A REPORT
The Hindu Mandir Executive Conference (HMEC), an initiative of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council) of America (VHPA) will hold its third year annual conference near Detroit, Michigan on Sept. 26-28, 2008. Some of the executives of VHPA and the executives from New York & New Jersey Mandirs and spiritual organizations representing HMEC led a 40 people strong delegation that met with Sri Sri Ravishankar-ji, the spiritual mentor of the world-renowned Art of Living (AOL) organization on Saturday, July 5th in NJ to seek his blessings and guidance for the forthcoming conference.

On behalf of HMEC, Dr. Nachiketa Tiwari, vice president of VHPA for Liaison with Hindu Mandirs and Institutions, summarized the goal of this year's HMEC conference, building on the activities and resolution form the first two conferences in Atlanta, GA. and Edison, NJ.

Two key issues from the previous HMEC conferences were: (1) Motivating youth to actively participate in Mandir activities, which has a connected issue of how can the Mandir executives' look at the long-term in sustaining the Mandirs and associated growth involving the next generation of youth and adults. (2) Training Mandir priests to better communicate the temple samskaras, tradition , and symbology of Vedic rituals to the society at large.

Sri Sri Ravishankar-ji addressed these issues, also offering the services and support of the AOL organization he leads. One of his messages was: Keep the temple rituals and scriptural messages short and understandable to the youth, and provide the right atmosphere for youth participation, e.g., bhajans which are simple and clear, which can encourage them to sing, using musical instruments of their choice (e.g., guitar, drums).

Sri Sri also offered to help create a textual material on the temple samskaras and symbology of the Vedic rituals that could be made available for the general public at all Mandirs in North America. In terms of training priests in the temples to better communicate the Vedic messages, he offered to assist in developing a 3-4 week training program, and also provide the AOL ashram facilities in Quebec and Texas. He also agreed that there could be three types of potential priests in the near future: traditionally trained priests from India (who will need to be trained to communicate better in English); second-generation youth interested in pursuing this field; and finally, retirees who are interested in learning to perform the rituals in the Mandirs as a seva. The specific areas of focus

initially could be: Puja (worship), child-birth rituals, naama-karana, aayush-homa, bhooti-rahasya symbologies, antyeshti (last rites, and the essence of the associated mantras).

Sri Sri Ravishankar-ji also mentioned that AOL is training 380 students on the Vedic scriptures and samskaras, who will be graduating in two years. They could play a key role in assisting the Mandirs in USA after they graduate. On developing youth interest and their active partipication in the Mandirs, Sri Sri Ravishankar-ji felt that the Mandir leaders need to actively pursue this very seriously now, and success will indeed follow. He concluded by saying, "Mandirs need to flow with the current of changes in community and youth interest, and adapt appropriately over time to serve the community at large, especially the evolving youth". Sri Sri Ravishankar expressed his blessings and support to the forthcoming HMEC conference in Detroit, and offered the assistance of his AOL volunteers and staff for the event.