AN OPEN LETTER TO THE GBC & MANAGERS OF ISKCON

[Pankaja_Dasa]

 

 

 

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE GBC & MANAGERS OF ISKCON

 

As a lecturer in temples, it has been a long time now that I implemented in my classes the method of participation by the people with great results, gaining also criticism from some devotees, that usually are not helping people substantially and not letting do either.

 

In my view there are seemingly "advanced" devotees that are stopping the natural flow of Krishna consciousness and trying to establish the institution in a very mechanical way and low level of politics and power by the sake of it, of course all spiced up with the excuse of "serving Prabhupada" and everything and anything you can do if you are an authority again "for the sake of preaching".

 

Free flow of information

 

There has been a substantial lack of information and manipulation for temple devotees, in class at the temple, on the internet and in any way these retrograde devotees have implemented.

 

Instead of promoting the free spirit, discrimination and open mind characteristics of brahminical culture, they have been promoting the culture of institutionalizing everything, putting laws and rules to any ant that moves, and squaring the circle, all, of course in the name of "cooperate with the GBC or else..."

 

Horizontal management

 

Real authority is not imposed but commanded, and once and for all, please dear members of the GBC stop trying to control every aspect of our movement, that is not what Srila Prabhupada wanted of you.

 

You are there to "maintain ISKCON spiritual and philosophical standards", not to control every bit of grass growing in the temple's lawn.

 

It is what Srila Prabhupada wanted, clearly seen, when some disciples wanted repeatedly to verticalize the authority in ISKCON and Srila Prabhupada stopped them. "not that they have to come to you for every instruction and you tell them what to do"

 

Has been this control tendency, that springs from the mode of passion, what have put the GBC in jeopardy sooo many times, and working at that level makes them fall into the lower modes, and what you will expect thereafter is only problems, like so many court cases, etc

 

This is a problem of priorities. It is not that we reject management of properties, monies, taking care of devotees, etc.

 

Priorities in order

 

The priority should be the individual over the institution, not otherwise, cause the institution is made from individuals, and what is the value of a building or a bank account anyway? Our goal is to help people and the first ones are the ones that are already in temples. Not that you exploit people in temples to advance KC and help other people. First things first, ladies and gentleman.

 

Srila Prabhupada told Danavira Maharaja in a letter that now "it is the time to boil the milk", and be more concerned with caring for our present devotees, that they do not go away, rather than just going on to make more and more devotees, and not caring for them . Like Alexander the Great, that conquered an Empire, and went on to conquer another, while the one he just conquered was falling apart. We just witnessed on Vyasa Puja Day for Srila Prabhupada, that although there are close to 100 Prabhupada disciples in Montreal, six attended.)

 

The problems of our dwindling movement have not been Narayan Maharaj or other vaishnava preachers taking over, the gurukulis lawsuit or the devotees who left.

 

The problem is "us". Let us be happy, loving, detached and people will come to us, things will go well with media, courts, and other institutions, and of course with our own membership.

 

Please stop banning people, books and start a positive attitude, not a crisis management one.

 

Being proactive to solve the problems of individuials one to one, will make a healthy movement., that is the cure.

 

Misconceptions or incomplete knowledge

 

I remember reading about how the real problem is that we do not do the spiritual program, 16 rounds etc, but how many older devotees have been following these principles striclty and yet having such a materialistic ego trip?

 

Which shows another misconception added all these years: The lack of internal work along with the spiritual external practices. A person can chant Hare Krishna 16 rounds, be perffectly OK externally in dress, service etc and still harvest a fierce power trip agenda, that spoils the whole thing and will lead her/him to material activities sooner or later.

 

Please stop judging the devotees according to the externals.

 

Would have to be, the sincerity of purpose and not the external.

 

Sometimes the external happenings for a devotee can be not very nice, according to present karma, etc, but we should be able to judge by the sincerity of purpose and real preaching effort, which means going out of your way to preach.

