By His Holiness Bir Krishna dasa Goswami

• Leaders help and facilitate the devotees becoming Krishna conscious
• A real leader is a servant leader. He respects the individuality of others
• A real leader listens to what other persons need, so he can actually help them
• Leaders lose their authority the moment they say “I am your authority” or “You have to do this!” Our movement is based on cooperation, love and trust
• Individual initiative should not be destroyed or harmed
• Engage the devotees in Krishna’s service according to their nature. It is not good to force
• One should ask questions such as “What would you like to do for
Krishna?”

By His Holiness Radhanatha Swami

The Housing Committee tries to get the congregation to help devotees who need housing. Once Rohini Kumar and Radha Sakhi, his wife, were married, the congregation raised enough money, more than 15,000 US dollars to buy them an apartment. The congregation bought the house, put it completely in their name, and then arranged an employment for Rohini Kumar. The idea is that a person who was for many years a renunciant, if he wants to get married, he shouldn’t need to think, “Now what do I do?" all of a sudden. He should be given whatever he requires by the congregation of grihasthas. And the congre- gation is in ecstasy doing that, because they really feel that they are helping each other. And every brahmacari in the ashram knows: “If I spend ten or twenty years as brahmacari, and in the future, somehow or other, I require marriage, I won’t be completely left in the dark. This congregation of devotees is so loving and caring; they will provide for me, if I just remain Krishna conscious.” In this way the Housing Committee has arranged nice housing for many devotees.

I see my position as a facilitator, someone who helps the devotees to help themselves. This is what a facilitator does.

My function is to help the devotees. Prabhupada said that the function of a GBC is to help the devotees. Outside preaching can be done by others. Prabhupada said that the business of a GBC is to concentrate on internal preaching,on helping the Vaisnavas.

By H.H. Jayapataka Swami

I distributed books in India after Prabhupada’s departure. A group of us went to Calcutta to do a big marathon. Our goal was to distribute one million books and win the marathon championship. We were a bit ambitious and competitive. At the end of one day, a book distributor came back to me and said:

“What should I do?”

“What do you mean what should you do? Distribute books!” I said. 

“No,” he said, “something happened today.”

“What’s that?”

The devotee explained, “Well, I went to distribute books in Howrah train station in Calcutta. I distributed to one man who read the book, came back, and said, ‘I’m convinced, I want to surrender. You gave me this book, and now you must guide me. What should I do?’ So I said, ‘Okay. Come and live in the temple.’ Because that’s what I knew people should do. The man replied, ‘All right, but I’ve been working here with the railways, a government job, for my whole life. I have three years to serve before I retire and get my pension, which is half of my present salary. I can give that up as you say if that’s what I should do to be Krishna conscious. I have a wife and five children. One daughter is paraplegic, handicapped. I have five cows and a dog and some other animals.’

Plus his grandmother and aunt stayed with them in the village.” 

“I’ll bring all of them and live in the temple,” the man said.

“No! I mean, I don’t know if the temple has a place for all of you.” 

“So what should I do? I read your book. I’m convinced and I want to practice.”

“You can become a life member,” I suggested.

He said, “How much is that? You have to pay thousands of rupees to be- come a life member? Well, I’m a poor man. I just get a simple salary, but I can give you a little bit every month from my salary and become a life member. What else should I do?”

The book distributor had never faced such a situation. He had never met anyone who surrendered upon getting a book. The railway man wanted to give his life to Krishna, and the book distributor didn’t know what to do to facilitate that. He told the man, “Buy some more books and keep reading.”

I thought about it. We had to have a program for all these people. It was not practical for them to live in our temple. So what would be our program? Then I remembered what Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura wrote about the Nama-hatta. Nama-hatta is a program suitable for most people in society. During those days after Prabhupada left, I was thinking that ISKCON must develop well organized programs so that people will chant Hare Krishna and practice Krishna consciousness in their homes. Maybe some of them would join the temple, but that is not the most important thing. The most important thing is that people are Krishna conscious and that they are helping to spread the Krishna consciousness movement in whatever situation most suitable.

