namahatta.org - Congregational Development Ministry (ISKCON)

How not to use the Bhagavad-gita

kmdasa — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 07:49:45 +0000

by Kripamoya das

Wouldn't it be nice if all the religions could get along? Peacemakers like to suggest an impersonal way to do it. Sometimes they even try to use the Gita to support their ideas

"Well, we can understand that all you spiritual and religious people still need something to believe in. But please listen to us—there is a difference between the God of Religion and the Ultimate Reality. The first is the figure you believe in, pray to, and have a kind of emotional faith in. The second is a slightly more abstract notion of a state of universal, cosmic light from where all the incarnations and saints, angels and prophets come from and into which they merge after their time with us is finished."

General Content

Minimum Requirements for Visiting Nama-hatta?

Baker — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 01:33:48 +0000

My inquiry is about whether ISKCON has official guidelines pertaining to minimum requirements for visiting a Nama-hatta. Below is my own experience to illustrate where I am coming from with this inquiry:

I have been around Krishna consciousness for about two years now; I consider myself quite a newcomer, though. I have been to the local Nama-hatta meetings on and off, but was completely unable to fit in, from the very beginning on. This has been very frustrating. It appears that I am much slower than others.

Resources (not only) for New Devotees

CD Ministry Youth Crew: What's this all About?

phani — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 07:47:10 +0000

"Youth Crew" is the name we (tentatively) decided to call our Ministry's youth section, instead of "youth wing," "youth preaching department," or the like. It's a name Zak came up with, who as of a few days ago, is heading this CD Ministry effort.

Unlike me Zak is a young devotee who grew up in different parts of the world, most recently in Sridham Mayapur and London, UK. He studied at Sri Mayapur Gurukula and finished his secondary education at a college in London. Recently he returned from the UK to live in Mayapur again, accepting the service of coordinating our Ministry's youth preaching efforts.

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Vaniseva, are You up to the Challenge?

David Haslan — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 17:49:42 +0000

Ask yourself,

Do you read Srila Prabhupada's books?
Do you use vedabase when reading or searching Srila Prabhupada's books?
Do you have access to the internet and some basic computer skills?
Can you spare some time each day, week or month; an hour or two?
Would you like to serve the devotee community is a special and unique way?

If you can answer "yes" to these questions, then Vanisava is for you. You can do it anywhere and everywhere, during your lunchbreak, or even sitting in your bed at home.

General Content

Nama-hatta Thirtieth Anniversary

phani — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 14:50:20 +0000

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.

General Content

One Size Won't Fit All

David Haslan — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 20:24:04 +0000

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.

General Content

ISKCON Congregational Development Ministry Looks for Headquarters Coordinator

phani — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 15:29:43 +0000

Would you like to live and operate in Sridham Mayapur and simultaneously serve all ISKCON communities in the world?

Type of Service: Full-time

Location: Sridham Mayapur, India

Remuneration: As required

Direct line of report: The Ministry's Operation Team

Summary Service Description:

Coordinating communication with the Ministry's contacts, receiving and processing reports;
Producing interviews and articles;
Coordinating educational campaigns;
Coordinating the production and circulation of books, magazines, and audiovisuals;
Organizing presentations and seminars in Mayapur, with local educational institutes and visiting groups;
Supervising resident staff and volunteers;
Supervising the office and its equipment;
Managing periodical events such as festivals, award ceremonies, etc.;
Overseeing research and analysis of congregational dynamics within ISKCON and in other organizations;

General Content

Sacred Cows or Sacred Cars?

Madhava Gosh — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 15:17:11 +0000

I circulated the following around the New Vrindaban community and was, unfortunately, not surprised by this response from someone who makes sure to always keep himself in what he brands as a "leadership" position.

To turn the whole NV complex over to the dream of Balakrishna / Prabhupada is not realistic.

Okay, Prabhupada's "dream" (though he himself termed it a vision) is not realistic, in the view of one of our "esteemed" leaders. You can see what we are up against.

A Field Trip

by Bala Krishna das

I would like to take you on a journey, and am asking you to please fasten your seat belts. We are going to time-travel a few years into the future, to a small village, to take a little tour.

General Content

Discussion about ISKCON Membership & Varnasrama

phani — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 16:10:14 +0000

by Akruranatha das

I was very happy to see Niscala dasi's comments (Srila Prabhupada is Our Martin Luther, Dec. 29) to Hare Krishna dasi's article (Waiting for Iskcon's Martin Luther, Chakra, Dec. 25).

I was sorry to see the frustration and disillusionment with the whole ISKCON project that Hare Krishna dasi seemed to be expressing. Even though I've never met Hare Krishna Prabhu face to face, my first reaction upon reading her article was to want to go visit her wherever she lives and try to reassure her and listen sympathetically to her complaints. Surely her frustration must be due to a whole series of bad experiences and not only from one suggestion about "membership" raised by H.H. Sivarama Maharaja at a European GBC meeting (see: HH Sivarama Swami on Sex by Sita-pati to listen to Maharaja's podcast), which seems to have been not very well received by many major ISKCON constituencies and probably is not likely to be adopted or enforced. Hopefully Sivarama Maharaja's proposal will spark some constructive dialogue, as it already seems to be doing.

General Content

Bhakti-vriksha Diary 2009, Issue 2

phani — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 09:32:17 +0000

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.

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Padmanetra Prabhu: Thirty Years Sri Mayapur Nama-hatta

phani — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 13:04:08 +0000

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.

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Podcast: ISKCON Membership

sita-pati — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 08:20:52 +0000

Here's a podcast that David Jorm and I recorded this morning. We talked around ISKCON membership, covering the Chocolate incident, and some wider ISKCON Constitutional issues.

Podcast: ISKCON Membership, part A
Podcast: ISKCON Membership, part B

Some related resources:

I've also attached a copy to this post, in case the other link goes dark at some point. Here's the section I quoted in the podcast:

General Content

Latin American Convention on Congregational Development in Lima, Peru

sarva — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:21:33 +0000

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.

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Sri Sri Nama-hatta Sanga Sridham Mayapur

phani — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 13:05:09 +0100

by HH Gauranga Prema Swami

In our country, particularly in east India, "Nama-hatta" is not a new name. 'Nama' refers to the holy name, the maha-mantra:

hare krsna hare krsna krsna krsna hare hare
hare rama hare rama rama rama hare hare,

and 'hatta' means market place. Even in casual Bengali, hatta means market, but in this case there is a difference:

In material market places so many people come together for material exchanges like selling and buying. In the Nama-hatta, the market place of the holy name, Vaisnavas gather for congregational chanting, discourses, krsna katha, and exchange of loving feelings relating to Lord Krishna.

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Damodara Month: Special Message From HH Jayapataka Maharaja

phani — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 11:47:53 +0100

by Shyamagopika dd

Now we are approaching that time of the year where we need to prepare for the Damodara vrata month. Once I asked Srila Prabhupada whether we needed to do something special in this month; and he was saying that the month is specially to attract the new devotees, non-devotees. How?

Because the regular devotees, they are doing all the devotional services in all the months, therefore they get all the benefit.

I have been thinking about this and for the past many years we have been trying to give this opportunity to the non-devotees, to the new devotees, to take advantage of the month of Damodara. In this way we can also reap many different blessings ourselves.

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