Vrindavana Gurukulu
BY: YADUVENDU DAS
Dec 08, 2011 — NEW ZEALAND (SUN) — Dear Sanaka, the reoccurring problem of child abuse in ISKCON is due to the lack of accountability of its leaders. Accountability is synonymous with responsibility. Because they are not answerable, because there are no personal consequences, they lack any sense of moral duty towards the children in their care.
The unaccountability is due to the deep-rooted culture of autocratic, dictatorial leadership, which has filtered down to all levels of management. My grandchildren attend a gurukula and the first thing the parents were told was ‘we don't tolerate criticism'.
Autocratic leaders make decisions based upon their own ideas and judgments and don't accept advice from subordinates. This is not only the cause of all the acrimony and resentment within the movement, but the reason we are unable (in spite of so much talking) to solve even the most elementary problems.
Another obstacle is that ISKCON does not possess an ethical code of shared principles relating to the care of children. For example, there are major differences in the way sannyasis (who are not involved in family life) may think and the expectations of parents entrusting their beloved child to gurukula. Ethics enable us to know the basic difference between right and wrong. We assume that our institutional leaders: GBC's, sannyasis, gurus, etc., already know this, but the fact that things never change, that the same failures occur year after year and no one really cares, shows that they actually don't.
ys
Yaduvendu das
