The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) is celebrating an annual Mega Youth Fest ‘UDGAAR – An Expression of Goodness and Joy’, on October 6^th at Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium in New Delhi. The theme for this year’s festival is ‘Anti-Addiction: Making India Addiction Free’. With this, ISKCON hopes to inspire youngsters to realize their true potential in a clean, green and progressive India. The annual festival will bring in a mix of academics, dignitaries and over 8000 youngsters together to inspire, learn and celebrate life. 

The Union HRD Minister, Shri Ramesh Singh Pokhriyal will grace the festival as Chief Guests while Dr. Vivek Bindra, the popular motivational speaker and life coach will deliver the key note speech on the theme. Around 8,000 youngsters from across the country will participate in the festival where they will also take a pledge to abstain from drugs. This will be the world record for the largest drug awareness lesson, beating the previous record of 2219 students made in Punjab earlier this year.  

UDGAAR is formatted to be a blend of edutainment and empowerment where youngsters and dignitaries will connect and converge on values integral to a healthy and gratifying state. UDGAAR 2019 will entail numerous events namely, Key note speech by Dr. Vivek Bindra; Hip-Hop Dance by Feel India Crew group; And final round Inter-College Anti-Addiction Drug Awareness Quiz, the intra-college round has seen participation by 700 students from about 50 colleges of Delhi/NCR. There will also be a Theatrical Performance on ‘Stay High Forever’. Besides, and performances by India’s Got Talent runners up ‘Madhava’s Fusion Rock Band’; Internationally acclaimed sand artist, Nitish Bharti; and India’s Got Talent winners, ‘Prince India Dance Group’. The festival will start at 1.30 PM and will conclude around 6 PM. 

According to Sundar Gopal Das, ISKCON Youth Forum Director, “This youth festival is organized with the aim to educate and inspire youngsters to be high on life, but without falling into the trap of drugs. As we know, the drug abuse menace is spiraling out of control in India and is affecting youngsters the most. This annual fest is a social initiative from our end to secure a bright future for our nation’s youngsters. With this, we can empower the youth of India to work towards contributing to the sustainable development of India. The ultimate aim of ISKCON is to acquaint the world with the universal principles of self-realization and God’s consciousness so that they may derive the highest benefits of spiritual understanding, unity, progress and peace. This is achieved through various edutainment events such dramas, dance, play, quiz contest and music concerts.”   

ISKCON was founded in 1965 by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami with its first objective being 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. Presently, millions of youngsters in India are losing the opportunity to make positive contribution to society and nation by falling prey to drugs. This brings chaos and unrest in society in form of rising crimes by addicts. ISKCON is dedicated to doing everything to reverse this destructive trend.

 * * *  

For more information on the initiative visit: www.udgaar.in