ISKCON rath ready to roll over recession fears

“Students from these institutions are of a competitive mentality and want immediate results. They are so obsessed with success that setbacks the recession has brought in its wake cause stress,anxiety and depression that even lead to suicides in some cases,” said Acharya Ratna Das,vice-president of ISKCON. According to Das,spirituality would help them see the ups and downs in proper perspective and deal with them effectively.

During the June 24 to July 1 event,IITians and spiritual leaders from across the country will discuss the issue through seminars on “Growing amidst Recession,“Coping up with Recession: Message to Youth in India”,“Art of Discipline” etc.

ISKCON has been

regularly interacting with students of premier institutions and organising workshops with them. They have set up a core group of students who will serve as resource persons at the programme.

The students from IIT Kharagpur,NIIT Jamshedpur,NIIT Rourkela,NIIT Surat and NIIT Warangal will act as resource persons. They will set up stalls and interact with students and provide useful tips on how to deal with recession. Students from IIM Calcutta,Calcutta Medical College and many other state universities will attend the celebrations during the 38th Rath Yatra of ISKCON.

“We will deal with recession in a very systematic manner,telling students how it all started and how to tackle it. It is sheer greed and over-consumption that has led to recession. It can be undone with spirituality and the Vedic way of life,” said Sandesh Vorgaonkar,a PhD student at IIT Kharagpur. Along with Sandesh,30 students of IIT Kharagpur will attend the symposium,set up stalls and speak to students from other institutes. According to ISKCON representatives,the students of these premier institutions are the most affected by the recession. Salaries have gone down and jobs are hard to come by while peer pressure is mounting.

IIT Kharagpur and IIM Calcutta pass-outs have seen a considerable dip in their salaries. Besides,two suicides have been reported from IIT Kharagpur in the past two months over poor academic performance.

According to Amit Gupta,who completed his masters in exploration and geo-sciences from IIT Kharagpur in 2009 and is a full-time member of ISKCON,there are nearly 10 IITians who are full-timers at the Kolkata centre of ISKCON.