DISPUTE RESOLUTION IN A HINDU SETTING

ADR (Alternative Dispute Resolution) has come of age as the credible vehicle for resolving disputes that had earlier gone to court, been ignored or been suppressed. Despite its widespread acceptance, it still faces resistance in some fields. None seems more dramatic or more demanding or more in need of a systematized conflict resolution system than the anxiety confronting religion institutions. Issues of gender equality, celibacy, same sex unions, birth control and child abuse plague many religious institutions. These conflicts divide members often leading to disloyalty to leadership, frustration and anguish among devotees, schisms and even exodus from the faith. Religion institutions, which in conventional wisdom should help heal divisions among followers, plunge into partisan conflicts over theological issues and secular issues which they coat with a theological gloss to protect against erosion of the leadership’s power and authority.

Private enterprises and government institutions have come to recognize the benefits of developing internal dispute resolution systems to minimize litigation, to provide employees and constituents with procedures to bring to light and then resolve a wide-ranging variety of issues and concerns, and to enhance loyalty to the institution. But the advantages of transparency seem to have been lost on many religious institutions.

Although many religious groups have developed locally based internal dispute resolution systems, there is only one religious group that has adopted ADR on a global basis. That effort has been undertaken by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), commonly identified as the Hare Krishnas, which administers a 2500-year-old sect of Hinduism.

This paper discusses the development of that process and its potential for spreading the benefits, if not the gospel of ADR. I hope that the experience will be helpful to other religious institutions seeking to establish procedures for early detection and resolution of disputes within their membership and endeavoring to encourage better communication between devotees and leadership. Efforts in developing skilled mediators and facilitators would not only benefit the institutions and their image, but would also help to develop dispute resolution skills among those involved in the process. That in turn would permit them to provide those mediation skills to any outside the institutions who might benefit from their offering dispute resolution services.

Genesis of the Program

In the 1970s and 1980s, when Hare Krishna devotees were frequently seen selling literature at airports, their children were entrusted to boarding schools where as in other religions there were instances of child abuse. Moreover, as in those cases, it was not until decades later that the violations became known with the crises of recognition, acknowledgement, and lawsuits that ensued. ISKCON recognized the need to forestall future repetition first by establishing a Child Protection Office and then by undertaking the development of an internal dispute resolution system to accommodate to the resulting weakening of the ISKCON mission.

In early 2001, Braja Bihari (Brian Bloch), an American devotee living in India, requested the ISKCON leadership to sponsor his investigation of a dispute settlement program.. Later that year I was contacted by a devotee who related some of the internal concerns confronting ISKCON and its governing body, the GBC, and asked to assist in the effort. After some exploratory contacts with religious experts outside ISKCON to assure myself that I was not being lured into the web of some self serving cult, I agreed to meet with some American leaders in their community in Alachua, Florida, to discuss in greater depth some of the problems facing the institution and its membership.

Development of the Program

After these discussions, I concluded that the issues troubling the devotees were of two types:
First were those of an interpersonal nature with other devotees, the universal fare of conflict resolution which arise from normal human interaction and which if left unaddressed continue to fester, breed dissention and distrust, and ultimately give rise to larger more intense conflicts between individuals and their associates. This type of interpersonal dispute is the grist of the mediation mill. Most institutional and individual disputes between peers arise from interpersonal conflicts, misunderstandings, misperceived slights and the like. Mediation and facilitation are universally recognized antidotes to the continued conflict arising in such relationships.
Second were issues arising between one or more devotees and the institution’s leadership. At first, I was concerned that this category of conflict might tread on issues of theology where the dictates of the teacher, guru, swami, or temple superior could not be subject to challenge without giving rise to more encompassing religious issues, which might be too threatening to the religion institution itself. In some religious institutions, the source of theological authority is the secular authority as well. This may be particularly troublesome when the leadership controls theology as well as economic and financial power. There any challenge to the leadership might be viewed as a threat to power and control, which dare not be tolerated. In this respect, the Hare Krishna religious tenets make them a better prospect for challenges to leadership. Hinduism, like most eastern religions is more individualized and not dependent on a centralized institutional leadership for issuance of dogma or exercise of control by those in higher positions. Dedication and devotion to one’s teacher, guru or swami might preclude some types of challenge, but the role of that superior is primarily theological and more likely to be devoid of financial or economic authority or blurred exercise of control. The use of the ombuds structure is particularly suited to resolving such disputes. We have followed the standard ombuds practice of a neutral with ready access to the top level while protecting the confidentiality and privacy of the “visitor” and in seeking resolution of a problem without disclosure of the complainant’s name. If that identity is required to resolve the problem, it is revealed only with the consent of the visitor, who may opt to drop the issue or choose another option suggested by the ombuds, rather than be identified as a complainant.

