Article by Upendranath Dasa
Analysis of Srila Prabhupada’s “Direction of Management”, the DOM
“Elections of GBCs”
[The second reason that his direction of management is interesting is,
“The GBCs are be elected by TPs”
Srila Prabhupada stated in a room conversation on May 28th, 1977 with Satsvarupa Goswami and TKG, that those already GBC should remain for life. However, I posit that it is possible that Prabhupada was refereeing to the 4 GBC’s that were selected by him, not the 8 which he said should be elected by the body of Temple presidents from a ballot of all Temple presidents and qualified secretaries, once each year. It would make no sense if to say “they should remain for life, and at the same time say “8 of them must be elected each year”. Otherwise, election of GBCs by TP’s is very clear and cannot be mistaken to mean anything else.
TKG are initials of Tamal Krishna Goswami.
Satsvarupa:
“So, our first question is about the GBC members.
We want to know how long should they remain in office?”
Prabhupada:
“They should remain for good.”
TKG:
“They should remain for good?”
Prabhupada:
“Selected men are chosen, so they cannot be changed.”
The following are excerpts from letters regarding the following subjects.
But before I proceed, I want to mention one quote from Prabhupada that sums up all the miss-management and miss-government that prevailed in ISKCON when Prabhupada was present and after his departure. Prabhupada said,
“So, if there are any defects within our Society it is only symptom that the instructions of the Spiritual Master are being neglected.”]