Lord Caitanya preached to a brahmana that he should not give up his family connection to become a sannyasi. Rather, the Lord advised him to spread Krishna consciousness by preaching to everyone he met. In Prabhupada’s purports in Caitanya-caritamrta we find that Lord Caitanya did not build any temples. Instead He distributed Krishna consciousness through harinama sankirtana.

Gradually, as we get a broader picture of Krishna consciousness, we can develop preaching programs that are relevant and applicable to the larger society. Krishna consciousness isn’t only for completely renounced people. Nor is it absolutely necessary for one to live in the temple. The Congregational Development Ministry is trying to organize programs to develop communities in a more systematic way. ISKCON temples will function as holy places to receive congregation members and new devotees. Temples will be tirthas, places of pilgrimage where people come and get purified by praying before the deity, taking prasada and chanting Hare Krishna. But to do this we have to become very expert in receiving guests and making them feel that the temple is their real, spiritual home. If they want to participate in Krishna consciousness, then we can show them how to make their home into a temple. There is so much to do.

By His Holiness Prahladananda Swami

yare deka, tare kaha krsna upadesa 
amara ajnaya guru hana tara’ ei desa

— Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya 7.128

Lord Caitanya said: “Whomever you meet, tell them about Krishna”. In the
Bhagavad-gita, Lord Krishna stated:

mac citta mad gata prana 
bodhayantah parasparam
kathayantas ca mam nityam
tusyanti ca ramanti ca

The thoughts of My pure devotees dwell in Me, their lives are fully devoted to My service and they derive great satisfaction and bliss from always enlightening one another about Me.
— Bhagavad-gita, 10.9


The aim of our Krishna consciousness movement is to convince people that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He is a person who is complete in all opulences, and when you offer service to Him with love and enthusiasm, you can attain the highest perfection of life. This is to become conscious of Him. Everyone has this opportunity, especially the humans. In this age, just by hearing about Krishna, we can understand our relationship with Him, and become free from the misidentification with the material body and mind. All this requires is that we hear from a bonafide source and chant. 

Congregational development gives people the opportunity to come together, and hear and chant about Krishna. Gradually, they understand there relationship with Krishna. By practically performing their day to day activities, in that relationship, they will receive Krishna’s mercy. They will know that they are the eternal servants of Krishna. People associate according to their understanding of what the goal of life is. Unfortunately, the mass of people think that the goal of life is economic development for the purpose of sense gratification. They need association with people who know how material nature works, so they can regulate their activities of economic development and sense gratification. This will help their progression towards liberation. People may not be engaged in Krishna’s service directly, in terms of preaching, but if they have the opportunity to associate, they will encourage each other. They will make progress in the grihastha ashram, and greatly affect their family structure and maintenance. This will encourage them to make progress in devotional service by making Krishna the center of their lives. Although deity worship is essential, in this age, it is more essential to hear and chant about Krishna. Everyone will be inspired to serve Krishna, in the home or the temple. 

In Chapter 13 of the Bhagavad-gita, Prabhupada defined detachment in a purport. In the morning and evening, the family should hear Srimad- Bhagavatam and Bhagavad-gita, chant Hare Krishna, perform deity worship and offer food to Them. In the material world, there is no absolute happiness and freedom from distress. If the family is centered on Krishna, the family will most likely stay together.

"All holy places reside in the month of Kartika, which is eternally dear to Lord Krishna. Whatever pious deeds one performs to please Lord Visnu during the month of Kartika brings benefit that is eternal. O Narada, I speak to you the truth." -Skanda Purana

By His Holiness Sridhar Swami

There is a saying that if you have to do something, there is two ways that you can do it. One is in an organized way and the other is in a disorganized way. Now, if you do things in a disorganized way, you may not get such good results, but if you have a plan, if you have a system, a technique, a method, the chances are that you will get better results. This is common sense. 

