Archive for category: Value Based Education

Thus, Satyam House conducted the assemblies for the week of Dec.16 to Dec.21, 2013 with the value Practice Makes Perfect. The underlying theme was that proper & repeated action results in perfection.

This value is very significant for the students as it can help to perform better in academics, excel in sports or master any art such as dance, music, drawing and painting, etc.

The following was witnessed in the assemblies during this week:

Thought For the Day:
This forms a very insightful feature of the morning assembly. What great people think about the value is conveyed to the children. Pleasant morning, fresh mind and peaceful atmosphere makes it an ideal time for them to spare room in their thought process for the value. One of the thoughts conveyed during the week was: “Chance favours the prepared mind.”

Introduction:
On Monday, the Primary Section kids were very privileged because the value was introduced by the Principal Dr. Vijay Patel through a ‘vaat’ from “Swami Ni Vaato” and an interesting story.

At the same time, in the senior assembly, Kshitij Sir introduced it through a scientific research conveying how special type of brain tissue called Myelin, plays a key role in helping us to gain mastery over the skill and how regular practice rewires our brain. The assembly continued with a discussion of examples of two great personalities, Ludwig van Beethoven [the great music composer and pianist] and Karoly [handicapped pistol shooter who won gold medals in two successive Olympic Games].

AVM Young Talent Show: [under the guidance of Sharmil Ma’am]
Three students of AVM with outstanding performance in different fields were interviewed by the Show Host, Naman Banka of Std 7.

• Amit Chaudhary (Std 9) in Running
• Niramay Tanna (Std 10) in Mathematics
• Love Patel (Std 11 Commerce) in IT

All of them were clear-sighted that daily practice without fail, blended with God’s company and blessings helped them a lot in pursuit of excellence and still their journey is on. The SHOW helped students know the significance of practice in their day to day life.

The Music Maestro:
Jaimin Sir, the school’s tabla guru, shared his experience throughout his journey towards mastering the art of playing tabla. He highlighted that the painful struggle and the thrill of the journey led to happiness after each step forward from what he was in the beginning, only because of PRACTICE.

A live performance by him filled the environment with some beautiful rhythms that shall stay in the children’s minds inspiring them.

Hindi Assembly:
Paying respect to our National Language, assemblies are also often conducted in Hindi. Pushpak Sir conveyed the importance of ‘Practice’ through a self-composed poem:

Practice polishes the inborn talent of a person. Arjun and Eklavya, who acquired perfection through their tireless practice in archery, are not unfamiliar to us.

Videos:
Young or old, everyone enjoys exploring information through audio-visual presentations and they also leave a prominent effect on our minds. Inspiring videos related to the fields of music, art, sports, academics, adventures, etc. were shown which left the spectators spellbound. Glimpses of the movie Bhag Milkha Bhag; a girl practising for the World Math Day and other sports were selected by Rekha Ma’am for discussion in the Gujarati Assembly.

Activity in the Junior Assembly:
An activity was conducted to show comparison between two groups of students, the one who practices certain skills on everyday basis and the one who never practices. It was concluded that the group of students who practise daily performed better than those who never did so, even for the actions which seem very simple.

Its effect?
It was a pleasant surprise to find that the tiny tots of grade I and II had brought the value into practice.

Annual Athlete Meet: Inspired by the value, some of the participants put efforts at their level best on practising for various events to win medals for their respective houses.

With such inspiring examples that followed this week of value-based assemblies, Satyam House was eager and ready for the next.

He has talked to a great extent about the causes of our misery and sadness and about ways to liberate ourselves from that. He has highlighted that one of the biggest hindrances in acquiring the bliss of God and happiness is our mind. However, most of our life’s decisions are made by consulting our mind and hence cause us excitement or frustration. In our mind lies laziness, likes and dislikes, over-confidence, greed, uncertainty, tension, ignorance, lack of faith in self and God, fear of accomplishments: How it will happen? What will happen? Will it happen or not? Our mind engages us into all such nuisance and creates a distraction or divergence from doing what is required to be done at the present moment.

