Tonight, Jhulan Yatra at the temple in Graceville.

Our resident photographer, Sukanthi Radha, left for London last night after a year as part of the family here in Brisbane.

Just before she left I showed her how to use F-Spot, the photo management software that she has installed on her laptop as part of the Fedora Linux operating system.

Using F-Spot I’ve been organizing the more than 7000 photos that Sukanthi has taken across NZ, Australia and England in the last three or four years. As a demo I’ve created (using tags and the one click “Export” feature of F-Spot) a gallery that shows the evolution of the platform at the Sunday Feast over the time that Sukanthi was taking photos at the Sunday Feast.

Click on “Prev” to travel forward through time (I couldn’t figure out how to reverse the order). Many thanks to all the people who have “taken to the stage” and lead kirtans, bhajans, and spoken at the Sunday Feast over the past year.

And many thanks to my dear godsister Sukanthi Radha devi dasi for your participation and contribution here over the past year. You’ve made a big difference and we will miss you. I think of it as a leave of absence more than a parting of the ways. It makes it easier.

Many planks and sticks, unable to stay together, are carried away by the force of a river’s waves. Similarly, although we are intimately related with friends and family members, we are unable to stay together because of our varied past deeds and the waves of time.

- Srimad Bhagavatam 10.5.25

The Evolution of the Sunday Feast: Start Here

Tonight His Holiness Ramai Swami gave class and lead an ecstatic kirtan.

Some thoughts from tonight:

There was one lady disciple of Srila Prabhupada back in the day who would go into the bin after the Sunday Feast, and eat the prasadam that the guests had thrown out, and she would be crying at how they had wasted the Lord’s mercy (prasadam).

I take the dust from the lotus feet of that devotee on my head.

Every time that I go to the temple (infrequently at the moment) I test my Krishna Consciousness. When I go to the caranamrita, I watch my mind to see if there is any spontaneous attraction to take the water that has washed the hands of the devotees. So far that is not any sign of real Love of God within my heart.

Moving a few chairs around is nothing. Pastor Rick Warren spent 10 years leading the setup of 54 environments in the school that his church leased each Sunday morning, and then taking them down in the evening. A team would go in, draw a diagram of the room on the blackboard, then rearrange it. In the evening another team would come in and put everything back the way it was on the board.

One day Rick was carrying some toys for the childrens’ program from the trunk of his car across the school parking lot, and thinking to himself: “So many other pastors just have to show up and preach each Sunday - why do I have to go through all this every week?” As he thought this, he suddenly had a deep realization of what Jesus Christ had gone through for his sake, and he just stopped right there in the parking lot and broke down crying.

A devotee once asked Srila Prabhupada: “Srila Prabhupada, in your books you say that in order to take to the process of Krishna Consciousness one must have studied all the Vedic literatures, performed all Vedic sacrifices, and accumulated so many pious reactions - but while we’ve taken to Krishna Consciousness we have never done any of these things, so where do our pious reactions come from?”

Srila Prabhupada replied: “I have created them.”

There are so many people out there who cannot do service. We have to do it on their behalf. Last night we did a couple of hours of kirtan before our meeting, and I dedicate all benefit for that chanting to Dianne Brimble, who died so ignomiously on a P&O cruise in 2002. No-one was there to chant the Holy Name for her when she left her body. No-one will perform the sraddha or pinda ceremonies for her, but I remember her and desire that the benefit of that chanting go to her.

May this body, which is otherwise fit to be eaten by jackals, be utilized for the benefit of others.

This very fallen and lowly servant of Krishna prays: May I remain in this material world for millions of births, giving up all desires for liberation and learning to selflessly serve the mission of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.

This last week at the Sunday Feast we had a Hare Krishna Network Questions and Answers Panel. We have three devotees: a greenhorn, a representative of the fairer sex, and a senior devotee, get up on stage and speak to questions from the audience. It’s a free-for-all, a royal rumble, open mic night at the Sunday Feast with a roving wireless handheld for the audience.

