Srila Prabhupada on the role of the GBC

Srila Prabhupada: “This is the function of the GBC, to see that one may not be taken away by maya. The GBC should all be the instructor gurus. I am the initiator guru, and you should be the instructor guru by teaching what I am teaching and doing what I am doing. This is not a title, but you must actually come to this platform. This is what I want.” (to Madhudvisa 4 Aug, 1975)

By Dasarath Das, SEDONA, ARIZONA, USA:

Srila Prabhupada wasn’t a conditioned soul like us: he didn’t commit mistakes, didn’t have imperfect senses, wasn’t illusioned, and didn’t have the tendency to cheat others. That is part of the definition of an actually liberated soul. What follows is a definition, in Srila Prabhupada’s own words, of the GBC’s duties:

Srila Prabhupada: “GBC does not mean to control a center. GBC means to see that the activities of a center go on nicely. I do not know why Tamala is exercising his absolute authority. That is not the business of GBC. The president, treasurer and secretary are responsible for managing the center. GBC is to see that things are going nicely but not to exert absolute authority. That is not in the power of GBC. Tamala should not do like that.

The GBC men cannot impose anything on the men of a center without consulting all of the GBC members first. A GBC member cannot go beyond the jurisdiction of his power. We are in the experimental stage but in the next meeting of the GBC members they should form a constitution how the GBC members manage the whole affair. But it is a fact that the local president is not under the control of the GBC. Yes, for improvement of situations such as this I must be informed of everything.” (Letter to: Giriraja — London 12 August, 1971)

Srila Prabhupada, when he was personally present, was the checks and balances on the decisions of the GBC. Now however, the only checks and balances is carried out by the GBC members themselves. And when some member does go “off” or beyond the threshold of their power and responsibility of deputation, it is the GBC only that becomes the “judge and jury”.

Unfortunately, that does leave a huge loophole for possible abuse. Many devotees who are or used to be in the formal ISKCON organization have witnessed that without their ever well-wisher, Srila Prabhupada, in the foreground and background of the ISKCON Society, standing ready to correct any situation that needS be, placing all the executive, legislative, and judicial policies in the hands of the exclusive GBC members doesn’t always equal justice, what to speak of accountability.

Why do we have to constantly be dependent on our imperfect and speculative approaches to solutions, and utterly faithful to their innate but defective choice of “change everything for change’s sake”, a fault that Srila Prabhupada pointed out was in our American psyche? Srila Prabhupada left an authorized and hand-signature document to protect his Society on a management level, that would disallow the GBC from having too much power — power that could even lead to corruption and breed a disregard of fellow Vaishnavas, who are the major body of the Sankirtan Movement. Power does sometimes offer an infesting place for blindness to reason, callousness to the welfare of others, and disregard of the whole picture for the sake of one’s own, or for “my wants”. None of such turbulence has a place in Lord Caitanya’s Sankirtan Movement. It is only to purify the heart.

Yes, the document is indeed there, but perhaps locked carefully away in the GBC’s archives – Srila Prabhupada’s “Direction of Management”. Safeguards for protecting all the managers of Srila Prabhupada’s ISKCON – both temple presidents and the GBC persons themselves, are thoughtfully and logically presented by the pure devotee, Srila Prabhupada himself, with an inclusive system to keep the “growing moss of illusion and attachment” from the head and heart of ISKCON’s managers and “watchdogs”. It’s a rotation system of responsibility, accountability, and also carefully maintains our most important bhakti principle of renunciation. It’s special contribution of content is in guiding the most important level of leadership of our ISKCON Society, the GBC or Governing Body Commission, in maintaining both it’s effectiveness of leadership, performance, and purity, supervised by the bigger body of ISKCON managers – the temple presidents.

One excuse often raised, why not to implement this saving and sacred document, which was chalked out by our Founder-Acarya, is the false impression and pride that “no one else is qualified to replace me”. Overlook and excuse the mistakes that such a person makes in their duration of office, what to speak of the mistake of falling prey to false prestige, the mentality that they and only they can guide and protect our ISKCON Society. But, isn’t it “Krishna who is the ability in man”? And how many times did Srila Prabhupada say that if you are sincere (keyword – ’sincere’) Krishna will give you the intelligence to perform your service? We have all seen that in our personal devotional lives. On the other hand, sometimes people in high positions of control cannot even see their own weaknesses due to the blindness and infection of attachment to control and false prestige, which the position itself, or the wrong assimilation of it, may appear to create.

Another excuse is an old one, that is cautioned by our acaryas – that of tenaciously clinging to the illusion of position, to the material power, and the thrills and frills it provides. This mantra is not in Rupa Goswami’s Upadesamrta, however.

The last excuse is that the GBC person is there for life, which some give evidence from Srila Prabhupada’s own words during his last days. Ideally, if the GBC person is responsible, capable, pure and loyal, and effective as a “grower” of the mission, honest, unattached, etc., then the service he may offer may be valuable for some time. But what if there become apparent issues of accountability and lack of performance, and maybe even an occasional rise of corruption? Then the body of the GBC is “locked” in a mechanism only they have access to – of right, denial, and sanction. That is the danger, and something Srila Prabhupada protects his ISKCON Society from, and even the GBC persons themselves from, in his “Direction of Management” proclamation and device.

