Once again the beloved president of the Vishva Vaishnava Raj Sabha, Srila B.B. Tirtha Maharaja invited all the Gaudiya Maths to come forward and pledge their support to the unified common ground of Vaishnavism in this world.

The far-reaching scope of Vaishnavism today is not a surprise to anyone. Both in the East and the West more and more people are drawn to the holy teachings of Lord Chaitanya, from nuclear scientists like Srila Bhakti Bhavan Vishnu Maharaja to famous artists like Ashish Kumar Paul who just recently was discovered to be a talented sculptor of the sacred deities of Srila Bhakti Pramod Puri Maharaja and the recently installed murti of Srila Bhakti Vedanta Vaman Maharaja, the late acharya of the Gaudiya Vedanta Samiti, whose samadhi mandir was officially inaugurated with the Vishnu Murti on Gaur Jayanti day, at the Devananda Gaudiya Math in Navadwip.

Acharyas and sannyasis streamed towards the Chaitanya Gaudiya Math to show their respects and offer their cooperation in everything that goes beyond the concerns of their own maths. In different ways different acharyas have contributed valuable jewels to the crown of the glorious plan of Lord Chaitanya to enlighten the dark age of Kali yuga with a never-ending supply of holy sounds, holy books, holy films and plenty of other new ideas to elevate the consciousness of humanity. Sitting together in the darshan room of Srila BB Tirtha Maharaja there was hardly room for another danda to fit in.

The atmosphere became very enlivening as different aspects of the WVA were reflected upon. It was received with delight that the activities of the secretaries who had been called to action by Srila BB Tirtha Maharaja only one year ago had brought about a great increase in interest and activities of the WVA world-wide. This was also reflected in the invitations which were handed out to assembled Vaishnavas, to come to the first WVA meeting in the capital of Germany, Berlin, on the 23rd of July 2006. We know Lord Chaitanya wanted his mission to go to every town and village of the world and that such places as Berlin from where the second world war was practically ignited just short while ago, is going to be blessed by the installation of their Lordship Sri Mahaprabhu Gandharvika Govinda Sundaram two days before the WVA meeting. All the members of the WVA planning to join this wonderful first function in the German capital are also wholeheartedly invited to the deity installation.

The next issue was pronounced by Bhaktivedanta Ramakrishnananda Swami Maharaja from New York. This sannyasi has established the Sankirtan mission right next to the Tompkins Square Park, where the Hare Krishna revolution began. It was here under the sacred elm tree that Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaja was sitting with a pair of karatalas distributing the holy name of the Lord to the entire materialistic, agnostic, atheistic consumer society with his love, prasadam and his sound knowledge of the Gaudiya siddhanta. It will be at this very same park that the second North American WVA meeting will be held in the city of New York, where Srila Prabhupada started his mission in 1965, and registered it in 1966. It was from here that the message spread like wild fire in all directions. Due to some unfortunate hangups from the past or fears that manifest through a rather sectarian attitude, many devotees in the world still cannot rejoice in the full joy of the Vishva Vaishnava Raj Sabha as it was planned by Lord Chaitanya and announced by Srila Jiva Goswami. The true unity in diversity, which obviously requires a very deep respect and appreciation for the existence of Vaishnavas outside the home mission, is one of the duties of the WVA, said the Vice president Srila BV Bishnu Maharaja.

In his speech, he said that devotees should overcome this fear, and especially for those devotees who want to make spiritual advancement, it is necessary to learn after a few years in the neophyte stage in their particular mission, how to associate and relate to Vaishnavas from other missions. Of course it is also necessary for the WVA to be able to offer a more substantial service to the world by having every mission appoint a secretary for each country or even each city where they have activities, through whom they can interact with the other missions for planning such events, such as the mela in Germany, or New york. There is no limit to how many secretaries the WVA may have. The more the better since it is the duty of those secretaries to carry the spirit of WVA into their missions and into the world. The president requested the secretary to pronounce once again for all the acharyas present, the duties of a WVA secretary as follow:

1. To report all the positive, wonderful activites of your own mission to www.vina.cc, and to share the joy with other Vaishnavas.
2. To visit other Vaishnava missions in the area and to report to www.vina.cc and the WVA magazine their glorious achievements for spreading Krishna consciousness.
3. To visit other Vaishnava missions and try to convince the local mahantas to also appoint a secretary for their participation in the WVA in their locality.
4. To coordinate with other secretaries in the area such events as the yearly or twice yearly gathering of the WVA in the form of festivals, philosophical forums, or simply conversations of concern to try to present as unified a picture as possible to local authorities so they can understand who the Vaishnavas are and what they are doing in that region.

