Resolutions from the 2006 GBC meetings

[Jahnava Nitai Das]

Here are the resolutions from this years GBC meetings. Each year they keep getting shorter, which means the real resolutions are "unpublished for legal reasons". Click the attachment below.

gbc2006res.pdf

[theist]

"Unpublished for legal reasons", Yeah right!? What do we have here? The beginnings of a secret power society behind the scenes being formed? A New Masonic order?... The New Illuminati?...........Star Chamber?

[Guest guest]

Oh what a shock. I am so surprised. We are not worthy or intelligent enough to understand. "Step forward and bow your head, the illuminated ones will see you now."

 

The beginnings, dear Theist, were when the speculation began in late 1977.

 

What you see here is the over-ripened and rotten fruit of all the worthless endeavors.

[Jahnava Nitai Das]

This is the reasons the resolutions come out three months after the meetings. They first pass them through their lawyers for three months to decide what should be kept private and what should be published.

[theist]

 

This is the reasons the resolutions come out three months after the meetings. They first pass them through their lawyers for three months to decide what should be kept private and what should be published.

 

These folks are just getting deeper and deeper into this. Run it by the lawyers before releasing it to the devotees. Sheesh... I bet the ordinary bhaktas know nothing of this and neither would we without JNdas.

 

"Sign up here to be a pure devotee. Don't worry about the fine print for now... you can get out your magnifying glass later and read how you are to surrender all your time energy property mind intelligence and unquestioning eternal love to your GBC properly stamped and authorized guru (as yet to be determined) who is probably not a child molester, addicted to porn or likely to run off with his massage therapist with millions of $ later on. For now just sign and get back to washing the pots."

[theist]

I guess we should just accept that these were "lawyers in good standing" since the GBC saw fit to do business with them. So we should just shut up and not raise a rukus or even question why like good little humble devotees.

 

"Why do we put up with this", you ask?

 

WELL DON'T ASK!!! IT HAS BEEN RESOLVED! :smash:

 

[Guest guest]

 

I bet the ordinary bhaktas know nothing of this and neither would we without JNdas."

 

I bet the ordinary bhaktas would rather chant and engage in service than wonder about GBC dealings. It seems like the ones that want to pick faults with the GBC are the ones most interested in these threads.

 

I liked the other thread about the point of views of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Sridhar Maharaj. Lets have more of those kind of threads/discussions and less of these threads.

[Kulapavana]

 

I bet the ordinary bhaktas would rather chant and engage in service than wonder about GBC dealings.

 

mushroom devotees*... that would be a dream for all GBCs...

 

bhaktas care because their lives are often shaped by GBC decissions.

 

For example: one thing missing from the official resolutions was a GBC discussion about reinitiations of disciples whose gurus have fallen down. dont you think bhaktas have the right to know about that? seems like more and more GBCs realize that they cant force these reinitiations on temple devotees because the scriptural base for such a requirement is quite shaky. GBC resolved to study the issue more (read: delay and procrastinate difficult decisions).

 

 

*kept in the dark and fed cowdung

[Guest guest]

Deconstructing 2006 GBC Resolutions

 

Let’s evaluate some of the 2006 GBC resolutions as presented recently in an article appearing here on the Sampradaya Sun.

 

401. Srila Prabhupada’s Disciples Encouraged

to take up Spiritual Master Role

[Action Order]

*Whereas Srila Prabhupada wrote that the world needs thousands of spiritual masters, and he desired his disciples to take up this role,”

Commentary:

In a display of gross ignorance, this GBC resolution presumes that the role of siksha-guru, the instruction spiritual master, which hundreds and thousands of devotees have been performing since the beginning of ISKCON, does not fall under the function of spiritual master. Immediately, they begin this subject with showing their gross ignorance about the fact that the siksha-guru principle is the principle foundation for the Gaudiya Sampradaya.

Srila Prabhupada unequivocally delineated a siksha-guru parampara in all his books and teachings to the devotees of ISKCON. He rejected to mention the official diksha-guru of Srila Bhaktivinode Thakur, Srila Gaurakishora babaji and Jagannatha das Babaji. Instead, Srila Prabhupada instructed ISKCON to follow the siksha-guru line of the predecessor acharyas.