Having these three personalities answering the questions of the audience does a number of things:

• It showcases the diversity of the movement - there are many different types of people involved.
• It enables people to hear from someone like them - whether they are a first time visitor, a long time devotee, male, or female. Of course our target audience is the general public, rather than the choir. Sometimes a greenhorn presents things in a way that people can relate to, while the old timer gives a solid perspective that goes over people’s heads.
• It enables different perspectives on the one issue to be aired. There is more than one way to peel a mango, and there are always different tacts to take on answering a question. No tact is ever going to satisfy everyone, so with three people you get three times the opportunity to give someone an answer that speaks to them.
• It lets greenhorns get mic time and experience in public speaking without subjecting the audience to an excruciating experience.
• It’s an intense learning experience for the greenhorn. When you’ve just been flummoxed by a question in public, you’re real interested to hear how the seasoned hand is going to handle it.
• Taking questions from the audience enables a dialogue to take place, which automatically makes people more attentive and receptive, and it enables them to target your preaching for you.

There are probably some other points that slip my mind right now.

This week we had Elliott, Rasika Seva dd, and Tirtharaj Prabhu on the mic. Tirtharaj was on fire, giving solid answers that were preaching textbook material.

Another thing I noticed that he did, which my Guru Maharaja also did last week, is speak to something behind the question a lot of the time, rather than to the question itself. Elliott would a lot of times answer the literal question, and when it came to Tirtharaja, understanding more the mentality of the questioner, he would broaden the context out and address fundamental misconceptions and assumptions that underlay the question.

There is another format that I’ve been thinking of, based on a US TV show from the 70s called “Challenge My Sermon” (yeah Raivata, I’m thinking of you buddy . It’s kind of like the WWF of preaching engagements. I haven’t got a complete handle on how to pull it off yet, but I’ll keep you posted. When it does go down, I think Tirtharaj is the man in the corner wearing the white dhoti that I’d put my money on, if I were a gambling man, which of course I’m not.

Now I beat you’d love to hear the recording of the evening. However, I just checked to upload it, and it seems that the personality in charge of recording it connected the mp3 recorder to the wrong plug on the mixing desk. I think I have a recording of the one from three weeks ago around here, I’ll dig that up for your listening pleasure.

I see a very close parallel to what happened after the end of the Second World War. At the end of the Second World War, the focus was on atomic weapons, the technology. Today, the analogous idea is on information technology. We believe that’s the cure-all for everything.

There’s an art and science to war. The science is in support of the art. The science gives you the weapons systems; it allows you to have the communications; it allows you to have all the things that support the actual conduct of war. War, as it is fought, is an art. It’s not a science. If you try to make it a science, you’re bound to be disappointed.

- US Gen. Paul Van Riper, PBS Interview

Substitute preaching for war, and I think that you have a good assessment of the relationship between information technology and preaching.

These two articles: Disposable Worship: a caution about using too much technology in worship, and The Gospel According to Electronic Culture: What if the medium really is the message? from the blog of Leadership Journal also examine the tension between the art and science of preaching in an age where the dominant science is IT.

These are important points to ponder as we adopt and adapt current technologies to use in Krishna’s service. As Swami Tripurari once said, we run the risk of becoming more absorbed in megabytes than in their maker. Anything used in Krishna’s service is spiritual, but as Srila Prabhupada explained spiritual life is a razor’s edge. It’s good to keep thinking about it, and watching as things swing from one extreme to another to try to find the middle path.

(Random example) Sure, giving all the Atma Yoga guests a membership card with a barcode on it would enable us to process them efficiently with minimal staff, and allow us to capture an unprecedented level of detail of statistics - but is that really a good idea?

I think the example given in the Disposable Worship piece is very good:

Borgmann says technology can make certain wonderful “goods” in our lives disappear without us even knowing it. Example: the central fireplace is replaced by the invisible central air furnace. In the process the family that once gathered around the fireplace to get warm before heading off to bed no longer engages in the community-building routine. The family no longer talks about the day, tells stories, or prays together. Through technology we lose what Borgman calls a “focal practice.” We lose a concrete, formative, and simple activity, and our lives are changed without ever noticing.

At the Sunday Feast we have the projection screen with the graphics, the stage, the mics, the polished practiced performance of kirtan (in the line of that envisioned by Srila Prabhupada for the World Sankirtan Party), and we also have the mrdanga and cartal kirtan with dancing. Keep it simple and direct. Look at people, touch them, move around them and influence them, allow them to influence you, smile, loosen up, have fun, don’t take it seriously, play. This chanting of the Holy Name is immersive and enchanting - and necessary.

