namahatta.org - Congregational Development Ministry

-kaunteya das

I am preparing for a four-day course that I will present in May, in ISKCON
Juhu, Mumbai, to the Western India participants of the ISKCON LEADS
trainings - some 40 devotees from various temples. The title of the workshop
is "Building Vibrant Vaisnava Communities" and I will be teaching it with my
"co-Minister of the ISKCON Congregational Development Ministry" hat on.

Sri Godruma Kalpatavi ("The Desire-tree Grove of Godruma") is an English translation of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura's newsletter collection. A very timely book release, as this year Sri Mayapur's Nama-hatta Department celebrates it's thirtieth anniversary.

Sri Godruma Kalpatavi was originally produced in Bengal one-hundred-and-twenty years ago by Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, to guide leaders and members in his preaching movement. The topics discussed are very practical issues often faced by those with families and careers who also want to fully engage in practicing and preaching Krishna consciousness.

HH Jayapataka Maharaja felt Godruma Kalpatavi to be so relevant to the lives of devotees today that he translated the text and inspired the current publication.

From HH Jayapataka Maharaja's introduction ("From the Publisher") to our Congregational Preaching Journal 12:

Holy Jail is a compilation by HH Candramauli Maharaja on the activities and stories of ISKCON's Prison Ministries (IPM). In their thirty years of operation, the lives of hundreds of inmates have changed due to the practice of Krishna consciousness and the support received by devotees.

The prisoners very beautifully with great depth express how they came to Krishna through the help of ISKCON Prison Ministries and how their lives have been changed for the better through the love and care showered upon them by IPM sevaks.

There are also wonderful memories of those great devotees who have served with ISKCON Prison Ministries and sadly left their material bodies to continue their eternal service. You'll also find anecdotes, a history of the Prison Ministries, letters, art, and poetry from prisoners, as well as their vyasa-puja offerings to Srila Prabhupada—an interesting and uplifting read.

Vijay Venugopal das and Prema Padmini dd

And so the festival closed. In the morning, senior devotees including Krishna dasa Kaviraja Prabhu, Acala Prabhu, Vishvamitra Prabhu, and ourselves spoke. It had been a wonderful festival and the team who made the arrangements were all young Bhakti-vriksha leaders and members—more than half of them being women, including the main coordinator. Everyone praised their efforts and service, and also spoke of the wonderful loving atmosphere among the devotees throughout the festival. Bhakti-vriksha has clearly brought immense changes to the Russian devotee community, which was in decline only a few years ago.

Most significantly, the Bhakti-vriksha leaders and members are all disciples and prospective disciples of a whole array of gurus, proving that the Bhakti-vriksha system is not linked to any particular spiritual master in ISKCON. It flourishes in an atmosphere of freedom and enthusiasm, combined with serious training and advancement. The activities of the devotees, their seriousness in following vows, their happy acceptance of heavy responsibilities, in spite of being fully involved in family life, shows that these indeed are quality devotees. And it is this high quality of purity, sincerity, and commitment, which creates the large quantity. In short quality creates quantity—it is not that we have to choose between one or the other.

by HH Bhaktiraghava Maharaja

Just a few hundred years after the manifest pastimes of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, the great acarya Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura again took up the preaching mission of the Lord and recorded the following words in reference to the Nama-hatta preaching work:

boro sukher khabor gai surabhi-kunjete
namer hao khule'che khoda nita

"I am singing news of the greatest happiness! At the place known as Surabhi Kunja in Sri Navadvipa, the Marketplace of the Holy Name has now been opened and Lord Nityananda Himself is the Proprietor."

Vaisnava-siddhanta-mala

By the mercy of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu and by the mercy of Srila Prabhupada, the same preaching spirit meant to help inundate the entire world with the Hari Nama Sankirtan Movement of Lord Caitanya has also been introduced in the form of the Nama-hatta program by the devotees serving at Sridham Mayapur under the guidance and inspiration of HH Jayapataka Maharaja.

by David Haslam

This is for me the essence, this is the crucial lesson from Srila Prabhupada: that we have the cure and we have the measure to see if it works. This is our only standardization; the rest can only be achieved by forming relationships, getting to know the person, warts and all, and helping and guiding them on a single individual basis—encouraging and ever adjusting until the ultimate goal of self realization is achieved.

Like these core care plans, we need to individualize and personalize the way we administer and give the medicine. We will never be able to make a "one size fits all" devotee society, but we can make a society that recognizes individual traits, individual weaknesses, and individual strengths.

Then we can see how each one can help others in one way or another, and we will see externally the internal changes: the rough diamond becoming the glittering, all attractive gem it really is.

by Prema Padmini dd & Vijay Venugopala das

Caru Candra and Prana Govinda Prabhus arranged our tour from Cox's Bazar on the Bay of Bengal in the south of Bangladesh all the way to Sylhet in the north, close to the border with Assam in India.

Tuesday, 14 April: Cox's Bazar

Cox's Bazar boasts one of the longest beaches in the world. It is lined with many hotels and Bangladeshis flock there during all holidays. The temple is in the poorer part of town where most Hindus live. Here the roads are lined with open drains, narrow and dirty. The temple is built on a small plot of land with another building and shops in front. There is a big temple room with huge and beautiful deities of Sri Sri Jagannath, Baladeva, and Subhadra, donated by Ramani Manohar Prabhu, who became a devotee in Mathuradesh.

by Padmanetra das

It was the most remarkable year in my life when I joined ISKCON in 1989. Since being a new devotee I have always been interested in preaching activities, so I joined the Nama-hatta preaching division, helping HH Gauranga Prema Maharaja's preaching in north Bengal.

Later I got involved in our Nama-hatta office in Sri Mayapur, which manages preaching in India's eastern region, including the the states of Bengal, Orissa, and Assam. At present I am serving as one of the co-regional directors in charge of the southern parts of West Bengal. My godbrothers Gaurachandra and Biswajit Prabhus manage Nama-hatta preaching in central and and northern Bengal respectively. Over and above HH Gauranga Prema Maharaja guides us in reaching out to more and more people in a systematic way.

Sarvasakti Mataji, reporting from Lima, Peru

The following is a brief report of the highlights of our Latin American Convention on Congregation Development, held this past weekend in Lima, Peru. Over twenty-five devotees attended; fourteen devotees representing seven countries, and another twelve from Peru. They all came to share their experiences and to learn from each other, and from the various topics our Ministry had to share.

From day one we started connecting, meeting everyone, allowing everyone to introduce themselves, and to share how they became involved in taking care of other devotees. By the end of the day we all had a laugh together, ready to work with each other.