The GBC is herewith taking their stand on the diksha-guru system of ritualistic formality in abject defiance of everything Srila Prabhupada has shown about the line of disciplic succession following the siksha-gurus who have really mentored and molded their disciples.

Most all of Srila Prabhupada’s followers have been gurus for many, many years as they preach and teach the message of Sri Caitanya all over the world.

To define guru strictly in terms of the diksha-guru is a blatant departure from the teachings of Srila Prabhupada.

*Whereas many of Srila Prabhupada’s disciples possess the qualification to function as spiritual masters,

Commentary:

Yes, this is true and they have been siksha-guru to many, many devotees for the last four decades.

*Whereas there exists a somewhat restrictive approach to empowering spiritual masters in ISKCON,

Commentary:

Spiritual masters are empowered by the orders of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and their own spiritual master – not by some bureaucratic committee that has been charged with managerial responsibility of a religious corporation. The GBC was never granted the power or authority by Srila Prabhupada to elect, approve or disqualify anyone as a spiritual master, though he did give the GBC authority to appoint officiating acharyas in the future as was needful.

The GBC can neither empower nor disqualify anyone as a spiritual master.

The authority to be spiritual master comes from the spiritual master and the orders of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.

The GBC has shown incomprehensible audacity and arrogance as they presume to hold authority over who can or cannot become spiritual master in the Sankirtan movement of Sri Caitanya.

*Whereas the already small number of ISKCON spiritual masters are steadily decreasing each year due to disease and unforeseen accidents,

Commentary:

Again, another myth, as the number of authorized diksha gurus in ISKCON at this time already surpasses the number of diksha-gurus that have ever acted within an acharya Sampradaya in the history of Gaudiya Vaishnavism.

Traditionally, all junior Vaishnavas deferred to the senior Vaishnava in the community as the acharya. There is no precedent for this kind of vast multiplicity of devotees acting as acharya within any Gaudiya community.

When a junior Vaishnava does not defer all honor and respect to the senior Vaishnava, this is known as maryada-vyatikrama – the overstepping of senior personalities.

The GBC guru system functions in total disregard of the Gaudiya tradition and heritage of deferring all honor and respect to senior Vaishnavas.

Traditionally, accepting the position of acharya and diksha-guru was something that was reluctantly accepted by the senior Vaishnava as his duty. It was not something a bunch of novice devotees were ready to jump into if they could find some gullible soul somewhere that was naïve enough to dedicate their life unto them.

This is what we call the process of the cheaters and the cheated.

*Whereas within ten years time we could conceivably lose up to half of our remaining Srila Prabhupada disciples who are actively preaching,

Commentary:

Then what are they going to do in the future about appointing trustees to the temples and ISKCON properties as well as the BBT?

Srila Prabhupada stipulated in his WILL that all future trustees of ISKCON properties would have to be HIS disciples.

When all the original ISKCON devotees have passed on, then there will be NO disciples of Srila Prabhupada to take over the responsibilities of being trustee to ISKCON properties.

*Whereas some qualified Srila Prabhupada disciples find the present system awkward and are too humble to solicit sponsorship for the role of spiritual master,

Commentary:

Humble or not, nobody should be soliciting sponsorship for the role of spiritual master. Being spiritual master is not a ROLE that someone plays in some great political drama. Being spiritual master is not a role. It is a position of empowerment that can only be awarded by the Lord.

We have got enough role players in the world. We don’t need any more role players.

What the world needs is teachers of Krishna consciousness who understand that formal initiation is a fraud if the diksha-guru does not deliver to the disciple the most essential and vital example of absolute love and sacrifice that can be an eternal inspiration and example to the disciple.

Lukewarm love of the spiritual master is a farce.

The spiritual master should evoke the highest kind of love in the heart of the disciple.

