Sai Summer Camp

Introduction

The Summer Balvikas was an initiative taken to re-establish the young generation's human values and re-ignite the meaning of religion.

About the Camp

The camp was held for two days, the first day concentrated on entertaining the children but also teaching them a few things about religion. On this day the children began the day by reciting 108 names of god after which they did meditation and paranayamas. After this the day consisted of playing games, seeing a magician do his tricks, sing bhajans and participate in tabla lessons.

The second day we emphasised on discipline so the children would learn an ideal so they could practise this in every day life. On this day we began a condensed learning process. The children were not only taught the fundamentals of their religion such as festivals, prayers etc but also why they had to do this. It was important for the children to understand why they were performing rituals rather than just do them out of obligation.
In this day the children, again, began the day by reciting 108 names of god. After this they were taught about prayers and their meanings, slokas emphasising the gayatri mantra, teachings on discipline and they also did drawings and played a few games designed to help them remenber certain aspects of the hindu religion.

The children thoughout the two days were taught about classical music particularly in tablas. This was intended to give them an introduction into the music that accompanied our hindu religion and also enabled them to gain knowlage and learn something but more importantly to raise interest in bhajans. Because Sai Baba has said that bhjans/kirtan are the royal road to god we have emphasied this to the children by also teaching them in full two bhajans and getting them to sing them with musicians.

The Results

The children after the end of the second day were asked to summerise what they learnt, not only did this give us an idea of what they gained from the summer balvikas but it gave us an indicator as to whether the balvikas had laid a foundation for further balvikas' to be held.

At the end of the last day the children sang the bhajans/kirtans they learnt in front of their parents along with musical accompaniment.

Due to the success of the summer balvikas, a regular balvikas has now been started to teach the children more about Dharama.

Thanks!

We would like to thank all the volunteers who helped, "we couldn't have done it without you!" We would also like to thank the children for coming and being excellant thoughout the two days of the Summer Balvikas.
We would also like to thank Hasmuk Mistry for allowing us to run the program at Prajapathi Hall for the two days.

Jai Sai Ram.