Internal unity. Creating disunity (divide and rule) by politics, heresies, etc. is one of the main asuric agendas. More on these, etc.:

http://www.veda.harekrsna.cz/bhaktiyoga/opponents.htm

Not enough "trinad api sunicena..."

I would have to say that the most important issue affecting ISKCON right now is:

There is a trend to want to relativize Srila Prabhupada's absolute position. For instance, someone might argue "Well, Srila Prabhupada wasn't a fully liberated soul" (which, by the way, is a very demoniacally offense statement, but there are actually "devotees" who think like that). And, using the above logic, that means that we can interpret Srila Prabhupada's statements in our own way, since everything has become relative.

For instance, Srila Prabhupada wrote in one purport "The homosexual appetite of one man for another man is demoniac and not for any sane male", which makes it pretty clear that homosexuality is not acceptable in our Vaisnava siddhanta. But, you have people who may directly, or indirectly question Srila Prabhupada's absolute position by giving their own interpretation of his words, and speaking their own ideas about these issues, instead of simply accepting Srila Prabhupada's absolute authority on the issue. We have also seen a few posts on this forum that fall into this category too. Their faith in Srila Prabhupada is not complete, total surrender. They are still holding on to their own ideas. And the only way that they can morally justify holding on to their previous conditioned ideas is to RELAVITIZE Srila Prabhupada's absolute position.

See, if one part of his teachings are "relativized", then what is stopping anyone from trying to "relativize" any other section of his teachings? Anyone with a little foresight can foresee the massive implications this could have on our movement, and especially on the philosophical foundation of our movement.

Amalagaura:
You post has a few disturbing undertones. One undertone is that anyone who simply repeats what Prabhupada taught is "fanatical", or "extremist". What you are actually doing, is calling Srila Prabhupada a fanatic. Of course, they would never come out openly and say that, but they feel fine "kicking the dog" instead of kicking the master, simply for repeating the words of the master.

It is interesting that you seem to automatically lump me in with the "fanatical" category, due to your statement "group of proud devotees". Perhaps I too hold the compassionate position that you yourself hold? I have read Radhanath Maharaja's essays on caring for devotees, and agree completely with him.

Amalagaura:
I agree completely with you. If a homosexual man decided to join our temple, I would personally take interest in being his friend, trying to help him, supporting him, helping him deal with his problem. Srila Prabhupada did not reject homosexuals, but he did ask them to give up their homosexuality.

I am not some kind of childish blind fanatic who would simply tell him "You're a demon! Get out of here!".

If we justify homosexuality as an acceptable form of behavior within ISKCON, that will require openly rejecting Srila Prabhupada's statements on this subject. And once one aspect of his teachings is relativized like that, nothing else will remain absolute, and thus completely open to interpretation. We have already seen this practically done with the "women's issue" a few years ago.

Your point about devotees not being able to relate to one another is certainly valid, and I agree with you. We have the most personalist philosophy in the world. I too would like to see better Vaisnava relationships, starting with my own.

But you speak of "it is okay to repeat Prabhupada's words" in somewhat of an apologetic tone. Why should we have to apologize for repeating Srila Prabhupada's words? Forgive me, but since when has it become politically incorrect to repeat Prabhupada's words, out of fear of being labeled a "fanatic", "extremist", "conservative", "orthodox", etc? This is exactly what I mean when I talk about the subtle trend towards relativizing Srila Prabhupada's absolute authority on all issues of morality, philosophy, culture, etc.

Has it become unpopular to quote Srila Prabhupada's teachings on a relevant subject?

It is true, there is a very popular idea today, that we should care for devotees and such. I fully support such ideas.

But what good is all of our so called "care and compassion" if we can't even chant 16 rounds or follow the four regulative principles? Do we use "care" as an excuse to not be strict anymore? What good does all of our external niceness do, if we have no inner purity?

The idea that we should all be nice to each other, and never instruct each other is a strange idea. Then we won't follow strictly anymore, and as a result, we will have a movement that may externally look nice, but with no bliss.

