By Her Grace Prema Padmini Devi Dasi
Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s method of preaching is simple and yet the most sublime. Love is the weapon He used to conquer everyone. If every devotee is taught and trained that love is the highest principle, then his mind will not be deviated by the mental wrangling. The mind will not be tinged by philosophical speculation, dry renunciation or the desire for fruitive results.
In ISKCON, there is a great need for congregational preaching to take deep roots and flourish. This is because the fruit of all the devotional activities are to feel love for Lord Krishna. That is only possible when we fully imbibe this preaching mood of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. He empowered all people to flood this world with selfless love. Love can only be fully experienced when it is unconditional.
Devotees have to realize that ISKCON includes all the people of this whole world; that any devotee who is rendering service is a valuable part of ISKCON with as much rights to do devotional service and be cherished and appreciated. We must understand that Krishna consciousness extends beyond mere rituals. Standard worship of the deities and big festivals are not enough to extend the personal association to everyone in order to inspire, educate and train all the members. That is the real mood of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. He inspired everyone with His association; He educated them with the help of his followers, and instructed them to become preachers.
Amazingly, if we can let the new devotees taste this selfless love, they will also very quickly develop this great spiritual quality and get the taste for rendering selfless service of preaching to everyone with great compassion and love. This is the quickest way to empower people and to spread this Krishna consciousness movement by leaps and bounds.
Every devotee needs to be systematically trained on how to love and share this gift with everyone. Example is better than precept, and if one level of devotees are trained in this wonderful mood of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, then it will have a cascading effect on all the future generations of devotees. The nectar of Krishna consciousness love can be experienced by everyone. All material problems can easily be solved if we depend on Krishna. All lower modes can easily be elevated to a higher taste with the addition of love and compassion, tolerance, forgiveness and a selfless mood of service to Krishna and His devotees. These wonderful traits can easily be developed through congregational preaching that is organized in a systematic and expansive way. In fact, all devotional endeavors are incomplete if they do not culminate in congregational preaching. As Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu instructed everyone to preach.
In the future, congregational preaching is certainly going to expand in a very big way all over the world. Many devotees feel the urge to cultivate potential devotees in their local places, for the simple reason that there are not many people ready to join full-time in the temples. If this personal and loving mood of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is nourished, then even with an ever-expanding congregation, there will be harmony and cooperation in the whole community of devotees. I speak by my personal experience of assisting my husband, Vijaya Venugopala Dasa. Together we run a yatra in Mathuradesh (a country in the Middle East) that developed by using the Bhakti-vriksha model.
The Bhakti-vriksha program inspires, educates and trains all congregational members in devotional service and preaching. It is a program incorporating the mood and method of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Of course, there are other congregational preaching programs like the Nama-hatta, counselor groups, house programs, etc. and all of them aim at fulfilling the aims of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. The Bhakti-vriksha program has an intense, elaborate and very effective method to cultivate newcomers by planting bhakti in their hearts through love, trust, care and devotional association. The program gives systematic knowledge in philosophy and takes them through graded levels of spiritual advancement. Devotees are given practical training in preaching and very soon conduct groups themselves.
Whatever method of congregational program one chooses to implement in one’s yatra, it is important that one realizes the great urgency and need for some form of systematic care and cultivation of the congregation. Just by giving top priority to congregational preaching, all management of temple affairs becomes automatically easy. On the one hand, you have the congregational members reciprocating with the temple for all the love and spiritual guidance they have received by assisting in the maintenance and services of the temple. On the other hand, Lord Krishna Himself reciprocates very favorably by providing all help.
Srila Prabhupada: "Preaching is our real business, preaching and distributing books. If your preaching work is strong, then your management of temple affairs will also become automatically very strong." — letter to Patita Uddharana, 8 December 1971
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