GBC Apologizes To Pradyumna Prabhu

July 5, 2003

Dear Devotees, I would like to offer my obeisances to all of you, and send my prayers that Supersoul will correctly guide the GBC in their ongoing deliberations in Mayapura, India this year. For those who may have missed my editorial comment in "GBC Hansard Report 1", I will take the liberty of quoting myself:

The most notable results of the GBC meetings to date, in my opinion, was the exciting and extremely encouraging report from Kalakantha das (see GBC Hansard Reports 5A, B and C) and the ready, if long-overdue, official apology by the GBC for its attempts 20 years ago to anathematize His Grace Sriman Pradyumna das Adhikari, my beloved brother and extremely dedicated servant of Srila Prabhupada's book translation mission. It was Sriman Pradyumna das who first enabled Srila Prabhupada to speed up his Srimad Bhagavatam publication schedule by freeing him of the burdensome tasks of transliterating the Devanagari into a romanized representation, and writing the word- by-word dictionary-style translations of the Sanskrit. Without Pradyumna dasa's early efforts and the later efforts of others he trained, it is doubtful that Srila Prabhupada would have been enabled to complete as much of the translation of his chef d'oeuvre as he in fact accomplished.

The entire community of Vaisnavas around the world owes Sriman Pradyumna dasa an enormous debt of gratitude which can only be repaid by a personal commitment on the part of every Vaisnava to rededicate himself or herself body, mind and soul to the life-saving preaching mission of ISKCON, which Srila Prabhupada established, declaring, "I am ISKCON. ISKCON I am." Whatever Pradyumna now decides to do, whether he chooses to rejoin ISKCON or not, we love him forever as a real brother in faith to ISKCON's preaching mission, and we esteem him highly for his ongoing, eternal and unquenchable service to the Hare Krishna movement as a pure devotee disciple of Srila Prabhupada.

What a shame it is that ISKCON has been deprived of his wonderful association for twenty years! Congratulations to the entire GBC body for humbly acknowledging their error in unfairly stigmatizing this sober and intelligent devotee!

Again, I would like to heartily commend my esteemed god-brother, friend and siksa-guru H.H. Vipramukhya Maharaj for his obvious commitment to openness in the councils of the GBC. All glories to our Founder Acharya His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, to his many pure devotee disciples, and to Lord Gauranga.

Best wishes,

Ananda das

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Deputies Meet to Decide on Vital Managerial and Practical Issues

By Vipramukhya Swami

MAYAPURA, INDIA, Feb. 7, 1999 -- While GBC members met in four subcommittees to discuss the problems of ISKCON, Deputies met in the Lotus Conference Room to decide on vital managerial and practical issues plaguing ISKCON. The day began when Badrinarayan Prabhu addressed the GBC Deputies.

Badrinarayan explained that the Deputies will get a chance to participate in what the GBC members are discussing, but that there are urgent, practical matters that the GBCs need the Deputies to handle first. "What we have given the Deputies are not small matters," Badrinarayan said.

Ramabhadra expressed some concern about the Deputies not being involved in the GBC discussions yesterday afternoon and today. "I have faith that the GBCs are doing a good job, but I also think there's a synergy that is created when a younger devotee mixes with older devotees. When you're swimming in with the big fish it brings you up to a higher level of competency," he told Badrinarayan.

Badrinarayan appreciated the comments, but said, "If we get all this serious stuff the Deputies are handling, we won't be able to discuss on the GBC level what the problems are." He assured Ramabhadra and the Deputies that whatever the GBCs discuss will be reviewed by the Deputies in detail and there will be key interaction on all levels. "If the Deputies feel there is someone they want to send to the GBC meeting right now, just send them up."

The Deputies seemed to be in agreement and amicable about the arrangement.

In the Deputy meeting today, the first order of business was to read a letter by Pradyumna dasa in August 1978. It is in connection with a proposal by Hari Sauri that the GBC Body should apologize to Pradyumna prabhu. He says he was mistreated after Prabhupada's disappearance and this was never rectified.

Hari Sauri Prabhu read a long letter to H.H. Satsvarupa dasa Goswami written by Pradyumna prabhu in August of 1978. In the letter, Pradyumna dasa predicted many of the problems ISKCON later experienced as a result of the zonal acharya system. However, when the GBCs met in Vrindavan in 1979, before the GBC meetings in Mayapur, they "demonized" him and attempted, unsuccessfully, to smash his ideas.

Naturally, the Deputies voted to send the apology and that if possible it should be delivered to Pradyumna prabhu by one of the original GBC/Gurus who were on the GBC at the time.

Next, the Deputies discussed a 7-page proposal by Sivarama Swami called "Establishing Siksa Principles and Application." The Deputies appreciated the thought and depth of the resolution.

The proposal is divided into two parts, called Principles and Application. After some discussion, it was decided that the Deputies generally agree with the principles of the proposal, and decided to concentrate on the application part of the proposal.

Padyavali dasi Prabhu suggested that application point number 14, which deals with the preeminent position of Srila Prabhupada as Founder-Acarya of ISKCON, should be moved to become point number 1.

Her proposal was accepted.

If passed by the GBC Body, the full text of the proposal will be made available to CHAKRA along with all GBC resolutions.

January 1, 2004

Where is Pradyumna Prabhu at now? I am praying that he will finish the translation of Prabhupadas Srimad Bhagavatam to bring closure to the problems in ISKCOn. Thanks. Hari Bol!