The first one cannot replace the second - it can augment and enhance the overall presentation, but the main course is the combined enthusiastic chanting and dancing. Whatever contributes to enthusiastic chanting is favorable, whatever detracts from it is unfavorable.

Last night we had the Sunday feast. It was quite mystical how it all came together. After Saturday night’s Full Moon festival and Engagement ceremony at Atma Yoga we were all quite worn out. We left Atma Yoga around midnight on Saturday night.

No-one was there to help Param Satya cook until 3pm - usually a couple of people are there from mid day. Somehow, in spite of this, the prasadam was ready on time.

There was no-one organized to give the class, and no theme set. On Saturday I worked all day. I didn’t have much time to prepare for the Saturday night program and the talk I gave. I thought about it for a while, and decided to use the time for prayer rather than preparation. I think a balance of the two is the best. Prepare as if it all depends on you, and pray as if it all depends on the Lord.

Anyway, I had no time to prepare anything. I was quite worn out from Saturday night, and also in anxiety about my 6 am yoga teachers training class on Monday morning, followed by another week at work.

First of all, I thought of a tactic that I’ve used before when asked to handle the presentation at the Sunday Feast with no notice - ask for questions up front. It’s actually a good angle to take. Part of preparation is to try to understand the audience in order to tell them what they need to hear. It’s difficult, because the audience changes each week with new people coming all the time. Asking for questions up front allows the audience to do the targeting for you. Asking for questions at the end can be intimidating, as people don’t want to appear ignorant. Asking up front allows people to ask whatever they want, and to dictate to an extent, the direction of the presentation.

Of course, once you start answering you can direct things from there, but it allows people to participate and contribute - two essential elements of authentic community.

Over the last few days I have been repeatedly watching this video of a debate on O’Reilly, a TV show in the States. It’s a great study in how not to get slaughtered in a debate. Be clear and consistent about what you stand for. Have your own positive agenda - don’t simply try to negate or oppose the opposition. Don’t respond to your opponent - simply repeat the main points of your message.

I really liked the way that the presenter handled the interaction. It was an interesting, engaging presentation. Mash-ups are the rage right now, so I mashed up the two ideas.

We convened a panel of three devotees - one young brahmacari, Matsya Avatara das, who has been studying and teaching Sanskrit in Vrndavan for the last three years. Rasika-seva devi dasi, our singing and dancing guru, and Yadavendra prabhu, Brisbane’s book-distributing disciple of Srila Prabhupada.

I played the part of the presenter and fielded the questions from the audience with a wireless mic. Each of our panel members spoke to the question, then I gave a synthetic summary before taking the next question. It was a lively interaction, very stimulating for the audience, who had the opportunity to interact and influence the presentation.

Being open to influence opens influence.

Having three different personalities on the panel enabled us to address the questions from a variety of perspectives. No one answer will satisfy everyone. There are infinite ways of understanding and appreciating things, and some people will be more attracted to one presentation than another.

Afterwards we had a nice kirtan with beautifully choreographed dancing. When the dancing is consistent and predictable, and there is clear direction, lots of people will join in. If it is too difficult, or requires too much individual initiative, then people will be reticent. The idea is to perform the dancing as a service, with the goal of involving as many people as possible. As more people join in the momentum builds. It is beautiful, and a creates a real sense of community. The idea of community is involve others, to give everyone an opportunity to participate and contribute. When people experience this they feel the common bond, the experience of authentic community.

Then of course we had dinner. Everything fell together nicely, by the arrangement of the Lord.

Here is something else that I’ve been thinking about, in the category of “what works, what doesn’t, and why?”

Today I went to the yoga school where I will be doing my yoga teacher training over the next year. I arrived there to find two students outside. As I approached they told me that the class had been cancelled. While we stood there talking a fourth potential student appeared.

Returning home I shared this experience with some of the others, and we related it to the recent consideration we have been giving to whether or not to hold the Sunday Feast this coming Sunday, which is part of the Easter long weekend.

I’ve been thinking about this for a number of years, actually, and here’s my conclusion thus far:

When we put the word out: “Come to the Sunday Feast” we are inviting people to come. We want people to come. If people then respond to this invitation, and come, and find that we are closed, then what does that communicate to them?

“We don’t care about you. You don’t matter.”

That’s a problem.

