Soon after I became a disciple of A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada in 1973, I became interested in promoting a high quality of spiritual education for children, their parents, and teachers. For three decades I taught primary and secondary students, and longed to have learning resources with themes of vegetarianism, reincarnation, ecological living, and transcendental divine love of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna. Finally, with the help of about 200 people worldwide from various disciplines, we produced the first world-class learn-to-read program with spiritual stories from the Vedic tradition. We have also produced a number of other spiritual educational books and dozens of articles on education, parenting, mantra meditation, and school administration. All these materials, many of them free, can be found here.
Padma Inc has offices in the United States. I also travel internationally to promote kirtana in various media—song, discourses on sacred literature, drama, mediation, as well as seminars and workshops on self-improvement, education, and management from a spiritual perspective. I have been in the renounced order (vanaprastha) since 1996. My husband, Pratyatosa dasa, and I have three married children and ten grandchildren.
You can download audio and video of classes and seminars here.
—Urmila devi dasi, MSA, PhD
(Dr. Edith Best)