As an institution, we are not that old. In fact, we are still in diapers practically. Still “wet behind the ears” as they say. We have got a lot to learn. Now, there is a saying that when you want to do something, suppose you have a big complicated plan, you want to build a new brand of motorcar, there is a saying about the wheels: “You don’t have to reinvent the wheel.” In other words, what I am saying is that there are a lot of people out there who have developed congregations. We are not the first people to try to get a message out to society, and we are not the first people to promote religious ideas and try to involve the world. It has been done many, many times before. 

So, we can actually learn even from our own tradition there is so much we can learn from the teachings of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura and other previous acaryas. Especially in the modern times, although, we know that we have state of the art spiritual technology, literally we have the best religion and we have the best religious ideas. There was a survey, done in America, and they interviewed new religious movements. Like the Buddhist and some Christian groups and Mahesh Yogi and this Yogi and that Ananda. There are so many groups. There are 800 cults. They interviewed different people in society, young people especially, about these new religious movements and they asked them questions about their techniques of recruiting new people. They asked them about dress. One of the questions was, "How do you rate new religious groups as far as philosophy is concerned?” And believe it or not, they rated ISKCON as number one in philosophy. So it is a fact. We have a very good philosophy and people know it. Our books tell the story. Nobody can defeat us. But we have one minor problem: we are not very good at marketing. We are not very good at presenting and organizing. That is why we have problems in some ways, although we have state of the art spiritual technology, philosophy, we have wonderful books, and we have the best food in the whole world (Sri Krishna mahaprasada). We have so many good elements. We are relatively small still we are very enthusiastic. 

We can do better and that is what we are trying to do now, in terms of fund raising and friend-raising. Friend raising is a term that I am pretty proud of. We have done a lot of good things, a lot of right things, but we have also made a few mistakes along the way. Srila Prabhupada said that mistakes are the pillars of success, so now is the time for us to grow, even though in some ways, and in some areas of the world the temples are struggling. What are two problems that temple presidents always have? Men and money! So, believe it or not, although many of our temples are struggling in this area, there is a shortage of chips, money, and there is a shortage of manpower. Any program you want to do, there seems to be a shortage of these two things. 

But the experts say there is no shortage of money. All the books I ever read on fund-raising start off by saying that for a good cause there is no shortage of money. There is one other expert who said that: Srila Prabhupada. He said, “There is no shortage of money.” He said money is just hanging in the air; you just have to reach out and grab it. Go ahead and try! You keep your hands open and you put them up and you bring them down and close them, and there is money! Money is the honey. Also, Prabhupada said that we are not interested in money. He said that what we really need are devotees. Money will automatically follow. 

In Mumbai we have more life members than the Lions or the Rotary club. It is big, 20,000 life members. These are all people who have paid 1000 dollars or more to ISKCON. Of course, on this side of the world there is a huge Nama-hatta program with thousands of congregational Nama-hatta members. But these two areas, congregational preaching and fund development, they overlap, just like Laxmi and Saraswati. They are sisters. Saraswati is the goddess of learning and culture, like that, and Laksmi is the goddess of wealth. So, they work together and in Nama-hatta there is also a need for both of these elements. We want to go into the peoples’ homes, we want to present deity worship to them, we want to show them how to offer their food, how to chant on the beads, how to follow the four regulative principles. It is a big thing, a very big thing.

In the early days of our movement, the system was to encourage people to become full-time devotees. We have realized that not everybody will become a full-time devotee but everyone can render very valuable service. We have seen that congregational devotees have the capacity to become very powerful preachers. Congregational devotees can also be encouraged to take responsibility in helping with book distribution. The congregational development program should be one of the top programs of every temple and we should encourage the congregation devotees to advance spiritually and to take on responsibilities.

I know many congregational devotees who might not come to the temple every day but have deities at home and perform mangala aroti and a temple program. Many householders have trained their children to become outstanding preachers.

By His Holiness Sivarama Swami

In England, there are two categories of congregation members. One is the Indians and the other is the locals. With the Indians, it is easy because they’re already Krishna conscious. For them it’s just a matter of taking up the practice. For the Westerners, before they become a part of the congregation, it is a real issue. Bringing them to that point requires a lot more work.