In Peru I practiced eka-kirtan-vrata. One Kirtan. One Lecture. (I had a 64MB mp3 player, so I had little choice - props to Raivata for that). I only listened to Sri Prahlad’s Harer Nama Volume One, and the Contemporary Urban Preaching Seminars, again and again, trying to extract the essential nectar from them.

Here is one of the things that I discerned to be a guiding principle (you can also read it mentioned in HH Devamrita Swami’s online diary here [paragraph 7]):

The difference between a temple and a preaching center

In the temple the Deity is the center of everything. Everything revolves around the Deity and the service of the Deity.

A preaching center is a center with a different focus. In the preaching center everything revolves around the guest and the service of the guest.

This is an important and fundamental point.

This is an important and fundamental point.

This is an important and fundamental point.

In the Pancaratra-pradipa (the Deity Worship manual for ISKCON) it explains that if a guest arrives, especially the atithi, or unexpected guest, then one should stop their adoration of the Deity and serve the guest, completing the Deity worship later.

The unexpected guest is a representative of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Narayana.

So even if we told everyone there that we were closing next week, unexpected people would come.

Imagine it - we’re putting out the message: “Please come, please come”, and then someone responds to that, and comes along, and we’re nowhere to be found.

It reminds me of Srila B.R. Sridhara Swami’s characterization of the 10th offense in chanting: “To not have complete faith in the transcendental power of the Holy Name and to maintain material attachments, even after understanding so many instructions on this matter.”

He says: “It is like inviting Krishna into our house as a guest, and then ignoring him completely.”

Call me a fanatic, but we are not going to close. I know that some people were a little upset that sometimes we cannot all attend all of the temple festivals, but hopefully this will help people to appreciate that this is not whimsical or separatist. Simply the fact is that for our outreach programs we are saying to the people: “You please come, and we will serve you.”

And we mean it.

Here is a good discussion about the use of “technology in worship“. The comments are especially insightful and illustrative. It’s the old “harmonium in the kirtan” conundrum again. I spoke about this last time we were at New Varshan (Tri Yuga, do you still have the recording?).

It’s a tension between the Holy Name and the carrier wave of musical sound vibration. We know that the active ingredient is the Holy Name of the Lord, but we want to deliver that to the public with a nice sound vibration so that they will sit still and listen to it. At the same time, we don’t want to forget what the essence is. So therefore Srila Prabhupada said: “No harmonium in arati kirtan”, and at the same time spent so much time personally training the missionaries he sent to England in music, and wrote so many letters to Hamsadutta casting the vision of the “World Sankirtan Party”.

At the Sunday Feast here we are developing the first part of the program as something like a musical performance, more akin to a spectator event (no one came and participated anyway, so it’s no loss) and retaining the second final kirtan as interactive dancing and singing with a major emphasis on the participative congregational chanting of the Holy Name.

It’s really important to have that, because that’s what changes people’s hearts. Having the musical aspect helps to get them to come. It’s not a question of one of the other, but both. We need to get people to come, and we need to give them access to the technologies that they need to cleanse the heart.

It’s the same thing with everything that we do. Overemphasizing on one side or the other reduces the effectiveness of our preaching. Overemphasizing “telling it like it is” and “giving it to people straight” helps us end up with an empty room, or at least to miss a lot of our potential audience. Overemphasizing “meeting people where they are at” and “considering their needs and their comfort zone” helps us end up with a room full of people going nowhere.

The art of preaching is to get the balance right. For every story of Srila Prabhupada giving a thunderous denunciation there is another of him taking time to talk about racing cars or some other trivial subject that his audience was interested in.

Adaptive in the field. Conservative at home.
Innovative on the edge, Traditional at the core.

We need both.

-Srila Prabhodananda Sarasvati

Here are the slides from Week 2 of the “What is Yoga?” Series.

My vision with this is basically to assemble a world-class team of preaching artists here in Brisbane and make the most kick-a presentations imaginable, with complete resources of music, graphics, lesson plans, video, everything, and then produce complete sets of resources for Sunday Feast series, including integrated children’s programs (with their own kirtans, songs, drama, videos etc.) that map to the adult’s series themes.

We’ll then make those resources available through our online shop for a nominal fee and other places can download complete sets of resources for $5 or $10 a week. A pittance for what you’ll get.

Anyway, at this early stage, we’re giving it all away. Here is the slide set from the past week.

