with your comments. Please don't comment on Free forum or other conferences.

 

Thanks

 

Your Servant

Samba das