ISKCON Sri Jagannath Mandir
Founder Acharya: His Divine Grace A. C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
BHAKTI VRIKSHA
Bhakti Vriksha is an extension of temple, which is comprised of a small group of congregational devotees. It’s a gathering which happens once in a week in order to practice, to grow and to preach the process of Bhakti Yoga. It’s like a little family unit within the greater community of the temple. This unit keeps the groups small, maintaining an intimate atmosphere of love and care system.
Why is it called Bhakti Vriksha (BV)?
Sri Caitanya Caritamrta compares Lord Caitanya and his movement to the tree of devotion or Bhakti Vriksha (BV). It is figuratively described that both the tree itself and the trunk of the tree are Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. The tree surrounds the entire world and the flowers of the tree are to be distributed to everyone. In this way the tree of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu intoxicates the entire world.
Srila Prabhupada says,
Our ISKCON movement is one of the branches of the Caitanya tree. Every small group in ISKCON’s congregation is therefore a branch of the branch, stemming from the BV, the tree of bhakti of Lord Caitanya. The BV group is a type of Nama-Hatta group especially geared towards branching out.
It is preferred to use the name BV instead of Bhakti-Cells because the cell analogy simply talks about division,but the analogy of branching includes keeping the connection with the root. Someone may think that we have borrowed this type of preaching from some Christian organizations or from some other groups, but actually this is our own system. Lord Caitanya used to go from village to village and everywhere he went, each person he preached to, would branch out and make five more families Krsna conscious. Each of those families would make five more. Such branching is more dynamic than the simple cell multiplication: from ‘one to five’ is more than from one to two.
Goal of BV program
The BV program is meant to enable everyone to practice, to grow and to preach the process of Bhakti Yoga. By practicing, the devotee will grow in Krsna Conciousness (KC). He or she should also learn how to help others in their KC and also be able to preach to new people. The BV program provides association and spiritual community support, and when the new devotee becomes strong he should preach. One cannot carry out Lord Caitanya’s orders without preaching.
To achieve this in a systematic way requires a great stress on training, on all levels and on all aspects of practice and preaching. To be successful, the BV program needs to implement a ‘culture of training’. It is a brahminical, Vaishnava effort, dealing with people’s hearts and minds. It needs ongoing training of every member of every group, by seminars and courses, by practical engagement and philosophical study, by personal development and by preaching experiences.
The Weekly Meeting
The meeting has 6 parts: Association/Ice breakers (10 minutes), Kirtan (25 minutes), Japa (15 minutes), Discussion (60 minutes), Preaching reports and plans (20 minutes) and Prasadam (20 minutes).
It is important to include all the six parts of the weekly meetings. Each has a specific function and when they are properly done the effect is that everyone leaves the meeting in good consciousness, satisfied and eager to come back next week. The Ice Breaker, as the name implies, breaks the ice. It warms up the atmosphere and rekindles the group spirit after being away for a week from each other. The feeling of unity created by the ice breakers helps people to approach the Kirtan more relaxed and receptive. When everyone focuses on singing in the kirtan, it is also easy to concentrate during Japa. If during the Discussion everyone is eager to hear and talk, and if the discussion flows smoothly, at the end of the session everyone feels stimulated and satisfied. Without properly imbibing the Preaching mood the BV group risks to stagnate, internal conflicts may arise and become a dominant feature. Therefore the preaching session should never be neglected and should inspire all to reach out to make newer devotees. The Prasadam crowns the gathering and everyone goes home in a light and happy mood. The art of conducting successful meetings includes keeping to the time slots alloted.
