Autumn 2005
| March 1990 “ONLY LAST NIGHT I had been led across a Delhi rooftop to a small candlelit room filled with ancient books and burnished yantras. There Panditji, the astrologer and seer, had by his occult art pierced the veil of the future and seen a wonder arise, a marvel born from—of all things (I feel compelled to add)— the 1990 meeting of the Governing Body Commission of ISKCON…At that meeting-to come, Panditji had prophesied, ISKCON’s governors would unite in a newfound harmony of purpose. Out of that spirit would be assembled something Panditji had called “the dharma-cakra of ISKCON”; thenceforward, through the operation of this “wheel of dharma,” the Hare Krsna movement would manifest world transforming power. Panditji went so far as to specify an exact date, March 7, for the completion of the dharma-cakra. A marvel, a world historical marvel, would be born.” (Ravindra Svarupa Das, ISKCON GBC-elected Guru, ‘ISKCON’s Dharma Cakra’, Back to Godhead, #26-02, 1992) |
| May 2000 “Therefore the question remains: What, then, will we do? How will we deal with our polarized and disintegrating society?… If we ask why ISKCON now finds itself in such an impossible position, we can only conclude that is must be due to the continuing reactions to our own sins and offenses. Thus, the GBC (and ISKCON) still needs to atone for its sins and its offenses, acknowledged and unacknowledged… So I have been baffled and in much distress… Therefore I am planning to vow that during the month of Damodara I will strictly undertake to observe a Kartika vrata… trying to pray continuously and earnestly for forgiveness for all our offenses to Srila Prabhupada, to Vaishnavas, and to dependents like women and children. Of course, now our offenses and sins against our children are foremost in mind, but these are just part of a larger pattern of offenses, ultimately to Prabhupada.” (Ravindra Svarupa Das, ISKCON GBC-elected Guru, and GBC Chairman 2000, GBC Memo, May 2000) |