On February 26th and 27th, ISKCON Ministry of Education organized a international symposium in Sridham Mayapur where the leaders of many educational institutions gathered to present and discuss their work and strategize further development. The ministry presented their new web platform, which was created with the intention to connect all the educators working in ISKCON and make the information about the different courses taught available to a wider audience. Teachers were invited to register at the web page and create their profiles so that a data pool of all the educators and the courses they are offering can be generated. 

Some of the important topics that came up was the topic of succession and training of new teachers. Another promiment topic was the unification of different teaching approaches within ISKCON by defining a real and practical philosophy of education, which is based on the need of character transformation, rather than just equiping the with facts and informations. 

There was also discussion about varnashrama colleages, where teaching of skills would enable devotees to economically prosper by engaging their nature and talents in Krishna’s service. These are the primary needs of devotees in many communities worldwide, including children born in devotee families. This kind of education would encourage and empower devotees to initiate their own spiritual social projects and take the role as leaders and entrepreneurs in society.  

The attendees agreed that the purpose of education should also be to ecourage devotees to do research and cultivate „philosophical speculation“ so that the Vaisnava tradition can thrive as a living tradition with a diversity of viewpoints, and not just exist in modern times as a relic of the past. In that context Gauranga Das  from Govardhan Eco-village near Mumbai was presenting their efforts to open a ISKCON University in India where young devotees could study in spiritual environment.