RE: Killing for Krishna
Dear Hrishikesh Prabhu,
Hare Krishna! Please accept my respectful obeisances. Jaya Srila Prabhupada!
Bureaucracy will spoil everything
Thanks for sharing the message of Chand Prasada on the iron law of oligarchy. Prabhupada was warning us of the dangers of bureaucracy, bureaucratic procedures and decision-making processes.
Yes, ISKCON was intended to be decentralized with local temples wielding considerable autonomy, but the GBCs misinterpreted the mandate to be the “ultimate managing authority” to become the collective acarya, as Hridayananda G pointed out in his long GBC essay.
In at least one country in Europe I hear we are still under the rule of 2 authoritarian GBCs. One of them recently admitted “having done some mistakes” at the end of the meeting. When this was spoken the meeting was coming to an end, and there was no time for anyone to ask him what were these mistakes, and how he planned to rectify them.
One of the merits of your book is to warn disciples and followers, especially those of a charismatic leader, to be observant and careful, not blind followers, in other words to think for themselves, a thing which is not encouraged too much in ISKCON. One problem is the guru seen as absolute in all areas and the other, as Chand Prasada, noted, the fact that the behavior of the crowd is emotionally determined, not logically or philosophically determined.
I was also reading again the 420 Page book, "The Guru and the Disciple," by Kripamoya das. In a very open, honest and tactful way, he discusses many important issues, many of which still largely unresolved in the circles of the Krishna Consciousness movement: the mistakes made by ISKCON leaders and gurus, guru and disciple in therapy, testing the guru, when to leave a guru, etc. I attended the seminar he gave in Mayapur a couple of years ago, and was happily surprised that he was allowed to openly speak on such “sensitive” topics.
I see your book as a healing agent for ISKCON, forcing it to look at its dark side, both collectively and individually. Painful, but necessary. Your hard work did not go in vain, even if it will take much time for its contents to filter through layers of fears, misconceptions, untruths, lies, conditionings and deranged devotion.
--Anonymous ISKCON devotee in India.
One of the merits of your book is to warn disciples and followers, especially those of a charismatic leader, to be observant and careful, not blind followers, in other words to think for themselves, a thing which is not encouraged too much in ISKCON. One problem is the guru seen as absolute in all areas and the other, as Chand Prasada, noted, the fact that the behavior of the crowd is emotionally determined, not logically or philosophically determined.
I was also reading again the 420 Page book, "The Guru and the Disciple," by Kripamoya das. In a very open, honest and tactful way, he discusses many important issues, many of which still largely unresolved in the circles of the Krishna Consciousness movement: the mistakes made by ISKCON leaders and gurus, guru and disciple in therapy, testing the guru, when to leave a guru, etc. I attended the seminar he gave in Mayapur a couple of years ago, and was happily surprised that he was allowed to openly speak on such “sensitive” topics.
I see your book as a healing agent for ISKCON, forcing it to look at its dark side, both collectively and individually. Painful, but necessary. Your hard work did not go in vain, even if it will take much time for its contents to filter through layers of fears, misconceptions, untruths, lies, conditionings and deranged devotion.
--Anonymous ISKCON devotee in India.
[PADA: Yep, another devotee said the truth is coming out slowly, like squeezing toothpaste out from the tube -- a little at a time. The good news is, we are getting more and more people on board with our ideas, and we are getting good questions from various places like India, Russia, and other regions.
Unfortunately, we sometimes have to answer questions about false Prabhupadanugas, the Hitler-anugas, and other deviated off shoots and out croppings. In any case its all good, it means more and more people are starting to think about all this material. Better late than never!
A devotee just asked a supposed leader of the GBC's "Shastra Advisory Committee" how can their neophyte GBC gurus take the karma of their disciples who have been eating hamburgers and having abortions? The leader suddenly said he had to go away and take a phone call, and he avoided talking to this devotee after that. Hmmm, our karma question seems to be filtering around here and there, hee hee. Oh yea, let me get back to you on that question. Oh oh, I got to go, because -- there is no answer?
ys pd]
"The idea of an organized church in an intelligible form, indeed, marks the close of the living spiritual movement. The great ecclesiastical establishments are the dikes and dams to retain the current that cannot be held by any such contrivances. They, indeed, indicate a desire on the part of the masses to exploit a spiritual movement for their own purpose. They also unmistakably indicate the end of the absolute and unconventional guidance of the bona-fide spiritual teacher. The people of this world understand preventive systems, they have no idea at all of the unprevented positive eternal life. Neither can there be any earthy contrivance for the permanent preservation of the life eternal on this mundane plane on the popular scale."
--Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur (1874-1937); Harmonist 29.7
"The idea of an organized church in an intelligible form, indeed, marks the close of the living spiritual movement. The great ecclesiastical establishments are the dikes and dams to retain the current that cannot be held by any such contrivances. They, indeed, indicate a desire on the part of the masses to exploit a spiritual movement for their own purpose. They also unmistakably indicate the end of the absolute and unconventional guidance of the bona-fide spiritual teacher. The people of this world understand preventive systems, they have no idea at all of the unprevented positive eternal life. Neither can there be any earthy contrivance for the permanent preservation of the life eternal on this mundane plane on the popular scale."
--Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur (1874-1937); Harmonist 29.7
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