The ISKCON Temple,

Bangalore

ISKCON – A Beautiful Beginning SriChaitanya, whom devotees revere as a direct incarnation of Lord Krishna, gave a powerful

impetus for a massive bhakti (devotional) movement of Krishna followers throughout India. The movement diminished somewhat until the 19th century, when a outstanding Vaishnava

theologian, Bhaktivinoda Thakura, again revived Krishna consciousness. His son, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Goswami, became the guru of Srila Prabhupada and

instructed him to make the spreading of Krishna consciousness in the West the mission of his life.

After arriving at New York City in September 1965, Srila Prabhupada struggled alone for the first year to establish his God conscious movement. He lived simply, lectured whenever and wherever he got opportunity, and gradually began to attract some small interest in his teachings.

In July of 1966, while still working alone from an obscure storefront in New York City's Lower East Side, Srila Prabhupada nonetheless founded a spiritual society intended for worldwide participation. He called it the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, or ISKCON for short.

Today, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness comprises more than 350 temples, farms, schools, and special projects throughout the world and maintains a congregation numbering in the millions.

The ISKCON Movement The International Society for Krishna

Consciousness is a denomination of the Gaudiya Vaishnava faith, a devotional tradition based on the teachings of Bhagavad-gita and the Bhagavat Purana (Srimad Bhagavatam).

The tradition traces its roots back 5,500 years.

The precepts and practices of the members of the present day ISKCON were taught and codified by the 15th century saint and religious reformer Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and his principle associates, the six Goswamis of Vrindavana.

ISKCON’s Purpose The Vedas recommend that in the present age the

most effective means for achieving self-realization is to always hear about, glorify, and remember the all-good Supreme Lord, who is known by many names.

One of the names is "Krishna," which means "He, who is all attractive," another is "Rama"' which means " He who is reservoir of all pleasure," and "Hare," indicates the Lord's inconceivable energy.

Following the Vedic recommendation, the members of ISKCON are always seen chanting Hare Krishna Hare Krishna , Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare Hare.

This sublime chanting puts us directly in touch with the Supreme Lord through the sound vibration of His holy names and gradually awakens us to our original relationship with God.

The Seven Purposes of ISKCON

1) To systematically propagate spiritual knowledge to society at large and to educate all people in the techniques of spiritual life in order to check the imbalance of values in life and to achieve real unity and peace in the world.

2) To propagate a consciousness of Krishna (God), as it is revealed in the great scriptures of India, Bhagavad-Gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam.

3) To bring the members of the Society together with each other and nearer to Krishna, the prime entity, thus developing the idea within the members, and humanity at large, that each soul is part and parcel of the quality of Godhead (Krishna).

4) To teach and encourage the sankirtana movement, congregational chanting of the holy name of God, as revealed in the teachings of Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

5) To erect for the members and for society at large a holy place of transcendental pastimes dedicated to the personality of Krishna.

6) To bring the members closer together for the purpose of teaching a simpler, more natural way of life.

7) With a view towards achieving the aforementioned purposes, to publish and distribute periodicals, magazines, books and other writings.

Objective -To study about the social activity conducted by iskcon-

Akshaya Patra, “A strategic mid-day meal program to promote literacy among underprivileged children.”

Daily Schedule 3:45 am - 4:00 am Jagaran Seva 4:00 am - Balya bhoga offering 4:15 am - Mangala arati : first puja & darshan of Lord Sri Radha Krishna-Chandra with

arati & kirtana (in the main temple hall) 4:45 am - Sri Tulasi puja (with Deities darshan closed) 5:00 am - Puja for Sri Prahlada Narasimha 5:15 am - Suprabhata seva of Sri Srinivasa Govinda 5:20 am to 7:15 am Offering of daily worship of Shodasha nitya puja to the Deities

(darshan closed), Japa Meditation 7:15 am - Shringara darshan - puja of Lord Sri Radha Krishna-Chandra after shringara,

with arati & kirtana (main temple hall) 7:30 am - Parikrama of the Deities in procession with kirtana, with the murti of Srila

