“Are you about to die?” says Dhanya, a second-generation ISKCON member playing the role of an infomercial spokesman at Mayapur Institute’s (MI) graduation performance in Mayapur, India in late February, “If so, then Bhakti Bank is for you.”

“Bhakti Bank is a bank that cares for you, even after the time of death”, she said, using multiple phone operators with various clientele, some at the stage of death, to illustrate just how critical putting your “money”, or your bhakti, with Krsna’s bank really is.

What students have been learning in MI’s Bhakti-Sastri course is real knowledge for the soul. The Bhakti-Sastri degree, originally conceived by ISKCON’s founder Srila Prabhupada, is a course where students systematically study key literature in the Gaudiya Vasihnava tradition. It is a metaphorical “Bhakti Bank” in that it’s an investment of time and energy.The interest that accumulates is bhakti or love.

The infomercial parody was much more than the Mayapur community audience had anticipated from the soon to be graduates of the Bhakti-Sastri course, including an ad-lib phone call by long serving Mayapur priest Jananivas Dasa and other unsuspecting audience members.

This year’s Bhakti-Sastri course, held by the MI, was the largest and most diverse to date–in terms of ages and devotional stages–from a Swami to new ISKCON members to teenage second generation devotees. But one shouldn’t mistake this diversity as an obstacle; it was one of the many assets to the course.

The “Bhakti Bank” skit was just one of the many creative outlets that students participated in during the four-month program. This interactive, thematic approach to the scriptures, done in seven-block increments was piloted this year. Facilitator Janmastami Dasa puts it simply: “The proof is in the pudding,” he said, “students say that it was one of the best experiences of their lives.”

“MI’s Bhakti-Sastri course has an important component to help students develop appropriate attitudes and values for a Bhakti-Sastri graduate. This component of the course goes beyond levels of knowledge and understanding, focusing skills on the area of helping students become an ideal representative of the scriptures in terms of goals and character,” said Atul Krishna when asked for the mission of the MI’s Bhakti-Sastri course.

So, beyond all the benefits that have already been listed, what else is special about the doing the MI Bhakti-Sastri course? It is held in the sacred land of Mayapur.

Yet living in Mayapur, is for many, the most difficult component of the course. And that is why Sureshwar Dasa will soon be the facilitator of a new Access course in the upcoming year. The Access course, he says, was created out necessity due to the needs and demands of the students. It will be a week long introduction to staying in India and Mayapur and will teach basics on how to keep health, give students the skills to write essays while maintaining personal spiritual practices.

“Srila Prabhupada wanted a university in Mayapur”, Jayapataka Maharaj reminded everyone that evening. The Mayapur Institute is trying to make this instruction a reality.

One way that the Institute is doing this is by trying to get past the land and legal issues the government of West Bengal is imposing on the Mayapur community, as well as the internal issues within Mayapur’s departmental system. “We have to fend for ourselves,” said Janmastami Prabhu about the school’s administration, “when this has all been resolved, the work on building more classrooms can begin.”

For now, as it has been for many years, the Institute will be run from Janmastami’s converted flats in the householder section of ISKCON’s Mayapur compound. The first seven years Janmastami started this program, he was running from the USA to Mayapur working odd, high demand jobs “just to cover the deficit,” he said.

It was difficult for his family, his body, and his financial stability. “But it was mercy”, he said, citing the way that Bhaktivinoda Thakur gave everything for the service of Krishna: his life, his home, and his children.

Nitya Manjari, a MI student and mother of two from Germany, chose the course for its location and access to teachers and experiences, but what she got was “an enriching experience” far beyond her expectations.

The course was just what she had been looking for, and she liked it so much she did the Teacher Training course that followed so she could teach it to others.

“I am just another satisfied customer of the Bhakti Bank,” she said.