, and HH Dayananda Maharaja beat everyone else. After that Gopinath Prasada Prabhu, webmaster of the GBC College site and key developer of the online training, introduced the participants to the online platform and the courses they will take at home. The first two courses will be “Vaisnava Etiquette” by Bhakti Charu Maharaja, and “Basic Finance & Budgeting” by Krsnanaam Prabhu.)
After the initial three days of association with HH Radhanath Maharaja, HH Giriraj Maharaja and HH Bhakti Charu Maharaja, the participants rolled up their sleeves and explored the nuts and bolts of effective communication in the “Conscious Leadership” course by Brajmohan Prabhu.
Participants appeared thrilled by the highly interactive sessions and They are very open to learn new things as they all desire to serve the mission more effectively.
The twenty-five leaders who attended had so many good things to say about these thirteen days together.
Two senior ISKCON leaders Vijaya Prabhu, Minister for Book Distribution and Rasaraja Prabhu, who is leading the Bhaktivedanta Institute in Berkeley and Mumbai, addressed the participants.
HH Bhakti Vijnana Maharaja, GBC for Russia and a trustee of the GBC College, taught for two days on the “Culture of Empowerment” and the essential roles of an ISKCON leader. Maharaja is here not only as a teacher, but also to familiarize himself with all aspects of the GBC College to be able to open a branch in Russia.
Kaunteya prabhu presented the course “Leaders as Cultural Engineers”, explaining three “culture sutras” and their application.
Rupanuga Prabhu, President of the GBC College for Leadership Development, Co-president of ISKCON Laguna Beach and Professor of Operations Management at Chapman University, in California, for two days shared his knowledge and insights on “Project Management,” and trained the participants in a number of crucial leadership skills such as time management and on how to produce win-win decisions.
Besides the time in the classroom, participants built connections and camaraderie among themselves during meals, in the morning temple programs and even at boisterous ball games in the swimming pool. Some devotees spontaneously started planning for projects that could be beneficial for the whole of ISKCON.
During the day of break, after six intense days of learning, some devotees trekked up the mountain overlooking the farm; some devotees went to Nasik, the holy place visited by both Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Srila Prabhupada while some took a guided tour of the Govardhana Ecovillage, learning about the outstanding standards of cow protection, organic agriculture, etc.
On the last day they had a little fun with geography and history (a quiz to locate on a map the countries visited by Srila Prabhupada), and HH Dayananda Maharaja beat everyone else. After that Gopinath Prasada Prabhu, webmaster of the GBC College site and key developer of the online training, introduced the participants to the online platform and the courses they will take at home. The first two courses will be “Vaisnava Etiquette” by Bhakti Charu Maharaja, and “Basic Finance & Budgeting” by Krsnanaam Prabhu.
