Different Yatras have started their Bhakti-vrksa Program in different ways, below we analyze a few examples.

Bangalore, India

Here the leaders first focused on the Siksa Program. They encouraged and consolidated the congregation through the Siksa Program, awarding them certificates according to their level of practice (chanting 1, 4, 8, or 16 rounds, and other spiritual standards). In this way they got more than 300 people in the various levels. At this point they divided them into 27 groups, they selected a leader for each group, and appointed one brahmacari from the temple as supervisor for each 4 groups. In the next three months the groups practiced bhakti-vrksa group life without getting new members. This was done to give time to the groups to become familiar with the system, while the group leaders attended training sessions at the temple every week.

Zagreb, Croatia

Here it all started when two brahmacaris heard about the Bhakti-vrksa Program and became convinced: “This is the future.” They started with 5 groups, made up mostly of students. The two brahmacaris acted as group leaders (one for 2 groups, the other for the other 3 groups). Temple authorities weren’t supportive of their efforts, but the bramhacaris persevered and after less than two years already had 16 groups. Now one of the two brahmacaris is national minister for congregational preaching, with full support of the local GBC (in the meantime temple leadership has also changed).

A Muslim Country in the Middle East (we don’t specify which for security reasons)

This is a fully congregational yatra: no temple, therefore no temple-devotees; not even devotees who ever lived in a temple. By mid 1995 there were between 50 to 70 devotees. Then they started the Bhakti-vrksa Program and divided the congregation into 8 groups, each lead by an initiated devotee. After sometimes 4 of the group servant-leaders were promoted to be sector-servants. After growing further one sector-servant was appointed as circle-servant, and so on. After a couple of years (in September 1997) the Bhakti-vrksa Program had 80 groups (all with trainee-leaders), 5 children’s groups, and about 800 devotees. They hold seminars like “Bhagavad-gita Overview”, “Sadhana Improvement” and “Personal Relationships”. They celebrate all the festivals in rented halls, where they invite the general public and they cultivate new people.

The main ingredient in starting the Bhakti-vrksa Program is the person: you need someone who understand thoroughly how the program works, has plenty of enthusiasm and patience, and is dedicated to make it happen.