In both cases, generally, I find that congregational preaching, if it’s not systematic, planned, result-oriented, just turns into a social club. In my mind, this is not what congregational preaching is meant to be. In other words, if devotees lived in the temple just to have a good time, look at the deities, eat prasada and just chant Hare Krishna, we’d kick them out. In congregational preaching, the congregation only knows what we tell them about Krishna consciousness. If it becomes a social club, then that’s our fault. We have to tell them that Krishna consciousness means to preach; that they have to bring other people into Krishna consciousness. 

Congregation members have to do some active service. There has to be a system, as there is in the temple, to make sure that everyone is engaged. It’s already difficult for the congregation, since they don’t have full time association. Unless they are trained to be productive, they just end up becoming a social club. Systematically organized means they should have systematic training in Krishna consciousness. Not that you open the Gita from wherever you like and speak. The congregation should get systematic training, and get recognition for that. These days people are very result oriented. The congregation can do harinama, book distribution, and they can come to the temple.

The guests in Hungary could be dealt with better. In Hungary, we have two main temples. One is in Budapest and one is the farm. On the farm, we have a lot of tourists about 35,000 and we have about 15 devotees who do nothing but take care of the guests. In Budapest, because we can’t give full time attention to the guests, the care of guests is not as good as it should be. As a result of that, the congregation doesn’t feel as integrated. They complain that they are second-class citizens. They feel that some preferences are given to the temple devotees, but they shouldn’t feel like that. They should feel that they’re devotees. They feel like that because they see that a devotee, who is on sankirtana, gets glorified. The temple devotees are taken care of, they get prasada and the temple president talks to them. The temple president may not even have time to say hello to a congregational member. In this way, they feel like second class citizens.

H.H. Jayapataka Swami talking about congregation preaching and the importance of “The Nectar of Congregational Preaching” book:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GIvJP8E_cM&list=PL18B42D2E55810A56

By His Holiness Kavichandra Swami

It is quite obvious that in any religion monks represent a small minority. People have to be trained. Congregational preaching means to train everybody. The home can be an ashram also, but they have to learn what an ashram is like.

If we are going to take over the world, obviously we are going to have to reach out and welcome everybody in. We need different levels to bring people up step by step. Not everyone can immediately follow everything. We need to train people to study scripture, perform kirtanas, and worship the deity so that everybody can get fixed up.

Preaching is not supposed to be only for the sannyasis and brahmacaris. Preaching is for everyone. We have to have temples with strong ashrams to in- spire the congregation. You always need a big temple for festivals. The devotees in the ashram should respect the congregation. Many time we find that some of them are better and more strict than the ashram devotees. Sometimes in the temples we have bums and also sometimes in the congregation we will have people who are not so strict. We want to give everybody a chance by having programs, magazines and meetings just to let everybody in on it. Then we will have the whole world singing and dancing.

“Taking Care of Krishna’s Devotees” is a book by H.H. Niranjana Swami which not only provides information on the counselor system but also contains Srila Prabhupada’s instructions on caring for devotees, supplies basic training principles for counselees and much more.

“Though one usually ignores others in attaining one’s own goals, those aspiring for prema accept dependence on others with similar goals and tastes. Thus, cooperating with each other, they worked together keeping in mind the goal of prema.” (“Madhava Mahotsava”, by Srila Jiva Goswami)

The book is available in our office for $5.00. Also, we can send it by mail or ship it to you.

By His Holiness Lokanatha

As a padayatri, I was told a number of times that in Prabhupada’s letters, correspondence, conversations, that if you just search the word book distribution, you will find it a thousand times, thousands of times. When you search for the word padayatra, it may appear 2 or 3 times. This was the argument that some of our leaders used to prove that padayatra was not Prabhupada’s mood. Prabhupada was into book distribution. Padayatra is my personal service that Prabhupada gave to me and when I heard this, I was shocked and hurt. I felt that was not a true representation of Prabhupada. These statements made Prabhupada’s presentation very partial. When I would relate with Prabhupada about padayatra, I had no doubts, and I am fully convinced how much he wanted it for me to get into it.

