My Dear Vaishnava’s,
Please accept my humble obeisance. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
With the increase in the number of our congregational members and being inspired by our beloved His Grace Gargamuni prabhu and under the blessings of His Holiness Bir Krishna Das Goswami, we have started a Vaishnava Care Team (VCT) here in ISKCON Suva, Fiji Islands so that our devotees and members can be taken care off when they are in desperate needs.
Now that many of our devotees are getting old, becoming sickly, leaving bodies, there is a special need to help them remember Krishna at the time of death so that it makes their journey back home back to Godhead more pleasant.
We have also noticed that many devotees are facing difficulties in their devotional lives and they soon are taken away by maya in whatever form she comes whether marriage issues, family issues, difficulties keeping spiritual vows and so on.
Srila Prabhupada had once said that it takes so much time, blood and energy to make 1 devotee but to lose one is so easy. When a disciple falls the Guru sheds his tears to see the poor soul being taken away by maya.
So the Vaishnava Care Team (VCT) will now work as a representative of the Spiritual Master and serve the devotees according to their capacities by providing the following services.
i. Assist members of the congregation when they are acutely, chronically sick or terminally ill with an end of life illness.
ii. Assist when a devotee is sick or has had an accident, is hospitalized for any reason, or going through a surgery
iii. Visit the needy by bringing prasadam meals or maha-prasadam from the Deities, garlands, or photos of the Deities.
iv. Chant papa, or chant soft bhajans, or quietly read from Srila Prabhupada’s books at the bedside of the Vaishnava patient at the time of illness.
v. Provide counseling services such as marriage, devotional, family issues.
vi. Home visits
Please kindly see the attached poster and list/contacts for the Vaishnava Care Team (VCT) members and if anyone is in need for any of the above mentioned guidance please kindly do contact either one of us. Sometimes it is important to just even lend a ear and listen to what the other person has to say which makes a lot of difference for the person in problem.
We are also planning to do a fundraising so we can assist devotees financially as well if anyone is in desperate need, hence if anyone would like to come forward and help us with their kind donations than you are most welcome.
Yours in the service of Guru and Gauranga,
Nityananda Das
VCT Team Leader
Phone: (679) 9465278
Email: nityananda.das1941978@gmail.com
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