17 Whittle Street,
Hughes, Canberra Australia 2618
iskcon.canberra@gmail.com
Mon - Sun
5:00 am to 8:30 am 6:00 pm to 7.30 pm
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Hughes, Canberra Australia 2618
iskcon.canberra@gmail.com
5:00 am to 8:30 am 6:00 pm to 7.30 pm
Volunteering at ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness) provides individuals with the opportunity to engage in various services and activities that align with the organization’s mission and values. ISKCON centers around the world conduct a wide range of services, and volunteers play a crucial role in supporting these activities. Here are some common opportunities and services conducted by ISKCON where volunteers can participate
"Although Krishna is always on the background, still Krishna advised Arjuna that you have to fight, at the same time, remember Me. The same principles we have to follow. We have to work, just like others, and at the same time think of Krishna constantly."
In India it is the custom that the kitchen is not even in the same building where the living rooms are because living rooms are contaminated. After cooking, all the [unbaked clay] pots are thrown away. This is not possible in your country. Therefore you have to keep the utmost cleanliness. Krsna does not require opulent offerings. He appreciates the sincere endeavor. A clean kitchen is more important than an opulent offering. If the kitchen is neat and clean, then the offering will be good. If the offering is a so-called “opulent offering” but the kitchen is not clean, Krsna will not like it.
esham satata-yuktanam “To those who are constantly devoted to serving Me with love, I give the understanding by which they can come to Me.” (Gita 10.10)
bhajatam priti-purvakam
dadami buddhi-yogam tam
yena mam upayanti te
Why is it important to keep everything –body, mind, house, car, temple – clean?
Every morning in every ISKCON temple, devotees sing a song glorifying the spiritual master that includes the phrase mandira–marjanadau: “cleansing the temple, and so on.” The spiritual master, along with his disciples, is always engaged in serving the deities in the temple, and that service includes cleaning the temple.
If cleanliness is neglected, it is a sure sign of laziness. If one is lazy – “Just let me sleep” – one doesn’t keep his environment clean. This is the mode of ignorance, tamo-guna. We have to overcome tamo-guna.
Srila Prabhupada taught us that our heart has to be pure if we want to receive Krishna and allow Him to pleasantly reside there. He taught us that when we are clean we are in the spiritual world and when we are dirty we are in the material world. Cleanliness, inside and out, takes us to the spiritual world. The more we clean the temple or our devotee homes, which should also be temples, the more our hearts become cleansed.
In his purport to Srimad-Bhagavatam 4.2.14–15, he writes, “Those who do not regularly bathe are supposed to be in association with ghosts and crazy creatures.” Regular bathing is essential to physical and mental health. For the aspiring devotee, bathing in the morning and evening and after defacating is a necessary part of the cleanliness regimen.