“What is Yoga?” Series Week 2 Slides.

P.S: We exported to pdf from Powerpoint, and on my iBook with Fedora Core 5 it looks like it has white bands in it. Can you let me know what it looks like on your operating system please.

Literally - here’s our new stage:

We bought this stage this past week. Param Satya and Madana-Gopal lead that one up. This next week we’re going to get another one just like it and then we’ll turn that one sideways and put the other one next to it, to get double the space. You’ve got to build things for growth. This way the guests can sit on chairs, and we can do kirtan sitting down where they can see us. Nothing more boring than staring at the back of someone’s head for half an hour.

Here’s Bhagavat Asraya prabhu giving the second presentation in our current series, “What is Yoga?”. That is such a better position for the screen. Also the projector is now behind a column, so you can’t even see it.

The Deities altar was very “pucca” as they say - very beautifully decorated and very clean, and the pujari even had a sari and choli that matched the colors of the altar clothes!

Click on the pictures, then click ‘em again to see the bigger versions.

To create momentum, introduce something new. To sustain and further build momentum, commit to continual improvement.

- Andy Stanley

By popular demand we’re talking about Yoga for the next six weeks at the Sunday Feast. It’s a hot topic these days, and while many people have heard of it, they don’t know what Yoga is really all about.

We’ll be discussing yoga - what it is, and what it isn’t. What it’s for, and where it’s from, and who is the Yogesvara, or Master of Yoga.

During the series we will be discussing the elements and practices of Bhakti Yoga, including the chanting of japa, the arati ceremony that we do during the program, the significance of the clothing, the practice of kirtan, or congregational chanting of mantras, and the offering of sanctified foodstuffs.

The first class will be given by Param Satya devi dasi. I’ll be hanging out with Prahlad.

Major props to Bhakticandrika for the series graphics.

I’m on a training course at the moment, for the Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) Certification. The course is supposed to take 5 days, but we’re cramming it into one and a half days, and then sitting the six hour examination tomorrow. My head feels like it will explode. Here’s hoping I can pass.

Today Param, Acyuta, and Elliot chose some furniture for the Atma Yoga discussion space from local Oriental furniture merchants Samsara. They have a scheme where you can pay it off over 12 months, so I was called in at the last minute to sign on the dotted line. They’ll be delivering that stuff tomorrow, so it will be there in time for the opening. There was also a wonderful stone fountain there that I would like to get. I’m pretty easy on most of the “interior decorating” stuff, but one thing that I do have a solid preference for is a water foutain in the place.

Yesterday’s post on the Kool Aid was a bit passionate ( ). My apologies to Madhava Ghosh Prabhu for unintended cultural misunderstanding, and of course to my god brother Ekendra for triggering the “deviant cult leader on the loose!” alarm yet again.

Check out the cartoons at the end of this post for some light entertainment. There are a whole lot of funny ones at Church Cartoons. I thought these two in particular were quite appropriate.

Anyway, as promised, here is something about the special characteristics (which would have been written “superiority” if this was another Sita-pati rhetoric post, but enough controversy for one week) of Atma Yoga (the system).

Nalakuvara left a comment where he said: “Atma Yoga is about presence, believability, and showmanship”.

It’s not just about that, but that is a part of it. It’s about a credible presentation, or as I like to refer to it: “contextualization”.

Imagine this: you are a first time visitor to the Sunday Feast. You have no idea what the thing is all about. “What will happen? What will they do? How long will it go for?”

All these questions are running through your head.

Then the program begins, and you are thinking: “What are they doing? How long will this go on for?”

Now imagine that someone comes out at the beginning and says: “Welcome to the Hare Krishna Sunday Feast. Here is what we are going to do. First this, then this, then this, then dinner”.

They then introduce and explain each element of the program. “Now we are going to do X. It’s origins are Y and the significance of it is Z”. You get a guide, who goes through the program with you and creates a consistent experience, introducing each element and contextualizing it - putting it into a context for you, in a way that helps you assimilate it.

Atma Yoga does this across the yoga experience. It has a consistent introduction and outro, which weave together to create a consistent experience, and beyond that, a consistent story.

Really what all these activities that we call preaching or evangelism or communication or presentation are, is story telling. We’re telling a story. Atmananda das has made the yoga part of a coherent story that is magical and charming, and wholly consistent with the philosophy of Krishna Consciousness.

