In the last issue, we reported how the ISKCON Governing Body Commission (GBC)’s own spokesman for the GBC’s guru system (His Grace Krishna Kirti Das) had lost faith in his own GBC authorised guru, as well as the GBC itself (see “GBC spokesman against IRM loses faith in the GBC!”, BTP 19, page 6). It would appear he is not alone. A prominent and longstanding GBC member, His Grace Badrinarayana Das, refused to vote in new GBC gurus, due to his lack of faith in the system, as the following mail demonstrates:
"Subject: Nomination of HH Janananda Prabhu as Diksa Guru
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Hare Krishna. I am abstaining as usual, until we have some good support and monitoring systems in place for our gurus. Having gurus crash and burn every few years is the main cause of ISKCON’s diminshed reputation and strength and I don’t see what we have put in place to break this pattern.”
(E-mail from Badrinarayana Prabhu to secretary of EC, 2/2/04, 18:12 -0800, PAMHO, 7786126)
Since then the “crashing and burning” of GBC gurus has continued unabated, with Prithu, Suhotra, Satsvarupa and most recently Bhakti Balabh Puri Goswami (Balabadra Das) joining the list.
If the GBC members themselves do not have faith in the current unauthorised GBC guru system, why should we?
