So here we have it. No answer
to direct questions put to the author of these “critiques”? Instead more theoretical,
inaccurate “critiquing”!-Armchair Speculation at its best.
The questions asked were:
1.
Why has he not
till now asked and clarified to get all the documents, background information,
constraints that we are working in due to the ongoing lawsuit, inquired from
various original disciples of Srila Prabhupada etc. so that he can FIRST
UNDERSTAND fully the reasons behind the various clauses made? (How can one reasonably claim to know all
behind these amendments/documents and pose as an “expert” without this inquiry
first?)
2.
Will trying to
fault or “critiquing” without first following Srila Rupa Goswami and Srila
Prabhupada’s instruction to inquire confidentially and revealing one’s mind
enhance love and trust between devotees?
3.
What is HIS solution
to bringing about long-term cooperation among the Prabhupadanugas worldwide?
(Has he ANY practical
experience or success in bringing about the said Cooperation or this is just
theoretical philosophizing?)
4.
Is bringing about
worldwide cooperation among the Prabhupadanugas any of HIS goals?
5.
What is his
MOTIVE in writing all these emails?
IT SEEMS THE SELF-MADE CRITIC
HAS NO ANSWER because - he has no answer!
Instead he posts that criticisms ought to be heard and
not neglected, and he has taken it
upon himself to do this duty to “help” us and “teach” us. He is making insinuations that we are not open to hearing from others
and that we are hence “demonizing” the critic!
This statement is utterly false and has been and is
again strongly rejected.
WE ARE OPEN TO ALL CRITICISMS; WE ARE OPEN TO HEARING
FROM ALL. --BUT, to SAVE TIME of all, and to prevent falsehood being permeated
among Prabhupadanugas who are already so jittery of being controlled by others
and there is already so much DISTRUST, we are respectfully requesting that the
critics FIRST FIND OUT THE PROPER TRUTH BEHIND THE MATTER, read the documents,
find out the background information, inquire confidentially etc. etc. ---this is the instruction of our Sampradaya Acharyas. If
THEN not satisfied, anyone has the opportunity to do as one wishes.
The author half heartedly
admits that he made a mistake in not READING the CURRENT incorporation
documents before writing his initial postings, putting the blame on others for
his misunderstanding. He is similarly mistaken about scores of other facts,
which he has STILL NOT FOUND the HUMILITY or the Need TO INQUIRE.
For eg.
1.
There was no
“coup plot”, members elected 9 trustees in 2004 as they had been doing every 3
years for many times earlier already. I just happened to be one of them and was
also elected president as the previous president desired to leave the temple
and he favored me and as members and trustees saw that no one else is coming
forward to fight with the GBC Society onslaught.
2.
ALL trustees were
not “of the same mentality as mine” they were not “my crew”, a few have always
been local donors, some were opposed to me, and we have had our share of
intense differences.
3.
We did not
“change the principal place of worship to LI temple”-has already been there
legally for 16 years previously at least if not from earlier. This is what even
the GBC Society says. We only filed a resolution in 2005 as such in the local
county as was a beuracratic rule without which we could not file the new amendment
in this county.
4.
The amendment to
the Incorporation was adopted by a majority vote of around 50 members, not “by
a few elected trustees that I appointed”, of course the draft was prepared by
me but I had to convince them and explain the different clauses and it was
modified on feedback. The amendment
CANNOT be just adopted by a few Trustees by NY law in a kind of “secret
meeting” as is being insinuated. It can only be done so by a long process to
call publicly for corporate meeting of all members, sending ALL of them the new
amendment by post, and then holding a vote in a public meeting. This is the
procedure that was followed.
6.
These amendments
were not made to “help with the coup”, but were solely done to follow Srila
Prabhupada’s example of using ISKCON, Inc. to compile and link all of his
centers around the world to ISKCON, Inc., thinking this could possibly help Prabhupadanugas
come together on ONE Organizational platform following Srila Prabhupada’s
example in his Direction of Management. We
mostly put together the amendment with whatever official corporate kind
documents we could find relevant to ISKCON, Inc. focusing mainly on bringing
all like minded together 1st of all on the same organizational
platform.
