ISKCON Constitution

In the different yugas different conditions prevail.

In Satya yuga, the "age of truth", conditions are such that the balance of power lies with the brahmanas. Everyone is a paramhamsa in this age and there is no varnashram, so everyone is a brahmana. In this age the process of self-realization is meditation.

In Dvapara-yuga, the "second age", which usually follows Satya-yuga, the process of self-realization is Deity Worship. In this age the balance of power lies with the Ksatriyas.

In Treta-yuga, the "third age", the process of self-realization is Vedic sacrifices. The balance of power lies with the vaisyas.

In Kali-yuga, the "age of dissent", the process of self-realization is congregational chanting of the Holy Name and the balance of power lies with the "common assistants", as Srila Prabhupada refers to them in ISKCON's 1966 Constitution (clause N.1).

The "wisdom of the crowd" (the community) produced more analysis of Resolution 311 in one week than the GBC produced at all. It also correctly predicted the outcomes of the Resolution.

There is a powerful lesson in this.

ISKCON's GBC practically has no budget. However, they have potentially at their disposal a human resource that a multi-million dollar organization could never afford.

If they can figure out how to engage with it.

The inevitable happened and Resolution 311 died on the delivery table.

Resolution 311 was an ISKCON GBC resolution that recommended that the BBT annotate Srila Prabhupada's as a strategy to deal with two issues facing ISKCON today: weak preaching and outreach, and internal cultural issues.

H.H. Jayadavaita Swami released an official statement from the BBT on his blog.

The statement is credible. It's got sound logic and shows evidence of a process of investigation and consideration behind it. It acknowledges the drivers behind the GBC's recommendation, but then rebuffs their proposed solution as inappropriate and "unwise".

The statement is actually a chastisement of the GBC. The Resolution should never have been made. As I pointed out in several places, aside from being unwise and inappropriate, it was an obvious suicide charge from the word go - a last desperate move by an encircled and confused body.

The obvious questions now are:

• How was such a doomed resolution ever made and published?
• Why were the implications of making this resolution (the public backlash, the disconnect from and division of the society's membership, and the loss of leadership credibility of the GBC) not analyzed and identified ahead of time?
• Now that this resolution has failed to address the internal and external issues that ISKCON is facing, how is the GBC going to respond without making another monumental misstep?
• How is the GBC going to address its leadership capability deficit?
• How is the GBC going to address its loss of leadership credibility pursuant to Resolution 311?

Making a mistake as a leader or a leadership body does not have to be a negative thing. It can be turned into a positive event, if you learn from those mistakes.

Sincere followers are not unforgiving. They do not expect invulnerable and perfect leaders. If they are treated as partners on a common mission then they appreciate commitment to the common mission and an obvious (and effective) effort to increase in service to that mission.

Within the last year I went through a leadership test of my own. By a combination of factors I made a misstep. As a result there was a disconnect with the people I lead, and a loss of confidence, similar to the situation with Resolution 311.

Coming out of this involved sitting down in a face-to-face meeting with the people I lead and addressing the situation. People want to know that you understand how the mistake was made, and that adjustments have been effected to avoid falling into the same trap again. Leadership, and life, is a learning experience. People need to have confidence to follow you.

Here is what I would do if I were on the GBC:

Form an independent commission headed by H.H. Jayadvaita Swami (who just won the confidence of everyone who was concerned about this resolution) to investigate the process that gave rise to Resolution 311, and to give recommendations about how this debacle could have been avoided, and similar debacles can be avoided in the future.

Adopting this approach is actually the first step to a mode of operation that would have avoided the whole thing in the first place.

I believe that what we are seeing here is something that I see throughout ISKCON's management model: a lack of asking for advice from independent observers and analysts.

ISKCON is filled with potential advisors who don't have managerial posts, but it seems that managerial rank is a prerequisite to taking part in the decision-making processes. This effectively robs the GBC of the majority of the brain power of the organization.

Without going through an public post-mortem process the GBC cannot restore leadership credibility before going on to actually address the issues that Resolution 311 sought to address, and remain pressing in the current leadership vaccuum.

Credibility is one thing, capability is another. The 311 Commission is not just a PR exercise. Broken processes leading to bad decision-making have to be fixed. Whether you supported Resolution 311 or not, the BBT's rebuff of Resolution 311 is a concrete demonstration that the GBC is confused and weak.

