Are the different sangas of devotees within the same city recommended by Srila Prabhupada?

From: Arti Kathpal

How should we understand about the different groups or sanga made in city these days by devotees who are preaching at their own place but not being part of center. Though they are following SP and their Guru Mhj. But Is it really instructed by SP to be part of such sanga?

Question by aarti katpal mataji how should we understand about the different groups or sangha made in city these days by devotees who are preaching at their own place but not being part of the center though they are following shloka prabhupada and their guru maharaj but is it really instructed by shloka prabhupada to be a part of such sangha answer every such sangha will have its own individual nature flavor problems so i can’t give a generic answer over here that will apply for all such associations but the broad principles i will try to explain their krishna consciousness is a state of the heart and iskcon is a society that is meant to enable people to cultivate that state of the heart so the essence of iskcon is krishna consciousness that is the essence that is the purpose now shloka prabhupada did not want too much centralization at the same time he did not also recommend too much fragmentation in the name of decentralization so institutional structures can be of three types they can be simply called as hard core, medium core and soft core hard core is where every single decision is made by a central authority medium core is where major decisions are made by central authority and some minor decisions are relegated to delegated and relegated to other authorities and a soft core institutional structure is where almost all decisions are made by independent authorities working in different areas or arenas and the cohesiveness of the organization is generally due to overall broad agreement of doctrine and practice so if you look at these three, shloka prabhupada primarily constructed ISKCON as a medium core organization that means there was a GBC and there is a management body like in India there is the ICC which ensures that the GBC responsibility of shloka prabhupada is to try to have the spiritual standards maintained and the managers of the temple the temple presidents and their hierarchy is to make sure the managerial aspects of the temple go on now at one time when the devotees tried to centralize all the finances of all the temples in America they said that we will collect all the finances and then we will reallocate based on the needs of the temples, shloka prabhupada was so annoyed he temporarily suspended the GBC and he told that all this management is not going to help you actually it is the practice of Krishna consciousness that is going to help you so management should just primarily be to inspire people to practice Krishna consciousness and don’t do too much centralization so if sangha of devotees the members are actually sincerely practicing Krishna consciousness then in principle there is nothing wrong in they not coming to the main centers, nowadays with life becoming so fast paced and especially metropolis the roads being so congested and crowded traveling over great distances becomes a big challenge so that’s why if we have many centers in various parts of the city and largely in various parts of the country side also that is always an advantage for more people to get connected to Krishna consciousness and every temple with its own leader will have a particular mood a particular emphasis, shloka prabhupada gave us various definitions of success in some places distribution was most important, other places he said that educating the children and development of the culture in the next generation through systems like the gurukul was most important, other places he said deity worship is most important other places he said that we have to construct the temples and some places he said actually we have to boil the milk and cultivate the devotees and this is the most important so in spiritual life there are different definitions of success, ultimately the highest success is that we develop our attraction for Krishna so how we develop that attraction will vary depending on person to person and as a person takes up more responsibility and develops maturity that person may become an emergent leader in a particular community a spiritual leader, a spawn leader and that person may want more freedom and scope for implementing the vision that has inspired him or her in the spiritual life and that may lead to a particular kind of culture being developed so in general the principle for deciding this is that whatever inspires us in our devotional service we should do that and whatever doesn’t inspire us whatever agitates our mind, disturbs us we should avoid that so actually the formation of different groups can either lead to fragmentation across the groups or it can lead to consolidation within the groups so if in a particular group of devotees there is a very close bonding and there is genuine encouragement and inspiration coming out for the practice of Krishna consciousness then being a part of such a group is nothing objectionable the only problem comes up when there are groups is the consolidation is not based on a positive focus on Krishna and service to Krishna it is often based on a negative focus of criticizing other groups and that unnecessarily agitates the mind and it may lead to Vaishnavaprasad and we we are ultimately here to try to serve Krishna and to develop our Krishna Bhakti so we don’t have to get into the zone of committing Vaishnavaprasad and criticizing others unless finding out the truth of a particular thing is vitally important for us so if the main sector is where the deities are where we feel inspired where we