Eight GBC Men Are Obligated, by GBC Resolution, to Resign!

By Pratyatosa Dasa (ACBSP), January 8, 2012 — In reference to the “unpublished” GBC resolution quoted below, eight current members of the ISKCON GBC are obligated to resign! According to the 2011 GBC Resolutions, Badrinarayana Dasa, Gopal Krishna Goswami, Hari Vilas Dasa, Jayapataka Swami, Kavicandra Swami, Ravindra Svarupa Dasa, Romapada Swami, and Virabahu Dasa are still on the GBC. This, despite the fact that all eight of them are, by a secret resolution that they themselves passed in 1993, obligated to “voluntarily submit their resignation from the GBC Body!”

Please let me explain:
According to the secret resolution #96, on condition that all of the money be paid back with interest, Harikesa “Swami” agreed to pay the US$1.5 million needed to settle the Robin George vs. ISKCON “abduction of a minor” lawsuit. He agreed to pay it out of funds that he would otherwise have donated to the Mayapur Project as a gift from his zone.

As you can see by reading the actual resolution quoted below, all of the money was to have been paid back within 3 years, and any GBC member who didn’t fulfill his own personal payment obligation was required to resign from the GBC!

In late 1997, more than a year after the “loan” was to have been fully paid back, it was confided to me by a GBC insider that none of these “loan” re-payments were ever made, and that no one resigned from the GBC either! What a joke! It was obviously just a trick on the part of the GBC body to get HKS to cough up the dough!

What can we conclude from this outrage?

That the members of the GBC:

1. … don’t even take their own resolutions seriously, especially if it’s an “unpublished” one!

2. … don’t always follow their own resolutions, as long as non-members of the GBC don’t know about it!

3. … , even if they deviate, are not chastized by the other members, as long as the “ordinary devotees” can be “kept in the dark.”

“There is no honor among thieves!”

…differences must be discussed openly amongst ourselves, not secret meetings. We are Vaishnava devotees, not politicians.(Srila Prabhupada’s letter to Nityananda Dasa, November 25, 1972)

GOVERNING BODY COMMISSION RESOLUTIONS OF 7-21 FEBRUARY, 1993

[…]

96. [UNPUBLISHED] That the International GBC Body authorizes a lump sum loan of US $1.5 million for immediate settlement of the Robin George case from India Funds. Interest will be computed at 8% per annum, compound. The international GBC guarantees repayment of the loan as follows:

A. From pledges of the ISKCON leaders and institutions listed below, $840,000.

B. From cooperative fund-raising campaigns by the North American temples organized by the North American GBC for a total of $750,000 over five years with a minimum payment of $100,000 per year.

C. From additional pledges by ISKCON leaders that the North American GBC will solicit.

D. The GBC members hereby pledge to pay the stated amount per year for three years into the India Fund Account. They hereby state that they will voluntarily submit their resignation from the GBC Body if they fail to make payments on their pledges each year before the next year’s GBC meeting beginning with the GBC meeting of 1994:

Ravindra Svarupa Das $20,000 for 3 years

Sridhara Swami 20,000 for 3 years

Jagadisa Goswami 10,000 for 3 years

Tamal Krishna Goswami 20,000 for 3 years

Badrinarayana Das 20,000 for 3 years

Kavicandra Swami 20,000 for 3 years

Jayapataka Swami 20,000 for 3 years

Romapada Swami 20,000 for 3 years

Bhakti Raghava Swami 5,000 for 3 years

Virabahu Das 20,000 for 3 years

Gopal Krishna Goswami 20,000 for 3 years

Hari Vilas Das 20,000 for 3 years

Navina Krishna Das 20,000 for 3 years

Pledges were also entered from other than GBC Members and GBC Members not present, contingent upon their written acceptance:

Hrdayananda Das Goswami 20,000 for 3 years

Los Angeles ISKCON 20,000 for 3 years (accepted by Svavas Das)

North American BBT 20,000 for 3 years (accepted by Svavas Das)

Atmanivedana Das 20,000 for 3 years (subsequent to the meeting personally informed the Secretary that it was not his intention to enter a firm pledge)