Mar 18, 2017 — MANCHESTER, ENGLAND (SUN) —
The position of Srila Prabhupada as the Founder-Acarya of ISKCON will only be secure and thoroughly understood when ISKCON forms his constitution. At that time Srila Prabhupada's instructions for the direction of ISKCON will be enacted.
The position paper by Ravinda Svarupa prabhu and the lectures by Survesvara Prabhu that the GBC are fond of promoting DO NOT address this real issue. These devotees seek to promote the idea that Srila Prabhupada is the real spiritual head for all devotees, and hint that no one else is able to really be the transparent medium.
That message is not corroborated or authorized in any of our sastra, although it is obvious that the purity and the surrender of Srila Prabhupada makes him worthy for anyone to take as a predominant siksa guru. But even this cannot be imposed.
What can be imposed in ISKCON is that members must follow Srila Prabhupada's instructions, directions, and his vision for his society, which come from his books, lectures and letters. And of course, anyone doing that would be accepting siksa from Prabhupada.
It would be foolish to say that one will become a member of ISKCON but choose not to follow Prabhupada, although some will argue that without a constitution, that is what is happening, because the society is accused of mission drift, book distribution is on the decline, devotees in the ashram are on the decline, western preaching is on the decline, scientific preaching is in decline, farm projects are in decline, and the general idea we are teaching a science of self-realisation has been replaced by a strong identification with Hindu communities and yoga santi santi wishy washy mixed bhakti, at least in most of the world. There are some countries doing better, but there will be trouble ahead if the society's direction is not formalized.
One's spiritual inspiration can come from the diksa guru or any number of siksa gurus. This is what is said by Srila Prabhupada himself and it is is confirmed in the scriptures. Srila Narottama das Thakura sings rupa raghunatha pade hoibe akuti kabe hana bhijhabo se jugala priti… when will I be very much eager to study the books left by the Six Goswamis.
The society of ISKCON and its mission as directed by Srila Prabhupada is the main point. Anyone who serves this society's direction is serving Prabhupada. Srila Prabhupada even wanted his own godbrothers to serve his society, so the important point is the organisation and the direction of the organisation as given by Prabhupada, who perfectly understood the instructions of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta, who in turn applied the vision of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur.
The preaching mood and direction and to whom it should be directed was demonstrated so wonderfully and perfectly by Srila Prabhupada and must always be followed, as it is clear to all that Prabhupada is the chosen devotee by Mahaprabhu to direct and formalize the organization for the ongoing re-spiritualizing of the world.
Finally, devotees can type in 'GBC constitution' on Vanipedia and make their own assessment, and see how serious Srila Prabhupada was on having a structure and a broad constitution for the GBC to follow in legal and spiritual management, and having this directed from his many instructions at different times and places, and from his books.
