New Vrindaban Brijabasi Spirit

by Sukhavaha dd

Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu taught us by his example: “I am not a bramana, ksatriya, vaisya,or sudra. Nor am I a brahmacari, grihastha, vanaprastha, or sannyasi. These are all temporary designations. My only true identity is to be the servant of the servant of the servant of the Lord of the gopis, Lord Krishna.” We are all striving to become servant of the servant of the servant of Lord Sri Krishna.

Early this year, as part of a seminar project, Das initiated an idea to inspire a group of devotees to start a “devotee outreach” program. He named the program “Loving Exchanges” to remind devotees of the 6 exchanges of love between devotees – the act of giving and receiving. This program is directed towards enlivening a sense of community and elevating the spirits of devotees in need through a “gift” of service. It is a wonderful opportunity to offer some loving service back to the devotees who have given their lives to serve the Lord.

Several first generation devotees are approaching their elder years and are faced with the hardships and struggles old age entails, sometimes finding it difficult to even perform their daily activities. They require assistance and association to uplift and enable them to carry out their devotional service. Also there are many second generation devotees who are starting families and businesses and just trying to get by in their daily routines, awaiting a sense of stability and relief. A community outreach program is very much needed amongst the devotees today.

“Loving Exchanges” is designed to provide association, ecstatic kirtan, wonderful prasadam, and assistance to devotees in whatever way is necessary for their particular situation. But most importantly, to extend our love and appreciation to the servants of Sri Hari!

On the recommendation of several concerned devotees, Mother Pitambar, a first generation Prabhupada disciple, was selected for the first devotee outreach mission which began January 9th, 2010 At first she was reluctant to have the devotees serve her, yet after allowing herself to receive the love of the devotees, she began to see that this was all Krsna’s arrangement. Mother Pitambar commented about her experience: “I really enjoyed the association, the prasadam and the general atmosphere of the devotees who cared and wanted to make a difference.”

A small crew from New Vrindavan and a group from the Pittsburgh area traveled to Mother Pitambar’s home packed with tools, bhoga, instruments, and enthusiasm! The crew included Yogini, Ahimsa, Vrsni and Tulsi Manjari, who cleaned the kitchen and cooked, Devananda Pandit who organized the kirtan, Anandavidya Das, who lead kirtan and spent one on one time with Pitambar, Mandakini and Mercy, who took care of communication and encouraging devotees to come, Yasoda who co-coordinated many of the activities, and Janardana, who brought all his tools and headed up the construction. Others who helped with the general cleaning and construction were Suka devi, Yasoda’s son Justin, Lilasuka and her husband Jesse Sr., Narayana, Reese, Paul Doland and Das. Acarya (who flew in for a surprise visit) and Nitai, Pitambara’s two sons also participated fully in making the project a success. Parents brought their children (Abby, Gabriel, Cicero, Kai and Kalina) who also participated in helping out. This was exciting to see. Special thanks to Paul Doland and others who followed up on 3 subsequent days to bring the project of refinishing the floor closer to completion. Each person greatly contributed to the effort.

Those who could not physically be present donated laksmi and bhoga as their contribution towards the outreach program. Damodara and Gopa donated $141.00, Adwaita and Mandri donated $50, Nityo and Radha donated $ 50, Saci M and Saci P donated $ 25, Krypamaya and Krsna Bhava $25, and Madhava Ghosh and Mother Vidya donated $25 and a box of bhoga. Last but not least, Jayamauri Prabhu took on the task of sending out the emails to everybody to propagate the outreach program.

Naturally we would also like to thank His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada for giving us this Krsna Consciousness so that we can learn what it means to live as human beings by serving each other for the common goal of achieving prema bhakti or love of God.

As far as future outreach programs, the devotees involved learned a lot about how to better organize for the future and how to effectively communicate to accomplish the desired result. The devotees who were involved are enthusiastic and optimistic about the next project, which will tentatively take place in Spring of 2010. Our intention is that this project will spread throughout ISKCON so that devotees can experience loving exchanges through devotion, association and service to the Vaisnavas.