Grihastha Ashram Development

Helping to build healthy marriages in ISKCON

Devotee Care

• An important aspect of devotee care is to help devotees to find suitable partners for marriage, when the time is right.

• Also to provide support during the transition from brahmacarya to household life.

Varnashram System

• The varnashram system promotes peace in society by situating every individual in the right varna and ashram.

• When people are peacefully situated in the right ashram, they become happy and productive.

Encouraging Honesty

• Devotees need to be encouraged to be honest when choosing their ashram, rather than giving in to peer pressure or false pride.

Protecting Devotees

• Many devotees have fallen down or left ISKCON because of not being happily situated in the right ashram, and not receiving enough support in this area.

What we provide

• We provide a website for devotees to find and contact potential partners for marriage within ISKCON.

Marriage Council

• The Marriage Council UK maintains a private database and makes private introductions between devotees, as well as providing support and advice.

Grihastha guidebook

• We have produced a book on grihastha ashram, based on years of research from Srila Prabhupada’s teachings and Vedic literatures.

The European Perspective

• If centres in Europe appoint mature grihastha couples to provide similar services, we can work together.

Loss and gain

• Better to ‘lose’ a devotee to grihastha ashram than to lose him altogether.

• There may be a chance of losing a devotee to another centre, but there’s also a chance of gaining a devotee from another centre.

Stable marriages

• Healthy relationships are developed from good compatibility, not from ‘marriages of convenience’.

Unity and Co-operation

• Where there is unity and co-operation between leaders, devotees feel protected by the ISKCON family.