To convoke such a commission would take strong leadership and accountability, two things that are currently missing at the GBC level. Continuing to hide behind committees and the anonymity of "the GBC" provides excellent cover for no-one to own the responsibility for the Resolution 311 debacle, and for ISKCON's "supreme managerial body" to continue with the same dysfunctional dynamic of decision-making.

"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."

The GBC just let everyone down, supporters and opponents of Resolution 311 alike. As the saying has it: "I lost my caste, and I'm still hungry." The GBC alienated half of the society and effectively did it for nothing for the other half.

Seriously, what are you going to do about this? You (who is going to own this?) need to publicly learn from this misstep. You need to apologize to the people you lead and really make the change.

Continuing with the same processes, however, guarantees the rise of other more effective organizations in ISKCON, and in the absence of a clear, credible leadership institution these organizations will include extremist ones. (There is my next projection for you - really it's elementary).

The balance of power has been leaking out of the GBC steadily for some time now. Resolution 311 will go down in history as either the turning point, or the tipping point.

You heard it here first.

The Spider represents a centralized organization. It may have many limbs, but cut off the head and it's a deathblow.

A Starfish, on the other hand, typifies a decentralized organization. "Its center is everywhere and its circumference is nowhere". Cut a starfish into pieces and it will grow into many more starfish.

If you are a centralized organization facing off against a decentralized organization there are three winning strategies you can adopt, according to Ori Brafman and Rod A. Beckstrom, authors of "The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations":

• Decentralize yourself
• Force your opponent to centralize
• Attack the ideology of the opposing organization

The worst thing that you can do is consolidate and increase your own centralization.

An example of the first strategy in action ("Decentralize yourself") is the increasing use of special forces to combat decentralized military organizations. Their effectiveness is uncontestable. During the Rhodesian Bush War of 1970-1980 the Selous Scouts, an special forces unit that used the same decentralized organization and tactics as the insurgents, was responsible for inflicting more than 60% of enemy casualties inside the borders of Rhodesia.

The increasingly decentralized nature of conflict in the modern world is also uncontestable. As one Navy SEAL said in the video Prahlad showed me last night: "What's changed? We used to fight behind enemy lines. Now there are no lines."

Given the evolving constitution of ISKCON, and its increasingly decentralized nature, one of the best things that the GBC can do to retain and increase its influence in the long term is to also increase its decentralization. H.H. Sivarama Swami has consciously or intuitively grasped the importance of this dynamic. Rather than speaking only with a single voice, the members need to speak with many different and diverse voices. There can be difference on details, but on the essential issues there will be concordance. This will be powerful.

In areas that are unclear there can be an ongoing conversation, rather than the appearance of an official policy and a unified position which is actually undermined when GBC members interact individually with members of ISKCON.

The "threat of uncertainty" is especially hard for a centralized organization. A centralized organization is defined by its position. If it doesn't have a position on something, if the members don't agree, it's almost like the organization doesn't really exist, or at the very least its legitimacy and credibility are undermined. A decentralized organization, on the other hand, is defined by its processes. Uncertainty and lack of agreement do not threaten the identity of the organization. Chaos, complexity, and uncertainty are all accommodated in an ongoing dialog.

The Vedic civilization is a decentralized one and the dynamics of the Vedic culture are the processes of a decentralized organization. Loose coupling takes place at all levels. Although monarchy might appear to be centralization, the dynamic of decentralization is there: autonomous Kingdoms are loosely coupled into Empires. The same dynamic extends all the way down to individual life.

It is for this reason that the Vedic civilization is able to sustain such a wide diversity of lifestyle and religious practice within it.

Coming to grips with this dynamic will give the Governing Body significant influence in the evolving International Society for Krishna Consciousness.

Otherwise, an underfunded and overstretched centralized bureaucracy is going to increasingly find itself outflanked and enveloped by a more nimble, loosely-coupled and decentralized "organization" that spontaneously forms around issues, and then melts away again into the mist of the night.

H.H. Bhakti Caru Swami recently had a heart attack. Afterwards he underwent a change in direction. The focus of his preaching has shifted and he is speaking more openly about the broader issues of constitutional evolution of ISKCON, rather than sticking to the narrower party line of maintaining existing systems.