• On the first day, “ત્રણ જણ  સુખીયા, એક તો મોટા સાધુ કહે તેમ કરે તે, તથા મન નું કહ્યું ના માને તે જ્ઞાની, તથા કઈ જોઈએ નહિ તે.” (somewhat translates to: “3 people are happy: one that does as per what a saint says; the wise one that does not listen to mind and the one that does not have any desires.”)
• On the second day, “ડાહ્યો હોઈ તેને વઢે ત્યારે રાજી થાય અને મુર્ખો હોઈ તેને વખાણે ત્યારે રાજી થાય.” (“The one who is wise feels happy when scolded, and the one who is foolish feels happy when praised.”)
• Third day, “ગાફલાઈ ટાળવાનું કારણ તો એ છે જે ખટકો રાખે તો ટળે ને બીજો ઉપાય તો કોઈ શિક્ષા કરે ત્યારે ટળે.” (“The way to get rid of carelessness is to remain vigilant and another way is if there is someone to guide or show right from wrong or scold, carelessness can be removed.”)
• Fourth day, “મુંજવણ આવે તો કેમ કરવું? એ પ્રશ્ન પૂછ્યો, તેનો ઉત્તર કર્યો જે “સ્વામિનારાયણ સ્વામિનારાયણ …” ભજન કરવું તેથી મુંજવણ ટળી જાય.” (“‘When there is tension, what should be done?’, was the question asked. The response was: chant ‘Swaminarayan Swaminarayan’, doing which will relieve the tension.”)
• Fifth day, “સત્ય, હિત અને પ્રિય એવું વચન બોલવું ને ઉપેક્ષા રહિત બોલવું પણ આગ્રહ થી વચન કહેવું નહિ.” (“Speak truth, for welfare and in a pleasant manner but not with contempt and also not with insistence.”)

The sixth day, Saturday, was the creatively assembly. In the creative assembly students of Shivam House had presented an entertaining and enlightening drama titled, ‘લુચ્ચું નાલાયક લબાડ મન’ (“The cunning, unworthy, roguish Mind”). The core idea of drama was based on Swami ni vaat, “કેટલાક ને મન રમાડે છે અને કેટલાક મન ને રમાડે છે.” (“The mind tricks many while many trick their minds”) Through this drama it was conveyed to the children that we need to take persistent fight with our fickle mind. Our mind is like a cunning fox, a skilful trickster. It does not allow us to focus and diverges us from the task at hand. It puts us into difficulty and itself remains away from it. Becoming resolute to never do as our mind says and firm determination to follow the commands of parents, teachers and guru are the only two ways to conquer our fickle mind and make it steady, peaceful, well-mannered and focused. In this assembly, ALL the Shivam House students from Std 3 to Std 7 had participated. Shivam House extends special gratitude to the students of Std 8 and Std 10 for sparing their valuable time in stage set up and Vinayakbhai (Std 8) for his contribution in setting up the music system for daily practice. Furthermore, the House extends special gratitude to Vallabh Mama, Samarthya Ma’am, Ritesh Sir and Devang Sir for their valuable contributions in stage set up.

Lastly, it was a lesson not just for the students but also for the elders. Very often our mind does not allow us to do the right things for many selfish reasons. In those times it becomes very difficult to fight with the mind and make it do the right things. At that time we must have someone in our life who can tell us outright what to do and what not to do and insist us on doing the right things. We must recall the commands of our guru, and pray to God to give us the strength and determination to fight with the devil mind.

To facilitate the need to understand and develop the right attitude in the life of the students, Suhradam House got the privilege to celebrate the value: Attitude is everything in the very first week of wintry December. All the members elucidated the value throughout the week with the motive to help the students realize and develop the attitudes an AVM student should possess. The week comprised of many inspirational speeches, captivating PowerPoint presentations and also fascinating stories superbly presented by the teachers and students.

On the first day, the attitude “to be Atmiya with everyone” was well explained with the qualities of a student who is Atmiya with everyone: like forgives and forgets others’ mistakes, respects and loves everyone dearly, is all sincere in prayer and doing pooja. In a nutshell, he shares harmonious relationship with the self and others.

On the second day, the importance of positive Attitude and the sutra given by P.P.Swamishree to be “ever positive and never negative” were discussed. Furthermore, it was explained that being positive means to look at virtues of others and try to imbibe them in yourself, appreciate the classmates for their good deeds and encourage everyone together to follow rules and regulations of the school religiously, without giving any excuse and just showing the results.

On the third day, the attitude of “being sincere in studies” was shared as one of the most important values a student must have. It was presented through a captivating PPT prepared with the help of the guidelines given by P.P.Swamishree from His discourses to AVM students. Students could understand the importance of sheer hard work, sincere prayer, concentration in class, daily revision and being regular in doing work. Moreover, it was repeatedly emphasised to ask questions to the teachers until the doubts are cleared.

On the fourth day, the attitude of “Respect for everyone” was brought to light. It was discussed that being respectful is to behave politely and humbly with everyone, never criticizing anyone, never giving back answers to elders, and also being friendly with fellow beings. The attitude of acceptance was also highlighted here.

