February 18th officially marked Devotee Care Day, according to the hearts and minds involved with the ILS (ISKCON Leadership Sanga). The ILS was spearheaded by devotees like Laxmimoni Prabhu & Jayapataka Swami. The first meeting was held in Mayapur 2 years prior. Each year there after, devotees are recommended by their GBC to attend this wonderful gathering of Vaisnava leaders. It is a week long celebration with Swamis and senior devotees everywhere holding classes, lectures, workshops, dramas, practical demonstrations & parikramas (plus fabulous prasad!).
One morning for SB class, HH Radhanatha Swami & HH Jayapataka Swami spoke about Devotee Care Day. Some of the nectar highlights included the following points:
*Compassion means to deeply care for the welfare of others
*Srila Prabhupada's greatest pleasure--sharing Krsna katha & kirtan together
*We should see each other as representatives of Srila Prabhupada
*How merciful Srila Prabhupada is--paralyzed from the neck down & still caring for devotees--telling them how to get free from this material world! (JPS mentioned this point and could hardly choke out the words through his tears--he really has realization of this!)
*Every devotee should be treated with the utmost respect and care
*If Krsna likes, cares for & appreciates His devotees & devotees of devotees, then how we should do
*The Supersoul is in everyone's heart, so we respect everyone. Yet devotees are special because they are serving the Lord which is very rare.
*Every devotee should be very careful of how they treat each other. We need to give care to each other.
*One thread that will hold us together as a movement is Devotee Care.
After this class, JPS invited everyone to that evening ILS lecture. There was a hold up to get in since the ILS management didn't plan on all of Mayapur being invited, but it all worked out just fine. The featured speakers were these swamis in the pictures below:
Each Swami was given a question and about 10 minutes to speak on it. There was also a short Q & A session afterwards. Then, to conclude, HH JPS (saying that one thing to do on Devotee Care Day was to give gifts) gave everyone there a small packet of maha prasad! It would be an understatement to say it was a bit of mayhem after the lecture as devotees scrambled to receive these gifts from the hands of these illustrious devotees...someone also brought a huge bucket of maha from Tirupati (that famous super yummy laddhu) to share with everyone.
Here are some tidbits from the lecture:
HH Niranjana Swami on sharing ones mind confidently between devotees
*devotee care begins with this point
*a proper Vaisnava atmosphere needs to be created in order for devotees to feel comfortable in revealing their minds in confidence
*devotees in leadership need to be exemplary in this
*What is a Vaisnava atmosphere?
--control urge to speak--if not, enmity arises and we speak about others which leads to distrust
--shouldn't speak unnecessarily about others
--peacefulness comes from controlling oneself
HH JPS on how real is your vision of care for the world?
*Haridas Thakur--the first prison preacher
* establish on each continent facilities such as a hospital, hospice, school and elder ashram for devotees
HH RNS on how can we imbibe love and trust and stay in touch with the spirit of love?
*Our ability to trust in Krsna very much comes from the love Srila Prabhupada showed us.
*We are caretakers of SPs divine property in the form of devotees. Through our words & actions, we have the chance to represent his compassion.
*Devotee care is foundational in every aspect of our movement.
HH Kavicandra Swami on how to balance care and chastisement with kids?
*better to be unbalanced with more care than chastisement
*mom: "I can't control my kid!"
--you're not supposed to--we're supposed to control our minds and emotions
*chastisement through anger or envy isn't very effective, it should be through love
One morning for SB class, HH Radhanatha Swami & HH Jayapataka Swami spoke about Devotee Care Day. Some of the nectar highlights included the following points:
*Compassion means to deeply care for the welfare of others
*Srila Prabhupada's greatest pleasure--sharing Krsna katha & kirtan together
*We should see each other as representatives of Srila Prabhupada
*How merciful Srila Prabhupada is--paralyzed from the neck down & still caring for devotees--telling them how to get free from this material world! (JPS mentioned this point and could hardly choke out the words through his tears--he really has realization of this!)
*Every devotee should be treated with the utmost respect and care
*If Krsna likes, cares for & appreciates His devotees & devotees of devotees, then how we should do
*The Supersoul is in everyone's heart, so we respect everyone. Yet devotees are special because they are serving the Lord which is very rare.
*Every devotee should be very careful of how they treat each other. We need to give care to each other.
*One thread that will hold us together as a movement is Devotee Care.
After this class, JPS invited everyone to that evening ILS lecture. There was a hold up to get in since the ILS management didn't plan on all of Mayapur being invited, but it all worked out just fine. The featured speakers were these swamis in the pictures below:
 |
| HH Kavicandra Swami, HH Niranjana Swami, HH Radhanatha Swami, HH Jayapataka's translator, HH Jayapataka Swami |
Each Swami was given a question and about 10 minutes to speak on it. There was also a short Q & A session afterwards. Then, to conclude, HH JPS (saying that one thing to do on Devotee Care Day was to give gifts) gave everyone there a small packet of maha prasad! It would be an understatement to say it was a bit of mayhem after the lecture as devotees scrambled to receive these gifts from the hands of these illustrious devotees...someone also brought a huge bucket of maha from Tirupati (that famous super yummy laddhu) to share with everyone.
Here are some tidbits from the lecture:
HH Niranjana Swami on sharing ones mind confidently between devotees
*devotee care begins with this point
*a proper Vaisnava atmosphere needs to be created in order for devotees to feel comfortable in revealing their minds in confidence
*devotees in leadership need to be exemplary in this
*What is a Vaisnava atmosphere?
--control urge to speak--if not, enmity arises and we speak about others which leads to distrust
--shouldn't speak unnecessarily about others
--peacefulness comes from controlling oneself
HH JPS on how real is your vision of care for the world?
*Haridas Thakur--the first prison preacher
* establish on each continent facilities such as a hospital, hospice, school and elder ashram for devotees
HH RNS on how can we imbibe love and trust and stay in touch with the spirit of love?
*Our ability to trust in Krsna very much comes from the love Srila Prabhupada showed us.
*We are caretakers of SPs divine property in the form of devotees. Through our words & actions, we have the chance to represent his compassion.
*Devotee care is foundational in every aspect of our movement.
HH Kavicandra Swami on how to balance care and chastisement with kids?
*better to be unbalanced with more care than chastisement
*mom: "I can't control my kid!"
--you're not supposed to--we're supposed to control our minds and emotions
*chastisement through anger or envy isn't very effective, it should be through love
1 comment:
Hare Krishna.
pamho. AGTSP.
This is so wonderful. Such realized personalities are showering the world with such deep transcendental knowledge and guidance to serve Guru, Sadhu and Sastra. We are very grateful to have you and your family's association, who have been in presence of such great personalities in the abode of Lord Gauranga. Please pray for our well being to Sri Sri Radha Krishna in Vrajmandal and Sri Sri Pancha Tattva in Sri Navadwip dham.
Your servants,
Shyamaraas dasi, Rohinikishor das, Hari Bhakti dasi and Radhika Priya
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