Prabhupada 7:45 am - Shringara darshan of Sri Prahlada Narasimha 7:55 am - Shringara darshan of Sri Srinivasa Govinda 8:00 am - Sri Guru Puja of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada 8:10 am to 8:35 am - Pratara bhoga offering 8:15 am - Lecture on the Srimad-Bhagavatam 12:00 noon - Raja bhoga offering 12:30 pm - Raja bhoga arati - puja of the Lord with arati & kirtana 1:00 pm to 3:45 pm Shayana seva (darshan closed during this time) 3:45 pm to 4:00 pm Jagaran Seva 4:00 pm - Vaikalika bhoga offering 4:15 pm - Dhupa arati (darshan opens) 5:00 pm - Sandhya bhoga offering 6:45 pm - Sri Tulasi Puja 7:00 pm - Sandhya arati - puja of the Lord with arati & kirtana 8:00 pm - Ratrikalika bhoga offering   Shayana arati

Selection of study areaWe selected the study area because:-

To know how ISKCON took a step forward to enhance literacy rates, to become a developed nation by Akshaya Patra program.

SECONDARY DATA :-TIMES OF INDIAMid-day Meal Started in N. Karnataka

“Children are not a burden to society. To encourage them to study, and decrease illiteracy in the state, particularly in a backward area like Deodurga taluk, we have proposed to introduce the mid-day meal programme,” Krishna said in his speech.

Krishna had a special word for the social services of ISKCON and Wipro chief educationist Azim Premji “the richest Indian in the world”. At present, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness ISKCON, Bangalore, has taken on the responsibility of providing mid-day meals to 19,000 people in Bangalore.

DECCAN HERALD Iskcon chief calls for Child hunger free State BANGALORE, Nov 10

The president of Iskcon, Bangalore, Mr Madhu Pandit, has urged Chief Minister S M Krishna to adopt the mission of making Karnataka a “child-hunger free”

The scheme has managed a phenomenal reach of 19,000 children in little over a year and it is aimed to feed 30,000 children by end of this academic year, said Mr Madhu Pandit, thanking the donors whose donation of Rs 1,200 each helped feed a child for a whole year.

THE HINDU ‘ISKCON`s Programme has shown resultsBANGALORE, NOV. 10.Mr. S.M.Krishna, at Raichur on Friday, said a study report

of the Education Department, “ the free mid-day meal had a great impact on school children, and 99.6 per cent of the beneficiaries felt that they paid better attention towards their studies.” He added that 93.8 percent of the teachers felt that there was an overall academic improvement in the students.

Sri Madhupandit Dasa said that 91.8 per cent of the teachers felt that the attendance of the students had improved.

In the current academic year, 16 Schools had reported a 15 per cent increase in enrolment. The mid-day meal programme had addressed two of the most debilitating problems-hunger and education.

THE HINDUSUNDAY, JUNE 07, 2009

MYSORE: With the inauguration of a state-of-the-art kitchen on the ISKCON premises in Jayanagar here on Saturday, the Akshaya Patra Foundation aims to cover 30,000 schoolchildren in Mysore district in its mid-day meal programme.

The foundation started its operation in Mysore in August 2004. It is serving mid-day meals to nearly 8,700 children in 32 schools in and around Mysore city.

THE INDIAN EXPRESSJANUARY 28, 2009Award for Akshaya Patra Akshaya Patra has won accolades their performance for feeding

nearly one million school children every day.  Madhu Pandit Dasa, Chairman, The Akshaya Patra Foundation,

received the award and said, "This award is actually a recognition of thousands of supporters from the corporate world, professional governance provided by my co-trustees, board of advisors, support of the state and central government, thousands of Akshaya Patra staff and dedicated missionary workers, to bring a smile on the faces of the underprivileged children and to empower them with education".

"We have been following the best practices of the corporate world in terms of transparency and governance which we believe is essential to conduct the program on such a grand scale. We also thank God for making us instruments in this great service and pray that we will be able to extend this service to lakhs of more children to support them with good education".

BANGALORE MIRRORFriday, December 12, 2008Obama’s accolade for Akshaya Patra

The Akshaya Patra mid-day meal programme run by ISKCON has drawn praise from US President elect Barack Obama.

