All glories to Sri Guru and Sri Gauranga

— México 2003 —
Third Annual Youth Camp
17 to 21 of April 2003
Sri Chaitanya Saraswati Sridhar Seva Ashram de México, A.R.

by the new Youth Camp Leader Team:
Kalpa Druma Prabhu (21 years old, from Guadalajara)
and Dhanistha Devi Dasi (15 years old, from the Adwaita Kutir)

With accompanying pictures

Dear Srila Gurudev,
Please accept our humble obeisances. Well we are writing to you about the Third Annual Youth Camp that was recently held in the Sri Adwaita Kutir in Mexico.

Before the Camp
Everyone was anxious for the arriving day. On Monday 14 April the youngsters of Morelia and La Palm went to collect bhoga at the market throughout the whole day. And by Krishna's mercy we had enough for the whole Camp. We had a whole truck full of food including vegetables, fruits, and some nuts. They gave us a lot of mangoes and bananas!!! Ranjit Prabhu of Morelia donated a supply of 20 kilos of butter for the Camp, and Arun Krishna Prabhu from Queretaro gave 20 kilos farina for the halavah!

Wednesday 16th, arrival of the devotees
During the morning, daytime, and afternoon, devotees were arriving from different parts of Mexico: Veracruz, Mexico City, Guadalajara, Morelia, Celaya, Queretaro, Guanajuato, Pachuca and Morelos.

The devotees of Morelia, since they are much closer, were helping in the kitchen to prepare prasadam for those who came hungry. As the devotees would come, some would honour prasadam, and others would start bringing in their luggage for their stay in Prabhu Adwaita's house or Prabhu Vrajavasi's new house.

Later when it was already sunset, we went with the devotees down the hill to the stream, and there everyone gave an introduction of himself or herself. It was a very nice meeting, because that way every youngster got to know each other. We also chanted along with the sweet sounds of the mridangas and karatals.

That evening the youngster devotees that were here – not all of them had arrived yet – sang the evening Arotik to Sri Giridhari. At this time the devotees from Guadalajara arrived, joining us in the kirttans. After that there was prasadam for everyone. Then everyone started settling for how they were going to sleep. The boys slept in a room of Prabhu Adwaita's house, and the girls slept in Prabhu Vrajavasi's house. Prabhu Adwaita helped the boys settle here and Godavari Didi helped the girls settle at her house. Then Sripad Ashram Maharaj came at last late at night, about 12:30 p.m.

Next morning
Everybody got up in the morning to begin the first day of classes at Vrajavasi's house. Sripad Ashram Maharaj gave a very nice class, reading to us from your book 'Divine Guidance.' But there were also devotees in the kitchen, like Atmarama Prabhu and his wife, Gourakinkara Prabhu, Ragamayi Devi Dasi, Dottamana Devi Dasi, Madhurya Mayi Devi Dasi, Subhalaksmi Devi Dasi, Kirtida Devi Dasi, Hridayarathan Prabhu, Syama Vilas Prabhu, Arun Krishna Prabhu, Pundarika Prabhu (with a delicious nectar), Rasheswari Devi Dasi, Nava Gourangi Devi Dasi and Bhakta Miguel.

Then after the class was finished, everybody went back to the Adwaita Kutir to take prasadam. Everyone ate and after the youngsters finished, they went quickly to the soccer field to play with the ball. Since the soccer field had not been watered, much dust rose up, so we played in a different place.

While waiting for Atmarama Prabhu, Ashram Maharaja made us memorise every youngster's name. Then we had a class about Krishna consciousness from Atmarama Prabhu, and the time went flying by.

A big relief was Gouravani Devi Dasi from Mexico City, to help us with the younger kids. She had made a program schedule for all the little kids. Especially for the youth it was a big relief because that way they didn't have to deal with the younger ones. The age categories are: from little kids to the age of eleven go in Gouravani Didi's class and from the age of twelve to twenty-five are in the youths' class.

Then we engaged in art, and then we went to take prasadam. Vrajavasi Prabhu's house and Adwaita Prabhu's house are separated so we had to take a short walk around the properties for about 180 meters. After prasadam we played awhile and then got ready for Harinam!!

