Gender

Male

Birthday:

December 19

Name / Initiated name

Not yet initiated

Daily number of rounds of Hare Krishna mahamantra.

2 (due to mental illness, am unable to be regular in this too)

When, where and how did you come into contact with the Hare Krishna Movement?

I came in contact with the Hare Krishna movement, about an year ago, in Dadar, Mumbai itself. I came in contact with the movement through Mahananda Prabhu ji, from ISKCON chowpatty temple, when he had come to visit his mother who stays in our adjacent building. Since I had a strong inclination for making spiritual progress, my parents kindly arranged my meeting with him. That is when he introduced me to the chanting of the Maha mantra and the websites mentioned above.

Name the nearest or most frequently Visited ISKCON temple/ centre and name few of the devotees whom you know.

To be very frank, due to my mental illness, I am not able to immerse myself in Krishna Consciousness, and be active, the way I would have loved to. Due to almost 7 years of mental illness (OCD), and resultant deterioration in physical health, I have not been able to visit any temple (except for the Bhakti Vedanta hospital at Mira road), which I visited once, to meet psychiatrist Dr. Save and at that time also got one session of spiritual counselling from Rajesh Kadam ji (counsellor at the hospital). So, apart from Mahananda Prabhu ji and Rajesh Kadam ji, I do not know any other devotees. But I have desire to know more devotees.

Please describe yourself so that other like minded devotees can find you.

I have a metal illness (OCD), since almost past 7 years due to which, I am not able to immerse myself in Krishna Consciousness, and be active, the way I would have loved to. But since I have a deep desire to make spiritual progress, and by God's grace, I was introduced to Mahananda Prabhu ji, from ISKCON chowpatty, who introduced me to the chanting of the Maha mantra and ISKCON, I try to chant in whatever way possible for me. But I cannot chant more than 2 rounds daily (I am unable to be regular in this too due to mental illness). But I try to read blogs/articles/forums on ISKCON desire tree and Krishna.org websites and watch online video lectures and audio on these sites and also on YouTube.

What are your expectations from this community?

I know that after reading my profile, most probably I will be denied membership, because I am unable to be serious in KC and ISKCON. But if I am given membership, I would love to come in contact and increase personal rapport with at least some more devotees (since that is invaluable in order to keep going in KC), and also to solve my doubts and also to seek help as to how I can progress, despite my mental illness. I would be extremely grateful, if some devotee can systematically teach me the BG and SB - too taxing and stressful for me on my own due to mental illness.

Describe any specific service you would love to offer to Lord Krishna & His devotees?

I have a software development background in Microsoft technologies (before I acquired the mental illness) and am quite internet and computer and MS office savvy. Currently, I am unemployed, but that means I am totally free to offer service. Though I may not be able to regular visit the temple, I think that I can do some kind of software development in .NET, or VB 6 (but not very taxing and stressful or demanding), HTML, uploading files to the servers and making changes in HTML to link them on the website(s), checking articles/blogs for grammatical, spelling and other issues before they are made public (quite fluent in English communication), or translate from English to Hindi or Marathi, or typing work. Or any other work which can be done from home (or which sometimes requires visit to temple - not daily - preferably ISKCON chowpatty temple since it is the nearest). Also any other work which the management feels I may be able to do. I will try my best and will feel fortunate that I am able to offer seva as per my capacity to Krishna, Srila Prabhupad, devotees and ISKCON.