Reply to Janardana Prabhu on GBC Elections - Part 1
Sat, 12/20/2008 - 13:44 — Anonymous
BY: NIMAI PANDIT DASDec 18, LONG ISLAND, NEW YORK (SUN) — Hare Krishna Janardana Prabhu, Thank you for your intelligent questions. I will try to answer them section by section.
You askTEMPLES"In your article from the 22nd of November about the election update, "GBC Elections in Bangalore - Update", it is mentioned that the centers in India which participate in the election were not organically grown.
Please explain how they were developed and what activities are going on in these temples. Also, please publish a list of names and the Temple Presidents of these temples, the names of the temples, their geographical location, and the names of Temple Presidents of temples from other regions which will take part in the GBC election later on."
"Not organically grown" means that as we know generally, a new Temple President himself starts a preaching program, then makes it a formal center, then the devotees join in and he is automatically the Temple President. No election or appointment is necessary. Or in a functioning temple, a Temple President is stepping down or he needs to be changed so the temple congregation, after due consideration, votes in the new President, as per DOM. But none of these procedures were followed in India for the temples affiliated with ISKCON Bangalore.
Due to extenuating circumstances that I cannot talk about, as there is a litigation underway between ISKCON Mumbai and ISKCON Bangalore on who owns the Bangalore temple, Hare Krishna Hill, the Temple Presidents were young devotees sent from ISKCON Bangalore, with little experience, who somehow had to start managing a big project in a new city. Hence in the beginning, they were trainee Presidents with both financial and managerial help from ISKCON Bangalore. It was not an organic growth of the temples as we know it. But they are all legally independent entities from ISKCON Bangalore.
Temple Presidents have now matured over the years and are able to manage more or less independently. Hence this was a good opportunity to have a proper election from among the Temple members, to see if they actually have the qualifications of a Temple President who have the qualification to elect a GBC from among them.
We discussed these issues in detail and all meetings were videotaped. Our only inability is that we are not able to process and post them at a good pace. But soon you will see most of these excellent queries answered on a video format for all to see atwww.iskcontoday.org.
At this time, it is difficult for us to publish the names of Temple Presidents, locations, etc. due to the ongoing lawsuit. Hopefully within a short time we should be able to post the whole list of the TP Body and the newly elected GBCs. These temples in India are generally started after a Akshaya Patra Kitchen facility is started with the help of the government in any given city. Then gradually a temple is built for the devotees staying there and the guests. These temples have brahmacaris, full morning programs, varying pre-set standards of deity worship, folk preaching for youth, children's Krsna book school competition, Life Membership, and many other preaching activities. A full temple program.
To be continued...
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