BUILDING SPIRITUAL COMMUNITIES

By Janki Pandya

Deep down in every human heart is a hidden, longing, impulse and ambition to do something fine and enduring, to love and to be loved. Why? Because it is the nature of the soul, "sat-cit-ananda". Every soul is eternal, full of knowledge and full of bliss. Each and every person, in whichever corner of the universe we look in, is ultimately looking for love.

Do you ever wonder why the distressed people go to the temple? When they have had enough with the material world and they just want some love and peace, they will go to the temple. The temple is one place where they feel a sense of comfort and peace, by associating with the devotees, by doing darshan (seeing with respect and devotion) of the Deities, by honouring the prasadam (respectfully eating the sanctified food), many people actually feel that life has a meaning.

Our spiritual master Srila Prabhupada had said that people are not so interested in regularly attending churches, mosques, or temples. However, when people visit ISKCON temples, they are looking for that inner spiritual quest which they are not getting anywhere else, they are looking for the love and care which they have been searching for birth after birth, they are coming to receive spiritual enlightenment and inspiration from the devotees living there. Everybody is suffering from anxiety; therefore every devotee should be trained in the caring of devotees. There is no greater joy or reward than to make a fundamental difference in someone's life.
Here are some suggestions of how devotees can develop loving and trusting relationships in devotee communities worldwide:

RECEPTION

Temples could have special departments specifically for greeting guests when they visit the temple. Srila Prabhupada said that "anyone who comes to the temple is personally sent by Krishna". Therefore, devotees could welcome guests in that spirit. A trained group of devotees could be there waiting for the guests, however if there are not many guests, one or two devotees are adequate for the service.

The guests could receive a warm welcome from the devotees and they could be given a brochure which explains a brief overview of our philosophy, introduction of who Srila Prabhupada is, introduction of the Deities they have at the temple and a schedule of events that take place.

Srila Prabhupada has often emphasized the importance of prasadam; it will slowly melt the hard core hearts of the general mass of people and gradually re-awaken their Krishna consciousness. Therefore, every guest could be given caranamrita and prasadam (the mangal sweet, sandesh is known for converting people into serious, sincere devotees). At the end of their visit, the guests have already made friends with the devotees and they go home with a smile.

The devotees then keep in touch with the guests and basically do a follow up on them and cultivate them according to the degree they reciprocate. The next time they visit the temple, they will bring their friends and tell them, "I have a friend at the temple, let me introduce you to him/her". So in this way, everyone could be trained in the art of hospitality.

I have been personally introduced in this way to ISKCON, and it makes a huge difference because now you know that somebody is personally there looking after you and cultivating you and the faith in Krishna has been established and you will never want to leave the movement. So the personal touch must be there if we want permanent devotees.

COUNSELOR SYSTEM

Counselor systems for existing devotees could be set up in every temple. However, it should be emphasized that a spirit of trust and confidence should be imbibed. If devotees do not develop loving relationships with each other, then there is no question of loving Krishna. How can one love Krishna without loving his devotees? Every one of us practicing bhakti is going through purification and we all have our conditioned natures, but we can look at the higher cause and surpass the small differences and arguments we have with each other. Some of the ways of doing this are:

 Serve the devotee you do not like unknowingly or in public.
 Associate more with the person you have offended or don't like.
 Pray to Krishna to help you or pray to the devotee.
 Glorify the devotee.
 Approach a common friend of the devotee who is in good terms with you.
 Invite the devotees for prasadam at your house, make their favorite dish.
 Offer them gifts on special occasions, e.g., birthdays, wedding anniversaries, etc.
 Help the devotees during their difficult times, be there for them, they should not feel isolated
 Do service with the devotee together, the service will melt everyone's heart and whatever disputes they have had in the past will be forgotten.
 Dedicate or sponsor something in their name
 Don't judge devotees on their past, it is one of the worst things a devotee can do, and it will be neither pleasing to Krishna nor guru.
 Attend a Bhagavatam class of the devotee you don't like, and if possible ask a question. It will make the speaker happy and slowly melt his/her heart.

Srila Prabhupada has built a house in which the whole world can live. We have opened our hearts to do this. It has already been predicted by Caitanya Mahaprabhu that this Krishna Consciousness Movement will spread to every town and village in this universe.

Krishna's mercy is already there, all we have to do is simply become instruments to carry out and execute this message, and Krishna will empower us. But we have to give it our 110%. Between what happens to us and our response is a space, in that space lays our freedom to choose our response. Ultimately, Krishna has given us free will so it is up to us to use it intelligently.