(Note: Right
after the Amendment, I started working on inspiring Prabhupadanugas to work on
the Constitution of ISKCON that would replace this Amendment—these articles
Constitution of ISKCON (Part 1 and Part 2) were written in early 2005. This was
with the purpose that these Amendments were STEP 1 accomplished. STEP 2 will be
to replace them with the NEW Constitution made by many many devotees worldwide working
together. So this intention has been well publicized and well known.)
7.
That there are
NOT “majority Indians business minded devotees running ISKCON, Inc.”---I am the
only Indian body devotee in the LI temple. All 4 other full time devotees are
“white” body American devotees, and “white” body devotees are in majority in
the current Trustees. 95+% of affiliates worldoverare non-Indians. So the elected GBC members are (going to be)
non-indians by a large majority.
At a certain
time, BLR group of temples had affiliated with ISKCON, Inc.(but for almost 1+
years are no more) , and we were working on getting all the other Prabhupadanugas
worldwide also affiliated. At that time the GBC election being done in BLR was
only for the Indian region-so of course there would be Indian devotees involved
in it and there were many constraints involved due to which Trustees of ISKCON,
Inc. were elected from among them too. (As Election to the Trustees happen
every 3 years from among the local members).
But as we have
done now, we were going to conduct elections for GBC in different regions of
the world and all these Trustees were planned to be replaced by these newly representational
GBC which would automatically be non-Indians in majority.
THIS IS JUST THE
BEGINNING---related to his lack of understanding of the background.
One might want to ask him
where did he pull out the “coup plan”, my crew”, “indian minded business
devotees”, “we changed the principal place of worship” etc. ?
THE AUTHOR’S UNDERSTANDING OF
THE LAW is EVEN WORSE. Sorry, but I do
not have time or energy to go through them one by one.
It is for all this reason I
asked him to answer the questions in my last posting re-stated(paraphrased) at
the start of this post. Otherwise I have refused to answer any more of his
questions ---unless he inquires first and also gives alternative solutions.
He states that his experience with us 4 years back was
that we do not want to listen to others—ie..him. Is it any wonder that given his evident habit of
giving unsolicited advise to anyone and everyone, WITHOUT FIRST UNDERSTANDING
THE INTRICACIES INVOLVED WITH ALL THE PEOPLE AT THE LI TEMPLE AND THE
CONGREGATION AND THE LONG FIGHT WE ARE IN WITH THE GBC SOCIETY, without having
practical experience of running a temple, with mainly a theoretical knowledge,
most devotees would turn off this critic after some time of trying to reason
with him. Theoreticians can usually quote, but cannot work towards a goal of
taking a groups of devotees or organizations from Point A to Point B towards
higher and higher standards. Nor can they show by example as they cannot gather
trust in them from a group of devotees to be elected leader to guide them.
I asked at the temple if they
remember Bhakta Mark, and I was told“it was the most distressful thing in their
lives to be subjected to”! He of course has his viewpoint and is fully welcome
to air it and keep polluting the air and “serve “ Srila Prabhupada.
Finally I only asked him, why
don’t you make an example temple of his own and show by example what should be
done! To show us how a temple ought to be run in these times(forget even that
we are under a siege for so many years by the GBC Society of West Bengal and
that most of our resources and time are going to defend).
I also asked him that why
cannot he use another community or temple to use to install CaturbahuPrabhu as
“the King, the Raja” of the subsequently developed Varnasrama Community? [As that was his main reason to come to LI
temple]On his answer that CaturbahuPrabhu does not have any other temple to
go to as he was kicked out of the LA temple soon after Srila Prabhupada
disappeared, due to airing his views about Prabhupada, I inquired from him
doesn’t it state in BG that Ksatriyas are supposed to be RESOURCEFUL? I asked
him why cannot a true Raja, King, make his own field and develop a few projects
and then use them for developing Varnasrmaa Community and THUS SHOW ALL OF US
BY EXAMPLE and be appointed Raja of “that” kingdom?
