As a part of the activities lined up for the 150th birth anniversary celebrations of Swami Vivekananda at the University of Maryland College Park, DESI is pleased to announce an essay competition with exciting prizes awaiting the best essays!

Please choose from any of the topics listed below:

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Topics

• Relevance of Principles of Swami Vivekananda for the youth of the 21st Century
• Power of thoughts as expounded by Swami Vivekananda
• Swami Vivekananda on Women Empowerment
• "Renunciation is the idea of all religious thought"
• 'Vasudhaiv Kutumbakam': A One World Idea by Swami Vivekananda
• Views of Swami Vivekananda on Nature of Religion and Social Change
• Swami Vivekananda's Vision for India and/or Hinduism
• Karma Yoga in 21st Century: Practical ways to implement the message of 'Seva'(service) in today's world

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Deadline

March 25th, 2013

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Register

To register click here

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Submission Guidelines

• All entries should be received by March 25, 2013.
• Essays must be in 'English' and should not exceed 2,500 words.
• The text should be in 12 pt. font and double-spaced with 1" margins on all the sides.
• All entries should be in PDF format.
• Participants are encouraged to refer to 'Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda', which is freely available online at: http://www.advaitaashrama.org/cw/
• Email your entries to desi.umd@gmail.com, with the subject - 'SV150 Essay'.
• Participants should not reveal personal identity (name, contact, etc....) anywhere in the essay.
• If your essay is selected, we will contact you through your email address (the one from which you sent the essay) for further details.

Please contact us at desi.umd@gmail.com for any questions.

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Prizes

• The 3 best entries overall will receive cash prizes, apart from exciting books on Vivekananda literature

• Cash prizes for best essays:

  1st Prize : $500

  2nd Prize : $200

  3rd Prize : $100

Books sponsored by Vedanta Center of Greater Washington, DC
Cash prizes partly sponsored by VHPA