Toronto, ON
I had insisted that our group of resident men and women in the ashram take a crash course in hospitality. Sometimes you hear complaints from the public who visit for darshan (viewing the image of Krishna) or from those who wish to learn about Krishna Consciousness. They complain about an inadequate greeting or no greeting at all.
I had observed that some of our renunciants got either very busy with their services and therefore do not tend to the needs of the public who appear either in person or by phone sufficiently. Some of our monks living in temples tend to be very hermit oriented which ends up not being very compatible when your temple or ashram is frequently visited. Another factor to consider was the aging factor where in the case of our ashram in Toronto, one resident monk is in his seventies, one in his sixties and somewhat handicapped while others are moving up in their fifties. Most of our young monks are in Halifax. It is actually hard to pick from our selection a front receptionist.
So these are some of the services at hand.
Fortunately, our community is rich with bright-faced youth who have a good report in public communication. Perhaps we have hit on something there.
One of our ladies in her early thirties, Nitai Priya, who recently moved here from Vancouver, is a trained receptionist. She put together what we needed, a crash course called ‘Hospitality 108’. Over a few days starting yesterday, our in-dwelling monks are participating in an interactive and fun program to better be able to take care of public needs.
That’s a relief! Let’s see if reception improves.
6 Km
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