Furthermore, WVA secretaries and member missions may contribute creatively to the ideals of the WVA in any way they desire. For example:

a.) They may invite other missions to participate in their Ratha Yatra festivals.
b.) They may want to organize a joint book fair to exhibit all the publications, CDs, videos and music which has been produced by the different Gauidya Math missions over the last 50 years.
c.) They may invite other Gaudiya Maths to have Vaishnava seva (prasadam seva) in their temples, especially on such holy days as the appearance or the disappearance of their founding acharyas, which is a very longstanding tradition among Gaudiya maths in Nabadwip or Kolkata.
d.) They can invite others to partake in a joint celebration of such important occasions as the holy days of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur, Srila Gaur Kishor das Babaji Maharaja or Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur Prabhupada.

One can plainly see that there is plenty to do if one wants to spread the common cause and appreciation of Vaishnavas to the general public, inside as well as outside of your mission. The president of the WVA gave a wonderful speech emphasizing how everybody in this world is actually a potential Vaishnava, a beloved child of God. His full speech will be published separately in a short time.

Again it was requested that regardless how small your mission is or how insignificant you may feel your service contribution to Vaishnavism is, to please come forward and share it with us. It is not a question of quantity. Vaishnavism is a question of quality. Let us not forget a saying of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur Prabhupada that if his mission could only produce one pure devotee it would already be a grand success.

Thus the request to have secretaries from every mission in every locality is actually a great need of the WVA as well as a benefit for your local temple and a chance to share with other devotees who come into your region to find out about your service, your location, where you can be found and all the publications you are working so hard to produce for the pleasure of Sri Sri Guru and Gauranga. A list of almost 100 secretaries of the WVA, printed out by Tamal Krishna Brahmachari, was presented. The list has not been fully completed yet because part of the database was frozen by obstacles of the technical world, which fortunately are being overcome by the wonderful service of Hari Prasad das who voluntered to create a complete database of all Gaudiya Maths and WVA member missions including all their addresses, all their publications, all their prominent secretaries and sannyasis, and all their WVA secretaries. So now it is only up to you to make sure that Hari Prasad prabhu gets all the information about your mission. The database will then be available on the Internet for the benefit of all, and to show the real picture of those broadminded Vaishnavas who can see beyond the walls of their compound and who can understand the vision of Srila Jiva Goswami when he mentioned the Vishva Vaishnava Raj Sabha at the end of each of his Sat Sandarbas. Not any one guru, or any one mission could accomplish the task of taking care and giving shelter to the countless beings in utter need. As a matter of fact, the scriptures say that one should not accept too many disciples since obviously it is very difficult to take proper care of all of them. If there are too many, it becomes very difficult to supply proper protection, due to the amount of work lying on the shoulders of one particular spiritual master. The solution: the plurality of the divine decent of the absolute into the realm of relativity, through the mercy of an expanded guru parampara. That a devotee should ever wish to be a guru is without question. But there is no doubt that Lord Chaitanya himself wishes all his followers to qualify as spiritual masters so that they can help him to distribute the prema phala, the fruit of the trees of love which he has planted himself. That distribution is not an issue of committees passing resolutions. It is the natural loving flow of realizations manifested in the hearts of sincere servants of their spiritual master to understand the urge of taking up spiritual responsibilities and granting to other souls the same love and care they have received from their spiritual masters. This is the essence of Vishva Vaishnava Raj Sabha. Srila BB Tirtha Maharaja also requested me to once again assume the service of general secretary since I have been devoting more time to the goals of the WVA, and he also proposed to have assistant general secretaries to facilitate this work. As assitant general secretaries he proposed Rasa bihari das from Jammu Kashmir, who is a university professor, Prahlad das from Bombay and Vishnu Maharaja from Chandigar who is a very capable organizer as well as the previous general secretary Acarya das from the Chaitanya Mission of the Phillipines. The assistant general secretaries are requested to include many more secretaries, because if the seva is shared, it is definitely easier to expand. The proposal of Srila BB Tirtha Maharaja was seconded and unanimously welcomed by the assembled Vaishnavas.

