Summer Camp 2018 - Day 2 - Summary

Waking up to the chirping birds in close proximity to nature while sun rays penetrate through the windows is a heavenly experience for the city folks and our children are fortunate to have this experience in Balavihar camp!

Boiling water for bath

Matrons are all set to wakeup the children, get ready for morning sessions. 

When solar water heater or instilled boiler are not producing enough hot-water, water is heated as in the picture, using broken wood from the fallen tree or husk, shell & dried leaves from coconut tree, which are readily available all over the ashram.

All children assembled in Omkareshwara Temple on time at 7:00am for morning session.

Swamiji spoke about the Pancha Praanas that govern the body, how these pancha praanas  works on the food consumed, gets converted into energy, purified & the waster is evacuated from the human system.

The technique adopted to regulate pancha pranas is called Pranayama. Yogis get eternal life with longevity is via disciplined practice of Pranayama. Now the children started anticipating upcoming yoga session. 

Vedic Chanting & Yoga:

Swamiji set the stage for Vedic Chanting by explaining difference between Shloka & Mantra; i.e. Revealed Knowledge by Rishi's when they are in deep meditation is called Mantra whereas composed ones like Bhagavad Gita are called Shloka. Hence Vedic Mantra is defined as revealed knowledge uttered by Rishi's in their deep meditation which is ultimately the message from the Lord.

With all the positive vibrations from Vedic Chanting - Narayana Sooktam children enjoyed the rhythmic, fast paced, Custom made yoga taught by Shruthi and Vidya Didi. No doubt that by end of the camp, both body and mind will be completely synchronized.

Vedic Chanting

We all went to Annapoorneshwari Hall for relishing South Indian staple food - Idly and gathered back for chanting session.

Children have learnt full Gurustotram & Dasavatara Stotram by now and started Gurupadhuka Stotram through Sevikas.

Special Lecture: Importance of Temples

The lecture of the day was from Sandhya Didi on “Importance of Temples”, where she walked through the evolution of human from Animal Man -> Man Man -> God Man; 
She touched upon the following very eloquently with visuals

• God came into existence out of fear and wonderment
• Temples were built when mankind felt that we need to be specially together
• Idol is the concentration of all the super natural power & positive energy in one particular form
• Essentials parts of a temple
• Similarity between structure of a temple & Human body
• Types of Idols in Temple & Idol posture
• Pooja has to be done in temple everyday to activate 5 senses 

Thanks to Sandhya Didi for making the children's initial steps to the Spiritual journey more stronger.

Refer Importance of Temples for more details.

Workshop: Board Games to cross obstacles

Rashmi Didi set a base for the camp theme "Enjoy Life, The Krishna Way!" with the divine start of story around Krishna Avatar, talking birth of Krishna & migration from Mathura to Gokula overcoming the obstacles on the way.

Children were asked to prepare a board game per team on how the divinity can help overcome obstacles; relating to the hardships that Vasudeva underwent while taking infant Krishna from Mathura to Gokula & how the almighty's blessings evaded all of it. The workshop was a great team work & a platform for kids to exhibit their creativity with a spiritual touch, delivering unique board game per tam. We always empower children at Balavihar & the opportunity to assess the board games across the teams by the children was no surprise.

At Ashram, our lunch & dinner starts only after chanting Bhagawad Gita Chapter 15 & so was Day - 2's lunch.

Swamiji's Lecture:

Swamiji addressed the children on Mastering the mind, elaborating with real life examples on how to train and discipline your mind to be your best friend to guide you in righteous path. Our children are for sure liberated from being slaves of their mind and instilled with good habits after the revered lecture from Swamiji.

Refer Swamiji's Lecture - Mastering the mind for more details.

All took a break for crispy Avalakki & Badam Milk.

Dahi Handi:

Outdoor games for Day-2 was organized by Chinmaya Yuva Kendra (CHYK) team who understands that children cannot "Enjoy Life, The Krishna Way!", without having the fun & frolic of steeling & relishing yummy butter, hence the game  “Dahi Handi” in the lawn in front of Chinmaya Ganapati!

CHYK Team with Acharya

The entire camp children were divided into 8 groups, . Each group had wise planning & practise to form a pyramid to help the little krishna to break 'Dhahi Dandi'
Wow! all the teams made their best effort to break the pot & succeeded as well.

Dahi Handi

Dahi Handi

Gopas & Gopis are back for evening Arathi, learning & chanting Gurupaduka Stotram and Bhajans - Anantha Roopa & Raat Shyam from sevikas.

Children were awaiting for 9:00pm to learn & visualize the stars & constellations from Shri. Prashanth V Kumar.
Yes, that's Stargazing and our children had the golden opportunity to learn and visualise the stars and constellations through Prashant Anna's passionate learnings.
He explained constellation as a group of stars that make an imaginary shape in the night sky. They are usually named after mythological characters, people, animals and objects. Further he made all effort to explain Saptarishi mandala which helps us to find north pole when you want to locate yourself or find directions without equipments like Compass. Opposite to Saptarishi mandala is the biggest constellation called Southern cross or Pegasus. Likewise he went on locating all the 12 zodiac constellations viz. Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpius, Sagittarius, Capricornus, Aquarius and Pisces.

Stargazing - Shri. Prashanth

Ganapati under Focus Light

We have ensured that wide varieties of foods are served including fruits, juice, salads, badam milk and complan at different times.

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