GHQ:
One-Sided Coverage?
A CHAKRA report
Several members of the now-defunct GHQ conference have written in to say that
CHAKRA's coverage of the controversy was one-sided. CHAKRA, they say, did not present an
accurate picture of what GHQ really stood for.
In this posting, then, CHAKRA presents "Anonymous Anathema?" by GHQ
member Guru Krsna das and the following two letters from the GHQ conference, both from
Syamasundara das. We at CHAKRA feel that these letters, especially the following two, will
present an accurate picture of the GHQ and explain why CHAKRA felt no need to defend this
conference.
The letters from Syamasundara das follow:
From: Shyamasundara (das) ACBSP (Florida Vedic College - USA)
TRIAGE
Dear Maharajas and Prabhus,
PAMHO AGTSP
Aside from writing papers which is of vital necessity to present a solid philosophical
basis for our platform, we must also organize popular support from the movers and shakers
in ISKCON.
In military or emergency medical situations when there are many victims the attending
physicians perform Triage. That is, they divide the survivors into three groups:
1. Those that will die no matter what medical care is given. To them some comfort is given
so that they die as painlessly as possible.
2. Those who if treated will probably recover.
3. Those who if left alone untreated will survive anyway.
Having done this triage, they then concentrate all their energy on saving those that would
die without treatment.
I suggest that we do something similar, that we divide senior or influential devotees into
three groups and deal with them differently. The groups are:
1) Pro-Vedic. They are the ones who are for the traditional Vedic relationship between men
and women as is enunciated in Srila Prabhupada's books and is the understanding of the
general devotee.
2) Unidentified or loyalty unknown at this time.
3) Purvapakshin. Those who favor feminism, and male-female equality.
We should identify all those in group 1 as quickly as possible and rally their support for
our cause. Those in group 2 should be preached to vigorously so that they support us or
show their colors. Those in group 3, well they are the ones who we are contending with in
this ideological war for the future of ISKCON and Vedic Dharma.
So far I have identified the following as members of these three categories.
PRO-VEDIC:
[names omitted]
UNIDENTIFIED:
[names omitted]
PURVAPAKSHIN:
Vipramukhya Swami
Umapati Swami
Madhusudhani Radha dd
[other names omitted]
Obviously this is not an exhaustive list. Some names may be added or changed from one list
to another.
Regarding [name omitted] and [name omitted], I would like to ask [name omitted], since he
is in that locale, to please approach them and seek their valuable support to our cause.
These person's can be approached either directly or via email. It is important to get as
much support as possible from the leading devotees in ISKCON if we are to make an impact.
Our work of presenting a paper or series of papers will bear more fruit if we have a
receptive audience waiting to read it.
Your humble servant
Shyamasundara Dasa
************
From: Shyamasundara (das) ACBSP (Florida Vedic College - USA)
Date: 02-Oct-98 06:50 +0000
To: GHQ [47]
Subject: More strategy
Dear Maharajas and Prabhus,
Please except my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
Continuing on with Maharajas ideas about strategy and tactics:
What exactly are our ultimate objectives? These objectives may go beyond the next GBC
meeting. Here is a list of some suggested objectives:
1) No women in leadership positions, this means in GBC, temple presidents, the GBC
secretaries, ISKCON officers or spokespersons (such as in ISKCON communications which is
heavily dominated by feminists).
2) Terminating the present Woman's Ministry.
3) The Grhasta Ministry should be an umbrella for the Woman's Ministry, no previous
officers of Woman's Ministry to hold office in the Grhasta Ministry. This is in keeping
with no women in leadership positions.
4) Feminist philosophy to be banned as materialistic, atheistic and mayavada. (We have to
demonstrate this.) Any person advocating or propagating feminism in any way, shape, or
form to be considered as seriously deviating from Srila Prabhupada teachings, Vaisnava
siddhanta, and Vedic culture. They must resign all positions in ISKCON, and leave the
movement. They can only return if it can be demonstrated that they are no longer infected
with this pernicious disease. (This could be demonstrated by writing a paper refuting
feminism, and preaching vigorously against feminism.)
5) All ISKCON media such as COM, Hare Krsna World, ISKCON Communications Journal, etc.,
censored for feminism.
6) No temple shall host feminist meetings.
