All glories to Sri Sri Radha Vallabha !!
All glories to Sri Sri Jagannath Sri Sri Baladev and Srimati Subhadra Devi !!
All glories to Srila Prabhupada & Sri Guru and Sri Sri Gauranga.
My brother (Sankar) had compiled the attached document about 8 years ago which gives some basic guidelines/checklist for
hosting house program based on our little experience.
This is an initial draft and please pass on your comments and feedback so that we can keep it updated.
Also I have attached a PDF document - quiz from Srimad Bhagavatham, Mahabharat, Ramayan. This will help to engage kids in the meditation of Lord and His pastimes (both younger and older) - hopefully !
Aspiring to be your humble servant
Karunanidhi Krishna dasa
House Program Guidelines
Program Planning
q Identify a list of people to be invited for the program.
q Make sure the venue can accommodate "that" many number of people.
q If the hall is big and audibility will be poor for those who are sitting at the back, arrange for a Microphone /Speaker system or request temple to bring one.
q Prepare a small slip mentioning your address, phone, mobile, melway route, date, time, parking facilities etc and hand over it to the invitees (either by hand or send an email).
q If you are inviting sanyasis or senior devotees, make sure necessary arrangements are made to pick and drop them off.
q Fix the menu for the program. Make an intelligent guess about number of people expected.
q If the prasadam preparation is totally outsourced then no problem.
q Otherwise you have to get people to prepare one item each. It is advisable to show them the menu and ask them to choose what item they can prepare. Or ask them what they can prepare for the program and include it in the menu.
q Make sure the menu has some variety. The following things won't go well together for example:
a. Plain rice, Raita and Dahi Vadai will not go together well (all Yogurt based).
b. Poori, Bajji and Samosa won't go well together (due to all OILY items).
c. Lassi on the rainy day, people won't take.
d. Lemonade for a night program.
e. Plain rice without a Dhal or Sambar
f. Lemon Rice, Sweet Pongal, Pulav (all Rice items)
Menu
q Menu can be Light / Moderate / Heavy. Arrange suitable prasadam if the function is on Ekadasi day.
q Light prasadam is suitable if the prasadam time is going to be late night – where you think people would have already had their food at home before coming to the program. It is also suited for regular gathering – so that the host will not take trouble to prepare extensive prasadam. Light prasadam includes any of the following: Milk, Fruits, Juice etc. Please make some allowance for Caturmasya fasting. Please check with devotees about what fast is going on currently.
q Moderate prasadam is suitable if the crowd is larger and prasadam time is some where much before lunch or dinner time, Birth day parties, simple celebrations like promotion, new baby etc. It includes prepared rice (Puliyodarai, Pulav, Noodles etc), One savory item (Samosa, Vegitable puff etc), One Sweet (Halva, Cake), Drink (Juice, Cordial, Rose Milk etc).
q Heavy prasadam is suitable for really grand function like House warming, send-offs, festivals, thanks giving, other treats etc. The prasadam will somehow similar to Saturday / Sunday temple feast.
q If you are inviting Sanyasis or Senior Devotees make sure you arrange some special food according to their diet preference. Also arrange for suitable plates, spoons and cups for them.
q If you are inviting diabetic/ cholesterol patients or other people who have special food requirement, try if you can arrange anything for them.
Items required
q If you are inviting Sanyasis or Senior Devotees better arrange a suitable seating mat for them (Vyasasan). Better still if you can also arrange for some garlands.
q Usually a Glass of water can also be kept near the Sanyasis.
q If it is a hotday then it is a good idea to give water or some drink to all the guests.
q If it is going to be a small class, make sure you have a copy of Bhagavat Gita / Nector of Devotion etc.
q If it is going to be a special Kirtan (say for Appearance day of Sri Advaita Acarya etc), you will be singing some special songs, so make sure you keep few photo copies of the song (photocopy it from the Song book).
q Arrange to place few Deity photos, Srila Prabhupada picture in the form of small altar – near the place where kirtan / class is happening.
q You need Disposable plates, spoons, tissue, garbage bags, cups, bowls, serving spoons, shrink wrap, aluminum foil, few take away containers etc.
q Keep Mats / Bed Spread / Poly trap material to spread for visitors to sit and have prasadam.
q Have the garbage bags available at multiple locations so that people need not crowd at one place.
q Let people wash their hands @ multiple locations i.e Bathroom, Washing area etc.
q Make few chairs available for those who can not sit on floor.
q If something to be served Cold or Hot make sure it is suitably prepared.
q There are various option available to serve prasadam:
a. Temple style – They come and collect the food.
b. Traditional style – Make them sit in a row and you walk around and serve.
c. Mixed style – Initially they come and collect the food and after that you will walk around and ask for second serving etc.
d. If you are following mixed style, you need two sets of vessels and serving spoons. One for the main area and one for mobile serving.