True, it is easier to simply sit back and never correct anyone, and who knows, people might even think you have saintly character. They might actually believe that you have "compassion". Although real compassion is to give people Krishna consciousness, and not to cheat them by not giving it to them. To not give it to them by simply smiling, saying "Yes, it's all okay, I'm okay, you're okay", instead of correcting their misconceptions so that they can make spiritual advancement.

I guess it really just depends on your definition of "aparadha". Are you committing an "aparadha" by correcting someone's philosophical misconceptions? Would it be better to let them go on with their wrong ideas, instead of correcting them with the right idea? That sounds a lot like the modern idea that parents have, to not discipline their children out of fear of hurting their feelings. It sounds like a good idea. But what is the practical result of it? Their children grow up to be spoiled brats with absolutely no discipline, completely disrespectful towards their parents. So this idea that "I'm okay, you're okay" is simply another foolish idea based on modern demoniac social ideaologies.

One other point. How puffed actually are we? If we are actually thinking "I am a Vaisnava, and that person has committed an 'aparadha' against me by disagreeing with me", honestly, we need to analyze ourself and recognize the extreme nature of our arrogance. As for my humble self, I cannot claim to be a Vaisnava. I am merely trying to become the servant of the servant of a Vaisnava. Therefore, there is no such thing as an "aparadha" against me, because I am already so fallen.

Is it an "aparadha" to disagree with someone? If so, you will need to re-educate me, because I never remember reading that in Srila Prabhupada's books.

Who said that "care and compassion" means "everything goes"? E.g. in the system of Radhanatha M. everyone is cared for and has a mentor/guide. The whole concept of nama-hatta (which is the future of Vaishnavism, as far as I can ascertain) is about encouraging everyone to "do something and raise your standard with the help of others" instead of "do everything at once". These are different concepts (pravritti/layman and nivritti/ascetic) and both have their place in the Vaishnava society.

Your criticism of modern education and family values based on impersonalism is to the point.

Amalagaura:

I recently found a very nice letter from Jayadvaita Maharaja that deals with one point you had raised in your previous posts:

"Prabhupada said what he did with a depth of compassion as well. "

The full letter by Jayadvaita Swami can be found here: http://akincanaforum.eponym.com/blog/_archives/2006/11/30/2541329.html

I will go ahead and take the liberty to quote here the main gist of his letter:

Srila Prabhupada too, as another member of this conference has
noted, was not unlimitedly acquiescent and accommodating. The
Srila Prabhupada of Unlimited Understanding and Accommodation is a
product of post-1977 mythology.

Amalagaura prabhu,

I am not exactly sure how the news article you posted fits into the discussion we are having here. To be honest, I do not see what the relevance is. But, aside from that.

I am going to take the liberty to assume that you believe that the statement "Vaisnavas are hard like thunderbolt and soft like a rose" means that Srila Prabhupada was "all encompassing and all understanding". But, as Jayadvaita Swami pointed out, "The Srila Prabhupada of Unlimited Understanding and Accommodation is a product of post-1977 mythology."

There are certain points that Srila Prabhupada never accommodated for, such as illicit sex, meat eating, intoxication, and gambling. The popular idea nowadays is that Prabhupada was simply a sweet old man, and yes, he was. But modern advocates seem to have conviently forgotten how heavy he was on certain points. One of the points that have been forgotten is how extremely heavy he was on the subject of loose association between men and women. But that is a whole other topic.

Do you believe that Srila Prabhupada would have tolerated any kind of homosexual behavior in his disciples?

Amalagaura prabhu:

Thank you for the kind response.

I edited my previous post, so you might want to re-read it and re-edit your reply. Sorry about the double edit. Just to simplify things, the main part of my re-edited previous post is that I added a question to the end of it. I will repeat it here, for clarity's sake:

Do you believe that Srila Prabhupada would have tolerated any kind of homosexual behavior in his disciples?

Yes sir. I shall do so. Perhaps you should close this thread, close the comments section.

I count only 6 items as real answers to the question. I think we should give more time, so more devotees can post their answers.

True abhiram prabhu.

