After some very interesting comments have been posted to articles from Devaki Mataji recently, I've reactivated our internal Discussion Forums.
This one, Bhakti-vriksha Discussions, deals with the Bhakti-vriksha Program, it's theory, practical application, and problems.
The first post by Vijay Venugopal Prabhu was originally a comment to Devaki's article, Bhakti-vriksha Program Versus Counselor System—Which is Best?. The ensuing comments have been moved to this forum, too.
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From Vijay Venugopal Prabhu
This is a comment from Vijay Venugopala Prabhu, who together with his good wife Prema Padmini Mataji, established Bhakti-vriksha preaching in Mathuradesh (Middle East), where no regular temples are possible. They started from zero, and today there are thousands of devotees in this yatra. You can read an account of their preaching activities in Mathuradesh here, and an ongoing diary of their present service as "Bhakti-vriksha consultants" here.
The Bhakti-vriksha System provides the basic 'Mood' and 'System' for lifelong (not only 18 months) love, care, and training for devotees.
Most importantly, there is a complete Vaishanava Community Development program built around this, which produces a community where
At the end of the eighteen months, when the qualified among the members become leaders, they continue being guided and cared for with love by the same devotee (who was their Bhakti-vriksha group leader, and now becomes a sector leader). This guidance never stops. The training and milk-boiling never stops either—this is a living vibrant comunity, with a full complement of services, seminars, Bhakti-sastri courses etc., apart from festivals, dhama visits, etc. They share their entire lives together, including the samskaras of their families, from birth, till death.
And because the emphasis is on being servant leaders, rather than being ambitious and power-hungry, the leaders in a Bhakti-vriksha communty are eager to serve, and not at all eager to become leaders. The expansion thrusts servant leadership on them, which they take only as a responsibility to Guru, Srila Prabhupada, and Lord Caitanya. Rather than fulfilling any material desires, their old material desires get burnt away one by one due to their service mood and sacrifice.
I have lived with and seen all this for the last twenty years, and therefore wish to assure Devaki Mataji that I can show here all the above in real life.
Any community leaders anywhere in the world can choose either of the two systems and they will certainly not lose out in the slightest in terms of 'boiling the milk' if they choose Bhakti-vriksha; nor is it going to create a 'power trip' for anyone, since whatever system they choose, it is the community leadership which is in command in any ISKCON community, and not any outsider.
Your Servant,
Vijay Venugopal dasa
reply to Vijay Venugopal
Maybe I have an incomplete impression of the bhakti vrksa program, because I am judging from the practical applications I have seen - I have actually never read the manual. But I have attended many bhakti vrksa programs around Europe, Australia and Bangladesh. And after discussions with the participating and leading devotees I gathered those impressions. So maybe those programs I have visited were not so exemplary.
Sometimes it might be easier to introduce a new program with a strong focus on 'boiling the milk', rather than adding it to a program which has been existing for many years, but with incomplete application.
Your servant, Devaki dd
Further comment from Vijay Venugopal Prabhu:
The Bhakti Vriksha program, as developed by us in Mathuradesh, is more than a simple application of theory. It consists of three parts—the mood, the system, and the organisation. Many people just read the BV Manual and implement the weekly program. This is an incomplete application, and would not produce the results of community development which I described above. We nowadays travel to different parts of the world and help in a phased implementation. It takes a few years to get everything right and build a vibrant Vaishnava community as I have described.
Thank you to Devaki mataji
Thank you to Devaki mataji for bringing up this discussion here. Thank you also to my godbrothers Phanisvara and Vijaya Venugopala prabhus for their very valuable and enriching answers.
One thing I would like to add to this discussion: In Germany we have some groups that are called "Bhakti-vriksha groups". But if we have a closer look at what they are practising we can easily see that some very essentiell BV-principles are missing there and what they are doing is in the best case a small "shadow" of BV but not more. Even often local BV-leaders are not properly trained and educated in BV at all. So, if we are judging BV according to how devotees try to implement it, we may get a completely wrong impression and understanding of what BV really is because not everybody is walking his or her talk.
Better to learn BV from such longterm, successful and expert BV-preachers like Vijaya Venugopala and Prema Padmini prabhus than judging BV according to how other devotees who are less successful understand and implement it.
Our experience in BV and CS