What we need to do is establish Prabhupada’s viewpoint. We must present and express the complete Prabhupada, Prabhupada consciousness. Book distribution is very much in our minds and if we talk of anything else, then we are made to feel guilty. But during Prabhupada’s time, if we were doing congregational service or Nama-hatta or padayatra or deity worship or cooking or Food for Life, Prabhupada did not make us feel bad or guilty about it. Whatever work we were doing we always felt proud and pleased because Prabhupada always expressed his pleasure. Whatever he had asked us to do, we did it and he was very pleased. We need to bring Prabhupada completely into the center and then we interface with him our service.

I would also sometimes say, “Padayatra is the only way!” We have this ten- dency to think, “This is the only way, that is the only way.” But harer nama eva kevalam, that is, harinama is the only way. Book distribution, congregational preaching, and everything else—all of these programs assist us in achieving that goal, that harer nama is the only way.

I think we have to do things Prabhupada’s way, and in Prabhupada con-sciousness. The GBC body is representing Srila Prabhupada, and they are the ultimate managerial authorities. With them we need to establish priorities; somethings are emphasized so much that if you do something else, you are meant to feel very bad and guilty. I would like to have some further discussion or research done and establish the way Prabhupada wanted.

In the Vedic texts we are the leading distributor, but when it comes to the Christian literature and all other types, we are not leading. The Christian literature distribution is more than we do and is done mostly by the congregation. We want to make the congregation very, very active. We heard the stories of other groups such as Swami Narayana, Bahais, Swami Shivananda, and half a dozen other groups, who have just finished the centennials of their founders, their acaryas. Their centennials really boosted the congregation. Prabhupada’s centennial is an opportunity to expand and establish ISKCON’s congregation. Prabhupada’s attitude towards congregation is so sweet. Prabhupada used words such as camels and dogs to describe attached householders, yet he was so sweet, so nice, so gentle, and so caring for the same audience. He would give mahaprasada and made sure everyone got it. That was Prabhupada’s mood for the congregation.

Keep that Prabhupada spirit, Prabhupada consciousness, and if you are not happy with the way Prabhupada spoke and emphasized all the aspects of the Krishna consciousness movement and activities, then you are free; you can be the founder of your own society. But this is Prabhupada’s society. “You do as I did,” Prabhupada said.

By Her Grace Malati Devi Dasi

Developing congregations in ISKCON is actually something so important that enough cannot be said about it. Initially the temples were our homes, and if you were not living in the temple, then you were considered to be in maya. Thankfully that concept no longer exists.

As wonderful and as big our temples may become, they are not going to be able to be big enough to accommodate the whole world. Lord Caitanya’s movement is meant to encompass the whole world. The temple is a place to come to worship, to gather, and to honor Srila Prabhupada, Radha Krishna, Gaura Nitai and all the other wonderful deities that are here in ISKCON. But our congregation is where our strength lies. The temples are benefited by the congregation because when the congregation come to the temple, there is life in the temple. This life enthuses people as they pursue Krishna consciousness.

The congregation is doing much of the work that is required in the temple. In many of the temples they come in and prepare the Sunday feast. They supply all the groceries and the cooks just have to cook it. This is a very wonderful service. They hold outreach programs on a regular basis in their homes and they organize programs in other venues. They go out on book distribution and they do so many wonderful activities that bring life and light to the temple. They provide financial support to the temples so that the temple devotees can go out and preach.

Srila Prabhupada said different things at different times about devotees living outside the temple. In the beginning, he wanted everyone to stick together because there were so few of us. If we went outside, we would be crushed by material nature we had only recently walked away from it. Gradually we grew in numbers and in strength.

