By Radha Rasikraj Das
The youth are the driving force of any movement. So much so that vibrant ISKCON what we see today had it’s earliest members as the hippie youth of New York.
Since the beginning of creation the youth are being preached to carry forward the words of Lord Krishna far and wide. Narada Muni, acharya in our parampara, is the pioneer of Youth Preaching.
With it’s purity, enthusiasm, knowledge and dealings ISKCON has been instrumental in attracting youth from all walks of life into the Bhakti movement started by Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. But there was always a need of association and getting benefited by mutual sharing of ideas and resources. This was the seed of ISKCON INDIA YOUTH CONVENTION (IIYC).
IIYC was started by the efforts of HG RadheShyam Prabhu in the year 2016. The first venue was ISKCON Mayapur. In 2017, last year the venue was ISKCON Kanpur. Last two years IIYC has been able to attract a lot of enthusiastic youth preachers from all over India. The feedback received from both the IIYC participants and the host temples have been amazing. Every year has been an amazing experience with the numbers increasing.
This year IIYC2018 was hosted by ISKCON Mira Road. It saw immense response of youth preachers from all corners of the country. Around 250 devotees from Shimla in the North to Trivendrum in the South, Kolkata in the East to Ahmedabad in the West, had come for the Convention.
The important part of the convention was knowledge sharing by seasoned Youth Preachers like HG RadheShyam Prabhu (Pune), HG Gauranga Prabhu (Chowpatty), HG Kamal Lochan Prabhu (Mira Road), HG Rukmini Krishna Prabhu (Punjabi Bagh), HG Amogh Lila Prabhu (Dwaraka, Delhi), HG Gauranga Darshan Prabhu (GEV,Wada), HG Keshav Murari Prabhu (Rohini, Delhi) and many stalwarts from various small and big centers.
Making of a Strategic Committee has been on the cards and would take shape after consultations among the leaders.
The day started at 4:30 AM and ended at 9PM everyday. There were around 10 jampacked brainstorming sessions related to diverse and relevant topics which Youth Preachers face in day to day dealings with Management, Parents etc. for effective and flawless services.
The fabulous part of the convention was the presence of HH Radhanath Swami Maharaj and HH Gopal Krishna Goswami Maharaj. Inspite of his health challenges HH Gopal Krishna Goswami Maharaj spent around 2 hrs answering the questions of various young devotees.
The venue for next year’s Convention has been decided to be at Sri Nathdwara in Rajasthan and the host temple will be ISKCON Udaipur.
Please find the photos here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1RwjafMUo4K_7pNS6tdqitDjEJO4x8qWI
Your servant in Srila Prabhupada’s service.
Comments
hare krishna prabhji .. please make iskcon hyderabad as one of priority for preaching in the coming years .