Hare Krishna dear Devotees! please accept my humble obeisances! All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
As we know that preaching about the glories of the Holy Names is the essence of our Spiritual Life.
We can preach by distributing books, giving lectures, lectures in educational institutions, web sites...But these things are usually done by brahmacharis, sannyasis.
But how practically Devotees in grihastha ashram preach? They do not have much time. At least husband works for 6-7 hours, wife works at home taking care of children then when will they preach?
Or does it mean that they do home programs? or just donate money to those who preach full time?
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There are different types of Devotees:
who are with Vaisha inclinations-they take care of cows, do business and can donate much lakshmi.
who are with Kshatriya inclinations-they can manage Temple, money, organize Festivals, yatras. It is their preaching.
But those who have brahmanical qualities - can not earn much, can not rule nicely but just teach. So in this way how these grihasthas should preach?
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Please, beg You to give also examples from the lives of Devotees!
thank You!
Your servant, bhaktin maral
P.S. but please do not tell me that only taking care of children and making house a Temple is very big thing and enough for grihastha people. I think grihastha people can try to do more things for the benefit of Lord Gouranga's mission.
Replies
And in one lecture HH Radhanath Swami Maharaja says that the opportunity to serve is very treasures thing.
And Krishna says that one is dear to Me if one preaches of My glories to others and brings them to My Lotus Feet. In this way the opportunity to preach is a very treasures service.
And Maharaj says that we have to cry, beg, pray for this opportunity.
We have beg Krishna to give opportunity to serve.
In this way i think we have really beg everyday to give us the chance to preach. To use us as puppets. And Krishna will use us.
Please, dear Devotees, especially Grihastha Devotees please share about Your preaching tricks so that we could follow You in the future!
Your servant,
Hare Krishna Mataji,
Some Nama Hatt tips are:
1.We can cook nice Prasadam at the end of the Nama Hatt
2. Set aside some time for a Spiritual Quiz and you know if possible you can give little prizes like chandan, tulsi mala, a krishna picture...
3.On different days we can tell different devotees to give classes or to lead kritan
4. In advance you can ask devotees that which discussion they should have next time
5. You can tell the devotees to cook some prasad and bring it over to the Nama Hatt for the pleasure of Krishna and Devotees
6.Once in a while, in the Nama Hatt program you can play a devotional movie or Prabhupada Videos
7. Keep a email database of the devotees and email them about the program or if there is any changes or any new news
8. Nama Hatt program can be held at different devotees houses at different times
9. We can teach how to play Kartal, Mrdanga and other instruments for those who dont know
10.Once in a while if possible, Nama Hatt can be held on the beach or the park.
-I seem to be stuck on number 10, cant go more than 10 haha but there are other tips also, you can ask senior devotees.
Radhanath Swami is great and Yes you are absolutely correct that we can only do our duty and the rest is up to Krishna so we always have to beg and still perform our duty.
and on Youtube, you dont have to have a camera, probably you can download some videos which people may not know about and post it on their.Or take spiritual pictures and post in on Youtube or instead of wrting article, you can make it into a video on the computer and upload it to Youtube or if you are a good singer you can post that also hah.
Hare Krishna
In your service,
Nitai
yes, it would be very interesting! Thank You Nitai Prabhu!
Your servant,
haribol;
Mataji this nice question that you ask, it helps us all who are in the Grihastha live;
this is what I do as part of KC process, I bought some bead and GIta and those who I spoke to I give them a copy of this if they are intrested, currently as well I send out a daily quote of SP and a verse from the gita and ask if any one has question, I am currently trying to make contact with people in my area to establish a temple rather than trying to home kirtan, in addition to this I donate to the temple for the devotee, cow protection, book distribution, and when every time permit I go the temple and I am trying to get more involve,
I have a cousin who is a brahmachari who answer question we may have and this is working well, email works, skype as well,
sorry if I am off topic, but I taught I might share my experience as Grihastha
haribol
My humble obeisances Parasram Ramdeo Prabhu,
thank You for Your attention and spent time!
Please, could You tell me You do all these things after Your duties i mean after Your job or preaching is only Your duty?
Because these days Grihasthas are working from morning till evening and they do not have enough time for preaching.
And what about Your wife, if it is not secret of course? How does She help You in Your preaching mission? If it is possible i would like to know practical things You do together for preaching.
Like how many ours You spend for house life and how many hours for preaching...and how many hours for earning money for basic maintenance...
Your answer would help to many of us - yet non experienced ones!
Thank You!
