GBC Constitution Committee requests your feedback

Dear Devotees,

Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

On several occasions, Srila Prabhupada expressed the desire for an ISKCON Constitution, to guide his followers in the future.

In 1971, for instance, he wrote: “We are in the experimental stage but in the next meeting of the GBC members they should form a constitution how the GBC members manage the whole affair.” (Letter to Giriraja, 12 Aug 1971)

Through the years, various attempts at writing the ISKCON Constitution took place but did not come to completion. The present effort started in 2017, with the submission of a first draft. A second and a third followed within the next couple of years.

GBC members, SABHA members, GBC deputies, ISKCON initiating spiritual masters, sannyasis, and others were requested to provide feedback. Based on their suggestions and on further research, the team developed the present version, Draft Four.

We are now opening the dialogue to the whole world of ISKCON to gauge the level of acceptance of the present document and to receive comments and suggestions that may inform the next version of the text; which we plan to submit to the GBC for final ratification.

We want to hear from you on what you think about this draft of the ISKCON Constitution, available online at iskconconstitutionproject.org. Please take the time to go through the document, organized in sections, and let us know your level of satisfaction and your thoughts.

In order to properly track responses and limit access to only ISKCON members, the site requires you to register to get access. Once you register, you’ll see the guidelines for giving feedback. We have tried to make this process as easy as possible.

We encourage you to read through the whole draft before beginning to give your feedback. You can download this from the site after you register. We also attach a copy to this email.

We would also like to request you to encourage all the devotees in your circle of contacts and influence to also take the survey.

At present the site is in English and Spanish and will soon be available in other major languages.

So, please visit iskconconstitutionproject.org and give us your feedback.

On behalf of the ISKCON Constitution Project,

Your servants,
Devakinandana Das (Singapore), ISKCON General Counsel and GBC member

Devasri Radhika Devi Dasi (Switzerland), Attorney and Legal Advisor