ISKCON Constitution

The Third ISKCON Studies Conference is on July 16 - 19 in Italy. I won't be going, because I'll be rocking it with Amala Kirtan on his Australian visit at that time.

However, I will be sure to tune in to the mp3 recordings afterwards.

This year's theme is "Education, Preaching, and Conversion"

It's billed as "a forum for presentations of research and open discussion among the participants", which sounds pretty cool to me.

Here are some of the presentations that will be going on:

• Meditation as a Devotional Practice in Jiva Gosvami’s Philosophy of Education (Barbara Holdrege)
• Preaching in ISKCON: An Analysis (Ravindra Svarupa Dasa)
• Scholarship and Spiritual Life (Gopinathacarya Dasa)
• Conversion, Preaching, and Western Cultural Identity (Jan Olof Bengtsson)
• The Meaning and Form of Conversion in Gaudiya Vaisnava Tradition (Kumaripriya Dasi)
• Conversion, Experience, and Narrative: Examples from the Hare Krishnas
  (Hrvoje Cargonja)
• Education (Urmila Dasi)
• Preaching Conversion or Education? The Case of Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati (Pranava Dasa)
• The Future of Education in ISKCON (Shaunaka Rishi Das)
• Panel Discussion: Joining Worlds of Knowledge: Secular and Vaisnava Academies

Check out the ISKCON Studies website for more deets.

Now, what would be really cool is if they could live stream video via UStream, or at least a live audio feed of the event. I'd stay up all night for that.

Public discussion of ISKCON Constitution has dropped recently. The ISKCON GBC Constitutional Committee disbanded without producing any public output, which was a little disappointing.

Anyway, I've been thinking a lot about the topic recently.

David Jorm and I discussed this topic in a recent podcast [1].

One thing that came out was the idea that ISKCON membership needs to be at the local level.

Here is what I currently consider to be a healthy basis for a local ISKCON constitution/membership:

• A legally incorporated not-for-profit ISKCON association in the local state or county
• Definition of membership levels, including one for initiated and uninitiated members, and one for the local GBCs
• Election of executive board
• Provision for automatic appointment of the GBC to the board
• Some structure for power of veto for the GBC
• Appointment of the Temple President by the board
• Review of staff strategic objectives performance, and contracts by the board

What you will have in this scenario is a fully volunteer, unpaid community board, with a mandate from the membership, who can employ executive staff for the local ISKCON projects.

I envison the board acting like a corporate board, meeting with the executive to jointly form the broad strategic direction, while the executive (Temple President) is on the ground making the tactical decisions, including hiring and managing paid and unpaid staff (such as monks, etc).

The Temple President's remuneration would be set by the board, and the Temple President's contract would be of a fixed term, for example two years, and reviewed with an option to renew at the end of that period.

The Temple President would be paid superannuation and so forth, and if it didn't work out, for whatever reason, then they can just get on with their life, and the board can find someone else for the service. If it did work out, and continued to work out for a long time, then when it eventually became time for the Temple President to retire, there would be no issues about them having to stay in the job to stay alive. Superannuation exists for a reason - protection of the elderly.

Local ISKCON entities could be affiliated with a national umbrella ISKCON organisation, and this would be their "authorisation".

So there you have - the rough outlines of a modern local ISKCON constitution.

Recently a proposal, developed in conjunction with a significant representation of our local Brisbane community, was submitted to the Australian GBC.

As a measure of transparency and accountability, the proposal and the GBC's response to the proposal are being published here; along with video and audio from the recent Community Meeting where the proposal and the response were presented.

Here is the text of the proposal:

• Proposal to GBC

Here is the text of the GBC response:

• Response to proposal from GBC

We have video and audio recordings of the presentations that were given, but audio only of the Questions and Discussion (the video camera battery ran out). The first question in the Questions and Discussion audio is the challenge, so you don't need to listen too far into that to get some controversy ;-). See below for the audio and video. Transcriptions are underway.

Here is the audio of the Community Meeting:

• 1. Introduction - Krishnapada das
• 2. Sitapati das
• 3. Sakhi-rai das
• 4. Murari Hari das
• 5. Questions and Discussion

Here are the videos of the Community Meeting:

On opensource.com, Jason Hibbets writes about a recent keynote address at Drupalcon, "Open Source in Government", by Dave Cole, Senior Advisor to the CIO of the Executive Office of the President of the United States. Drupalcon is a conference for developers and users of Drupal, an open source Content Management System that is used to drive websites, including whitehouse.gov. Drupal is available for free, and is open source software.

It's no secret that the Obama administration is about change. I think it's safe to say, one of the main philosophies of this administration is that change coming from the bottom up is embraced rather than smothered.

