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Temples are not so important as the preaching. To distribute transcendental books and prasadam and to invite people to meet the devotees, is the greatest happiness. In this way we can increase the family of Srila Prabhupada. We can bring many more devotees to our Lord's family, and that makes Krishna happier than anything else. But the beautiful temple of Bogotá will allow the poor people there to come and take the darsan of Their Lordships. And also especially the projection of yoga planetarium is so attractive, because almost like a museum it teaches Vedic culture and allows us to bring more people to meet the devotees, ecology, art and cosmology; all in one with Maha prasad and caranamrta. With history and practical participation in the seva, the yoga planetarium offers a host of devotional activities and opens the door even to the sceptics, because they have not seen such a thing and then they will surely be attracted by finding more like the beautiful books of Srila Prabhupada. Therefore our Sundays are the sacred opportunity of meeting each other, and those who cannot join us for some technical reason, they can later take the printed out chat sent to them by email.
In Germany from my recent visit we were speaking about the different aspects of responsibility and how important responsibility is. The responsibility of meeting each other on the weekly chat is a unique feature, because in these meetings we are cultivating so many different fields of activity. Every field of your respected devotional service is another field of activity, and the meeting with other sadhus is like watering your field of activity with further enthusiasm and further enlightening. And please, do not forget the special feature of file sharing. Some of the files we are sharing represent one year of devotional service of some very qualified services, some Flash show, collection of pictures; all this, which is developed by one devotee, is available for the other. Without these chats the other devotees would be able to find out these things exist. Everyday I get more surprises. Some special things some devotees have done somewhere and that also helped some projects to further develop. Because this is the form of unity. In this material world you can see, that those, who are against religious principles, are often united. It is very rare to see those united, who are working for spirituality.
But these chats have many possibilities; our members to be united, sharing with each other, appreciating the devotees from other parts of the worlds, sometimes sending donations or helping in other way, translation of books and many other things. The secret of devotion is giving it to others, and this is been promoted so nicely.
Tomorrow is our big isthagosti here. Actually we want to do so many more things, but as usually, there are many projects and not many people participating. Recently the devotees here in Hungary have made some very beautiful recordings of stories. Together with a nice musical background to be part of our audio library. In here like everywhere else we are wondering how to distribute all the nectar from our audio library to other people. What is the best system? In Germany the hartikatha asram has 1200 classes and music and CD ROMs in their catalogue, and we really wonder how we can make everybody aware of all the wonderful things. So many devotees waist their time. They are sitting in the car and cooking in the kitchen, but they do not have 50 lectures to listen each other or to have mp3 player to listen to lectures. When you do some activity you can simultaneously listen to the lecture. For example, if friends come to the temple, there is no need to sell them books you can have a library for landing it. Everyone has the opportunity to listen to 100 lectures and music. This is a kind of service, very much required today. All these things are available at least in our archives. How to circulate them is the big question; how to get the mercy out there to everybody; how to encourage people to investigate further.
There is a saying that says "out of sight out of mind". The devotees don't know how much nectar that is really available. And for the visitors of the temple, even less; the devotees of the temple forget sometimes. And those outside the temples have no chance to listen to classes everyday; they do not have any opportunity for association with sadhus. But in our Archives we have classes of Srila Prabhupada, Sridhar Maharaja and videos of Puri Maharaja. We have all kinds of music you may imagine and so much preaching help; we have slide shows and many home pages, which you can also get in the CD form. For example, for those who don't have Internet, if they get Damodar page, they can have all this in their homes, and in this way the beautiful work done by Angira prabhu, gets to the children. It is sad if a Vaisnava child still doesn't have this nectar. I am sorry to say, many of you are negligent or just you don't know how much nectar there is and how much work your Godbrother has made. And you can get it for free; if you have no money you can have it. This is called Vaisnava generosity.
We don't want to sell the nectar - we want the world to get it. We want every child and man to have the nectar that our guru has given to us. We don't want to make profit with transcendental things. If you can collect for the devotional paraphernalia, there is nothing wrong, but the real point here is that the translators and developers in these projects work hard not for money; they work so all can have these things and become happy. What's the proof of this? That all these things are available without money. When something is free people think it has no value. If you see this CD is very important and it is costly, people think it is valuable; I should have it. If you give it for free, they will think it isn't worth. This is the problem, but really not a big problem. The real problem is how bring to this nectar to all people. This is the responsibility of all of you, sitting in this temple or listening in the Internet. Our responsibility is to give nectar to the others. It requires financial maturity. If you want to have 1100 CDS available, you have to invest 1000 euros and show to the others. That is a secret, enthusiasm and maturity, because that is the only way these things can improve. You cannot open a little shop if you have nothing to put inside. Neither you can open a restaurant if you have no cook, or if you do not have ingredients or a well-organized preacher.
