Brainstorming In Mayapura

July 5, 2003

GBC Hansard Report 6 -- Brainstorming in Mayapura

GBC Examines ISKCON's Problems

MAYAPURA, INDIA, Feb. 6, 1999 -- Despite many favourable areas going well in ISKCON that were reviewed yesterday, GBC members agree there are also serious issues that need addressing. Today they decided to start examining those issues for possible solutions. They compared their notes with work collected by the GBC Deputies.

Day 2 of the GBC meetings began at 10 o'clock this morning with a kirtan led by His Holiness Trivikrama Swami.

At 10:15 AM, Ravindra Svarupa Prabhu read from the preface of the Nectar of Instruction. Srila Prabhupada writes, "In all spiritual affairs, one's first duty is to control his mind and senses. Unless one controls his mind and senses, one cannot make any advancement in spiritual life. Everyone within this material world is engrossed in the modes of passion and ignorance. One must promote himself to the platform of goodness, sattva-guna, by following the instructions of Rupa Gosvami, and then everything concerning how to make further progress will be revealed."

Ravindra Svarupa Prabhu explained that for the next few days the GBC Body would focus on the problems of ISKCON.

The process began by asking each GBC member to present what he or she feels are ISKCON's most serious problems.

During this section of the meeting, Braja Bihari Prabhu acted as the facilitator. Working with a blackboard and large, white pin-up sheets, he asked each GBC member to state what the most important topics needing addressing in ISKCON today are.

Braja Bihari Prabhu gave each GBC member a short period to say what they thought were ISKCON's problems, while Tyaga Caitanya and Ananta Vijaya Prabhus wrote the summary of the points on the board.

The goal was to gather a list of ideas, and then boil it down to 3 or 5 main points. GBC members were informed that their conclusions would be compared with conclusions gathered previously by the GBC Deputies.

As the session began, GBC members began bringing up many points, one after another. Their points included the importance of humility on all levels of ISKCON, qualifications of gurus, and implementation of simple living and high thinking for everyone. Also discussed was possibly excessive emphasis on diksa, the ritvik influence in ISKCON, and lack of financial accountability of gurus and GBCs.

Sudharma dasi made the point that it is difficult to bring it down to one or two points. She feels it is imperative for GBCs to understand and truly appreciate the reality of the devotees' lives.

Ravindra Svarupa suggested a major problem has been the failure of devotees to take shelter of Srila Prabhupada in his current vani/book form. If we want to take shelter of Prabhupada, we must understand how to take shelter of him in his current form, which is through vani, or following his instructions.

After the first round was completed, Braja Bihari Prabhu asked the GBC members to go over the list and pick out those points that they felt were the most important. He then went around the room a second time and each GBC member tried to boil it down to a few major points.

Some of the guests and Deputies also participated.

In this round, Bhakti Charu Swami suggested that we have failed to maintain our devotees' spiritual lives. Many of them have gone away.

Danavir Goswami mentioned the lack of a justice system in ISKCON. Lack of emphasis on Varnasrama and farming was mentioned. Restructuring the GBC was also one of the points.

At 11:40 there was a ten-minute break as the facilitators tried to organize the points the GBC members listed.

After the break, they tried to nail down two or three main points that the GBCs agreed were key issues that must be dealt with this year before leaving Mayapur.

Harivilasa said the main point devotees want to see is guru-reform, and Prabhavisnu Swami agreed with that point. A straw vote was taken to see if the discussion of guru-tattva was the number one priority. The issue was overwhelmingly agreed upon. A further straw vote was taken to include financial accountability in guru-reform discussions.

Aniruddha dasa from Australia asked if guru reform includes a discussion of ritvik, but Badrinarayan said that they have reserved ritvik as a separate issue on another day.

Padyavali Prabhu made a point, agreed upon by everyone, that Srila Prabhupada's position should be discussed even before guru-reform. Her idea was warmly received, and it was decided to include it in the discussions on guru-reform.

Sesa Prabhu suggested that there are GBC members who are not gurus with whom devotees still have issues. Therefore, he sees the role of the GBCs and how they function as a major concern among devotees. A straw vote was taken, and this was accepted as the second major issue needing addressing.

Altogether, the GBCs accepted four areas as areas of prime concern, including Guru-reform, the function of the GBC (and the ISKCON constitution), facilitating devotees' spiritual progress and caring for devotees.

At 12:30 PM, Braja Bihari asked Kalakanta Prabhu to hand out a sheet of paper describing what devotees around the world feel are the main issues that need dealing with. GBC members were asked to study it to see if what GBCs put together in their brainstorming session are in line with what devotees around the world feel.

Someone asked how the Deputies decided to include particular points on their paper. "They were chosen to be included on the sheet because of the frequency of their appearance in our response forms," Aniruddha dasa replied.

Later, Aniruddha representing the GBC Deputies, admitted to CHAKRA that the points presented to the GBC are not very elegantly arranged, "but it gives an idea of what everyone agrees upon are problems in our society." He told the GBC Body that his general observation is that most devotees in our society are consistent in understanding what our problems are.

Ravindra Svarupa said that he sees congruence in what the general devotees have seen as problem areas and what the GBCs have come up with. In other words, he feels the GBCs have much agreement with what the Deputies gathered together and presented to the GBC.

Braja Bihari Prabhu then said the GBCs would be divided into subcommittees, which will meet in different areas after lunch. Because the GBCs are working on this topic, they have given all the managerial functions to the Deputies and are expecting them to do a lot of practical work this year.

The first mission after lunch is to define what are the problems.

The second step is to brainstorm on possible solutions. The next step is to go through the brainstorming ideas and come up with solutions that seem practical, and then narrow it down. Finally they will discuss how to practically implement the conclusions and set a time frame for implementation. Going through these different phases will take several days to work out.

After summarizing the procedure, Harivilasa Prabhu raised his hand. He had an objection saying that the GBC needs to frankly discuss what exactly happened just after Srila Prabhupada's disappearance. He didn't feel the plan of action of the Executive Committee and Braja Bihari would properly address this key issue and felt it should be discussed in a plenary session. This was debated back and forth.

It was finally decided that Harivilasa's concerns had merit and should be discussed, but it was best to first discuss it at the subcommittee level, since working in a small group gives one a greater opportunity for voicing opinions and seeking solutions.

Since each of the four subcommittees will discuss identical issues, and then compare notes in the plenary session to see how they are doing in their progress, it was felt Harivilasa's points could be thoroughly researched.

After lunch, the GBC members met with their subcommittee groups and began the process outlined above.