95% of the leadership of ISKCON, the temple presidents, are completely subordinate to this exclusive club of the GBC, whereby the temple presidents have been put outside “the locked doors”, and have no bearing or reaction reference to enforce both performance and accountability in the GBC. In today’s GBC system of management, the temple president’s are lucky to govern their own temples, if the GBC doesn’t manipulate their removal by even unethical means, as recently happened in the USA in the Phoenix temple.

Srila Prabhupada’s “Direction of Management” paints a different picture of cooperation and trust between the two most important levels of management in ISKCON. Accountability, or lack of it, is not tilted in that scenario in favor of the GBC. That would be dangerous in any corporation management scheme. Why? As the old saying goes, “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely”. We have to protect all our leaders from that pitfall, what to speak of Srila Prabhupada’s mission. Srila Prabhupada was thoughtful enough, and intelligent enough, to consider all options, opportunities, and also deviations in protecting and maintaining “his” Society. In following the “Direction of Management”, ISKCON remains his, and does not become the GBC’s or the initiating guru’s, and leaves no room for infestation of misuse or abuse of powers.

Anyone who does want to abuse Srila Prabhupada’s authority, may be very reluctant and non-receptive to this proposal. But where then, is their action and proposal for GBC accountability??? There isn’t any, in discussion on the table or the floor, that I am aware of. And then, who is more intelligent in safe-guarding ISKCON, Srila Prabhupada or……?

Our example and present situation today is not hypothetical, but rather an urgent need for the protection and survival of the pure Bhakti Movement Srila Prabhupada founded. We, the temple presidents, should request and demand the immediate institution of the device, “Direction of Management”, which the father of our ISKCON has willed to all his “children”. As temple leaders, we all carry the will and mission of protecting and perpetuating Srila Prabhupada’s institution. Nothing else, not brains nor brawn, but “purity, is the force” in that matter.

Perhaps we cannot depend on the GBC to acknowledge the present need or even the emergency, of implementing Srila Prabhupada’s “Direction of Management”, or even to recognize the danger of giving themselves absolute authority with no accountability. But for other leaders in the ISKCON Society, the temple presidents, who also care very much about the welfare and perpetuance of this pure Sankirtan Movement, it is in my and many other senior devotee’s humble opinion that their responsibility lay in encouraging and pushing this golden management directive of His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada to the forefront.

This can be a motto if you wish: “Direction of Management” equals automatic accountability and encourages better performance, and stabilization and fortification of purity in our GBC leadership”. As things filter down from the top, the Sankirtan Movement will surge with renewed force, as more love and trust circulates amongst the Vaishnavas, and between management levels of ISKCON. We have nothing to loose and everything to gain. Fear and apathy gets us nowhere. Please don’t sit on the side benches. Persons wishing to do so can contact me at:

dasarath@sedonavedicculture.com

Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!

Dasarath das
Founder of two ISKCON temples and Sedona Center of Vedic Culture

Note: For those who wish to see the original Direction of Management document, they can simply Google – Srila Prabhupada’s Direction of Management document.

Srila Prabhupada: “I am the Spiritual Master of this institution, and ALL the members of the Society, they’re supposed to be MY disciples. They follow the rules and regulations which I ask them to follow, and they are INITIATED BY ME spiritually” – (Srila Prabhupada Radio Interview, 12 March 1968, San Francisco)

Srila Prabhupada: “I wish that each and every branch shall keep their separate identity and cooperate keeping the acharya in the center. On this principle we can open any number of branches all over the world. The Rama Krishna mission works on this principle and thus as an organization they have done wonderfully.” (letter 11th Feb. 1967)

Srila Prabhupada: He [Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Maharaja] never recommended anyone to be acharya of the Gaudiya Math…. If Guru Maharaja could have seen someone who was qualified at that time to be acharya, he would have mentioned. Because on the night before he passed away he talked of so many things, but never mentioned an acharya. Therefore we may not commit the same mistake in our ISKCON camp. (Srila Prabhupada, letter to Rupanuga das, April 28, 1974)

Srila Prabhupada: Don’t be allured by cheap disciples. Go on steadfastly to render service first. If you immediately become guru, then the service activities will be stopped; and as there are so many cheap gurus and cheap disciples, without any substantial knowledge, and manufacturing new sampradayas, and with service activities stopped, and all spiritual progress choked up. (SPL (VI 1987) 68.8.17)

Srila Prabhupada: We haven’t got to manufacture. To manufacture ideas is troublesome. Why should we take the trouble? And as soon as you want to manufacture something to my…., that is DANGEROUS. …That you are singing every day, “what our guru has said, that is our life and soul.” …As soon as this POISON will come -suppress guru and I become Brahman- everything FINISHED. Spiritual life is finished. Gaudiya Matha finished, …VIOLATED the orders of Guru Maharaja.

…And as soon as you manufacture, fall down. This manufacturing idea is very, very dangerous in spiritual life. …Our mission is to serve bhakta visesa and live with devotees. NOT THAT YOU TAKE THE PLACE OF GURU. THAT IS NONSENSE, VERY DANGEROUS. Then everything will be spoiled. As soon as you become AMBITIOUS to TAKE THE PLACE of GURU-gurusuh nara matih. That is MATERIAL DISEASE.