He has created elements of communication and ritual, such as the intro and outro of the class, that weave together, and can be easily utilized by all the teachers. It gives the guests a coherent experience, and a consistent experience. Both coherency and consistency lead to increased comfort and increased assimilation. Redundancy leads to greater comprehension.

The elements of the system that he has so far created are good and sound, as are elements of existing individual presentations in different places. The fact that it is a system that can be reused and improved is what makes it unique.

While we’re on an appreciation roll - while we’ve been working on the Atma Yoga transfer, a whole lot of slack has been taken up at the Sunday Feast by Asi Kunda devi dasi, disciple of His Holiness Indradyumna Swami. She has been organizing a roster for the service of the arati and altar decoration.

You know, roster organization is such an important service, and one that I completely suck at. Acyuta Bhava performs that valuable service in Red Hill. Another personality who is very good at pulling people together is Madana Gopal das brahmacari. He is currently teaching the second installment of the Bhakti Sastri course at the temple, and he also is a stalwart at the Sunday Feast.

In Kids’ Club news - the old Loft space is going to become the temple shop (yes, Brisbane gets a temple shop is a headline in and of itself - watch out for it with photos when it opens). This means that the space will be available for the Kids’ Club on Sunday, which should cause a lot of parents to breathe a sigh of relief. Asi Kunda and Taraka are behind the temple shop initiative.

The new series is called “What is Yoga?”, and the first class is this week by Param Satya devi dasi. I’m not going to be doing much. Sukanthi Radha devi dasi is responsible for organizing the opening bhajans, and hopefully Vrajadhama will be available to do the MC’ing. I’m going to be spending time with my son Prahlad. He is about to turn 4, and needs more of my attention now. Especially during this Atma Yoga transition things have been very unsettled and irregular. Add to that my six day a week, different each week work schedule, and you’ve got a recipe for disturbance. So my focus for the next while is on spending some time with him.

My work has now become a five day a week affair (yay!). This weekend I actually have Saturday and Sunday off, so I’m hoping to go to the temple with Prahlad on Saturday morning. I can’t really hear the class if I’m with him, but at least we can be in the kirtan, see the Deities, and importantly, be together.

OK, stream of consciousness off - I’m out to pick up Prahlad and practice the kirtan for Saturday night.

Studies on attention span also shed light on why students have difficulty with the traditional lecture format. Adult learners can keep tuned in to a lecture for no more than 15 to 20 minutes at a time, and this at the beginning of the class. In 1976, A. H. Johnstone and F. Percival observed students in over 90 lectures, with twelve different lecturers, recording breaks in student attention. They identified a general pattern: After three to five minutes of “settling down” at the start of class, one study found that “the next lapse of attention usually occurred some 10 to 18 minutes later, and as the lecture proceeded the attention span became shorter and often fell to three or four minutes towards the end of a standard lecture.” Other studies appear to confirm these findings.

From an article entitled “The Change-Up in Lectures” (no, not that change up).

People’s attention spans are declining, as the scriptures predict that they will throughout the present industrialized age. The implications for communicating Krishna Consciousness are obvious - people’s ability to pay attention to our message is decreasing, and we need to do something to address that.

Some things that can be done: “over prepare” in order to communicate succinctly and engagingly, compress the information, keep it on point and timely, use diverse delivery media to stimulate engagement, and above all - always leave ‘em wanting more, rather than burning them out.

Serving too much to a guest at the Sunday Feast leads to a lot of wastage. Give people what they can digest - nothing more, nothing less. Because the audience is hetrogenous (read: variegated [read: made up of dissimilar people]) one size doesn’t fit all. You have to decide who you are targeting. Other people who fall to either side of your target will get more or less of a fit. Others who are at the extreme ends of the spectrum from your target won’t get the most from it, but that can’t be helped.

One approach that we are trying here is to make the Sunday Feast like a variety show, and to have a number of different events in order to stimulate attention through change (the “new” factor), and provide something for everyone (in our Sunday Feast target demographic). Remember, however, that too much change fatigues the audience also. So mix it up with different pacing and give people a change to relax at times.

A couple of weeks ago we did 40 minutes of bhajans (concept: make the experience like listening to a CD - multiple short tracks one after another), followed by a 20 minute slideshow by Sukanthi Radha dd, followed by a 35 minute lecture by His Holiness Devamrita Swami, followed by a 30 minute whomper kirtan.

