08/13/98-2009

GBC Letter to All ISKCON Devotees

Germany (VNN) - GBC Executive Committee International Society for Krishna Consciousness, 12 August, 1998

To all members of ISKCON:

Please accept our obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

The GBC executive committee, after over a month of investigation and careful deliberation, has with much regret decided it has no choice but to place Harikesa Prabhu on probation as a spiritual master and to suspend all his functions as a member of the Governing Body Commission. These decisions are binding until the entire GBC body reviews them at the annual meeting in Mayapur.

In spite of our reluctance to say unpalatable things about a devotee of the stature of Harikesa dasa, we must give here a summary of the major facts which have compelled the executive committee's actions:

1. Harikesa dasa has given up his position as a sannyasi. He did this without seeking sanction or approval. He expresses his fixed desire to become married to a particular woman who is not a devotee of Krishna.

2. During the month of July, Harikesa dasa claimed that his true identity has been first, Skandha, then Lord Caitanya, and then Lord Krishna. Assigning various identities to other persons in his life, he engaged in what he regards as spiritual "lilas." One of these "lilas" brought about a (thwarted) sexual approach to a female disciple (whom he identified as Rukmini). The woman he wants to marry he has regarded first as an expansion of Parvati, then as Laksmipriya, finally as Radharani. Even though the intense period of "lilas" seems to be over, it is clear to the executive committee from direct association with Harikesa Prabhu that he accepts those activities a genuine transcendental experience, and that he still considers himself to be transcendentally situated in a spiritual identity in Vrindaban lila. The executive committee and senior god-brothers of Harikesa dasa are certain that these are not genuine spiritual lilas. Harikesa's identification with transcendental personalities, and his evincing of sexual desires, are incompatible with the characteristics and conditions of bona fide transcendental experience.

3. More recently, for several days Harikesa dasa spoke openly of Srila Prabhupada in a critical and disparaging manner, sometimes questioning his motives, sometimes his authority, sometimes his competence.

In almost all circumstances, any leader who displayed the above three characteristics would have been removed swiftly and permanently from all positions and probably expelled from ISKCON. However, in Harikesa dasa's particular case there are unique conditions which suggest that these acts may be the expression of an unusual period of extraordinary stress and severe emotional upheaval. Judgment from mental health professionals gives support to this view. At the same time, the content of Harikesa's ideas and the volatile nature of his thought suggests that he is locked in a profound spiritual struggle which could end, God willing, in a great victory for him. In short, there is hope that this state of turmoil and of uninhibited emotional and mental expression is a transitory one from which Harikesa dasa may emerge restored and renewed in healthy condition.

To stress this hope, the executive committee has invoked the lightest possible sanction available to it. Harikesa dasa has been only suspended from his GBC position, not removed; he has only been put on only probation as a spiritual master. While his disciples should not accept siksa from him absolutely, they may, if they desire, continue to honor him as their spiritual master in gratitude for his mercy and guidance in the past and in expectation of his restoration in the future.

We undertake these acts with a heavy heart. We are mindful of the extraordinary service Harikesa has performed for Srila Prabhupada, and the praise Prabhupada lavished on him for it. Therefore we shall always view him with honor and respect, and we pray to Prabhupada and Radha-Krishna to help him in his time of struggle and need.


Ravindra Svarupa dasa,
For the executive committee of the GBC