Hare Krishna
Please accept my humble obeisances
SJMKL Management Retreat at NUBE, Port Dickson; 11 – 12th April 2009
The Congregational Development Ministry (CDM) of Sri Jaganath Mandir Kuala Lumpur (SJMKL) has organized a weekend of management retreat for those devotees actively and directly involved in temple management services. The retreat was intended to enlighten the devotees or ‘managers’ on the crucial role of the individual sadhana particularly regular hearing and chanting, for the constant purification of the self to add potent to the services executed as the famous quote goes, ‘purity is the force’.
Saturday, 11th April 2009
Arrival and opening address by Temple President, HG Uttama Caitanya Das
Upon arrival and registration, devotees were treated with simple lunch and after a brief rest, all gathered at the seminar hall around 5pm. Temple president HG Uttama prabu welcomed the 60 odd devotees with his opening speech and conducted a self assessment activity for the participants to valuate to what extent their respective services rendered in the temple are motivated and substantiated by good sadhana and vice versa.
“Individual and Collective”
With reference to the motto for the retreat i.e ‘Individual and Collective Roles in Service’ prabu explained that the serving mood in devotees should be motivated by the following factors:
i) the goal is to please Guru and Krishna
ii) the philosophy that motivates the services revolves basically around the soul
iii) the management style that should be adopted by all is in the mood of servant
iv) the focal point of the devotees should only be Lord Krishna
v) the valuable assets of the temple management are the devotees
Prabu also spelt out the following processes to serve as service enhancers:
i) hearing
ii) reading
iii) chanting
iv) association of devotees
v) to maintain the mood to serve Guru
vi) to attend periodical management meeting for inspirations
“Regular devotee”
Being manager of particular services in their own capacity, participants were expected to be ‘regular’ by maintaining good sadhana i.e attending Sunday Feasts, Srila Prabhupad Gurupuja, Tulasi arati, counseling meeting, reading Srimad Bhagavatam, Srimad Bhagavad Gita or Sri Caitanya Caritamrta everyday.
Prabu ended his slot at 6.40pm. Devotees then took part in Sandhya arati and energetic kirtan in the very seminar hall, park and badminton court until it was time for dinner at 7.30pm
Temple organization by HG Visnu Caitanya Das
Establishing various departments and segregations of management tasks are not an unfamiliar feature in a spiritual organizations like SJMKL for even Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu has segregated various services to the 6 Goswamis for writing scriptures, excavating holy places, preaching etc.
Substance and form
The night slot kicked off at 8.40pm with a polling session to valuate the external development of SJMKL (form) against the internal developments (substance) of the congregation. Results revealed that the form has overshadowed the substance in SJMKL. This lopsided development of the temple could indicate that there are plenty of rooms to increase hari katha sessions and more importance to be given to chanting as they are the live wire of a temple congregation
Stressing the fact that temple expansions are only meaningful if it is well balanced with its substance, prabu said that it is only possible through co-operation among all under the co-ordination of temple president and by observing the following:
i) shared responsibilities
ii) team spirit
iii) choosing right man for right job
iv) commitment
v) face reality
vi) management oneness
vii) collective spiritual management
Restaging
As and when the need arises the temple management has the responsibilities to execute restaging programs to retain devotees in the congregation realizing the reality that devotees often succumb to the ‘life cycle’ due to lack of substance. The most prominent ways of overcoming the abovementioned issue are to get oneself linked to the Spiritual Counselor System (SCS), engage in various management departments in temple for fixed services, attending periodical management meetings and reviews for evaluation and rectification purposes.
With requests to all participants to strive towards becoming inspirational leaders and better managers, prabu at the end addressed a number of issues and comments from participants, concluding his slot for the day at 10pm.
Sunday, 12th April 2009
Bhagavad Gita discourse by HG Gauracandra das (RNS)
Not depriving the devotees from the regular Sunday Feast program, the management committee of the retreat arranged the participants to assemble in the seminar hall at 5.30am for mangala arati, manasika Tulasi arati, an hour of japa session, srngara aarati and an hour of kirtan. Following that was a nectarean spiritual discourse by HG Gauracandra prabu on BG’s catur sloki text 10.9 at about 8am.
In tandem with the purpose of the retreat i.e to strike balance between temple services and individual sadhana, prabu described the joy of performing devotional services substantiated by proper sadhana and association among the devotees and eventually emerge as an ideal devotee as described by the particular BG verse. Prabu also suggested that every department should make it a point to arrange for a get together or meeting to share on their latest reading or hearings for constant fruitful association among the devotees engaged in particular services.
Annual report 2008 presentations by Head of Departments
At 10am, all participating servant leaders presented the reports for their respective department based on the following major aspects:
i) achievements for years in past
ii) plans for year 2009
iii) issues/comments
Following are the departments submitted their reports presented by the respective servant leaders/representatives.
i) Spiritual Counselor System – HG Uttama Caitanya das
ii) Sunday Feast Ministry – HG Rasika Murari das
iii) Food For Life – HG Ekleshwar das
iv) Deity Worship – HG Vraja Mohan das
v) Festival – HG Gauracandra das (BCS)
vi) Book Distribution – HG Ravilocana das
vii) Harinam Sankirtan – Bakta Kumaragurubalan
viii) Gokul Garden – Baktin Kasthuri Bhai Nadesh
ix) Pandava Sena – HG Mathura Lileswari dasi
x) Congregational Development Ministry – HG Srivas Caitanya prabu
xi) Gauradesh preaching – HG Krishna Candra das
Copies of compiled Annual Report 2008 distributed to participants for reference.
Temple Management System by HG Uttama Caitanya das
Organizational structure
Prabu briefed the participants on the structure of temple management committee i.e the temple president is being assisted by 2 Vice Presidents, HG Krishna Candra das and HG Visnu Caitanya das and various departments under their care.
Appointments of leaders for new departments/services
i) Vraja Arts Theatre – Bakta Nadesh Lechemanan & Bakta Santana
ii) Radhastami 2009 – Matajis
iii) Gita Jeyanthi 2009 – TASK team
iv) Taman Yarl Sri Jagannath Ratha Yatra 2009 – VOICE team
v) Balaram Poornima 2009 – Rawang yatra
Projection for SJMKL for the next 3-5 years
i) Brahminical counsel – to prepare and qualify more Brahmin initiates for temple service
ii) Expansion of SCS – to increase more counselors and assistant counselors
iii) To establish women and children committee under Social & Welfare Department
iv) Expansion of preaching division to reach out to corporate, professional and Hindi and Chinese society
v) To re-establish the Vaishnava Ttraining Academy – to comprise all training programs, courses and Gokul Garden.
vi) To register Food For Life, VOICE and Vraja Arts Theatre with Registrar of Companies to stand alone as separate organizations.
vii) To closely monitor and encourage the congregation to support the membership/patron section which is regarded as cash cow, the major contributor of income to temple
Projection for SJMKL after 5 years
i) decentralize ISKON temples in KL – to about 4 in the North, South, East and West
ii) to set own/separate kitchen and cooks for FFL department and move forward to set up a restaurant in the future
iii) to establish a CDM secretariat to assist smaller divisions
Wrap up by HG Visnu Caitanya das
Prabu stressed that an organization should have a proper succession formula in place to ensure continuous operation of an ideal management. The following Srila Prabhupad’s acarya strategy/formula will help an organization to achieve the above:
