Aspects of Vaisnava Theory & Practice
Varieties of Dysfunctional Experience
Click”: Here for “Links” To Other “Aspects of Vaisnava Theory & Practice” Content Menus

Raising Our Spiritual Standards

Varieties of Dysfunctional Experience

Faith, the Analytical Mind, & The Uttama Adhikari

The Heart of Reform (Is being Edited & Formatted for Posting to Website)

The Three Modes of Material Nature

Introduction 

 

 Part 1:  What is Sadhu and What is Truth   

 Part 2:  It is irrational to damn the source of an utterance rather than judge a thing on its merit   

 Part 3:  When advancement of knowledge is applied in the service of the Lord, the whole process becomes absolute   

Part 4:  This book is for people concerned with groups and with what can go wrong with organizations and groups   

 

Foreword

 

Preface 

 

Part 1:  I have come to appreciate that the situation in our society is far worse than I thought when I wrote Our Mission (Raising our Spiritual Standards)  ,

Part 2:  I reject, categorically, all manifestations and permutations of bullying and intimidation   

 

Chapter 1

The Healing Process

 

Part 1:  Neurosis is always a substitute for legitimate suffering   

Part 2:  My purpose is not to make ISKCON more pain free, but to assist the individual and thus the group organism to be healthier, happier, and more vitally alive  

 

Chapter 2

Why Emphasize Dynamics? 

 

Part 1:  Studies prove that our childhood experiences influence us throughout life and Krishna consciousness supports this finding 

Part 2:  Authoritarianism makes our society unattractive and unlivable for member who realize that they are getting mentally hobbled by the dynamics 

Part 3:  Enlightened leadership welcomes observations or suggestions from senior members of the society by soberly and empathetically hearing, considering, then investigating if necessary 

 

Chapter 3

Dysfunctional Authority; A Study

 

Part 1:  Our society has already proven itself prone to many forms of human flaws, from abuse of authority, to child abuse, to embezzling money, to highly placed leaders getting side-tracked, to murder and more 

Part 2:  Philip Zimbardo interest in determining the cause of the dehumanization that is so prevalent in prisons. 

Part 3:  The happenings within the mock prison were so unpleasant and potentially so dangerous that the entire experiment had to be brought to a premature end after six days rather than the scheduled fourteen 

Part 4:  We have had in our society men who blatantly display virtually no Vaisnava symptoms in that they were impersonal, ruthless, political, duplicitous, and crazy-making to associate with and to serve

 

Chapter 4

On Pondering Zimbardo’s Hell

 

Part 1:  Turning to the numbered points in the previous chapter we shall see how they have parallels within our everyday ISKCON

Part 2:  We use the philosophy to opiate our intelligence 

Part 3:  The Peter Principle states that in any organization the tendency is for people to get promoted to the level of their incompetence 

Part 4:  The sad truth is that now the GBC hat is confused with the guru hat and the leaders think themselves absolute 

Part 5:  Unfortunately, our leaders are not in touch enough to pick up on the signs of depression on the faces of the devotees 

Part 6:  It only takes a few rotten people to create a rotten experience for scores of others 

 

Chapter 5

Dysfunctional Obedience; A Study

 

Part 01:  Obedience is a principle integral to military, social, and spiritual discipline. Yet in all cases it happens that conflict arises in the relationship between authority figures and their subordinates 

Part 02:  Here begins the response to the numbered sections above 

Part 3:  One must hear submissively from the spiritual master,  but one must also get a clear understanding from him  . This means blind following is out of the question 

Part 4:  Most hierarchical setups reward personnel for blind obedience–being yes-men–as opposed to open-eyed obedience or competence 

 

Chapter 6

Alienation as Self-Estrangement

 

Part 1:  The biggest danger, that of losing oneself, can pass off in the world as quietly as if it were nothing 

Part 2:  When one acts in the jurisdiction of the  institution   (as a  surrendered soul  ), then one tends not to take responsibility for one’s actions 

Part3:  If we mistakenly seek to be disempowered, considering it the real thing, then our every act of worship is another step on the path of alienation 

Chapter 7

Alienation Via Our Irrational Strivings

 

Part 1:  When we mistakenly think that the genuine experience of Krishna consciousness makes us powerless, we have entered the realm of self-estranged beings 

Part 2:  Alienation also happens in relationship to oneself, when one is subject to irrational passions 

Part 3:  The person bent on possessing others in the name of Krishna consciousness is obviously  the mundane person in the dress of a Vaisnava.   

Part 4:  Another ploy by which we sidestep the responsibility to discriminate is by implying that owing to our advanced Vaisnava consciousness we are above that platform 

 

Chapter 8: The Prime Symptoms of An Alienated Culture

 

Chapter 9

Prabhupada’s Answers to Alienation

 

Part 1:  Devotees need to know what Prabhupada’s conception of structure, mood, and management was like. Then they can decide for themselves if what ISKCON is currently doing, is in line with his spirit and intent, or a sham 

Part 2:  It is clear that Srila Prabhupada  did not favor ‘ksatriya style’ management from his GBC men; their role is clearly Brahminical. But where is such function going on after fifty years?

