Prahladananda Maharaj's Recent Paper and GBC Silence
BY: RASAPREMA DASA
Oct 26, AUSTRALIA (SUN) — Jayapataka, Gopal Krsna, Radhanath, Bhakti Caru, Sivarama, Bhaktimarg, Bhakti-caitanya Ms, Ravindra Svarupa, Hari Vilasa, Burijana dasas, GBCs, Temple Presidents, etc., where are Your Tongues?
Prahladananda Swami enters the fray of the GBC/rubberstamped gurus/policy debate with his recent paper. Putting all comment on his paper aside, for now, there is something to be noticed here. Where are the response words of the GBC members on this subject? Where are the statements of our big leaders? Jayapataka Maharaj, we are all ears - what have you got to say about GBC politics/policies? Gopal Krsna Maharaj, what are your words about ineffective, directionless management? Radhanath Maharaj, what do think about corrupt Zonal Acaryas? Bhakticaru Maharaj, speak up against the guru-GBC-rubberstamping that you are against, yes or no? Sivarama Maharaj, what are your ideas about gurus living high on the hog? Ravindra Svarupa dasa, what are your thoughts on the move to make the GBC the acarya for ISKCON through bureaucracy?
Any GBC rubberstamped guru, what do think about all your Godbrothers that have been driven out of the ISKCON that they gave their lives to build? GBCs, why are the vast majority of Srila Prabhupada’s disciples disgusted with your “resolutions and no solutions”? Gurus, kindly comment about ‘gurus’ that train their disciples to see their Godbrothers as envious and useless? ‘Gurus’, are you chanting your rounds, even following the four regs?
Burijana das, what are the profits of the “Seminars for Sale” business? Temple Presidents, what do you think about all the committees in your temples that have made you impotent? Should committees of Hindus run Srila Prabhupada’s temples?
Temple Presidents, what do you think about the GBC's managing your temple and turning you into nothing better than a temple commander? Temple Presidents, who appointed you, the GBC or the congregation? BBT/Temple managers, what are your salaries, unlimited expense accounts? What do you think about devotees doing service in temples and getting big and undisclosed secret salaries when Srila Prabhupada clearly said “If you want salary, then you should live outside”? Should penniless brahmacaries collect to support the householder temple manager’s family sex life? Which of our Temple Presidents, after a hard day at the office, doesn’t unwind with a couple of hours in front of the television?
Prahladananda Maharaj, you say we should all buckle down and follow the GBC, like Srila Prabhupada said, which in itself is a highly questionable assertion when Srila Prabhupada stressed individual initiative. However, should we follow a GBC that is insistently deviating from Srila Prabhupada’s clear directives and violently dealing with any brave restatement of Srila Prabhupada’s words? A GBC that has deliberately driven their Godbrothers out of ISKCON?
Are not only the mindless and opportunistic following the GBC now? Prahladananda Maharaj, you have your “guru-franchise” by the grace of the GBC, yes? Are you not the manager of the five-year sannyasi waiting list? What do you think of speculative GBC concoctions that cover the systems given in the sastra and countermand Srila Prabhupada’s statements? Are you not a part of the system you condemn? A bureaucratic system of control that has no relationship to the sastric stipulations?
Why in your paper have you missed the very point that Srila Prabhupada always stressed in relation to the GBC and Temple Presidents? Srila Prabhupada wanted the GBC and Temple Presidents to be faultless in chanting their rounds and following the four regulative principles (no intoxication, no gambling, no meat-eating and no illicit sex, remember). That is the most important task given by Srila Prabhupada for the GBC and indeed the Temple Presidents: the duty and secret of good management is to see that these basics are followed by all temple residents, particularly.
“Forget centralizing and bureaucracy,” said Srila Prabhupada, 1972 to Karandhara dasa.
Justify the endless growing centralization and bureaucracy imposed by the GBC on ISKCON in flagrant defiance of Srila Prabhupada’s statement?
Any GBC come forward and justify… We humbly beg….. Illustrate how your policies are based on guru, sadhu and sastra.
Of course, these questions will be met with a deafening silence by the very people in ISKCON that set the policies on these subjects. Hardly any so-called ‘guru’, GBC, Temple President will come forward with a clear word. They will not make a statement. They will offer no position paper. They will not enter into debate/discussion. Rather, remaining arrogantly aloof, they will sit in the middle of a circle of sycophants that dare not disagree with them lest they lose they financial position. Will they not try to find out who is raising these questions? In fact, even to raise these questions can put one’s life in danger. What to speak of expecting a well reasoned response from just about any self-appointed ‘authority’ in ISKCON.
In ISKCON today we are so conditioned that even to question the big leader is considered offensive and reason to be expelled or worse. To question equals offence, this is the repression imposed from the GBC level.
