Friday 14 February 2014

'Helping students through meditation' Times Of India article


JAIPUR: Around 200 students, mostly with an engineering background have joined Hare Krishna Community at Sitapura in Jaipur, propagating the principles of International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON). So before they begin to attend classes on material science and conduct tests in laboratories to solve complex engineering puzzles, they prefer to start their day by meditating or chanting Hare Rama Hare Krishna.

Here students claim to have achieved multi-fold objectives; de-stressing themselves, seeking spiritual solace and become more focussed and a more healthy life due to organic food. Dayalu Nitai Das, an engineer in chemical branch from IIT-Kanpur who is the president of Hare Krishna Centre, Jaipur, has been training students on meditation and other spiritual activities since 2002.

"These devotees (students) are highly intelligent individuals who come to us after they are totally convinced by our philosophy. Here they follow a very tough lifestyle. Their day starts at 4 am to attend the 'arti' followed by chanting which improves their focus. Then they spend an hour in the 'goshala' (cow shed) washing and feeding the cows which makes them compassionate and kind towards living beings," said Das.

They also run special training programmes to curb suicidal tendencies among the students. Sitapura area has 30 engineering and 25 management colleges. Engineering students come under highly vulnerable group for suicides or suffer from hypertension due to academic pressure.

The community was set up for spreading the teachings but recently it realized the need to address student-centric problems. They began organizing seminars in engineering colleges and received an overwhelming response from the students who started attending meditation.

The community formed two hostels on the temple campus for those students who volunteered to live the tough lifestyle of a devotee. Deepanshu, a meritorious student from JECRC said, "My life has changed since I joined here. I have learnt how to attain deep focus which has sharpened my grasping power. Now I am able to complete college assignments almost in half time as compared to before."

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/jaipur/Helping-students-through-meditation/articleshow/19284118.cms?intenttarget=no#.Uv22Na5owZY.facebook


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