ANNUAL MINISTRY REPORT 2018
EDUCATION AND TRAINING
SEMINARS AND ACTIVITIES
Activities by the Ministers on Training, Supervision and Research
Co-minister H. H. Jayapataka Swami:
Despite H.H. Jayapataka Swami Maharaja’s health situation; having to undergo liver and kidney convey transplant, having to spend long periods of time in rehab or ICU in recovery. He has been directing his different assistance in regards to promoting congregational programs.
He was particularly active as soon as he regained consciousness after the operation pushing forward the Damodara Program.
By an arrangement by some of his assistants set a target for a million candle lights offering to Damodara during the month of Kartika. The result of that initiative was that: over two millions candles offered to the lord. This Damodara program is specifically to encourage devotees to outreach to newcomers and by different novel ways; this was largely achieved during 2018 in the month of Kartika. The devotees went to schools, colleges, took sets of Damodara altars on Harinamas and even some vans were set up in different countries to engage the public. One innovation that was added this year to this program directed by Jayapataka Maharaja was to keep track of the books that will be distributed in these programs, and it was recommended to have book tables at different homes or locations where the program was being held. Another recommendation was to request each person who offered a lamp also chant a round Hare Krsna Maha Mantra, either to purchase or borrow the beads, also made sure that all participants provided their contact details for future follow-up. He has also been participating through emails and personal communication with the Congregational Development Ministry regarding future plans to increase our congregational growth in ISKCON.
Activities by the Co-minister Kaunteya das:
Kaunteya das visited the following places in 2018:
Russia: Moscow (with leaders from all over the country and beyond)
India: Pune (twice) & Kanpur (besides Mayapur)
Greece: Athens & Salamina
Italy: Rome (twice), Bologna, Turin & Prabhupadadesh
Portugal: Lisbon
Brazil: Campina Grande (with leaders from a number of Latin American countries, Ecovila Vraja Dhama, Recife, Belém, Belo Horizonte, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo (twice) & Nova Gokula.
Argentina: Buenos Aires (thrice) & Mar del Plata.
Canada: Toronto
Slovenia: Ljubljana
Hungary: Budapest & Nava Vraja Dhama
Activities by Seva Svarupa Das (General Manager)
Seva Svarupa das visited the following places in 2018:
Gita For Everyone presentations in:
- Mexico, Monterrey, Ciudad de Mexico
- Tirupati
Connect presentations in:
- Mexico, Monterrey, Ciudad de Mexico
- Damodara Desh
- Tirupati
Iksvaku Das (Outreach Coordinator)
Ikvaku das visited the following places in 2018:
Vaisnava Life Counseling (VLC) course in:
Perth, Australia;
Middle East; (Krsna Katadesh)
Hong Kong, China
Philippines
Gita For Everyone presentation and course in:
Perth, Australia;
Middle East; (Krsna Katadesh)
Hong Kong, China
Philippines
Bangkok
Bangladesh
Programs at different temples, Yoga centers and homes.
Around 20 congregational leaders and devotees in Perth received training on facilitation skills to further the delivery of the Gita course.
Activities by Advaita Chandra Das and Kalasudha Devi Dasi
ISKCON Houston has an attendance of 600 devotees every Sunday for the Sunday Feast program.
21 Bhakti Vriksha groups.
4 Bhakti Vriksha groups for Westerners
2 Manjari Programs for Westerners.
One Kirtan group called “ Conscious Houston “ and one Reading group.
Total number of Bhakti Vriksha devotees are over 500.
Two big Home Programs every month, which hosts 100 to 150 devotees.
Festivals Report:
Janmashtami, attended by 6000 people.
All major festivals, attended by 2,500 to 3,000 people.
Purushottam Adhika Maas 2018
45 home programs.
Damodar:
Damodar Program Report:
96 home programs.
A total of 10,860 lamps were offered.
260 small and medium books
6 Srimad Bhagavatam sets were distributed.
Visit places:
Panama:
Second level Retreat with 35 attendees.
4 Bhakti Vriksha new groups:
- Connecticut,
- Charlotte
- Panama
- Atlanta
Bhakti Yoga Workshop:
This course is designed for new people to understand our philosophy. The theoretical sessions are along with powerpoint presentations, and mainstream Hollywood movies to explain concepts that we are not the body.
Activities by Nityanand Asraya Das
| Preaching Area | No. of Bhakti Vriksha Program {Newly started} | Number of New initiates | Conventions/ Yatras | Damodar Programs | Books Distributed | Any other Activity |
| Punjabi Bagh | 5 | 60 | 7 | 60 | 1,50,000 Bhagavad Gita | Bhakti Vaibhav Course Started |
| Bahadurgarh {Haryana} | 8 | 20 | 4 | 45 | 20,000 Bhagavad Gita | New Servant Leaders Training for 25 Devotees |
| Roorkee {Uttrakhand} | 8 | 8 | 2 | 15 | 2000 Bhagavad Gita | |
| Panipat {Haryana} | 4 | 8 | 3 | 10 | 1000 Bhagavad Gita | |
| MIRA ROAD {Mumbai} | 20 | 50 | 5 | 30 | 15000 Bhagavad Gita |
Bhakti Vriksha:
Bhakti Vriksha Hands On Course & Training:
- Mayapur
- ISKCON Mira Road
More than 80 devotees attended the Course.
