Helga Frech: My Story

Not that all the other previous impressions were special, but one did really stand out. This was special. Never do I believe I will see such a thing again. Two children from one of the lower grades were crying. Not because they had fought. But because they did not want leave.

Myself, Priya Saini

It’s very difficult to find someone like Rajan, my aunt. It’s like opening a 1,000 shells under the sea to find one pearl. Anybody can love a rosebud it takes a great deal to love a leaf! It’s very easy to love someone who is beautiful, but love the one who can make your life beautiful…

Visiting Buddha’s Smile School an Amistad Intl project

The following is part of an informal trip report by Karen Kotoske, Executive Director, Amistad International: Buddha’s Smile School (BSS) is located in Sarnath and is only a short walk from the historical site where Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha delivered this first sermon. Amistad International has been the primary sponsor of this school since 2004 when BSS had only 60 students. 239 now attend this free school for the poorest of the poor children in the area.

Liane Fahr: My Story

With brightly shining eyes the children say goodbye to Rajan and the other teachers at the end of the day. And with brightly shining eyes they wave back when leaving in the rikshaws Rajan has organized to bring them home. Home means those places where they had been picked up, the places where the poorest [...]

Vipin Kothari

My wife, Gita and I had the pleasure of meeting Sukhdev and Rajan during our recent visit to Varanasi. They were kind enough to guide us in the prayers that we had to perform for my son�s final rites before his ashes were immersed in the holy Ganges. In fact, they took time to be [...]

Forrest Fleischman

Our first morning in Sarnath, my travelling companion and I walked into a small cafe next to the Tibetan Institute where our host was studying, and begin conversing with a kind Australian man. He told us that he had come there as a volunteer, to help build a website for the school that the cafe [...]

Angela-Claire Cole

After experiencing such poverty in both Bodhgaya and Sarnath, Buddha’s Smile School was a completely enriching and perfect experience. Meeting Rajan, we spoke of love and in her I saw a heart too big to fit in her chest. Sure enough her generosity of spirit and deep love for all the children (including her [...]

Amy Symons

From Kolkata I took a train fifteen hours west to Varanasi (India’s most holy city) where Rajani Kaur and her husband, Sukhdev, met me at the train station and took me to their apartment above her Amistad International funded school for 200 children from the slums. I awoke the next morning to witness [...]

Bronwyn Finnigan

I first met Rajan Saini and her husband Sukhdev in 1999 when they were living in Ashapoor and I was visiting the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies in Sarnath. At that time, that which is now the Buddha’s Smile School was a bare patch of brown land, on the far side of which were [...]

Heather Mason

The first thing that strikes me about this school is the name. What indeed would leave the Buddha Smiling? It would be the relinquishment of ignorance and suffering it would be compassion and wisdom….and succinctly, it is all the characteristics that define the philosophy of the Buddha Smile School and its founder Rajan whose instinct [...]

Jake Fisher

I was fortunate enough to visit the incredible Buddha’s Smile School and the living Saint Rajan on my travels last year around the major Buddhist sites of northern India.
A fellow Buddhist student recommended I visit Rajan’s school to see real compassion and devotion to others in action.
Meeting those children and seeing the happiness and joy [...]

Mattia Silvani

Mattia Silvani

My name is Mattia and I have recently spent time teaching Sanskrit at Buddha’s Smile School. Despite my broken Hindi, the small students actually listened to the lessons with interest. The children memorized Sanskrit verses and made an effort to learn the first steps in the language.
Rajan is providing a rare opportunity [...]

Vanessa Turner

Rajan, 35, originally came from Calcutta. As a young child, she had always been very sensitive to the suffering around her, so much so that she used to wake up before her mother did and prepare food and clothes to give to the beggars in her area. Rajan’s gentleness and love is what won the [...]