I’ll try to get that slideshow by Sukanthi online with the recorded audio. It’s really good. I also have the class by HH Devamrita Swami, which was part of our present series on Guidance.

Depending on who your intended audience is you structure your presentation differently.

At the moment my thinking is that the Sunday Feast, if it is to be pitched to a wider audience of people to introduce them to our culture, should be more like a variety show.

What’s the goal of the Sunday Feast? It’s to entertain, inspire, and lightly inform people. The informational aspect is meant to be just enough to further inspire them to get involved. We don’t have any illusions that the Sunday Feast platform is an educational one. It’s meant to inspire people to enter deeper into community with practitioners of Krishna Consciousness, and this can only happen if there are further opportunities to do so. One day a week (versus the other six) does not community make.

So the Sunday Feast is not an end in itself - it’s the front end of our marketing of Krishna Conscious community.

I listened to the radio the other day in the car (Anantara left his car with us while he is in India). I scanned back and forth between radio stations trying to hear what people are listening to these days, and how it is composed. I had trouble finding any music. There were ads, and stings, and soundbites, and manic DJs jabbering over pulsating techno bass backing tracks - nothing that lasted more than 10 - 15 seconds. Then finally I found a station that was playing actual music.

“And now, here’s the latest song from Ashley Simpson. it’s the fastest song in the world at two and a half minutes - here it is: L.O.V.E.”

The length of a commercial radio song used to be three and a half minutes, and even then it had the “middle eight” - the eight bars in the middle with a break down or bridge before going back into the chorus and the outro. (Touch of a Saint, for those of you who know it, was 4 and a half minutes long. We should have halved the bridge and did only one chorus the first time round to make it a more viable format).

Previously we discussed here about the length of the kirtans and bhajans that we do at the beginning of the Sunday Feast. Nothing should go over 10 minutes, absolute max. (The final kirtan with dancing goes for half an hour minimum). Once new guests figure out the melody and realize that you are simply repeating the same thing over and over again, or words that have no meaning for them (even with the English translations they can’t relate emotionally to the content) their brain switches off.

The brain has figured out as much as it can, and is satisfied. Once the “new” and “novel” experience wears off, they start to get impatient. If you watch them you’ll see them start to shift in their seats, start to get distracted. So the idea is to change things quickly enough to keep them engaged, keep them off-balance, keep them assessing the situation. Once people disengage, it is hard to get them back.

So the whole thing should be a variety show. The idea is to give people a sampler of the breadth of the community - to see a number of different people doing different things, briefly, as a teaser, so that they think: “I want to experience more of this”, rather than looking at their watch and thinking: “How much longer does this go on?”. By seeing variety they also get a sense of the diversity of the community and can think: “There is something in this for me”, and “There could be a place for me too”.

The music at the Sunday Feast is the soundtrack. The role of a musical soundtrack is to evoke people’s emotions, to draw them out and involve them more deeply in the experience.

So we have to make sure that the music that we are presenting is coherent. The drama, music, and message on a given night should all be coherent and consistent. Each should reinforce the other.

At the moment we are using visual branding to create consistency and coherency in our series programming, using the same slide backgrounds, based on the series graphic, throughout the series.

That’s the direction we need to move in.

Yesterday Devamrita Swami spoke here at the Red Hill ashram to a group of about 20 people. Vrajadhama recorded it, and I’ll get the recording from him and post it up here.

Tonight he’ll be speaking at the Sunday Feast, and Sukanthi Radha will be giving a slideshow presentation, which I’ll upload here also. Share the love.

Here is the first in our four week series on “The One Thing You Need to Know” - a powerful principle that enables you to deal with any situation with competence and confidence.

Now before I give you the link, I have to say this: I did not know that we would be moving on a new facility right now. I had planned to put all my energy into preparing for this series. I had meetings scheduled with other preachers to discuss the subject matter and do team preparation. Instead all those plans were thrown into disarray, and I spent the week trying to land the new digs.

So I didn’t actually get any time to do any preparation. I worked six days last week, and on my morning off (Sunday) I did the handout - an important communication to allay certain concerns that people had about the move.

