The ISKCON Lawbook
BY: SUN STAFF
Oct 29, CANADA (SUN) —
In our ongoing presentation of the compendium of documents known as the ISKCON Resource Manual, in recent weeks we have published various documents comprising the "ISKCON Management Guidelines. The Resource Manual includes the Guidelines and various philosophical position papers associated with them, and with the leadership responsible for authoring them.
Today we present a copy in Word format of the ISKCON Lawbook. This version of the Lawbook is dated c. 1997, as indicated by the Preface remarks:
"This volume marks the revival of a resolution that directs the GBC to publish an annual up-to-date corpus of the Society’s laws. It is also a significant step on the way to the drafting of a constitution for ISKCON, which Srila Prabhupada’s asked the GBC to put together in the early seventies. Finally, this volume will serve the GBC, ISKCON Leaders and all devotees as a useful source book of information in the practical affairs of executing devotional service within our institution. It is the hope of the GBC Body that the Vaisnavas in Srila Prabhupada’s great movement will be satisfied with this compilation of ISKCON Law.
There may be laws that are obsolete, redundant, contradictory or poorly composed. And there are undoubtedly areas that our laws do not cover sufficiently. But in general, these laws are well thought out, each one representing many hours of deliberation on the part of many of the most experienced devotees in ISKCON. To get us from this corpus to a constitution, the help of all interested devotees throughout the movement is welcome."
-H.H. Suhotra Swami (GBC 2nd Vice Chairman 1997-98)
There was been much discussion over the last year about ISKCON Law, particularly with respect to the GBC's attempt to takeover North American temples via their proposed new Bylaws. We have also been following the work of the GBC's Constitution Committee, who has for years been trying to complete a Constitution for the society.
In July of last year, an article submitted by Tulsiananda dasa questioned the existence of the ISKCON Lawbook, which is occasionally quoted, but is difficult to find online as a complete text. He wrote:
"Apparently devotees of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness have their own sort of "Holy Grail" -- it's called "ISKCON Law". For years there has been rumors that ISKCON Law exists. Leadership and their official scribes occasionally quote from ISKCON Law. Items from ISKCON Law can be found on the Internet, but nowhere can you find or obtain a copy of ISKCON Law. It seems that it only exists piecemeal in cyber-space and at the society's Governing Body Commission annual meeting held in India.
My quest for ISKCON Law began several years ago, I was researching complaints of abusive treatment by GBC appointees in Canada, the place where I have been an initiated member of ISKCON since 1982. I had contacted ISKCON Resolve, the society's official web-based dispute resolution experiment. According to their site, they function "under the watchful eye" of Sesa das, the society's Minister of Justice.
Neither the Minister or administrators of ISKCON Resolve could assists me in obtaining a copy of ISKCON Law.
ISKCON Law, "...it is not advised to spread it around as it is meant only for internal use of the GBC Secretariat."
Email from Lilasuka das, GBC Secretariat (Aug. 22 2005)
If you where wondering why your Temple President or local GBC member cannot provide you or your congregation with a copy of ISKCON Law, wonder no more. It DOES NOT EXIST.
So why does ISKCON claim to have a Minister of Justice? It's members are not allowed to see ISKCON Law and it's many amendments. Why have the international GBC body not made any attempts to have it implemented in their communities where it can be proofread by their congregation's senior members, many of whom are in the legal profession themselves? "
In response to the Tulsiananda's article we heard from Haridas das, who wrote to report that Krishna Culture has copies of the ISKCON Law Book, printed by ISKCON GBC Press. It is a compilation of all ISKCON laws from 1975 until 1997. You can contact Krishna Culture at (800) 829-2579 to receive a copy.
Given the absence of any indications to the contrary, we assume that the ISKCON Lawbook download presented herewith is a true copy of the edition available from Krishna Culture, since we located it in the ISKCON Resource Manual compendium.
The authors of the ISKCON Lawbook used various Sanskrit fonts in the manuscript, which makes it somewhat difficult for web viewers. You can download the necessary Sanskrit Helvetica font (in Zip) here. To install it on your computer, go to your Windows Control Panel.
ISKCON Lawbook
