How can we help temple visitors to become serious devotees?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So when we have a big temple, then a lot of people come, but not so many people become serious and committed.
So how can we help the people to become committed? Let’s say broadly, there are three things for people to connect at a deeper level with Krishna. There’s education, there is the culture, and there is the community or the society. So basically, people sometimes people come, most of the, I’ve seen the Hindus who come to temples.
They come because ISKCON looks like a cultural home to them, far away from India. And there are many Indian organizations, Hindu organizations, but not many of them keep all the cultural signs as they are. So because they feel there is kirtan, there is deities, there is prasad, there is most traditional dress.
So people are attracted. So they feel a cultural home. People may come because of the cultural aspect.
Some people just come for the social aspect. They feel, I get two people, like-minded people. I like to talk with them.
I get someone, some sort of community over here. Some people may come for educational purposes. I want to understand.
So now I want to understand the answers to fundamental questions of life. The way Shri Prabhupada made ISKCON, he very much stressed philosophy. He stressed the educational aspect quite a bit.
So as far as the cultural and social aspect is concerned, other movements are also offering that. Maybe not in the same way, but what would raise us from the, so if you consider cultural, educational, social as the starting points, from there what raises people to the spiritual level is education. They may come for educational purpose, but there are very few who come for that purpose actually.
But the education, when we understand intelligently, then we rise from the, the intellectual takes us from the cultural level to the spiritual level. Janma karma cha me divyam evam yo vetti tattvataha. In the tattvataha, when we truly understand this philosophy, the intelligence, when we understand it, then Krishna says that knowledge of his activities and pastimes, the appearance and activities, that will elevate and liberate us.
So there has to be some structure for education. So maybe some introductory courses. So whoever comes to the temple, they are informed that we have these courses, we have this succession Gita course or whatever kind of course we have.
These courses, either in the temple or in different parts of the city, wherever people are staying, those courses are vital for helping people to connect at a more committed level. So having introductory courses and training devotees to conduct those introductory courses well, that is a vital part for, it is vital for solidifying the community. So usually when a new temple is established, at that time a lot of energy goes in establishing the temple and maintaining the temple and then a lot of practical services there.
So those services will always be there and they need to be done. And some devotees, some people may just be attracted to services. Services are also very important and many people like to do services.
So through that also we get connected. But some devotees who have that inclination can be trained, can be encouraged and trained and facilitated to conduct courses. That can substantially solidify the transition, substantially increase the transition of people from just visitors to practitioners.
And overall, the culture of keeping track of people who are coming, whatever way it is, either maybe getting email IDs, getting phone numbers, asking them to fill some feedback forms or whatever, that also helps us to connect. And this is the practicalities. But mainly I feel, then if we have been connected, we send them some philosophical, some informational material, some philosophical reflection of thoughts, whatever.
But education is the primary way I feel people become committed. One is education, the other is service. So services is mostly already there in a lot of temples, services there.
But through education, through service, the personal connections are established. So by service, I would say service is more related to the culture. You know that, okay, you know, maybe wash vessels or serve prasadam or clean the temple or do this, do that.
That’s a part of the devotional culture. The connections either through a counseling system, mentoring system or just informally, connections, they are part of the community. The education is what caters to the philosophy.
So whichever way people can get connected, it is good. But some level of education helps people to solidify their connection with Krishna. So is there any punishment for suicide? Yeah, again, you know, we could say