Most devotees find “the present system awkward” because in fact it is awkward that anybody should have to solicit permission from a committee of petty bureaucratic members of a managerial body for permission to execute the orders of the spiritual master.

*Therefore it is resolved that the GBC wishes to encourage all of Srila Prabhupada‘s initiated disciples in good standing to seriously consider taking up the role of spiritual master. Each GBC member should look for and identify disciples of Srila Prabhupada in good standing and urge them to take up the role of spiritual master, even if only in their local areas. A disciple of Srila Prabhupada in good standing who is willing to become a spiritual master shall go through the standard authorization procedure, and all local ten-person committees should be aware the GBC has already encouraged him to embrace this service.

Commentary:

So, now the bureaucrats feel it necessary to encourage all of the disciples of Srila Prabhupada “in good standing” to become gurus.

“In good standing” with who?

The management of a non-profit corporation?

Who decides who is in good standing?

Who is now going to assume the position to decide whom the Lord authorizes and whom he rejects?

The only good standing anyone needs is to be in good standing with the Lord.

It is irrelevant if one is in good standing with a committee of bureaucrats in charge of administering a non-profit corporation.

“A disciple of Srila Prabhupada in good standing who is willing to become a spiritual master shall go through the standard authorization procedure, and all local ten-person committees should be aware the GBC has already encouraged him to embrace this service.”

I rest my case. Such audacity and arrogance coming from persons who presume to be Vaishnavas is beyond comprehension.

[Bhakta Don Muntean]

Yes indeed ISKCON is now just another materialistic organization isn't it?

 

Do we have to wonder why ISKCON is for the most part a great big nothing - more than 40 years after being transplanted?

 

As Kulapavana noted - "one thing missing from the official resolutions was a GBC discussion about reinitiations of disciples whose gurus have fallen down. dont you think bhaktas have the right to know about that?" - so there it is - such libertated souls that make up the GBC!

 

Personally I think that its [GBC] become an aberration of what its original purpose was to be - what's worse is that we have a whole new generation of fanatic devotees [who learned from that system] who don't measure up either - but that won't stop them from operating as though they are - 'right'.

 

Do I sound a little peeved?

 

Well when we had lost our human rights here [in 2002] - over Krishna - then later told by the human rights commission "we don't cover Krishna here" - where were our GBC leaders? WHERE? [our local leaders aren't bad though they're sincere and dedicated] The matter was not unknown to some of them.

 

Then in 1994-5 - the [near] same thing happened in Edmonton [to my godbrother when he became a devotee] - and again - NO SUPPORT from the GBC or - even the local temple leaders!

 

Ten years ago [last month] I and my 'godbrother' gave up everything - to move to vancouver and take shelter of the devotees and the community there [after being pumped for years by other devotees to do just that] - what a joke!

 

Ten years later my godbrother still pains over that decision!

 

They [vancouver temple leaders] treated us very badly [beforehand they were knowing and okaying it - they knew we we giving up everything and we were coming there to stay in the ashram for awhile - to get work and then take a residence as close to the temple as possible for us to do regular service at the temple] and - they knew us for some time too [or do they know the prajalpa instead?].

 

If you're ever in edmonton temple look at the Altar - we [ron and i] did the tile etc., [bUT NOT THE GROUTING THAT IS ANOTHER'S MESS] on that altar - when the temple was built in 1995 [and the core of those 'leaders' made that a hell too! YOU HAVE NO IDEA].

 

Here is a poor picture I found - the best I could find - [online] it was taken on Rath 2004:

 

 

 

Had we done the grout it would have looked so much better - it really is a stunning altar otherwise!

 

So - the GBC do have lawyers - they pay to help them keep secrets from devotees yes indeed it seems that the real spirit of Prabhupada is absent now [driven out?] - but there are theories about that too...?

 

See for me now - I don't [for the most part] care about the GBC - it's one reason i never took to the path of initiation - yup - it's due to them...do i wish to give them ANY control over my life?

 

So how do we fix it? Do we care? Who needs them? Do we need them to know Prabhupada?

 

Gee whenever this enters my mind - i think of how Prabhupada's guru told him that is was better for him to not live in the ashram - it was something about the others there huh!

