© 1998 VNN
| EDITORIAL November 27, 1998 VNN2565 Job Description For Gurus And Sanyasis BY A SRILA PRABHUPADA GRANDDISCIPLE EDITORIAL, Nov 27 (VNN) — Dear Maharaj, Prabhus and Matajis, Please accept my humble obeisances at your Lotus feet. All glories to all the spiritual masters in ISKCON who have taken up the challenge and responsibility to preach Krsna consciousness in one way or another. All glories to our Founder Acharya His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada the savior of us all. I am taking this opportunity to share with you all my concern to see a better and organized ISKCON in the next 10,000 years the ground work for which has to be done now. I am praying that this paper be taken in a positive spirit and no junior or senior devotees take any offense by my sincere and concerned presentation. At the same time I beg for forgiveness at the Lotus feet of all vaishnavas esp. the gurus and sannyasis who will be merciful enough to correct me if I am wrong and not use their egos to curse someone fallen like myself for presenting my managerial outlook of ISKCON and its problems. I am presenting this paper in the shelter of my Guru Maharaj, Srila Prabhupada and Lord Chaitanya and all the vaishnavas who are sincerely trying to be a servant of the servant. I do not envy any gurus or sannyasis but I do think they all need to go through some reform as we all need to. There is need for reform in the spiritual leaders and the devotees in general, to give more stability and strength to our movement with an increased emphasis on Srila Prabhupada's position in a day to day life of a devotee esp. for grand and future disciples of Srila Prabhupada in years to come. ISKCON gurus are wonderful devotees but unfortunately they are not ready to meet all the qualifications of a Paramahamsa or a pure devotee as described in the scriptures. So I am writing this paper with this assumption in Mind which is not sufficient reason enough to minimize someone's faith in their acting spiritual masters. Faith can be still maintained in gurus, the process and the vaishnavas and be executed in day to day life as a bona fide spiritual masters instructions are same as the previous Acharyas. One should not think that this would minimize the position of ISKCON present gurus but in fact it will protect their disciples and themselves in not falling to some false trap of spirituality exhibited by some gurus who fell down. Precaution better than cure. Its just we have to be kind of become more realistic and honest where our gurus stand and not be brainwashed by any external presentation of Krsna consciousness of any particular person. Purity of a person can be judged by anyone if he meets all the qualifications of a Pure devotee mentioned in the scriptures. I totally agree with the paper written by Dhira Govinda Prabhu and it will be considered very offensive to make him feel guilty for writing a paper on guru reform. Spiritual path is a razors edge and we have to be very careful not to curse and criticize others esp. if someone is trying to give some good input to help improve ISKCON and its family. The GBC needs to set up practical guide lines ( Job Description for anyone acting as Gurus and sannyasis) which should be the standard set for all gurus in the next 10,000 years. The following are some suggestions. Reform for gurus and sannyasis: (some of them may be a little off so please tolerate) 1. Simplicity: All sannyasis must preach in their zone and maintain the highest standard of simplicity 2. Brahmachari Association: They must spend time with the local Brahmacharis on a regular basis. 3. hearing and chanting: There is need for more hearing and chanting in ISKCON temples. The attendance in most morning and evening programs in different temples are very bad. They must live simply in the temple premises practicing Krsna consciousness in a humble state of mind. 4. Morning Sadhana: They must attend the full morning program including chanting 16 rounds, guru Puja and Bhagavatam class visibly in the temple room and evening program in their local temples to raise the spiritual standard of the temple and themselves. 5. Detachment: They must not enforce any control on the residents of the temple but give full cooperation to the local temple managers. 6. Managerial duties: They should not take up any financial oriented projects unless it's involved with the building of temples or authorized by the GBC and agreed by the temple managers. 8. Women association: They should not esp. if they are sannyasis be directly involved with any women and temple management. They must follow all the guide lines in respects to women as exemplified by Lord Chaitanya and his followers. 9. Personal assets and bank accounts: They should have no bank accounts & assets in their name or in their disciple's names. 10. Travel: They can travel only once a year outside their zone. 11. Worship: They must not accept any worship if they are gurus but will encourage all devotees and their disciples to worship Srila Prabhupada on all occasions even on their Vyasa Puja. 12. Nama Hatta: They must spend time in preaching and establishing Nama Hatta programs in their local zone. 13. Marriage: They will not get involved with arranging marriage s and counseling Grihasthas if they are sannyasis. They are doing so; therefore there is disrupted varnashram system in our movement. 14. Hari Nama sankirtan: They should go out on Hari nama sankirtan at least once a week. Lord Chaitanya would go out everyday. 15. Honoring Prasadam: They must honor Prasadam in the assembly of resident vaishnavas of a center, not in private rooms. By taking prasadam junior devotees will learn Vaishnava etiquette. 16. Guru Dakshina: They must submit their personal donations over $100 in cash or kind to the temple accounting department. Accepting designated names : No gurus will accept any more recognition from their disciples than an ordinary sannyasi in ISKCON. They should not accept any designated name such as ( acharya pad or Acharya dev etc. ) but there will be a standard set such as Guru Maharaj or Maharaj for Gurus and sannyasis. Use of His Divine Grace should be reserved only for Srila Prabhupada. Sannyas Gurus should be addressed as His Holiness and Grihastha Gurus as His Grace. 