Grihastha Seminar SJMKL

By Sudarshan Das

Hare Krsna
All glories to Srila Prabhupada
All Glories to Sri Sri Guru and Gauranga

“The importance of the grihastha ashram is because it gives birth to, nourishes, sustains and preserves all the four ashrams” – Srila Prabhupada.

Keeping in line with the above quote from our founder Acharya, and in efforts of serving his instructions, the Social and Welfare Ministry of SJMKL headed by HG Shanti Rupa mataji, recently conducted a two day Grihastha Ashram Seminar. This was held on the 24^th and 25^th of July just a day before the Smrthi Sabha of our late Temple president HG Uttama Caitanya prabhu. This grihasta seminar was rather special as it was his pet project. Despite coping with his loss, Her Grace Shanti Rupa mataji was determined that the seminar should not be canceled and that it should go on as planned. In fact, in the opening speech, she revealed that it was one of HG Uttama prabhu’s last instructions which he emphatically left, just the day before his passing.

The seminar was held at the Malaysian Hindu Sangam office at Petaling Jaya, a mere 5 minutes drive from the temple. About a hundred devotees both from SJMKL and ISKCON Klang attended the seminar on Friday which began at 8.30 pm. After the welcome address by HG Shanti Rupa mataji, we were introduced to our special guest speaker HG Krishna Kishora Prabhu who had come all the way from Pune, India to share his knowledge and experience in the topic. HG Shanti Rupa mataji expressed her appreciation to HG Gaurachandra prabhu (RNS) for being instrumental in securing our special guest speaker.

HG Krishna Kishora prabhu was a very captivating speaker. He delivered his points in a most engaging manner and kept the audience attentive. On the first day, he spoke about the importance of Grihastha Ashram as an important and integral aspect of the Daivi Varnashram system. He emphasized on how Srila Prabhupada wanted every married couple in ISKCON to practice Krishna Consciousness based on the tenets and principles provided in the Grihastha Ashram. We ended the first day session at about 10 pm with dinner prasadam.

The second day of the seminar began with breakfast prasadam, followed with Srimad Bhagavatam class given by HG Krishna Kishora pr at about 9 am. Prabhu elucidated a very interesting point about how Maya uses 2 methods to trick the unsuspecting devotees. One is moroseness and the other being pride. I personally found it very illuminating.

After the class, the first session of the day was on the Duties and Responsibilities in Grhasta Ashram. Amongst others, this topic also covered the Psychology of Man and Woman as well as the Do’s and Don’ts between husband and wife. To better illustrate the points, the highlight of the session was a series of ticklish skits enacted by some of the participants. I’m sure none of us will forget the infamous line by Kumar prabhu in his skit which was about how one should not chastise ones partner in public. That brought forth peals of laughter from everyone.

At about 12.30 noon, we broke for lunch which was served at the premises. An hour or so later, the seminar continued with HG Shanti Rupa mataji who shared her realizations and experiences. The topic was on the role of the wife in Grhasta Ashram. She ended by emphasizing that in the end, everything will fall in place if only we take the 4 instructions of Srila Prabhupada seriously to heart, which was chanting, reading his books, eating prasadam only, and associating with devotees.

The last session of the day was something which I was very much waiting for. This was on the topic of raising Krishna Conscious children in Grihastha Ashram, given by HG Krishna Kishora pr. Personally I found the session very enlivening and motivating. Prabhu spoke on how we should stick to the essence of Krishna Consciousness and very patronizingly study Srila Prabhupadas’ instructions regarding the upbringing of children. He provided many practical suggestions and pointers and shared with us some of the success stories in ISKCON Pune as well as in other parts of the world.

The seminar ended at around 4 pm with a final wrap up of the points by HG Shanti Rupa mataji and by thanking HG Krishna Kishora prabhu for his time and efforts. All in all it was an excellent seminar with many useful pointers carefully arranged and masterfully presented. It was also an excellent platform for associating with the devotees. On behalf of the management of SJMKL, we would like to thank HG Krishna Kishora prabhu for his wonderful association and service to our Yathra and we dedicate this seminar to the memory of HG Uttama Caitanya prabhu for being a source of inspiration to all of us here in KL.

SJMKL Management Retreat

By Bhaktin Kasthuri Bhai

Hare Krishna

Please accept my humble obeisances

SJMKL Management Retreat at NUBE, Port Dickson; 11 – 12^th 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, 11^th 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, 12^th 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:

i)                    revolutionary leaders

ii)                   preparations

iii)                 bold

iv)                 training the devotees

v)                  caring for devotees

vi)                 maintaining good sadhana

vii)               preaching in all frontiers

viii)              organized

ix)                 succession in place

x)                  inspiring

xi)                 renouncing at appropriate time

 

 

Following this management retreat, all department heads are required to chalk out a proper management structure for their respective departments based on the following formula:

i)                    Structure

ii)                   Responsibilities

iii)                 Training

iv)                 Plan

v)                  Review

vi)                 Succession

 

Prabu has also highlighted the importance of interdepartmental services through following:

i)                    communication

ii)                   rotation of head of departments

iii)                 meeting with SC board

iv)                 management retreats that requires 100% attendance

 

 

The End

 

The management meeting ended at about 12noon with lunch prashad, courtesy of Lukut devotees and a brief photo session.

 

 

Always remember Krishna and never forget Krishna

 

The only objective of the organizing committee of this weekend retreat is to educate and enlighten the devotees who are involved in temple management to strike a balance between temple services and individual sadhana especially through the purification process of chanting and hearing, which are prominent elements in one’s devotional life. It does not only please Guru and Krishna, but ultimately prepares us to always remember Krishna and never forget Krishna.

Sankalpa Camp at SJKML

By Bhakta Mayur

Hare Krishna to all the dear devotees of the Lord,

 

Please accept my most humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. All glories to the lotus feet of Sri Guru and Gouranga.

 

On the occasion of the CNY weekend holidays, Gautam Prabhu and I arranged for a small camp named “SANKALPA” on Sunday the 25^th of January from 1 pm – 6 pm for professionals from various IT industries at Sri Jagannatha Mandir in Kuala Lumpur. This was possible under the inspiration and guidance of HG Gaurchandra Pr, HG Krishna Chandra Pr and HG Utama Chaitanya Pr. There was a total of 10 participants. We were fortunate to have the presence of HG Krishna Chandra Pr, HG Utama Pr and one guest devotee, HG Madhur Krishna Pr from Mumbai.