Summer Camp 2019 - Day 6 - Camp Report
Children assembled in the morning, punctually, after their morning milk, for the chanting of the “Medha Sooktam”. The children have mastered the correct technique of chanting this vedic hymn, with the correct pronunciation with the intonation. The chanting was followed by the yoga session, led by Shruti didi. She has asked the children to continue the Sivananda yoga sequences they have been taught, for the continuation of good health.
A yummy breakfast was followed by the chanting of the “NamaRamayan” and “Sankat Mochan Hanumana Ashtakam”, again led by Srijit bhaiya, Priya didi, Rajeev bhaiya and Monisha didi. The children have almost perfected their chanting now.
Vijayanandji, from Bangalore gave a short and inspiring talk on the topic- Science and technology in ancient India. He emphasised that the Indian subjective and objective sciences were not in conflict and also gave a top level overview of the advances in science and technology in ancient India in the fields of mathematics, astronomy, metallurgy, medicine etc.
Next was an almost 2-hour workshop by the Chinmaya Yuva Kendra (CHYK), Bangalore, under the guidance of Mahendra anna, with a lot of activities. The activities mapped to the different obstacles that Hanuman faced on his flight to Lanka and his exploration there. There were some logical reasoning puzzle sheets, tie-untie game, ‘have a break’ and pebble hunt.
Lunch was followed by an afternoon of rest. The children gathered, after their milk and snacks, at the temple for their evening chanting and the fervour and enthusiasm with which they chanted was amazing.
Srijit bhaiya led the bhajans, as usual and then took up an interesting session on Hanuman Chalisa. He explained a few shlokas from the text and informed the children about how powerful the Hanuman Chalisa is. His pep talks are really inspiring and are sure to get the children to become a lot more dynamic and proactive.
Swamiji’s talk on Sundarakanda was at 7.00pm today. It was a talk with a high energy and Swamiji’s usual humour. He told the children that a monkey’s nature is a very restless one, naturally and wasn’t it the height of foolishness to give fire to a monkey? Even when his tail was on fire, it didn’t hurt or burn Hanuman, only because of the reason that he was in Lanka as a messenger of the Lord. Agni, the fire God, gets his strength from the Lord and as Hanuman is the messenger of God, it was incapable of getting burnt by Agni. Swamiji gave another very important message, from the Sundarakanda. Lord Rama is said to have told Hanuman that any person who surrenders to Him, by thought, word and deed will never be visited by any calamity. Hanuman has also given us an important message – the greatest calamity for any person is the forgetfulness of God. Nothing from the outer world can be as calamitous as the forgetting of God, from inside. Swamiji also told the children that if the mind is in God, there can be no sorrow, as God and sorrow cannot go together. Thinking of God, chanting His name are both the definite methods of erasing sorrow from our lives. Swamiji told all of us that we are all endowed with 2 minds – the conscious mind and the mechanical mind. If the conscious mind is immersed in God, there is a 100% guarantee of peace. Often the mechanical mind chants the name of God, but the conscious mind is thinking of other things and that is when the mind gets disturbed. Swamiji said that ‘devotion-devotee-Lord’ is all what Sundarakanda is about and the most beautiful thing for any person is to develop complete devotion.
Dinner followed Swamiji’s session and then were the regular night time activities of informal session with Swamiji or the circumambulation of the Ganapati. Many children were preparing with gusto for the valedictory function where they would be presenting their learnings from the camp.
There was a sense of sorrow among most of the children, as they were sent off to bed, since they realise that they have to wait for a whole year, before they can have another exhilarating camp. Some children mentioned that they have started feeling ‘camp sick’, as they would all have to part tomorrow, back to the humdrum and chaos of the regular Bangalore life
A yummy breakfast was followed by the chanting of the “NamaRamayan” and “Sankat Mochan Hanumana Ashtakam”, again led by Srijit bhaiya, Priya didi, Rajeev bhaiya and Monisha didi. The children have almost perfected their chanting now.
Vijayanandji, from Bangalore gave a short and inspiring talk on the topic- Science and technology in ancient India. He emphasised that the Indian subjective and objective sciences were not in conflict and also gave a top level overview of the advances in science and technology in ancient India in the fields of mathematics, astronomy, metallurgy, medicine etc.
Next was an almost 2-hour workshop by the Chinmaya Yuva Kendra (CHYK), Bangalore, under the guidance of Mahendra anna, with a lot of activities. The activities mapped to the different obstacles that Hanuman faced on his flight to Lanka and his exploration there. There were some logical reasoning puzzle sheets, tie-untie game, ‘have a break’ and pebble hunt.
Lunch was followed by an afternoon of rest. The children gathered, after their milk and snacks, at the temple for their evening chanting and the fervour and enthusiasm with which they chanted was amazing.
Srijit bhaiya led the bhajans, as usual and then took up an interesting session on Hanuman Chalisa. He explained a few shlokas from the text and informed the children about how powerful the Hanuman Chalisa is. His pep talks are really inspiring and are sure to get the children to become a lot more dynamic and proactive.
Swamiji’s talk on Sundarakanda was at 7.00pm today. It was a talk with a high energy and Swamiji’s usual humour. He told the children that a monkey’s nature is a very restless one, naturally and wasn’t it the height of foolishness to give fire to a monkey? Even when his tail was on fire, it didn’t hurt or burn Hanuman, only because of the reason that he was in Lanka as a messenger of the Lord. Agni, the fire God, gets his strength from the Lord and as Hanuman is the messenger of God, it was incapable of getting burnt by Agni. Swamiji gave another very important message, from the Sundarakanda. Lord Rama is said to have told Hanuman that any person who surrenders to Him, by thought, word and deed will never be visited by any calamity. Hanuman has also given us an important message – the greatest calamity for any person is the forgetfulness of God. Nothing from the outer world can be as calamitous as the forgetting of God, from inside. Swamiji also told the children that if the mind is in God, there can be no sorrow, as God and sorrow cannot go together. Thinking of God, chanting His name are both the definite methods of erasing sorrow from our lives. Swamiji told all of us that we are all endowed with 2 minds – the conscious mind and the mechanical mind. If the conscious mind is immersed in God, there is a 100% guarantee of peace. Often the mechanical mind chants the name of God, but the conscious mind is thinking of other things and that is when the mind gets disturbed. Swamiji said that ‘devotion-devotee-Lord’ is all what Sundarakanda is about and the most beautiful thing for any person is to develop complete devotion.
Dinner followed Swamiji’s session and then were the regular night time activities of informal session with Swamiji or the circumambulation of the Ganapati. Many children were preparing with gusto for the valedictory function where they would be presenting their learnings from the camp.
There was a sense of sorrow among most of the children, as they were sent off to bed, since they realise that they have to wait for a whole year, before they can have another exhilarating camp. Some children mentioned that they have started feeling ‘camp sick’, as they would all have to part tomorrow, back to the humdrum and chaos of the regular Bangalore life
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