From: Nathan Zakheim
Date: Fri Feb 9, 2001 
Subject: Letter to Sri Rama das

Dear Srirama prabhu,

PAMHO, AGTSP!

I am in complete agreement that the GBC requires "reform" for Iskcon to continue as a viable representation of the Gaudiya Vashnava Sampradaya.

What seems to be undecided is the exact reforms that must be enacted.

Even at this late date, one may surmise that the best source from which to obtain insight as to effective reform would be the Founder Acharya of Iskcon, our spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada.

Between attacks from envious imitators from various branches of the Gaudiya Matha and the endless sub-kanistha "shenanigans" of our own Iskcon "gurus", the fact that Srila Prabhupada will reign supreme (Through his books that will be the "lawbooks" for the next ten thousand years) for the duration of the Golden Age of Kali, may pass unnoticed at this time.

In 1970, Srila Prabhupada separated Himself from Iskcon through a letter in which He states that :"Due to certain "discourtesies" that have been extended to me, I am withdrawing from the management of Iskcon to retire and write my books".

In that same year, He founded the (real) BBT, which clearly states that the BBT copyrights shall be kept competely separate from and not controlled by Iskcon, but by certain lifetime appointed trustees. In that legal Trust document He refers to ANOTHER  document called the "DIRECTION OF MANAGEMENT" which He states will be the controlling charter for Iskcon.

In that same year, He formulated the DIRECTION OF MANAGEMENT and it was signed by several witnesses, as well as Himself, and notarized.

This DIRECTION OF MANAGEMENT could hardly be more clearly explicit as to how He wanted the GOVERNING BODY COMMISSION (created through provisions in the Direction of Management) to functions in relationship to Iskcon. The Direction of Management also specifically refers to the BBT trust as a companion "body of management" (see Article 9 of the DOM)

Having already established that the temple presidents were to be elected by their congregations, he went on to DIRECT that the temple presidents would nominate a slate of candidates for GBC, and that they would hold elections that would result in 12 GBC being called to a three year service until standing for re-election.

The duties of the GBC were also made clear. These duties were designed by Him to give almost compete autonomy to the individual temples, with practically no central functions to be perfomed by the GBC at all, aside from arranging to publish His books.

By the standards of the DOM, it would appear that the GBC was meant to be a body of elected public servants with far more REGULATORY powers than management powers.

No where does Srila Prabhupada even hint that the GBC members had "absolute authority" as claimed by Tamal Krishna in 1976, to which Srila Prabhupada replied,  "WHAT absolute authority?"

Clearly, the Vatican styled hierarchy create from 1970 onward had no resemblence to the "lowerarchy" envisioned by Srila Prabhupada for the coninuance and management of our Iskcon movement.

Seeking to build a society of "independent philosophers" He clearly placed ultimate authority in the congregations, with the Temple presidents and GBC acting as elected representatives of these congregationis.

A student of history might be quite interested to research the result of the introduction of the Direction of Management, and how the elections were held, and how the society formed on that representational basis as clearly desired by the Founder Acharya of Iskcon.

The GBC was founded in 1970 through provisions clearly stated in the Direction of Management, and it's first meeting was held in New Vrindaban during the broadcasting of the very "discourtesies" mentioned in His earlier letter to the Ikscon society. Four sanyassis in the grip of the Gaudiya Matha almost mislead the members of Iskcon to declarte Srila Prabhupada to be "god" which would have destroyed the credibility of our Iskcon movement worldwide. (Particularly in India)

Rupanuga prabhu served as the first chair of the GBC. During that meeting the DOM was circulated to the congregational members, and was described at that time as the "Iskcon Charter".

NOTE:

From that date onward (until 1994) the DOM was held in complete secrecy by the GBC, and no one was permitted to own a copy of it or to see it. When (in 1975) I asked Jayatirtha to show me the document, he responded in a state of rage stating that it was locked in a safe, and that I would "never be allowed to see it".

A historian following the introduction of the DOM would understand that 1973 would be a year of particular and spectactular significance for Iskcon. THIS IS THE YEAR THAT THE FIRST NOMINEES WOULD BE CHOSEN BY THE TEMPLE PRESIDENTS AND THE FIRST GBC ELECTIONS HELD TO EITHER RENEW THE TENURE OF THE SITTING GBC, OR TO REPLACE THEM WITH NEWLY ELECTED REPLACEMENTS.