Chapter 10

A Diagnosis of Dysfunctional Philosophizing 

 

Part 1:  Rather than Srila Prabhupada’s mission, the real mission becomes keeping power and the bureaucratic structure intact 

Part 2:  ISKCON is made up of people. For the leaders, the barometer of ISKCON’s bodily and mental health is ascertained by the honest feedback they get from the devotees, especially the older more experienced devotees 

Part 3:  The Vedic system is that brahmanas are scholarly and insightful and the administrators consult them 

Part 4:  ISKCON is a society rife with problems of every variety and the rank and file devotee would like to see energy directed to solving them 

Part 5:  How can an  ordinary   devotee sift through all this verbiage from a leader in the movement who is fortified with titles such as guru, GBC and sannyasi? 

 

Chapter 11

A Further Diagnosis

 

Part 1:  We want to know if bureaucratic alienation has taken hold of ISKCON institutions 

Part 2:  Interesting. I wrote a whole book saying that everything is not perfect in ISKCON and it was the GBC executive body itself that gave ultimatums to punish me for speaking up, with no discussion and probably before reading the book 

 

Chapter 12

Causality Report: Victims Of Friendly

 

Part 1:  The author of ‘Aspects of Vaisnava Theory & Practice  , is not alone in his perception of the society, in his analysis that ISKCON is a fully alienated bureaucratic organization, and his concern for its future 

Part 2:  It is not GBC approval that makes a devotee a qualified acarya. It is his sincere desire to please Srila Prabhupada and Krishna, and such an acarya does not have to be approved by anyone, he is self-effulgent 

Part 3:  There are devotees worldwide who care about and love ISKCON, whose resistance to alienation is strong; they are too attached to having a clear conscience, thus they cannot allow themselves to succumb to the crazy-making dysfunctional extremes that ISKCON has come to represent 

Part 4:  GBC officer Atreya Rsi, who got self-estranged and then caught himself, but too late to fit in once he woke up 

 

Chapter 13

ISKCON, When It Went Wrong

 

Part 1:  We must preach. Our service to the parampara must go on. Free from doubt and delusion, we must perform welfare activities–teach people to distinguish between reality and illusion 

Part 2:  Returning now to the subject of  B   Swami, here was his account of incidents leading up to his case being made a global issue in the society back in 1985   

Part 3:  Fanaticism as a disguise is easy to see through 

 

Chapter 14

He Cannot Make Any Comment these are Facts

 

Part 1:  My aim is not to defend myself, for I have nothing to defend. I am practicing to live my life in the open and whoever wants to denigrate me is most welcome to have a go 

Part 2:  We are meant to distinguish reality from illusion for the benefit of all, as mandated in our scriptures, and the preacher is supposed to find the ways and means to communicate that 

Part 3:  One GBC man, no doubt fearing the repulsion of the majority of the body, said privately that ‘Every word of Kundali’s book is true’ 

 

Chapter 15

An Knock’em Dead Lecture

 

Part 1: Considering the gravity of the revelation in this chapter, I want to preface it by briefly discussing the distinction between rational and irrational faith in authority

Part 2: If you cannot imagine the speaker submitting to an authority very much like himself, as in the case of the lecturer featured in this chapter, then most likely you are facing an irrational authority

Part 3: You should ask, to your guru, what is it that you want. Please tell me, what is the standard, and I will accept it. Whatever you say, I accept. Blindly. This is what Prabhupada was expecting of us.

Part 4: If you blaspheme, the only way from that is described. Because you used your tongue to blaspheme, you have to use your tongue to beg forgiveness. Otherwise, if they do not do that, according to scripture, the tongue is supposed to be cut out, and then the person is supposed to be killed

 

Chapter 16

Listen, Little Prabhu

 

Part 1: Just as the quiescence of the little man leads to tyranny, so in ISKCON the quiescence of our Little Prabhus caused our society to malfunction by accepting the unacceptable–irrationality and authoritarian dealings

Part 2: Little Prabhus have it all backwards. They think surrender means to become zero and be led by the nose to the spiritual world

Part 3: Tell a Little Man anything, but do not tell him the truth. And yet the truth and the truth alone shall set the Little Man free. And so, it is with the Little Prabhu

Part 4: This is the crucial point that Little Prabhus must understand: We produce our masters and we elevate them to such imaginary great heights that they lose the common touch  

 

Afterword

 

Click”: Here for “Links” To Other “Aspects of Vaisnava Theory & Practice” Content Menus

Raising Our Spiritual Standards

Varieties of Dysfunctional Experience

Faith, the Analytical Mind, & The Uttama Adhikari

The Heart of Reform (Is being Edited & Formatted for Posting to Website)

The Three Modes of Material Nature

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