"Tolerate and Cooperate"

July 27, 2003

To keep working for the spiritual master's mission is a great test in tolerance.

It requires great patience,extreme tolerance and maximum levels of cooperation.

This is our austerity now :to faithfully carry out the mission of the spiritual master.

Is there a point when cooperation is no longer feasible?

July 27, 2003

GBC is ultimate arbiter for Prabhupada's followers

by Dvibhuja das

Actually, my original article was simply intended as a letter to the editor, and was not expressly intended for publication, although it is quite okay that it was posted. I make that point so you will know I didn't formally try to make an argument.

This one is a little more formal, though and its main point is that, in any organizational structure, there must be an ultimate authority. Srila Prabhupada made the arrangement of the GBC. To follow the GBC is not blind following, but practical and common sense.

Srila Prabhupada's arrangements always exude a deep amount of understanding of how the material energy works. He knew there would be so many egos bouncing around in ISKCON and that, many times, one would become adamant that his was the right way and not be willing to accept another's view. In such a case, what is to be done? A pandit, so to speak, can argue all day long using different quotes, usually to the point of winning by wearing the other party down by sheer exhaustion with arguing.

Also, there is the motivation of the heart to take into consideration. After all, we are conditioned souls, so we are not communing with Supersoul, by and large. So how to break the stalemate? Shoot it out? Maybe court? Hmm, the "sue me sue blues" somehow didn't seem too appropriate to Srila Prabhupada, so he created the GBC. That is the basic point.

The invocation of the blind following or corrupted-state clause is basically nullified by some amount of faith in the sincerity of others and the divine arrangement of Srila Prabhupada. It boils down to: either you have it or want to have it, or you don't and are burned out on trying to get it. I used the word "sentiment" almost facetiously and, therefore, the article should not be judged on this capricious mistake.

Rather, the point is that the GBC is the ultimate arbiter in our movement. If you don't like it then it pretty much boils down to being a rebel without a real cause because everything exists within Srila Prabhupada's ISKCON GBC system including the system for being a leader. It requires working within the system.

You reject the system and say it is corrupt. Only one who is willing to work within the system for the purification of the system and further implementation of Srila Prabhupada's desire can positively critique the system.

Otherwise, at some point the system will become nullified by those who reject it as impure and then they will want their system to become supreme. Sorry, the Acharya clause is invoked here. You can't change the system established by the Founder-Acharya -- in this case, His Divine Grace Srila A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, ISKCON Founder-Acharya -- although we are all entitled to be a part of serving it in a humble state of mind, praying for his mercy to guide us all as we try to serve him purely.