namahatta.org - Congregational Development Ministry

by Gauragopala das

Indian Hindus are populating ISKCON Temples in the West in a way never seen before over the last forty-two years. This is happening all over the world at a massive rate and is not a phenomenon, as some suggest. The fact is, as India becomes a wealthier nation, we can only expect more and more students to leave India and attend Western educational institutions as well as many more arriving from India to become citizens of other countries.

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2 years 1 week ago

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http://triyuga.terapad.com/index.cfm?fa=contentNews.newsDetails&newsID=67181&fro...

by Gauragopala das

In April 1972, the Melbourne City Council in Australia began a campaign to try and move the Hare Krishna devotees away from the city streets. This struggle with the Council would continue on for another three years.

Not only were we now continuously harassed on the streets by the Council, we were also harassed in our own Temple with middle of the night Police raids looking for devotees who had never paid their fines for chanting on the streets, distributing books, and performing drama plays in the City square.

Photo: Kurma Prabhu being dragged away to jail for chanting Hare Krishna on the streets of Melbourne, Australia in the early seventies.

Here's a blog post of a devotee's first-hand experience at one of the new megachurches, Planet Shakers in Melbourne, Australia.

Wikipedia: Planetshakers City Church (formerly Melbourne City Church) is a Pentecostal Christian church affiliated with Australian Christian Churches, the Assemblies of God in Australia. The church started when the Planetshakers band and ministry moved to Melbourne in 2004, and currently meets in hired auditoriums throughout Central Melbourne. The church is pastored by Russell and Sam Evans and has attendance nearing 3000, ...

The young man with melancholy eyes listened curiously as I explained the Krishna conscious lifestyle. “A swami, a monk, eh?” he pondered aloud. Then a grizzled, worn-out hippy in his forties shrieked derisively: “Man, that’s bogus spirituality! Any true guru knows that the more sex you have, the more you’re liberated!” Infected, the younger man, no longer reflective, erupted with the fervor of an evangelist at the peak of his sermon. Eyes ablaze, he proclaimed, “I’ve had true ecstasy through sensuality!” Groaning, I sank into my chair.

 

from Vrindavana Nandini dd, at present in Perth, Australia

The Counselor System established by HH Radhanatha Maharaja has proven to be a very effective system for the maintenance of our Krsna Consciousness. Two weeks after I joined the movement in 2002, the Counselor System was implemented in the Kuala Lumpur temple, so I took it up.

Devotees are given a choice of counselors to be their advisors. The Counselor Board consists of senior devotees from different ashrams, mostly senior grihasta couples and senior brahmacaris. Therefore, according to one's inclination towards either grhasta or brahmacary ashram, a counselor is chosen.

First of all, the counselee should be comfortable with the counselor and vice versa. A relationship must be established between the two in order to make things work. A counselor may have many or few counselees. As a group, they would have meetings either every week or once a fortnight, depending on the availability of the group members.

My name is Vrndavana Nandini dd. I am currently doing a degree in Forensic Science in Perth, Australia, at Curtin University of Technology. Coming from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia where preaching activities are at its peak, I try to implement some of the Bhakti-vriksha concepts in forming a devotional group here in Perth with university students and some friends who have graduated from university, basically the educated class of people.

Considering the laid-back nature of Perth, most of us tend to get sucked into the mood of this town and eventually loose taste for the dynamic preaching mood. This is especially true for young devotees, what to speak of those who are not devotees. There is a need, therefore, for strategic planning and preaching in order to get people off their comfort zones.