Archive for category: Thinking Skills

It is rightly said, “Focus is the key to success.” ‘Focus’ in Gujarati means ‘એકાગ્રતા’. At Atmiya Vidya Mandir, we organize creative assemblies to help the children become aware of the hurdles of student life and how to overcome them. On Friday, 26th October 2018, Satyam House enacted a small drama titled “ચાલો, થઈએ ગુણાતીત જેવા”, demonstrating how to avoid distractions and focus on the task assigned. Two prasangs were performed, one from the life of Gunatitanandswamiji and one from Param Pujya Swamishree’s life.

The story was about a young boy named Sapanbhai, who could not memorize even small definitions like that of Osmosis and could not complete any homework in scheduled time. Frustrated, and being scolded and counselled by his friends, he goes to sleep. In his dreams he meets his house master who tells him a prasang of Gunatitanandswamiji. He tells him how focused Gunatitanandswamiji was as he was unaware of the monkeys that disrupted the decorum of the spiritual gathering conducted by Muktanandswamiji. When questioned how He could remain so focused, Gunatitanandswamiji humbly replied that it was not in His capacity to do so, but He kept praying to Maharaj to grant Him such focus. As a result, Maharaj blesses Him with immense strength to avoid distraction and stay focussed.

The next day in the morning, when the house master came to wake up children, Sapanbhai shared his dream with him. Upon severe insistence from Sapanbhai, he explains how to become ‘એકાગ્ર’ through a small prasang from our dearest Swamishree’s life. He shared how Swamiji remained focused in reading Vachanamrut, while the flight was delayed on the airport. He went to say that the A.C. in the flight was not working, the technicians and the flight staff were constantly moving around and the passengers were all filled with anxiety. But in such annoying and frustrating situation Swamishree was very calm and composed, He was completely focussed in reading Vachanamrut and remained oblivious to what was happening around Him. It was after 5 hours of delay that the flight was again ready to take off.

When Ashok Uncle, Swamishree’s secretary, asked Him of His such tremendous focus, Swamishree very naturally replied, “એ લોકો એમનું કામ કરે આપણે આપણું કરવાનું”.

Thus, through this short play, we all learnt that while we are seated in the class, we must avoid all sorts of distractions that can break our focus. We learnt that while we are seated in the class, we must not fidget with pen and pencil, not look out of the window or in the corridor, not bother about who is going and who is coming, not bother about who is doing what work, but remain focused on our own study and on what the teacher is teaching in the class.

Gunatitanandswamiji and Swamishree’s lives are an epitome of ‘એકાગ્રતા’. Children became committed to practice to remain focused in class. They also learnt that when their focus is broken, they would recall and remember these two prasangs and pray to God to give strength to become focussed like Gunatitanandswamiji.

Prabhudarshan Sir