New Advocacy Group Forming in New Vrindaban
INVITATION TO ALL DEVOTEES OF NEW VRINDABAN
First Meeting of Advocacy Sanga
Agenda: Caring for Each Other, Caring for Devotees
Soul Searching: How can we attract devotees to live in New Vrindaban? What can we do to inspire long term commitment?
Dear New Vrindaban Devotees,
All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Sri Sri Radha Vrindaban Candra.
There is now a very nice opportunity to get involved in making a positive difference in our community. The idea is to develop a sanga of caring devotees for discussing how to make the community better and more harmonious in all respects. Since serving Krsna is a dynamic activity there are a variety of ways to please Him.
As Prabhupada explains,
“So everyone can serve Krsna. Either with your life, your money, your intelligence or with your words. If you can dedicate your life for spreading this Krsna consciousness movement, that is first class. If you cannot dedicate your life immediately, then spend some of your income for Krsna. If you think you have no money, you can serve Krsna by your intelligence or by your words.” [from a S.P. lecture on S.B. 1.2.9]
The formation of the New Vrindaban Community Advocacy Sanga (NVCAS) is an opportunity for devotees to get involved with the community by engaging their individual and collective intelligence in giving input to the current management regarding a wide spectrum of issues that concern the community members at large. The input will take the form of well researched and thought out written proposals in line with guru, sadhu and sastra for management to consider.
The NVCAS is not, of course, a revolution. But it is revolutionary in that it creates an opportunity to revolt against our own apathy and our tendency to complain in a corner to individuals who can’t necessarily do anything about it. Such complaining tends to quickly sink to the level of fault finding and good solutions never come from destructive criticism.
Although the formation of the sanga is appreciated by management, it is not being created by management, nor will it be overseen by management. Rather it is being formed and will be run by concerned New Vrindaban devotees because of a desire to assist in the pursuance of Srila Prabhupada’s vision for New Vrindaban.
Participation is open to all residents, but there will be a Core Membership established. Core members will be entrusted with the responsibility to come to consensus on advisory proposals. Core members should be:
1) residents of New Vrindaban for a minimum of one full year
2) willing to consistently commit to a minimum of two 2 hr meetings a month to meet with fellow sanga members in serious discussions on community issues with the goal of formulating articulate proposals for management and/or community members to consider
3) willing to educate themselves on topics under consideration on their own time so that discussions can be more productive.
4) willing to make themselves available to community members who have concerns
The 5 broad categories of Srila Prabhupada’s vision for N.V. and their corollaries will be some of the topics under consideration in the coming year.
1) Cow protection/Earth protection
2) Spiritual education/Devotee School/ New Devotee Training/ Western Outreach
3) Self-sufficiency/Livelihood/ Devotee Care/Self Governance
4) Holy place of pilgrimage/Deity Worship/Festivals
All the above to be focused on
5) Loving Krsna
If you are interested to be involved especially as a core member or even as a participating member or just want to find out more, you are invited to the first meeting of the NVCAS on Tuesday Jan. 7, 2014. The meeting will be held at 6pm at the school building. Prasadam will be available from 5:30 onwards. The agenda will be “Caring for Each Other, Caring for Devotees”
You can also contact Lilasuka or Nityodita to find out more.
lilasooka@msn.com or nityodita@gmail.com
