Why Community Does Not Work in ISKCON
BY: DUSYANTA DASA
Mar 20, 2012 — WALES, UK (SUN) — Living in such a simply beautiful part of the planet in Wales, UK has given me the luxury of being able to witness Krsna's hand in everything He creates and touches. In one sense it is hard to forget Krsna with so much to remind us of Him around at every step. Perhaps more than anywhere it's easier to see Krsna's touch in the countryside, the mode of goodness. And there are so many exquisite examples in nature that can serve as an example to us on how we should live our lives, that lifestyle of devotees, coming together, that we call community.
All the arrangements in nature work perfectly well under Lord Krsna's delegations. As you walk through the woods and forests in this area of Wales there are so many reminders and lessons to learn. In Wales we have alot of rain, so there are plenty of rivers flowing to the sea. The rivers follow the laws and rules of gravity without complaint and are subservient to the pull of gravity and the lay of the land. From huge torrents of gushing water flowing vertically down sheer rock faces to the meandering wide ripples of babbling water following the huge expanses of tidal plains.
Which brings us to the question of community: what it is, how community works and functions, community governance, community economics , how we can build community, recognising pseudo-community, and integrated components of community. Community is similar to those rivers that I mentioned inasmuch as that they follow certain laws and rules. And of course, rivers can be dammed with mud and sticks which stops their flow Similarly, community can cease to progress and flow because it has been smothered by leadership. Community exists so we can create a society of devotees that are integrated with each other and depend on common goals and principles. It is neither political, nor artificial and not contrived.
Where does community begin?
The subject of community is extremely complex and there are a number of different components in the whole picture that need to be present to create the dynamic of community. One of the ideas for community within ISKCON has always been the need for Cows, Bulls and Land to be the centre-piece in a symbiotic relationship. This means that community establishes itself and is founded on the economics of Cow Protection. Cow Protection means cows that are milking, bulls that are engaged in agricultural works and land which provides all our needs as a community.(Of course there are the retired and older cows as well.) I believe this is exactly the type of community that Srila Prabhupada wanted ISKCON to be based on as an independent, self-sufficient entity. This would largely insulate our society and community from the external pressures and influences of the "boom" and "bust" western capitalistic economies that are dependent on exploitation, the rich and the poor, and working like a donkey for most of your life.
Srila Prabhupada's motto on this score was "simple living: high thinking" which perfectly encapsulates the ISKCON Vaisnava lifestyle that we should be aiming for. The scenario that we have been given the vision for is an agrarian rural idyll, our economic situation based on Cow Protection, Bull Agriculture and Land producing our needs. Each community individually recognised through its geographical location, the community needs based on climatic conditions, and other variables. Bearing these points in mind then, we can look at all the definitions and natures of what community is.
Paradoxically, community begins with the antithesis of community -- chaos and anti-social behaviour. We can call this Stage 1 of community. Because community does not happen along out of thin air -- we have to craft and design and work at creating and maintaining community, in fact it never ends.
As far as I have seen, ISKCON exists within the first two stages of community. The first stage is chaos and anti-social behaviour which is reported about by the devotees daily on the Sampradaya Sun. Any consistent reader of the Sun knows well of ISKCON's history in bad behaviour and chaos.
After a certain amount of time a group of those chaotic devotees will develop their mentality to evolve into the next stage of community. Stage 2 of community is defined as Institutionalisation and Formality. In ISKCON we have over indulged in this stage, to the point of making the Guru Institutional. But at least in this stage we have left the chaos and bad behaviour behind, for some at least.
In terms of Bhakti Yoga and devotional service then, we find that this also takes on the quality of the stage we are at. The devotees that take on these two stages of community express their natural proclivities in life, which we express with the term, 'Modes of Nature'. Naturally, devotees who reach these two stages of community function on the lower levels of nature. Such activities in these stages are of the profane type. Which is exactly what we have experienced in ISKCON, Reported recently about Prabhavisnu dasa and many other leaders and Sannyasis.
ISKCON has existed in these two stages because the leaders exist in these two stages of community. In other words in ISKCON jargon, the leaders have not been able to raise their consciousness higher than the lower mode of passion.
