By Raxit Jariwalla
Dear Devotees,
Please accept my heartfelt obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Here is the final report of the results from the ‘MSF of Everyone and Every Service Counts’, held on the weekend of March 23rd-25th, that were offered on Saturday, March 31st, during the Ramanavami festival celebrated at the ISV temple in San Jose.
Theme
This MSF was very special, recognizing the service that each and every devotee does at ISV, offering his or her valuable time in the devotional service of Sri Sri Radha Madanmohan. At ISV, service is independent, spontaneous and voluntary. Every devotee and every service one performs counts including:
Preaching, conducting Sunday school classes for kids and Bhakti Shastri classes for adults, performing kirtan, performing arotik and guru puja ceremonies, dressing and worshiping the deities, decorating the altar, pujari services, preparing and offering bhoga to the lordships, purchasing and bringing flowers to the temple, making garlands, cooking and serving the devotees, cleaning and maintaining the temple, shopping for bhoga and temple supplies, making Sankirtan lunches, ordering, shipping, keeping inventory and packing books, distributing books, e-books and CDs, traveling Sankirtan party, placing smart boxes in establishments, assisting with MotelGita and ISV Media services, designing posters/flyers, printing and MSF support services, designing and maintaining websites, assisting with temple programs, organizing festivals (including MSF), fund-raising for the temple, accounting, banking and maintaining donor database, doing publicity, communications and Atiti Devo Bhava, serving on the board of directors, leading teams and directing departments, new temple services, assisting with college preaching, pacific learning alliance (PLA).
The list seems to be endless; but in reality, these are the services devotees perform at ISV. Please forgive if any service(s) has been overlooked.
Goals
The team ISV goals of this MSF were to:
* Recite the entire Ramayana by Lord Rama’s appearance day
* Distribute books at an event
* Research to start a lunch program at Stanford University
* Make a portal to showcase the services of ISV devotees
* Register the Bhagavad Gita Club at Intel
We are pleased to report that all these goals have been successfully met. First, devotees participated in the reading and recitation of the complete Ramayana by HH Bhakti Vikasa Swami, led by HG Vaisesika Prabhu and followed up by HG Akruranatha Prabhu, Shraddha Mataji, and Subhra Mataji. Second, with respect to the event goal, books were distributed at a San Francisco flower market. Third, research was conducted to start a lunch program at Stanford University by members of the college preaching team and a Bhagavad Gita club was registered at Intel by Sri Govinda Dutta das. And last but not least, a portal named services.virtualtemple.org, where devotees can express their appreciation of other devotees’ services, was designed by Balmukunda Prabhu with ideas and support from Hansapriya and Shraddha Matajis.
In addition to glorifying Lord Rama and performing aforementioned services, ISV devotees also participated in a Hari Nama Sankirtana performance last Friday in Palo Alto, and on the same weekend (March 24th and 25th), went out on book distribution in the Bay Area. In addition, several Ramayana books (obtained by Damodara Vamsidhari Prabhu) in four different languages, along with other foreign language books, were distributed during this MSF.
Results Summary
Here is a summary of the final scores:
In all,
* 26 devotees participated in book distribution
* 1739 books were distributed and
* $1661 in Laxmi points were collected (including donations)
These MSF results were offered to Srila Prabhupada, to Lord Ramacandra and their Lordships on the occasion of Ramanavami.
‘MSF of Everyone and Every Service Counts’ ki Jaya!
Hare Krishna!
Raxit Jariwalla