 

Let's become sensitive gentlemen

 

Another horrible thing that had happened for so many years is the lack of human feeling, sensitiveness, friendship and love from the so many "stalwart" devotees in charge, leading to so many cases of child, women, devotee and cow's abuse in all fields you can imagine.

 

All is based on "it is your karma, Prabhu" philosophy and "feelings are maya" misconception.

 

Arjuna was such an exalted devotee, still he was feeling sad in the Battle of Kuruksetra and Krishna would say that it is normal you feel like that cause you are a great devotee.

 

We have many examples of Srila Prabhupada's care for the personal well being and health of devotees and he was crying to see the people's suffering condition.

 

If even such exalted devotees are having feelings, who are we to discard them as "maya"?

 

If we act, manage and relate to others in the lower modes of nature, what can we expect?

 

I just finished taking Dhira Govinda Prabhus Life Skills Transformational Workshop , and I learned that a lot of devotees are screwed up because of repressing their feelings, never discussing them and having them come out at a later time in an unhealthy way. It is another form of impersonalism to deny our feelings, or invalidate the feelings of others. As Vaisnavas, we are supposed to be the most in touch with our and others feelings. (Gaura dasa)

 

Who and what is an authority

 

Being an authority does not mean being the controller of ignorant people that do not really know what is going on, but the servant of special people that want to serve Krishna.

 

Please, managers of ISKCON act as servants, facilitators, managing to unite people's efforts to please SP, not exploiting them at any cost to advance the "cause" meaning increase numbers of devotees, temples and bank accounts.

 

That is not the purpose, it is a question of priorities, what you think is first and foremost, that models your entire life and actions.

 

I have heard many times that "we have to get money to advance KC".

 

WRONG wrong, that is the mistaken course:

 

1. Money, temple numbers

2. Control of people

3. spiritual standards

 

Right:

 

1. caring for people on an individual basis

2. spiritual standards

3. managerial issues,

 

That is why child molesters have not been handed over (yet) to justice, because they were useful for temple, maybe brahmacari, head pujari, etc, or friends with influential authorities. So, here we are, institution before basic principles, before individuals.

 

That is caused by lack of faith, which is a characteristic of lower nature.

 

Faith in Krishna's protection and mercy is seen only in the mode of goodness, when you work in the lower modes, faith is replaced with plans, politics, etc

 

In that case, I would expell the devotee molester, despite the seemingly big problem arising from not having a head pujari or similar.

 

Then, Krishna would enact the miracle, and in no time, by His will another better pujari will be there, or else we close, but no compromising in such a shameful way.

 

Please authorities in ISKCON, stop doing these kind of things, and I assure you, ISKCON will flourish beyond our expectations.

 

The problem is that the basic managerial principles laid down by SP are not being implemented.

 

Sunday Feast

 

Charging for the sunday feast is another symptom of rajo guna. Before there was no charge and things were growing up like anything, nobody was worried about "where the monies for the bhoga are going to come?"

 

Now, we are so smart that we changed everything and see the result.

 

Another is that temples won't allow hippies to come, on the plea of looking for more elevated type of person.

 

Well Sirs, from where came the vast majority of respected nowadays sannyasis and senior devotees?

 

Should we continue to refuse the opportunity to a sector that has nourished our movenet for decades? The only ban I put when I was in charge of a temple is cleanliness

 

We politely stopped at the door people that were not clean, and we gave prasadam plates for them to honour outside the temple. That was the ban and everybody uderstood that. No dramas at all.

 

In fact you could see some of these people next Sunday, very neat and clean to be able to enter the temple and participate.

 

Sometines we accomodated hippies and millionaires in the same temple room in the floor with the same prasadam. That is the meaning of Krishna's mercy.

 

Nowadays you can see whoever is important guest (meaning rich) he or she is automatically segregated and moved to the presidents office to a table while the "commons" are outside

 

Special attention should be given to everyone and then the rich will see that principle is being upheld, and will want to help seeing such spiritual advancement.

