ISKCON’s GBC (Governing Body Commission) opposes the sale of the ISKCON Radha-Govinda Mandir because the GBC considers selling or moving the temple a risky proposition that’s contrary to the instructions of Srila Prabhupada, ISKCON’s Founder-Acarya.
Acccording to a false story being spread by Ramabhadra Dasa, the GBC would favor the sale if it were to get a cut of the proceeds. Since the Bharati Board won’t agree, so the story goes, the GBC opposes the sale.
None of that story is true.
In April of 2015, the temple management secretly signed a contract to sell the ISKCON Brooklyn temple. The GBC discovered this eight months later, in January of 2016. Two months later, at the next GBC meeting, the GBC heard a presentation by Ramabhadra Das, discussed the matter, and voted to oppose the pending sale. The GBC has opposed it ever since.
The GBC has many reasons for standing against the sale. Chief among them:
Srila Prabhupada, ISKCON’s Founder-Acarya, directed in his last will that temples should in principle never be sold. They can be sold only “if a need arises.”
Twenty years ago, when the temple neighborhood was depressed and dangerous, the GBC saw a need and gave a general permission to sell. Ten years ago, the GBC said yes again. Relying on those ten and twenty year old permissions, the temple administration sold the temple “under the radar.”
When the GBC found out, it said no. Whether the temple is sold or not, the GBC or any other ISKCON project won’t get a penny.
According to ISKCON law, “if installed ISKCON Deities are being relocated to a new property, the Trustees of the Deities’ original property are responsible to . . . ensure that any funds realized from the sale of ISKCON property are not mismanaged or in any way diverted so as to decrease the Deity’s equity.”
In other words: If a temple is sold, all the proceeds of the sale must stay with the Deities and their temple. If the Brooklyn temple is sold, neither the GBC nor any other ISKCON project will get any of the sale proceeds. If the Brooklyn temple sale is stopped, there’s no money for the GBC either. This is the GBC’s firm policy.
So if anyone tries to tell you that the GBC opposes the sale because of its own financial interest, they’re just telling you a tall tale.
By stopping the sale, the GBC wants to follow Srila Prabhupada’s will and protect Radha-Govinda and the New York yatra from a potentially disastrous move.
And that’s the full story.
Comments