Activities by Aravinda Krsna Das
East London Bhakti Vriksha Report –
- Bhakti – vriksha
- number of devotees chanting -250 devotees
- number of new initiated devotees in 2018 – 5 devotees
- convention – 1 BV convention by Manor temple
- Damodar program – Around 1000 house programs & 5000 lamps
- Books distributed – 20,000 books in 2018
- Celebrated Panihati Festival in Manor temple
Activities by Gourangi Gandharvika Devi Dasi
Children Services Department
- Published the book “Our Future Hope”
- Children Services Newsletter
- Network of 120 devotees involved with Children Services
- Ongoing Projects:
- Creating a website for Children Services
- Compiling activity books (modules) for Children
- Creating a training course
Activities by Damodara Dhananjaya Dasa
Yatra: Behrampura Bhakti-vriksha, Ahmedabad-Gujarat (connected with ‘ISKCON Kathwada, Ahmedabad’)
Total number of NEW devotees: 50
Total Damodar Programs: 10
Total books distributed: 1370
PROGRAMS & PARTNERSHIPS
Damodara Program
- The CDM has been reported that there were a total of 2,678,391 lamps offered around the world by newcomers.
| Purba Medinipur, Paschim Medinipur, Jhargram NH | 268,832 | ||
| Rajapur Dham, ISKCON Bangalore | 164,398 | ||
| ISKCON Seshadripuram, Bangalore | 152,246 | ||
| Chennai | 151,132 | ||
| ISKCON Jagannath Mandir, Kuala Lumpur | 120,736 | ||
| Mayapur | 106,193 | ||
| 24Pgs (S) Kolkata NH | 95,600 | ||
| East Odisha NH | 92,000 | ||
| ISKCON Nandankanan, Bangladesh | 85,742 | ||
| Upper Assam & Tripura NH | 67,500 | ||
| 24Pgs (N) Kolkata NH | 56,115 | ||
| Damodardesh | 50,000 | ||
| ISKCON Kathmandu | 50,000 | ||
| Bankura & Purulia NH | 48,102 | ||
| East & West Burdwan NH | 41,523 | ||
| Madurai | 40,342 | ||
| North Dinajpur NH | 37,293 | ||
| Secunderabad | 36,219 | ||
| Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, Alipurduar, Cooch Behar NH | 35,000 | ||
| Balaram Desh | 31,181 | ||
| Koramangala Centre, Banglore | 30,701 | ||
| Avataridesh | 30,445 | ||
| Hooghly NH | 30,000 | ||
| Krsna Katha Desh | 29,887 | ||
| Birbhum & MSD NH | 25,720 | ||
| Visakhapatnam | 18,582 | ||
| Durgapur | 16,000 | ||
| Dibrugarh | 15,733 | ||
| ISKCON Guntur | 15,085 | ||
| Singapore | 13,965 | ||
| Chittagong, Bangladesh | 12,820 | ||
| Mathuradesh | 12,336 | ||
| FINAL TOTAL | 2,296,391 | ||
Nama-hatta
- Nama-hatta has reached out to over 15,000,000 people in their last 30 years of preaching. These numbers include people who have attended classes, kirtans, bhajans, dramas, honoring prasada, chanting and purchased books.
- 6,200 devotees took training courses in Bhakti Steps (Siksa levels) which has facilitated for many of them to take initiation and engage in preaching Krsna Consciousness.
ISKCON Prison Ministry (IPM)
(iskconprisonministry@gmail.com / www.iskconprisonministry.org)
Yearly, the IPM’s reports of an average of over three thousand of Srila Prabhupada’s books and Back to Godhead magazines being distributed. They also distribute dozens of CDs, Dvds, MP3s, japas and neck beads to inmates.
PUBLICATIONS
- c) CDM Publications
- Our Future Hope
- Forbidden Voices
- Connect
CDM AWARDS FOR MERIT AND RECOGNITION 2017-2018
- Certificates of Recognition: 2
- Certificate of Merit: 4
- Total Awards: 31
- Social Media presence
Website Maintained and regularly updated (www.iskconcongregation.com)
Youtube channel. We have reached a number of 205 videos with a total of 64,453 views (http://www.youtube.com/user/iskconcongregation)
Facebook pages. We have 4 Facebook pages: ISKCON Congregation, Congregacion ISKCON (in Spanish), ISKCON Bhakti-vriksha and ISKCON CDM Youth Services.
We also have a brand new Facebook group: Gita For Everyone.
At present, we have a total of 21,477 likes and an average of 2000 people views on our posts on regular basis.
Online courses. Bhakti marriage, Disciple course, Bhakti-Vriksha workshop training.
Instagram. In a couple of weeks we reached over 2,000 followers
Communication (Email: cdmofficeiskcon@gmail.com) / Function:
• To maintain correspondence with temple authorities and preachers to promote our resources.
• To request the sharing of successful congregational developments and implementation of our resources.
• To collect congregational-preaching scores from ISKCON worldwide to ascertain trends in congregational development and to acknowledge outstanding achievements.
• Requesting nominations from GBC members and local authorities of devotees who have made an exceptional contribution to Congregational development in their areas.
• Sending our regular e-newsletters and news to keep devotees updated on the Ministry’s activities and on developments around the world.
- Management of database nearing 6.000 contacts.