We are all aware that no such elections were held. None of the temple presidents knew that they not only had the right but the DUTY to elect new GBC members. (None of them had ever seen the Direction of Management). Instead, we were treated to a "plot" to CENTRALIZE Iskcon through Atreya Risha das and to diminish the authority of the temple presidents to that of vassals of a powerful centralized GBC group that were above criticism, (what to speak of being subject to ELECTIONS!)

So instead of this vital step of electing GBC members as a step toward the glorious spreading of the Iskcon movement, Srila Prabhupada found Himself forced to DISBAND THE GBC for gross disobedience to His Direct Order.

NOTE

It is generally assumed that Iskcon began to "fall apart" after the untimely passing of our beloved Spiritual Master...... A more careful analysis will clearly demonstrate that this "parting of the ways" between Iskcon and Srila Prabhupada in 1970 or shortly afterward, and that things got worse, not better in spite of the huge amounts of money collected and new members recruited. and buildings and vehicles obtained. The "line in the sand" of this clear and formal disobedience is the ABSOLUTE REFUSAL OF THE GBC TO ALLOW THEMSELVES TO BE ELECTED under the provisions of the Direction of Management, although THE GBC COULD NOT HAVE EXISTED without the fact that the Direction of Management was the legal instrument by which the GBC itself was created and invested with specific duties and powers.

Is it not clear that there is nothing that WE OURSELVES can do do reform either ISKCON or the GBC unless we first reverse THIRTY YEARS OF CALCULATED AND LEGISLATED DISOBEDIENCE TO SRILA PRABHUPADA by immediately calling for GBC ELECTIONS and to follow the GBC Charter called the DIRECTION OF MANAGEMENT henceforward?

I know you to be a very intelligent and kindharted man, courteous and farsighted in your personal and official dealings. For this reason, I humbly beg of you to examine the evidence before you in the shape of the Direction of Management as well as the plethora of letters and room conversations in which Srila Prabhupada makes His views of the GBC's disobedience to His Directions so absolutely clear. (Godless planmaking).

Enclosed below for your perusal is a facimile copy of the Direction of Management.

I rely on your penetrating intelligence to cut through all confusion surrounding this matter and to quickly identify the salient features of His Direct and intended orders for the Godly management of our Iskcon Movement, which is nothing less than a GIFT FROM LORD KRISHNA through His external representative,.... Srila Prabhupada.

Your eternal servant,
Nara Narayan Vishwakarma das

I feel deep appreciation for the opportunity to address a subject of such great importance to the healthy continuation of our Krishna Conscious Society. The subject at hand is the "Direction of Management", introduced by Srila Prabhupada in 1970, with the first GBC meeting held in the spring of 1971 at New Vrindaban. This vital document, virtually unknown to the Temple Presidents and Congregations of our Iskcon society, was meant by Srila Prabhupada to be the Constitution of Iskcon for the next ten thousand years. Its absence has created a great chasm in this movement; and its introduction, after a lapse of thirty five years, will help to heal the wounds suffered by one and all during that exact same span of time.

Today, the GBC is appearing before us to deliver a formal Court ordered apology to you, the abused victims of a Gurukula created by Srila Prabhupada to bring you to the highest order of Brahminical training. And what was this Brahminical training supposed to do?

You were meant to not only take up the management of the world wide Iskcon Movement, but to lead the Humanity at large Back to Home Back to Godhead in His name.

This Brahminical training was effectively crushed by those who wished to remain in perpetual power in non-elected positions that guaranteed two things:

No accountability to your mothers and fathers for how you were being treated in the Gurukula.

A virtual guarantee that the unelected GBC's would cover up (to protect Iskcon!) any crimes committed against you.

Did Srila Prabhupada provide a protective "safe place" for you, your parents and your families?

YES HE DID!

What was this called?

It was called "THE DIRECTION OF MANAGEMENT" (DOM), and although well known by the GBC and the leaders of Iskcon, your parents and temple leaders were never shown a copy of it or told you and your families that the Direction of Management GUARANTEED YOU CERTAIN PROTECTIONS AND "GOD GIVEN RIGHTS" that were kept secret over the last thirty five years.

It may surprise some of you to learn that after a 1970 attempt by four sanyassis to overthrow Srila Prabhupada and declare themselves to be Acharya, Srila Prabhupada, together with the remaining loyal Iskcon leaders created a document which He named "THE DIRECTION OF MANAGEMENT" by which He created the GBC…the same GBC that covered up your molestations and abuse two or three years after this sacred document was created by Srila Prabhupada.

