Udgaar19

Date – 06th October 2019
Theme – Making India Addiction Free
Venue – Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium, New Delhi
Participants – 15000+

The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) celebrated an annual Mega Youth Fest ‘UDGAAR – An Expression of Goodness and Joy’, on October 6th at Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium in New Delhi. It was based on the theme ‘Anti-Addiction: Making India Addiction Free’. A world record for “Largest Addiction Awareness Festival” was awarded in the event by World Book of Records, London to His Holiness Gopal Krishna Goswami, ISKCON GBC, in presence of Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Unioun Health Minister. A total of 15,000 thousand people participated in the event

The event was a blend of modern entertainment like Hip-Hop by ‘Feel Crew’, fusion music by “Madhavas Rock Band” and Sand Art Performace by Nitish Bharti, and wisdom talks delivered by leaders in ISKCON, and fields of Medicine and Social Services. The festival saw talks by ISKCON leaders like His Holiness Lokanath Swami, His Holiness Gopal Krishna Goswami, HG Anuttama Das, from US and His Holiness Sachinandan Swami from Germany. From academic circle Dr. R. Khanna, Head- Deptt. of Psychiatry and National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre- AIIMS, Delhi and Dr. Veerendra Mishra, Director- National Institute of Social Defence, addressed the audience

Gopal Krishna Goswami, mentioned ISKCONs founder Srila Prabhupad’s, efforts in successfully bringing out thousands of youngsters in US out of addiction in 1960s.

An appreciation letter for the festival, issued by the Prime Minister, Sri Narendra Modi, was also read before the audience.

Dr. Harsh Vardhan, praised ISKCON for its global efforts for protection of India’s culture globally.
He said that ISKCON is an organization that is very strongly needed in world today.

The Dr. Veerendra Mishra, Director- National Institute of Social Defence, said the best way to tackle menace of addiction is to not let youngsters fall into it.

HG Sundar Gopal, Director- ISKCON Youth Forum & UDGAAR Festival, said ISKCON is committed to help youngsters out of addiction, this festival is a part of that commitment to tackle an epidemic that is making our youngsters hollow.
Prince India Dance group performed on ‘Jan Gana Mana’ to give a fitting start to the festival.
Other performance that enthralled the audience were Sand Art performance by Nitish Bharti, showcasing struggle of a young addict and his receiving help from Bhagavd Gita. The inter college Addiction Awareness Quiz Competition, hosted by RJ Ginnie from Radio City, was won by Bablu, a student of GB Pant Engineering College, 2nd Position was won by Shruti from Daulat Ram College, Radha from RKGIT won the 3rd prize.

The event met an apt end, by feet tapping performance by Madhava’s, which made the audience join them in dancing and chanting close to stage, leaving their seats.

The participants of event will have opportunity to join Personality Development Courses, in over a 100 centres of Ethicraft, ISKCON’s social service wing.

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Udgaar18

Date – 14th October 2018
Theme – Building India Upon Values
Venue – Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium,New Delhi
Participants – Around 8000

The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), celebrated an Annual Mega Youth Fest UDGAAR – “An Expression of Goodness and Joy’’, on October 14th, 2018, at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium in Delhi. It marked the initiation of their “Value Awareness Campaign”.
Around 6,000 youngsters from across the country participated in the festival.
The Union HRD Minister, Sri Prakash Javadekar graced the festival as the Chief Guest. He talked about degrading values in educated youngsters and praised ISKCON’s international contribution for bringing youngsters out of addiction, and for being dedicated to spreading values. He also inaugurated “Ethicraft”, a club dedicated to training university and school students in the cultivation of values.
Eminent educationists such as Dr G RC Reddy, VC -Sharda University and Dr Dinesh Kumar, VC -YMCA University, and Mr Bhupendra Yadav, MP also inspired students to take up values in life.
Vivek Bindra, the popular motivational speaker and Corporate Coach delivered a keynote speech on values, sharing humorous stories about values and bringing examples from the life of great celebrities like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Baba Ramdev. He quoted many shlokas from Gita, to inspire students in determination, focus and hold high aims in life, and dedicate themselves to achieve those aims.
The aim of the fest was to provide youngsters with a unique opportunity to develop and express their inherent constructive feelings and thereby experience the natural joy of the self. The fest this year is based on the theme “Building India upon values”. The focus was to inspire youngsters to contribute towards the social, economic and scientific development of India by cultivating better values in their character and inspiring others in the same direction. This theme was presented through numerous events such as:
  • Feet Tapping Fusion Musical performance by Madhavas Rock band, which earned fame through ‘India’s Got Talent’ Reality show and were second runners-up in season 3.
  • Cultural message to students by international ISKCON leaders like Sachinandana Swami from Germany and Guruprasad Swami from the US, and Lokakatha Swami and Gopala Krishna Goswami from India, who are working in the field of value education in Europe, Asia and North America for past forty years.
  • Mesmerizing Live sand art performance on life and great contribution of ISKCON’s founder Srila Prabhupada, by internationally acclaimed sand artist Rahul Arya.
  • A theatrical performance “Asato Ma Sadgamaya- Marching towards Values” by an ISKCON Youth Forum troupe, showcasing the importance of moral values by presenting contemporary global challenges being discussed at a meeting at United Nations.
  • Enthralling UV Dance performance by ‘Prince Dance Group’, winners of “India’s Got Talent season-1” on values exhibited by national tricolour and on Dashavataar, the forms of Lord Vishnu, each exhibiting a different value such as Character, Chivalry, Patience, Forgiveness etc.

ISKCON was founded in 1965 by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, with its first objective to ‘To check the imbalance of values in life and to achieve real unity and peace in the world’. The festival is a step aligned with this objective.

“From the dawn of human civilization, the importance of Value Education has been realized by pioneers and thinkers all over the world”, says Sundar Gopal Das, Director- ISKCON Youth Forum, Delhi, the person who conceived the festival. He further adds, “Value education is also necessary in order to develop the core human values like integrity, honesty, truthfulness, trustworthiness, etc. These are the foundational principles for a peaceful and prosperous society.