feel enlivened in our Krishna consciousness then that is where we can and should go but if there are other small small mini centers which are also to a large extent according to the direction of Shila Prabhupada and also there is approval of that at least or a sanction of that if not approval then by the GBC even if that is not approved by the immediate local authorities if that is where we feel inspired in our Krishna consciousness that is also ok it is not a matter of right or wrong over here because from what you have said if people are practicing the principles given by Shila Prabhupada and the specific spiritual master who is there over who is inspiring that particular group then there is not a matter of wrongness over there it is a matter of emphasis and in general if the if the groups that the Sangha that is formed is based on inspiring each other in Krishna consciousness and is actually serving that purpose of inspiring us then surely we can be a part of that Sangha and of course if we have had some spiritual guides in our spiritual life and if we are aspiring from particular spiritual master then it is best to take their guidance and then finally decide this is the ongoing issue of discussion within ISKCON because right now we have two parallel lines of authority within ISKCON we have the what we could roughly call as the spiritual and the managerial line the spiritual line is from Shila Prabhupada through his disciples who have become spiritual masters to their disciples and the other is the managerial line which is through the GBC to the specific GBC in charge of specific areas to the temple president and the managerial authorities now how these two authorities can gel together is the subject of a paper which was published by the GBC parallel lines of authority that is there on dandavats.com and the essential principle is that we have to be compatible and practice Krishna consciousness and you can read that paper on dandavats if you have further interest but the key principle is that both these authorities, the temple president and the spiritual master the GBC paper recommends that both of them should cooperate and the spiritual masters when they are coming in a particular area and they are developing certain projects in a particular area they should inform the local GBC authority and the temple president and it is best that things happen according to the at least the permission of the local authorities there need not be a intimate or a heart to heart relationship that is not possible in certain circumstances but at least there should be some awareness and a broad agreement it is said that good fences make good neighbours so if there are there is constant friction between these two lines of authority then the end result of that is the local devotees who are there, they become the victims of that they become disenthused in Krishna consciousness and often a lot of mental energy goes in justifying what one is doing and finding faults with what others are doing so rather than getting into that zone it is best that we focus on our practice of Krishna consciousness and choose one Sangha which inspires us and continue participating in that so in principle it is not wrong to have multiple Sanghas it might increase accessibility and it can bring consolidation within small Sanghas but it is good if there are also occasions where all these Sanghas come together at least at some frequency at some festivals or some occasions by which there is also the sense that we all belong to a greater family of Prabhupada and Krishna and that we are all ultimately in the same journey towards Krishna we are fellow devotees whichever specific Sangha that we belong to and I would conclude by saying in principle the main center is what Srila Prabhupada encouraged, emphasized and Srila Prabhupada would normally visit the main centers whenever even in the time of Srila Prabhupada there were these other groups and Srila Prabhupada would talk with those other if you would go to a temple he would be hosted by the local temple authorities and then there might be other groups who do not get along so well with the temple authorities, Srila Prabhupada would meet them and talk with them and encourage them to try to work cooperatively but he did not emphasize that they have to shed up, give up their identity and just just subordinate themselves to the temple authorities Prabhupada gave them some freedom, now some people may say that was because those people were whimsical and independent minded others may say that Srila Prabhupada wanted to accommodate different people and he realized that actually they also have their specific needs for a little bit of a room which they need so Prabhupada’s actions can be interpreted by different people to support their own ideas and support their own stance so rather than going into interpreting Prabhupada’s stance we can just look at his stance by the fact that Srila Prabhupada would normally visit the main centers we can infer that the main centers would be what Srila Prabhupada would prefer and if the main centers have branches which are some way connected in an official way or at least in a informal way then going to the local Sangha is not at all objectionable but that will be very good because that brings accessibility also as well as a connection with the larger structure but if the other Sanghas are disconnected from the main center Sangha then we have to make a decision for ourselves based on what our aspirations are, where our inspirations come from aspirations in terms of whom we are aspiring from to take Diksha and what are the aspects of Krishna Consciousness that inspire us and where we get them and then accordingly make a mature choice by consulting some trustworthy senior devotees. Thank you.