He says I made a mistake in
stating that I talked with him only a couple of times from India. He is
mistaken. I had communicated with him a few times BEFORE going to India. But when in India he came to the LI temple
for a few weeks and during that time, there was no way I could talk to him practically
“every day”. I talked to him a couple of times from India, and that was enough
for me understand that what the other devotees were telling me about him was
correct and Prabhu here is on his Theoretical trip so I did not encourage him
from then on. Only told him we are at a low standard here but cannot change due
to so many extenuating circumstances. But please show us by example. Soon he
left. I received a few group emails from him cced to me, and quickly scanned
them to see if he was still on his theoretical speculations and proclamations
or is he into doing something practical preaching or developing a Varnasrama
project as he was pushing us to do. On seeing no movement in that direction, I
blocked him as useless waste of time reading his emails.
Now as he started posing as
an expert on these ISKCON, Inc. documents and proclaiming to having inside
secret knowledge of the going ons at the LI temple and the legal stuff for his
having stayed at the temple for 6 weeks 4 years back, AND USING THAT TO
MISSTATE Scores OF FACTS, intentions and Law, and then to try to portray that
we are trying to centralize, which can cause mistrust in devotees with his
postings, I had to call his bluff and was forced to reply.
The author is unfortunately
inspite of having good intelligence and able to at least read and partially
understand legal documentation and making some good points, which could be
quite useful in Srila Prabhupada’s mission if employed with humility, not aware
of the practical difficulties and objections that diff communities have to be
able to work together due to lack of his practical experience with this service.
Otherwise he would not be giving out these vibes of “trust at your own peril”!
His half hearted attempts at finding some positive points in his critique are
covered over by his negativity.
But these amendments overall
inspire confidence among the Prabhupadanugas. THAT IS THE PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE
FOR ALL TO SEE. DEVOTEES FROM AROUND THE WORLD ARE FINDING THEY CAN TRUST WITHOUT
EVEN MEETING US-Just by reading these amendments and talking to
GaurangasundarPrabhu.
A TRUST, that is the SOREST quality that is
lacking among the devotees currently. Is it BY CHANCE that so many
Prabhupadanugas are desiring and are able to work together from different
regions in the world?
These amendments, and the publicly stated intention to
replace it with a commonly adopted Constitution inspires confidence, as the
basis of both of them are Srila Prabhupada’s documents and instructions.
They have been made to understand that any
imperfections would be handled in the process of drafting the Constitution by
all the devotees together. This clause is
listed right in an affiliation letter that they are sending us. (of course the critic
does not have a copy of this letter too, as he never bothered to ask!)
They understand well that
these Amendments propose in ISKCON, Inc. a decentralized structure, and their
affiliation means they are joining one in thinking with ISKCON, Inc. We have
been extremely careful to NOT have anything centralized other than the obvious
protection of assets of ISKCON, Inc. which needs to be done by its Trustees, especially
the safeguarding of the future Constitution which only GBC could do?They are being made to consciously
understand that ISKCON, Inc. is not a controlling organization but a binding organization being made by Srila Prabhupada himself.
Let me finish here with the
appeal to ALL Prabhupadanugas to come together in a mood of mutual respect and
affection, to discuss these proposals in a mood of inquiring and revealing
one’s mind in confidence, we have a lot to learn from each other’s knowledge
and experience and thereby become strong combinedly.
We are holding festivals and
get together in different parts of the world, to explain in detail what we are
planning to do, to listen carefully from senior devotees, and requesting that
let us work together as one organization by working on a Constitution together
based upon the Direction of Management. A Constitution that the GBC Society of
West Bengal has not been able to do even after 35 years of Srila Prabhupada’s
disappearance inspite of Srila Prabhupada’s instructions for the same.
Your humble servant,
Nimai Pandit Das
No comments:
Post a Comment