| PS: Sincere apology for a lengthy email.
After getting few calls about why this happened. I think we owe an explanation on why the sudden rush in decision to sign up with SSSGC was made by the active office bearers. The intention was to quickly unite the center and no other self interest.
The below are some questions that have been raised by some members.. We feel the intented explanation or reasons to be given so that you can understand the intention behind. Above all Swami is the doer and His will prevails no matter what we do as we are mere instruments.
Clarifications:
1. Sai Kishore vowed on Swami that if center does not sign up with Global Council will step down?
I have always stood with my statement that I will never sign up without the consent of the center membership. With that said, Yes I promised on Swami that i want to present before the deadline to our center membership so that they get opportunity to make a collective decision before Guru poornima. That is what Br. Shashi mentioned on that call that I showed Swami’s picture and told that I will step down if the above doesn’t happen. As a president, I want to give the opportunity to the center membership so that they have enough time to understand and to make a decision and if I fail in it what is the point of being a president. Hence made that statement. So it is being taken out of proportion. I will not sign up without Center members decision as simple as that. Also Amit made that the train is waiting in the same view point that too in an internal meeting which was more of discussion. Therefore it was not for us to sign up .. it’s more for giving time to the members to understand and make a decision. Center membership opinion always outweighs personal / individual opinions.
2. Why was the sign up done so quickly?
Both Manorama Saxena aunty and Sushama Tangella have been worried with the turn of the events. Their pure intention was to resolve this quickly so that the center can get back on it’s feet and focus on Swami than anything else. There was no selfish reason to take this step. In that case as a president even though I had an authority to make a decision to join or not join even without going to the membership and act upon it. They were trying to do it correctly and smoothly to keep the center United.
The following are the factors that led to them to take that decision..
a. Multiple charged discussions and groupings were forming because of this.
b. Pressure from the center members asking about when both Sai K / Amit will be reinstated.
c. To end all of this turmoil as in couple of whatsapp groups, some members requested for minimum majority as the factor to be decided with some poll.
d. Unfortunately polling was not allowed as per the SSSIO leadership team, if any SSSIO officers tried to do or implement polling then they will be removed from their positions.
e. They got to hear from the membership and started gathering anonymous polling information and not solicited polling.
f. There were some members who were actively vocalizing their stand on public forum and also they never reached out to the officers, so they were considered as with SSSIO.
g. There were some families that were unhappy and wanted to go with majority as long as the center remains united. They considered these families to be neutral.
h. There were many families that supported and backed Sai K and were willing to abide with current office bearers decision.
i. After careful analysis and keeping it anonymous, the officers Manorama Aunty and Sushama figured out that the simple majority that was in for the current office bearers recommendation and those absolutely in favor of SSSIO was good enough to come to conclusion that the majority of the members were satisfied with us signing up with SSSGC.
j. The intention was never to make a rushed decision but it was painful decision to ensure the center to come back to normalcy and focus on Swami.
k. Why were everyone given only 30 seconds during the call? Based on the previous experience of the calls that were held on Friday and Saturday as there were some rude comments presented by some members, they decided that to keep an time check so that they don’t have yelling or unhappy comments. These steps were kept more for withholding the discipline as Swami expects by requesting devotees raise their hand and share their thoughts.
l. Why was Dnyanesh not consulted? Both Manorama Aunty / Sushama also reached out to Br. Dnyanesh during this whole episode but he was not able to respond in timely manner and it also sounded that Dnyanesh was favoring with SSSIO. Our decision made was based on the majority of active office bearers. Again there was never an intention to exclude Dnyanesh or take over the leadership, he was not actively engaging with us. There was no effort on his end to get Sai K and Amit back into their roles from their understanding. Hence they made that decision. Their main focus was Swami and to keep the center together.
3. Was there any other way this could have been done?
As things were getting more worse, with their hands tied up they did what they felt was the right thing to do. Perhaps there was another way as well.
There is never a right or wrong decision. Was there an judgemental error perhaps yes and perhaps no. It was unintentional to get to this conclusion. I can feel the pain in many families about why this has happened and we wish we could had another way to resolve this problem.
Praying to Swami to guide all of us individually and reach that destination we all seek.
With Love In His Service,
Sairam,
Sai Kishore on behalf of
Office Bearers of SSS Center Flushing
URL: www.ssscflushing.org
(Affiliated with SSSGC, Prasanthi Nilayam, Puttaparthi) |
