GSF Yoga, Mayapur
Sri Dhama Mayapur branch of GSF Yoga
Gopinath Seva Foundation is pleased to announce the opening of our first extension office which is situated in Sri Dhama Mayapur, West Bengal. Mayapur is a popular spiritual pilgrimage destination attracting visitors from all over India as well as from countries all over the globe. The birthplace of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the former agricultural village has become a sprawling tourist site replete with booming infrastructure development as well as a burgeoning economy with global potential. Soon, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness will open its long-awaited Temple of Vedic Planetarium which will highlight the spiritual and physical worldview according to the Vedas. Currently boasting a community of a few thousand permanent residents from all over the world, Mayapur is predicted to become home to multiple tens of thousands of foreign Krishna devotees. The Gopinath Seva Foundation intends to take a leading role in providing services to both the indigenous and exogenous communities in Mayapur. In our first month alone, we have provided a number of services that we intend to continue well into the future. These include, sponsored temple feasts, free group yoga classes, free individualized yoga classes, free English classes, joint effort activities with Mayapur Clean and Green (an organization concerning itself with conservation, environmentalism and community awareness), various outings led by locals who will assist visitors in seeing the sights safely and efficiently, movie nights where English-speaking attendees can view movies mostly only available in Bengali and/or Hindi as well as a free Ayurvedic medicine delivery service provided for both residents and visitors. Our new emissary associate, Dawn Renee Ramos, a Krishna devotee from California, is spearheading our efforts in Mayapur. Well-known to the community that is also well-known to her, Miss Ramos retired from her job at a government organization and has spent the last six years making India her home. With her coordination, Gopinath Seva Foundation has adopted Sri Dhama Mayapur as its first target community for our outreach program.
Ms. Dawn Renee Ramos
- We are thrilled to have Ms. Dawn Renee Ramos, to join our team as an emissary to the community of Mayapur, Nadia District in West Bengal.
- Miss Ramos holds a Bachelors of Arts in Political Sociology from California State University Long Beach, a degree with which she earned high honors.
- She is also a certified and well-regarded yoga teacher holding a certificate from the Govardhan School of Yoga in Galtare, Hamarapur, Maharastra. On our behalf, she manages the Gopinath Seva Foundation's first free yoga program in Mayapur as well as provide private, modified instruction to elderly and health-challenged students unable to leave their homes.
- Miss Ramos' lifelong inclination towards volunteerism and community involvement (most notably with the Special Olympics) will serve us well in our outreach to the community of Mayapur and beyond.
- Miss Ramos will take responsibility for organizing joint effort projects between the Gopinath Seva Foundation and Mayapur Clean and Green, a longstanding organization that runs clean up and reforestation projects and helps educate the community about environmentalism, litter reduction, recycling and the need to care for and respect Mother Bhumi.
- Due to her experience as a journalist and book editor/publisher, she also assists our organization with writing and editing copy for both the Gopinath Seva Foundation and our subsidiary, the Himalayan Institute for Advanced Study (HIAS), websites, among other publications. She also assists with our education and science outreach program which is run through HIAS so that professionals from various fields can do coordinated career days for the school-aged children of West Bengal.