We had a wonderful summer camp for the Cupertino Area last week. As we always do, we had a variety of programs including yoga asanas, games, yoga art, stories, yamas, niyamas, a water conservation workshop, and chanting Sanskrit shlokas and mantras. Our youth teachers Vivek, Shloka, and Aditya brought a huge spirit of encouragement to children. Along with them, we had 7 adult teachers and volunteers conducting the camp.

Yogasana – We divided the camp attendees into two groups and had separate yoga sessions for kids nine and under and above nine years of age. The kids were educated on the benefits of the practices and challenged so that they were motivated to do better. They also had their dose of relaxation and meditation at the end of each class. It was a great sight to watch the children lie in Shavasana and chant Om with total synchrony and in a peaceful tone every day.

Games - We played games to bring about age-old practices of team games that children played on the streets without modern gadgets, TV screens, or smartphones but with their intuition, making up rules on their own, strategizing as a team, building the presence of mind and helping them to go towards Nirodha Chitta – total control over mind through games.

Art – Younger children did simple artwork displaying yama/niyama and what it means to them. One child demonstrated Ahimsa in two pictures, one man holding the gun in picture 1 and then dropping the gun in picture 2 as a symbol of Ahimsa. It was enjoyable and rewarding to witness young minds expressing their creativity. It was enjoyable and rewarding to witness young minds expressing their creativity. Older children understood the concepts of ShriYantra and completed its outline. According to PowerThoughts Meditation Club, The Sri Yantra is a 12,000-year-old symbol and is considered the mother of all Yantras. Yantras are geometrical designs based on the principles of sacred geometry and are used for meditation. Each yantra design contains a center point or “dot” from which geometric shapes and designs radiate. Traditionally, such symbols are used to balance the left and right aspects of the brain, focus our minds, or focus on spiritual concepts to obtain spiritual benefit. It is even rumored that Nikola Tesla, with his fractal mind, would see the Sri Yantra in blinding flashes!
Children attending for a week were allowed to take home their Sri Yantras, while others would be able to paint their projects at the upcoming week's camp.

Chanting: Chanting is a great way to develop memory, attention, and focus. It also develops good lungs and strong vocal cords to generate subtle resonance that brings peace into them as they chant. Chantings are also considered to be great healing practices. Chanting of Bhramari has been shown to even heal fractures.

In our camp, younger children learned to chant the Shanti Mantra –

Shanno mitra sham varunah….
And Bhagavad Gita shlokas – vasudeva sutam devam…..,
yada yada hi dharmasya….
And sarva dharmaan parityajya….

Older children learned to chant the Shanti Mantra –

Shanno mitra sham varunah….
And then we moved on to chant Taittiriya Upanidshad’s Medha Suktam
and more… yashchandasaam vrishabho vishwarupah…
and we continued unto – aamayantu brahmacharinah swahah….vimaayantu brahmacharinah swahaah… etc and these are very rhyming and beautiful chantings.

This is to demonstrate how tranquilizing and exhilarating the mantras can be.

Chanting – Why?

Some of the older kids were frowning during the chanting sessions. When asked, they expressed their disinterest and questioned why they were chanting, what good they would do, and how scientific they were. This is the usual frown we get from our teenage children. We handled it by explaining thus:

Chantings are one great way to bring ekagra (one-pointedness) to the mind. Eventually, our goal is nordha chitta, complete control over the mind and ekagra leads us to that. The very definition of yoga per Patanjali is “Chitta vritti norodha” to develop control over thoughts.

Meaningless mantras? Or maybe we don’t know the meaning then why chant at all? Or why not say some positive affirmation in English and be done? – Yet another question. Sanskrit has its merits due to the language being the language of spiritual sages. But if one would chant a church chorus or a namaz or any other spiritual song, it would still give the same benefit. The meaning of these chants is not even required because many beeja mantras, including OM, do not have meaning on purpose. Thoughts are about names and forms; and words and meanings (shabdha, artha, nama, rupa). When you chant just as a chanting, then all thoughts vanish.

Defiance? These young teens were not completely happy with this explanation. Why should I chant only this way? Why should I follow your rules? Is this the only way to attain peace? What you say is the only truth was a direct attacking question, and rightfully so. To that, we said – No. There are many other ways, too. But once you pick a path, surrender to it and give it a faithful try. It is all about methodology. You cannot go to a church, follow their rituals, or even a piano school for that matter. If a teacher says you must hold the fingers in a certain way, you should follow it. The methodology has evolved after a long line of people trying and figuring it out. Don’t question for questioning and defiance but for understanding’s sake. And by the way, you have come over here yourself (or through your parents). Since you are already here, try it with devotion. Otherwise, the loss is yours, not that of Yoga. That put the arguments at rest. We put these explanations out in the report so that it enables you to handle questions and rebellion of the children by giving them rational explanations. Hope this helps.

Excellence through chanting – We were amazed to see how well children learned to sit and chant these shlokas without feeling bored or burdened. It seemed like they were enjoying the chantings. That was even more apparent on the fourth day when they repeated without glitches. With another week’s practice, they would be ready to chant without help or prompt.

Field Trip on June 21st – Over 37 people including children, youth, siblings, and parents from South Bay, Fremont, Evergreen, and Pleasanton areas participated in the field trip to Goshala.

Please find the Field trip report HERE