Vote #1

[Guest guest]

> Dear Bhaktarupa prabhu,

>

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

> Thanks for your response to my questions. What I understand you to be

> saying is that we cannot legislate how Srila Prabhupada can or will appear

> to any particular devotee. This is very much a private affair. The

> spiritual principle of guru, sadhu and sastra is the all important thing,

> and this cannot be restricted to an institutional framework. You see a

> difference between institutional or managerial authority, and spiritual

> authority. In order to make the organisation run smoothly, a person

> working within ISKCON must follow managerial direction, but only when it

> is aligned with guru, sadhu and sastra. You therefore see the GBC as the

> ultimate managerial authority, but not necessarily the spiritual

> authority. Spiritual direction can come to a devotee in many different

> ways, not necessarily through institutional managers. It will always be

> recognised by sincere devotees, no matter how it manifests, but the

> dishonest will never recognise proper spiritual authority in any shape or

> form.

>

> These are the points I understand you to be making. Please let me know if

> I am right or wrong, and after that I will try to respond (probably with

> yet more questions, because I am not very submissive).

 

Thank you very much for taking the time to listen and to say all this. You

have got it right, but I wanted to take the opportunity to make a bit of a

clarification/improvement of what I originally wrote to you. I do not want

to say that the GBC Body is not a spiritual authority. They can certainly

take that role. I only have a problem with calling them the ultimate

spiritual authority. We should not try to institute some strict dichotomy

between spiritual roles and managerial roles. There is considerable

overlapping. In an institution such as ISKCON they are largely overlapping.

I said in my previous text that a spiritual authority should be followed

unquestioningly. I should have said that our ultimate spiritual authority

should be followed unquestioningly.

 

Your servant, Bhaktarupa Das