While the GBC is the global governing body ultimately manages ISKCON, each center functions semi-autonomously under a local Temple President or Temple Board. They are secular leaders more likely to have the economic power within IKSCON as distinguished from the gurus and swamis who serve as ascetic teachers or spiritual guides. Temples as well as the GBC itself have become the focus of the legal challenges on the child abuse issues and some Temples have been forced into bankruptcy because of these legal battles. As is evident to those who have been approached in airports and on streets of the world by Hare Krishna devotees, fund raising within the sect is a localized and personalized effort. While ISKCON’s funding has matured over the years, it does not have the centralized control and authority consistent with the imposition of tithing or insistence of offerings necessary to develop a strong central treasury, and is not as concerned with the risk of depletion of centralized wealth or power that might arise from the need to defend against devotee complaints. Being a more localized and personalized religion, ISKCON is a better candidate for accommodating to a system that might tolerate challenges to leadership to resolve secular institutional complaints. In this respect, the development of an ombuds structure seemed particularly appropriate.

Approaching the GBC

The GBC invited me to make a presentation at their annual meeting in Mayapur, India, on May 9, 2002. The day following my presentation, the GBC issued the following resolution:

Whereas, the GBC body seeks to demonstrate its interest in the concerns of ISKCON devotees, and seeks to encourage the timely voluntary resolution of disputes within ISKCON

Whereas, the universal practice of international organizations is to provide machinery of prompt resolution of internal disputes,

And whereas it is universally accepted that ombudsmen provide an effective and confidential means of addressing individual concerns with the organizations,

And whereas it is universally accepted that mediation entered into voluntarily by two disputant parties with the help of a trained mediator is a proven procedure for resolving interpersonal disputes to the mutual satisfaction of the disputants,

Resolved that: the GBC announces the universal support of the establishment of a voluntary dispute resolution system to facilitate the resolution of members concerns.

To accomplish this end, we unanimously urge regions and local temples to undertake the establishment of regional based ombuds and mediation structures.
Members of the GBC pledge their support in the development of these structures and in being responsive to the concerns of members brought to their attention through these processes.

A subcommittee of Braja Bihari, dasa, Madhava Pandit dasa and Arnold Zack shall coordinate these efforts on behalf of the GBC body.

The resolution was posted on the hundreds of Hare Krishna web sites, and our program was announced on the ISKCON web page (www.mayapur.com) which featured a video stream of my presentation to the GBC.

Implementation of the Program

It is difficult enough to develop an ADR program within an institution located in one building or one city, or one state or one country, where the participants share common culture, language and ethos. It is even more daunting when considering ISKCON is an institution of three to six million devotees spread among more than 100 countries with enormous ethnic and language diversity. In addition, the concept of developing a structure, which permitted all voices to be heard, and which sought to nip in the bud conflicts between and among devotees and the leadership, ran contrary to the millennia of teaching one to humbly and happily follow the dictates and teachings of ones mentor without challenge.

In developing a structure for the global undertaking, we originally contemplated developing regional structures. North America was readily identifiable as a consistent region with one language and a relatively homogeneous constituency. We thought Latin America would be the same, but have concluded that regional differences and distances justify creating two or three regions for the Spanish speaking Western Hemisphere. Europe, we initially thought of, as a single region, but the rapid expansion of ISKCON in Eastern Europe since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the differences in language have overridden our initial forecast. India, certainly, is suited to be a single region, despite the very large number of members in the country. In Africa, the focus of devotees is in the south, making South Africa the core of that continent’s region, while in Southeast Asia, the role of ISKCON in Hong Kong, the Philippines, Australia and New Zealand makes for a largely English-speaking region. Although ease of administration may lead us to a regional structure, at the present we are working on a more global unified approach.

