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Hindu Students Council to meet at Yorkville, Chicago
Participants of the camp would be given training in various aspects of Hinduism including its ethos, reports Lalit K Jha.
The scenic Camp Hoover in Yorkville near Chicago, Illinois, would host the 15th annual camp of the Hindu Student Council (HSC), which is considered to be the largest Hindu youth organization outside India.
More than 100 students and young professionals from various parts of the United States and Canada are expected to participate in the four day camp beginning May 27, said the HSC official, Ravi Raghavan.
Participants of the camp would be given training in various aspects of Hinduism, its ethos, religion and glorious cultural heritage. The camp includes cultural programs, talent show, workshop on desi music and art, besides an amazing array of speakers, he said.
Leading the group of speakers this time is the charismatic international speaker, Jeffery Armstrong, who is an author. A practicing Hindu for the past few decades, Armstrong is considered to be a scholar of Eastern teachings including Vedanta, Raja Yoga, tantra, mantra and martial arts. Having practiced ayurvedic astrology for about 25 years now, he has degrees in psychology, history and comparative religions, and literature.
Among other prominent speakers at the annual meet, Raghavan said, are Sthaneshwar Tamalsina and Dwijen Bhattacharya.
A professor of hindi at Washington University, St. Louis, Prof. Tamalsina, originally from Nepal, has extensive educational history of Hindu dharma from Nepal, India, Germany and United States.
A lecturer on Bengali language and literature at the Columbia University, Bhattacharya, who is originally from Bangladesh, is known for frequently raising his voice for Hindus in Bangladesh and their alleged mistreatment, Raghavan said. He would give a lecture on "Genocide of Hindus in Bangladesh".
The HSC camp normally would start with yoga and meditation camp in the morning and would conclude with a bhajan and aarti in the evening followed by cultural events -- like garba, bhangra, desi dance and music.
Besides, exposure to guest lectures, participants of the camp would attend daily class on "A Youth's Guide to Hindu Dharma".
The participants would hold open discussions on various issues of interest to community, Raghavan said.
Prominent topics include, Hinduism in America, the Aryan invasion theory - true or false, are all religions the same, are Hindus destined to become an extinct race, misconceptions about Hindu dharma, genocide of Hindus and Hinduism in American classrooms.
The camp, Raghavan said would also hold various workshops on Sanskrit, martial arts, conducting a prayer, classical dance, mantra chanting, time management, enhancing presentation skills, doing effective publicity on campuses and being an effective leader.
"HSC is an international forum providing opportunities for college students and young professionals to learn about Hindu heritage through various activities," Raghavan said.
Having a small beginning in 1990 with just 35 students, the HSC now has hundreds of Hindu students as its members and as many as 77 chapters dotted across the US, besides seven outside North America. Last year's annual camp was held at Houston, Texas.
One of the major achievements of HSC, he claimed, has been the successful Global Dharma Conference at Houston in 2003. As many as 60 spiritual leaders and 2,000 participants from 15 countries attended the conference. Prominent speakers were the President, APJ Abdul Kalam, Kanchi Shankaracharya, Dalai Lama and Deepak Chopra.
