• Join the 'Read Ramayana' initiative by clicking here !
• You will receive one email per week, with approximately 100 slokas from the original text of Valmiki Ramayana, along with a 'sub-title' like translation in contemporary and simple English, with the same flow, style and content as the original Ramayana as rendered by Maharshi Valmiki.
• Start reading Ramayana on your computer, mobile phone, iPad or anywhere you can get to your email !
• You can opt out of this initiative at any time, for any reason whatsoever !
• This is a free service. There is no fee to join. However, your support will be greatly appreciated !

• Each week you will receive about 100 slokas. Each sloka will be rendered in Devanagari Script as well as in Roman Script followed by a simple English translation. You may choose to read the slokas or just the meaning in English according to your preference.
• In future, Slokas will be provided in other Indian language scripts also, in addition to Devanagari, based on your preference.
• Of the 100 slokas, about 5 slokas will be highlighted as summary each week. If you do not have time to read all the 100 slokas, you can read the highlighted 5 slokas.
• Side bar commentary will be included to highlight points of specific interest.

• Devotional: Devotional reading brings stability to your soul. You will be able to lead a graceful life even in the midst of adversities and vicissitudes, bringing peace and calmness not only to you, but also to everyone around you. You will read with your mind fully focused on Sri Rama, whose grace will elate your life here and beyond.
• Practical: Reading Ramayana brings stability and strength to your mind. It sheds light on many aspects of human behavior. It provides guidance to navigate through the many challenges of life.
• Exegetical: Reading Ramyana brings a deeper perspective about life. It not only helps you understand the culture, ethos and social circumstances of the times of Ramayana, but provides you deep insights into human nature, relationships, strengths and weaknesses.

• By yourself: Read it at your convenience, wherever you can access your email.
• With your family: Set a 30 min slot every week, such as each Wednesday after dinner. Gather together - parents, children and grand parents - and read it aloud together. Each of your family members can take turns every week to lead the reading sessions. Or each can read 20 or 25 of the 100 slokas. Children will especially enjoy this session of being with elders. They will cherish the moments for life. You cannot give a better treasure to them than those cherished moments. It will become a family activity that brings the family closer. When you have guests or friends, you can invite them to join you, as well.
• With your friends: A group of families can get together every week at one of their houses. Multiple people bring multiple perspectives to the story. That enriches your understanding of Ramayana as well as your understanding of people. Reading together develops a positive and long lasting bonding among the friends. It becomes the part of the childhood memories for all the children.
• With thousands of others: Read it along with thousands of others worldwide, by sharing your thoughts through blog comments and Facebook discussions. Instructions will be provided in the email.

• The emails with 100 slokas per week weill start once we get 10,000 signups or on the Srirama Navami day of 2013, whichever comes first.
• Please watch our facebook page www.facebook.com/readramayana for regular updates.

• Reading Ramayana, at the rate of 100 slokas per week, will take almost 5 years to complete. It is like watching a TV Serial that runs for multiple years.
• It is a well paced activity, with no hurry to get to the end or to finish off fast. You may witness many life events during this period, such as marriage, career change, relocation, child births and so on. Ramayana provides you a steady background to all those events and stabilizes your life against the ups and downs.
• Throughout the time of five years, you will be informed and invited to join local, regional, national and international conferences on Ramayana, where you can meet other readers like you and also eminent scholars of Ramayana from all over the world.
• During those conferences, you will be given personal guidance regarding reading Ramayana and getting the most out of it.

The following are the objectives of the Read Ramayana initiative:

• To provide impetus and encouragement for people who want to read Ramayana and do not know how to get started.
• To bring everyone interested in reading Ramayana together.
• To conduct events across the world, where readers (and their friends) can come together and celebrate their interest and experience through various cultural and spiritual activities. Scholars, artists and spiritual teachers from various parts of the world will be invited to these events, so that readers can interact with them in close quarters to get deeper insights into Ramayana.
• To provide a platform for thousands of people worldwide to get connected with each other, which could lead to long term relationships such as friendships, matrimonial alliances and collaborations of various kinds such as, social service, community service, peace missions, art, dance, singing, sculpting, etc.

• Tell people that you are a member of Read Ramayana initiative, wherever there is an opportunity, such as on when you meet them at parties and other occasions, or on Facebook, Google Plus, etc. This conveys a lot about you to others than you imagine.
• If you are an unmarried male, the very fact that you have committed yourself for a 5 year initiative assures the prospective bride, that you are a person capable of commitment.
• Your interest in a serious subject conveys to others that you are a person of depth, not a 'surface' type person. People respect and trust a person with those characteristics.
• There are many slokas in Ramayana that enrich your thinking about life, such as making choices, sticking to choices, not getting swayed by emotions and distractions, etc. These slokas are written in such a powerful and poetic language, that they will stick in your mind without much effort. They jump out of your memory at the right moment to guide you through the challenges in life.
• You will meet many like minded, well meaning, people in the Ramanyana conferences. Who knows, you could meet your prospective groom or bride or a future employer or future business partner in these conferences !

• Sign up to be a volunteer. You will receive detailed information about volunteer activities. Volunteer commitment varies from 2 hours a month to 4 hours a week.
• Spread the word by sending emails or posting it on social media sites like Facebook, GooglePlus, Orkut. Make sure you invite at least 10 people to join the Read Ramayana initiative.
• Make sure each member of your family that plan on joining this initiative register individually, even if you all happen to read out of one email.
• Make a monetary contribution to support this initiative. Details will be provided later.
• If you are an artist, submit your drawings, sketches or paintings of the story of Rama. All the submitted drawings will be published. The best ones will be sent along with the weekly mail.
• If you are a scholar, moderate the discussions on Facebook and shed light on aspects that are not commonly known. Provide readers with additional resources on Ramayana.
• Lead or be part of the effort to arrange local, regional, national and international conferences.