Cole said:

Change comes from the bottom-up. Ordinary people get together to achieve extraordinary things. In political advocacy we called it community organizing. Here in development, we call it open source. I think that's the fit.

Hibbets goes on to explain:

This mentality directly aligns with principles of the open source way like sharing, meritocracy, and community. Bottom-up initiatives, like community organizing, aren't new concepts. This approach is embraced because it's more effective than top-down directives. The participants who opt into community-organized initiatives are more passionate, committed, and driven.

One way this change is happening is with more transparency. The whitehouse.gov site runs on Drupal, an open source content management system, and provides a platform with user features like a briefing room, blogs, special features, and live video. Cole rhetorically asked what Drupal can do for government. The response: It's helping to drive the open government and open data movements because the nature of open source fits nicely with open government initiatives like being more transparent to citizens.

Atmayogi.com is powered by Drupal.

Sankirtan das, in his post Membership?, continues the conversation in response to Kaunteya's post ISKCON Membership - What I wrote to "GBC Discussions".

Sankirtan makes good points and raises good questions.

He makes an argument against the use of citizenship of a country as an analogy for ISKCON membership, and raises the fundamental question: "(W)hy now is there a need to define membership? What is the purpose?"

Without answering that question, it is difficult to really adress the membership issue.

At the risk of going a little off-topic, one area where I think we can work within concretely defined boundaries, and where it is useful to do so, is in the issue of full-time staff of ISKCON. It is easier to define who is a full-time staff member than it is to define who is a member.

Sankirtan asks about the rights and responsibilities of members, and talks about the rights and responsibilities of citizens to show that the citizenship analogy falls down.

On the question of full-time staff members, the analogy with employees of a corporation has more points of congruence than the analogy of citizens of a country to members of ISKCON does.

In the case of a full-time staff member, a person is surrendering their time and energy to the organisation, just as an employee of a corporation does.

Modern labour laws have evolved over time to formalise the reciprocation between the two parties involved in the labour transaction. There is a duty of care on the part of the employer toward the employee. Since the employee is giving their energy to the cause of the employer, the employer becomes responsible for providing reasonable means of subsistence to the employee, and there are legally guaranteed minimums. Many countries also have compulsory superannuation schemes that employers contribute to on behalf of the employees, in order to provide economic support for retirement of the population.

In the case of ISKCON, some people choose to give a few years in their youth as volunteer service. It is easier to define who is a full-time volunteer than the more ambiguous "member". It is even easier to define who is an official staff member, for example a Temple President, a head pujari, a cook, etc. Some of these people will not just give a few years of their life, but a large section, and even most or all of their adult working life.

Modern Western societies have evolved mechanisms, enshrined in labour laws, to deal with issues such as retirement, career advancement, retrenchment, extent and limit of responsibility and duty of care. ISKCON has none of this. One of the problems that comes from this is that career ISKCON staff have no retirement prospects. They have given all their adult life to the organisation, but there is no superannuation. In many cases they are stuck in a position where they need to hold on to the post, and more or less effectively execute it operationally, merely in order to continue subsisting. Hardly an ideal situation, and hardly protection of the elder members of society.

Here are some of my thoughts on the matter.

I think that full-time volunteer staff should have some money put aside for them in a trust account, and this money should be disbursed when they leave. So a young man enters into the ashram and stays there for two or three years. In that time the organisation draws on his energy, and intelligent managers should put him into play such that he develops personally, and so that his activities benefit the community. If the situation is structured correctly then either through standard economic reciprocation (for example, public buying meals in a restaurant) or through volunteer contribution (for example, congregational donations) the organisation should capitalise on his contribution at the same time. Some of that capital should be stored on his behalf, and given when he leaves.

In this way the organisation discharges its spiritual duty of engaging him in a way that is beneficial for his personal development, and for the spiritual upliftment of society; and the organisation discharges it duty of taking responsibility for his physical maintenance in exchange for his service.

In the case of full-time staff members and what are effectively career professionals such as Temple Presidents and other management staff, there should be a clear economic arrangement that takes into account all of the factors that modern labour laws have evolved to support. It is irresponsible to accept full-time service, especially over years and decades, without having a system in place for the maintenance of the person. Modern labour systems divide whole-life maintenance of the person into portions and make the entity utilising the service of the individual liable for the corresponding portion of that cost.

If you don't encode economic concerns such as this explicitly and clearly, then each person will be left to fend for themselves, and the inevitable result will be that people who are able to seize access to economic resources will hold on to them for dear life. As well, unclear economic arrangements will arise.

In conclusion, two points:

• It is the logic of half a hen to talk about the contribution of a person without considering the economic maintenance of the whole person.
• If there is no legitimate means of economic existence, the only available ones are illegitimate.