So, What is the "Direction of Management" and why should we be interested in this neglected Order of the Spiritual Master thirty-five years later?

The Direction of Management does two things:

The Direction of Management creates a democratically elected GBC to represent the Iskcon Temples, just as the US Senate represents the 50 states of the United States. The GBC is to be elected every three years from a slate of candidates nominated by the Temple Presidents. Far from having "Absolute Powers" the GBC is meant to be the SERVANT of the interests of the Iskcon Temples and their Congregations.

The Direction of management PROTECTS the individual temples and congregations from potential abuses by the GBC. If the GBC were not subject to "checks and balances" from the Temple Presidents and Congregations, abuses would inevitably occur. The very significance of the meeting in which we find ourselves today rests on the fact that THESE ABUSESDID INDEED OCCUR!

I attended a 1971 meeting in New Vrindaban where the Direction of Management was introduced to the GBC and the first GBC meeting took place there with Rupanuga prabhu as the chair of the meeting. He showed me the DOM and proudly stated that it was the "new constitution for Iskcon". I read it, and remembered many important passages. I particularly read the part about the GBC being an elected body.

So what happened to the DOM?

After 1971 I tried to find a copy, but there were none nor were the GBC of 1975 willing to let me see a copy.

Even to this day, I do not know of anyone who had ever seen the Constitution of Iskcon (DOM) at that time. (Surely, each and every Iskcon member would be given a copy of it before taking initiation…no?)

1n 1972, a secret GBC meeting (referred by Srila Prabhupada as a "conspiracy") effectively replaced the DOM with a centralized corporate structure. Srila Prabhupada was neither informed of the meeting nor invited to it. When Srila Prabhupada learned of the meeting, He disbanded the GBC and ordered all temples to ignore any directives generated by the GBC until further notice.

In 1974, He issued a paper marked "TOPMOST URGENCY" that ordered that the DOM be added to all Iskcon temple non-profit corporation charters. In other words, in the Iskcon world, the DOM was once again to be introduced as the ‘LAW OF THE LAND" under Srila Prabhupada's order.

THAT ORDER WAS ALSO NOT OBEYED.

It was only after deep contemplation that it occurred to me that had the Direction of Management been in place, FEW IF ANY OF THE ILLS OF ISKCON WOULD HAVE OCCURRED! (Or at least such things would have been minimal). The molestation and abuse of the Children of Iskcon on the part of such "absolute" leaders as Bhavananda, Kirtanananda, Jagadish, etc. clearly led to PREVENTING THE NEW CROP OF BRAHMINS FROM TAKING LEADERSHIP POSITIONS WITHIN ISKCON, WHICH WOULD HAVE TAKEN AWAY THE FIRST GENERATION'S POSITIONS OF POWER, DUE TO THE HIGHER QUALIFICATIONS THAT SRILA PRABHUPADA CLEARLY STATED THAT THE PURE BRAHMIN GURUKULA GRADUATES WOULD HAVE!

As a result, very few Gurukulies have taken over any positions of power within the movement, even though they themselves are approaching middle age; ages double those of us who started the Iskcon temples in the first place!

Simply put, if we clarify the history of Iskcon into "pre-DOM" and "post DOM" we can see that there is no way that the GBC could have legally or ethically take on the ‘absolute" powers that enabled them to "pull the wool" over your parent's eyes.

I made my "breakthrough" in the matter of understanding what an ISKCON obedient to the Direction of Management would have been like, by using my imagination to create a "proto-movement" that had joyfully and obediently accepted the DOM starting with summer 1970 and continuing until 1978.

(Of course, if we had accepted the DOM in 1970, we would have probably been observing Srila Prabhupada's disappearance day in 1988!)

I saw good GBC's elected, I saw little, if any, child abuse and molestation, I saw no drug dealing, murders, cults illegal money rackets etc. I saw millions and millions of books printed, and saw many thousands of temples opened. I saw second generation Brahmins training the public in thousands of temples to accept the principles of Krishna Consciousness. I saw 'Nagar Sankirtan" conducted by thousands of men and women daily in all the major cities of the world! Most importantly, I saw the movement run by second and third generation Gurukula graduates who had learned the art of the "Rajarshi" !.. I saw the Gurukula graduates advising current heads of state or become elected as heads of state themselves.

