tratavyah prathamam gavas tratas trayanti ta dvijan | gobrahmana paritrane paritratam jagad bhavet ||

“First of all cows should be protected. Cows thus protected, will in turn protect the brahmanas. Thus when protection of cows and brahmanas is achieved, then the whole world is protected.”   – Harivamsha Maha Puranam, Part I, Harivamsha Parva //1. 55.31 

On January 15^th, 2018, Bhakti Raghava Swami, Minister ISKCON Daivi Varnashrama Ministry (IDVM) India, welcomed all the devotees personally present and those who were online to witness the launch of Sri Surabhi App—a maiden effort by the Ministry—to educate about not only cow care but also about the whole “cow culture”. Vedic culture is based on cow culture and cow economy as well. The App was launched coinciding with the auspicious occasion of Makara Sankranti.

Bhakti Raghava Swamithanked the donors who made this possible especially Sri Krishna Purushottama Das, Sridam Das and Sripati Das.  A small team headed by Shubhananda Hari Das and a few other devotees like Yadhava Hari Das from Indonesia is helping coordinating the development of the App.

The Sri Surabhi App will serve mainly as a “friend raiser” (involving devotees in various activities related to the OM Sri Surabhi Campaign) as well as a “fund raiser” (to support local village/rural projects and campaign initiatives).

The App will also provide information to various events that are taking place. One important section in the App is participation as members of Varnasrama Research Teams (VRT). These teams are meant to meet on a regular basis along the lines of a “bhakti vriksha”, simply it will be more centered on the varnashrama theme. A special feature of the App will be a new rendering of the OM Sri Surabhi mantra that is being made available by a group of devotees from Bali in Indonesia. 

One of the other features of the App will be weekly quotes not only from Srila Prabhupada but from other members of the community also. In addition, there will also be contents from an important book compiled by Hare Krishna dasi, “Speaking About Varnāsrama”—a collection of various conversations and instructions of Srila Prabhupāda on varnashrma dharma. The App also has various links to video and power point presentations produced during the Golden Jubilee celebrations of ISKCON in 2016. 

Januray 15^th was only the soft launching of the App and the team plans to have a major launching in Mayapur sometime in middle of February 2018. They also plan to expand the App in the coming months. For now, various levels of membership are available only to devotees in India due to logistic reasons although the Basic Membership is open to. Devotees may download the App from Google Play.