The Chaitra Navratra has already heralded the advent of the New year of Vikram Samvatsar 2060. Time flies so fast….! It has already been four months since we launched the publication of English version of “Akhand Jyoti” which has been a source of inspiration to millions of Hindi reading parijans for over six decades. We are very glad to know that our new venture has been welcomed by you all. The feedback we have received is exceedingly encouraging. We shall continue upgrading the quality of this magazine, which will be the vehicle for conveying the enlightened, empowering, enriching thoughts of our Gurudev Pandit Shriram Sharma Acharya to our readers. Your constructive comments and suggestions would help us in our efforts to enhance its quality and usefulness with each successive issue.

The critical phase of the epoch struggle between the forces of light and darkness, appears to be reaching its climax and human consciousness is undergoing a turmoil and tension of titanic dimensions before the dawn of the prophesied Era of Light. How will it come about? Revered Gurudev envisioned this process and foresaw the arrival of the ‘Age of Truth’ and as a prior preparation, founded the Yug Nirman Yojana for social, cultural, and spiritual transformation of humanity. He proclaimed with conviction that it was the Will of God, working through the instrumentation of the Himalyan Siddhas and Rishis that humanity would soon usher into an Era of Light, Love and Radiant Life.

Recently we had an opportunity of meeting His Excellency President of India, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, himself a visionary and sage. During this forty-minute long interaction, the President again and again asserted that India is bound to rise as a super power by the year 2020 and will guide the whole of humanity. Dr. Kalam is very optimistic of the mental, intellectual and spiritual potential of Indians and is focusing his special attention on the children and teenagers between the age group 8 -20 years.

It is not a mere coincidence that the Yug Nirman Mission- Gayatri Pariwar has also reached out to over three lakh teenager students in India through the medium of its “Bhartiya Sanskriti Gyan Pariksha” project. This special examination scheme, aimed at dissemination of awareness about Indian culture and values among the youngsters, was launched in 1994. It is notable that students of about forty thousand schools/ colleges participated in this examination and the associated special study programs. The number is increasing every year. The process of establishing Sanskriti Mandals (Groups for continuing education and training-by-practice programs for constructive participation of teenagers in spreading the divine cultural knowledge and value-based personality development) in each of these participating schools/colleges has also begun. These Sanskriti Mandals will play a key role as architects of the new age of Enlightenment. This special cultural awakening campaign of our mission will soon spread amongst our Gayatri Pariwar parijans abroad.

The silver-lining of hope is brightening and widening day by day that our youth will have the righteous vision, potential and motivation to build a corruption-free and economically and culturally strong India that will be a beacon of light for global enlightenment. Towards this end and considering the ardent wish expressed by the President, we have planned to organize a grand gathering of youths of India from all strata of society in his presence at the Dev Sanskriti Vishwavidyalaya this year. About ten thousand students selected from the different Sanskriti Mandals across the country, their teachers associated with this activity and our karyakartas (volunteers) who are in-charges of conducting the Dev Sanskriti Gyan Pariksha and are instrumental in shaping these mandals will participate in this convention. We expect this unique event to take place sometime in the third week of July 2003. We shall intimate the exact date, as soon as possible, in Gayatri Pariwar’s fortnightly newsleter “Pragya Abhiyan”, other magazines, including the July-August’ 2003 issue of this magazine. Those interested in attending this trend-setting convention may kindly contact us well in advance.

If our resolve to enlighten and empower the new generation to be the torch-bearers and architects of the coming era of Light has to be fulfilled, we will have to immediately start sowing the seeds of love and dedication in their tender minds from this very moment. Every passing year is taking a large chunk of youths away from us. Our Akhand Jyoti Pariwar (the family of the readers of “Akhand Jyoti”) has to play a decisive role in discharging this responsibility. We have to focus our attention on positive nurturing of the future citizens of our great nation. We have to guide and mould them as seekers of scientific spirituality. We also have to understand their psychology, their difficulties and their aspirations, with genuine concern and care and make the process of their career-counseling more practical and farsighted. Our mission’s organized efforts for self-reliance, informal education and eradication of individual addictions and social evils should also be accelerated and specifically targeted towards the youth. We seek active support of our readers in these endeavors to enable us to achieve the set goals in a year’s time.

Dr. Pranav Pandya

Chancellor
Dev Sanskriti Vishwavidyalaya