Dear GBCs’ and members of the leadership conference,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
With prayers from Sridham Mayapur that you are safe amidst the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Through the chaos and turmoil we are currently experiencing, one thing that we learn is that the teachings of our Founder-Acharya, His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada, are our only true saving grace. So we at the Ministry of Education wanted to take the opportunity to share with you a very important project we are undertaking to help bring Srila Prabhupada’s teachings to more prominence.
At the Sanga of GBCs, Gurus and Sannyasis held in 2015, it was noted that a survey conducted by the GBC had revealed that less than 17% of ISKCON leaders actually read Srila Prabhupada’s books regularly.
It became apparent that although Srila Prabhupada had repeatedly emphasised the importance of his books and requested every member of ISKCON to read and train others in systematically studying them, many devotees were finding themselves falling short of the standard he expected of them.
Recognizing the critical nature of the situation at hand, the Ministry of Education, with the blessings of the GBC body introduced “Books Are The Basis” as a project designed to actualise Srila Prabhupada’s desire to see his books once again be placed at the centre of ISKCON’S devotees spiritual lives.
We presented the effort at the 2020 Annual GBC Meetings and it was resolved that 3rd September to 9th September 2020 would be celebrated around all ISKCON centres and communities as the Shravanam Week focused on enhancing the culture of reading Srila Prabhupada’s books every day.
On this auspicious occasion of Sri Ramanavami, we are formally inaugurating this project. We seek all of your support, blessings and participation in it.
During this week, ISKCON devotees worldwide come together to celebrate the joy of reading Śrīla Prabhupāda Books every day at their respective communities. To inspire everyone to read every day we could:
· Dedicate our classes and seminars to this topic
· We read together
· Share life changing experiences
· Establish new readings group
· Recognize those who are role models in this regard
To learn more about this project and to access the available resources, please visit: https://iskconeducation.org/books-are-the-basis/
Kindly note that both this project and our website is work in progress. Please forgive us for any shortcomings in this endeavour. And if there are devotees you know who could assist us then please let me know.
Thank you. Hare Krsna.
Your servant,
Tapana Mishra dasa
Executive Director
ISKCON, Ministry of Education
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