• Businesses for Krishna: "Until we are ready to engage qualified devotees according their ability, it is better that they work outside and gather experience."
• Role of Women: What man can do today women can also do that quite easily. And in some cases they can do it even better. That is why it has become natural that women are doing what a man is meant to do. And that is why in today’s world, women are striding side by side with men. My point is that we have to go along with the time, the trend, the way the things are in today’s world. That is why if sometimes women are able to do something we have to give them that facility. It is not that because you are a woman you have to stay at home. Many women will stay at home and will be happy doing that, but there will be many others who will want to go out and do things. So those who have that urge, the facilities and opportunities should be given to them.
• Role of Women: Ultimately what is Krishna consciousness? Krishna consciousness is providing you the facility to do whatever you like to do for Krishna. The ksatriyas are warriors who like to fight-so Krishna says, “OK, fight for Me.” The businessmen like to do business-the leaders of society say, “OK, do it for Krishna.” So Krishna consciousness is for everyone. When you create that facility then everyone will be engaged in Krishna consciousness. We simply have to provide that opportunity and facility for them to do whatever they are doing for Krishna’s pleasure. That is the purpose of varnashrama, daiva varnasrama. Whatever you like to do, according to your nature, do it for Krishna.
• How to Help Achieve Vision: Ultimately it is not just helping me, it is helping the entire society and entire world. We are just giving guidelines–this is what needs to be done. And when one understands the necessity and acts accordingly, that is how the help will come. That will be the help. To get something done, we need basically two things-men and money...Those who are coming to serve Krishna, they are not there to somehow just complete the job and make the money for themselves. They are working harder than anyone else should because of their sake of their love for Krishna. So that is how he is helping. Different devotees are coming forth and helping.
• Q&A April 2008 Today’s youth are not searching for a positive alternative. Rather they are trying to find a place in the society. The goal of their life is not to renounce everything in search for spiritual life, rather their goal of life is to achieve success by accumulating wealth and power. Therefore in order to attract them there is a need to set up establishments where they can be effectively engaged.

This is "I've just realized that I could leave at any moment and I no longer care about what other people think, or about keeping this under my control. It has to grow and evolve" talk.

Very refreshing.

Here is a page from a contemporary edition of the Talmud, a central Jewish scripture.

In the center is the Babylonian Gemara, the core of the text. Surrounding it are various commentaries, such as the Rushmie and the Tosafat.

These are commentaries written by rabbis, which over time have become an integral part of the tradition. As my Hebrew sastric advisor explained it to me, over time these commentaries would always be on the bookshelf and the table when the Talmud was being read and studied, so it become logical to integrate them into the same book.

The process by which a commentary is elevated to canonical status is one of meritocracy - by being absorbed into the tradition through universal use and acceptance by the community. This is in contrast to the evolution of the Christian Bible, with its executive insertions and deletions by synodic councils.

Visit the original source page of this image for more information on the layout and the commentaries that have been incorporated over time.

Personally I feel that an organic integration of a credited commentary that starts out as a standalone and is accepted over time is a healthier dynamic for us to follow, rather than the politicized scriptural process adopted by the Christian church.

Such an organic dynamic will help keep our community together, and will also dampen unhealthy excesses.

Vyenkata Bhatta is working on a piece for ISKCON News.com about "the furore surrounding Bhakta Corey / Caitanya das' blog" and the GBC response.

Ekendra das asked me for my input on the matter. There are many angles that this can be approached from, such as the gender roles issue (for a more thoughtful consideration of that issue by a contemporary younger generation devotee see Triyuga's recent posts here and here), or the dynamics of relationship between spiritual master and disciple (Caitanya das has publicly distanced himself from his spiritual master).

However, I focus more on the way in which the Internet changes the balance of power, and thus the constitution of ISKCON. It's a classic decentralized vs centralized organizational struggle. The GBC and "the ISKCON institution" represents a centralized organization (albeit a very disorganized one), while the burgeoning ISKCON community represents a decentralized one. My video podcast review of "The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations", a recent study on the dynamics of conflict between centralized and decentralized organizations, contains some insight into why the GBC is particularly vulnerable to this dynamic.

Here's the author speaking on the book, then me riffing on it.

Pursuant to the military analogy in that video, the GBC statement represents the old school centralized response of sending a B52 squadron over to bomb a foreign country. What they needed were special forces to do a surgical strike. Unfortunately they don't have any special forces.