The next point on the agenda was an invitation by Ananta das, the WVA secretary for Italy from the Sri Krishna Chaitanya mission, who took the opportunity to invite all the present Vaishnavas to a major festival in the city of Rome the first week of August, 2007. He is the president of Gaura Mandal, the Pancha tattva farm, only half an hour from the Vatican in the most beautiful Etruscan country side. There are perfect facilities for hosting large amounts of devotees camping out in tents on the lush 30 hectars of the Gaura Mandala belonging to the Pancha tattva and under the management of the Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mission of Srila Bhakti Vaibhava Puri Maharaja.

The WVA shall bring joy to those devotees who cannot come to India frequently. The WVA vision is required in every city and in every country. As different Vaishnava missions are developing successfully in various places, the question frequently arises as to the identity and distinction among them. Some even behave as if the other devotees do not exist, or they may be unable to give a general positive explanation which may satisfy the newcomers' inquiries, thus creating confusion rather than enthusiasm and appreciation of the Vaishnavas in general. We hope with the expanding experience of local WVA festivals this will change very soon, since truly speaking all those who are serious followers in the line of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur Prabhupada believe the same and practice the same. In the history of religion, it has been seen as a rather natural phenomena that the formation of different branches, especially after the disappearance of a powerful founder acharya, creates certain misunderstandings, and that sometimes a lack of generosity can be found on the side of those who are not very mature in their understanding of the history of the parampara.

The next point of the managerial meeting at Chaitanya Gaudiya Math was to establish the venue for the 2006 kartik meeting in Sri Vrindavan dham. Bhakti Prapula Parivrajak Maharaja and BP Sadhu Maharaja from the Gaudiya sangha will host the next kartik meeting at the sacred Site of Imlitala. A statement of the financial situation of the WVA was presented to all the members present, as well as the new WVA journal, which comes out for kartik, but was new to the assembled Vaishnavas in Mayapur. Thanks shall be given again to both Arjuna prabhu and Gourkeshava das for dedicating themselve to produce such a nice journal for the pleasure of all the Vaishnavas. The title of this period's magazine is "Between the Kali Yuga Disasters and the Spiritual World", making reference to the ecological disasters occuring even in the holy dhams. Environmental problems should be solved by Vaishnavas with their timeless wisdom, and a strong effort should be made by all to stop the pollution of the holy rivers, forests, parikrama paths as well as the sewage systems. Everyone was reminded of the great commitment we all have to stop the innundation of plastic from further spoiling the sights and the ecosystems. Clay cups for prasadam distribution are one thousand percent more beneficial than plastic cups that will not be reabsorbed into the earth's ecosystem for at least 10,000 years, and permanently transmit poison into the ground where they finally end up. Clay cups, however, come from the earth and return to the earth with no hazardous effects. This is the glory of the old Indian recycling system, which even uses banana leaves for eating. So the journal presents several such points and invites all the missions that decide they want to make a difference and be actively involved with the improvement of the situation in Braj Mandal to come forward and send a secretary to the monthly meeting of the Braj Rakshak forum. You can call the coordinator Ravi Prabhu at his cellphone (09927092973) to be informed where the next meeting will be held. Meetings generally take place on the first Saturday of every month.

The next news of the managerial meeting was very enlivening. One of the great shortcomings of the WVA until today had been the lack of communication of the ideals and projects of the WVA in Bengali, Oriya and Hinda. First Srila Bibuddha Bodhayan Maharaja from the Gopinath Gaudiya Math offered to include in every issue of the Bhagavat Dharma monthly journal in Bengali a WVA world report column and to publish yearly one or two issues of the Bhagavat Dharma patrika, entirely dedicated to the purpose of communicating to the Bengali speaking population what the WVA is doing, its benefits and trials. Srila Bhakti Vistar Vishnu Maharaja agreed to the same by offering the Siddhanta patrika in Oriya to fulfill that same purpose for all those who only speak Oryian language. Srila BB Tirtha Maharaja at once requested his own Hindi patrika published in Chandigar to do the same and thus become the speaking organ of the WVA for the Hindi speaking population. This is such wonderful news because the already existing professional production staffs for these magazines will take the responsibility to take the true spirit and message of the WVA to all the devotees in the locality. So we are very deeply indebted to the editors and the acharyas of the respective missions who have graciously opened their forum for the benefit of the vision of Srila Jiva Goswami, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur and Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur.

