Bhakti Vriksha Preaching

Every small group of ISKCON’s congregation is therefore a branch of the branch, stemming from the bhakti-vriksha (the tree of bhakti) of Lord Caitanya. The Bhakti-vriksha group is a type of Nama-hatta group that is especially geared toward branching out. Just as in a tree, a branch of a certain thickness branches off into two; and the branching process continues until the tree has thousands and thousands of branches, all connected to the main root. Lord Caitanya is the original root, and even one single branch from the Caitanya tree can grow and form thousands of sub-branches, small twigs, leaves, and so on. We are part of the Caitanya tree. This is the ISKCON branch, and Srila Prabhupada is our connection.

What is Bhakti Vriksha Group

A Bhakti-Vriksha group is a small number of congregational devotees who meet every week to practise Krishna consciousness and to plan preaching activities. In these Bhakti-Vriksha groups, the devotees learn how to nourish their spiritual creeper and to cultivate their service attitude in cooperation with others. Every group member is also active in preaching and in bringing new people into the group. Upon reaching fifteen members, the group divides into two. This system keeps the groups small, thus maintaining an intimate atmosphere of personal care and nurturing, which is not possible in large groups. The members help each other under the supervision of a servant-leader and a trainee servant-leader. The trainee servant-leader is being trained and groomed to become the future group leader after the group multiplies into two. Multiplying adds life and increases preaching momentum, compelling new leaders to take initiative. When the group multiplies, the servant-leader continues to supervise one group, while the trainee servant-leader then begins to supervise the other group as a servant-leader. And both of them appoint a new trainee servant-leader.

Benefits of Bhakti Vriksha

• Enables systematic training of new devotees.
• Trains devotees to a level where they are committed to serving Srila Prabhupada’s Iskcon, and understand the qualities of a guru and a disciple within a year.
• Based on Devotee Care Principles - Spiritual, Emotional, Social, and Physical.
• Trains devotees to lead their own groups and also keep advancing through continued guidance and support from the seniors.
• Creates enthusiastic, committed, and energetic devotees who are trained in different devotional activities.
• As group size is limited to 15, it can be conducted in devotee’s homes.
• Does not consume much time to temple leader’s, but requires their support.
• Provides increasing service and financial support to temples through continuous growth in quality and quantity of devotees.
• Provides interesting and highly satisfying engagement for devotees, increasing their commitment to Iskcon.
• Can be spread all over the city and also in towns and villages where there is no Iskcon center.
• No disturbance to neighbors by our programs.
• Different ethnic, linguistic, and social groups are reached due to individual attention from leaders.
• Builds a strong, well -knit community of devotees with wonderful Vaishnava qualities.
• Provides each and every one with a life- time of service.
• In spite of constant expansion, the quality of devotees is maintained through personal attention from group leaders.
• Devotees develop a service mood and so are respectful to authority, warm and loving to each other and to everyone else. This attracts more and more people to join.
• Good relationships are built and any misunderstandings are easily solved as there is good communication between leaders.
• Regular meetings for all levels of leaders ensures the cooperation of everyone as well as the progress of the groups.

This is why Devotees at ISKCON Barasat are bringing to you the "Bhakti-Vriksha" course. This is a 6-module course with 10 sessions in each module which will be conducted once a week.

contact with us on 7797587849