Venue Preparation
q Remove costly items from the main area. It will create a very delicate situation, if things are lost or broken.
q Remove any breakable items from the main area. If something breaks, you can not blame anybody.
q If you have phone near the lecture area, try to move it outside the room or if you have cordless set, keep the receiver with you – so that the phone ring bell will not disturb the class.
q If you plan to record the lecture / kirtan, make sure you keep your equipments ready and pre-test to make sure the recording function works.
q If space permits arrange for two separate area for eating prasadam one for Prabhus and one for Matajis.
Post Program Activities
q Pre-arrange with someone to stay back and help you cleanup the area after the function – don't try to do everything yourself. Next time you will hate to call people – due to high work load.
q You may need help to bring back the items removed from the main area i.e TV, Sofa etc. Retain somebody to help you on this.
Tips
q Most of the kids will survive only upto Kirtans and during lecture, they will be very restless. It will be better to gather them together and offer them prasadam first (see yourself - it is appropriate for the specific function)
q If you kept few coloring papers and set of color pencils you can engage the kids peacefully.
q Never have any other engagements on the same day. It is guaranteed, most of the programs will not start on time and will not finish on time. At times, the question and answer session will drag longer than expected.
q Better reserve / save some prasadam for those who serve prasadam.
q However large the place is, it will not be sufficient to accommodate people if they prefer to sit on their own (without any orderly fashion). Make sure you plan some seating arrangement and get somebody to implement it i.e the request the visitors to form two rows etc OR ask mataji's to sit at one side and prabhu's on the other side etc.
q If infants are expected, make sure they have some area for caring the baby i.e feeding, put for sleep etc. You may also need to provide them with hot water etc.
q Depends on the weather you may need to arrange for Fans or Heating equipment if not for all rooms, at least for one or two rooms.
q If you are inviting 100 people make sure you keep 150 disposable plates, spoons and cups.
q Don't cut Apple in advance as it will turn into brown. If you have then sprinkle some orange juice so that it is ok.
q Keep some nice kirtans or music CDs / Tapes ready, you can play it during prasadam time.
q If you plan to serve south-indian type of prasadam (sambar, rasam etc), paper plates will not be suitable – due to watery substance the plate will soak and start leaking. So please arrange for suitable plastic plates.
q If you are serving Soup, RasaMalai, Payasam etc, arrange for a suitable cup or disposable bowl.
q If it is a rainy day, most of the people will come with umbrella (and it will be wet too). So keep an empty bucket, so that visitors can keep their wet umbrella there.
q You may also wish to put some cotton towels (Cloth) to absorb the water – as most of them will enter with wet foot wear. Without that your carpet will be spoiled – if you have tiles, the floor will become slippery.
q If you have extra photo copies of nice articles, stories etc – better bring it to the house program and distribute it to other interested people.
q Those who have nice coloring pictures can bring few copies of it and give it to the kids.
Check List
| OK | Activity | Responsible |
| q | Invitation sent |
|
| q | Transport for sanyasis/speakers arranged |
|
| q | Prasadam Arranged |
|
| q | Plates, Cups, Spoons arranged |
|
| q | Tissue / Paper towels arranged |
|
| q | Garbage bins arranged |
|
| q | Floor mats, spreads arranged |
|
| q | Recording equipment arranged |
|
| q | Camera / Video arranged |
|
| q | Mic / Speaker system arranged |
|
| q | Serving bowls and spoons arranged |
|
| q | Heater / Fans arranged |
|
| q | Books / Song photo copies |
|
| q | Garlands |
|
| q | Deity / SP/ Guru pictures |
|
| q | Karthal / Mrdhanga etc |
|
Sanyasis don't work – they don't earn money but they DO have expenses. For the benefit of us, they travel to various places to preach. It is suggested to offer them some donation to keep the "preaching" going. Some sanyasis may have Deity pictures / CDs / Tape collections, you may wish buy few copies of it and distribute it to selected peopleIt is another way of helping them.'
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