7) Women not allowed to give classes or lead kirtanas. (Unless there are no qualified men
to do so, only then can they take up these services.)
As I said these are only suggestions. As you can see they constitute mostly "Do
Nots", and one "Do". To make it balanced several "Do's" should be
included. Any ideas?
How long would this take? We should try to make as big of an impact as possible at the
next GBC meeting and hopefully fulfill all of our objectives. But we should be prepared
for the long haul.
Membership in GHQ:
As Maharaja pointed out it would become too unwieldy if we had too many members in the
forum. Yet at the same time we need a lot of help. One idea would be to form cells. That
is, that each member of GHQ form his own contact group, which would be called a
"cell". And each member of the cell would have his own cell in which he would be
the leader, and so on. In this way some type of workable command structure can be put into
place so that things can get done without excessive discussion. Don't forget the Italian
saying: "fati masqui, parola femina." Which means: men do; women talk.
So far I have identified there are four types of services that are required to fulfill
this mission: researching, writing, editing, and lobbying. Some persons may have more than
one of the skills.
RESEARCHERS: to go through Folio, Vedic sastras, and modern feminist and antifeminist
literature for relevant quotations. For example it was noted that the Mormons are the
fastest-growing religion in the world, yet they decry having women in leadership roles.
One of the myths propagated by the feminists in ISKCON is that if we want to attract
intelligent women we have to put women in leadership roles. This myth is exploded by the
Mormons. Also, if by intelligent women is meant the kind embodied by the leaders of the
feminists, we don't want them. In any case, such references to the Mormons should be
looked up.
WRITERS: to put together essays on various topics regarding feminism, and the place of
women in Vedic culture.
EDITORS: to skillfully put our literary package together.
LOBBYISTS: to network throughout ISKCON to find support for our cause. Lobbyists should
mainly focus on the following groups: GBC's, Sannyasis, Temple Presidents, senior
devotees, Matajis (especially those who are Prabhupada disciples), and devotees who can
help as researchers, writers, or editors. They should utilize the principle of Triage and
not waste time on those who are obviously feminists.
Our counterattack is composed of two components:
1) Our written presentation which is based on Guru, Sadhu, and Sastra. This is the
ammunition.
2) The allies who we forge through our lobbying. They are the ones who will use our
ammunition to convince others.
We need both to be successful. I don't think getting allies will be very difficult,
practically everybody I've mentioned it to was very enthusiastic. The vast silent majority
of devotees, are fed up and sick of these feminists. But they have felt isolated because
of thinking they were alone because of the volume of the feminist rhetoric. It is our
business then to give them the weapons which they can then use to fight against feminism.
(I would think that it would be a good idea to release our weapon to all our friends and
supporters at the same time or perhaps a little before we give it to the GBC. Not too much
before we give it too the GBC or it will leak to the feminists who may then have time to
try to counter it.)
So one decision we have to make is how many people should be on the forum. Should there be
a cutoff point? Or should we just add as needed?
Already many devotees have been suggested for different roles, it may be better if the
devotee who suggests that person simply cultivate that person, enthuse them and engage
them in the appropriate service, without adding them to the GHQ, unless there is some
overriding factor to the contrary, such that their presence on GHQ would be very
necessary.
THE WEAPON (sastra can be considered as a weapon, note the "astra" in sastra):
The presentation will come in two sizes:
MAHA: a collection of quotations from Srila Prabhupada and the sastras arranged in
appropriate topics. Plus essays by devotees on selected topics. The subject for these
topics has been given by Jivanmukta. However we still need some devotees to take up some
writing assignments. I have volunteered for one, but that will not be enough.
LAGHU: a short four or five page, concise presentation to the GBC. We need to discuss what
the contents of this presentation is going to be, because on the basis of this
presentation we shall sink or swim. The topics have to be very skillfully chosen and
presented if we want to have a chance with the GBC who are very busy. If we do this
correctly it will go in like a needle, and out like a plow. I suggest that one of the
subjects of this paper be to show why feminism is very dangerous for Vedic culture. We do
not have to go very deep in any of the points which we present. We can simply present the
point, develop it a little and then refer to the large presentation for more details.
Obviously this paper can be written after the main one is done because we will use the
main paper as reference point.
Your servant
Shyamasundara Dasa
© CHAKRA 21-Dec-98
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