So my preparation consisted, literally, of sitting down at the front of the Sunday feast at 3.30 pm on Sunday and hammering out some slides on Bhakticandrika’s computer to try to get a structure together, and then praying to Krishna.

I wanted so much to take shelter of sleep. I just wanted to go to sleep right there and then, and then just get up early the next day for a fresh start chanting the maha-mantra. But of course I couldn’t, so I had no choice but to surrender.

I stood up with absolutely no opening, a bare minimum of a structure, and no illustrations for my points. You can hear me riff off Vraja’s introduction as my opening, and then tell people they are not the body.

Anyway, because Krishna is God, I did my duty and He contributed something of value. If I could do that again I would like to have a story that runs through it, illustrating the points. I didn’t have time to find one. No time to think. Anyway, Krishna preserves what we have, and carries what we lack.

Here it is:

The One Thing You Need to Know 1 (16MB .mp3)
Slideset (including opening bhajans) (3.3MB .ppt)
Sunday Feast Handout (768k, .pdf)

One of the implications or complications of the expansion to the new facility, is the issue of the Krishna Kids Club - our program for children on Sundays. We have this program for a number of reasons:

1. To enable the teaching to go on in the main space without the interruption of children in the audience
2. To enable people to come to hear, even when they have children they are responsible for
3. To enable us to give the children an appropriate experience of Krishna Consciousness, targeted to their needs
4. To encourage children to drag their parents along

It has actually become a very popular program, and part of the drawcard for many parents. I know that for many months Param or I would walk the streets outside with Prahlad during the teaching. Once we got the Loft facility next door to Govinda’s restaurant, where the Sunday feast is held, we had a space to go with Prahlad during the program, and we knew there were many others in the same boat as us. So we launched the Krishna Kids Club program under the leadership of Channell.

Now there are up to 20 kids there each week. People are concerned about the future of this program now that we are moving out of the Loft space to the new facility.

I don’t have all the answers to everything right now, but we’re committed to this program in the long term. Let’s see what Krishna arranges in the near term. I will probably need to speak about this at the Sunday Feast - perhaps we need more of a committment on the part of parents. Often we don’t fully appreciate something until it is gone.

Next Sunday we start our four week series entitled: “The One Thing You Need to Know”.

A powerful principle that enables you to deal with any material or spiritual situation with competency and confidence. If you know nothing else, this one thing will be sufficient to secure your success. The One Thing You Need to Know.

Here is a conversation at the Loft the other night:

SP: “So what do you do during the week?”

G: “I’m studying business”

SP: “Oh? What kind of business are you going to have when you’re finished?”

G: “I don’t know.”

You can tell when someone is not in their zone, engaged in the activity that they were designed to be engaged in, when they lack enthusiasm and are frustrated. After some time on other subjects the conversation came back around to this.

SP: “The Bhagavad-gita explains that we’re all born with a nature suited to a particular type of work. Business is not really your thing, is it?”

G: “No, it’s not”

SP: I can tell. When someone is really wired for business, and I ask them what kind of business they are going to have, they don’t even have to think about it - they have an idea, and a lot of enthusiasm. I can see that your heart is not in it. It’s the same with IT - lots of people study it because their parents want them to, or they think it will lead to a good career. I ask them: “What language do you program in?”, and they say: “We’re studying Java,” and I ask them: “No, I mean what language do you program in, when you get home at night and get on your machine.” Then they look at me like I’m crazy, and I know that they don’t have what it takes.
Everyone is “wired” by nature for something, and when you’re doing that thing you find it very easy. You’re probably not so interested in what you’re doing right now, have to work quite hard at it, and are not really excelling at it. When you understand where your particular area of talent and strength lies, and work in that area, you’ll enjoy what you’re doing, you’ll get results without great effort, and you’ll be happy doing it.

G: “That sounds very interesting”.

SP: “Unfortunately in today’s society there is not much guidance in helping people to understand what their natural talents and strengths are, so a lot of people are just drifting around, doing things that they don’t enjoy and can never be really good at. If they could just understand what nature has wired them for, they’ll be able to be happy and successful.”

This is an angle of preaching that appeals to all types of people, because it speaks to their potential to realize their nature, no matter what it is.

Please refer to these earlier posts for more background on this:
Elevator pitching Krishna Consciousness Part 1
Elevator pitching Krishna Consciousness Part 2
Elevator pitching Krishna Consciousness Part 3