Why is that? Well it is plain to see that we have developed an arrogant hierarchy at the top of ISKCON that has little respect for the opinion of the devotees they attempt to rule. An untouchable oligarchy that elects only those agreeable to their ranks, and thus insistently controls the powerful positions of GBC, ‘guru’, sannyasa and Temple President with concocted bureaucracy to this end of unquestioning compliance. Their meetings are largely secret, no voting records are kept, no minutes widely published, no independent observers are present. And when questions are raised in a public forum like the brave Sampradaya Sun, they keep quiet.
Why the silence? Could it be that they have no, no, no answer, no justification for their policies that clearly deviate from the instructions of Srila Prabhupada?
GBC, where is the Srila Prabhupada and sastric justification for your insistent, blatantly foolish and sastra-subverting “guru by GBC rubber stamp” policy? Perhaps the greatest failure in the history of Vaisnavism. Yet you maintain it - because it affords you the illusion of control. Answer the question! How do you justify this concocted policy by guru, sadhu and sastra? Why do you ignore Srila Prabhupada’s condemnation of “guru-by-institutional vote”? Speak up! Enlighten us!
Justify the five-year wait for committee-given sannyasa? Justify ‘sannyasis’ manipulating men, women and vast finances in the society? Justify your separate prasadam arrangements? Justify your lifestyle apart from the devotees? Justify your fancy rooms while everyone else sleeps on the floor in crowed barracks? Justify your neglect of devotee care? Justify your huge bank balances? Justify the fact that the ‘leaders’ of ISKCON and the BBT line their pockets and live the high life with the money they collect in the name of Srila Prabhupada?
GBC we want answers! Justify your oligarchy in the light of Srila Prabhupada’s instructions and example!
Why are you struck dumb?
Why the silence?
Do you have no answer to all the questions? Actually, we know you do. It involves that silence. Your answer is to stay aloof, keep quiet, and throw out and blackball anybody the compares your behavior against the instructions of sastra in the light of Srila Prabhupada.
GBCs and ISKCON ‘gurus’, which is higher, the number of devotees you have made, or the number of devotees you have neglected, disillusioned, driven out, or reinitiated?
So Prahladananda Maharaj, here is the final question: Which is a better description of the GBC, A or B?
(A) The GBC is an assembly of austere sadhus who are unshakably dedicated to the words and spirit of Srila Prabhupada’s teachings. They exhibit compassion and encouragement as they travel the movement seeing that everyone is safe and protected in their devotional service. They encourage all to rise early and chant the Holy Names, follow the principles and study the teachings of Srila Prabhupada. They exemplify this sadhana by their exemplary and steady attendance of all temple programs, morning and evenings. Any funds they receive they immediately redistribute to the needy and important projects in the local temples. They make sure that the accommodations for the devotees are suitable. They are attentive that properties are being bought locally to expand the devotee community. They let the local devotees get on with the day-to-day management of their temple and encourage individual initiative in the preaching sphere. They are attentive to the production and distribution of Krsna-conscious literature as a central priority. They are seen chanting in the temple with big sankirtana occasions and love to go out on the street and chant. They eat the same prasadam as the temple devotees and see that it is healthy, nutritious and cooked and offered with great devotion. They are learned in the philosophy and never think of charging fees for the instruction they freely give. They treat everyone as their family member.
(B) The GBC is an oligarchy of neophyte devotees who prefer their mental speculation to following Srila Prabhupada, sadhu and sastra. They have turned ‘diksa-guruship’ into a franchise that they distribute to the chosen few. They are concerned with their own worship and expansion of followers. They are very busy with the details of local management, particularly the finances. They are attached to their zones, seeing them as their own fiefdoms. However they frequently visit other zones, like the Middle East, where they can collect a good donation and quickly fly off. They have accumulated big balances, which they protect with secret bank accounts. They rarely give donations to any project from which they see no personal benefit. They like to dominate the local management and only appoint their cronies. They are suspicious of their Godbrothers in the temple and consider themselves superior. They prefer to not see their Godbrothers in any position of authority in their zone and are ready to replace them. If a ‘guru’, they don’t like to see other ‘gurus’ in ‘their’ zone. They have little concern or knowledge of the local devotees accommodations and prasadam arrangements, rarely being seen in such situations and having their own personal rooms, cooks and servants. They expect donations from all the temples they visit. When they travel, they tend to give the same stock class in every temple. In judging the devotees, the biggest factor is unquestioning compliance. They think in terms of friends and enemies. They brainwash their zone into this compliance and do not encourage individual initiative, but rather obedience. They consider those learned in the teachings of Srila Prabhupada and the sastra as a threat. They are rarely seen on the front lines of preaching, and the street sankirtana of Caitanya Mahaprabhu is a thing of the past, something for the bhakta-program. In their heart, they feel nothing or a secret happiness when devotees leave their zone. To them, Srila Prabhupada is an icon put forward as their justification, but not to be followed strictly.
So Prahladananda Maharaj, you have posited that we should all follow the GBC, however, have you been living on another planet and therefore have not noticed why the vast majority of Srila Prabhupada’s disciples and now the second generation want nothing at all to do with the GBC management of ISKCON?
Any answers, O GBC?
Your servant, Rasa-prema dasa
Contact at rasapremadasa@yahoo.com
