>VIHE Bhakti Sastra Course at ISKCON Pune Temple

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"To show them special mercy, I, dwelling in their hearts, destroy with
the shining lamp of knowledge the darkness born of ignorance."

VIHE Bhakti Sastri Course at ISKCON Pune Temple
By Sankirtan dasa brahmacari
Posted April 7, 2003

Instead of studying in the classrooms in the Krishna-Balarama Temple in Vrindavan, the 33 devotees taking a course on Bhakti-Sastri conveniently remain in their own temple. The teachers from the Vrindavan Institute for Higher Education (VIHE) come to their temple in Pune. This kind of provision has not happened before.

VIHE was established by Bhurijana dasa (author of Surrender unto Me) in 1987 and has since then, under the able leadership of Braja Bihari dasa, provided courses every year in Vrindavan. Pune temple president Radhe Shyama dasa thought it just too uneconomic to have to finance the stay of 33 devotees in Vrindavan. Also it would cause difficulties to have many devotees stay away at the cost of services and preaching activities. So why not have the teachers come here?

Purnacandra Prabhu, a disciple of Srila Prabhupada (recently published the much appreciated book Unspoken Obstacles on the Path to Bhakti") is giving a six-week course on the Bhagavad-Gita in Pune: "To have the teachers come here is a good idea. These young devotees are very eager to learn and might otherwise only with difficulty get the opportunity to systematically study Srila Prabhupada books."

Almost all of the over 60 fulltime devotees in Pune temple are graduate students. They practice strict sadhana and are skilled in preaching to other students in the many colleges and universities in and around Pune. And they love to study.

Srila Prabhupada wanted devotees to become learned in his books. He wrote in a letter to Brisakapi dasa in 1976: "Also you must see that the brahmanas are given sufficient time to read the books. Soon we shall be introducing the Bhakti-sastri examination which all brahmanas will be expected to pass. It will be based on Bhagavad-gita, Nectar of Devotion, Nectar of Instruction, Isopanisad, and the small paperback books like Easy Journey. A brahmana should be pandita."

Temple president Radhe Shyama Prabhu: "This course is far beyond what I had expected. In my opinion, the taking care of devotees has always been the key to success. And devotees require training. We are indeed very fortunate to be able to study Bhakti-Sastri from teachers who really know their subject."

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