{"id":57975,"date":"2018-01-20T10:05:38","date_gmt":"2018-01-20T09:05:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=57975"},"modified":"2018-01-20T10:05:38","modified_gmt":"2018-01-20T09:05:38","slug":"seminar-series-on-bhagavad-gita-at-yogyakarta-indonesia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=57975","title":{"rendered":"Seminar series on Bhagavad-gita at Yogyakarta, Indonesia"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nMore photos: https:\/\/goo.gl\/5SjHDo<\/a><\/p>\n

By Hari Narayana Das<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yogyakarta\u00a0also known as\u00a0Jogja\u00a0or\u00a0Jogjakarta, is a city on the island of\u00a0Java\u00a0in\u00a0Indonesia. It is renowned as a centre of education (Kota Pelajar or the City of Students), classical\u00a0Javanese\u00a0fine art and culture such as\u00a0batik, ballet, drama, music, poetry and puppet shows. The city is named after the Indian city of\u00a0Ayodhya\u00a0from the\u00a0Ramayana\u00a0epic.\u00a0Yogya\u00a0means “suitable, fit, proper”, and\u00a0karta, “prosperous, flourishing” (i.e., “a city that is fit to prosper”). <\/p>\n

There used to be a very vibrant preaching centre in Jalan Pleret, Bantul, Yogyakarta under H.H. Bhaktisvarupa Damodara Swami and taken care of by Narasimha Chaitanya das. Six Brahmacharis used to preach extensively, teaching local people how to chant the maha mantra, reading Bhagavad-gita, distributing books, going to nearby villages. On 26 May, 2007 due to increased volcanic activity at Mount Merapi, an active volcano, a massive earthquake shook the whole of Jogjakarta causing widespread destruction and death by thousands. The building where the centre was located too did not survive the earthquake and all that was left was a pile of bricks and rubble forcing the devotees to move a different location in Bali. Still before leaving the devotees organized food for life program to assist the victims affected by the life changing earthquake. <\/p>\n

Narayana Smriti Ashram, located at Sudarshana Chakra Street, is the ISKCON centre in Jogja City today. This humble ashram functioning under the guidance of H.H. Bhakti Raghava Swami and his senior disciples also provides living space for students who take care of all the daily temple programs. Many students from other faiths come regularly to the centre to take part in interfaith dialogues to enhance their understanding of Vedic Culture. <\/p>\n

Shyamakunda das along with Subhananda das and Garuda das in collaboration United University Students Hindu Indonesia (KMHDI) arranged two interactive seminars on Bhagavad-gita with Ramanuja das (Mr. Robindro Aribam, representing Yayasan Institut Bhaktivedanta Indonesia) from Manipur, India as the main speaker. The first one titled \u2018Life after Death: Inspirations from Vedanta\u2019 was held on the 4th January 2018 at the temple complex Pura Bangun Tapan (Temple for awakening of Tapasya) which was attended by many of the leaders of the Hindu Parisada of Jogjakarta as well as students from different faiths. The special and unexpected guest that evening was the Governor of the Naval Airforce Education Academy. The senior gentlemen from different communities raised important and sincere questions and all of them appreciated the way Srila Prabhupada explained key matters with utmost clarify focusing every reply on how one should realize his self and attain love of God which is universal and applicable to all irrespective of caste, culture, creed, religion or country. One Catholic gentleman, Mr. Rafael Agustito, lecturer Mathematics Department, Sarjanawiyata Tamansiswa University, Jogjakarta, was very happy to attend the talk and also took a Bhagavad-gita. Few days later he expressed that \u201cIn today\u2019s time when almost all religions are fighting amongst themselves I find that only Bhagavad-gita offers the pratical and scientific solution to attain Universal peace.\u201d <\/p>\n

The next seminar \u201cScience and Spirituality: Bhagavad-gita and Good fortune\u201d, on 6th January 2018 was held at the Office of Ministry of Religion, Jogjakarta. The question answer session continued as a very active interaction. The number of audience was very less but the program was worth it. One lady happened to be a member of the Hindu Parisada in Kupang, capital of NTT (Nusa Tenggara Timur) near East Timor, she was very happy to be there at the seminar and invited the organizers to speak the same about the same topic at Kupang. Next day we visited Klaten Village near to Jogjakarta. This was nearly after ten years when devotees last visited the village and some of the village elders still vaguely remembered the events then. The gathering was organised at temple Pura Satya Dharma Putra. Many also took Srila Prabhupada books; as they had no copies of the Bhagavad-gita the members of the Hindu council were presented fifteen Bhagavad-gita as it is and they agreed to read the Gita daily. Next we visited the busy streets of Malioboro City teaming with University students and tourists where were able to distribute few books.<\/p>\n

This trip to Jogja was like a walk back in time where you could see and feel the efforts made by those sincere devotees who prefer to remain as hidden legends with stories and experiences to share and at the same time it was an adventure which helped the leaders of the local community to appreciate the wonderful contributions of Srila Prabhupada towards all nations and for all people of the world. The trip also showed us how still in today\u2019s fast moving world people are eager to accept the spiritual traditions of Vedic culture to understand the purpose of life and understand the meaning of their existence. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"HareBy Hari Narayana Das<\/strong><\/p>\n

There used to be a very vibrant preaching centre in Jalan Pleret, Bantul, Yogyakarta under H.H. Bhaktisvarupa Damodara Swami and taken care of by Narasimha Chaitanya das. Six Brahmacharis used to preach extensively, teaching local people how to chant the maha mantra, reading Bhagavad-gita, distributing books, going to nearby villages. On 26 May, 2007 due to increased volcanic activity at Mount Merapi, an active volcano, a massive earthquake shook the whole of Jogjakarta causing widespread destruction and death by thousands. The building where the centre was located too did not survive the earthquake and all that was left was a pile of bricks and rubble forcing the devotees to move a different location in Bali. Still before leaving the devotees organized food for life program to assist the victims affected by the life changing earthquake.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[90],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=57975"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57975\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57977,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57975\/revisions\/57977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=57975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=57975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=57975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}