Dhanurdhara Swami, «Monday Morning Greetings 2018 #9 – The Bhakti Center: A Case Study in Empowerment» (Waves of Devotion, 26 de febrero de 2018)

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Monday Morning Greetings 2018 #9 – The Bhakti Center: A Case Study in
Empowerment


  Dhanurdhara Swami           February 26th, 2018

The Bhakti Center is flourishing. It is beyond the scope of this post to go into the details,
but I think it is self-evident. The Center now offers over 2,500 programs a year with
especially large attendance for festivals and kīrtanas. It also houses the number one
rated vegetarian restaurant in New York City, Divya’s Kitchen. More importantly,
hundreds of people, many quite established, are enthusiastically embracing Krishna
consciousness through their many śāstra discussion groups and spiritual programs. It
also seems to be continually expanding. What is the secret of their success? There may
be several reasons, but one thing for sure is their mood of empowerment.


Before continuing let me define “empowerment” and “disempowerment” to help you
understand exactly what I am referring to. They are my own definitions based on my
experience. Empowerment: “To recognize, encourage, and facilitate one’s abilities and
then create parameters by which one can work in a greater managerial or social
context.” Disempowerment: “To concentrate first and overly on the parameters within
which one can work without the requisite acknowledgement and encouragement of one’s
potential.” Disempowerment is also called bureaucracy.


Here is a brief template of the Bhakti Center’s success in empowerment. Radhanath
Swami and other senior leaders at the Bhakti Center saw the potential of the second
generation Hare Krishna devotees. For example Vīrabhadra Rāma, who was born in the
Hare Krishna Movement and working in New York City at the time, was encouraged to
participate in the development of the project and by that encouragement eventually
increased his commitment to the level of initiation. His potential for leadership was soon
recognized and he was encouraged to become the Executive Director of the Bhakti
Center.


It is interesting to note the board of directors for the Bhakti Center invested in him the
full authority to manage the project while still keeping full responsibility as a board to
oversee that the project remains healthy within the parameters Śrīla Prabhupāda set.
They didn’t fall into the bureaucratic trap of delegating the responsibility for him to
manage, but keeping the authority for themselves, bogging down decision-making and
discouraging initiative. They weren’t disappointed with the result.

Vīrabhadra Rāma worked at forming a team of mostly qualified young devotees based on
a foundation of mutual trust to assist him in managing the project. As he was recognized
and empowered to manage, he similarly empowered others. As a result many qualified
people stepped forward, working cooperatively and effectively to push the forward the
Bhakti Center’s mission. There seems to be no limit to what a project can do if a good
leader is empowered and empowering. While initially such a leader has to be involved
with the nitty-gritty, or whatever needs to be done, inevitably competent people eager
for service will step forward to cover all services. Eventually there will be more people
eager to serve than there are positions to fill.


Vīrabhadra told me recently that the greatest challenge now at the Bhakti Center is to
engage and empower the many qualified people that are stepping forward spiritually. I
think in many ways this parallels the way Śrīla Prabhupāda managed in ten short years
to go from a storefront on 26 2nd Avenue to a large worldwide movement, by seeing the
qualities in young people, trusting them, and offering them fresh challenges.


Having observed leadership in ISKCON over the last forty years and having been a
manager myself for over twenty years, I have come to the firm conclusion that an
empowering manager should be out of job within two years. I had mentioned that to
Vīrabhadra Rāma when he first took up the job. By the phrase “out of a job” I am
certainly not suggesting that a leader relinquishes any of his or her responsibilities, but
within two years others should cover most of his or her initial duties so the leader is free
to expand the project in other ways. When Vīrabhadra Rāma first took up the post of
Executive Director just to cover the needful, he had to relinquish almost 80 percent of
his clientele in a very successful life coaching and marma therapy business. I see now,
however, that he is free to travel for business when needed to meet his family needs,
lead extended pilgrimages to India, deepen his spiritual life and personal study, and
concentrate on new initiatives to expand the project.


There is no limit to what can be accomplished when we have this vision and detachment
to “recognize, encourage, and facilitate one’s abilities” – especially the next generation
of devotees. This was Śrīla Prabhupāda’s mood. The Bhakti Center is a good study of
what happens when we follow his path of empowerment. [1]




[1] “Our leaders shall be careful not to kill the spirit of enthusiastic service, which is
individual and spontaneous and voluntary. They should try to always generate some
atmosphere of fresh challenges to the devotees, so that they will agree enthusiastically
to rise and meet it. This is the art of management: to draw out spontaneous loving spirit

of sacrificing some energy for Krishna.” Śrīla Prabhupāda letter, 22 December 1972,
Bombay




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