Etiquette in Public and Holy Places

Etiquette in Public:
We must act with the consciousness that Guru, Srila Prabhupada and Krishna are always watching us and every action of ours should be pleasing to them.

Etiquette in Holy Places:
Maintain a submissive humble mood in dealings with devotees and residents of the dham , animals included.
We go to Holy Places in the mood to purify ourselves and develop love for Krishna.
Thus our activities should be:

• visiting temples in the association of devotees
• hearing from senior devotees
• serving devotees

This will help us be in the right consciousness and save us from committing offenses in the dham.

Seniors, Juniors and Equals

Level	How should we behave?	How do we behave?
Seniors	We should be happy and try to learn from them	We feel envious
Juniors	We should be compassionate and try to raise them to the proper standard	We deride them and we feel superior
Equals	We must treat them as a friend	We are proud of our own activities

Reference SB 4.8.34

We must always maintain the mood -

• "Every man I meet is my superior in some way. In that, I learn of him." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
  
• We address everyone as a prabhu/ mataji which means we think ourselves as a servant of all vaishnavas.

Some scenarios to think about:

1. One of you friends is very good at making deity jewellery and is helping the matajis with making them. The matajis also ask you for help as they have to get it ready for the next day. What will you do?
2. You are making garlands with a senior mataji and another devotee comes and asks you something about a particular philosophical point that was not clear to them in the Sunday school class which you both attended.What will you do?
3. Your new friend just finished honoring prasad and was called to the temple kitchen for a service. She forgot to wash her hands and started doing things in the kitchen. How will you react to this?
   
4. You and your vaishnavi friends are participating in a singing competition in the temple . Your friend wins the competition.You will feel envy. What are things you should not be thinking so you dont feel envy?
5. What if you were the one who won the competition? How would you deal with your friends?How would you accept this and who would you give credit to?
   

Recieving Guests at the temple

Quotes:
Srila Prabhupada:
"When we actually see people coming to our centre, chant, dance, take
prasad, becoming jubilant and purchase books, we know that certainly Sri
Caitanya Mahaprabhu is always present in such transcendental activities
and He is very pleased and satisfied." (Adi Lila 2.9.50, p.)

HH Radhanath Maharaj:
"We’re distributing so many tens and millions of books all over the world and we must continue doing so. But when people take interest in the book and decide let me go to the temple, their philosophy makes sense, this is changing my life, I want to do it, I want to learn how, I need people to show me to live by these books and when Krishna sees that interest, He sends them to the temple.

And unless we’re prepared to welcome, to greet them, and teach them how to live by these books, they will never make much spiritual advancement.

Because in the books it says, you must have the association of devotees.

Our temples, it is so very important that we learn the science of properly giving and receiving the association of devotees. Actually every guest that comes is Krishna’s specially invited guest. And it is our duty to give them every possible opportunity to make spiritual advancement. It is the first priority.

Why are we spending so much money building big big beautiful beautiful temples all over the world. It is to attract people to come. It is not just to attract them to come, it’s to attract them to come but also to meet devotees and learn how to surrender to Krishna. If after spending millions of dollars to build temples, and when people come and we don’t have time to teach them how to be devotees, because we need to pay the bills, better we stay in the little storefront or better we don’t even have any temples. Just sit on the street and meet people and teach them how to become devotees.

And this is a fact. But BEST, we have our beautiful temples and we have beautiful devotees to say HARI BOL ! Welcome. Please meet our deities.

Please chant Krishna’s name and be happy. Have prasadam my friend … Haribol!

Who would want to even leave such a temple. We should be blissful … ” Thank you for coming ."

HH Bhakti Caru Maharaj:
Any guests who visit are Srila Prabhupada's guests and have been personally sent by Krishna. As his servants it is our pleasure (and duty) to serve them. The arrival of a guest is a chance to introduce a conditioned soul to Srila Prabhupada or relish Vaisnava association. Vaisnavas feel joy and gratitude to be blessed with such an opportunity.

We need to remember that everyone is a part and parcel of Krsna and is very dear to Him. We show this practically in the mood of loving exchange:

1. Welcoming the guest with sweet words, a seat and prasada. (If no prasada is available at least a glass of water or fruits should be offered.)
2. Being prepared to give our time and sincere concern -make their visit to the temple wonderful
3. Remaining Krsna conscious in our discussions and dealings
4. Thanking the guest for his visit and inviting him to please come again.
5. Whoever comes to the temple must be greeted with folded hands

HH Radhanath Maharaj: Lecture caring for devotees.
"Whoever comes in the door-whoever it may be-is greeted with folded hands and welcomed to the temple. Srila Prabhupada said that anyone who comes to the temple is personally sent by Krishna. With that understanding the devotees warmly and cordially say: “Oh, thank you for coming to Radha-Gopinatha temple, welcome!”.................... The devotees give the visitor caranamrita and prasadam, and they just become friends of the person and say “If you have any questions, please ask.” Almost all the guests become best friends with a devotee receptionist, and gradually, when they become more interested, they buy books and other things. After coming once people come again, not just to see the Deities, but because there is a friend of theirs in the temple and they want to see him. They tell their relatives and friends: “In that temple there is such a nice sadhu who is my friend, let’s go and meet him.”