Now I want to give you a special list; that list includes all the things should go on in our temples everyday, especially in those where we have installed deities. We have been discussing this much in the last days. Sometimes in the temple, we see the temple is empty all day. When some visitor comes, they cannot find anybody to tell him anything. This is not very nice. Temples must have life everyday. To solve this problem I have requested all the communities who exist around with installed deities; the temple in Bogotá, Radha Govinda Mandir in Santiago, mandir in Chakra y mar - Peru, like Quito mandir, mandir in Colombia, and Sri Sri Mahaprabhu Girirajprabhu in Berlin, which is going to become the Mahaprabhu Radha Govindasundara in the future. Or temple here in Hungary… All the devotees who belong to this congregation must give one day a month to complete temple service. One day a month you are a preacher and pujari. You have to have second initiation to be pujari, but to be part of the preaching you have to be a friend of Krishna. Here I will give you the list that should go on everyday in every temple. With this list you can train up new devotees and volunteer pujaris to make them aware of their duties when they come to the temple. There are actually two lists and third for special cases.
The first is how the guests must be received and what the condition of the temple should be. The second is what are the pujaru activities in which you can participate. The third is what are the personal activities you can also do inside the temple when that day your service comes. Actually 3 different lists, and everything is important, but something has to be adjusted to time, place circumstance.
The list of temple conditions is first. The temple must be open from mangala aratik to evening lecture. Deities also have to be opened; only if resting the curtain is closed. Everyday there must be some prasadam available; better some sweet balls. Nobody to visit temple and not take prasadam. There must be caranamrta available and everyone to be invited to take caranbamrta, also with the pamcapatra to clean your hands. In the temple there must be continuously transcendental sound, soft Vaisnava bhajan or lecture tape running. If somebody comes and want to meditate, there can be soft background music. Every temple must have sophisticate music equipment with an mp 3 player; you can do that which is connected to simple sound system, all you have to do is prepare it.
Every visitor who comes should be whole-heartedly welcomed. A paper must be given to him that explains what is a temple, what is deities, the program of the temple, and the main songs we sing. This paper is complementary for every visitor of the temple. The devotee who is inside the temple has to explain everything that is going on. He shall explain the deity personally, despite the paper we gave. He should also explain why we offer food, and should explain something about the mission and introduce the visitor some of our books, CDs and magazines.
The temple must be clean. No articles are aloud to hang around the temple. There must always cushions for the people to sit on, and the visitors invited to sit down and treated like very important visitors. From the moment he visits until leaving he must have the feeling that you are very happy. If you don't accomplish that, the program, or the person doing it, is a failure. You have to watch the entrance to be sure there is no mess, and the shoes are always situated in the shoe place. Unfortunately many temples have mountains of shoes in front, which are ugly.
If you are pujari you shall take advantage and take the puja day as a day you memorize your mantras. You can do arati and make offerings. What you cannot do is go away and leave the temple alone. You can utilize this day to chant more rounds than usually, you can do some special reading and memorize some mantras, and you can learn anything you want. But as soon the visitor comes in, he gets the attention. Don't go on chant rounds and ignore the presence of the visitor. You are there to serve, not to chant. If nobody is there, you pray: Please Krishna, send somebody so I can serve him. If you do arati or are making offering and a visitor is coming - indicate to them that they can sit down and wait until you can give them explanation.
Inside the temple, many other projects can go on. Maybe class of the Vaisnava academy, bhajan concerts, or bhakta classes, but the day when your service is to be in the temple you are also helping to coordinate all these activities. We do not want our temples to be empty, and we want our people from the city to know that they can go to the temple from evening to night and to find a nice atmosphere. All I have described here is the minimum requirement for every place with installed deities. Those who do not have that can also try to maintain this standard and to have also deities someday.
This idea is perfectly in harmony to make others happy. What could make you happier than being a pujari once a month or to be Krishna's personal receptionist? How lucky you are! You can also make flower garlands and you can sew for the deities. You can also paint Krishna… so many things you can do in the temple. But please don't take your bicycle inside, be sensitive. The temple has to be beautiful, sweet and full of love, filled with transcendental sound without prajalpa inside. Hopefully not outside either.
Now you bring this list, and the pujari makes an extra list where he has the activities you can do inside. And then don't put it into the file, but hang it up the temple. Give a personal copy to everyone and put my signature and do it. And it will be very good. Don't accept any excuses. If the devotees in your community don't want to participate, it means that nobody has enthused them. What I am presenting is simply the lowest standard. The other standard should be taken by the administrator, that there is always prasadam; it is outside the temple. Inside there is sweet balls and caranamrta. If you don't have paper about the temple and songs, I request Kalki prabhu to make one beautiful. It should be only one sheet, which people can take with them that shows time of the programs, Internet sides, and every temple must print it. This is main service of our community. If we don't know to print it, I will come to collect for it. Don't give me excuses. And I know Krishna will bless you a lot if you make it.
If you have more devotees in the community, there could be two or three people everyday; you organize it between of you so more service can be arranged. The more people in the temple, the better it is. Thank you very much for participation in these programs. The next isthagosti you go with program and discuss. When I go to the next temples I don't want to repeat this. It is your project. Write in the temple whole month calendar, and there you will put who are devotees responsible. In this way we are sure nobody forgets the projects, and this sheet is never ever removed. If any changes, put on top a paper. In this way the Supreme Lord will have complete list of his servitors. Ambarish M. was the perfect devotee in the temple; he showed us that receiving the visitors is so important. When Durvasa Muni came to give trouble, he still arranged the prasadam.
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