Apologies for the lack of editing. Just jotting some thoughts before heading off to the tour rehearsal for Madhava's Australian Kirtan Tour. See you there!

In this week's podcast we discuss James Cameron's new movie, Avatar - the most expensive movie to produce of all time at $300 million.

We also discuss Leadership.

Here's the podcast file:

• 09-12-19 Red Hill Podcast - Avatar 3d and Leadership

Here are my free ebooks on Leadership that I mention in the podcast:

• Bhagavad-gita Small Group Resource
• On Leadership
• Leadership Lessons From Bhagavad-gita

Here's last week's podcast on ISKCON Membership, including live callers. Aniruddha prabhu, temple president of Melbourne, and Dhruva prabhu from Byron Bay called in.

• Podcast on ISKCON membership Part A
• Podcast on ISKCON membership Part B

Tomorrow (Saturday 5th December) at 10 am AEST (GMT+10), David Jorm and I will be continuing with part two of our discussion about ISKCON membership.

We will be discussing David's recent blog post Membership in a confederated ISKCON structure, and the 2007 Church Plant Survivability and Health Study by the Center for Missional Research, North American Mission Board.

You can listen live here: Kirtan Radio, and you can participate in the conversation as it takes place via facebook and twitter (@sitapati).

So it's Saturday, 5th December at 10am AEST. Here's the current date and time in Brisbane:

Here's a podcast that David Jorm and I recorded this morning. We talked around ISKCON membership, covering the Chocolate incident, and some wider ISKCON Constitutional issues.

• Podcast: ISKCON Membership (mp3, 55 mins, 65MB)

Some related resources:

• David's blog

• H.H. Prahladananda Swami's 2006 paper "Duties of GBC and Guru"

I've also attached a copy to this post, in case the other link goes dark at some point.
Here's the section I quoted in the podcast:

The absence of a strong GBC Body and management system has created a authority vacuum within ISKCON. The devotees who join ISKCON often are more loyalty to their initiating guru than to the management structure of the Society. We have seen big temples such as in Bangalore leave ISKCON, and without learning from our mistakes, we do not sufficiently supervise our leaders or the Society’s projects. In some places, the strategy of a charismatic leader and experienced managers has encouraged many devotees to join and take initiation. However, when the devotees do not identify themselves as subordinate to the authority structure of the ISKCON society, in the future, when the current gurus leave their bodies, it is not clear what will to happen to such projects.

- Why ISKCON is in danger of failing, Duties of GBC and Guru, H.H. Prahladananda Swami, 2006

• H.H. Sivarama Swami podcast on Chocolate, May 26, 2006

Here is a transcript of the section about chocolate (from 4.42):

In answering this question I should point out.... that there was some discussion about this topic not long ago, in the GBC, and it was pointed out that the information that was given to Srila Prabhupada, and that is that chocolate contains coffeine [sic] was incorrect, ah, and it's not a [sic] intoxicant on the same level as coffee, tea, etc. So Srila Prabhupada had told devotees not to take chocolate on the basis of the information that they had given, ah therefore, ah, chocolate does not contain caffeine. Having said that, it's a substance that is cooked and prepared by karmis. Vaisnavas generally do not eat karmi foods. If someone were to ask whether they could eat bread cooked by karmis, the answer, Srila Prabhupada's answer is 'no'.

[Maharaja discusses not going nuts on eating chocolate, and discusses using cocoa butter to make preparations for the Deity]

[7:42]
...the information is there that they do not contain caffeine, and they are no longer a banned substance.

This frank admission of the challenges faced by the Bhakti-vriksha program is a breath of fresh air.

Here are a few of my observations:

1. Lack of leadership support

One of the issues explained in this article is a lack of widespread support for the initiative by the leadership of ISKCON.

One of the qualities of an effective manager or leader is realism. Leaders need to be able to make a realistic assessment of the situation, in order to calculate a course from where they are now to where they want to go. "Know yourself and know your enemy and you need not fear defeat in any battle". Another word for this is "practical".

Unfortunately a lot of the information coming out of the Congregational Ministry up to this point has been transparently unrealistic. Managers want to know about the bottom line. "What are the cold hard facts"? From the Congregational Ministry so far we've been hearing inflated accounts of successes "in other parts of the world". Level headed organizers and administrators have not been taken in by this, and have not lent their support to it as a result.

This kind of hype may work on the simple masses, but jedi mind tricks and smoke and mirrors are of no use on the kind of people whose support you need. They want to know what's really going on.

2. "Over-promised, under-delivered"

The Bhaktivriksha program has committed the cardinal sin of "over-promising and under-delivering". Too much hype was created as a way of trying to create a massive wave of enthusiasm. Instead it needs to be approached in a level manner with management of expectations.

First of all: "These are the challenges that you are facing". To demonstrate that you have a realistic appreciation of the situation.

