New national initiative to bring Eastern wisdom to UK schools – for free!

A new national initiative has been launched to provide books on Eastern wisdom and philosophy to all UK schools… for free!

Coordinated by ‘The Hare Krishna Project’, the organisation has set itself the ambitious target of ensuring that every primary and secondary school in Great Britain – around 25,000 in total – receives a free book by 2028!

The project’s Director, Nathan Hartley, said:

“In our ever-changing global world, it’s important that children and young people have a basic understanding of a range of religious traditions. In modern Britain it’s rare that we’ll go through life without meeting at least one other person from a different cultural background from ourselves.

It’s because of this that we want to ensure that schools in the UK, whether in their libraries or Religious Education lessons, have access to text books from a range of spiritual backgrounds.”

This week, the organisation has launched its ‘Bhagavad Gita for Schools’ programme.

The Bhagavad Gita is a key scripture in the Vaishnava, or ‘Hindu’, tradition, with its contents believed to have been first orally spoken around 5,000 years ago in northern India. The book is a conversation between Krishna (God) and Arjuna (his disciple) about the nature of the soul, the link between humanity and divinity and provides a moral code for how people can live their lives.

“Inspired by the Christian charity 'Bibles for Children', which has distributed half-a-million Bibles to children in 2,300 schools since 1997,” added Nathan, “our aim is ensure that every school throughout the country has a copy of the Bhagavad Gita.”

Schools, teachers and educational leaders can order free copies for students by contacting The Hare Krishna Project at info@harekrishnaproject.org

The Hare Krishna Project is a UK-based national initiative that works with schools, businesses, charities and the media to raise awareness of Eastern wisdom and philosophy with western audiences.

The organisation is regularly consulted by councils and other statutory authorities on matters of equality legislation and inclusion of religious groups in stakeholder consultations and surveys.