Devotees who are not living inside the temples are not living outside either. They have temples in there homes; their temples are places of worship. When we say “outside the temple,” what do we really mean? All devotees live in temple because their homes are temples. Wherever Krishna is glorified, that place becomes a temple. My message is, don’t become discouraged by looking for that which does not seem to fit. Prabhupada had so many reasons to be discouraged so many times. He suffered a heart attack on the way over, his typewriter and Bhagavad gita was stolen but he pushed on. As a result we have this beautiful ISKCON.

Placed on the crossing corner that makes both Avenida Marqués Del Toro and Avenida Los Próceres in San Bernardino, ISKCON CARACAS Mandira intends to be an open place of concord, peace and spiritual gifts as Srila Prabhupada stated in his many books, letters, and darshans that he built a house wherein the whole world may live: ISKCON. 

Dear devotees,

PAMHO. AGTSP.

We, ISKCON Congregational Development Ministry, are happy to share with you the premiere of the new video made by us about the Kartika Month and the importance of the Damodara Program. We hope you enjoy it and please share it with your friends and family.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knTzt3_ZVY4

On behalf of the ISKCON Congregational Development Ministry,

Ys Manjulali Manjari Sevini dd.

By His Holiness Bhaktimarga Swami. 

I get invited to work with the youth and put together dramas. I fly in usually on Thursday or Friday afternoon. I meet the kids (mostly teenagers) who have been asked to participate in a weekend drama for the Sunday Feast program. Depending on the play and how many actors I need, we meet on Friday night to talk about the script, go over the play, and start rehearsing. We meet for most of Saturday and Sunday morning for practicing. Then, whenever the Sunday program is, we have a drama presentation. I get so many calls that I can’t handle them all.

The reason why dramas are so successful is because everyone is looking for something to do with the kids. “What do I do with my teenage son or daughter? They are already past Sunday School age,” many parents ask. They are at a crossroads in their life. They are not even sure of their own religion or whether they should even come to the temple. The parents hear about the dramas, and think that their kids would enjoy acting or even just watching.

Something quite magical happens over the weekend. For the feature on Sunday, we can stage a half-hour production (sometimes mimed with narration), and the kids have a blast. They have fun and learn discipline and teamwork. They laugh and encourage each other. They build friendships and learn philosophical points. They have time to sit down and have refreshments together (pizza or whatever the prasada may be). They enliven the audience because the whole world loves to see young people do things, especially on stage. Here you have the perfect ingredients to make a community happy. The happiness lingers for some time, and everyone greatly anticipates the return of the Swami.

Performing and directing dramas is what I have been involved in for the last three or four years in North America, South Africa and India. Wherever I go, I work with the local people. This is a very important aspect to congregational development. When you’re dealing with the congregation, you’re not just dealing with the contributors, or the people who may have taken the extra step to get initiated. You are also dealing with their kids. Many times, they will be the ones that disappear behind the computer and hide, and not be a part of your Bhakti-vriksha program. Once you do a play or something like that, that is a special program exclusive for them. In other words, “Step out of the way, Mom! Step out of the way, Dad! We’re gonna do something here!”

Succession—preparing for the next generation to step up and take their place in the leadership—should be a top priority in our movement. The young people are going to have to take over because the leaders of our society are ageing and dying.

I have had the chance to travel with the North American youth bus tour for the last two summers, and it was very enriching for me and them. We did some cultural presentations for the public, and, afterwards the parents were so proud. It helps young people be strong and step over certain hurdles. They have their complexes. They have their shyness. On one hand they want to show off, but then they are shy about showing off. So, why not let them show off. In Krishna’s name! In Rama’s name! Flaunt! But do it properly.

You don’t keep your congregation happy just so you can keep your electricity going and to see that the deities are served. Rather, you see that the whole mission will carry on, and step into the next generation. It’s good to have them involved in different departments, and have the ones with good ideas involved in decision making. If you talk about congregation, you must include the youth factor. You can’t leave them out. Many of our congregation members have well grounded family backgrounds, and that is something that new devotees are attracted to. Younger people must also see stability in the grihastha ashram, to know that it works.

