On Tuesday, May 8, 2018, 10:31:03 PM CDT, Atul Krsna Dasa wrote:

Maharaja….this is what i had sent….

Respected Maharaja….Sahasra dandavat pranama apnar padapadme….

Up to this point, the BOEX (ISKCON Board Of Examiners ..for sastric study,..) has developed standards for the sastric degrees starting at one end (bhakti sastri) and working up….Problem with this approach is that we don’t really know where we will end up…

What about if we looked at all the 4 degrees simultaneously, from a broad perspective, based upon the statements Prabhupada made, then filled in details accordingly…?

Considering this…from a broad perspective, based upon the statements Prabhupada made…what would you consider to be symptoms of the respective degree holders in terms of their:

acar …(behaviour)

vicar ..(knowledge)

pracar…(missionary commitment)?

Bhaktisastri?

Bhaktivaibhava?

Bhaktivedanta?

Bhaktisarvabhauma?

Looking forward to reading your thoughts on this at your soonest convenience…

Thank you very much...Your servant, Atul Krsna Das,   BOEX Chairman

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Hare Krsna. A Latin American GBC, Executive Committee Meeting Started at 8AM. Now it is closing at 10.15AM. Ooof. Our eyes are better but still some struggle.

1. I have a lot of ideas about the diplomas, Sastric Education. I would like very much to talk with you about it.

2. Basically, as we see it now, there are so many ways to associate with Srila Prabhupada through his books, but he specifically suggested these formal studies. It was not just a passing mention as some people say but he persisted in this for much time.

3. Is there a collection of the room conversations and letters on his formation of these formal studies? Even a history of the application etc would be good, but is a big project.

4. We feel that ISKCON management does not appreciate education in our institution sufficiently. One response to this is that educators in this perspective have to enlighten them.

5. That these diplomas mentioned by Srila Prabhupada were to correspond to Secondary School (Bh. Sastri), Bachelor (Bh. Vai). PhD (Bh. Vedanta) and Professor (Bh. Sarvabhauma).

6. We think it is very important that Prabhupada mentioned that each diploma should include the previous books. Then Bh.Sastri, BG, would be a Secondary School reading. In Bh. Vaibhava the student would teach it to Bh. Sastri students and read Bhurijana Das's commentary for example.

Prabhupada expected the Sannyasis, Bh. Vai, to know the Mangala archana Prayers and I would also say that we should be testing on knowledge of the basic songs and prayers of the full morning and evening program.

Thus we could say that at first initiation one should be able to follow the full morning program. At Second Initiation (Bh. Sastri) one should be able to lead the full morning program and at third initiation, Sannyasa (Bh. Vai) one should know the word by word meaning of the full morning program.

Then the same development should be there for knowing BG verses for example.

8. The verses are a specific topic that I would like to discuss. For example, one could become Bh. Sarva Bhauma and never know, "nityo nityanams, cetanas cetananam... Katha 22.13) because it is not in the verses of the texts we are studying. So we would prescribe important verses from the Purports as well as verses in the Texts themselves. We would also require review testing on the verses. Not memorize for the test and forget. We would also require strict testing only on singles Padas of verses if that is all Prabhupada uses. Of course, one does not have pass 100% on any of these things. Different tastes for different people.

These are some of our miserable ideas.

We have invested a tremendous amount of blood in developing systematic Sastric education and would like very, very much to discuss it with you.

Can you be available on-line June 21-24th for our American Regional Education Symposium? Physically it will be in Alachua, Florida and your participation will be super useful.

We see that systematic Sastric study should inspire spontaneous study, be fun, and be based upon developing skills of how to associate with others in this endeavor.

At your service, Mate,

HpS - ASA.