Later that day Bhagavan Prabhu set up a little store where he sold books of the Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math, some devotional items, and also some sodas! This made a profit of 200 pesos (about 20 dollars) which will go to the savings account that will be deposited by our treasurer Madhurya Mayi of Morelia. Ki jaya!!!

At Harinam we went to Lake Zirahuen (Seerawen) with all the devotees along with Sripad Ashram Maharaj. There we chanted and chanted. We left about 6:00 p.m. and came back to the campment between 8 and 9 p.m. so now everybody had to go to sleep. And this is how it kept going....

Thursday
Well the first things we used to do in the morning is wake up, chant for about half an hour or so on our japa beads, and then start with mangal arotik, often with the children leading. I think that is really nice because a lot of devotees and kids were starting to learn the songs of the Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math and that is why it's good to let the new generation lead the programmes because that is how we learn quickly. So the arotiks were very nice and for moments you could feel a very spiritual environment and auspicious.

After singing to the Deities we would go on to a daily class, explained very well by Sripad Bhakti Kusum Ashram Maharaj. He would read to us and also ask us questions. He explained to us the reason to serve our Guru and he told us how we should behave, and that we should feel fortunate to receive the mercy of Sri Krishna coming across from the most elevated devotee, Srila Govinda Maharaj. He also read some very important things from the book: 'Divine Guidance.' That was also very nice and nourishing for us.

The following activities were done at about the same time every day:

In the morning devotees would go to take prasadam. There was a group of youngster that would take care of serving the prasadam, taking turns, because they were numbered, so 'Number One' would serve now, then 'Number Two' next, and so on.

We also had the presence of Sripad Ashram Maharaj joining us, then generally we had a recess.

Later we would have an older devotee with experience give us classes, like Pitambar Prabhu, Krishnasundar Prabhu or Atmarama Prabhu. They would teach us the value of the Holy Name and the Spiritual Master, and many other practical things such as how to put on tilak along with the mantras for the different places of the body.

Between other things, in the afternoon we would play soccer with Ashram Maharaj and all the devotees. Sripad Ashram Maharaj played very well along with a little mercy of his kicks on the shins. We all enjoyed it very much and also you could feel the convivial atmosphere much more.

After that day, in the night we made a bonfire, preparing corn and cooking them in the fire. A native from there told us that a good way to cook them is with dry grass, so all the kids went looking for dry grass and it was a very nice moment.

The rest of the days we would do all the arotiks and we would make bonfires every night, with a light dinner.

The last day
the youngsters made an exhibition of different subjects about Krishna consciousness: Bhakti; Saranagati; a timeline of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu; a recital of the Siksastakam by memory; maya; mercy, and many more things. All these subjects were taken from books of the Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math. We also had the devotees say their suggestions about the Camp and how they felt. We also chose a new young leader boy and new young leader girl for the coming year for organizing next year's Annual Camp. After this, Prabhu Adwaita had a line of people queuing for him to treat medically. Everyone was taking an acupuncture treatment!

In summary
these were the activities, where there was always the good association of devotees. There was an attendance of seventy-four devotees, including kids, youths and adults. And, well, now we are planning the next campment where we hope there will be even more devotional activities.

After the assembly finished some devotees from Guadalajara and Morelia stayed a couple days longer along with Sripad Ashram Maharaj. We met the Mayor from here who will give us some economic help for the next Annual Camp. We had a youth's president reunion with Maharaj, where we discussed some points that we should take care of and put into practice.

This is how we end
by recalling what we did in the assembly, and presenting a small report from ourselves to inform Your Divine Grace of the things that were done. Obviously we may have skipped a few details, but hopefully not a lot, and I wish that one day we will be able to make a better report by your grace. All the youngsters remember you, they love you and hope to be able to see you soon. And we hope that this report is to your satisfaction because that is the purpose of our lives: to make our Gurudev happy with our service. Jaya Gurudev Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj, ki jaya!!!

Your servants

Kalpa Druma Das (21 years old, from Guadalajara)
Dhanistha Devi Dasi (15 years old, from the Adwaita Kutir)

The new Youth Camp Leader Team

• Sri Sri Nitai-Chaitanya-Arati
• La Manifestacion Del Sri Govinda Kunda La Llegada Del Señor Shiva
• Saranagati por Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur
• Buenos días mundo — Índices