By Navadwipa Isvari devi dasi and Sadhu Seva dasa
The Vedic India program, which is the name we have given our school preaching here in Melbourne, Australia is really starting to take off.
We have gone into about 14 different schools in the last couple of years, and have even been offered to participate in school fetes and local community art initiatives.
The school programs usually consists of about 7 or 8 workshops, where we introduce the children to such things as festivals & culture of India, Vegetarian cooking, Yoga & meditation, Vedic Music & Dance, as well as Henna art, traditional Vedic dress, Krishna past times, badge and garland making. These workshops are run throughout the school day, with the highlight usually being the lunch time Harinam and prasadam distribution.
When we are invited to participate in fetes and other community events we scale down our normal program to just a few interactive demonstrations, while being fortunate enough to have Harinam and prasadam distribution as our main feature.
We are getting great feedback from many people including Mr Malcolm Corr, Prinacipal of Beverley Hills Primary School, who said “this has been the best Harmony Day celebration, and I don’t think anything can beat this”. And Mr Tim Newton principal of Middle Park Primary school said “What a great day it was for our students and community as a whole. We really appreciate all the work you and the team put in to make it such a special day.”
As word of mouth gets around and invitations come for us to bring our Vedic India program into more schools, it is looking like Lord Caitanya is showering his mercy on our preaching.
We are also getting interest from many devotees within Australia and around the world, if you are interested in doing similar programs in your community, please write to Navadwipa Isvari devi dasi, on nala_aravind@hotmail.com