We have received some inquiries about an India Heritage Foundation which has opened a Krishna-Balarama temple in Sunnyvale. The Foundation states on its website that it is dedicated to serving the mission of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, so people have naturally asked whether it is affiliated with the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON).
The answer is no. India Heritage Foundation is a completely separate group. It is not a branch of ISKCON and is not connected with ISKCON in any way. The group does not recognize the authority of ISKCON's Governing Body Commission (GBC), which Srila Prabhupada established as the ultimate managing authority for the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. Rather, India Heritage Foundation appears to be affiliated with a group of junior people who have splintered off from ISKCON and gone their own way.
ISKCON considers this group particularly strange because the group rejects the standard tradition of accepting guidance from a living guru and advocates the notion that by a sort of imaginary process one can be "initiated" by a spiritual master already departed from this world. This notion is foreign to every Hindu tradition we know of, and the GBC has condemned it as a deviation from the authentic path of Krishna consciousness as revealed through guru, sadhu and sastra.
The local ISKCON branch for Silicon Valley is ISKCON of Silicon Valley (ISV), currently located at 951 S. Bascom Avenue, San Jose (www.virtualtemple.org). ISV is currently working to expand its activities and specifically to raise $2.5 million to purchase a nice temple for Sri Sri Radha-Madanamohana in Santa Clara County. The directors of ISV and the leadership of ISKCON in North America request that to support Krishna consciousness in Silicon Valley you please give your exclusive support to ISV and its fund-raising efforts.
Thank you.
ISV Council
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "ISV Announcements" group. For more options: http://groups.google.com/a/iskconsv.org/group/announcements
No comments:
Post a Comment