Mediation

Mediator training was our immediate concern. We had to find and train individuals to become the mediators on whom we hoped to build the system. We also hoped for a widespread devotee receptivity to our efforts to bring to the surface for examination and resolution the issues and concerns which had been suppressed and permitted to fester over the years. We were looking to encourage a culture of fairness and transparency where acquiescence and failure to challenge and dissidents walking away from ISKCON had long been the standard.

My introduction to devotees in Alachua and Mayapur persuaded me that many had those intangible qualities that one senses make for a good mediator. They were usually laid back, more contemplative than aggressive and were quite well educated. All but the native sub continent Indians, who had been born as Hindus, had come to the religion from other backgrounds. That meant that they had been smart enough to have shopped around and chosen this religion as their life style. With their knowledge of the theology and training in the process, I felt they would become competent mediators. However, who was to do the training? I certainly was not the one, my background in mediation and mediation training was in the union management field where the goal is a treaty between adversaries rather than a transformation of attitudes. When one reviews the various classifications of mediator, I tended to be quite evaluative of positions in my effort to push the disputants to agreement. While here, we were looking to reconcile individuals and to modify their behavior to enable them to work in harmony for a common purpose. We solicited through the ISKCON internet resources for those who had had prior experience as mediators and as teachers of mediation.

Our inquiry led us to Krishna Lila (Christina Casanova), a devotee from Argentina who had spent more than three decades training mediators for the New York Public School system, who was about to retire and was looking to perform more ISKCON service.

We anticipated a concentrated training program of 40 hours over a one-week period with from 20-30 participants. The curriculum for this course was designed to reflect the basics of mediation training (opening statements, uninterrupted time to expressing positions, exchanges, caucuses, setting the agenda, going through the agenda items, writing agreements and concluding), with substantial emphasis on mediation’s transformational potential. The lesson plans included a number of role plays and other experiential learning techniques. .

At a meeting of the North American regional governing body and temple presidents at the ISKCON ashram in New Vrindavan in West Virginia, we discussed our training goals. We also received sufficient expression of interest to arrange for our first 40-hour training program that was held for North American devotees at an ISKCON facility in Towaco, New Jersey in September, 2002. A graduate of that course, Kalakantha (Carl Woodham), the Secretary of the GBC, then undertook further training in his home state of Florida and became qualified as a mediator for the Florida state government.

We conducted a second training in December 2002 in Radhadesh, a facility in Septon Belgium where 28 participants attended from 14 countries. The course was conducted in English.

Thereafter using Krishna Lila, Braja Bihari and Kalakantha as trainers, subsequent courses were conducted in 2003 in Hong Kong, London, Budapest, Moscow, Mexico City, Paraguay, Caracas, Mumbai, Kiev, Pune and Vrindavan. By the end of 2003, 14 courses will have been held, and over 350 devotees trained as mediators. Most of these courses have been held in English, although the participants come from a number of non-English speaking countries. Some, as in Kiev and Moscow were held with simultaneous translation. The expectation is that those from non English-speaking countries who have taken the English language training will, in turn develop training programs in their local languages, to develop a larger cadre of trained mediators fluent in the local languages used by the disputing devotees. While continuing the training in Melbourne, Sydney, Christ Church, Auckland, Boston, Dallas, Durban, and Nairobi, we expect to conduct teacher-training programs in the summer of 2004 as part of the expansion of the training into the national arenas.

Ombudsmen

In developing the program for resolving disputes between devotees and leaders of the movement, we have followed the ombuds model developed in the last century in Scandinavia. That format has spread around the world into international organizations, local and national governments and private institutions. In the United States, Mary Rowe, the Ombudsman for MIT is the leading representative for the concept. When I approached her with the problem of developing an ombuds structure for such a global institution, she proposed a roster of ombudsmen representing divergent constituencies within ISKCON, i.e. male, female, monk, congregant, elderly, young and geographically dispersed to provide more comfortable access by devotees interesting in using the ombuds service. We are in the process of developing a roster of up to a dozen ombudsmen. The first three selected took The Ombudsman Association training course for ombudsmen in the summer of 2003, and have become members of that Association. We expect that devotees to have their choice of ombuds from the full roster of 12 or so ombudsmen by email, telephone, voice mail or personal access.

