Back To Prabhupada, Issue 56, Summer 2017
he GBC (Governing Body Commission) should provide leadership to the whole of ISKCON. And in turn, its Chairman is supposed to provide leadership to the GBC. Thus, the Chairman should be responsible for providing the most important leadership to the whole of ISKCON. Below we see the state of such leadership, as offered by the GBC Chairman HH Bhakti Charu Swami ("BCS").
"Don't try to develop your love for your Guru Maharaja as Prabhupada's disciples developed their love for Srila Prabhupada. My response will be: Try to develop your love for Srila Prabhupada as you saw how his disciples developed their love for him."
(BCS, Italy, 9/6/17)
BCS states that those who are disciples of the GBC "diksa gurus" ("your Guru Maharaja") should not relate to them via the standard diksa guru-disciple relationship, as practised by disciples of Srila Prabhupada. Rather, he states that they should also develop their love for Srila Prabhupada by relating to Srila Prabhupada in the same way that his disciples related to him — which would be as their diksa guru. Hence, like the IRM, BCS is proposing that everyone in ISKCON should relate to Srila Prabhupada as their diksa guru.
BCS's position has always been that one cannot relate to Srila Prabhupada as the diksa guru since this is supposedly not the historical tradition:
"The difference is that rtviks are saying that Prabhupada will continue to give diksa. That is the point that we cannot accept because there is no such precedence in the past."
(BCS Lecture, 14/8/04)
But if he accepts this, then he would also have to accept that his equivalent proposal — whereby the supposed "diksa guru" (the GBC "diksa guru") is not treated as the diksa guru, and instead the person who is supposedly not the diksa guru (Srila Prabhupada) is treated as the diksa guru — is also not the traditional way. Thus, he is proposing that tradition is followed by not following it!
BCS then goes on to explain why he is proposing that the disciples of the GBC diksa gurus should give precedence to Srila Prabhupada over their GBC diksa gurus in this way — to ensure the focus on Srila Prabhupada and unity in ISKCON:
"Why I am saying it? Because if we see the diksa guru as the center and we develop a deep relationship with him, then we are actually running the risk of causing a split in ISKCON. [...] the focus should be on Srila Prabhupada. Then only will we be united".
(BCS, Italy, 9/6/17)
But, by this logic, ISKCON will be the most united and focused on Srila Prabhupada if the GBC diksa gurus such as BCS are eliminated altogether, and instead only Srila Prabhupada is the diksa guru for ISKCON. We presented the same logic in the previous article regarding the worship of the GBC diksa gurus and keeping the focus on Srila Prabhupada.
BCS also states that as GBC Chairman he will take action to stop devotees being banned from ISKCON temples:
"Devotees are being banned from the temple. Did Srila Prabhupada establish ISKCON all over the world just for that? It's very, very unfortunate and I can assure you that we are going to take it up in ISKCON GBC and we are trying to do, we are going to do something. This statement of mine is not as a member of this committee but as a Chairman of the GBC body."
(BCS, Town Hall Meeting, 15/5/17)
But ISKCON UK's HQ has been banning devotees for over 25 years, and such bans were presided over by BCS's own disciple Damodara Dasa, when he was the Temple President. ISKCON Law 8.4.2.2 states a devotee can be:
"Prohibited for visiting or living in a specified temple or community".
And this law has been quoted as part of GBC Resolution 303, 1999, to ban anyone who agrees with the IRM that Srila Prabhupada is the diksa guru from visiting any ISKCON temple. These are all actions BCS has supported. And yet, now he is claiming that all these actions of banning are not in line with Srila Prabhupada's desires. Which means he has also been acting against Srila Prabhupada's desires for all these years by supporting such bans.
Shortly before he took up the GBC Chairmanship, BCS claimed:
""So what about this 11 persons, 11 devotees that Prabhupada actually named?" My response to that is that Prabhupada named them because Prabhupada saw that that is how he could actually avoid a major catastrophe after he left the planet. Because how can we consider that Srila Prabhupada, who is a pure devotee of the Lord, made some arrangement which did not succeed. How can Prabhupada's arrangement be a failure?"
(BCS, New Talavan, 20-21/11/16)
BCS addresses the issue of the 11 rtviks mentioned in previous articles. He refers to Srila Prabhupada naming them to act for after Srila Prabhupada left the planet in order to avoid a "major catastrophe". Thus, BCS is claiming that Srila Prabhupada named (appointed) them to act as diksa guru successors rather than rtviks, because we already quoted BCS stating he rejects Srila Prabhupada continuing to give diksa via rtviks after he has left the planet.
BCS claims that Srila Prabhupada appointed these 11 diksa gurus to prevent "catastrophe". But their acting as 11 appointed diksa gurus caused a catastrophe, a point which has already been acknowledged by the GBC, of which he is now the Chairman. For example, the GBC Executive Committee accepted HH Tamala Krsna Goswami ("TKG") stating that believing in this diksa guru appointment was the "greatest disservice":
"Myself and the other GBC have done the greatest disservice to this movement the last three years because we interpreted the appointment of rtviks as the appointment of gurus."
(TKG, 3/12/80, quoted in ISKCON Journal 1990, GBC Executive Committee)
BCS also claims that we need to accept this diksa guru appointment because Srila Prabhupada would not make a faulty arrangement. It is a fact that Srila Prabhupada would not err in his arrangements, but Srila Prabhupada did not name those 11 people as diksa gurus, as agreed by the GBC which he now chairs.
Thus, before trying to lead the Society, the GBC Chairman first needs to provide leadership to himself, as he does not know whether he is coming or going!
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