17. Pranam Mantras: they will also not accept or create any pranam mantra for themselves or allow their disciples to create any but will instruct their disciples to chant Prabhupada Pranam mantra in all situations. Present guru pranam mantras should be abolished to give more importance and emphasis on Srila Prabhupada pranam mantra which would go a long way in keeping Srila Prabhupada in a devotees life 500 hundred years from now. Failure to implement this will cause forgetfulness of Srila Prabhupada 500 years down the road. Birth days and Vyasa Pujas: It should include hearing, chanting and feasting about the supreme personality of godhead . No personal glorification or worship should be allowed. Present gurus are not Paramahamsas and therefore they should not accept any personal worship by their followers. All guru Puja for present gurus to be replaced by Prabhupada Guru Puja. There is no need for such separate guru Pujas for present gurus. Srila Prabhupada remains the only Worshipable Founder acharya in ISKCON. Every member of ISKCON should be trained by the gurus and sannyasis to take shelter of Srila Prabhupada his teachings and understand his position in ISKCON and in his or her personnel lives. This cannot be implemented unless the present gurus minimize their involvement with their disciples ESP in relationship to their own worship. 18. Offerings: All offerings to be made to Srila Prabhupada and the Lord himself. No offering bhoga to the present gurus or their pictures even on the deity alter. All offerings to be made through Srila Prabhupada as a param guru. 19. Vyasa Asana: There should be only one vyasa asana for all speakers of the Bhagavatam in the temples. Vyasa asan represents Srila Vyasa dev and not any ISKCON gurus. Any one who sits on this seat is representing Vyasa dev. 20. Personal Worship: All collective worship of the present gurus should be discouraged in ISKCON. An individual can worship his guru in a personnel way if he feels like. Only Srila Prabhupada should be allowed to worship in a collective form. This will allow the members to develop a direct relationship with Srila Prabhupada. Collective efforts to worship present gurus have created envy, subtle canvassing, Politics and creates unnecessary competition among disciples of the present gurus, which is very unhealthy for the Institution as a unit. Also this makes our institution look like a personality cult. It will divide the institution as we see it is today. We should not forget name, fame, followers and worship could be the most dangerous weapons of Maya, more powerful than sex life. This will protect good spiritual leaders in our movement. 21. Srila Prabhupada's Worship: That Srila Prabhupada's guru Puja be made a scheduled arotik for all public events and festivals including Sunday feasts. 22. Morning Program All present leaders and gurus must attend full morning program esp. Guru Puja and class. No skipping classes and kirtans for other Krsna conscious activities. No gurus should be allowed to accept disciples unless they follow the full morning program strictly. They should also chant their 16 rounds in their Local temple room to prove their visible sadhana. This will make their followers well trained also. The GBC should monitor visible sadhana check for all gurus through temple presidents and committees. This resolution must be strictly enforced. 23. Number of disciples: There should be limit set for the number of disciples a guru can accept or a committee should supervise this aspect of their responsibility. 24. Initiation of minors: There should be no initiation for minors below 18. Initiation should take place only after three years of communication with the parties involved. 25. Policy Book: There should be a Policy book of dos and don't for the gurus in ISKCON. Every member of the institution should read this book ESP before taking initiation. 26. Subcommittee: A subcommittee to be set up by the GBC to make a job description for the gurus in general. Policies for taking up project which involve men and money. 27. Absolute authority: Present gurus should not be presented as the absolute truth and authority in a devotee's life but there should be more room for discussion between guru s and disciples through proper counseling and managerial structure to help the growth of its members. 28. Women gurus: If the current gurus are accepted as gurus then I propose that some women who are following strictly the rules and regulations of sadhana bhakti be appointed gurus to give initiation on behalf of Srila Prabhupada and all women desiring to take initiation, should take from them. This will establish some authority over women in ISKCON and will protect ISKCON sannyasis and women will be more properly situated. It often happens that women tend to replace their gurus for their husbands emotionally, maybe not physically and thus creating an unstable varnashram system. Young women tend to depend more on their gurus more than their husbands for counseling and advice. There fore men should be trained to be more responsible and women more dependent on their husbands. Therefore need for women gurus. 29. Book distribution and preaching: More emphasis should be given on Hari Nama sankirtan, Book distribution, and other preaching activities and the GBC men should personally be involved in these activities to set the highest example for all devotees in general. 30. Training others: Sannyasis and gurus should make room and train new devotees to take charge of GBC responsibilities and absorb themselves in their own sadhana and preaching activities. Some dos and don't s for ISKCON Gurus: Dos: 1. Be involved in preaching and spreading the message of the lord. 2. Act as brahminical heads of the society only. 3. Follow all guidelines of the GBC, sadhu and shastra. Don'ts: 1. Be involved in any managerial activities within ISKCON centers including GBC activities. In next two to three years they must relinquish their managerial responsibilities by training others. 2. Give suggestions, make arrangements in personnel matters of a devotee such as marriage, esp. if they are a sannyasi. 3. Sannyasis, if they are gurus should not be allowed to accept women disciples unless they are married and recommended by their husbands. Women should be trained to become dependent on their husbands and therefore initiation for women should come later when recommended by their husbands. (of course men should be trained to be responsible, materially and spiritually) Women in ISKCON tend to be more dependent on their gurus than their husbands which does not allow a stable relationship with couples. Management structure of ISKCON and all its centers should be geared towards making and training devotees through solid preaching engagements for the devotees in relationship to : Hari Nama sankirtan, book distribution and Namhatta. Thank you for taking time to read my paper. These are some practical ways we can keep ISKCON united and stable. Please feel free to write and correct me. I am not perfect and nether is my paper. Aspiring to be servant of the servant A Granddisciple Please feel free to write me back at Hari@AOL.COM This story URL: http://vnn.org/editorials/ET9811/ET27-2565.html NEWS DESK | EDITORIALS | TOP |