Caseload

When the program was proposed, we did not know what to expect in terms of case volume. Certainly, mediation had been used effectively on an ad hoc basis in resolving disputes within other religious institutions, and some had even developed local or regional ombuds structures. On one hand, we feared that reluctance to challenge fellow devotees, let alone mentors and leaders, might starve the system of cases, and thwart our entire push to transparency. On the other hand, we were fearful of opening the floodgate so wide that it would undercut the authority of the GBC and temple leadership, and impinge on the two and a half millennia of theological teachings since Lord Krishna set forth his original precepts.

To avoid the latter risk, we opted to start the program quietly, focusing on word of mouth mediation opportunities and postponing official announcement of the mediation and formal ombuds structure. Our concern over a paucity of cases was unwarranted. The GBC endorsement of the program was sufficient to stimulate an immediate expression of interest from leadership and devotees. Most welcomed the announcement as an opportunity to use the new program to resolve pending or long lingering disputes in which they were involved. In addition, our experience has shown that as more and more devotees have taken the mediation training, they have used it to help resolve local disputes to which they had been involved in the past, and to offer their services in simmering conflicts they knew of in their home communities. Six months after the first Radhadesh training program, 23 of the 28 attending the course reconvened for further training and reported that they had already been asked to mediate in some 50 cases and were successful in reaching agreement in ¾ of them.

As of January 1, 2004, 20 months after the GBC announcement of the program and 16 months after the initial training program, our course takers had mediated approximately 250 cases in 25 countries, with an estimated settlement rate of 80%.

Likewise, in the ombuds program, although there had not been a formal announcement of its global availability, the GBC announcement and discussions among devotees and leaders at regional GBC meetings spread the word of its availability. In the 20 months since the initial GBC announcement, the ombuds have handled some 75 ombuds cases. This has been a particularly fruitful initiative with benefits including the avoiding of court cases, the quiet processing of disciplinary actions avoiding unnecessary embarrassment and rumor, the helping of congregants to get their views heard by leadership, and communication by the ombuds to the GBC on trends observed providing a proactive “head’s up” to the leadership. In several cases, the GBC leadership has reported that the information provided by the ombuds had permitted preventative response and forestalled future problems.

The ombuds office was also visited recently by a suicidal person as well as someone who confessed to being sexually attracted to children. In both of these cases the ombuds has guided the visitors to get help, and has been following up on their progress.

At their annual meeting, the Executive Committee of the GBC introduced a practice that any dispute appealed to it must first be submitted to the ADR procedures specifically mediation. Six such disputes that would have normally taken up a tremendous amount of time during the annual meeting were quietly mediated in adjoining rooms. Our desire to utilize the ombuds process as a prelude to appeal was foreclosed by the privacy stipulation barring the Executive Committee from knowing the names of those who might have invoked the ombuds procedures. However, such privacy stipulation is not a normal attribute of the mediation process, so the Executive Committee became aware of those cases where there had been an effort at resolution. Because of the effectiveness of the mediation, and perhaps even of the off the record ombuds work, the GBC was able to cut nearly three days from its normal 14 day meetings. Use of the preliminary dispute resolution steps reduced the number of cases in which the GBC was required to rule in favor of one or more devotees and thus risking antagonizing those on the losing side.

As members of the GBC informed me at their annual meeting in Mayapur in February, 2003, they were hearing about a lot more disputes among devotees in ISKCON than they had prior to launching the initiative. We agreed that the increased awareness of problems among devotees or even with the establishment was laudable, and a reflected their comfort in speaking up, and speaking out. More issues and concerns that had been hidden over the years were being acknowledged and being resolved.