To take the next huge step to Stage Three of community is to be diametrically opposed to everything that most leaders in ISKCON stand for. And so ISKCON is unable to take that step. What to speak of taking the final and fourth step of community. ISKCON has to grow through so much pain, and change the whole leadership personnel to be able to reach stage three.
Just writing what stage three is makes me shudder, thinking of the impending change required to make this step.
Stage Three is emphasised through Individualism and Scepticism.
My observations from what I read on this website of Sampradaya Sun are the independent witnessing of individuals that exist in a sceptical nature. Before you all disbelieve my idea please read the real definition of sceptics, and I believe the contributors of many articles on the Sun are indeed real sceptics, because they question the status quo of ISKCON. A sceptic is a person who questions the status quo, a radical, who has doubts about what is going on in ISKCON and brings them to the attention of the masses. The sceptic is the individual that is the reformer, the one who sets things straight again, the revolutionary who speaks out because he/she is not fearful of the status quo, because he/she knows its wrong. A Vaisnava sceptic has full faith in Sri Guru.
And community needs sceptics all the time. The individual sceptic keeps everyone on their toes and maintains the standards. The sceptic is an individual thinker. In ISKCON there are few sceptics or individuals, because they challenge the very authority that the leaders in Stage 1 & 2 control their jurisdictions by, their mode of operations.
This mode of operation practically hits the nail on the head when it comes to arresting the progress of community. Why community does not work in ISKCON is because the leaders of ISKCON operate in a corporate way of control and organisation. This is tantamount to being the antithesis of community growth. Because the dynamics of ISKCON are such that the GBC make resolutions that effect control, standards and policy, the overall influence squeezes the very essence of community away from the devotees and members of ISKCON. Community can't exist or progress under these circumstances, rather like a seed will not germinate without water and the right conditions. Community has to be nurtured under the proper conditions for it to begin and grow and fructify.
The negative aspects of the present GBC is their passiveness to undo and not recognise the ridiculous subversive activities of their members and other leaders, sannyasis and temple presidents. In other words because the GBC just stand by and do nothing about certain persons in ISKCON, the influence of those persons is not terminated and community is again squashed for the majority. The GBC do nothing because it is in their interests to continue in this way to inhibit community in ISKCON, otherwise they would have to give up their power and riches. Community is an inclusive process, but corporatism is just for the few. It's a classic case of materialism: the "haves" and the "have-nots". The idea of community is to iron out the differences of material elitism to a much more evenhandedness of ownership and wealth distribution and power, which favours the majority. Hence the "simple living: high thinking" pronouncement, which applies to us all in ISKCON.
To take the monumental step to Stage Three of community the leaders of ISKCON, as they are, have to actually give up their leadership roles, that is, the influence of their roles has to be given up. Now this might sound akin to anarchism, but it's a far cry from that. I am not abolishing the GBC but rather re-planting the GBC in the correct soil so it can grow with the community spirit. There is no doubt that the GBC have misplaced their proper function and have become toxic, misguided, self-serving, overwhelming and cumbersome, and self-regulation has not worked for them, but has actually hindered themselves and ISKCON as a whole.
ISKCON self evidentially does not operate or exist as community!
The point being that community makes the individual stronger and less vulnerable to external forces because each individual in community is supported and nurtured by other community members. The GBC have not been able to find the solace and shelter of community, and function as a corruptible group with practically no fraternal support in ISKCON. The considerable quantity of falldowns is evidence of weakened individuals. Did not Srila Prabhupada state that by staying together, we are strong, and He gave the example of the fibres of rope being weak on their own, but bind them together and they are so strong. Community makes us strong.
In Stage Three of community, the real governance of community is founded and set-up. In ISKCON this would amount to a community fellowship through the dynamic of istagoshtis. In Stage Three of community there is no one leader, because everyone on Stage Three of community are leaders in and of themselves, and dependant on the other members of THE community. Inclusive decision making is predominant.
Because today's ISKCON is managed and led through a confederate of capitalistic corporatism, the dynamics influence establishes dictatorial leadership of the one over the many, and so the Stage Three of community can never take place and become established. So that type of management and leadership has to be dissolved to make any progress in community in ISKCON.
