Devotee couples spend time together in the peaceful surroundings of Gita Nagari

The ILS is an annual event designed to keep middle-tier ISKCON leaders inspired, that drew 600 devotees from all over the world last year. There, the Grihasta Vision Team hopes to present their signature course Strengthening The Bonds That Free Us, which covers all the various aspects of grihasta (family) life, from spiritual practices, to finances, parenting and much more.

They also hope to offer their couples’ mentoring course, in which healthy couples are trained in how to be mentors to others. In addition, they will present The Four Strategies for Strengthening Families.

“One strategy is to identify opportunities to help single devotees find appropriate compatible spouses,” says Krishnanandini. “The next is to encourage premarital education and make it available for couples. Another is to promote activities which will bring about more cohesiveness between married couples, so that they don’t feel alienated. And the fourth is to offer sessions for men only and women only.”

For the Grihasta Vision Team, appearing at the ILS is an important move.

“We really want to go there and have a strong presence,” says Krishnanandini. “Because we want to reach out to the international community of devotees, to let them know what resources and help is available.”

The GVT also discussed their long-delayed book Heart and Soul Connection: A Devotional Guide to Marriage, Service and Love, which is now in its editing stages. And they talked about how they could get it ready in time for the International Leadership Sanga.

“We also talked about developing a course specifically for men,” says Krishnanandini. “It would be about how to get married, how to deal with a family, how to understand the nature of women—what they need and want—how to integrate and balance both spiritual and physical responsibilities and duties, and finally fears and insecurities about relationships.”

Another important meeting topic was fundraising and marketing. Currently, all GVT members pay the same retreat fees as attending couples, and pay their own way for expensive trips around the world taken solely to offer their seminars to devotees. So they hope to find someone who can spearhead a fundraising committee to support these efforts, as well as to provide scholarships for devotees who cannot afford their courses.

Another future goal for the Grihasta Vision Team is adding several young couples as members—social service oriented individuals who have a heart for the work and may have qualifications as psychologists or counselors.

“In the future we’d like to see at least one couple in every ISKCON community who is a trained and mature resource for other couples in the community,” says Krishnanandini.

At their meeting the GVT also planned articles for upcoming issues of their quarterly newsletter, assigned members to update and modernize their website, and talked about developing a book on parenting in Krishna consciousness.

Overall, after the meeting they’re feeling glad to be a part of the Grihasta Vision Team, and positive about the future.

“Srila Prabhupada wanted us to have stable, healthy families, and to be happy,” Krishnanandini says. “And I love having the opportunity to do this service for him. We’ve been doing this for over ten years now, and we’re beginning to see more devotees become open and ask for help. And I think that’s a good sign.”