Jiva Souls / DD On ISKCON Misuse of Authority / BCS ETC. 05 22

“The jiva-soul's position in the spiritual world is voluntary. Some devotees want to serve Krsna as a flower; then they become a flower there in Vaikuntha. If I want that "As a flower I shall lie down at the lotus feet of Krsna," he becomes a flower, voluntarily, and he can change his position, from flower to human body. That is spiritual life. There is no restriction. If some devotee wants to serve Krsna as cow, he serves Krsna as cow, as calf, as flower, as plant, as water, as ground, field, or as father, as mother, as friend, as beloved, anything. It is inconceivable, yet a fact." SP Melb, Australia May 20, 1975

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DD: Cataloguing the Serious ISKCON Leadership Failures that Warrant Significant and Urgent Leadership Reform:

Great acaryas like Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura Prabhupada and his disciple Srila AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada launched institutions as vehicles to systematically propagate Krishna consciousness all over the world - despite the risks that often plague institutions (corruption, the ambitions of the power-hungry and malintentioned, red tape, etc.). Both conceived of institutional governance being carried out by a collective body of devotees rather than a single acarya.

The Gaudiya Math did not implement such a model and tensions broke out between rival contenders for being the sole ultimate acarya of the institution. In the opinion of Srila Prabhupada, this fratricidal war directly led to the break up of the Gaudiya Math into disconnection factions.

Witnessing that tragedy, Prabhupada sought to establish the Governing Body Commission during his lifetime where he could oversee it. In the Direction of Management - the paper he wrote to establish the GBC - he described safeguards that might prevent the GBC from losing its way (and efficacy) as ISKCON's ultimate managing authority. Some argue that Prabhupada walked away from deploying such safeguards - such as voting and term limits. But does that mean he altogether rejected that there was any need for safeguards?

He stood the entire GBC down at least once - when he was worried about irregularities in the ways that meetings were being held and decisions made. Now that Srila Prabhupada is no longer physically present, is there a legitimate "circuit breaker" that can be deployed when worrying conduct, decision making or governance oversights become apparent?

Here is an initial list of worrying failures by the GBC which are having a seriously detrimental impact on the healthy growth of the Society.... It is by no means a comprehensive list. Feel free to add additional concerns in the comments.

*** The alienation of a sizeable portion of the Society's membership via misuses of power, hypocrisy, "renunciants" living "high on the hog", leadership falldowns, corruption, immorality, a lack of spiritual vitality or simply plain neglect;

*** horrendous failings to keep safe, properly educate and engage the next generation (those being born in the movement) - including turning a blind eye to abuse, colluding with abusers to hush up reporting, downplaying, keeping abusers in prominent positions, bypassing with scriptural citations.

*** unnecessarily harsh and heavy-handed dealings with members of other sangas - including serious ad hominem attacks and aparadhas

*** total confusion as to how the disciplic succession is meant to work - including conflicts of interest with "gurus" wielding undue influence over the GBC (and this didn't stop with the dismantling of the "zonal acarya system"), 

*** flip-flopping on whether or not Vaisnavis can initiate, 

*** enforced reinitiations, 

*** the contentious "guru approval system", 

*** discrepancies between expectations arising from scriptural descriptions and real life examples - including even matters of moral decency.... (a failure to reliably instil sraddha - the foundation of healthy spiritual progress).

There are likely many more. Recently, we evidenced the massive crisis of faith that the Vaisnava community has with the GBC. We might also mention things like financial transparency, perceived spiritual advancement and even siddhantic clarity.

Would any of these factors pass muster in Srila Prabhupada's eyes? From my perspective, these would each represent grounds to stand down the current GBC and to undertake immediate and significant reform. But evidently the GBC is not open to doing such a thing voluntarily - and perhaps refuses to recognise just how grievously it has deviated from the course Prabhupada hoped and intended for it. So what options does that leave us? A coup? Persistent humble petitioning? Just waiting patiently for the inevitable complete unravelling?

It is becoming increasingly obvious that the members of the GBC have neither the requisite competence nor character to stop the rot. In fact, it might even be observed that they can still enjoy privilege, power and the attendant perks - whilst "Rome burns".

In the meantime, we will continue to rally support for a healthy way of operating regardless.

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PM: They would only give up their positions of power if they were actually humble vaisnavas. The proud and the corrupt will keep their positions of power by any means. They will even look to how they can solidify and strengthen their positions of power . . .

AM: Ostentatious display.

DD: Sivarama has had major health problems for a few days..... Trampling hearts hasn't brought luck

FR: Be advised that the GBC failed to keep even the first generation safe and protected. They just pushed them away and caused them horrible hardships. Then they caused horrible hardships for the children. Then distributed the stolen wealth of ISKCON amongst themselves -- all Srila Prabhupadas inheritance -- and used it for their convenience. They just replaced him and tried to rule according to their whims and speculations. They all failed shamelessly.

BA: *PLEASE NOTE THERE IS NO VAISHNAV NINDA OR VAISHNAV APARADH IN FOLLOWING ARTICLE AND ALL ARE FACTS WIDELY KNOWN AND PUBLISHED IN MEDIA about how ISKCON wasted money suing Bangalore over a bus*

*READ IN FULL AND ASK YOUR LEADERS*

*SHAME ON ISKCON KOLKATA*

*PREVENT MISUSE OF ISKCON MONEY*

https://m.timesofindia.com/.../articleshow/100362368.cms

Hare Krishna,

ISKCON was founded by founder Acharya Srila A. C. Bhaktivedanta swami Praphupada almost 60 yrs ago following on the footsteps of Chaitanya mahaprabhu who said 'JARE DEKHO TARE KAHO KRISHNA UPADESH' to propagate name of Krishna and thus save them from miseries of the material world.

