On the 19th of October, the youngsters of Patna, capital of Bihar state, participated in the greatest youth festival ever conducted by ISKCON there. A total of 1800 students took part in this festival called, ‘Maha Umang – the festival of joy and inspiration’, which was held in Krishna Memorial Auditorium. Most of the students were from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), National Institute of Technology (NIT), and Birla Institute of Technology (BIT), R P Sharma Institute of Technology (RPSIT), Patna Science College(PSC), Patna University, and several coaching institutes.

The festival was greatly anticipated, as students in Patna have lesser opportunities to attend youth events, compared to youth of metro cities of India.

The event was aimed at providing Krishna-conscious philosophy to youngsters as an alternative solution to practical problems faced by contemporary society. Along with this, they were introduced to universally appealing Krishna-conscious aspects like chanting through a Mantra Rock Show, and prasadam.

Krisha Kripa Das President of ISKCON Patna addressing the crowd

Professors from IIT and NIT were also present as guests of honor, Sundar Gopal Das, Director of ‘Iskcon Youth Forum-Delhi’ was the chief guest. He holds a bachelors degree in ‘Civil Engineering’ from Birsa Institute of Technology, Sindri and masters degree in ‘Construction Technology and Management’ from IIT Delhi. After having worked with Larsen and Toubro at Bangalore International Airport for three years, he quit his job to join ISKCON’s preaching mission. He delivered a talk titled ‘Burning the Ravana within’, which was most appreciated by students. It highlighted the inability of modern mechanistic education in curbing vices like lust, anger and greed from hearts of youngsters, which was the reason for rising corruption and degrading moral values in society. The only way to undo this, he said, was to introduce Vedic principles as highlighted by Srimad Bhagvatam and Bhagvad Gita. 

The students agreed that they had never attended such an event. They were very much amazed by the fact that ISKCON was presenting timeless wisdom, in way that youth can easily accept and adopt in lives.

A drama entitled as “Andha Yuga” was also presented

Rambhadra Das, the director of  ‘IYF-Bihar & Jharkhand’, said it was the most successful event ever conducted by them. He too like his Delhi counterpart holds an engineering degree in “Information Technology” from Chandigarh. Before dedicating himself fully to ISKCON, he had worked for as a software engineer with MNCs like Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and IndiaBulls.

Krsna Kripa Das, president ISKCON Patna, said that spiritual and moral education had become highly indispensable for today’s youth, who are highly stressed and finding it challenging to upkeep  moral and ethical values in today’s cut throat competitive environment. He also greatly praised the enthusiastic efforts of IYF , by which they could conduct so professionally an event of this big a scale. 

Student joining in and having a good time during the “Mantra Rock Dance”