Governing Body Commission

The Governing Body Commission (GBC) is the managerial authority of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON). ISKCON's founder, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, created the GBC in 1970 and since then it has met on an annual basis, usually in Mayapur, India.

The GBC is organised largely through a "zonal" system, with regional representatives attending to local matters, and the entire GBC ruling on issues that affect ISKCON as a whole. At the GBC's first annual meeting in Mayapur, Prabhupada guided the proceedings, "showing how the GBC should strictly follow parliamentary procedure". Zones of the world are assigned one or more secretaries regardless of whether there is an ISKCON community currently in the zone.

The GBC is entrusted with both spiritual and secular leadership of the ISKCON communities, as well as the power to appoint new gurus. According to a GBC confidence survey, "those holding critical views of the GBC were far less committed to ISKCON." In February 2009, Romapada Swami was elected GBC Chairman, succeeding Ramai Swami.

According to the letter of 28 July 1970 A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada appointed the following members to the Governing Body Commission, all of them non-sannyasis (non-renunciates). After Prabhupada's death in 1977, only five of the original commissioners were eventually approved to become diksa gurus:

This letter outlines the following purposes of the commission:

Shortly after establishing the GBC, Prabhupada asked his newly appointed leaders to renounce the everyday world and become sannyasis (renunciate monks), indicating that those who set policy would not be involved with financial dealings. However, after Prabhupada's death many GBC members adopted lavish lifestyles. A number of schisms tested the notion of the supreme authority of the GBC. Some of these scandals involved GBC members Hans Kary (Hansadutta) and James Immel (Jayatirtha), as well as one of the leaders of the New Vrindaban community, Keith Ham (Kirtanananda), who surrounded himself with opulence and declared himself the only true successor to Prabhupada.

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