There was also a report given by Mukunda das, the secretary of the WVA about the Vaishnava activities in Bangladesh.

Srila Prabhupada opened his own wonderful temple in Dacca, and ever since so many Vaishnavas have come from this wonderful area of Gaudadesha. Numerous temples of Lord Chaitanya exist all over Bangladesh, and many of them look forward to cooperating with the WVA. Bangladesh has also been the home of many of the acharyas in the Gaudiya tradition such as the first president of the WVA Srila Bhakti Pramod Puri Maharaja who reignited the activities of the sabha after it had been resting for a prolonged period after the departure of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur Prabhupada. It should be mentioned though that several small attempts have been made over the years to take the sabha back into focus, such as the yearly meetings in the Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math one day after Gaura Purnima with the presence of many of the disciples of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur Prabhupada in the personal rooms of Srila BR Sridhar Maharaj. But the vision of Srila BP Puri Maharaja emphatically was that the WVA has to combine East and West into a true alliance for the same goal. That was also the reason why Srila Bhakti Vedanta Tripurari Maharaja, a disciple of Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaja and born in America was invited to be the first vice-president of the WVA. The idea of East and West combining for the transcendental service of the Lord creates joy in the heart of all generous Vaishnavas. As we see so many changes in the world nowadays, especifically with the change in communication methods brought on by the internet, we must utilize rather then renounce (phalgu vairagya) these new technologies. We can use them to create a stronger presence of the divine teachings in the mundane environment of the increasingly contaminated and exploitative mentality arising from atheism and the attitude of indifference which is spreading throughout the world through the increase of impersonal mayavadi philosophy. For many of the holy Vaishnavas of Bengal these technologies, which are still relatively unknown are now being exposed to them. Our western connections of the sabha have created a presence in the communication world for 10 years on the Internet through the WVA homepage, which was originally started by Kriparama prabhu and the VINA Vaishnava Internet news page which was originally started by Tusta Krishna Prabhu. We are very indebted to these devotees for their selfless efforts. Today these projects are maintained by webmasters such as Gaurahari prabhu for the WVA forum, Gaurkeshava prabhu webmaster of the VINA website and Panchatattva prabhu webmaster of the WVA homepage. As you can see the WVA and all its activities are based on selfless sacrifice, purely voluntarily contributions and we want it to stay that way. That is also one of the reasons the WVA does not want to open any temples or have any spiritual master but rather represents the joint effort of all the temples and all the Vaishnava spiritual masters in the world including those who do not know much about it, or who do not participate very actively. Nevertheless it has been suggested that bigger missions allocate one room and possibly a telephone line on their premises so that the local WVA secretaries can meet and organize their local activities from there. One such office has existed in Vrindavan at the Vanshi Kunja of the Vrinda Mission since the very beginning. Every WVA secretary may find a way or inspire some local mission to use one room for a WVA office. The WVA also invites individual devotees who may be looking for some engagement to serve Vaishnavism in general to come forward and become additional WVA secretaries. From the beginning the WVA has had the goal of one day publishing a regular journal for the general public to promote the values of Sanatan Dharma and the Vishva Vaishnava Raj Sabha jointly. Any other funds which may come to the WVA will be spent transparently for making more efforts to propagate the ideals of the sabha as per directions of the managerial committee.

Beautiful book bags with the WVA logo were distributed to all the members present and for the kartik meeting we are planning to produce a special sash with the WVA messages printed on to distribute to all those who attend the international meetings.

This concludes the report of the WVA managerial meeting. It remains to be said that there were some extraordinary speeches by Srila Bhakti Vichar Visnu Maharaja and Bhakti Bibuddha Bodyahan Maharaja who emphasized that new techniques would have to be developed to convey the message of Lord Chaitanya to the whole world.

humbly yours in the service of Sri Guru and Gauranga,
Swami B.A. Paramadvaiti
General Secretary