One - Time in Colleges

The Need....

In ISKCON Youth Forum, we are very fond of preaching to youth. When we see so many young students joining colleges, we wonder how we can come closer to them and preach to them. How will they take to Krishna consciousness? So to introduce ourselves to the youth community and to create awareness amongst the student community about how ISKCON is scientifically presenting the timeless Vedic wisdom and its practical application in the modern times, with spiritual professors who are also stalwarts in the academic field, this one time program is conducted, usually once in a semester.

Benefits....

1) Attracts attention of the students. They become aware of existence of Krishna conscious philosophy and that there is a spiritual side to life.

2) The one-time program can be viewed as a seed-sowing program for further preaching.

3) ISKCON Youth Forum receives mass propaganda through these programs. Everyone comes to know about IYF activities (see IYF pamphlet in appendix)

4) Can help us to locate students who are serious seekers of Absolute Truth who can be further cultivated to form the serious devotee group.

Topics....

We can give presentations on various topics such as ‘The Art of Mind Control’, ‘Life After Death’, ‘Stress Management & Mantra Meditation’, ‘Self Management’, ‘Time Management’ and ‘A Tryst with Eternal Beauty’. For most of these topics, ISKCON Youth Forum has published pocket books. These books are printed in several thousands and distributed at the end of one-time programs to help students carry the wisdom home with them. Also for most of these topics there are color slides available which are very impressive for anybody to quickly grasp and appreciate.

Venue & Audience....

1) The program can be conducted in the college if the college authority is favorable and the auditorium (capacity 500-600 students) is available.

2) Holding class to class (or department-wise). This will attract a smaller audience (one class or department at a time) but we can have better attention of students. Many students can come to know us thoroughly and we can answer many more questions.

3) If college auditorium is unavailable, we can fix up a community hall or a public welfare hall or some students flat or terrace opposite to the college where we can invite all the students living in the neighbouring hostels/flats.

The last option can turn out to be more beneficial than holding in the college. This is because many of the college students are localites, who never come to our weekly programs even after coming to the one-time program. Our target audience is students living in hostels/flats who want to attend our weekly program regularly.

 

Timing....

1) Can be conducted during college hours; this will ensure maximum audience as both hostelites and localites can attend. But it may be slightly difficult to get permission from college authorities.

2) Immediately after college-hours.

3) For programs arranged outside college, in case students have tuition after college hours, then we can arrange just after dinnertime. E.g. 9.00PM onwards. The late night hours are found to be the most convenient time for the students as they generally don't go to bed before midnight.

Frequency....

We usually hold one 1-time program (for a given topic) in a college every semester. For the next semester, it is better if the topic is changed, as the college authorities also like new information being given to the students. Generally, a topic should not be repeated for at least 2 years.

 

Quiz....

A quiz can be conducted at the end of the lecture, if time permits. This quiz involves very little written work for students, may be a few words, to test their understanding. The answers for the quiz are written by the students on the back side of address slip, so that immediately after correction, shortlisting the toppers becomes easy. 

Six - Session Program  

The Need....

What is heard by the students in the one-time program is basically meant to generate an interest amongst the masses and to identify the serious ones. This six-session program on `Science of Self Discovery' gives them more understanding of what spiritual life is and how to apply it in their everyday lives. For better understanding and appreciation, we are presenting this course in a scientific manner. Today, the younger generation is not satisfied with ordinary religious rituals, and demands an explanation that can appeal to their scientific upbringing. Srila Prabhupada also desired that preachers explain the Krishna conscious philosophy in a systematic, logical and scientific way so that there is no doubt left with the audience. This course is primarily geared towards the engineering community, but can be suitably presented to any kind of audience, keeping in mind their background and needs. The six sessions presented here gradually elevate the audience from the most basic question "Does God exist?" to an understanding of love and service of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Sri Krishna.

Benefits....

1) In these six sessions, all enhanced by color slide shows, the serious candidates grasp the Krishna conscious philosophy considerably and become fixed-up devotees, prepared for attending a weekly program.