 

Acting otherwise we will atract people that would like to be flattered to get some money from them, but really, we are not after money, are we?

 

This is a very hellish situation you are describing. I cant imagine where this is going on. WE also forbade dirty punks from entering the temple and gave them prasadam outside, but as you mentioned, even in Srila Prabhupada's presence, he welcomed such "dirty people", and gave them his love, and turned them into empowered preachers. Shalagrama prabhu recites these stories: There was a devotee that could not be described. SP (Shalagrama prabhu) was in the prasadam hall of New Mayapura, and a guest walked in. His eyes were crossed, and he looked like he took all the drugs in the world at one time. He was drooling, spastic, his arms and legs going in different directions. SP said to himself, Prabhupada here's the test. If this guy will become a bhakta, then this process is the most powerful in the world. SP brought him a big plate of prasadam, and he could barely focus on it. He took to the process, and went on to become a mathematics teacher for the gurukula, likes to do magic for the kids, and was originally from Columbia. He went on to become very neat and clean, and initiated by Bhagavan prabhu. He went on to get married, etc..

 

Another godbrother Sahasra Murdhana prabhu, the first Prabhupada disciple from France was on a morning walk with Srila Prabhupada. Suddenly, from out of nowhere, a guy approached that was filthy, toothless, and foaming from his mouth. He abruptly grabbed Srila Prabhupadas feet during his walk, doing full dandavats, and the devotees could not pull him off. Srila Prabhupada bent down and patted his head saying "Poor boy, poor boy." This devotee went on to become Abhinandana das prabhu, a flute player, sankirtana devotee, etc...Prior to his decrepid condition, he had been a famous poet in France.

 

Akhilesvara prabhu, when he first came to the Paris temple, was told to take his prasadam and sit on a bench, and not come inside due to his rough condition.

 

Theres a joke that if Gaura Kisora dasa babaji Maharaja came to Iskcon today, at many temples, we might ask him to take a plate and go sit on a bench,at a "respectable" distance from the temple .

 

Why not just tell people to clean the next time, but still let them in? W Hy? humiliate the person on their first visit to the temple? Its a miracle when someone comes to the temple. Are we better than Srila Prabhupada to not allow people to come in? Srila Prabhupada allowed anyone to come in. Out of millions of people, somone is coming to the temple. It makes no difference whether someone has millions of diamonds or only has the dirty shirt on his back.

 

For people who are not so clean, we can arrange for them to eat in an area that may be less ofensive to others, with someone to talk to them! Otherwise, we are becoming just like the smarta brahmanas. Like the brahmans who were approaced by the gopas for food, and were chased away due to their so called performance of yajnas. The gopis out of love gave them everything. The bottom line is, where is love ?

 

Paris has 8 million people, and two stinky people may come to the temple, and we tell them to go sit on the bench??? As soon as they come, they suffer their first humiliation. We have a lot of growing up to do, still.

 

by Shalagrama dasa (acbsp), Gaura dasa (acbsp) & Jagannatha Mishra dasa

 

 

--

 

[Airicky]

where was this letter published?

[Airicky]

Haven't seen this letter in any of the devotee news sites? Again, where was it published?

[Pankaja_Dasa]

 

Its site of a friend.

 

http://www.vedalearn.com/healingiskcon/index.php?pagename=Main.Essay1

 

Its not political essay. So don't jump to any conclutions.

[Airicky]

Because I wanted to know where it was published. Since it was titled an open letter I was curious as to why I had not seen it on any of the usual devotee news sites.

 

Looks pretty political to me.

[Guest guest]

Hare Krishna.

 

After reading this letter, I whole-heartedly agree with what these prabhus have written. If we do not set a model for the younger generation, than Iskcon will go nowhere.

[Guest guest]

"Looks pretty political to me. "

 

political is not a bad word.. please tell us your realization and impressions about the points of the letter