By Navakishori Devi Dasi
The Bhakti Women Team embarked on the project “ Bhakti Women Shakti: Portraits of Strength and Wisdom” during the Sadhu Sanga and Gita Nagari Retreats ( May 2015).
It is a living project with over forty short videos of wisdom from women who have been practicing Bhakti.
While we have presented the example of women from scriptures like Gandhari, Rukmini Devi, Sita, Kunti Devi, Devahuti, Vindhyawalli and others through our website we felt it was imperative to also present the wisdom of contemporary women living out Bhakti in their lives. Personal stories of wisdom and strength can be very inspiring to others in similar situations.
Portraits of Strength and Wisdom
It has been a great learning journey for our team as we did those video interviews. It was very special to see how all the women we interviewed were so unique and so inspiring in how they expressed Bhakti through their lives. Some of the women we interviewed were practitioners of Bhakti for over 40 years of their life and are direct disciples of Srila Prabhupada. It was wonderful to get their perspectives on different aspects of Bhakti and on Bhakti infused femininity.
Some others we interviewed had grown up in a Bhakti filled atmosphere and were now living out lives full of Bhakti through their motherhood, wifehood and through their professions as nurses, research scientists, teachers, school directors among others. These women also shared how they were influenced by the powerful Bhakti of their mothers as they raised them.
Some others were new to Bhakti but it was very powerful to capture how they held on to the principles through various challenges in their life be it during their pregnancy or marriage or illness in the family.
It was beautiful to see how each heart was so uniquely seeking Krishna’s shelter and deeply attempting to offer themselves in service at His Lotus Feet even when they felt that they were far from a finished picture of devotee-hood or womanhood.
We invite you to view these videos on our website through this link. You can go through the different pages through the page navigation bar at the bottom of each page. We pray that men and women from all ages and seasons of life will find these interviews helpful in their journey in Bhakti.
A Living Project
We invite similar contributions of videos, audios or articles that women from around the world would like to share. We are happy to receive your contributions to serve the wider ISKCON community. Also if you would like to interview other women from your community and share the depth of their inspiring Bhakti with others please send us an email at contact@bhaktiwomen.org. Personal stories of wisdom and strength are always very inspiring.
Gratitude
We are sincerely grateful encouragement of HG Harivilas Prabhu(ACBSP) for this project. We are also grateful to the management at ISKCON Seattle that sponsored, supported and encouraged this project. We are grateful for the encouragement we received from HG Kaisori Prabhu and HG Visakha Prabhu (ACBSP). We are also very grateful to the following women who were so open to sharing their wisdom and their stories of strength during difficulty.
Ananga Sakhi Dasi
Aruddha Devi Dasi
Campak Lata Dasi
Gopi Gita Dasi
Gopisvari Devi Dasi
Krishna Nandini Das (ACBSP)
Krishna Bhava Dasi (ACBSP) and her daughter Krishna Priya Dasi
Madhurya Lila Dasi
Mangal Gopi Dasi
Mohini Sundari Dasi
Radha Padavi Devi Dasi
Sudha Venkat
Syama Kumari Dasi
Visakha Dasi( ACBSP)
We look forward to receiving contributions for the “Bhakti Women Shakti: Portraits of Strength and Wisdom” Project from many more women on contact@bhaktiwomen.org
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