Back to the basics
Spent most of today helping out at a Kid’s Gurmat Camp. It turned out to be a really good day. There was a good turnout with around 120 kids attending. Even though it was aimed at kids I ended up learning a lot and picking up a lot of information myself.
There were four main zones; spiritual, history, warrior and open zone. Each had its own area of Sikhi that was covered. In the spiritual zone the kids went over the basics of Sikh spirituality and put together a small talk on what they would say Sikhi is to someone who had never heard of Sikhi before. History zone covered Harmandir Sahib and Guru Arjan Dev Ji. This turned out to be pretty interesting as the speaker had videos of an American Sikh’s describing their experiences at Harmandir Sahib and comparing it to places like the Vatican. Warrior zone was in my opinion the best part of the day. The speaker talked about Sikh Warriors like Baba Deep Singh Ji, about their lives and experiences. This talk actually hit home with the group of kids that I had (aged between 14-16), having heard about Baba Deep Singh Ji life, many of them said their life story is inspirational and having heard about it, its made them want to re-evaluate their own lives. After that talk the kids had a chance to have a play on a bouncy castle and a gladiator-fighting thing (obviously they loved this more than anything else). The open zone consisted of an open discussion on anything the kids wanted to discuss. As they were older kids, they were all self-conscience and so didn’t really say a lot, so us group leader hijacked it and started our own topics and discussions. It worked well as the kids started giving their input and it turned out to be a good discussion.
During the day there was a lot to be done and it was all pretty hectic, but now that I look back over the day it was really good. Most kids went home with a lot of information, and some of them were really inspired by it. The best thing about my group was the fact that they didn’t lie or sugar-coat anything. When asked if they felt anything having heard Sakhi’s/stories, if they didn’t they simply said that instead of making stuff up. When asked if they’d apply anything they learnt to their lives again it was good how they said yea or no honestly. Overall the camp was effective for my group as a number of them took books home by choice and said they want to attend more camps to learn more about their history.
On the whole the youngest kids (aged between 3-7) seemed to have the most fun there. Everything they did was just too much fun for them and they could be heard all around the Gurdwara (there was 45 of them). The thing with young kids is that they have no inhibitions and they are not self-conscience and so they are more than happy to sing along and take part in activities. To see youngsters having a good time and learning about their history at the same time is brilliant.
There were two things that really hit me while I was there, the first was during the open zone, the speaker was talking about attachment and how we do things just to please those around us. I’d always understood that we shouldn’t change ourselves for others and that nothing goes with us at the end of the day. One thing that the speaker also touched on was how we put so much work into ourselves physically and mentally (personality etc) and how none of this will go with us. Why is it that we care what others think? Why do we go through mental turmoil with relationships? These points really hit home with me, as I’d never thought about it before. I know I have spent a lot of time and energy thinking about thing like ‘I wonder by so and so isn’t talking to me’ or ‘I hope what I said didn’t offend so and so’. At the end of the day all the energy and time that I’ve wasted thinking about these things isn’t going to help me when I go from here. It’s interesting how we spend so much time on perfecting the way we look or perfecting how we come across to people (i.e. personality etc) and we pay no attention whatsoever to our spirituality, the one thing that will actually go with us when the time comes.
The other thing that really stood out for me was something my sister told me after the camp. She was looking after the youngest kids (3-7 year olds) and all of them were having a really good time throughout the day. The last talk these kids had included a Sakhi about the Bhagat whose mother used to tell him to meditate and if he did God would give him some sweets. It was his mother who would place the sweets by him when he meditated, but one day his mother forgot to and when the child finished meditating, there were some sweets there. He went and said to his mother that these are the best sweets he had ever tasted and his mother realised that she’d forgotten to place any sweets out for him that day and realised that God must have placed those sweets their for His Bhagat. After hearing this story, a boy turns to my sister and says ‘if I do more Simran does it mean more people will be my friend?’ Hearing this my sister initially felt for him as it implied he didn’t have many friends, but more importantly the purpose of the camp had been achieved as at least one child had realised that if you want anything the only person to turn to is Maharaaj.
The most important thing that this camp made me realise was that when it comes down to it all that matters is the amount of Paath/Simran one does. Things like Raag Mala, meat and other issues like this are in all honestly just trivial things. One won’t achieve anything by endlessly debating over what they think is right and what’s wrong in their opinion.