The fifth day contained fascinating stories on another aspect of attitude “using language (vaani) aptly”, shared in speeches delivered by the Suhradam House students. They shared that AVM students should use respectful language while dealing with individuals belonging to any age group and call all the fellow beings addressing them as “bhai”. The importance of speaking only the truth, very politely and avoiding ill-mannered interruptions while others are talking was also shared. More emphasis was laid on the use of English language all the time with use of the golden words like sorry, thank you excuse me, please, etc.

This highly educative week ended with the attitude of “keeping company of good friends” as it is known to everyone that a person is known by the company he keeps. Students were guided not only to have good friends among themselves but also to have one such teacher as a true friend, to whom they can approach easily for any problem which will help to keep themselves on the right track in any adverse situation.

With the persistent efforts of Suhradam House members, the week ended with a positive spirit developed in the students as they made amendments in their attitude. Thus, Suhradam House feels proud and honoured to commence the journey of developing the right Attitude within all of us.

ચોમાસું બેસે ત્યારથી જ ગ્રામજનોની નજર આભ સામે મંડાયેલી રહે છે. ભાદરવામાં કડાકા-ભડાકા સાથે તૂટી પડે એવા વરસાદની આશા ઠગારી નીવડે ત્યારે મૂંગા જાનવરોને ઘાસચારો અને પીવાનું પાણી મળી રહે તેટલા વરસાદની અપેક્ષા રાખે, અને એ પણ વ્યર્થ જાય ત્યારે વરસાદને વિનવવા જાત-જાતના અને ભાત-ભાતના વૈજ્ઞાનિક પ્રયોગો, ઉપાયો કે પરંપરાગત વિધિઓનો આશરો લે છે.

ધાર્મિક આસ્થા ધરાવતા લોકો આવા સમયે પર્જન્યયજ્ઞો કે અખંડધૂનનું આયોજન કરે છે, તો કૃષિ વૈજ્ઞાનિકો વળી કૃત્રિમ વર્ષાના પ્રયોગો કરે છે. ગ્રામ્ય વિસ્તારનો ભોળો, અબુધ, અશિક્ષિત આમઆદમી પણ પોતાની રીતે વરસાદ માગવાના પરંપરાગત પ્રયત્નો કરતો હોય છે.

ઉત્તર ગુજરાતમાં વરસાદને રીઝવવા માટે આવા અલ્પશિક્ષિત, પછાતવર્ગ દ્વારા થતો પ્રયત્ન એટલે ઢૂંઢિયા બાપજી. આ વિસ્તારમાં સમયસર વરસાદ ન આવે ત્યારે ખાસ કરીને દેવીપૂજક કોમની સ્ત્રીઓ કાળી, ચીકણી માટીની એક મૂર્તિ બનાવીને તેને જાત જાતના વાઘા-શણગાર પહેરાવી એક બાજોઠ ઉપર પધરાવે છે. જેને તેઓ ઢૂંઢિયા બાપજી તરીકે ઓળખે છે. એક સ્ત્રી આ બાજોઠને માથે ઉંચકીને ઢોલ-શરણાઈ સાથે ગામના મહોલ્લે-મહોલ્લે ફરે છે. વરસાદને આર્જવભરી વિનંતી કરતી એ સ્ત્રી મેહુલા તરીક ઓળખાતા ગીતો ગાય છે. અને બીજી સ્ત્રીઓ તે ઝીલે છે. સ્ત્રીઓ ઘેર-ઘેર ફરે ત્યારે તે ઘરની સ્ત્રીઓ બાજોઠ પર બિરાજમાન મૂર્તિ ઉપર લોટો ભરીને પાણી રેડે છે અને અનાજનું યથાશક્તિ દાન કરે છે. પાણીથી ભીંજાયેલી એ સ્ત્રી ગાતી ગાતી આગળ વધે છે. અને પછી ગામની સીમમાં નદી કે તળાવ કાંઠે પેલી મૂર્તિનું વિસર્જન કરે છે. ગામમાંથી એકઠું થયેલું અનાજ પંખીના ચણ માટે વપરાય છે. આમ કરવાથી વરસાદ વરસે છે, એવી આ ગ્રામજનોની માન્યતા છે.

શ્રધ્ધા-અંધશ્રધ્ધાને ઘડીભર કોરાણે મૂકીને સામાન્ય જન દ્વારા પણ કુદરતી સંકટ ટાળવા થતો, આ પરંપરાગત પ્રયત્ન આપણી સંસ્કૃતિનું દર્શન કરાવી જાય છે.

આત્મીય વિદ્યા મંદિરના ધોરણ 5 ના નાના-નાના ભૂલકાઓને આ લુપ્ત થતી સંસ્કૃતિનું દર્શન પ્રજ્ઞા પ્રવૃત્તિ દ્વારા કરાવવામાં આવ્યું હતું.