In the first hour of the day, students in 1st grade through high school meet to perform sadhana or morning meditation. They practice mantra meditation (japa) and learn prayers and ancient Sanskrit verses. After twenty minutes, they delve into ancient bhakti literatures, currently learning the Upadesamrita or Nectar of Instruction. This important text is part of four texts that once understood and applied leads a child to get a bhakti shastri degree in later years.
This year has had it’s own discoveries! So far they have learned:
- Controlling the six urges
- Reactive and proactive choices and language
- Circles of control, influence and concert
- Four Quadrants of Important, Not Important, Urgent, Not urgent
- Organizing one’s daily/weekly task lists
- Six principles that enhance bhakti
- Intrinsic vs Extrinsic Motivation
- Six principles that destroy bhakti
- Jana Sanga means navigating peer pressure
- and more!
Even the youngest students are understanding the concepts in the text! Curriculum outlined by the Bhakti Leadership Academy, crafted for adolescents is being repurposed for even Elementary students. Bhakti wisdom is coupled with Steven Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective Leaders. Making bhakti relevant to their day to day life is a primary goal of this class.
Every day, after the older students learn the concepts, they teach it to younger ones. This is not easy and takes practice! Interactive, colorful notebooks keep them engaged, and all the concepts they’ve learned go neatly into these notebooks. They love showing their pages off, and filing in the different mini books. After only nine weeks, their notebooks are almost half filled up! Here you can find more information on this bhakti sastri course for children and teenagers.
