March 16, 1999   VNN3335  

Unity Through "Reform"

BY BHUTATMA DAS/NALINIKANTA DAS

EDITORIAL, Mar 16 (VNN) — Recently at the New Dwaraka Temple in Los Angeles, GBC member Badrinarayana dasa delivered a report on the latest GBC reforms concerning gurus and initiations in ISKCON. Among the devotees we regularly associate with, most consider these steps to be movement in the proper direction and hope that the GBC will continue to make efforts to ameliorate the "crisis in confidence" felt by many ISKCON members and supporters.

At the same time, an analogy employed by Badrinarayana dasa in his report is illustrative of what many see as the fundamental discrepancy in the GBC's current perspective. This discrepancy lingers from the original corrupt notion that engendered the "the zonal acarya system." And it is a discrepancy that must be thoroughly corrected before many of us can feel confident that the GBC has come to terms with the reality of delivering a conditioned soul from illusion.

The analogy given was that of a disciple, who is compared to a person stranded in a well. The disciple is being "liberated" from her predicament by the rope-pulling efforts of three parties, viz., Srila Prabhupada, ISKCON, and the current guru. The exception we take to this analogy is that it places, unceremoniously, non-liberated souls outside the well alongside Srila Prabhupada! Because we are still conditioned by the three modes of nature we are still in the well ourselves, and our function is to shout to the new aspirant, "Grab the rope! He's pulling us all out!" Although admittedly only an analogy, it reveals the basic misunderstanding that has haunted us like a specter since 1977. As we wrote nearly one year ago, how the GBC implements the formality of this truth is a matter for discussion.

But until this erroneous premise is finally and fully set aside, I don't see how there will be harmony in ISKCON. For ISKCON to prosper as a spiritual institution, we must all be completely honest with ourselves, other devotees, and society in general. Then we can proceed on solid ground.

From the Introduction to Nectar of Devotion, we read: "We should never think of ourselves as great preachers, but should always consider that we are simply instrumental to the previous acharyas, and simply by following in their footsteps we may be able to do something for the benefit of suffering humanity."

Since this is a movement about consciousness, being honest about our actual state of consciousness is imperative. In a lecture on how Dhritarasta wanted to claim the kingdom for his own sons, Srila Prabhupada explained the mentality of one of his Gaudiya Math Godbrothers. "This institution was started by me and Bhaktisiddanta Saraswati as partners. The senior partner is gone, so now I am proprietor. Who are these Godbrothers, let them go away." Let this not be ISKCON's fate. Honesty, personalism, and humility must infuse our philosophical knowledge and managerial authority. We commend the GBC's efforts for reform, but let's slay the beast once and for all and get on with the business of preaching as a united ISKCON.


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