Global Youth Festival 2022

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A curated festival of numerous events to motivate the youth towards inner growth and dynamic action inspired by the spiritual visionary, Pujya Gurudevshri the Global Youth Festival (GYF) 2022 was a perfect amalgamation of the 5S program comprising of Satsang, Sadhana, Seva, Sanskruti and Sports.

Held at Shrimad Rajchandra Ashram Dharampur under the theme of ‘Meet the Real You’ GYF saw thousands of young attendees, especially hundreds of first timers, from various countries such as India, USA, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, UAE, Kenya, etc. convene to create a better future for themselves and for others.

Indebted to Pujya Gurudevshri’s ever-flowing grace, GYF became an event of hallmark importance as it was the first one to be hosted at the upcoming Swadhyay Hall. The ambience was electrifying as Pujya Gurudevshri arrived at the venue and was welcomed with a pulsating dance by the youth. The Master along with Atmarpit Nemiji, members of the Global Youth Committee and the Core Team of the event flagged off GYF 2022.

The Master’s unrelenting love manifested again in the form of three keynote discourses over the three days of GYF. Sharing the ‘DNA of Success’, Pujya Gurudevshri enunciated essentials of the Success Principle.

Pujya Gurudevshri elaborated upon nine elements through an easy to remember acronymic sentence, the 1st letter of each word representing one element. He gave a detailed and inspiring explanation of the elements along with practical tips for each.

Responsibility: Cultivating absolute personal responsibility without blame
Authenticity: Being true to yourself and bridging the integrity gap
Clarity: Being clear on what you want in life and what you want to become
Strategy: Having an action plan for achieving your goals
Action: Quick action, not lofty talks
Communication: Having rich, loving relationships
Mastery over yourself: Strengthening your character
Focus: Saying yes to your priority and no to everything else
Legacy: Success is incomplete if it does not benefit others

Leaving the gathering with a mantra for life, Pujya Gurudevshri urged them to cultivate the feeling of ‘Arigato’ which means Thank You in Japanese – reflecting gratitude for any favourable circumstance and ‘Uketamo’ – reinforcing glad acceptance for whatever comes your way.

The dawn was brought in with unique wellness activities and energetic sessions like Barfi Bootcamp, Yogalates, EnerChi and Yoga. In the gracious presence of Pujya Gurudevshri, the sessions infused zest and zeal in the youth.

Those visiting the Ashram for the first time were taken on an experience tour where they had the opportunity to venerate the Lord at Jinmandir and be part of activities at the Meditation Garden.

Experience workshops like Gen-Z: Bloopers, Bloggers and Believers, The Art of Kintsugi, Breath Lab, Find your Flow, Getting Started and Purpose Passion Paint helped create a meaningful shift in perspective. In these workshops the youth imbibed knowledge, experimented with themselves, interacted in groups to gather new insights and even had an experience of meditation.

Over 25 diverse impact projects were organised to uplift tribal communities, animals and the environment. These included:

• Mega multi-speciality medical camp where the youth participated in interactive health education as well as assisted in anaemia testing, etc.


• Play therapy and Olympics for the specially-abled


• First-aid training educating people on how to provide temporary relief


• Bio Pharmacy – Educating locals with recipes to prevent and treat illnesses with plants


• Creating sustainable kitchen gardens in remote villages to help tackle hunger, anaemia etc.


• Distribution of solar lights to remote tribal villages


• Exploring the potential of dung by making pots and logs from it, using it as a natural fertiliser as well as a cooking fuel


• Refurbishing and painting old equipment as well as providing new equipment to community centres and schools


• Mega animal camp involving activities like preparing set up for surgeries of large and small animals, building one-of-a-kind sensory shed for livestock amongst others


• Goat deworming and preparing vitamin laddoos


• Miyawaki Medicinal Forestry – 6,000 saplings belonging to 50+ species sown to create a native micro forest


• Plogging & Upcycling

A unique event, Hacks for Humanity, was organised where youth engaged in rapid and collaborative work over a relatively short period of time to create innovative and functioning solutions to the real-life challenges. In this competition, youth from the world over came together to bring solutions to some of the most pressing problems such as improvement in medicinal delivery in rural India, increasing the supply of safe and sanitized water, decreasing global food wastage and reducing landfill waste. The event saw the presence of the Minister of State, Government of Gujarat Shri Harsh Sanghavi who handles portfolios like Home, Industries, Transport, Youth and Sports along with Shri Atul Bagai, Country Director of United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP).

The winning team members were blessed to receive an award from the pious hands of Pujya Gurudevshri for their unique idea of creating a filtration system that would treat waste water from kitchens and showers and can potentially recycle almost 70% of the water at a bare minimum cost.

The evenings were filled with magnificent cultural events featuring a concert and a music competition.

The GYF concert was an exceptional night of stirring live music by the Nandan Borker Collective that took everyone on a high with connecting songs loved by the younger generation. Nandan Borker, a composer, music producer, songwriter, and keyboardist along with his team transported the audience to a different plane of a beautifully experience.

Higher Frequency was a global music competition that had renowned music composer and singer Sachin Sanghvi as its judge. The winner of the vocal competition, Dhriti Shah and of the instrumental competition, Jainaam Singhi were blessed to receive a trophy from the revered hands of Pujya Gurudevshri.

With over 20-plus indoor and outdoor sports like Cricket, Football, Basketball, Volleyball, Badminton, Mini Marathon, Relay Athletics, High Jump, Long Jump, Table Tennis and Chess, the Global Youth Olympics was a thrilling celebration of sports and sportsmanship alike. Winners were delighted to receive their medals and trophies from the holy hands of Pujya Gurudevshri.

The event also witnessed the Global Youth Committee changing ceremony. The blessed members of the new Global Youth Committee are Pujya Gurudevshri’s Personal Secretary, Trustee of Shrimad Rajchandra Mission Dharampur, Atmarpit Nemiji; Swadhyaykar, Content Head and In-charge of spiritual activities at the Ashram, Atmarpit Kothariji; Executive Committee Member of Shrimad Rajchandra Medical Trust, Sarvarpit Dr Alok Shah; serving in the Mission’s Public Relations Department, Centres Department and Divine Shop, Jivanarpit Shebani Shah; Personal Sevak to Pujya Gurudevshri, Yuvarpit Sachi Jhaveri; American Youth Group Leader, Krish Kamdar; Phoenix Youth Group Leader, Parthvi Harde; Co-chair Executive Committee Member of Shrimad Rajchandra Mission Dharampur (UK), Aadit Virani; Nairobi Youth Group Leader, Henil Shah; Perth Youth Group Leader, Dr Rachit Shah; Singapore Youth Group Leader, Trishal Ghelani and Canada Youth Group Leader, Dr Neil Vora.

Truly, the three days of GYF were a whirlwind of ecstasy, divinity and bliss. Each person, be it a first timer or a regular attendee, took back a rich quantum of elevation. And in unison all hearts spoke out to Pujya Gurudevshri just the same:

Arigato, Arigato, Arigato!