 

So this GBC better start to think like Prabhpada and give up this nonsense direction they have been forcing on ISKCON. Otherwise the ritviks may get all the devotees based only on that...

[Guest guest]

Wordsmith said,

 

 

Such audacity and arrogance coming from persons who presume to be Vaishnavas is beyond comprehension

 

That is understandable, due to these heavy circumstances, but I wish to point out the statements by one who was actually comprehending this as an evident fact in the year 1970, and would be saddened but probably not surprised at the epidemic growth of this unfortunate situation.

 

 

"Regarding the poisonous effect in our Society, it is a fact and I know where from this poison tree has sprung up and how it affected practically the whole Society in a very dangerous form. But it does not matter. Prahlad Maharaja was administered poison, but it did not act. Similarly Lord Krsna and the Pandavas were administered poison and it did not act. I think, in the same parampara system, that the poison administered to our Society will not act if some of our students are as good as Prahlad Maharaja. I have therefore given the administrative power to the GBC.

"You are also one of the members of the GBC, so you can think over very deeply how to save the situation. It is a fact however that the great sinister movement is within our Society. I have not heard anything from Krsnadasa or Shyamasundar, so all of you may try to save the Society from this dangerous position." (Letter from Srila Prabhupada to Hamsadutta, 9/2/70)

[theist]

 

I have therefore given the administrative power to the GBC.

 

Let us look closely at the word "administrative."

[Guest guest]

 

This is the reasons the resolutions come out three months after the meetings. They first pass them through their lawyers for three months to decide what should be kept private and what should be published.

 

Wasn't it Srila Prabhupada who said;

"secrecy means conspiracy"

 

Yes. It was.

[Guest guest]

 

Gee whenever this enters my mind - i think of how Prabhupada's guru told him that is was better for him to not live in the ashram - it was something about the others there huh!

 

 

Don,

If "the others" were baddies then why did Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur chooose to live with them and not at the house of Abhay Charan Dey? Srila Abhay Charan Dey is a great devotee, no doubt, but he spent only a few hours in the direct association of Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur.

[Bhakta Don Muntean]

 

Don,

If "the others" were baddies then why did Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur chooose to live with them and not at the house of Abhay Charan Dey? Srila Abhay Charan Dey is a great devotee, no doubt, but he spent only a few hours in the direct association of Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur.

Is that supposed to be an indirect insult to him? As for only a few hours - takes only a moment.

[Kulapavana]

 

Don,

If "the others" were baddies then why did Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur chooose to live with them and not at the house of Abhay Charan Dey? Srila Abhay Charan Dey is a great devotee, no doubt, but he spent only a few hours in the direct association of Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur.

 

We should avoid the temptation to minimize the standards or devotion of another Vaishnava or a group of Vaishnavas. Don's statement can be taken as minimizing GM and yours, as minimizing SP. Actually both cases were extremely glorious and performed enormous service to Lord Krsna.

 

and in terms of quality of asrama life, Iskcon could learn a lot from GM in terms of purity and standards, while recognizing the tremendous contribution Iskcon made to spreading of Vaishnavism all over the world.

[Guest guest]

 

Is that supposed to be an indirect insult to him? As for only a few hours - takes only a moment.

 

No insult was intended.

 

And yes it is true, he spent just a few hours in personal contact with his Guru.

 

But your statement about "the others" was certainly insulting to those great devotees who Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur stayed with and taught his teachings to, day after day for many years. Devotees who served him, followed his every instruction, and at the end who even placed him in his towm. He was intimately connected with those devotees and it is sinful to criticize them.

 

Abhay Babu was a grhasta and he lived in his home, as is customary. What he did is perfect. But to criticize the sannyasis and others who lived at the Math is offensive.

[Guest guest]

Well then according to your logic, "Abhay Babu" was a great offender, as he relentlessly criticized many of those who surrounded Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati, using such strong terms as Snake and Useless.

 

It is wrong to criticize one who is sincere and makes a temporary fall-down but sincerely continues in service.