*Iskcon's principal objective is to spread love and compassion while preaching Krishna's eternal messages to mankind*

But alas, so called followers in leadership positions in Iskcon are doing something else thus hurting Praphupada who considered Iskcon his body. They are imposing false frivolous mailicious cases on others resulting in protracted costly court battles thus wasting crores of donations collected from common people like me in the name of Krishna.

It is indeed shameful that those preaching Bhagwad gita and spreading message of Krishna and sitting on high pedestals of morality indulge in such shameful immoral acts.

They always talk of Vaishnav aparadh but are committing same repeatedly.
I know about at least one more false case of crpc 107 foisted by same people on one innocent devotee full time resident of mayapur who has to spend huge sum of money to defend himself in kolkata magistrates offices and suffer immeausarable mental agony. To know his name and contact details please contact me directly.
Recently one adverse decision with scathing comments was passed by supreme court of india on 19th may 2023 against kolkata temple and penalty imposed for instituting a false case.

Please remember these facts will be etched in memory of people and they will think twice before donating to iskcon as they now know that their donations are being spent on legal fees of false cases and unnecessary things. Next time when somebody from iskcon asks us to donate money we will ask them where is our money going, for harassing innocent people in false legal cases? for legal fees? for paying penalty?

Those responsible for this and other false cases must accept moral responsibility, pay the legal fees and penalty from their own pocket. They should either step down from all posts of ISKCON by themselves if they have any shame left or else be removed by GBC or beareau ,higher administration of ISKCON.

SC pulls up Iskcon Kolkata for filing false case against Iskcon Bengaluru; imposes Rs 1 lakh cost | India News - Times of India

TIMESOFINDIA.INDIATIMES.COM

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PDD: I knew numerous disciples [Indian bodied professionals] of Bhakti Caru Swami through the Namhatta programs in New Dvarka, Los Angeles, back in the latter 1980's and earlier 90's, and NONE of them knew ANYTHING about the ritvik system of initiation. They all considered BCS their diksa guru, they all said their pranams to him, not to Srila Prabhupada.

As a matter of fact, me telling them about Srila Prabhupada's arrangement for ritvik initiations to be performed after His departure got me banned from the Namhatta programs.

Fortunately several of those Indian gentlemen ended up rejecting BCS as their spiritual master, and they then considered Srila Prabhupada their diksa guru!

"I am only initiating you on behalf of Srila Prabhupada" was / is the 'pick-up' line of many of ISKCON's gurus, including Radhanath [they just want to appear humble] with NONE of those new initiates being told that they are disciples of Srila Prabhupada.

And as far as the worldwide -- outpouring of love towards His Holiness Bhakti Charu Swami -- goes, those prahus [and I know some of them] who had been swindled out of their lives savings through one of BCS business scams -- they felt quite to the contrary!

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PADA: The ex-gurukulis students? The GBC does not protect these children -- is an understatement. They more often than not -- "protect" the abusers of children, not the children. And that is why we were banned, exiled, called ill names, removed, shunned, chased with bats, my friends were sued, some of my friends had their lives ended, and mine would have been ended -- except the FEDS were tapping their phones -- and the Berkeley PD was notified. 

And they put undercover cops on my tail, and then arrested the three "enforcers" they sent to get me, for Federal crimes conducted while crossing state lines. Yes, not protecting children is an understatement -- that only partially explains what actually happened. The GBC enforces their child abuse program with very strident measures, up to and including, taking the lives of whistle blowers. 

And my kids ex-kuli friends, many of whom live here in the Bay Area, said -- the GBC does not know -- who we are, where we are, what happened to us, how what happened to us has affected us, or even -- if we are alive or dead. They never cared about us all along and they still do not. Moreover, they are happy we vanished, that makes one less problem they have to deal with while they are out shopping at Cartier's for a new Rolex watch. ys pd

PADA: I was at a big meeting of maybe 50 devotees in the mid 1990s [who claimed they were coordinating their program with Hrdayananda's] and when I said that we need to address the molesting problem, they said "oh yeah, we know all about you, you just want another Nuremberg trial." I said, "umm yep, at the very least, you got it." 

This was not only an "attitude problem" among many leaders, many rank and file shared that view. One of the children of those devotees was ordered to take initiation from one of these gurus [every single kid was molested in his guru school] and that child [now grown up] said to me later on, "our parents never told us any of this, we were misinformed. They should have paid attention to what you were saying, and what the victim kids were saying at the time." One media person told me this all sounds like "mass hysteria." ys pd

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WELL IT IS A START ... YEP, WHAT ABOUT THE BHAKTI KIDS? AND WHAT KIND OF CRAP WILL WE HAVE TO GO TRHOUGH IF WE TAKE BIRTH AS ONE OF THEM IN FUTURE? MAYBE LETS SOLVE THIS NOW, BEFORE WE ARE ONE OF THEM OURSELVES. angel108b@yahoo.com