"Building Vibrant Vaisnava Communities" - Working on the Curriculum

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 2-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).

The whole program is designed to equip future (and present) leaders in our movement: Temple Presidents, GBCs, etc.

I was requested to take care of the module called "Preaching Strategies," a total of fifteen lessons, roughly divided into congregational development and various other aspects of propagation.

The work is proceeding satisfactorily, although it's obvious that people won't learn how to build a healthy community in six or seven lessons... The pastoral mentality and skills required, might take years (or rather lifetimes) to develop.

At least the course will offer the chance for an overview of the foundational principles necessary, of some of the approaches and tools available, of some of the obstacles, of some of the important financial considerations... better than nothing I guess. If the participants already have a strong inclination towards the service the information and the exchanges should be useful. And of course any leader in ISKCON should know something about congregational dynamics--if for no other reason at least because the vast majority of ISKCON members (probably more than 95%) are home-based.

Sometimes I notice--with a certain perplexity--that devotees see congregational development as one of the many things we do, but actually taking care of, organizing and empowering the home-based devotees (men and women of all ages and their children) should be considered, quantitatively, the main activity. Neglecting that activity results in loosing on the huge potential this mass of devoted humanity possess. Think of all the book distribution they could do, if properly coached; think of the money they could donate, if properly trained in the "50% principle"; think of the amount of cultivation of new people they could provide; think of the number of "centers" we would automatically activate if we could inspire them to become reference points for their neighborhood and friends.

Let me share here a couple of quotes:

"Everyone can execute the cult of Krsna consciousness at home . . . It is not that we have to open different centers all over the world. Whoever cares for the Krsna consciousness movement can install Deities at home and, under superior guidance, worship the Deity regularly, chanting the maha-mantra and discussing the Bhagavad-gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam. We are actually teaching in our classes how to go about this."

CC Madhya-lila 3.190, purport

“That is Caitanya Mahaprabhu's instruction. . . . You deliver your village people and become a guru. Everyone is not going to be so big that he can go all over the world. But everyone can teach within his limit, within his family, within his community, within his village, within his town, within his district. As he is capable, he can increase. But everyone can become a guru and deliver the local people. How? Yare dekha, tare kaha 'krsna'-upadesa [Cc. Madhya 7.128]. Then you are guru.”

Room Conversation, 21 August 1975, Bombay

So everyone can establish a center in his or her home and everyone can become a guru.

Sometime I sense that we are not investing enough time and energy in realizing these instructions of the Founder-Acarya. I sense that we need to learn to work smarter and not necessarily harder. The potential is there; the people are there. But we often leave it rotting.

Why we do that?

There are many reasons, which I think could be useful to analyze (in other entries). One reason though is that in some places we have to move away from the "hunter/gatherer" mentality to the "cultivator/agriculturalist" dimension of existence. It's a jump in civilization that may be required.

We might be still romantically see preaching simply as the adventurous business of penetrating new areas and introducing the message to new people, while the people who are already convinced, converted and committed languish under the burden of prejudice, lack of guidance and paucity of vision for their potential.