January to March 2021 ISKCON-London Community Newsletter

Page 30

SPIRITUAL MENTORSHIP SYSTEM Initiation

Rupanuga Bhakti dasa received second initiation on Wednesday 10th January. His spiritual master Janananda Goswami is currently in New Mayapur, France so the initiation took place over Zoom. Jai Nitai dasa facilitated by placing the sacred thread on Rupanuga Bhakti dasa and training him on how to chant the Gayatri mantra. Maharaja spoke the mantra to Rupanuga Bhakti dasa in private on the phone. Rupanuga Bhakti dasa is a mentee in Jai Nitai dasa’s mens mentee group.

Mentorship Meetings

Mentors are continuing to have twice monthly online meetings during the lockdown as they cannot meet in person. Chandravali devi dasi’s mentee group have been having regular reading sangas three to four times a week with a different speaker each time including Vamsivata dasa, Murli Manohara dasa and Nama Sankirtan dasa. Bhava Bhakti devi dasi’s community ladies mentee group have been taking part in presentations on a particular topic. Each mentee has been presenting the talk in their own way. In one of the meetings, Bhaktin Sophie gave a talk entitled: “What is good association and how can I get good association during lockdown?”

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Spiritual Mentorship System

Bhava Bhakti devi dasi shares: “She had a really nice PowerPoint presentation on this talk and it led to a group discussion on being honest about what association we willingly take as we are weak, how we need to become good association for others, not forgetting the human touch in relationships, and always strengthening our association with Prabhupada.” Dayal Mora dasa’s mentee group have been making pledges for the glorification of Srila Prabhupada in this 125th year of his divine appearance. Ideas included: 125 hours of kirtan, 125 hours of cleaning, extra daily reading of Prabhupada Lilamrita, cooking of Srila Prabhupada recipes, and singing of Srila Prabhupada bhajans. The grihasta mentee group facilitated by Jai Nitai dasa and Bhava Bhakti devi dasi had a presentation by mentee Nimai Candra dasa and Prana Sakhi devi dasi on Srimad-Bhagavatam Canto 4 Chapter 10. Nimai Candra dasa and family ended the presentation with a pre-filmed short silhouette drama of the whole chapter which was super impressive. Also during the meeting, group members all had to say one line each of the main pastimes in Chapter 10 as an exercise to see how well they had remembered the pastime from the reading. Next


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