My observations living in North America is that there are only a few temples capable of giving quality training. The rest of the temples are generally householder communities. So we need to first acknowledge that this is a problem, the lack of preaching and book distribution in North America. And then we need to figure out how to revive the preaching in NA.

The solution is simple- We simply have to work hard to do it. There is no "easy" way to preach. It requires purity (that means following the regulations) and determination.

There are a few very good temples to send new bhaktas to get trained. Here are a few:

Rupanuga Vedic College in Kansas City. It is run by Danavir Goswami, and I can say that this is the best place for a new bhakta. Danavir Goswami is the creater of the Bhakta Program, by the way. I do not know if you know him or not, but Danavir Goswami is a very wonderful devotee.

San Deigo, which is run by Mahat-tattva prabhu, who is a very staunch brahmacari. It is a very good temple. Mahat-tattva is the founder of Sastra-dana, an innovative book distribution method. He is also a very wonderful devotee. There are also a few other senior brahmacaris at this temple.

New York, has a good brahmacari ashram, and resident sannyasis like Romapada Swami and Candrasekhar Swami.

The most important social issue that we have seen in retrospect is the SCANDALS in ISKCON.

I think we don't need to see a list here, but we also know why ISKCON was sued for millions of dollars and had to declare bankruptcy. It is not because ISKCON couldn't preach against homosex or treating women,children correctly. But because ISKCON leaders could not enforce it. Some of them tried their best but the fact that we are accepting members from all classes of degraded society is really to blame.

That is the unadulterated fact that I think we need to accept. We preach a philosophy in the stratosphere but all debauchery went on in the temples. There are COUNTLESS people who approached ISKCON with good faith and turn away when they see and hear the things that happen in ISKCON.

But the friction in ISKCON that we are witnessing on these message forums is quite clear. ISKCON is at the same time an inclusive society for people of all types to improve their lives and at the same time a place for pure brahmanas and devotees to congregate. So how to do both those things? How to have healthy grihastha community and at the same time have lifelong celibates? Prabhupada did say to be strict with ourselves, but without a higher taste that is simply not possible. It is possible for the first few years to be strict, but without a higher taste it will not last. And that higher taste means we must get love from our devotee relationships.

most important social issue in my opinion - not enough education taking place in our centers - mostly social clubs with little emphasis on transformation. There are brilliant exceptions to this but too many places where accepting Gaudiya philosophy is considered pretty much optional to be an upstanding member of a community.

if education is emphasized then lots of social problems will be minimized because devotees will have the understanding and framework to deal with them. in other words they will be empowered to think for themselves in spiritual life and our society will feel more like a spiritual community than a poor attempt at organized religion.

Iskcon is not a social organization:International society for Krsna consciousness,imho means to rebuild our link to Lord Krishna.

How?

1. By following the orders of the most recent Acarya,Srila Prabhupada,and his sincere disciples,who just repeat what he instructed.All others,who have deviated or is deviating must be rejected,mainly when they preach such things as 1)3 principled sadhana,2)there's no need for any genuine GBC for control against deviations,3) following his Godbrothers,which he didn't recommend etc....

"I will be eternally present in my transcendental books!"Srila Prabhupada said!

2. Put in practice his instructions,strictly,by istagosthis,on local and international level,and so,pleasing him 100%.By going independant,one is surely not pleasing His Divine Grace,although there can be apparent success.Iskcon should be a big united family,with sincere followers enthusiastically spreading the Holy names of the Lord and Srila Prabhupada's books.

By pleasing the Founder Acarya,all social issues will be automatically solved!

After instituting 1. (post-samadhi version) and 4. you can't call yourself a follower of Prabhupada anymore.

...why can't we ?

Tulsiananda das:

...why can't we ?

Are you asking yourself or others?

Most of the problems in ISKCON come from the fact that the GBC has neglected Srila Prabhupada's "Direction of Management" (DOM), a legal document written in 1970 and referred to many times by Srila Prabhupada. If DOM were to be followed, ISKCON would stop being a centralized, bureaucratic institution.