 

It is negligent to remain silent when a person repeatedly and unrepentantly acts sinfully on the strength of the holy name.

[Kulapavana]

 

Well then according to your logic, "Abhay Babu" was a great offender, as he relentlessly criticized many of those who surrounded Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati, using such strong terms as Snake and Useless.

 

he did it as a teacher speaking to his disciples but on his deathbed he did indeed apologize for that.

 

while SP criticizing his Godbrothers is one thing, what many of of his disciples are doing is completely offensive, unproductive and unneccessary.

[theist]

 

Wasn't it Srila Prabhupada who said;

"secrecy means conspiracy"

 

Yes. It was.

[Bhakta Don Muntean]

 

Well then according to your logic, "Abhay Babu" was a great offender, as he relentlessly criticized many of those who surrounded Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati, using such strong terms as Snake and Useless.

 

It is wrong to criticize one who is sincere and makes a temporary fall-down but sincerely continues in service.

 

It is negligent to remain silent when a person repeatedly and unrepentantly acts sinfully on the strength of the holy name.

 

You got it...!

[Guest guest]

I'm just trying to understand your logic, Bhakta Don and other like-minds.

 

Is this how things are:

All of Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur's disciples who lived with him were useless. Only Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami is worthy of our respect.

[Bhakta Don Muntean]

 

I'm just trying to understand your logic, Bhakta Don and other like-minds.

 

Is this how things are:

All of Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur's disciples who lived with him were useless. Only Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami is worthy of our respect.

 

Not exactly! But - there are those from 'over there' that have or do understate or otherwise minimize Srila Prabhupada and his efforts - by saying the many things they have - as such the respect they get is 'formal' and that is all.

 

I take it this way:

 

...Among Vaisnavas there may be some difference of opinion due to everyone’s personal identity, but despite all personal differences...Krsna consciousness must go on. We can see that under the instructions of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami Maharaja began preaching the Krsna consciousness movement in an organized way within the past hundred years. The disciples of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami Maharaja are all Godbrothers, and although there are some differences of opinion, and although we are not acting conjointly, every one of us is spreading this Krsna consciousness movement according to his own capacity... [sB 4.28.31, PURPORT]

 

Now there are those from GM side that had/have been telling people that Prabhupada didn't give us everything we need - planting seeds of doubt about Prabhupada with too much esoterica topics and not centering on the basic points.

 

Just my humble opinion. But are these others all useless NO!

[Guest guest]

 

Now there are those from GM side that had/have been telling people that Prabhupada didn't give us everything we need - planting seeds of doubt about Prabhupada with too much esoterica topics and not centering on the basic points.

 

Just my humble opinion. But are these others all useless NO!

 

I agree about the esoterica; it seems intellectually pretentious and silly for Westerners to get deeply involved with topics like madhurya-lila and siddha-pranali. Srila Prabhupada knew his audience and presented basic sadhana-bhakti...if we can master those lessons, that should be sufficient.

[Bhakta Don Muntean]

 

I agree about the esoterica; it seems intellectually pretentious and silly for Westerners to get deeply involved with topics like madhurya-lila and siddha-pranali. Srila Prabhupada knew his audience and presented basic sadhana-bhakti...if we can master those lessons, that should be sufficient.

 

Not just westerners - modern audiences aren't able to enter these levels - just like that.

 

An example is this - while we can explain the curiosity of wanting to know what is the spiritual realm and what comprises it and its activities - it is also moot - as knowing 'that' information isn't necessarily going to get us there.

 

Also - Prabhupada didn't go around saying 'you are in this rasa [relationship] with God' - that wasn't [and isn't] important to our liberation either.

 

If we are drowning and the coast guard comes to get us - will they first explain to the drowning person what coast guard is and what a life preserver is and how their boat works? No. They shall just rescue the person.

 

In that way Prabhupada has given what we need and - all this other information serves to distract one from the serious basics.

 

Only a few people may be qualified to deal in these deeper subjects - like Prabhupada - but did he do that - what is the bulk of his message?