namahatta.org - Congregational Development Ministry

by Vijay Venugopal dasa and Prema Padmini dd

Monday, 17 September 2007

A sunny day at last! For people who live in the tropics, this is nothing special. But in the temperate regions, when the weather turns cloudy and rainy, the sun is something to long for. We had breakfast of bread and cheese, and went for the seminars at eight o’clock.

Carudesna Prabhu recapped that the evolution of the mind takes place in four stages:

www.foodmatters.tv

You've got to break a sweat every day. When your body temperature goes up enough to break a sweat the T cell production in your blood increases by a factor of 15-20. This boosts your immune system function. This is why you get a fever when your body is under attack. If you do this proactively you can avoid sickness, and more easily shake it off when it does get you.

by Sita-pati das

I'd always chalked up the success of Bhakti-vriksha among ex-pat. Indian populations to "cultural predisposition" to Krishna consciousness. Now, this is true. However, it's a special case of a general principle that can also be applied to Western populations. That is, that Bhakti-vriksha groups fulfill a social and psychological need of the participants, and they do so in a Krishna conscious way.

The homesick and newly nationally chauvinistic young student in a foreign land (I'm sorry, but New Zealand is the best damned country in the world) has psychological needs that participating in a Bhakti-vriksha group fulfils. The role of temple as a hub of social life is also fulfilled, especially in Muslim countries where temple worship and congregation is forbidden, and where Bhakti-vriksha preaching had its earliest successes.

So what this means is that Bhakti-vriksha is not impossible among populations who are not "culturally predisposed" to Krishna consciousness, it's just a question of understanding what their psychological and social needs are, and meeting those in the context of the small group program, in a Krishna conscious way.

As an addendum to the previous post, specifically the point about the paradox of effort and grace, I'd like to recount something from my own experience.

In 2005 I spent the day with Dr. John C. Maxwell, pastor, author, and leadership educator. My work paid for me to go. I have a yearly discretionary training allowance that I was able to use for the day, although I had to pay any associated travel and accommodation costs. The day was called "The Leadership Effect," and consisted of Dr Maxwell speaking on the theme of leadership.

As he explained at the outset, he is a "motivational teacher," rather than a "motivational speaker". A motivational speaker and a motivational teacher both make you feel good when they speak. The difference is that with a motivational speaker when you wake the next morning you don't know why, whereas with a motivational teacher you take away knowledge that you can apply.

by Partha-sarathi das

Hare Krishna, this video was given to me, shows how the holy name changes our hardened hearts. Enjoy!

This article from Kaunteya Prabhu has originally been published on 1 June, 2007. Finding that the contents is relevant to his present work, he's re-published it on his blog now. Since some interesting comments have been made to the original article, I'm pulling that one up again.

This is something I wrote a couple of years ago. I re-read it today and I found it still relevant; perhaps more relevant today (we are closer to the future today than two years ago, right?). As I keep working on the curriculum for "Building Vibrant Vaisnava Communities," these issues keep coming up and force themselves as fundamental for the consideration of our next generation of leaders.

by Kaunteya das

Following from the end of the previous entry, where I was talking about the phenomenon of not always focusing on developing the human and devotional potential we already have, I want to discuss one possible cause: the fear of being surpassed by these people.

Yes, many members of our congregation—although they might not have experienced the strict life of asceticism afforded to asram residents—are actually extremely brilliant and resourceful people; often more experienced, prepared and functional than many of our temple residents.

Even if they are not "better" than the temple devotees, just the fact that they may be on the same level (in terms of faith, intelligence, age, communication skills, earning power, dedication to spiritual advancement, etc.) constitutes an unspoken threat to some of the asram residents.

by Kaunteya das

I am in ISKCON Radhadesh, Belgium, www.radhadesh.com / www.bhaktivedantacollege.com, putting together the course called (working title) "Building Vibrant Vaisnava Communities."

The course will be part of the two year leadership course the GBC Succession Committee is preparing and planning to launch on three continents within 2009. The idea is that people would attend six terms of two weeks each (a total of twelve weeks), and will practice what they learn in the intervals (approximately of three and half months after every term).

Tithing—donating a tenth of one’s income to the Church (or any spiritual organization)—enjoys long tradition and wide acceptance in Christianity; but it’s less famous and less practiced in ISKCON. Among Christians there are proponents as well as opponents to tithing, but I am not going to delve into their hair-splitting argumentations or their Bible-quoting and counter-quoting. After all, this article is not about what good Christians should or shouldn’t do, but what practices Srila Prabhupada’s followers should adopt.

Rock! It's a winning formula. Two or three even otherwise mediocre speakers can hold attention and engage an audience with the material when they are speaking to each other.

It introduces elements of relationship (rasa), and unpredictibility, both powerful stimuli for engagement.

Not that either Arjuna or Krishna are mediocre, but you'll notice that this is the format of Bhagavad-gita and much of Srimad Bhagavatam.

Here is an excerpt of a book Sita-pati Prabhu is working on, published as a blog post at www.atmayogi.com. I find it quite excellent, even this pre-release, and want to share it with our readers.

Sita-pati explains how one's ability to lead—society, an organization, a single temple or center, or just one's own life—depends on the ability to see things as they are, to "get real."

The author's introduction:

Further to yesterday's post about the "incompetent and ignorant", here are a few thoughts on the subject that I jotted down this morning. Far be it from me to just call people losers and and leave it at that.

Actually, this is an excerpt from my as yet unpublished book on Leadership. It's a little long, but it really is good stuff—if I do say so.

Watch Video

by Vijay Venugopal dasa and Prema Padmini dd

We felt so much at home with the Russian devotees that we consider Russia our second homeland now! This festival was especially for grihastas, who are the base asrama on which the other three, brahmacari, vanaprastha, and sannyasa, depend. Therefore grihastas must be solid devotees, motivated to build a strong Vaisnava community in each village, town, and city, to help the Golden Age of Lord Caitanya to blossom.

It appears that India and Russia might occupy leading positions in this revolution, considering the number of serious devotees in these two countries, and their book distribution scores. I said we would describe how grihastas could lead their lives in such a way that they were strong and happy while preaching. We have counseled hundreds of devotees in leading a happy married life.

Yoga is becoming a controversial topic these days. Devotees practice it for health reasons and as a means to reach out to an audience increasingly aware of and open to health and new age trends.

Now the Malaysian National Fatwa Council has banned Muslims in that country from practicing yoga, according to this BBC News article:

Millions of people in Malaysia have been banned from doing yoga because of fears it could corrupt Muslims.

The Islamic authorities have issued a ruling, known as a fatwa, instructing the country's Muslims to avoid yoga because of its Hindu roots.

by Jeyanthy Pillai

After a steady progress since the the launch of the Damodara Program,the momentum from the devotees took a dive when news about the health toll that had fallen on HH Jayapataka Swami swept across the world. Devotees were crying, feeling down and could hardly carry on with their regular chores. As days went by, they all realized the one thing they could do for HH Jayapataka that he would definitely be proud of was to carry on preaching and saving every soul on earth.

&nbps;

REGULAR exercise can reduce a woman's risk of cancer, but the benefits may slip away if she gets too little sleep.
The study involving 5968 women in the US state of Maryland confirmed previous findings that people who do regular physical activity are less likely to develop cancer.

But when the researchers looked at the women ages 18 to 65 who were in the upper half in terms of the amount of physical exercise they got per week, they found that sleep appeared to play an important role in cancer risk.