As a follow up to our previous article, we would like to put up the continuation of our interview with Manorama Prabhu. In this segment we tried to focus our attention to the secular life our youth; their education, career, etc all with the aim of grooming decent juveniles that represent our movement in their respective areas and to the world at large. Over the years we have had issues in our movement with the youth feeling ‘displaced’ in the secular world especially those who don’t want to become full time devotees and who intend to raise families and there has always been the question “how do they(the youth) make this transition with less anxiety?”.

It is in this light that we also asked HG Manorama Prabhu the following:

CDM: Does the youth Ministry have any structure in place to guide/counsel youths in achieving a balance in their life (i.e. Education, career etc) so as to enable them become better representatives of ISKCON to the world at large?

Manorama Prabhu: Whenever we meet with leaders and interested parties and think about the scope of what ISKCON Youth Ministry should cover, this topic comes up. Helping youth improve their material lives. (And, some ask, is this within the scope of ISKCON or ISKCON youth ministry? Are we an organization that should develop the material lives of our congregation members? Or are we doing this only because there still do not exist sufficient social services organizations within ISKCON -- so we are filling the gap so to speak?)

Over the years ISKCON Youth Ministry has offered career guidance workshops, career classes, a database project called "Project Future Hope" that matched young people's talents to devotee businesses looking to employ young people. We've also tried to work with educational projects to help integrate our youth into the world at large (as far as the transition from Gurukula to public university is concerned, for example.) The Bhaktivedanta International School in Vrindavan, for example, began using Indian standard academic curriculum to allow their students to take and pass the national Indian exams and thus transition into regular colleges, universities, etc, because of the efforts of ISKCON Youth Ministry volunteers.

It is certainly within the scope of ISKCON Youth Ministry (due to the current lack of other social services orgs in our movement) to help guide / counsel youth on education and career opportunities. The blueprint is there from past efforts. It can be replicated in local communities. We have the career guidance materials available to share, for example. We have the experience of having run the Project Future Hope database, that can now be run online via a website, Facebook group, LinkedIn, and similar.

Dear Devotees,

Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

We are trying to calculate the total number of Bhakti-vriksha groups around the world, at present. Please help us out by informing us of the number of Bhakti-vriksha groups in your area by writing to us at cdm@pamho.net. Many devotees are asking us for specific figures in order to get inspiration and in order to see that this program really does work! 

Every society that thinks about sustainability will agree to the fact that continuity has a lot more to cover than just Eco-culture, recycling, administration etc.

It is in this light that we have dedicated a wing of our administration to actually ‘energize’ a vital factor to the sustenance of our movement ‘The youth’.

More so, to keep the youth abreast of developments geared at them we have decided to bring to light some salient issues we discoursed with Manorama Prabhu in an interview.

We have decided to bring up the interview in bits so as to allow our readers send in their feedbacks on the different categories we talked about.

Thus on this article we have focused on our discussion on the youth’s involvement in the Ministry’s activities.

CDM: What is the level of engagement of youths in the youth Ministry?

Manorama Prabhu: In the ISKCON Alachua community we have about 50% participation from the congregation youth. Those who are spiritually minded and interested, attend weekly Bhagavad-gita study groups, weekly Bhajan / Kirtan gatherings, monthly camping trips, adventure activities, field-trips to other temples, to nearby festivals... We have about 80 youth regularly attend the above programs. Then, twice a year, we have longer youth-run festival tours. The youth learn to plan, organize, carry-out preaching missions to other countries (such as Mexico in the winter time), and all over North America (USA and Canada) in the summer. We try to engage, train, inspire and empower youth in Krishna consciousness to their fullest potential.

On the 4^th of February, in 1976, Srila Prabhupada sent a letter to Sravanananda and Bhava Bhuti prabhu expressing his desire to have a temple in Madras. He said, “In Madras we have to construct a very gorgeous temple…... Now immediately find out some land and begin the construction. Never mind what the cost will be. We are not concerned with the amount of money, but we want a very attractive temple.”

Years later, devotees built the “gorgeous” temple Srila Prabhupada wanted and as a result thousands of people began to visit. Now, the devotees there wish to develop a systematic plan on how they can cultivate Krishna bhakti within the hearts of the congregational members. They wish to have up to 100 Bhakti-vriksha groups within the next 5 or 10 years!

In order to assist them in fulfilling their desire, HG Kaunteya Prabhu, our co-minister,  held a 9 hour seminar  which covered topics such as “Strategic planning”, “Conflict resolution”, “How to cultivate people” etc. This took place on the 13^th and 14^th  of April, 2013, in Chennai.

If you and your yatra are interested in having Prabhu visit you, please contact us. 

The second International Bhakti-vriksha convention was held in Sri Dham Mayapur. It was a very inspiring program for all the congregation leaders and preachers and aspiring ones as well.

It ran for three days with the participation of His Holiness Jayapataka Swami , His Grace Kaunteya Prabhu, His Grace Vijay Venugopal Prabhu, Her Grace Premapadmini Mataji, His Grace Angira Muni Prabhu, His Grace Ashray Gauranga Prabhu and His Grace Chaitanya Avatari Prabhu.

