What is the difference between zonal division present in ISKCON and zonal acharya system?

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Hare Krishna. What is the difference between the zonal division within ISKCON and the zonal acharya system which is now considered heretical? Answer. Yes, the two are radically different.
One is a functional managerial division and the second was the functional which was equated with the spiritual and transcendental and thus became a misconception. The Krishna consciousness movement is a global movement and in order to have efficient overseeing of the movement, Srila Prabhupada divided it into various zones. So devotees who were living in particular areas and leaders in particular areas, they could oversee the temples in those areas.
That was the zonal division system and that is something which is existing even now. It’s simply something which is a functional necessity to oversee the management of the movement. Now when Srila Prabhupada departed, when Srila Prabhupada was present on the planet, he was the person giving initiation and devotees from various parts of the world, they would recommend disciples to him for initiation.
But when Srila Prabhupada departed, at that time he appointed some devotees as his successors and these devotees also happened to be GBC members with their own zones. Now there were other devotees also who were incorporated in the GBC but they initially did not have the right to initiate. So essentially the initiation responsibility was passed on to these gurus and these gurus, they ended up becoming zonal acharyas.
So the zonal managerial division ended up becoming a zonal spiritual division. That means say if some particular spiritual master is initiating in America then it meant that anybody who was introduced to Krishna consciousness in America would have to take initiation only from that devotee, that particular spiritual master and somebody introduced in India would have to take initiation only from the Indian spiritual master, from that spiritual master who was looking after India as a managerial zone. Now first of all from the disciples or the seekers point of view, inspiration cannot be legislated like this.
A. One becomes introduced to bhakti but one doesn’t feel so inspired by the spiritual master who is initiating in that particular place. One feels inspired to take initiation from someone else. Now that person needs to be given the freedom to do that.
So this making things mandatory that one has to take initiation from one’s particular spiritual master alone, that is something which violates the spirit of bhakti where we understand that inspiration is something which cannot be legislated by any managerial resolution or division. Bhakti is transcendental. So along with this of course because the devotees, because the particular spiritual masters were initiating in particular areas, so then they developed a sort of competition which is not always transcendental and the international society for Krishna consciousness, one international society became divided into many zonal societies and the walls between these zonal societies started becoming thicker and taller as the book distribution that any resources from one zone were not being shared with other zones and overall the atmosphere ended up becoming quite antipathetic rather than symbiotic.
So over the time the devotees and the movement, ISKCON as a movement recognized that the zonal acharya system was not what Srila Prabhupada wanted, was not compatible with the spiritual philosophy of bhakti and was something which was considered wrong. So the zonal acharya system was eventually abolished. In fact later on it was declared by the GBC resolutions heretical.
So now the current system is there is zonal division no doubt where there are certain senior leaders who are assigned to certain areas so that they can oversee the temples and the spiritual standards in those areas but there is no correlation made between the zonal division and initiation. Anyone in any part of the world can take initiation from any spiritual master from whom one feels inspired and that recognizes both the individuality of the seeker and the independence of inspiration which comes ultimately from Bhakti Devi. So the zonal division is a functional division which is very much essential which is what Srila Prabhupada wanted and which is very much going on there in ISKCON whereas the zonal acharya system was a misunderstanding which has been removed thereby ensuring that the spiritual does not get reduced to the managerial.
Thank you.