I saw the "Acharya in the center" in hundreds of thousands of Iskcon temples all over the world, and I saw India rising up as a Krishna Conscious nation. I saw whole islands such as Madagascar becoming Krishna Conscious states, I saw the High Court Judges wearing Tilak, and I saw a reduction in war, abortion, animal slaughter, atmospheric pollution... and many other wonderful things.

.....And then I opened my eyes, and saw what greed, sexual perversion and plain stupidity had done to mis-represent what Srila Prabhupada offered to us in the first place....In 1970, he wrote, "I have given you Vaikuntha, and you have turned it into Hell"

He introduced the DOM in 1970 to counteract that "Hell" but the document was never released to the Temple Presidents and Congregations... to the immense loss to ourselves and the entire humanity at large.

This paper has been presented to you for your consideration. I hope that the GBC will make part of their apology an apology for having deprived you of your basic Rights guaranteed by Srila Prabhupada himself at a time that would have made your Gurukula sufferings very unlikely to occur.

Both we, your parents, or those of your parent's generation as well as the GBC must apologize to you for this!

So I beg all of you; GBC, parents, and graduates of the Gurukula to read this Direction of Management carefully, and to let yourselves dream and imagine a Krishna Conscious world such as Srila Prabhupada envisioned for us when He wrote the Direction of Management; free from the type of abuses for which you are receiving an apology today.

Your humble and eternal servant,
Nara Narayan Vishwakarma das

Read the "Direction of Management" by Srila Prabhuapda

PETITION FOR CARRYING OUT SRILA PRABHUPADA'S
DIRECTION OF MANAGEMENT FOR THE GOVERNING BOARD COMMISSION (GBC)
OF THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR KRISHNA CONSCIOUSNESS

WHEREAS, on July 28, 1970, the founder-acarya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada put into a signed managerial directive for ISKCON called the Direction of Management for the GBC (see attachment) ordering the creation of an ad hoc committee from among 12 of his disciples to write the constitution of an elected GBC;

WHEREAS, since then this committee has not yet fulfilled this important institutional directive, which allowed the GBC managers to assume a dictatorial control over ISKCON members and ISKCON property from immediately after the physical disappearance of Srila Prabhupada in November 1977;

WHEREAS, this negligence of the founder-acharya/spiritual master by his GBC disciples fostered severe deviations from the founding principles of ISKCON and the teachings of its founder-acharya; which caused the alienation and suffering of many of its original members and their dependents;

WHEREAS, the direct order of Srila Prabhupada in his Direction of Management for the GBC is a fundamental institutional directive necessary for the future wellbeing of ISKCON and all of its past, present, and future members;

BE IT RESOLVED, that the undersigned petitioners, who are disciples of ISKCON's founder-acarya Srila Prabhupada or his grand-disciples, or bhaktas hereby petition the ad-hoc committee and the GBC for the immediate implementation of Srila Prabhupada's July 28, 1970 Direction of Management for the GBC and writing the constitution for a regularly elected GBC ordered therein;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the constitution of the GBC will not be subject to any change from what Srila Prabhupada ordered in his July 28, 1970 Direction of Management for the GBC nor subject to any approval by the GBC and it will be put into effect immediately in all ISKCON temples by the GBC with regular elections to be held no more than 1 year thereafter.

INITIATED NAME   
NAME BEFORE INITIATION
TEMPLE LOCATION OF INITIATION   
DATE OF INITIATION   
NAME OF GURU   
(If not formally initiated, write "bhakta" in initiated name and state present temple location.)
SIGNATURE
TODAY'S DATE   
CONTACT INFO
(All info is strictly confidential.)

Note: Those wanting to sign this petition must first printout it out, fill in the bio data, then sign and send it to:

- Address not valid anymore -

If no printer available email us at (email not valid anymore) stating your snail-mail or fax address and we will send you the petition for signing and returning to us. (Note: Mailboxes Etc. and PostNet has these facilities.) This procedure is for maximum credibility as all petitioners will be verified for duplications and authenticity.

Print out the DOM and the petition and gather as many disciple/bhakta signatures as you can in your area, as they are the actual members of ISKCON for which it was founded. We have about a year to do this important task. Book mark this page for progress reports and pertinent info.

All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

Srila Prabhupadas supporting instruction for his DOM

Mayapur
29 September, 1974
74-09-29
Bhaktivedanta Manor

please also see:
New York Temple follows Direction Of Management