"Here is the opportunity". Explaining how the cell structure of Bhaktivriksha addresses these challenges.

"Here are the present success stories". Showing what has happened in ISKCON, and what has happened outside ISKCON.

"Here are the problems". Explaining that no-one has yet converted an existing ISKCON yatra to the cell model.

At this point we have at least one very successful BV yatra which demonstrates the potential. However, we have not been able to convert from a classical ISKCON organizational structure to a BV structure. That's OK. We don't have to obscure this fact. It is at a pioneering stage. If you're willing to explore the potential of this program, we're willing to go along with you. We'll all be learning as we go, because as we explained, there is so far no success story - but you can see the potential.

Some forward thinking leaders will work with this. Otherwise they just see an unproven system being pushed by unrealistic people in either a naive or dishonest fashion, and there is no way they are going to risk their present success, however close to failure their yatra may be, on that.

In the article you mention that ISKCON yatras are failing. However, you cannot provide one example of where you have saved one with BV. *That* is why leaders are not going to take to it whole-heartedly. Effective managers and leaders are extremely practical. ISKCON's present leaders got where they are now by making safe bets on calculated risks, not by embracing every snake-oil salesman who rolls into town.

Adjust the pitch and try to create a single reference site. Manage the expectations and work with a brutally realistic but visionary manager who is open to trying this somewhere in ISKCON.

This is not another program - it's a replacement organizational paradigm

Something that needs to be very clear is that this is not simply another program - this is a replacement organizational paradigm.

There are two implications of this:

1) If you try to chase two rabbits, both will get away

Without understanding that this is a new organizational paradigm that will undergird the entire yatra you end up with these two conflicting organizational models. Dilemmas arise: "Who's in charge? What's the relationship between the BV and the temple? What's the authority structure?". Energy to one sucks energy from the other. The success of one is at the expense of the other.

2) You are in direct opposition to the current temple organizational paradigm

The temple became successful (whatever state they are) following a particular paradigm. You are trying to replace this underlying paradigm. Although initially it's presented as another program that you add in, soon it becomes apparent, either through its symptoms, or when devotees grasp the implications, that you are going to change the entire fundamental power structure of the community.

You are undermining the authority and the processes of the existing yatra. People got to where they are doing certain things in a certain way, and you're about to do away with that. That's very, very scary for people. They respond by trying to protect their personal situation to keep it safe, and that manifests collectively as an attack on the BV. At the very least it manifests as indifference, but more usually it will result in preaching against it (or preaching against some of its symptoms), withdrawing resources, etc....

Obviously where there is no previously "successful" (or rather entrenched) paradigm to displace, BV starts up a lot easier.

These points need to be understood. If BV is going to be implemented in an ISKCON yatra it needs to be clearly discussed and understood that this represents a complete conversion to a fundamentally different paradigm of organization. This is going to lead to a different structure of power. If this is clearly understood and the leadership is fully committed to it, then it can be worked through. Otherwise it will be a train wreck. The BV and the temple are headed for a head-on collision.

At this point there is no roadmap for doing a conversion. No-one has pulled it off yet. So whoever agrees to doing this has to agree to the following things (essentially):

Some combination of the following:
1 a) We're in such a bad state right now that we'll try anything - we have nothing to lose so we're willing to bet the farm.
1 b) We can see the huge potential of this and are so inspired by it that we're willing to bet the farm on it.

2) We understand that this implies giving up our present paradigm for a new paradigm of organization, that it involves trusting people and allowing the yatra to expand beyond what we can "control" and trusting in our ability to "direct" it through preaching.

3) We understand that this has never been done before and that we are pioneering this process of transition.

4) We understand that this involves a massive amount of fundamental change and this will be very unsettling for people. People will be asked to give up what made them successful individually, and will be asked to have faith in a new way of organizing the yatra, going against their experience to this point. We acknowledge these challenges. We commit to open communication, complete honesty and transparency, ongoing discussion and analysis in order to help people to understand, process, and adapt to these changes.

5) We have the complete commitment of our leadership to this course of action.

Without this BV cannot be successful in an existing ISKCON yatra without killing the temple. Which hasn't happened yet either, but at the moment the only hope for a successful conversion is for an ISKCON temple to become so weak that an inspired and dedicate BV preacher is able to overwhelm it with a BV program.

It's no surprise that ISKCON leaders haven't supported this. Basically in areas where there are ISKCON temples you've been getting some fringe visionaries who are discontented with the current status quo to start it and pitting them against the temple power structure. Existing temple authorities have everything to lose, and little to gain, based on what they've seen other temple managers gain as a result of giving up control.

ISKCON leaders en masse will have more faith in this when there is a successful implementation. I would focus on creating one success first.