Sunday program feast for the Bhakti yoga club at the Bhakti House
Kirtan jam session with BYC members
By Abeer Saha
After an arrival lecture, in Gainsville (FL, USA), on July 29, 1971, Srila Prabhupada was asked by a reporter in the audience, “It seems that most of the devotees are young people, persons under thirty, under twenty-five. Why is this so? …”
Srila Prabhupada responded, “Why, in the university, you’ll find all the students are young boys and girls? Why?”
“That’s the age of education,” she said, as the realization of her own words sunk in.
“That’s the age of Krishna consciousness,” Srila Prabhupada reinforced, “old fools, they cannot change their opinion.”
Forty-three years later, I am grateful for the reporter asking Srila Prabhupada her question, because now with great urgency, we need to heed our Founder-Acharya’s reply.
College is that time of life when we are seeking new experiences, out from under the watchful eye of our parents, and not yet burdened with the responsibility of maintaining ourselves. For those very reasons, college is when we are most ready to seek the absolute truth, to fulfill the purpose of life. Having considered that, is it any surprise that in the heyday of our movement, the reporter remarked, “It seems that most of the devotees are young people…” ?
Young people are the future of Lord Chaitanya’s movement. We, as a body of devotees, need to now consider this future. Gone are the days when Hare Krishna was a household word in the western hemisphere. Srila Prabhupada’s temples, at least from our experience here in North America, have transformed from spiritual oases alive with youthful energy, places where sincere souls plotted out the fulfillment of Srila Prabhupada’s desires, to the equivalent of Sunday Church for the local Hindu families and already initiated devotees.
In this light, a question then begs to be addressed. How do we attract the youth of the western world to Krishna Consciousness?
I am a student of the Bhakti Yoga Club at the University of Virginia (UVa) and I think our club founders have established a program here that addresses this urgent concern. Not only has the club been able to share Bhakti Yoga with the brightest students at this historic university, but it has actually been able to transform many nitya baddha (conditioned) jivas into 16-round-chanting, regulative-principle-following, spiritual-master-seeking, aspiring Krishna bhaktas! Our club is vibrant and active, and was voted by UVa students as “The most Innovative Club” at the university. And we’re not alone. There are other university preaching centers around the world that have met with similar success. Preaching at universities is proving itself one of the best ways in today’s world to approach intelligent young people with the science of Bhakti.
In order to encourage others to be a part of this revival, this renaissance in Krishna Conscious preaching, we have started two websites: bhaktiyogaclubs.com, and beginningbhakti.com
The former, bhaktiyogaclubs.com, is a portal where all the North American bhakti yoga clubs/societies and other centers that serve university students, are each invited to have a free page about who they are, what they do, where they meet and how to contact them. This website serves a dual purpose. Primarily, it serves as a central location for devotee students to find those universities where they will have the association of devotee peers. Secondly, it is a resource for university preachers to connect and collaborate with others who are doing the same. Please write to bhakti@bhaktivedantacenter.com to get your club a page on this website. Alternatively, visit the Contact Us section of bhaktiyogaclubs.com. Publicize your Bhakti club to the world and help young people choose universities where they will be able to continue their spiritual life in the association of other student devotees.
The latter of the two websites, beginningbhakti.com, is a platform that hosts lectures and kirtans held at the Bhakti House (University of Virginia) with the specific aim of attracting young adults to Krishna Consciousness. We share this website so that those devotees who are curious about our programs, and may want to start something similar at a university near them, can have a glimpse into what we do that works. Here you’ll find lectures that address the basic tenets of the bhakti philosophy and kirtans that soothe the soul. Many, if not most, of our talks and kirtan jams are led by the students themselves! All the students giving class started on the path of Bhakti at the Virginia BYC Club, including me.
I write this piece with the prayer that readers everywhere will feel inspired and encouraged to start a Bhakti Yoga Club or preaching center at a college or university near them. So, what do you think? Do you want to try to serve Srila Prabhupada’s movement in this way? If you’re not sure how or have more questions please reach out to us at bhakti@bhaktivedantacenter.com.
Need more inspiration? Here’s our facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Bhaktivedanta-Center/159076900786352 , and our blog: www.bhaktivedantacenter.com
—Abeer Saha