By the summer of 2003, the training efforts had concentrated in North America and Europe and in those regions, the initial mediation and ombuds cases emerged. As the system moves more into Eastern Europe, India, Southeast Asia and Latin America, the use of the processes will extend to those areas. Those regions may have had less experience with the role of the mediator and the ombudsperson. Additionally, language differences may complicate the efforts to resolve the disputes. Consequently, the uptake of the processes may be slower than in areas of the world where the processes had already been part of the culture. On the other hand, the spread of cultural influences in our cyberworld occurs with amazing speed. In May 2003, at the Hare Krishna operated hospital in Mumbai (Bombay), we succeeded in establishing the first ombuds structure for any hospital in India. In the first four months of that program, the Ombuds, a hospital pediatrician, had been approached in 33 cases from Physicians, nurses, clerical and technical employees as well as hospital neighbors. About a third of the cases arose from managerial personnel. The CEO of the hospital reported that early reporting of problems by the Ombuds had enabled them to resolve a number of serious disputes before they became hospital wide issues. Announcement of the adoption of the program in that hospital has resulted in inquiries from other hospitals in Mumbai interested in developing ombuds structures for their own institutions.

Administration

Uncertainty as to the size of the caseload has dictated a go-slow approach in developing a structure for administering the ADR program. For the first year and a half, Braja Bihari handled the administration, largely by email and phone based on his lap top record keeping. In the summer of 2003 we undertook a more formalized structure with Jai Nitai as administrator. The cyberworld enables operations such as the ISKCON ADR program to operate at different locations around the world. Our administration is largely web based at our website which will be found at www.iskconresolve.com. Devotees seeking to mediate may select their preferred mediator from the posted list of those who have taken our course. They should notify the administrator of their selection and mediation schedule and outcome of the mediation. For those devotees who have not secured agreement to mediate from the other party, the administrator will help to secure agreement to mediate and help in their selection of a mediator. The web site will also contain biographies of the rostered mediators, the schedule for upcoming training programs, educational material on mediation and the ombuds process, the forms for submission of a case, and evaluation forms to be filled out and submitted by the participants and the mediator at the conclusion of the case.

For those seeking to use the ombuds process, the requirement of confidentiality does not permit webpage access. But the names of the ombudsmen are listed on the web page, and those seeking to use the ombuds process may be in direct contact with one of those listed ombudsmen, who would then proceed to advise them on the procedures, offer options of action for the visitor, and if appropriate, undertake action on behalf of the devotee involved.

Evaluation

We are developing evaluation forms to be completed on case closure. Once we have our program globally up and running, we expect to have our efforts evaluated by outside academics who will offer suggestions for improvement and provide guidance to other religious institutions who might consider developing comparable structures.

Beyond ISKCON

The ISKCON ADR system was conceived as an internal program to resolve disputes and concerns between devotees and between devotees and ISKCON leadership.
But it soon became apparent that it had a potential benefit beyond ISKCON. Those who took the training to qualify as internal mediators also gained the requisite skills to mediate disputes outside ISKCON. In some cases, as in the case of those from Florida who took the initial New Jersey training, enrollment in additional training was a prerequisite for Florida government mediator listing. But others have undertaken to mediate disputes for their local communities using their ISKCON training to provide service to those outsiders who are in need of conflict resolution. Many institutions serve local community needs, and the provision of mediation services for local communities and different ethnic groups from which devotees come, may provide a needed benefit to such community organizations.

In addition, ISKCON has undertaken to spread the doctrine of voluntary dispute resolution to schoolchildren in its schools. The concept of Peer Mediation, which has evolved to teach youngsters how to negotiate, and how to mediate disputes between friends, has an enormous potential in training a whole new generation of citizens to use mediation to resolve their disputes. Although the program has had its origins in the United States, ISKCON with its global reach and global development of mediators has the potential to spread this worthy process to its own and outside schools throughout the world.

The spreading word of what ISKCON has done in the dispute resolution field has already led outside institutions to ask for advice in developing similar institutions. It may also lead to devotees developing mediation and ombuds procedures for other institutions. In recent discussions with other religious groups, there is serious interest in adopting or adapting the ISKCON internal ADR system to resolve their own disputes. Some have undertaken mediation training as a component for their curriculum in their Doctorate of Theology programs.

Benefits of the System

It may be a bit premature to claim that ISKCON’s ADR system is working beneficially, but the evidence indicates that such is the case. The GBC Resolution announced to devotees a new effort at establishing transparency, which was immediately hailed throughout as a preferred image. That announcement also acknowledged several long-suppressed complaints and disputes which have since been resolved enhancing the status of the procedures and of ISKCON itself in endorsing them.