In Stage Three of community, the future roadmap of the community is shaped. The type of governance is formed. The economic strategy is established. And the social infrastructure is planned, so community can then expand as much as organically possible according to the natural restraints that exist. For most of the community in this stage there are many good qualities needed to maintain this status quo. As community exists by the input of the community, there is a constant requirement for its maintenance through governing istagoshtis. The decision making mechanism of community is through a consensus of opinion of members through this istagoshti process. Because decisions are made by the majority through consensus, then decisions are of better quality and the psychological effect is positive for each individual member, which makes us all strong.
Even though all members of Stage Three may not manifest the full qualities needed to maintain this stage of community, through this association the members will gradually gain the required quality, or else they just fall back to institutionalisation and formality. The example that a cold metal-like poker that is associated with fire takes on the quality of fire is a good example. Withdrawing the poker from the fire, it again becomes its original cold metallic quality.
This third stage of community can remain the quintessential example for the whole of ISKCON to follow as a blueprint for the rest of ISKCON's existence, for others to establish their own community. But there still is another further stage of community that exists. The fourth and last stage of community.
Stage Four of community is populated with Mystics in Communion.
For most of the devotees in ISKCON, the existence of community is punctuated by the lower modes of community. Firstly there is chaos and anti-social behaviour, and in the context of community this first stage is really like a mirror of real community, its pseudo-community. And most of us, if not all of us, really operate in this place. The second stage is rather like being organised chaos without the anti-social behaviour. It's formal and institutional and some devotees just love it. For them, it's exactly where ISKCON is at, and these devotees perceive Stage Three devotees as critics, in a negative way.
The different social styles of living in Stages 1 & 2 is exemplified by the behaviour of devotees as if everything is alright -- "I'm alright, you're alright" -- but secretly just criticizing everything and everyone behind the closed doors. And the other camp are the "yes" devotees, who just say "yes" to everything and everyone, which perpetuates the leaders in their roles of misdirecting ISKCON continually, consistently and considerably.
But at Stage Three we find the establishment of community finally emerging to a coherent and cohesive one-pointed, shared energetic force for good, based on the great qualities of God consciousness. And this is what community is all about and exactly why community works so well for a God-conscious group of devotees. I am sure most devotees know exactly what the good qualities are so there is no need to list them here. Suffice to say that most ISKCON leaders don't manifest them; rich sannyasis, abusive teachers, dysfunctional leadership, bad managers and the nail in the coffin of community is corruption, which is abundant in today's ISKCON.
So looking at the final stage of community where the devotee has attained the great stage of Mysticism and Communion with God Himself, Krsna, then community functions on the transcendental platform with Krsna as head of community and the devotees as fully subservient followers of Krsna. As I am nowhere near qualified to describe this exalted state of community, I hope some other greater devotee may continue this aspect of community.
According to my understanding of community this is indeed the path that Srila Prabhupada is instructing us to establish and follow in becoming fully qualified uttama-adhikaries by the time of our deaths. At least to strive to the higher echelon platform of madhyama-adhikari. And that community is indeed the mechanism for us to operate within. And that our relationships with devotees, our Spiritual Master and with Krsna are all based within the context and framework of community. From the beginning in our chaotic and anti-social behaviour, through our institutional formalities and into our individual revolutionary establishment of irrevocable service, and on to the fully realised spontaneous spiritual commune with Krsna in the relationship we have with Him, all of our activities happen through this framework and context of community.
Wherever we are on the planet, however we are engaged in Lord Chaitanya's Sankirtana movement, our self-responsibility is guided to remain at the feet of our Spiritual master and the main enforcing agent of our faith in Krsna Consciousness can be driven by the place we take in community ,which makes us more effective as a devotee, more well situated as an individual and more disposed to outsiders by establishing a proper ecologically self-sufficient, sustainable agrarian economy that is independently based on Cow Protection and Land. By establishing these fabulous communities we are showing the example that is the alternative to corporate capitalism for society at large, whilst still maintaining the essence of Krsna Consciousness, Lord Chaitanya's Sankirtana Movement. And so all of our commitments to the instructions of our beloved Spiritual Master, Srila Prabhupada, are fulfilled.
Hoping this is helping our collective understandings of community, remaining in the service of the great Vaisnavas and Cows, Bulls and Land,
All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
Dusyanta dasa