Having understood the above quotes on the importance of receiving guests in the temple what would you do in the following situations?

1. You are engaged in a time sensitive service and an inquisitive guest arrives at the temple. Everyone else is also busy with no time to welcome the guest?
2. You are making garlands and a guest expresses interest in helping out?
3. You see someone with a baby entering the temple and they forget to remove the baby's shoes off?
4. You see two devotees engaged in an argument and at the same time many new guests have come to the temple. You are worried that the behavior of the devotees will affect the guest's impression of the temple and eventually our Guru Parampara and teachings.
   

Sadhana Chart

Week	Geetika	Harini	Puja	Saakshi	Ashmi
5/1-5/8	-25	65	70	??	65

Needs to be updated for last week. Members please send me your scores.

Score Calculation:

Completed Prescribed number of rounds on all days before 7pm +10 per day

Missing rounds on any one day -5 per day missed

2 or more rounds done before leaving for school +2 for each round only if 2 or more.

Temple Room Etiquette

Temple Room Etiquette:

Offer obeisances to all assembled vaishnavas as soon as you enter the temple room. Even if the temple room is empty we still offer our obeisances to all vaishnavas."Vancha Kalpataru " prayers should be chanted while offering obeisances.

Then one should offer obeisances to Srila Prabhupada, keeping him on one's left, and chant his pranati mantra "Namo Om Vishnupadaye .." . One should then move towards the deities and offer obeisances, keeping the deities on our left side and chant their respective pranama mantras.

While taking darshan one may stand at the sides so that darshan is not obstructed from the devotees who are siting. The darshan should begin, as we face the deities, from the left-hand corner and move progresively, Deity by Deity to the right-hand corner.

Maintain a devotional mood while in the temple room and avoid talking in front of the deities, during lectures, kirtans, etc unless required for service. If you need to burp or pass air go out of the temple room.

Prasadam Etiquette

Prasadam Etiquette:

Wash hands and mouth before and after taking prasadam. In the Western countries it may be difficult to wash our feet. But when in India, it is recommended that you wash both your hands and your feet before and after taking prasada. Use the right hand for eating and drinking. Even if you are a lefty, try to use your right hand.

When a devotee distributes prasada, remnants of food offered to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, in order to maintain our spirit of devotional service we must accept this prasada as the Lord's grace received through the pure devotees. (NI Text 4, p 39)

Remember that Krsna prasadam is non-different from Krsna. Recite the 'sarira avidya-jal' prayer to remember that. Meditate on how Krsna tasted the offering and His mercy in providing prasadam to us.

Wash hands after drinking water.This is done because when your hold your cup while drinking, your hands actually become contaminated. Any items that need to be sucked while eating should be gracefully removed with the hand when done and should not be spit out in the plate.

After one takes prasadam the area where the plate was kept must be cleared of any grains that may have fallen while eating. One should not step over the area where prasadam was taken, because it is considered contaminated.

Kirtana Etiquette

Singing
Kirtan should be performed in the mood of glorifying the Lordships, singing with sincere devotion for the pleasure of Sri Krsna and His devotees.

When singing in a group, one or two persons should lead and other devotees should follow.

The instruments that can be used for kirtan are harmonium,mridanga, kartals,etc
Use simple melody and preferably the appropriate melody (raga) for the time of day.

Kirtan Competition:
If our peers are leading very beautifully and are getting a lot of praise for the same(more than us) we should feel very happy that they were able to please the Lordships.

If we feel bad about this, then maybe our singing was to get praise from other devotees and not for the pleasure of the Lordships. For if it was for the pleasure of the Lordships we would have been very happy with our peers singing so wonderfully.

Dancing:
"Regarding your question about the dancing, the dancing should be doneenthusiastically by raising the hands like Panca-tattva. You can alsodance enthusiastically by raising hands. All of Lord Caitanya's followers used to dance with raised hands. If someone dances with ecstasy, that is all right, but it is better to dance with raised hands." (SP Letter to Kirtanananda 11/10/74?)

Personal Habits

Personal Habits:
Nails should always be clipped short. This should done in the bathroom and the clippings should be flushed away down the toilet or sink, or thrown in the rubbish bin Evacuating, nail cutting, teeth brushing, shaving, etc., should be done before showering.

Take at least two showers a day — the early morning shower can be cool to help invigorate the system and should be efficient . It is also important to take a 'mental bath' by chanting Hare Krishna as one takes one’s physical bath.

Tilak should be applied after showers.

After doing the following activities one is considered unclean and therefore needs to take a shower: sleeping more than one hour, brushing teeth, passing stool.
After touching the inside of the mouth,ears or nose, one must wash their hands.