Their very presence inspired everyone present because of the tremendous success they achieved in developing Bhakti-vrikshas for their respective areas. They shared their experience and techniques to develop and strengthen the congregation community.

There were videos, power point presentations, comedies, lectures and question answers sessions. It was well attended by devotees from around the world. It was such an inspiring convention that many wanted to have it in their area in the near future.

Please click the link for pictures: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B_D8Ctb8ZalhVGxkSlVLS0o3dEk&usp=sharing

With great happiness we would like to share this with you. We had a very sweet program in the Samadhi Auditorium in Sridham Mayapur, where the devotees who have been serving the congregation in ISKCON were recognized for their selfless services offered.

The program started with some nice music and videos about the congregational ministry which stressed about the importance of having the different programs the congregation ministry developed. We also had His Holiness Jayapataka Swami, His Holiness Chandramauli Swami and His Holiness Bhakti Chaitanya Swami presence. They spoke on different topics that covered:

1. The glories of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakurs and Srila Prabhupada’s vision about the congregation
2. The importance and success stories of ISKCON’s Prison Peaching Program.
3. The glories of the devotees who are working tirelessly through the congregation to bring devotees to Srila Prabhupada’s movement.
4. Ekalavya Prabhu , the Harinam Minister was also telling us, how through his travelling around the world, he observed that congregation preaching was really taking effect. Many people are taking up to Krishna Consciousness through the Congregational Ministry’s programs.

It was very inspiring to see the devotees being recognized. After we gave the certificates to the devotees then we moved to the second part of the program where we gave certificated to the different temples that did exceptionally well in Congregational Preaching.

After this we had a very nice closing ceremony speech by His Holiness Jayapataka Swami and then we had a most wonderful lunch feast with all the Maharaj’s and Senior devotees ‘presence.

Overall the whole program ended with very nice mood that inspired everyone present to be more enthusiastic and active to bring in souls under Srila Prabhupada’s merciful umbrella.

Please see the link for pictures: https://docs.google.com/folder/d/0B_D8Ctb8ZalhaTA0VkxBZGZ2ZWM/edit?usp=sharing

Dear Prabhu's and Mataji's:

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

Attached you will find the information for the next Bhakti-vriksha convention to be held in Sri Mayapur Dham.

Please mark your calendar and book your rooms quickly. Since the convention will be right after Gourapurnima, we encourage you to make your arrangements as soon as possible. Please note that due to the Gourapurnima festival, you may not be able to book rooms before the convention. But rooms will be available as of the 29^th of March 2013 (The first date of the convention which starts on the evening). Please write to cdmofficeiskcon@gmail.com for room bookings.

Thank you very much,

On behalf of ISKCON Congregation Development Ministry

Your Servant,

Partha Krishna das.

Communications

ISKCON Congregation Development Minstry

Sri Mayapur Dham.

Please visit our website: http://www.iskconcongregation.com/

Catalog link : http://en.calameo.com/read/001250920bfc627bd5a2b

Dear Devotees,

Please accept our humble obeisance. All glories to Srila Prabhupada

The Congregational Development Ministry and His Holiness Jayapataka Swami are proud to present our new campaign to inspire all the members of International Society for Krishna Consciousness.

Maharaj inspired us to create and promote this campaign to remind us to be happy in Krishna consciousness. We hope you will be happy to help us to promote this campaign and message!!!

Happy to be A Bhakti Yogi t-shirts are available in black and white. Sizes available are medium, large and extra large.

Please contact us at cdm@pamho.net or if you are visiting Mayapur we are located at Chakra Bldg room #127

On behalf of ISKCON Congregation Development Ministry

Your Servant,

Partha Krishna das.

Please visit our website: http://www.iskconcongregation.com

Catalog link : http://en.calameo.com/read/001250920bfc627bd5a2b

In October they had a Bhakti-vriksha review session for the temples in Bangalore, in which many positives outcomes were reported! By the conclusion of these meetings they hope to help the Bhakti-Vriksha program leaders to rectify their mistakes and reassure themselves for better understanding of Bhakti-Vriksha concepts for greater efficiency and overall productivity.

The Jagannath Mandir, Seshadripuram temple had around 50 devotees who are leaders and potential leaders that participated. They are expecting an expansion of the program from the current 12 Bhakti-vrikshas to 40 Bhakti-Vrikshas by Janmastami 2013.  Also 20+ manjaris may raise themselves to Bhakti-vrikshas!!!

The Jagannath Mandir,South –Uttarahalli had meeting with 60 present leaders plus potential leaders attending in which they plan to extend their Bhakti-vriksha program from the present 25 Bhakti-vrikshas to 55 Bhakt-vrikshas!!!!

The Laxmi Narasimha Mandir had around 55 devotes who attended the meeting and were inspired to increase their Bhakti-vriksha program from the current 53 Bhakti-vrikshas to 70 Bhakti-vrikshas by Janmastami 2013!!!

Everyone please give your blessings so that they may be able to achieve their desired goals!!!