Your servant, bhaktin maral
haribol;
both me and my wife are physician, we do work about 12 hrs per day sometimes even 24 hrs on call in the US, but I get up early, stay late to do these thing, it is a sacrifice but it is something we enjoyed, my wife is very supportive without her most of these things could not be done,
Krsna is showing us the way being in the Grihasthas life, one prabhu told me that spending time with people so they will have a favorable impression of KC and then themself will become intrested,
in this age of computer most of these thing are a click away, sometimes I take time to call member of our group just to see how they are doing from my busy schedule
the people we meet we talk to them, I would offer them a gita and mala if they are interested, add them to group, simple things, I am in an embryonic state of KC but whatever I read, I will send it out in email, ask question,
As a physician the salary is good, way about maintenance but I am try to make contact with devotee to establish a temple in Dayton, Ohio and that is were my extra earning will go but I do what I can with donation because I cannot spend the time I would like preaching. However, currently I do have a little more time off of work b/c I am recovering from an accident, so I read, chant and listen to lecture then share it.
hope this helps
haribol,
My humble obeisances to You Parasram Ramdeo Prabhu and to Your good Wife,
Thank You for sharing with these things. And i am very much sorry about Your accident! Pray Krishna protect You from such like things!
yes, to be a physician is a very austere thing as my mom also was almost not at home :(
And one thing also i liked that You are trying to open a Temple. Yes, Srila Prabhupada says that it is the job of Grihasthas to maintain materially Temple. So one more good thing for preaching! :)
Thank You very much!
Your servant, bhaktin maral
Thank You Ashwani Kumar Prabhuji for the web site! Yes, she seems really someone with whom we have to contact and request advices concerning preaching being in family life.
Yes, how nice that she is able to use Mass Media like radio.
Thank You!
Your servant,
Hare Krishna Mataji,
All Glories to Srila Prabhupada and Gurudev
Here are some of the tips that Grihastas or Students like us can use to preach Krishna Consciousness and the message of Lord Caitanya.
1. On a fortnight or monthly basis as per your wish you can invite devotees and friends to chant and share knowledge about Krishna at your place. (aka "Nama Hatta" and "Harinam Sankirtan")
2. Many devotees are creating a Blog to preach about Krishna Consciousness, one example as such iswww.gitagroup.org, there are websites like www.blogger.com and www.wordpress.com which can be used to make free and professional Blogs.
3. Facebook can also be used to preach, personally it is great for preaching and interacting with devotees. You can create a Facebook Page by visiting https://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php and preach to a vast audience.
4. YouTube is another a great way to preach and there are many devotees who use YouTube to learn about Krishna Consciousness.
5. Yahoo Answers is also good for preaching there is a "Spiritual and Religious" section and many people ask questions regarding those topics so you can also answer their queries. http://answers.yahoo.com/
6.Out of you busy schedule you can go on a Morning walk and slowly start small conversations and try to get them interested and curious for example one day you can go on a morning walk and just say hello and have a normal conversation and second day maybe you can take your chanting beads with you and if they see you, they will be curious and may ask what you are doing and so on... and from there you can start preaching.
7.You can visit the Iskcon temple and preach to new devotees and share little tips and thoughts. In the temple you can also advertise about the Nama Hatta.
8.Offering free Vegetarian cooking lessons is also great, you can advertise about this in various free classified websites.
9.You can also plan a trip to the park with a group of devotees to do a little Sankirtan and share Prasadam with the other people there.
10. As you have said, donating to the Sanyasis who are preaching is also very good.
Personally you are preaching and answering peoples queries very nicely on Iskcon Desire Tree but hopefully the above recommendations helps you more in preaching Krishna Consciousness.
Hare Krishna
In your service,
-Nitai
my humble obeisances Nitai Prabhu, thank You for these tricks!
Nama Hatta is nice but we have to be able to enthuse Devotees to come and do Kirtan and Nama Hatta. Sometimes we start these things and it lasts only for 2-3 weeks then finished. We tried it in our place in the Temple.
And somehow we have to try and beg Krishan to make it interesting so that Devotees want come again and again. If You suggest some experienced tricks on this?!
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Blogs are also working. And it is very comfortable for housewives and students. And for this we are ourselves have to be feed in the association of Devotees, yes? In order to get inspired and write something. Otherwise without association our sadhana will become weak and with weak sadhana whom we will enthuse?
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Facebook ? yes, good for being aware of news and advertising some devotional news, blogs...and also for association with other sincere Devotees from all over the world.
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YouTube - yes, i thought of it but i think we need some technology for that yes? like video camera and nicely prepared scenarios? No? i do not know how it works.
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Yes, at the Temple to preach to new comers really works. Or even just try to make them to dance at the time of Kirtan not just stand in the front of Deities. And try to become friend with them. And when they see that you want to help them then they will ask questions. And also we have to enthuse them with small services to Deities.
Enthuse them to come again. Give some Maha Prasadam.
In the reality firstly they need attention.
In this world people are much concerned with their own selves. But when they come to the Temple if we give to them attention then they will come again and again.
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Yes, You are right grihastha people can earn the equal result as book distributer just helping them financially. And donating our money we will protect ourselves from fall down because of sense objects and help to those who are engaged with full service. And get mercy of Krishna.
Krishna says that my Devotee is that not who serves Me but that who serves to My Devotee.
Thank You again!
Your servant,
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