Chinmaya Somnath located in Virginia USA, successfully concluded the largest ever annual youth camp conducted by Vivekji from July 16 – 20, 2018.
This youth camp is a very unique opportunity for the youths not only in the DMV area, but also across the US and Canada to interact closely with undivided attention from Vivekji, one of the most highly respected and sought after Vedanta teachers, who instills Hindu spiritual knowledge by adapting more traditional Vedantic teaching techniques to better engage with the modern day youth.
This year Vivekji chose the yoga sutras by Pathanjali as the Vedantic topic of the camp, a topic that changes annually to better impart a wide spectrum of knowledge to the participants. Yoga is about asanas related to body, and entails controlling one’s mind before conquering the body. In this camp, campers learned how to quiet their minds and maintain focus on their tasks. Furthermore, campers learned that being an extrovert is not always good and is often conducive with acting due to FOMO (fear of missing out) rather than focusing on JOMO (joy of missing out). This is very relevant, as these days campers and adults alike are often found glued to their phones and other devices in order to keep up with the daily activities of their peers rather than simply enjoying time spent alone and in the moment.
Vivekji meticulously planned the camp activities with not just Vedantic talks but also included many aspects like physical and seva activities. Through their seva, the campers learned to inculcate the helping attitude without expectation, providing a permanent sense of joy. With physical work, the body is strengthened, allowing for the effective completion of one’s duties, whatever they may be. During the camp, there were also numerous fun moments while the youth participated in athletics, which taught campers to team up and play in rain or shine, which they literally practiced by running in the pouring rain.
There are numerous ways that the campers got to focus their minds, such as learning about unit tasking while eating, in which they were told to focus on their eating rather than talking in order to appreciate their food and the Brahman in it. Campers were also taught about the 3 C’s that they must avoid in their lives, which includes Criticizing, Crying unnecessarily and Complaining. Instead they learned to maintain one basic C, which is Contentment. One of the biggest highlights of this camp was that it was also a residential camp. Many Virginia families hosted almost 35 – 40 campers from out of state, with youth coming from places such as Georgia, Illinois, Canada, Maryland, and Fredrick. This created a very unique opportunities for the families to learn to be a real “aditi” and find joy in serving their guests. Local campers who hosted other kids also found friendship and like-mindedness amongst their out-of-state peers.