* Janki Pandya lives in Nairobi, Kenya. She has been in Krishna Consciousness for the last four years. She works as a banker at Victoria Commercial Bank Ltd and she is a Relationship Officer for the Customer Service Department. Her service at the temple is cooking for the Sunday Feast at the local ISKCON Nairobi temple.

 

 

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"I DO NOT WANT TO GO TO SCHOOL"

Suppose I am a little baby, and some worm is biting me. I cannot say "Mother" -- because at time I cannot speak -- "something is biting on my back." I am crying, and mother is thinking that "The child is hungry. Give him milk." (devotees laugh)

Just see how much this... I want something, and I am given something else. That is a fact. Why the child is crying? He is feeling uncomfortable. Then, in this way, I grow.

Then I do not want to go to school. I am forced to go to school. Yes. At least, I was like that. (devotees laugh) I never wanted to go to school. And my father was very kind. "So all right. Why you are not going to school?" I would say, "I will go tomorrow." "All right." But my mother was very careful.

Perhaps if my mother would not have been little strict, I would not have gotten any education. My father was very lenient. So she used to force me. One man would take me to school.

- Srila Prabhupada Lecture

 

 

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DEVOTEE CARE COMMITTEE PROMOTES THE CULTURE OF CARE

The Devotee Care Committee (DCC) met during the GBC Strategic Planning Meeting held in Mumbai from 15-23 October 2008. Interestingly, the Devotees Care Committee was born of the Preaching Committee. Members of the Preaching Committees reflected that if the devotees are not well taken care then preaching would not have any lasting effect. They understood that preaching can attract people but it doesn't keep them.

The GBC body recognized the need to care for devotees individually and collectively and thus formulated the DCC. The first Committee members included Jayapataka Swami, Kavicandra Swami, Bir Krishna Goswami, Bhakti Purshottama Swami, Revati Ramana Das, Prasanta Devi Dasi, Achutya Priya Das and Chandrashekhar Das. Now there are many more.

Members of DCC realize that caring for devotees is a matter of consciousness and culture where every devotee is concerned about the needs of another devotee. In ISKCON we aim to promote higher understanding of the Absolute Truth and if devotees are unhappy then they would extend a similar spirit to the society at large. Vaishnava culture is a culture for caring and the DCC strives to create facilities through which devotees can access help whenever they need it.

The DCC plans to connect with devotees requiring assistance in various ways. The Committee will soon host a website which will include exhaustive information, resource guide and references of devotees and projects in various parts of the world. The DCC hopes to collect information and give access to the various resources available for devotees' needs.

The prime focus of the DCC is to instill and implement the idea that every devotee is cared for within the Vaishnava community. Sometimes devotees are insensitive to other devotees while in some cases devotees don't' want to express their concerns for whatever reasons. Either they think 'I don't want to complain to anyone' or they feel that nobody is interested.

There are examples were devotees don't feel cared for. For instance, devotees feel the Temple President doesn't care for them, wives think that the husbands don't care for them, some full-time devotees feel insecure about the future and the practical aspects of dealing with hospitalization, old age, etc. The DCC plans to address these and many more concerns of the devotees.

His Holiness Kavicandra Maharaja, a member of the DCC said, "Lord Caitanya stressed that Vaishnava seva is really important. We want to gradually work towards caring for devotees. When devotees realize that we care for them they feel a sense of belonging and can express what they feel and what they need. We want to realize this goal and work on every level possible to make it a reality. We want devotees to know that they are most important and projects is a result of people".

Devotee Care wesbite will soon be up at this link:

http://www.devoteecareiskcon.com/eng/

And here is a Devotee Care website of South Africa:

http://devoteecare.org/

 

 

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GOD IS PERPLEXED

Just like the Christians go to the church for meeting the problems of bread; similarly, the Hindus or the Muslim, everyone goes to church, temple or mosque to pray something material:

"God, I am very distressed. Kindly get me relief from this distressed condition."

Or "God, I am in need of money, I am very poor. Kindly give me some money."

Or any other, "I am now implicated in war."

Just like Churchill, he introduced that everyone should go and pray for victory.

So England was also praying for victory, and Germany was also praying for victory.

So God is perplexed. (devotees laugh)

The thief is praying to God that "This night, I may steal without any hindrances."

And the householder is praying, "My Lord, thief may not come here and steal my goods."

And God has to adjust everything.

So just imagine how much busy is God.

There are millions and trillions of living entities.

Each one of them, if they are at all interested in God -- not all -- so they are praying.

Everyone is praying, "God, give me this benediction. Give me this benediction."

So this is not pure devotional service.

- Srila Prabhupada

 

 

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