When Obama was on his campaign trail, he heard about Akshaya Patra mid-day meal programme of India and took time off to send a congratulatory note. In the note sent to the head of Akshaya Patra office in Boston, he writes, “Your use of efficient and innovative business practices to scale up in just a few years from feeding 1,500 school children daily to almost a million is a powerful demonstration of what’s possible when people work together.”

INTERVIEW Ques.1 When did akshaya patra started? Ans. Akshaya patra started its noon meal program with 1500 children in 5

schools of banglore city in the year 2000.

Ques.2 What are the rules and regulations to be followed by a devotee in ISKCON?

Ans. There are 4 strict rules to abide by while serving as a devotee in ISKCON, which are as follows:

•No Gambling →hostility will go •No intoxication →penance will go •No elicit sex →cleanliness will go •No meat eating →mercy will go

Ques.3. How does a devotee in ISKCON secure a livelihood? A person who is serving as a devotee in ISKCON is given a house to live, food

to eat and clothing to cover their body. It is the main objective of ISKCON to teach devotees to live life with simplicity and compassion, and to have a high thinking. People are not given any kind of salary or wages, they are simply asked to dedicate their lives to serving Lord Krishna and mankind.

Ques.4 What are the volunteers asked to do on special occasions in ISKCON?

Ans. Visitors are asked to serve the devotees prashadam and bhog. A new system was introduced by the ISKCON community along with Narayana Murthy(Owner Infosys Technologies) called “Paduka Seva” in which volunteers are asked to wash the feet of disciples and devotees and take care of their footwear.

Ques.5 Explain the Akshayapatra Programme. Ans. The Akshayapatra Programme is a strategic mid-day meal

programme to promote literacy among under-privileged children. Akshayapatra Programme serves over 1 million under- privelged children in about 5800 schools in 7 states in India. The vision of Akshayapatra Foundation is no child in India shall be deprived of education because of hunger.

Ques.6 Are the devotees allowed to marry? Ans. The devotees are allowed to marry only within the ISKCON

community, which is with another devotee.

Ques.7 What is the coverage of Akshayapatra Programme in Karnataka and in India?

Ans. Akshayapatra is feeding about 5lac children in Karnataka in 5 locations- Bangalore, Hubli, Bellary, Mysore and Mangalore. Akshayapatra is feeding about 10lac children in India in 7 states.

Ques.8 What is the subsidy Akshayapatra gets from the government?

Ans. The subsidy Akshayapatra gets in Karnataka is as follows:- Class 1 to 7: Rs. 1.80 per child + 100 gms. Of rice per child per

day Class 8 to 10: Rs. 2.20 per child + 150 gms. Of rice per child

per day

Questionaries:- From how many years you have been

benifited by akshaya patra scheme?a) recentlyb) 1 yearsc) 2 years d) 3 years Do you ever visited Iskcon temple?a) Yesb) No

Do you like the food provided by Akshaya Patra?

a) Yesb) Noc) AverageDo you know who provides the mid day meal?a) your schoolb) Akshaya patrac) Government Is the food provided is sufficient ?a) Yesb) No

Do they miss the meal any day?a) Yes b) No Is there any special meal on special

occation?a) Yesb) No Do they change the menu ?a) Weekly b) Dailyc) Samed) Occasionally

Do you know which god is worshiped in Iskcon temple?

a) Yes b) No Would you like to be the part of iskcon

temple?a) Yesb) No

Observation:-Akshaya Patra:To fulfill the malnaurishment of children Akshaya

Patra provide daily food to students.The supplementary nutrition provided by them is

helping in academic performance.Food is cooked in automated kitchens and

distributes through vehicles to schools.The kitchens are equipped with high capacity

stainless steel boilers, chapati making machines, vegetable cutting machines.

They keep on changing the menu everyday.

To enhance socio-economic status they provide employment to local women.

Under special observation of devotees the food is cooked and served.

Iskcon :People from different races come and join

the organization as “devotee”.Iskcon is well maintained and properly

cleaned.Many students from different colleges

come as a volunteer.Most of the staff/devotees in Iskcon are

Engineers, Doctors and graduates- 70% Engineers, 20% Doctors, 10% Graduates

The staff is not paid anything they have to live a simple life with high thinking.

THANK YOU…