20170308 A Talk at Congregational Development Ministry Awards

20170308 H.H.Jayapataka Swami gave talk at Congregational Development Ministry awards 

♪♪♪ nama oṁ viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭāya bhū-tale ♪♪♪

♪♪♪ śrīmate bhaktivedānta-svāmin iti nāmine ♪♪♪

♪♪♪ namas te sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī-pracārine ♪♪♪

♪♪♪ nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi-pāścātya-deśa-tāriṇe ♪♪♪

♪♪♪ śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu-nityānanda śrī-advaita  gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda ♪♪♪

♪♪♪ Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare ♪♪♪

♪♪♪ mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim ♪♪♪

♪♪♪ yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam ♪♪♪

♪♪♪ paramānanda-mādhavam śrī caitanya īśvaram♪♪

Hari om tat sat !!

I am very happy to be here at this congregational development ministry event and I am very grateful that so many teachers are going around and teaching people how to utilize the strategies developed by the congregational development ministry. Many people are fully obsorbed in illusion. We supply the methods approved in the scriptures so that gradually they come out of illusion and they get a taste for  Kṛṣṇa consciousness, for congregational chanting, for the bliss of spirituality. So we have 20 years of bhakti vṛksha program. I remember that this was developed 20 years ago during the centennial of Śrīla Prabhupāda. Actually my purvashram mother, she gave some ideas that this kind of program was going on in different religions of the world. But some of my fellow GBC’s they said that, “Well, we will only do that if you can find in sastras over itself.” Well we found in the sastra,  lots of quotes and we found that  bhakhi vrIksha, Lord Caitanya said, five or ten of you gather at the doorstep of your houses or porch, and there chant the holy name, hold your class. So people chant in their house, at that time they were being oppressed by Chand Kazi. Still there are places in the world where it is not possible to chant openly. But one can utilize one’s house, one’s flat and chant and have a special discussion on Kṛṣṇa consciousness so like this we study the scriptures and found out how to make a namahatta, which should be useful in all circumstances, which should be possible in urban setting of the modern world. In the namahatta we have big groups 100 people, 75people, 150 people, but in a flat you can only hold 10 or 15 people so with these small groups there were certain advantages, you can have a more family like atmosphere you can discuss things in a round table way. Where as in big groups you generally have someone giving class, everyone listens and then ask questions at the end but here you can have discussions you could discuss a topic, understand it , share your realizations, have strategies and have outreach  preaching. So bhakti vrksha is like a small group for the urban setting and we found that namahatta was more useful for the rural setting,  especially  in countries like India. So we have both.

 And we have many other programs, counselor groups, we also have Damodar month, Vaisakh month, shraddha kutirs , prison preaching and many other programs. So the idea is that, how to make it easy to get people to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. How to get people to do devotional service to Kṛṣṇa?  Because devotional service is satisfying. Material pleasures are temporary pleasures but they don’t satisfy the soul. So side by side you have your material situations and you have the spiritual satisfaction, bliss. So people whether they are gṛhastas or in the renounced order they participate in this chanting processes. So we are happy that in some countries, which otherwise have restrictions, unable to practice, by having small groups in the houses and at the same time same time they are small groups are useful where there are no such restrictions and they can have temple based bhakti vrksha groups. Who participate in book distribution, festivals, prasadam, Sunday feasts. We find that in such situations the bhakti vrksha groups are great assets to the temple. So we are very happy that this procedure lasted 20 years and we are happy if it can continue to be an asset and we are always looking for some ideal ways to expand Kṛṣṇa consciousness to every house. So if you think of any way tell us.  We are scouting the internet, we are looking here and there what’s the new idea, what’s that something we can do. Because preaching is dynamic. And Bhakti Siddhanta Sarasvati Thakur said that, ‘prana ache jar, sei tu prachar. He who has spiritual life they want to do the outreach and they want to see that the Kṛṣṇa conscious movement expand.

 We are very grateful to the staff members of the bhakti vriksha and the CDM for all the work they done and they are continuing to do. I am not able to do as much as I was previously. But they are very enthusiastic and all of you are very enthusiastic. When I joined ISKCON in 1968, most of the people lived in the ashram. Now in the year 2017 almost 98 - 99% of the people live in congregation. So our program of congregational community development is the cutting edge of the Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So we were happy that Vaiseshika prabhu is engaging in bhakti vriksha groups. He engages the bhakti vriksha groups in book distribution. Like this, we working with different ministries to see how the outreach can be expanded. 

Thank you all very much for your participation.

 Hare Kṛṣṇa!!