The question “what is the basic building block of ISKCON?” is an interesting one.
Most people pause when I ask them the question. They don’t have a “prepared answer” floating around in their consciousness. It’s not something that many people think about.
When they start to think about it, oftentimes they don’t find a clear answer. Especially after the first question: “What is the basic building block of human society?” they can feel the contrast of clarity.
The answer to the second question is of course, in theory, the same as the first. Family is the basis of human society. “Society for Krishna Consciousness” means “Authentic Human Community”.
In practice, attempting to answer this question persons have floated to me: “Projects?” “Sannyasis and their disciples?” “Temples?”
The theory and the practice have some way to go.
The family is the metaphor for relationships in the network. It is the language of the story that is used as the higher-order synthesis to comprehend the complex web of relationships.
We need a story to give coherency to the otherwise overly complex permutations of relationships and interactions between a large number of people. It is not a story of a corporate structure, a military-industrial hierarchy. It is a family - a social structure.
We can see the theory evident in our terminology - god sister / god brother, “mataji”.
“Family” is the network metaphor.
Next: Some history, and the future - just like the past, only completely different
(Written before today’s yoga teacher training)
I think you’ll find there isn’t one basic building block but a number of activities which facilitate the building of relationships within ISKCON which in turn creates the “family”. There are many who feel that ISKCON is their family. That is, the place where they take shelter when they have no where else to turn to. That shelter is comprised of five things. Can you guess what they are?
I have always felt that management in ISKCON is similar to managing a family. You have to feed and clothe Krsna and His devotees. You have to shelter them when they need protection. In that sense whilst some think of management as a dirty word it is an essential ingredient for keeping your family together. We keep the glue sticky by facilitating the five basic activities of devotion within our communities. If we do that they will keep coming back for more.
Thank you for sharing your realization prabhu. I’m flummoxed on the five things, and interested to know - what are they?
The five main angas of Bhakti is my answer; association of devotees, hari-nama sankirtana, hearing the Srimad Bhagavatam, worshiping the Deity and residing in a sacred place.
After listening to some of the ICELT presentations I was pondering, “What is it that makes ISKCON unique?” In my opinion these are what really makes ISKCON tick, following in the footsteps of Srila Prabhupada, of course. You might also like to add prasadam but that comes automatically when you do all of the above.
If we can provide a facility wherein anyone can practice the above then we are a long way down the track of providing for our community.