HERE'S A Krsna conscious project you might like to support or get involved in.
PROJECT
The Bhaktivedanta Youth Services (BYS).
HEADQUARTERS
ISKCON Secunderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India.
PROJECT LEADERS
Bhakti Raghava Swami oversees the project, assisted by Madhava Dasa (corresponding secretary), Sahadeva Dasa (newsletter co-editor), and Raja Rama Dasa (state director in Andhra Pradesh).
GOALS
To inspire, educate, and train young people, especially educated young people, in the basic principles of Krsna consciousness. In this way, BYS aims at increasing the number of devotees in ISKCON's communities and congregations and improving the spiritual standards of young people who come to Krsna consciousness.
DETAILS
Because Srila Prabhupada stressed the importance of teaching Krsna consciousness to youth, on his appearance day in 1987 devotees launched the Bhaktivedanta Youth Services at ISKCON's temple in Calcutta. The organizers of BYS saw a need for a systematic way to involve young people in the Krsna consciousness movement. They felt that the project should not only train young people to be full-time devotees living in temples, but also provide ways for young people living outside to support and interact with ISKCON.
The Bhaktivedanta Youth Services reaches out to boys and girls, students and nonstudents, the educated and the uneducated, the rich and the poor.
For the past few years, the BYS in Secunderabad has published a monthly newsletter and sent it free to BYS members and ISKCON temples in India.
Temples in India and abroad now have youth programs, with weekly meetings, debates, seminars, excursions, Sunday schools, book distribution, prasadam distribution, and other activities.
PLANS
ISKCON leaders in India are working toward setting up a continental youth ministry to further promote and coordinate the efforts to teach Krsna consciousness to youth.
BYS is compiling an international pen pal directory with names and addresses of Western devotees and Indian youth abroad.
BYS is setting up a ministry for Krsna conscious videos and audiocassettes and is building a computer network to help expand ISKCON's activities for young people in India.
BYS hopes that Krsna conscious services for young people will one day be widely available in schools and colleges in India and abroad.
OBSTACLES
The project has no specific source of funding, so lack of money has impeded its growth.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
Any devotee who would like to spend a few months in India working with the BYS is welcome.
Apart from that, the BYS welcomes donations for things that will help in its work. For example: a vehicle a bus or an Ambassador car with which to visit Indian colleges and universities. And a desktop computer (386 DX), with a good dot-matrix printer. For the video and audio ministries, a copy of the Folio scriptural database. And for Bhakti Raghava Swami on the road, a notebook computer.
All donations should be made to:
ISKCON
c/o Sriman Sahadeva Dasa
27 St. John's Rd.
Secunderabad-26
Andhra Pradesh, India
For further information contact Sahadeva Dasa in India or:
Bhakti Raghava Swami
212 Somerset St. E.
Ottawa, Ontario K1N 6V4
Canada
Phone: (613) 565-6544
Fax: (613) 565-7121