By Devotee Care Committee
Sometimes ISKCON members think about ISKCON as an institution, or as the “leaders” of the temples, or the GBC, or someone else other than us. We expect ISKCON to care for devotees, and we may feel hurt or disappointed when care is not given as we would expect or as we would like. ISKCON is a society made up of members. Each of us is ISKCON. When each one of us feels that we have the responsibility to care for one another, then ISKCON will be a caring organization, with a family atmosphere based on love and trust, as Srila Prabhupada wrote. If, however, we wait for such a society to come only from leadership, or from some vague idea of institution, it will be very hard to achieve the real devotee care we desire. So, let us look in the mirror, perceive that “I am ISKCON and I care”, and decide today how each of us can exemplify devotee care in our own lives.
Vision, Mission and Aims of Devotee Care Committee
Vision
Every devotee in ISKCON is to be provided with the spiritual, mental/emotional and physical care they deserve as parts and parcels of Krsna, according to Srila Prabhupada’s instruction and example. This should be done on the personal and institutional level.
Mission
We strive to care for the spiritual, emotional, physical and social well being of the devotees of ISKCON. We want devotees to be encouraged, inspired and empowered to be happy and make progress in Krona consciousness, and thus be enthused to expand Srila Prabhupada’s mission.
Alms
We aim to give life-long personal care to devotees so they can make continued progress in spiritual life. We aim to have care that includes personal attention to both devotees’ spiritual and material lives. We aim for care to be given in a brotherly and sisterly mood of compassion and love, sacrificing some of our time and pride. We aim to assist with the overall management and facilitation of the leaders of ISKCON in taking care of devotees. We aim to have a mood while giving care that Krsna is the provider of all we lack and the preserver of all we have. We aim to define real success as the creation and maintenance of a happy, loving Vaishnava community. We aim for a society that recognizes the real assets as being the devotees, not physical assets.
More information: https://devoteecare.org/
The 6th purpose of Iskcon is to live a simple natural lifestyle and to teach it to others. To teach this lifestyle we need to practice it and i believe this lifestyle is within community. One of communities' inherent natural principles is called "Conflict Resolution", in fact community does not exist without conflict resolution. This means within community, open and transparent communication is uppermost. This leads on to natural care, support and resolutions.This can be executed and shared publicly and/or privately. And community can only really exist within a simple living dynamic. And simple living is based on an agrarian cow protective ecological principle for it to be complete, self-sufficient and symbiotic.
In other words to achieve care and support to devotees in a holistic way, the whole 6th purpose of Iskcon can be introduced and implemented. Then we have a natural framework for this to exist. Significantly, governance within community is executed by the members of community, thus creating confidence and enabling empowerment for each individual, which translates as love,care and support.
But what we do have to face up to and confront is Pseudo-Community.