Vedic Oasis for Inspiration Culture and Education

Issue: 013 May-June’ 08 The VOICE Messenger

In This Issue…

Srila Prabhupada on College preaching 1 Shreshta Report – Arjun KR, KGP VOICE 4
NITK VOICE bids farewell to its pioneers 1 Spiritual Tidings @ Metropolitan Bangalore 4
Utkarsha in Mayapur Dham 2

Srila Prabhupada on College preaching

In Columbus Ohio, Srila Prabupada met the famous counterculture poet – Alan Ginsberg, and he also gave
a lecture at the Hitchcock hall, Ohio University. Students were dancing on their seats, dancing on their
desks. Srila Prabhupada was so happy and wrote to Tamala Krishna Goswami, “Yesterday, at the Ohio
State University we had a tremendous meeting, and nearly two thousand students were dancing, clapping
and chanting along with us. So it is clear that the student community has a nice potential for accepting
this philosophy.” He also wrote to Satsvarupa Das Goswami, “This chanting is our life and soul, so we
must arrange our program now so that there will be as much chanting on the streets and at college
engagements as possible. On May 12th, we had a very successful engagement at Ohio State University…
So this policy should be continued as far as possible.”
>>> Ref. Lecture by HH Radhanath Swami; Letter to: Tamala Krsna on 13 May, 1969; Letter to: Ananda & Satsvarupa on 14 May, 1969

NITK VOICE bids farewell to its pioneers

TAPAS, the festival of glorification and stories of importanc
inspiration of passing out devotees was held at NIT e of
Suratkal on 23 April 2008. Aditya, Venkatesh, collective
Sudhir, Raghuvamsee, Anurag, Chandrashekar, spiritual
Puran Singh, Ravi Kumar were the pioneering batch life,
of NITK VOICE. This group of devotees was chanting,
introduced to Krishna Consciousness by HG Gaur hearing &
Sundar Pr and they together worked to solidify reading,
VOICE in quality and quantity. The festival began desiring
at 4 pm and went till 11pm. Each devotee poured our goal
their heartfelt gratitude for the inspiration the and
senior devotees provided during their stay in prayers.
VOICE. Many first years were also present to He told
participate in the festival. Gokul Prabhu spoke the how Lord Narayan was more pleased by the co-
following touching words, “Till now we were like operation of Prachetas to inspire each other in their
children being taken care so meticulously by the spiritual life than their individual austerities.
senior devotees. But today we are feeling orphaned The junior devotees specially prepared a
and we are feeling sad that in the coming year we glorification diary for each senior devotee where all
won’t be getting their association, guidance which of them wrote their memorable experiences and
nourished us so much in our Krishna inspiration they derived from them. As a token of
consciousness.” appreciation, the senior devotees donated one pair
of dhoti kurta to each devotee, a printer to VOICE,
Aditya Prabhu gave wonderful advice based on his and pen-drives to each brahmachari.
experience during stay in VOICE. He told the
By – Harish, BTech 3rd year, NITK
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Vedic Oasis for Inspiration Culture and Education
Utkarsha in Mayapur Dham
The word ‘Utkarsha’ or
‘Excellence’ aptly suits the
Utkarsha camp held in
Mayapur, West Bengal
from 12th to 16th of May.
14 preachers from
VOICE; 50 seniors, and
80 freshers from:
1. IIT Kharagpur,
2. NITJ – Jamshedpur,
3. IT BHU – Varanasi,
4. NITR – Rourkela,
5. NITK – Suratkal,
6. NITW – Warangal,
7. COEP – Pune,
8. and NITS – Surat!
The international spiritual
city of Mayapur, usually
packed with white, black,
and red devotees from all
parts of the world, also
sheltered these sincere
God-seeking engineers.
The first years forgot for
a while their professional
attire, note books and
notebook computers.
They moved around in
dhoti-kurta with tilak on
their foreheads and japa-
bags around their right
fingers.
They woke up before
sunrise to greet the
deities of Chandrodaya
mandir at 4:15 am and
throughout the day they
attended lectures,
participated in GDs,
debates, kirtans and
presentations. In between
they together honored
specially prepared
Prasadam.
They were inspired by the
enlightening lectures and
understood the
importance of practicing
bhakti. HG Janamashtami
Pr, the director of MIHE –
Mayapur Institute of
Higher Education spoke, “
preaching is the real
paropakara – service to

