By: HG Rama Lakshman Das
During Gaur Purnima festival IDVM-India organized Varnasrama training course on “Traditional Crops of India” by Janainavas Prabhu, H.G.Rasraj prabhu from Delhi ISKCON attended this course and came to know about many things and one of them was health benefits of millets. On the last day, he requested us to visit Delhi and share this knowledge so that other devotees also get benefitted.
Rasraj Prabhu returned to Delhi shared this with Delhi Management and they happily gave the permission to organize the seminar, so it was decided that on April 6th2018 IDVM-India would give a seminar on “Millets – The divine grains and an ideal vaishnava’s diet” and “Sri Surabhi – Global” by Jananivas prabhu and Rama Lakshman das.
We arrived in the morning hours of April 6thmorning. We were very well received by the devotees. They had arranged light refreshment and we took darshan of Their Lordships Sri Sri Radha Parthasarathi and Sita Rama Lakshman and Hanuman.
At 5.45 we reached the auditorium seminar hall while walking there was a big thunderstorm and soon it also started drizzling, we both felt that some special mercy awaited us. A few enthusiastic devotees greeted us, while more than a hundred devotees waited for us inside the hall. As scheduled, at 6 pm we started the seminar, beginning with kirtan. Within a few minutes, we were joined by HG Mohan Rupa Prabhu, temple president of ISKCON Delhi. Ras Raj Prabhu introduced us to all the devotees and requested to start the presentation.
Jananivas Prabhu gave short introduction of the present unhealthy situation of farmers in India and the reasons for it, then he proceeded to the main topic for the evening, “Millets – The divine grains and an ideal vaishnavas diet”, he presented that the millets are Eco friendly, socio-economical, with huge health benefits and which also assist in the spiritual progress in detail. He asked the audience, “Did the God create only two grains for human consumption?” They were surprised to know that many varieties of millets with multiple nutritional values and many health benefits existed. He added very effectively that “if our diet is not having medicinal qualities then we have to take medicine as a diet”. Few devotees asked questions on the availability and quality of millets in the market. Jananivas prabhu said that if we create demand then there will be supply also, as these millets cannot be adulterated, they could get good quality of millets in the market.
The seminar was attended by devotees who are in preaching and in the leadership position and also many BACE in-charge, Mohanrupa prabhu after hearing the whole presentation he said that change the diet from rice and wheat to millets. Rasraj prabhu said that this seminar is very much helpful and help the devotees’ health, helping them nicely practice spiritual life and preach widely. Devotees from Faridabad centre, in-charge of devotee kitchen, were also very much impressed and they said they had come to know about the importance of millets for the first time in their lives and requested to organize food festival on millets at their temple.
After a short interactive session, we moved to the next presentation of Sri Govinda Gau Gram Prachar Yatra- highlighting Sri Surabhi app (both very well received initiatives of IDVM-India) by Rama Lakshman das. During the presentation, I shared how the Yatra was conceived and the objectives of the Yatra and its impact. Many appreciated the efforts of this Yatra and then finally concluded with “SRI SURABHI–APP”.
We had also put on display eight different varieties of millets, which many devotees were getting to see for the first time in their lives. Also on display was recently released book “Save Our Cows, Save Our Villages & Save Our Culture” and other pamphlets of the IDVM-India Ministry.
