Devotees Associating with Spiritual Intent (D.A.S.I) is born
Our agenda:
• Main purpose to strengthen relationships and increase our Krsna Consciousness
• Short term vision: focus on our relationships and Krsna Consciousness
• Long term vision : Personal…Local…Global
Our Rules:
• Confidentiality
• Participation
• Commitment
• Flexibility to re-evaluate ourselves
• Respect and Listening
• Building trust
• No fear about expressing yourself
• Non-judgemental attitude
• Encourage, build, support
• Honesty, compassion, sincerity
• Positive feedback only
Our Aims:
• Form deep relationships with each other
• Increase our faith in Krsna Consciousness
• Work on projects to spread KC together
• Untap hidden potential in each one of us, in all spheres of our lives
• Direct contact to get to know each other(via our talents, skills, occupations)
• Be there for each other in crisis situations
• Treat devotees as whole people, multi-dimensional support
• Break the barriers that prevent us from being close to other devotees
• Break cliques
• Build confidence and Leadership
Vaisnavas C.A.R.E. in Every Town and Village
By Rita Gupta
In 2001, two long-time friends and Godsisters, Sangita devi dasi and Jusaniya devi dasi, co-founded Vaisnavas C.A.R.E., Inc. (Counseling, Assistance, Resource, and Education for the Terminally-ill and Their Families). Their vision is that in every town or village, when devotees are in the process of dying, there will be trained volunteers to assist with their end-of-life needs. Assistance may include light housekeeping, writing letters, or chanting and reading to a patient. It may also include being present at the moment of death, and helping a devotee to remember Lord Krishna at that crucial moment.
Sangita and Jusaniya are both registered nurses. In addition, both are Certified Hospice and Palliative Care Nurses (CHPN). Sangita volunteers full-time with Vaisnavas C.A.R.E. and Jusaniya works as a neonatal nurse while also volunteering with Vaisnavas C.A.R.E.
Sangita spends a lot of time talking on the phone with terminally ill devotees and their families. Sometimes she meets the devotees face to face. But often, her contact is over the phone and the internet. Still, the connection is powerful.
“You can reach out to a devotee across the world,” Sangita stated. “We have so much in common because we are all related through Srila Prabhupada. Just by writing a letter or making a phone call, a terminally ill devotee can feel cared for. That is what Vaisnavas C.A.R.E. is all about.”
Vaisnavas C.A.R.E. offers a range of services. For example, they have a free, on-line caregiver training course for lay people as well as healthcare professionals. Over fifty people, devotees and non-devotees, have completed the course. Vaisnavas C.A.R.E. also offers free educational seminars. They held two seminars this year at the ISKCON temple in Philadelphia.
Eventually, they hope to have a “C.A.R.E. team” in every ISKCON temple, with a room dedicated to hospice. This program is already in place at the Gita Nagari farm community in Pennsylvania. Bhakti Tirtha Maharaja, who passed away at Gita Nagari, was a board member for Vaisnavas C.A.R.E. The room at Gita Nagari is available for any terminally ill devotee who wants to spend his or her final months in a Krishna conscious environment. For more information, please write to: jusaniya@vaisnavascare.com.
Vaisnavas C.A.R.E. also has a team of “Prayer Partners” who submit prayers on their website for ill and dying devotees. Devotees from all over the world send messages of love and encouragement. “It means so much to a person to receive these prayers,” Sangita commented. “Everyone needs the blessings of the Vaisnavas.”
Sangita’s book, “The Final Journey–Complete Hospice Care for Departing Vaisnavas” (Torchlight Publishing) is mandatory reading for staff members in a California hospice run by the Catholic Church. It provides excellent information for caregivers of all religions. If you or someone you know is terminally ill, or if you are interested in getting involved, please visit the Vaisnavas C.A.R.E. website at http://www.vaisnavascare.com.
Women
Off the Altar for Good
by Gangamata Goswamini devi dasi
When I first joined ISKCON, my mentor, a senior Vaishnavi whispered, “I cannot do worship, I am off the altar”.
It took me some time to figure out what it meant, but after one week she was worshipping again.
Unfortunately, the female residents of ISKCON India are all off the altar in all major temples, and perhaps in their homes as well.
What I really want to see is female pujaris in Mayapura! Yet I see no such thing in the presentations in this year’s GBC meetings.
If Western devotees can do it, why not ladies? Why are we so bodily conscious in Mayapura.
This issue will never go away. It must be addressed, otherwise it will keep coming up.
Standard answer:
It’s just to please Indians in India. Well guess what, you can never please them. An example is always quoted of Haridas Thakur not wanting to enter Jagannath aTemple out of humilty. Well, shouldn’t Western male devotees think the same? Of course not, absolutely offensive to even suggest such a thing- sorry.
BUT why not ladies, during abhishek not even one Vaisnavi- are they all off the altar?
Whenever I see Mayapur vision, during abhishek, no women.
The ladies are humbly watching from a great distance, mentally performing abhishek. So sad. Yet someone can argue that by mental abhishek they get same benefit.
Other places in the world, nothing like this, but our headquarters so much of this. Why, Kabe habe bolo se dina amara- when will I SEE that day when a senior Vaisnavis perform Srila Prabhupada’s Guru Puja or worships Ugra Nrsingadeva!
Hare Krsna Mataji
Thank you for sharing your concern.
It was Srila Prabhupada who wanted that there be no female pujaris in Mayapura and Vrndavana. THis was to ensure the highest possible standard of cleanliness and purity in the worship of the deities.
Srila Prabhupada’s word is law. I am not sure of the exact basis for this regulation. Perhaps someone else knows? However, I trust that Srila Prabhupada was more familiar with the scriptural injunctions regarding deity worship than you and I.
In temples around the world, this arrangement is not as practical as mostly there are not enough male pujaris to cover all the aratis. Some female pujaris are then asked to perform the worship. Deity worship cannot be stopped. Thus, if there is no one else…even a woman who is off the altar can worship the deity.
Rather than feeling that the standard of deity worship is lower in our headquarters, you should know that it is actually higher than the rest of the world.
Of course, this standard that has been set, appears to establish women as inferior to men in this respect of deity worship. So what? Its just another difference between the sexes.
In this lifetime you and I are women. In previous lifetimes we were men. In the end, although we are all spirit souls, Krsna has to be served according to the very best possible standards as delineated is sastra. If that means that women have to worship Krsna mentally in Mayapura…so be it!
I hope this reply will make you peaceful. Even though I didn’t know the full reason for this regulation in Mayapura…is it not reassuring to know that Srila Prabhupada is at the helm of it all?
Also, I humbly request you not to quote Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura out of context.
Your servant, in the service of Srila Prabhupada
kcsoulmate