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Vedic Oasis for Inspiration Culture and Education
humanity. Srila
Prabhupada at the age of
70 worked hard for
spreading the mission of
Krishna Consciousness all
over the world and he
wanted his disciples to
work harder than him.
While the juniors were
engrossed in ‘Utkarsha’,
the seniors were also
engaged in hearing
advanced topics of
devotional service like
service attitude; qualities
of simplicity, humility,
tolerance and sense-
control; and Number
magic in Bhagavat Gita.
All of them relished the
purifying bathe in the holy
Ganges. The boys also
visited Goshala – a cattle
protection farm run by
devotees and then
interacted with the
teachers and students of
Gurukula. They were
amazed to witness the life
of the vedic students
which they thought is
limited to the ancient
scriptures and not
practical in today’s age.
They also witnessed the
boat festival in the lake
near Prabhupada’s
samadhi.
Anant, a first-time visitor
exclaimed, “I was
delighted to see devotees
everywhere. The beautiful
greenery and Ganges
river in the vicinity make
Mayapur more beautiful. I
want to come back every
semester.” “HG
Radheshyam Pr was
pleased to find the most
enthusiastic batch of
devotees”, grinningly says
Ashish Gupta who
managed the hard work
behind this great success.
Photos: Sandesh, KGP.

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 Vedic Oasis for Inspiration Culture and Education
yad yad äcarati çreñöhas tat tad evetaro janaù – Shreshta Report
Name : Arjun K Ramachandra
Background : Sri Vaishnava family from Karnataka
Special talents : violin playing, singing, mrdangam, management
Inspiration : HH Radhanath swami, Sriguru charan prabhu (His
counselor)
Major services : frontline for IITKGP, Preacher for NIT-R and Bansal
classes at Kota Rajasthan, arranging birthday celebrations, morning
lectures, notice board, shayana arti, internal management, sadhana
scores, etc.
Interview :
Q : Did you ever feel that the load of your services could affect your
acads?
Arjun : Never, In fact I can confidently say that VOICE training moulded me to become mature in
grasping, studying, dealing with issues etc. In fact I could bag the 3rd rank in our department.
Q : We also came to know that you received the prestigious KVPY scholarship worth 3 lakhs and are about
to join IBM, Kolkata. Often we hear modern students speak that spiritual life kills ambitions. How does it
go with VOICE? Does VOICE allow youths to flourish in their careers too while practicing spirituality?
Arjun : Do you think Arjuna who heard Bhagavad gita was a mendicant? He was an ambitious world
renowned warrior. At the end of Bhagavad gita, Lord Krishna did not tell him to give up his archery and
become a mendicant; rather, Arjuna became jubilant to fight the battle of dharma. We always were
encouraged by VOICE preachers to give equal weightage to studies and spirituality. There is no
compromise.
Q : What is your driving force, Mr.Arjun?
Arjun : I am most inspired by Srila Prabhupada's unimaginable sacrifice and it is the driving force for me
to take part in this glorious mission. Everyone us have been bestowed with wonderful qualities by the
grace of Guru and Krishna. If we understand that we are completely unqualified and use these qualities to
serve the mission of Srila Prabhupada in a humble mood, then Krishna will work wonders
through us.
Q : Thank you very much.

Spiritual Tidings @ Metropolitan Bangalore

The last week of April saw the get-together of the Bangalore devotees –
60 students from RVC VOICE, 12 corporates from Bhishma yoga, and 3
fresh gradutes from NITK, Suratkal. All of them assembled and heard few
lectures in VOICE and the rest in ‘Omkar Hills”, a scenic spot in
Bangalore. HG Chaitanya Charan Pr explained the different moods of the
Lord with His devotee – Arjuna during His discourse of the Bhagavad-Gita.
In another lecture, “Faults of fault finding”, he spoke on how detrimental
the attitude of Fault finding is and with many practical examples stressed
how they can be seen with positive attitude.

Editorial Board
HG Radheshyam Das, M.Tech, IIT Mumbai & Director, VOICE
HG Chaitanyacharan Das, B.E, COEP Pune.
Rajshekhar V, M.Tech, IIT Kharagpur.
Siddhartha, B.Tech, IIT Kharagpur.
To share weekly special events, accomplishments, news, announcements and nectar
kindly send email to sid.kgp@gmail.com (Cell-09932619423)
Vedic Oasis for Inspiration Culture and Education (VOICE),
4-Tarapore Road, next to Dastur’s Boys School, Camp Pune-01

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