Declaration of Independence: congruent in the context of our ISKCON society

krsna · July 5, 2008

Independence Day

BY: ROCANA DASA

Jul 04, CANADA (SUN) — Today the United States celebrates the Fourth of July, which marks the nation's independence from British rule. Independence Day is one of the few occasions when individual Americans stop to really consider the meaning of concepts like "freedom", "unalienable rights", and "just government". The mood of nationalism will no doubt be poignant in the U.S. today, particularly on this year's Fourth of July, as the country's economic and social strengths diminish, civil rights are steadily debased, and the gulf widens between citizens and their leaders and lawmakers.

While devotees understand that nationalism is simply a facet of the bodily conception, there is still much to be learned from the Independence Day phenomenon. Many times, Srila Prabhupada emphasized the fact that when the citizens are suffering, it is due to bad leadership. In pure Vedic culture the King was influenced by the brahmans, whose opinions, advice, and complaints informed and shaped the King's decisions. The King was not free to assert autonomous rule over the people, because the brahmans had the spiritual potency to generate a reaction that would cause the King himself to suffer if he would not correct the course of his poor policies.

In today's Kali-yuga civilization, the common people no longer have the protection of the brahmans, and our world leaders are free to lord their power over the people, for good, bad or worse.

In our own spiritual society, ISKCON members are encouraged to rely upon the Governing Body Commission, put in place to function as the spiritual authority for the community of devotees. As we all know, when Srila Prabhupada was physically present he had oversight control of his GBC, much like the brahmans controlled the Vedic kings. Since the Sampradaya Acarya's physical departure, however, our GBC leaders have consistently demonstrated a lack of spiritual purity and potency, what to speak of their abject refusal to be accountable to the members for their leadership decisions.

In ISKCON there is no voting, no constitution, no guaranteed rights, no functional judiciary, no free press, no means to remediate or remove corrupt leaders… no rights for the individual devotee. In fact, the devotee does not even get the benefit of recognized status in the society. A determination of "good standing" is typically only made when the leaders wish to press the point that an individual is not in good standing.

So while the United States Declaration of Independence is a nationalist document intended to mandate the governance of a mundane society, we can still learn much by considering it in the context of our own spiritual society.

Many devotees have called for the implementation of Srila Prabhupada's Direction of Management document, which provides for regularly scheduled elections of GBC members, but their pleas fall on deaf ears. We increasingly hear the call for a "Vote of Confidence" of our GBC body, and informal polling over the years has shown that at least for those on the outside of the institution (where more than 90% of Srila Prabhupada's direct disciples find themselves), the GBC body would get a resounding vote of "No Confidence".

Unfortunately, as we have pointed out many times, our only means for voting in ISKCON is with our hearts, feet, and wallets. And we see the sad effects of this voting system, as Srila Prabhupada's beloved spiritual mission has systematically fragmented into a kaleidoscope of independent temples, centers, and mathas, many of which no longer adhere to the Sampradaya Acarya's strict standards.

We hold on to the hope that one day, the grassroots devotees worldwide will stand up, shake off their lethargy, raise their voices and demand accountability and justice from their GBC leaders. With each new scandal and faith-dissolving episode in the society, that eventuality seems to come closer. Sadly, Srila Prabhupada's spotless reputation must continually be defended against nonsense behaviour and asiddhantic deviation on the part of ISKCON's leaders. We can only hope that the day of change comes quickly.

In this mood, we encourage our readers to consider the United States Declaration of Independence, which is essentially a plea to God and a statement of intent by the grassroots citizens, who stood up and shook off the oppressive leaders who refused to represent the wishes of the citizenry. We're sure the similarities will not go unnoticed. We've taken the liberty (pun intended) to add emphasis to points we find particularly congruent in the context of our ISKCON society.

Declaration of Independence

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IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events,

it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another

, and to assume among the Powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which

the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God

entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that

they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation

.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are

endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights

, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That

to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government

having its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly

all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed

. But when a

long train of abuses

and usurpations pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism,

it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government

, and to provide new Guards for their future security. Such has been the patient suffrance of these Colonies; and

such is now the necessity

which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws

, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass laws

of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected

; whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice

, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made

Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries

.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers

to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to

subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution

, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their acts of pretended legislation.

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from Punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing taxes on us without our Consent:

For

depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offenses:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighboring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally, the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and

declaring themselves invested with Power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever

:

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Capitive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people

.

Nor have We been wanting in attention to our British brethren.

We have warned them

from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us.

We have reminded them

of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here.

We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity

, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connection and correspondence.

They too have been deaf to the voice of justice

and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the United

States of America, in General Congress, assembled,

appealing to the Supreme Judge

of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right out to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do.

And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the Protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.