Many who have taken the training have reported that it has made them feel they are better devotees by teaching them how to listen more attentively and know there are alwas two sides to a story, how to approach and negotiate with others and how to separate themselves from issues in dispute. Indeed, there have been suggestions that such training would be of inspirational value for all devotees. That certainly has not been our goal, but it has encouraged many to take the training who might otherwise not have done so. To the extent that they become good mediators and better devotees, it is obviously to the benefit of ISKCON.

Certainly, the outreach program of training mediators for outside service as mediators or system designers was not a component of our original planning. However, considering the sensivity of ISKCON to the recollections of how they were viewed during days of book distribution at the top of airline terminal escalators, the enhanced perception of ISKCON as the purveyor, instead, of dispute resolution systems can only improve its image and its opportunities for a wider ranging set of service opportunities.

Our success in introducing the ombudsman to the Hare Krishna hospital has led to our being asked to help in introducing a similar system in other hospitals. This is an example of how the experience in developing the internal system may be reflected in employment opportunities in helping to develop external systems not only in hospitals, but perhaps in the burgeoning computer, construction and apparel sectors of the growing Indian economy.

For the GBC, the ready access to mediation provides a more accessible, rapid procedure for bringing to light and resolving devotee concerns. It, thus, diffuses issues that previously might have been appealed to the GBC for resolution. In encouraging the parties to resolve their own disputes, it saves the GBC from excessive rulings on devotee concerns, and disputes, and minimizes the need for its rendering decisions that might offend devotees on the losing side of issues. In that context, the increased number of disputes of which the GBC has become aware, is the sign of the new dispute resolution system working, while the reduced number of cases appealed is a sign that devotees are effective in resolving their disputes through negotiation with the help of a mediator.

Of particular significance for a religion such as the Hare Krishnas, where devotees who leave the temple or move to other Hindu sects in the event of disputes with other devotees or temple leaders, is the new availability of an outreach by mediators to defected devotees who walked out of the ISKCON structure. Often, they leave because of a dispute with another devotee who may have also left. The mediator, unlike someone in the ISKCON establishment, may be acceptable to a devotee who has “walked” by offering to resolve the issues that might have led to the departure, and thus encouraging their return.

Risks of the System

Entering into such a system also has risks. It could reveal a very widespread sense of dissatisfaction with ISKCON leadership placing their role and authority in jeopardy. That risk, is however, present in any institution regardless of the presence of a system for demonstrating the presence of employee concerns or potentially fatal disputes within its leadership. The likelihood of such unrest has been diffused by the proclamation of the ADR system and its endorsement by the GBC. In fact, the positive reaction to the promulgation shows that devotees have viewed the creation of the system as a positive contribution, while the reasonable number of disputes that have become known demonstrates the absence of any widespread unrest among devotees.

Another risk is that related to potential challenges to leadership on theological grounds. But the absence of centralized dogma and the ready availability of mediation provides a new means of forestalling such disputes through discussion and persuasion.

A risk which remains, is the possibility of an excessive number of disputes taxing the volunteer facilities of the present administration. The program is anticipated to be largely pro bono, but too much success might create such a strain on the volunteer facilities and contributions that it prevents meeting devotee expectations. At that point we might reconsider the volunteer nature of the procedures, and be forced to impose charges for our services.

Conclusion

This experiment is merely months old. It has been better received than we anticipated and more successful than we expected in bringing resolution to devotee disputes through mediation and resort to the ombuds. Every indication is that the expansion of the program will be similarly effective. If the experience in the next year of our global expansion is as well received as our experience to date, it may send a positive and constructive message to other religious institutions. That message is that theological institutions, just as civic and commercial entities, must recognize that a more educated, more assertive constituency expects its institutions to be responsive to its needs. The fall off in church attendance and contributions because of the unfeeling and insensitive response to the abuse of the faithful, should send a message to church leadership everywhere. That message is that survival of such institutions, let alone the future success of such institutions, requires more outreach to devotees, more sensitivity to their problems, and more willingness to respond to their needs as an integral part of their stewarding function.

ISKCON has set the course. It will be interesting to see if other religious institutions, faced with similar internal conflicts will move toward its model of transparency. A credible effort in making available mediation as well as an ombuds structure has now been shown to resolve disputes and enhance member loyalty…a win-win outcome for the institution and its followers.