www.mayapuracademy.wordpress.com is the official blog of the Mayapur Academy, a joint initiative of the Mayapur Deity Department and the ISKCON Deity Worship Ministry. The purpose of the Mayapur Academy is to train devotees in deity worship to help fill the needs of ISKCON communities around the world.
The blog allows you to take a look at the day-to-day activities of the Academy through reports provided by administrators and students. Here’s a sample by student Bhaktin Mandakini.
“Three weeks ago I finished up my deity dressing assessment. Kurma Chaitanya Prabhu was very strict at grading my final dressing—fair, but strict. He is tremendously serious when it comes to pleasing their Lordships and expects others to be the same. … I also finished another segment: cooking. I needed to make two subjees [vegetable preparations], rice, chutney, dahl, chapatis, salad, a sweet, and a drink. The day before my test, my father and I cooked the whole meal at home so I could practice; it turned out delicious, and I went in the next day confident that I could please the Lord and His devotees with my meal. Everyone who tried my dishes loved them, and now I have a new hobby: making chapatis. I am surprisingly good at getting them to puff.”
At the end of each article you can leave your own comment. When making a reply, you can choose to receive an email if a new comment is made or when someone replies to your comment.
To navigate the site, you can use the column on the right of the page. Here you can check out the most recent articles posted, or you can browse through the archives and see what courses and programs have been organized over the past few years.
Using the search box on the top right, you can search for previous posts about your favorite subjects.
The Mayapur Academy was formally opened in 2007. Jayapataka Swami, one of ISKCON’s governing body commissioners for Mayapur, said at the opening, “This is like a dream come true. … It was Prabhupada’s desire that devotees get trained in the pancaratrika system [of deity worship] here in Mayapur.”
Add the Mayapur Academy blog to your Internet bookmarks and check back once in a while to see how Srila Prabhupada’s desire for trained pujaris is being fulfilled.—Antony Brennan