Ultimately its all about Naam and kamai, and it took going back to the basics at a kiddies camp to help me appreciate that.
There were four main zones; spiritual, history, warrior and open zone. Each had its own area of Sikhi that was covered. In the spiritual zone the kids went over the basics of Sikh spirituality and put together a small talk on what they would say Sikhi is to someone who had never heard of Sikhi before. History zone covered Harmandir Sahib and Guru Arjan Dev Ji. This turned out to be pretty interesting as the speaker had videos of an American Sikh’s describing their experiences at Harmandir Sahib and comparing it to places like the Vatican. Warrior zone was in my opinion the best part of the day. The speaker talked about Sikh Warriors like Baba Deep Singh Ji, about their lives and experiences. This talk actually hit home with the group of kids that I had (aged between 14-16), having heard about Baba Deep Singh Ji life, many of them said their life story is inspirational and having heard about it, its made them want to re-evaluate their own lives. After that talk the kids had a chance to have a play on a bouncy castle and a gladiator-fighting thing (obviously they loved this more than anything else). The open zone consisted of an open discussion on anything the kids wanted to discuss. As they were older kids, they were all self-conscience and so didn’t really say a lot, so us group leader hijacked it and started our own topics and discussions. It worked well as the kids started giving their input and it turned out to be a good discussion.
During the day there was a lot to be done and it was all pretty hectic, but now that I look back over the day it was really good. Most kids went home with a lot of information, and some of them were really inspired by it. The best thing about my group was the fact that they didn’t lie or sugar-coat anything. When asked if they felt anything having heard Sakhi’s/stories, if they didn’t they simply said that instead of making stuff up. When asked if they’d apply anything they learnt to their lives again it was good how they said yea or no honestly. Overall the camp was effective for my group as a number of them took books home by choice and said they want to attend more camps to learn more about their history.
On the whole the youngest kids (aged between 3-7) seemed to have the most fun there. Everything they did was just too much fun for them and they could be heard all around the Gurdwara (there was 45 of them). The thing with young kids is that they have no inhibitions and they are not self-conscience and so they are more than happy to sing along and take part in activities. To see youngsters having a good time and learning about their history at the same time is brilliant.
There were two things that really hit me while I was there, the first was during the open zone, the speaker was talking about attachment and how we do things just to please those around us. I’d always understood that we shouldn’t change ourselves for others and that nothing goes with us at the end of the day. One thing that the speaker also touched on was how we put so much work into ourselves physically and mentally (personality etc) and how none of this will go with us. Why is it that we care what others think? Why do we go through mental turmoil with relationships? These points really hit home with me, as I’d never thought about it before. I know I have spent a lot of time and energy thinking about thing like ‘I wonder by so and so isn’t talking to me’ or ‘I hope what I said didn’t offend so and so’. At the end of the day all the energy and time that I’ve wasted thinking about these things isn’t going to help me when I go from here. It’s interesting how we spend so much time on perfecting the way we look or perfecting how we come across to people (i.e. personality etc) and we pay no attention whatsoever to our spirituality, the one thing that will actually go with us when the time comes.
The other thing that really stood out for me was something my sister told me after the camp. She was looking after the youngest kids (3-7 year olds) and all of them were having a really good time throughout the day. The last talk these kids had included a Sakhi about the Bhagat whose mother used to tell him to meditate and if he did God would give him some sweets. It was his mother who would place the sweets by him when he meditated, but one day his mother forgot to and when the child finished meditating, there were some sweets there. He went and said to his mother that these are the best sweets he had ever tasted and his mother realised that she’d forgotten to place any sweets out for him that day and realised that God must have placed those sweets their for His Bhagat. After hearing this story, a boy turns to my sister and says ‘if I do more Simran does it mean more people will be my friend?’ Hearing this my sister initially felt for him as it implied he didn’t have many friends, but more importantly the purpose of the camp had been achieved as at least one child had realised that if you want anything the only person to turn to is Maharaaj.
The most important thing that this camp made me realise was that when it comes down to it all that matters is the amount of Paath/Simran one does. Things like Raag Mala, meat and other issues like this are in all honestly just trivial things. One won’t achieve anything by endlessly debating over what they think is right and what’s wrong in their opinion.
Ultimately its all about Naam and kamai, and it took going back to the basics at a kiddies camp to help me appreciate that.
posted by indi.kaur™ at
23:58
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