Telugu Bhajan Mandali & Home Kirtan Service | Bay Area

There is no specific occasion needed for doing satsang for the Lord. All days are auspicious. However, these may be some compelling events for you to consider doing a satsang at home:

• Condolence/memorial service for loved ones who have passed away
• Birthdays / anniversaries
• Housewarming
• Parents/relatives visiting from India
• Festivals (Navratri / Holi / Diwali / Dussehra)
• Prayers for health and wellness
• New year or holidays
• Pooja (Shraadh / Pitra Paksha)
• Any auspicious occasion

The program generally lasts 1.5-2 hours. The content can be tweaked per host’s requirement, but here is the recommended breakup:

• Ice-breaker talk & overview of glories of holy names: 10-15 min
• Bhajan/kirtan(s): 20-25 min
• Inspirational talk on Bhagavad Gita / Srimad Bhagavatam Maha Puran: 35-45 min
• Bhajan/kirtan(s): 20-25 min
• Arti and offer bhoga to the Lord: 5-10 min
• Prasadam and mingling: 30-45 min

Our volunteers don’t charge anything as such as this is not a business service. Our volunteers drive 30-60 mins each way for conducting the program, and stay 2-3 hours they spend at your location. 

However, if you’re inclined, you can donate per your faith and capacity for supporting temple operations and Sanatan dharma. You will get a receipt for your donations for tax deduction purposes. It will either be from ISKCON of Silicon Valley or Pacific Learning Alliance.

Remember: 

1. Taking a bath purifies your body
2. Mantra meditation purifies your mind
3. giving charity purifies your wealth

Please do not give individual envelopes with donations to each team member. 

All the donation goes to the temple. We don’t keep anything for ourselves. Sometimes we may partner with devotees from other organizations to conduct the program and it just complicates things if you give them a donation too. Then ISKCON cannot give you a receipt for the donation you give to them. We want to avoid this complication.

We don’t recommend cash or cheque because it becomes challenging to get you a donation receipt well before tax season. With digital donation methods, you get an immediate digital receipt via email or text, and it’s less hassle for everyone. 

We recommend any of these donation methods:

• Credit or debit card/ Apple Pay / Samsung Pay/ Google Pay. This payment method uses Square and will happen on the spot with a temple devotee who is conducting the program. Note that the Square receipts don’t have your name on it for matching.
• Zelle – teamisv@gmail.com. If you use this method, please send us a screenshot for tracking purpose as we don’t have access to these accounts.
• Paypal –  teamisv@gmail.com. If you use this method, please send us a screenshot for tracking purposes as we don’t have access to these accounts.
• Venmo. @isv_books If you use this method, please send us a screenshot for tracking purposes as we don’t have access to these accounts.

If your company matches donations for nonprofits, then please do consider it. We do encourage you to explore this option. You can use the receipt for submit for matching donation for these registered nonprofits:

Pacific Learning Alliance 

EIN 45-2210885

Pacificlearningalliance@gmail.com

OR

ISKCON of Silicon Valley 

EIN 77-0463781

If your matching portal requires your name on it, we can send you a PDF receipt with your name on the letterhead of ISKCON of Silicon Valley or Pacific Learning Alliance. It can take a little time (like a week or two at max), but it will be done.

If you do want to donate and support the temple, it’s best to have a sankalpa or predetermined thought of how much you want to donate, and do it right after the program. 

Please understand that the temple volunteers are also busy working professionals, and with so much going on, they too have challenges in following up for non profit donations. The donation amount is strictly between you and Shri Radha Madan Mohan and we are just instruments.

Please do not be offended when we request you to share the donation amount. Kindly note that the temple volunteers don’t have any direct access to the temple accounts so we are unable to know how much you donated. It’s a completely blind process. Thus, we have to request you to tell us the figure so that we can talk to the treasurer and have an official receipt sent to you. 

Food must be sattvik and vegetarian (minus onion, garlic, mushrooms, gelatin, brinjal). At minimum, you can just have khichdi, dahi, papad, and fruits. While offering naivedyam or bhoga, tulsi leaves should be put on the plate as that is desirable to the Lord.

For cooking at home or with friends, kindly note:

• The utensils should not have been used for cooking non-veg or eggs or seafood before.
• If you’re asking your friends to make anything, please ensure they are following the above cooking standards.
• While cooking, you can put bhajans or Hare Krishna kirtan from YouTube to keep your mind spiritually inclined. The consciousness of the preparer comes into the food.

Outside catering options/ Some of them deliver also so please ask:

1. Yogi Plate (669) 278-8417 (South Bay) (devotee-owned catering service)
2. Arth Vegetarian Food Catering +1 (669) 800-7099 
3. Harsha Jain (510) 298-8116, (510) 207-6767 (Fremont Gujrati aunty)
4. Neelu Vegetarian cook +1 (510) 358-0718
5. Shalini Khanna vegetarian cook +1 (408) 406-7252 
6. Chat Bhavan (Fremont/ Sunnyvale/ Dublin) Ask for Jain Food
7. Ananda Bhavan (Pleasanton) (925) 924-1122 Ask for Jain Food
8. Sricatering.com (Livermore/Tri-valley area) (813) 389-4225 or (813) 735-9815 Ask for Jain Food

Please note:

• We are not directly associated with any of these caterers.
• Ask them for Jain food (without onion, garlic, mushrooms, gelatin etc.)

