ANNUAL REPORT OF THE CONGREGATIONAL DEVELOPMENT MINISTRY 2022-2023 - ISKCON Congregational Development Ministry

ANNUAL REPORT OF THE CONGREGATIONAL DEVELOPMENT MINISTRY 2022-2023

Looking Back at 2022-2023

A. EDUCATION AND TRAINING

Activities by the Ministers and others on Training, Supervision and Research

(i) Activities by the Co-Minister HH Jayapataka Swami

Regular meetings with Bhakti-vriksha leaders on the development of the program in different parts of the world.

Survey on BV to see the different approaches worldwide, for further tune up for the best implementation and results.

Regular meeting with leaders of Nama-hatta for the expansion of the program.

Monthly meetings with Managers of CDM for planning and implementation in various parts of the world of Damodara Outreach Program, Bhakti Kids, Youth Section, Family and Devotee Care.

(ii) Activities by the Co -Minister Kaunteya Prabhu

Visited, in person, temples and communities in Brazil, India & Singapore.

Online presence in various forms.

Writing on themes relevant to the congregation.

(iii) Activities by the Bhakti-vriksha coaches – Nityanand Asraya Prabhu

Continued overseeing 45 BV groups in a community with 2,500 devotees, including 300+ children (and 40 trained teachers) divided in 15 Gopal’s Garden schools (summer camp with 400 children).

Established 9 outposts centers with BV groups.

Damodara Month: 100+ home programs and 50,000+ lamps offered.

20 Sankirtan program organised during World Holy name week by BV groups in various parts of Haryana.

Some 400 devotees got trained in BV leadership, plus the trainings in Vrindavana, Mayapur, Mumbai, Nasik and Delhi for 300+ participants.

Organised Bhakti-Sastri and ISKCON Disciples courses.

(iv) Activities by the Bhakti-vriksha coaches – Angira Gauranga Prabhu

390 Russian-speaking BV groups (of different levels) in Russia, Kazakhstan and other places. There are about 4,000 members in these groups.

Regularly visits all main cities in Russia and meets with BV leaders and members for inspiration and training.

Damodara Outreach Program

Damodara Outreach Program

DOP is a very simple but effective program to attract people to perform this service of offering a lamp to the Lord.

It gives the opportunity to engage our grihastha devotees with their children in direct preaching, make new contacts and create new members. Response is usually very positive.

Set up an international team to reach out to devotees in different areas and distributed inspirational and instructional videos and posters.

Global DOP leaders WhatsApp group was very active and inspiring. 

We used the official Damodara month app to collect the data.

Devotees performed many types of programs and created different types of set-ups:

·       Home programs

·       Harinam/FFL

·       Public Hall Programs

·       School/Uni Programs

·       Street Tables

·       Mobile Temples – Bus, Rickshaw

·       Online Programs

·       Joined Local Festivals Such As Diwali

·       Hospital Programs

We got the participation of 25 countries (more than 120 cities) and received reports of more than 6.5 million lamps.

Created a video with highlights https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdlzIw6RxWY&t=2s

TOP 10 COUNTRIES:

1.     India – approx. 5,500,000

2.     Malaysia – 637,983

3.     Kuwait – 107,413

4.     Great Britain – 76,302

5.     Australia – 65,935

6.     Mauritius – 56,585

7.     Oman – 29,005

8.     Bahrain – 26,039

9.     South Africa – 20,240

10.  UAE – 18,620

Bhakti Kids (previously referred to as Children Services)

1.    Completed a teacher guide package of 63 lessons for congregations to use as a spiritual curriculum for children ages 7+. This ~1.5-year curriculum is based on Becoming Your Devotee: Part 1 – a workbook and activity book to help children learn and practice Krsna consciousness.

2.    Developed and distributed 2 free festival kits for children which include stories and activities to celebrate Gaura Purnima and Nrsimha Caturdasi:

a.    Gauranga – The Dancing Lord              (30 pages)

b.    Nrsimhadeva – My Protector                  (38 pages)

3.     Completed manuscript for children’s activity book, Krsna – My Best Friend.

4.    Formulated a plan to create an educational hub website for Krsna conscious children’s resources in ISKCON.

5.    Continued working on a workbook and activity book to help children learn and practice Krsna consciousness – Becoming Your Devotee: Part 2.

Bhakti-vriksha

1. Global Yatra Leaders group in Telegram is created for communication.

2. Two surveys were created and circulated – one for Mahachakrapati/ yatra level leaders and another for BV servant leaders.

3. Started the process of collecting different BV materials across different yatras and the same will be uploaded to the CDM website and BV communication groups.

Nama-hatta

2 million lamps were offered during Damodara month in Nama-hattas.

