Grihastha Ashram Development

1. GrihasthaAshram Development Helping to build healthy marriages in ISKCON

2. Devotee Care • An important aspect of devotee care is to help devotees to find suitable partners for marriage, when the time is right. • Also to provide support during the transition from brahmacarya to household life.

3. Varnashram System • The varnashram system promotes peace in society by situating every individual in the right varna and ashram. • When people are peacefully situated in the right ashram, they become happy and productive.

4. Encouraging Honesty • Devotees need to be encouraged to be honest when choosing their ashram, rather than giving in to peer pressure or false pride.

5. Protecting Devotees • Many devotees have fallen down or left ISKCON because of not being happily situated in the right ashram, and not receiving enough support in this area.

6. What we provide • We provide a website for devotees to find and contact potential partners for marriage within ISKCON.

7. Marriage Council • The Marriage Council UK maintains a private database and makes private introductions between devotees, as well as providing support and advice.

8. Grihastha guidebook • We have produced a book on grihastha ashram, based on years of research from Srila Prabhupada’s teachings and Vedic literatures.

9. The European Perspective • If centres in Europe appoint mature grihastha couples to provide similar services, we can work together.

10. Loss and gain • Better to ‘lose’ a devotee to grihastha ashram than to lose him altogether. • There may be a chance of losing a devotee to another centre, but there’s also a chance of gaining a devotee from another centre.

11. Stable marriages • Healthy relationships are developed from good compatibility, not from ‘marriages of convenience’.

12. Unity and Co-operation • Where there is unity and co-operation between leaders, devotees feel protected by the ISKCON family.