If possible, request them NOT to taste ahead of time as it is for Bhoga for the Lord.

It depends on the preference of the devotees who come. Our volunteers may have certain food discipline (e.g. ayurvedic diet or spiritual vows etc.) they may be abiding by, so they may not eat at the event. Please do not pressurize them to eat but as a dutiful host you can always ask. Please do not take offence if they are unable to eat or are uninclined. Most will accept fruits, all the same.

Yes, please review selected recordings at youtube.com/playlist?list=PLW6aF2mZXK_nc4EjOO79DCnjvYiQ_VN4o

See pravachan recordings 

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1o8YyNHgU9o
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZTs2ZufVdg
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gg1SWJ09p0A 

Yes, everything is possible. Food should not become the bottleneck in satsang.

If you want to avoid the hassle of cooking lunch/dinner or catering from outside, we can just do a shorter event in the timeframe between lunch and dinner. You can serve light snacks to your guests and still offer a good spiritual experience. Please discuss this option with us at +1-341-758-0572 (Whatsapp). Basically, the food is for your guests, and we don’t need it for the temple team.

We can also do a shorter satsang of 1 hour or 30-45 mins depending on the situation. The key goal is to spread the divine consciousness, so we are flexible to the special needs of the occasion. However, if possible, please consider setting aside 1.5-2 hours for the full experience that we can offer.

We encourage you to invite AS MANY people as possible for the event per your hosting capacity. 

Your network is bigger than you think and a satsang is a great way to get back in touch. You can tap these networks for inviting people:

• Neighbors in your community
• Parents of your children’ s friends
• Colleagues 
• Alumni network
• Volunteering or interest groups you are part of 
• Relatives

Multiply that with 2 to cover your spouse’s networks.

⇒ So, if you really get down to it, you can easily invite 15-30 families. This is the real service in organizing a satsang.

No offence to your wonderful pets, but they can be quite distracting and take people’s attention away from the spiritual gathering. And human attention is at a premium at these gatherings. In fact, that’s the whole point of the satsang.  

Pets roam around and sniff people or lick them or our equipment, which becomes a hygiene issue. 

We thus request pets to be tied in an area that’s away from the gathering place and visually out of sight.

Our Telugu repertoire is rooted in the Vaishnava tradition of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana:

• Annamacharya (Tallapaka Annamacharya, 15th c.) — the first ever Telugu lyricist, 32,000 keertanas in praise of Lord Venkateswara
• Thyagaraja (18th c.) — 24,000 compositions, particularly Pancharatna kritis and devotional keertanas for Shri Rama
• Nam sankeerthanam — chanting of divine names: Govinda, Madhava, Narayana, and the Hare Krishna Mahamantra
• Bhadrachala Ramadasu kirtans — another beloved Telugu Vaishnava saint
• Hare Krishna Mahamantra kirtan in the Vrindavan tradition of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu

SMS/Whatsapp: I’d like to personally invite you for a special evening of transcendental musical meditation for gaining auspiciousness, positive energy and beating stress. It will be really awesome if you join us.

Evite: Dear Friends, You are cordially invited for a blissful evening for transcendental musical meditation that will make you happy, stress-free and positive! You will get Lord’s mercy and will be able to control your mind better. The spiritual impact of transcendental musical meditation cannot be explained in words. It has to be experienced.

Kirtaneers from Iskcon of Silicon Valley will come with musical instruments and sing in easy to follow melodies. We guarantee that you will truly enjoy this experience. Please call/text on xxxxxxxx for any questions. Looking forward to seeing you at our home.

The layout of the seating makes a big difference in the general engagement of the guests. The temple devotees should directly face the audience. 

It’s better to pick a room that is rectangular or symmetric in shape. Sitting on the floor is preferred to keep the mood traditional. For older people, it’s okay to have chairs at the back or sides.

You may have to move around some furniture to make this possible. It’s really important to have comfortable seating for the guests because they will be sitting for a couple hours. If you have hardwood or marble or vinyl flooring, blankets, chatai, or comforters should be put on the floor. If your floor has carpet, you can just put bed sheets on top of it.

Backyard is also an option for the venue, but note that for afternoon slots, it will be better to get a shamiana or tent to get shade. People don’t want to sit in the sun. For evenings, you can ask them to wear jackets or shawls to beat the cold, depending on weather.

You can have a small, simple altar with photo / printout / murti (any thing is fine) of Radha Krishna/Sita Ram/Lakshmi Narayan. You can decorate the table with some flowers, agarbatti and oil/ghee/artificial lamp to make it aesthetically pleasing.