By the GBC Community Relations Office
In February last year, the ISKCON Leadership Sanga (ILS) was held in Sridhama Mayapur. It was attended by more than 500 leaders from around the ISKCON world and was an astounding success. Participants ranged from temple presidents to zonal secretaries to leading preachers to educators – all of whom attended seminars on the various aspects of the GBC’s strategic planning work and how to do strategic planning to strengthen their own projects.
This year a second Sanga will be held in Mayapur from February 26–March 2, 2013. This time those serving in ISKCON as GBC members, gurus, and sannyasis will come together. The primary aim of this historic, first-time gathering is dialogue. These devotees serving as senior preachers and spiritual mentors to ISKCON’s members carry with them an important burden of responsibility, one the GBC considers vital to hear about. This Sanga of GBCs, Gurus, and Sannyasis, (SGGS), marks the beginning of an exchange of ideas which hopefully will forge a strong unity between the GBC and ISKCON’s other leading preachers.
The GBC wishes the SGGS will unite ISKCON’s leaders in establishing a mutual direction for the future of Srila Prabhupada’s ISKCON. Srila Prabhupada expressed a desire for such a Sanga, if not in its particulars, in its direction: “With all GBC and senior men present we should discuss how to make unity in diversity.”(Letter, October 18, 1973) The Sanga will also be guided by Srila Prabhupada’s directive: “Now you must … along with the other sannyasis, GBC members, and other leaders become very serious to actually give the humankind the greatest welfare, namely, this Krishna consciousness movement. Your task ahead is very huge, but it will be quite simple and easy if you simply do as I am doing. You must become conversant in every feature wherever it is needed throughout the Society.” (Letter, July 9, 1972.)
Stay tuned for more updates at gbc.iskcon.org