Children realize that there’s a home across the street that’s safer than theirs. Well, what’s different about it? Their clothes and they have God in their life. They light incense and ring bells, and they sometimes play a different kind of music. They have this special vegetarian food. This is what’s going to interest these people who are growing up in North American, Western European, or whatever society. They are going to be looking because they’re lost. They have stability and have spirituality. I don’t have that. They have kids my age, so maybe there is something going on over there. We must see that all of these homes that carry on with Krishna consciousness are temples unto themselves.

These grihastha devotees are really the foundation of our society. In many ways, the thrust is towards the grihastha ashram. We started out with a
very hardline, by the book approach, but it didn’t work out because some devotees wanted to get married. Now, we see we have to make a different presentation and give some glory to that particular ashram. In some religious traditions, it is the householders that carry on those religions. It is not always the renounced monks that do that. To make ISKCON really beautiful, we should have a nice balance. Glory and dignity given to the renounced people and to the grihastha ashram. They are people in different phases of life, but their direction is the same. All success will come when we find this balance.

I like working with the youth, in particular, because they are very optimistic and energetic. They make me feel young. They know how the world is. They have a lot of good ideas on how to get things done fast, whereas a good number of us are lagging behind. We must use this resource of youthfulness. The part of Krishna that we adore the most is His youthfulness. I believe more emphasis should be on the youth. These are people that can do some marvelous things for our future society, and we have to start right now.

By His Holiness Candramauli Swami

His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada instructed his followers and disciples to use our intelligence to reach out to people from different aspects of life and create ways for them to become involved with devotional service. Our society has evolved over the years, in that we have become less of a temple based society and more of a congregation based society. The majority of persons who take part in Krishna consciousness are more or less grihasthas. And many of them are living outside. The field for preaching to people living outside is very broad. People in general are looking for spiritual life in a way that allows them to maintain their family and occupation, and still be very much a part of a spiritual organization.

His Holiness Jayapataka Swami Maharaja has very ingeniously developed this program known as Bhakti-vriksha, which is a systematic, practical method to educate and inspire people living outside the temple. The system is well defined, and the models can be adopted to suit any type of congregation. When it is applied seriously, great results come. People feel comfortable in their homes when devotees connected to the temple come and organize such programs. Not just a program where you can just chant, have some prasada and discuss some philosophy, and then go home and nothing changes. The idea is that education means transformation. If education doesn’t really bring about transformation, then what is its value? To bring about transformation, education has to be applied in a very systematic way. This is why congregational preaching is very powerful and very effective.

People who are inclined to Krishna consciousness are learning what our way of practice is; they are learning about Srila Prabhupada’s means, methods, and his teachings and how to apply them in their life. Over the years, many people have become very serious, very committed devotees simply by these programs. And the field is wide open. We can go anywhere and establish these congregational programs. We are seeing the results. Every year there are more and more programs, more and more devotees and more and more ideas of how to apply these things to suit people in general. Krishna is blessing this kind of preaching because it really fits the mode of the time. People can maintain their grihastha life and live with their families and their occupations, but they can become pure devotees in their own homes. Anyone who takes up this type of preaching will definitely have good results.

I am involved in Chicago with congregational preaching, not only with families but also with students. We’re applying these Bhakti-vriksha programs in student communities also. We have a few groups being developed in the Chicago area. The students gradually understand the importance of combining their material education by learning practical devotional life. Many of them are taking time away from their studies to take part in the programs. They become enlivened, enthused and are telling their friends about it.

Even in India, I was recently preaching in Pune under one devotee, Narahari
Shyam Dasa. He developed educational programs for students. They all live together in a particular housing complex. They all have their rooms together in the same place and they come together every once a week or twice a week for a program. And they’re all happy, chanting Hare Krishna, attending mangala aroti. The students understand that this is real education. They’re happy that they are getting the essence of their culture, the spiritual aspect in the form of Srila Prabhupada’s powerful movement.

We get inspiration when we learn about other programs going on. Connecting the communications amongst the different preaching programs is more and more important. It’s one of our important outreach programs.