Open Letter to the Committee for an ISKCON Constitution
BY: VYSWAMBHARA DASA
Jul 26, MONTREAL, CANADA (SUN) — Haribol Dina Dayala Prabhu, Please accept my obeisances, All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
Thank you for inquiring about my participation in the sub-committees for the writing of an ISKCON constitution. Sadly, I resigned from the Constitutional Committee some weeks ago, after the GBC-New Vrndavana meetings. I am surprised that you and the other members of the committee were not informed of this since I gave notification to the GBC chairman HG. Sesa Prabhu as well as to the Canadian GBC member HH. Bhaktimarga Svami. I also discussed my reasons with HG. Krsnadas Kaviraja Prabhu and HG. Visnumurti Prabhu, committee members from Canada and Belgium respectively.
I fully understand the importance and urgency of fulfilling Srila Prabhupada’s desire to have a constitution for his Society. My disagreement is over the ratification process.
I only need to cite HG Bhaktarupa’s comment on ratification for anyone to understand why the apparent good intentions of the committees’ members will come to naught in the end: “The process that we are currently following is a GBC Body-initiated process. The GBC Body understands that it would not be properly fulfilling its role as the ultimate managerial authority unless it establishes a constitution. Coming up with a document that the GBC does not agree with would be failure. Coming up with a document that the GBC Body likes but most everyone else doesn't like will also be failure. We have to be expert enough to satisfy most everyone, because only then we will be sure of satisfying Srila Prabhupada.”
"So, in this scenario, ratification is more or less a technicality. But, in case you missed it earlier, the ratification process has been discussed and the basic scenario settled up, at least for the time being: Once we have a document we are satisfied with it will be posted on the web for a moderated public discussion, but the final approval will be by vote of the GBC Body.”
1. The process of writing a constitution is not a GBC prerogative; it is an instruction of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Svami Srila Prabhupada that the GBC has for the last thirty years failed to comply with.
2. The logic that a constitution that would not satisfy the GBC is unacceptable and a constitution that does not satisfy “most everyone” is also unacceptable and therefore, only the GBC should ratify the constitution is illogical and incorrect. It is like saying, “We both must agree on a course of action, but I will decide what it is.”
After thirty years of their best effort, the GBC policies have effectively alienated most of Srila Prabhupada’s direct disciples and thousands of others. How then can anyone trust the GBC’s ultimate judgment on a constitution? Besides, the elitist and condescending attitude that somehow or other the service of the GBC is theirs as an absolute privilege rather than a responsibility on behalf of Srila Prabhupada’s Society and its members is itself offensive. Such an attitude is contrary to the concept that one is the servant of the servant: Only an irresponsible leader takes his position to be his personal property and misuses it at will. (See: SB 4.25.10). Srila Prabhupada’s instruction is as follows: “Now this displeasing of Godbrothers has already begun and gives me too much agitation in my mind... With our GBC and senior men present we should discuss how to make unity in diversity... (SPL 10.18.73)
3. There is universal precedent for a constitution to be ratified by a significant majority of those who will pay allegiance to it. There is no precedent for an oligarchy successfully imposing a constitution on the people of its society. Where it has been attempted it has consistently failed and even caused bloody revolutions. If unity is sincerely desired, then ratification of an ISKCON constitution should be done by a 2/3 majority of the Vaisnavas who will consider it as binding.
4. Ratification is far from being a “technicality”. It is the essence of the constitutional process. In the case of ISKCON, the GBC does not have exclusivity on how Srila Prabhupada wanted things done in his Society. Many times in the past the GBC has misunderstood or misinterpreted the will of our founder-acarya. Currently, the GBC disregards Srila Prabhupada’s instructions on a variety of significant issues concerning his Society. The favorite argument of the GBC for such deviations is that times have changed and therefore Srila Prabhupada would also have changed his instructions and modus operandi. This sort of speculative thinking has served only to divide Srila Prabhupada’s followers; it has not served to unite them. Why should anyone be naive enough to now believe that the GBC will ratify a constitution that “everyone else will like”? And if everyone else does not like a GBC ratified constitution what recourse do they have except to leave active service in ISKCON or, as is now the practice of the dishonest, pay lip service to ISKCON while doing as one pleases? Why then should devotees spend precious years of their lives drafting a constitution that the GBC will then rewrite to suit its own misunderstandings of Srila Prabhupada’s ISKCON?
5. John Stuart Mill said that a constitution was: “A means of assuring that depositories of power cannot misemploy it.” I wonder if the GBC is seriously desirous of having a document spell out its responsibilities and accountability in accordance with Srila Prabhupada’s will. I rather think the GBC has already determined how it is “the ultimate managerial authority” and will not ratify a constitution that might contradict that determination even if Srila Prabhupada directly instructs it.
6. Presumably an ISKCON constitution will have to define the position of His Divine Grace, the role of the GBC, the role of a temple president, the ISKCON understanding of guru-tattva, the importance of book distribution, the implementation of an effective system of justice, the establishment of daivi-varnasrama, etc. When push comes to shove, is it even sensible to imagine that the GBC will reconsider its present opinion on these important matters? And if it won’t, then what new recourse will the majority of devotees have? The GBC has so far labored under the false assumption that somehow or other its members are superior to other devotees on account of the position they occupy. This is a kanistha-adhikary concept. Management under such a false concept has turned Srila Prabhupada’s preaching mission into a congregational church of blind fanatics, naive followers and exploitative individuals. Presumably, a constitution would seek to redress these ills. But this mischief has been created under the watch of the GBC and the GBC has steadfastly refused to retract itself on these matters in spite of Srila Prabhupada’s best instructions and the good advice of Godbrothers and well-wishers. How can one then hope that the GBC will ratify a constitution that will reform its misguided policies?
7. Over the past thirty years there have been many committees formed to write a constitution for ISKCON but they have all failed to come to fruition. It has to be assumed that the reason for such failure is that the GBC does not really want a constitution that would hold them accountable to Srila Prabhupada’s instructions; therefore they relegate the task of writing it to bureaucratic shuffles and endless equivocations. Otherwise, why are so many stalwarts of ISKCON publishing book after book and yet the whole movement remains powerless to write a constitution? An ISKCON constitution is a relatively simple affair to write since it consists more or less on simply formalizing Srila Prabhupada’s given instructions. So why should all the Vaisnava pandits of ISKCON be unable to write such a document after thirty years? Now the writing of the constitution is being brandished by the GBC as part of a much-vaunted “Strategic Planning” brainstorm. Unfortunately, it is little more than another public relations ploy meant to stoke the flagging enthusiasm of an increasingly despondent membership. A proper constitution will not see the light of day unless all those who will give their lives to its fulfillment have a voice on what it should contain. That voice should be as a vote on ratification.
Since the constitution will essentially spell out Srila Prabhupada’s will, why should the GBC mistrust all other devotees except it own members when it comes its ratification? Is it that everyone else will refuse to bow to Srila Prabhupada’s instructions or is it that the GBC still thinks it alone knows Srila Prabhupada’s will and mind? Rather than unite and rally the Vaisnavas as desired by Srila Prabhupada, the GBC’s policy of constitutional ratification is yet another ill-advised determination that will only serve to perpetuate dissension.