Here's me. This was the first video podcast I ever did - I already got the feedback on how bad it's filmed thanks. :-)

Since I made this podcast Atma Yoga has become more powerful economically. We are now working on efficient structural evolution without centralizing, which is currently the only model ISKCON has. More on that soon...

A friend who works for Microsoft [which proves devotees are transcendental to mundane divisions like "conservative" and "liberal" ;-)] writes me:

Prabhu I was reading the post off your blog . In which you have invited everyone to the Saturday Harinam. You said that it’s another day wasted if we don’t use our energy for the Lord’s mission. Prabhu ….. now when you to use the energy in Lord’s mission everyday what does that mean? Now my understanding to it is something like this

Devotees chant Hare Krsna mantra everyday in this way they are using there energy in Lord’s mission.. is that right?

Devotees going out and preaching and doing harinam, this way using energy in Lord’s mission…is that right?

One is for personal KC and second one is for other benefit and own too. I would put it as internal KC and external KC.

My reply:

Dear Prabhu, thanks for your question and sharing your realization. What you have described is a good start.

Then it should go further to become all consuming, not just of our lives, but of the entirety of human endeavour.

By following his qualities of work, every man can become perfect. Now please hear from Me how this can be done. By worship of the Lord, who is the source of all beings and who is all-pervading, a man can attain perfection through performing his own work.

- Bhagavad-gita 18.45-46

I work. I get paid. I spend the money. That's energy. The rent I pay on my house is used for Krishna's service in one aspect because I live there, do sadhana, and preach.

However, if i could apply that rent money to a capital purchase by a Vaisnava, either by having a devotee landlord or else by buying it myself, then more of that energy is used in the Lord's service. If I then go on to use the capital gain to buy or contribute to a rural project, even more so. If I help other devotees to do the same thing, even better.

There are always more and more ways that we can make the society stronger on the economic and social platform (which require a solid spiritual basis) and channel more energy into the sankirtan movement.

All the energy that the two of us are giving to the respective technology companies we work for is being taken by them and stewarded to further materialistic aims. Our aims might be more in the mode of goodness than yours ;-), but nonetheless, we know that both are material. We contribute, and we do feel enlivened by the progress that the company makes. We do not begrudge our participation there, because we are part of a winning team (and we're getting paid, which enables our preaching). At the same time, as devotees, we see the futility and the spiritually fruitless expenditure of energy that is going on there. We admire the efficiency, but lament the effect. I feel that energy loss acutely, but there is currently no full-time engagement for me in ISKCON. I'm a conditioned soul, a grhasta with a wife and child. ISKCON doesn't yet cater to my situation in a way that can utilize my energy and provide me with the economic and social support that I require.

We should construct a more fully blown human society which can harness more of the energy of the participants. This will take ksatriyas and vaisyas acting under the guidance and advice of brahmanas. At the moment we have only a narrow band brahminical organization that cannot accommodate or engage large numbers of a wide diversity of persons in different phases of life.

As His Holiness Bhakti Caru Swami has been recently vision casting, we need to build out a more complete platform for human life. Krishna consciousness must spread to all areas of human existence. All human endeavour must be linked to the sankirtan yajña. This is the 50% of his work that Srila Prabhupada left for us - the establishment of a fully-blown human society: varnasrama-dharma.

It is not that we are vaisyas or ksatriyas. We are not in the business of being landlords or executives of organizations. We are in the business of fulfilling Srila Prabhupada's instructions, and he has given us the order to do it. So do it we will.

your servant in Brisbane,
Sita-pati das

That other group dedicated to the downfall of materialistic globalized civilization is also facing significant internal debate over traditional gender roles. From CNN comes the story: "Al Qaeda faces gender debate".

Muslim extremist women are challenging al Qaeda's refusal to include -- or at least acknowledge -- women in its ranks, in an emotional debate that gives rare insight into the gender conflicts lurking beneath one of the strictest strains of Islam.

It's interesting to note how a group that is arguably the quintessence of the agrarian backlash to post-industrial global society is also being pulled kicking and screaming into post-modernity.

