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• Certain experienced devotees from the temple and the congregation are nominated to be counsellors. Some devotees could be appointed as assistant counsellors.
• All devotees are counselled by more experienced selected devotees. Devotees from the congregation (counsellees) are assigned to particular counsellors, usually on the basis of geographical proximity of their residences. Sometimes, however, other considerations prevail (e.g., if a devotee is already being cultivated by a particular counsellor or if a devotee has a strong personal preference for a particular counsellor and so on; sometimes linguistic and socio-economic considerations are taken into account to ensure that the counsellee will be in a comfortable situation).
• The counsellors meet with their respective counsellees once every fortnight. The meetings usually take place, turn by turn, at the homes of devotees in the group.
• Besides the meetings, the counsellors maintain personal touch with their counsellees to ensure their welfare.
• New devotees are encouraged, either through announcements at the Sunday Feast programme or in personal discussions, to participate in the counsellor system. Thus an effort is made to bring as many devotees as possible under the umbrella of the counsellor system.
• The Board of Counsellors and assistant counsellors meet fortnightly and discusse issues of importance. This is an important policy making body for the temple.
• From time to time, according to need, the Board of Counsellors recommends the name of new candidates for the post of counsellor or assistant counsellor and they are finally approved by the local GBC representative.
• Several teams could be formed for various services and to cater to various needs of the temple and congregational devotees. These teams report to the Board of Counsellors. The Board of Counsellors in turn reports to the local GBC representative.
• The Temple President also attends the monthly meetings of the counsellors (our TP is also a counsellor). The purpose is two-fold:
• It ensures that the decisions taken by the Temple management are more participative in nature and that the views of the congregational and temple devotees are taken into account.
• It ensures a smooth serving relationship between Temple brahmacharis and congregational grhasthas.
(For example, in Sri Sri Radha Gopinath Mandir in Mumbai, there is a mood of mutual love, trust and respect between the brahmacharis and the grhasthas.)
• Young, unmarried boys in the congregation (particularly students) who are not yet showing indications of desire to enter grhastha ashram could be looked after by the respective brahmacharis who are preaching to them. When they express desire to enter grhastha ashram, they could be handed over to suitable grhastha counsellors. (There could be, however, some young grhastha counsellors who do look after new unmarried boys also.)
• No counsellor is allotted more than 15 devotees or families as counsellees to ensure that he is able to give adequate personal attention to each counsellee.
• In some cases, when the group is large, one or more assistant counsellors assist the counsellor. The assistant counsellors independently meet with devotees allotted to them once a month. In the second meeting of the month, they join the main counsellors group for a joint meeting. The assistant counsellor takes guidance from his counsellor and yet is responsible for devotees who are his counsellees.
• In course of time, an assistant counsellor may, by a recommendation of the Board of Counsellors, become a full-fledged counsellor.
• Grhastha ‘counsellor’ generally means a husband and wife team.
• Another important function of the Board of Counsellors is to recommend names of devotees for first and second initiation. There are fairly detailed and stringent guidelines for determining eligibility for initiation according to ISKCON rules. Based on these guidelines, each counsellor recommends from his group of counsellees, suitable candidates, if any. The Board then considers each name and if any of the other counsellors have reservations about a particular candidate, the matter is further discussed. After approval of the counsellors’ board the names are passed on to the Temple Leaders Council for approval and then to initiating spiritual master for final approval.
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How does it work