  • 7,400 mini-programs were organised during the year.  
  • 8,820 Home visits (Bhakti Home visits)
  • Facilitated training leader seminars

Bhakti Home

The prophecy of Lord Caitanya “in every town and village” can be achieved through our devotees’ homes by establishing every home as a temple of the Lord.

The idea is to train and empower our families to firmly practice and share Krsna consciousness with their friends and neighbours and through this approach, we can gradually establish bhakti homes in every town and village of the world.

  1. Meet our congregation needs in terms of engaging children and youth, supporting marital relations and balancing work-home life.
  2. Train and empower them to share Krsna consciousness in their homes.

The family can advance collectively through Bhakti Home while each individual can advance in their Krsna consciousness through Bhakti Steps.

Bhakti Steps

Bhakti Steps Program is providing resources and tools to recognize spiritual progress individually and collectively. Efforts are underway for translation of materials in as many local languages as possible.

This program is now having a dedicated website and secured server for database administration by temples & congregations.

It is gradually getting momentum in Middle East, Far East & Indian centers.

An app for sadhana record is under development to easily measure the practices. 

Courses

Conducted IDC courses in English, Hindi, and Bengali.

CDM Partnership with School of Bhakti at Bhaktivedanta Manor– Working on Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).

B. PUBLICATIONS

Servant of The Servant

A comprehensive course to train a devotee in the mood and culture of the servant of the servant in a Bhakti-vriksa group

Godruma Kalpatavi

Reprinting in Russian

 C. WEBSITE / E-MAIL

Facebook

We have three Facebook pages, one for children (Bhakti Kids – CDM), one for youth (ISKCON CDM Youth Service), and for devotees in general, which is our official page (ISKCON Congregation)

ISKCON Congregation

Page Reach 91,199

Page likes 4,548

Page followers 16,597

Bhakti Kids – CDM

Page Reach 61,816

Page likes 4.8k

Page followers 6k

ISKCON CDM Youth Service

Page Reach 1,093

page like 4k

Page followers 4k

Instagram

There are two official Instagram pages, one for children (bhakti_kids_cdm), and one for the general public (ISKCON Congregation)

bhakti_kids_cdm

Page Reach 43,192 with an increase of 1.6k%

Followers 1,719

ISKCON Congregation

Page reach 216,395 with an increase of 497%

Followers 4,097

YouTube

There are two official YouTube pages, one for children (@bhaktikidscdm), and one for the general public (@iskcongregation).

@bhaktikidscdm

Subscribers + 364 total = 844 Subscribers

The channel got 9,508 views in the last 365 days

@iskcongregation

Subscribers + 713 total = 5,124 Subscribers

The channel got 43,044 views in the last 365 days

D. RESOURCES

Two rented offices at the Chakra Building and 12 paid devotees on a full-time basis, two part-timers and 11 volunteers.

We use one rented flat for offices.

Bought a 300 ft² go-down (storage room) inside the ISKCON campus in Mayapur for 3 lakhs (money was lent to CDM) to keep the CDM books, promotional banners, tables, etc.

Temporary free-lease of a go-down in the Nama-hatta building for two years to store CDM books.

E.  VISION FOR THE ACTIVITIES OF THE MINISTRY FOR 2022

Vision

To support our ISKCON congregation devotees and communities around the world to enhance their practice of Krsna consciousness within the educational guidelines set by our Founder-acarya A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada and provide resources, programs and training to assist their sharing of Krsna consciousness.

Progressive goals

  • To establish bhakti homes in every town and village of the world, by training and empowering every household to become a center of distribution for KC. This will also be a method of measuring ISKCON’s growth by counting the increase of number of families.
  • To increase and maintain contact with devotees who are engaged in congregational development preaching and provide resources and training.
  • To establish CDM ambassadors in every ISKCON congregation around the world to implement effective programs for practicing and sharing KC and promotion and distribution of CDM resources.
  • To train more presenters, coaches, and facilitators of congregational programs.
  • To create an educational hub website where one may find all ISKCON’s Krsna conscious children’s resources in one place.
  • To create a Krsna conscious curriculum package to engage children ages 5-13. The aim is to support every congregation to establish children’s programs and nourish children’s natural love for Krsna. The plan is to publish 12 books based on the main festivals of the year, series on the basic of practicing Krsna consciousness – Becoming Your Devotee, Gita for Kids, Nectar of Devotion, Value Journals and summer-camp guides centered around themes (Chaitanya-lila, Srila Prabhupada-lila, etc).
  • To firmly establish bhakti kids programs, youth engagement and family development in every ISKCON community.

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Congregational Development Ministry
ISKCON Congregation (CDM)
Chakra building 127
Sri Mayapur Dham, West Bengal 741313
India

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