Al-Zawahiri's remarks show the fine line al Qaeda walks in terms of public relations. In a modern Arab world where women work even in some conservative countries, al Qaeda's attitude could hurt its efforts to win over the public at large. On the other hand, noted SITE director Katz, al-Zawahiri has to consider that many al Qaeda supporters, such as the Taliban, do not believe women should play a military role in jihad.

Hmmm... perhaps they should consider annotations? Then again, that might be singularly divisive, since the two camps have practically diametrically opposed views.

Al-Zawahiri's question-and-answer campaign is one sign of al Qaeda's sophistication in using the Web to keep in touch with its popular base, even while its leaders remain in hiding. However, the Internet has also given those disenfranchised by al Qaeda -- in this case, women -- a voice they never had before.

Go the web and people who have figured out how it alters the game! ISKCON has the venerable D.A.S.I (Devotees Associating with Spiritual Intent) blog - which is not to be confused with the new (Vaisnava) Dasi blog, which is for the more militantly activist wing. The older, more established D.A.S.I blog is focused on individual spiritual practice, with a mission that includes focusing on developing members' Krishna consciousness and deepening their relationships, and a longer term focus of "Personal…Local…Global". The new Dasi blog, on the other hand, is more political in nature, focuses on day-to-day current events, and calls members to political action, including lobbying the individual members of the GBC (their email addresses are helpfully listed on the front page). Recent pronouncements coming from the GBC do give the impression that the body is responsive to this form of influence.

Interestingly I stumbled across this in my RSS-feeds today:

Bureaucracies tend to define their church’s mission as a form of liberalism for another reason: They are easily taken over by politically organized groups, both because such people tend to join them to advance their cause and because an organized group can easily be given a place in the process. Liberals are politically more active and better organized, in part because traditional believers are working on their sermons or running soup kitchens or raising their children or helping their neighbors.

- Reorganizing Religion - Why the Church Bureaucracies Have to Go

I'm not saying that this is the case in ISKCON, but if it were, the new Dasi blog deliberately or instinctively (woman's intuition?) homes in on that leverage point.

And if some Vaisnavis find even this level of political activism still too moderate for their taste, there's always that other revolutionary organization to go to, to take it to the next level:

Women bent on becoming militants have at least one place to turn to. A niche magazine called "al-Khansaa" -- named for a female poet in pre-Islamic Arabia who wrote lamentations for two brothers killed in battle -- has popped up online. The magazine is published by a group that calls itself the "women's information office in the Arab peninsula," and its contents include articles on women's terrorist training camps, according to SITE.

More power to the sisters!

(And no, I am not calling politically active women in ISKCON "terrorists", just to be clear on that point.)

Now in 2008 comes this story in the latest online Time magazine: the Boy Scouts are being evicted from a public building in Philadelphia for refusing to allow gays and atheists to join their organization ["The Boy Scouts' Free Speech Fight"].

Mayor Michael Nutter sums it up:

"If we were talking about an organization that discriminated against African Americans, Italians, the Irish, Catholics, people of the Jewish faith, or any of a number of other categories, there would be such an outrage that you wouldn't be able to contain it.

Now, I'm not prescribing Gay Marriage, I'm simply describing the evolution of the modern environment. Krishna-kirti prabhu [website] has also been following this development over the past few years. You might be interested to read my April 2005 post Preaching in the post-Gay-Marriage World for suggestions on preaching angles in this new environment.

Yes ISKCON, as the prophetic Krishna-kirti has been warning, your turn is coming:

If there are other groups and organizations similarly situated, we will certainly get to the bottom of it and take the appropriate action," Nutter said, "but for the moment, we're talking about the Boy Scouts... the right thing to do for the Boy Scouts is to stop discriminating against homosexuals and atheists."

Strategies to deal with this could include in the short term enforcing that only initiated ISKCON members can get married in ISKCON temples, rather than allowing uninitiated Indian congregational members to do so too. This will give us an arbitrary dividing line that doesn't involve "heterosexuals only", and prevent a militant activist in the congregation forcing the issue down the line. And, ultimately, I think we need to "allow" gay devotees to maintain their own temples where we (they? I'm confused...) can cater to that sector of the populace. We need more pure devotees amongst the gays.

It's a diverse world: you can't deny it, but you can construct (socially) to accommodate it. That's the Vedic paradigm. Vedic civilization encompasses and assimilates everything, and it has the Vaisnava brahmanas at the center - or at least our version of it does, and that's the version we're pushing.