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<\/center><\/p>\nBy Sita Rama das<\/strong><\/p>\n Before discussing the topic of the article, I want to explain my experience within ISKCON. I was initiated in 1980 by a, \u201cZonal Acharya\u201d, who later fell down. I have never had a leadership position. I have always identified myself as a follower and a servant of Srila Prabhupada\u2019s movement. <\/p>\n Duress is caused when there is a need to make a decision that has undesirable elements- in order to avoid a decision that has greater undesirable elements. It is a moral dilemma. Duress is high when the competing morals are all salient to ones worldview; in other words, when they all have similar levels of importance. This is analogous to when a balancing scale has heavy weights on each side, yet a minute difference tips the scale in one direction. <\/p>\n Such moral dilemmas are fertile grounds for division within a group if all the members place high weight on the competing values but some individuals give a little more weight to one side, and other individuals give a little more weight to the opposite side. Some members may then condemn those who weigh the values differently than they do. <\/p>\n For example, those who feel the GBC has made an unfair decision may accuse the GBC of ignoring or transgressing important moral principles; however, the fact may be that the GBC did not ignore any moral principle, they weighed them all, and overriding some morals was unavoidable due to the duress involved. <\/p>\n To bring this down to the practical level lets discuss a situation where a devotee who is in good standing in terms of chanting 16 rounds a day and following the regulative principals has made a decision to act outside of ISKCON- in opposition to the authority of the GBC. Some devotees may feel that such an individual was dealt with unfairly and it was virtually impossible for that individual to surrender to the GBC; therefore that individual\u2019s decision to act independently of GBC is totally justified. <\/p>\n First, we all must acknowledge that we cannot be judgmental. For instance an exalted devotee may be seen to temporarily be acting on a substandard level by breaking a regulative principal. We need to acknowledge that the devotee still deserves respect but at the same time we cannot obscure the clear standard of proper behavior and justify violating it. <\/p>\n So the question is not if a devotee who has left ISKCON is worthy of respect. The question is whether such an individual is on a substandard level or not.<\/p>\n Personally, I hold the position that, regardless of the extenuating circumstances(even if a case can be made that the GBC has dealt with someone unfairly) the order of the Founder Acahrya, Srila Prabhupada, to act under the jurisdiction of the GBC is equal in weight to his order to chant 16 rounds and follow the regulative principals. Thus, although a devotee may be given respect, we must acknowledge that they are on a substandard level if they leave ISKCON. <\/p>\n I am willing to acknowledge that it may not be heretical to have a different position; rather, an opposing view may be grounded in spiritual ethics. But at the same time I want to be able to express my view without being accused of being judgmental or disrespectful to an estranged devotee. There is duress involved here and I give most weight to Srila Prabhupada\u2019s order to cooperate with the GBC.<\/p>\n In order to avoid serious divisions within ISKCON we need to acknowledge that different responses to circumstances involving duress do not make a person guilty of transgressing the principals which they have given less weight to. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Duress is caused when there is a need to make a decision that has undesirable elements- in order to avoid a decision that has greater undesirable elements. It is a moral dilemma. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14754"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14754\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14763,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14754\/revisions\/14763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Hare](\"http:\/\/dandavats.com\/wp-content\/uploads5\/2014-12-21_17-13-41.jpg\")
By Sita Rama das<\/strong><\/p>\n