Cool breeze, sweet earthy smell come floating into our children’s life, painting the sky bright, to kick start Day 5 of Balavihar camp!
Camp Acharya’s involved teaching of Narayana Sooktam continued; followed by Pranayama & Yogasana by sevikas. A new Pranayama - Vibhaga Pranayama that involves 3 parts viz. abdomen chest & shoulder in three different mudras was also taught.
Children did break-the-fast with Khara Pongal, Chutney and unlimited mangoes.
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| Cut Mangoes |
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| Breakfast |
Morning stotram session was with learning ‘Balamukundastakam’ & ‘Deenabandhu Ashtaka’ taught by sevikas. Later they revised ‘Gurustotram’ & ‘Gurupaduka Stotram’.
Special Lecture: "Why do we.. ? "
Special talk from Usha Didi on “Why do we do Pradaksina & how” and “Why do we ring bell in temples & how?” was an eye opener on the science and belief behind the right way of worship.In temple, after offering prayers, devotes circumambulate the sanctum sanctorum with the folded hands often chanting prayers is called Pradaksina.
We cannot draw a circle without centre point. The Lord is the centre, source and essence of our lives. Recognising Him as focal point in our lives, we go about doing daily chores. This is the significance of Pradaksina.
The ringing of the bell produces an auspicious sound 'Om', which creates positive energy within and the vibrations produced helps feel divinity inside.
Refer Special Lecture on Why do we..? for more details.
Workshop: Dress-up Krishna
Workshop of the day was to dress up one person per team with the materials provided and each of this Krishna copy would talk about their purpose of visit to Sandeepany Ashram. Wonderful team work by the children to portray one among them, selflessly, at their best.
As usual all had the full course meal with salad, sweet, palya, papad, Rice, Sambar, Rasam, curd and banana.
Swamiji's Lecture:
Swami ji’s lecture was on knowledge talking about “Essence of Vedanta & Upanishads”.His teachings were as follows
- In one line if you want to write about Vedanta or Bhagavad Gita
Tat Tvam Asi => That you are - The guru tells shishya, ‘You are That’
Aham Brahma Asmee => I am Brahman (God) - God is ‘Sat Chit Ananda’ which literarily means existence-consciousness-bliss.
This is because of the facts of ‘Identification Theory’.
Identification Theory:
When entity ‘A’ identifies with entity ‘B’, the properties of ‘B’ appear to be the properties of ‘A’.
Example:
Assume mother => Entity ‘A’ and child => Entity ‘B’
“If you win, she rejoices; if you fail, she weeps”
which means the property (emotions here) of the child appear to be the property of the mother.
Entity A is Consciousness, which is infinite and Entity B is matter, which is finite
- Combination of five elements viz. Akasha, Vayu, Agni, Jala & Prithvi is called matter.
Consciousness is Sat-chit-ananda - In reality I am That Infinite Existence Bliss Consciousness but due to the identification theory, I feel I am finite and hence come to suffer sorrow.
Refer Swamiji's Lecture on "Essence of Vedanta & Upanishads" for more details.
Kolar special Nippattu was the snacks along with hot Badam Milk.
5:30pm to 6:30pm was a Gala time with custom made dodge ball game where the children were split into 4 groups. When two teams were playing, we had two other teams to cheer-up. 11 Ganapati namaskars as penalty for rule breakers made the game more interesting 🙂 and ended with “Once more Slogan”.
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| Dodge Ball |
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| Dodge Ball |
All were back to Omkareshwara Temple for 6:30pm Aarati and chanting time started with ‘Guru Stotram’, learning ‘Gurupaduka Stotram’, ‘Dasavatara Stotram’, followed by learning ‘Bhajamana Radhe’.
Skit practice started at 7:10pm in full swing until we assembled for yummy tomato bath at Annapoorneshwari Hall, started with Bhagawad Gita chanting chapter: 15 before we begin dinner.
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| Bhagawad Gita Chanting |
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| Senior boys serving food to Sevikas |
After an hour of informal Q & A session with Camp Acharya, Children went to bed.
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| Gurukulam |
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