2) We enter a college with no acquaintances or support. But, by the end of the six-session program, a wonderful relationship is developed between the preacher and the students so much so that the preacher can boldly ask, "Who would like to offer your room for a ten-session course on Science of the Absolute Truth (SAT)?" Certainly the most serious ones will offer their room for holding the weekly program and another 20 will promise to regularly attend the same. Thus a 6-session program offers a venue and audience for a weekly program.

Topics....

IYF has published a standard text book entitled "Science of Self Discovery" which covers the following topics elaborately with practical examples:

1. Does God exist?
2. Relative and Absolute knowledge
3. The infallible Vedic wisdom
4. The science of the Soul
5. Substance and Shadow
6. Sanatana Dharma - The art of Living

We have prepared color slides for each session (15 to 20 slides per session) which makes the lecture very graphic and easy to grasp. The complete set is available for sale. After one successfully completes this course, we have three more courses providing progressively deeper understanding of the philosophy. These are Science of the Absolute Truth (SAT), Science of Conquering Death (SCD) and Science of Yoga (SY). These three courses need not be taught in a 6-session fashion, but can be taught in the weekly program.

Venue & Audience....

1) The course can be conducted in the college campus, say in a seminar hall (capacity of about 150 students). Both localites (students staying in the nearby localities) and hostelites can attend.

2) Can be conducted in the hostel, say in the common room or recreation room. The advantage is twofold: all the hostelites can be invited to attend the course and the follow-up during the course days is very easy; most of the audience is staying in the hostel rooms.

3) If conducted outside, then preferably it should be in a student’s room (for small audience) or a nearby building terrace. A public hall may be taken on rent, in case of no other option.

4) If possible, the venue should not be close to places such as a library, where people may complain about the sound coming out from our program. In the six-session program, we include group chanting and kirtans.

Weekly Program

Caitanya Caran das ( B.E. E&TC)

Background ....

IYF pune conducts weekely programme in many colleges in pune city. Various mature IYF pune youth preachers, who have been trained in Presenting Krishna Conscious philophy, are allowed to preach in the colleges.

Weekly Program: An overview....

THE IDEAL VENUE for a weekly youth program is a HOSTEL ROOM or the FLAT of an interested student. Once the program starts, its first goal is to create one potential leader from among the students. Once this student-devotee becomes serious and starts practicing Krishna consciousness properly, other students derive great inspiration from his example.  The other students follow this student leader and gradually become serious about Krishna consciousness. Due to the responsibility of being the leader for the program, the student-leader also increases his dedication. This is how the strategy of creating one leader and, through him, many other devotees, works.

When 4-5 devotees have become steady in Krishna consciousness, they can be inspired to start living in a room together and a daily morning program consisting of mangala-arti, chanting and reading or hearing can be started. When this group of 4-5 devotees matures and comes to the level of chanting 16 rounds, then the weekly program is considered successful.

 

The cell group meetings :

**Junior cell group

The junior cell group is for those who have started coming recently to the program. As they have not attended the previous sessions, they are unable to properly understand the present sessions. So for them the previous sessions are revised in the cell group.

 **Senior cell group

The senior cell group is for those who have been coming regularly for several programs but are afraid of opening up to the preacher, who may be a senior shaven-headed devotee in saffron. Since this cell group will be conducted either by one of the student leaders or by the follow up senior devotee, both of whom the students see as one of them, it ensures that they can interact freely with him, ask questions and make further spiritual progress.

If there are two competent student-leaders available, they can conduct both the cell group meetings. If only one is available, then he can conduct the junior cell group and the follow up senior devotee (allotted by Cordination Committe) for the program can conduct the senior cell group.

The purpose of the cell group is twofold. Firstly it provides an opportunity for one of the leader-type devotees in the program to preach the philosophy of Krishna consciousness and thus become very strong. Secondly, it helps both the new students as well as the introvert old students to get a better understanding of the philosophy and thus advance in their Krishna consciousness.

The cell group works on the principle: Each one teaches one while being taught by one.