Chinmaya Mission Navi Mumbai organized a Summer camp for children which was conducted at Chinmaya ashram Kolhapur, in presence of 61 feet Chinmaya Ganadheesh. The camp spanned over five days, from 29th April to 3rd May of 2017. The age group for the camp was from 9 to 14 years. More than 60 children, hailing from Pune, Kolhapur, Mumbai and Navi Mumbai attended the camp. Br Ved Chaitanya was the Camp Acharya.
The campers had to follow a structured schedule which kept them mentally and physically active, other than making sure that they got proper time to rest. The campers assembled at 6:30 am for exercise. After warming up, campers would perform Surya Namaskar as the sun rose in the east. One hour was given post exercise for them to get ready and have milk/tea. Once everybody was fresh, all campers came to the ‘satsang hall’ for a chanting session conducted by Vedji. This was followed by a half hour of breakfast to energize everyone. All the campers were divided into juniors (from class 4th to 6th) and seniors (class 7th to 9th). The juniors then went for the session conducted by Vedji while the seniors went for workshops. After a refreshing juice break, the juniors went to the workshop while the seniors attended the session. 12:30 in the noon was lunch time. Lunch was followed by break and activity time, in which all campers honed their creative skills. 4 to 6 pm was allotted to play games, in which all campers and volunteers played Indian fun games together like kho-kho, kabaddi, son-sakhli etc. After the games session & snacks break, the campers attended Aarati at Chinmaya Ganadheesh. Then was the bhajan satsang in which all campers sang melodious and enjoyable bhajans of Sri Rama together and attended a combined session taken by Vedji.
Post bhajan satsang they had programs like culturals (performed by campers), movie time (Ramayana), informal meeting (where the children could do anything: dance, sing, play, etc.). During the fourth day, all volunteers had set up a fun mela which all campers enjoyed thoroughly. There were different games at different stalls which they can play by spending special coins earned by chanting Lord’s name! On the last day (3rd of May, 2017) the campers were taken to the famous Mahalakshmi temple of Kolhapur and ‘Shree Chhatrapati Shahu Museum’.
All of us have heard the story of Lord Rama many times in our lives, but this camp told us a different Ramayana, the Ramayana of our own selves. All campers learnt what each character of the epic means and symbolizes in our day-to-day life. The workshops were very interactive. Different facets of Shri Rama were shown, which were absorbed by the campers and incorporated into their lives. Campers studied Ramayana by learning Lord Rama’s qualities and looked at him as an ideal son, brother, friend, husband, student, enemy, leader, warrior & God. Apart from this the campers also learnt many new bhajans and the two camp songs that were specially written and composed for the camp. The question and answer session on the last day proved that the kids were indeed all ears to the sessions, as they asked interesting questions which were answered by Vedji.
‘It is usually me who has to convince the youth to participate and volunteer in such camps, but this time around it was different. The youth voluntarily came in to help organize the camp and everything fell into place beautifully.’ said Vedji as there were huge applauds that followed. Volunteers also were beaming with energy throughout the camp, Eveready to help the campers. Volunteers enjoyed involving with the campers. It was a steep learning curve for volunteers as they learnt how to serve, and learnt how to forfeit their egos.
The camp concluded with the valedictory session, to recognize the efforts of Volunteers and everyone who was involved to make this camp a huge success. The session was high on emotions as the camp acharya Vedji recognized everyone’s efforts right from the resident acharya of Kolhapur, Swami Atmadevanadaji (who took time out from his busy schedule and spent some quality time with the campers) to the cook (who cooked sumptuous meals). At the end of the fifth day everyone’s eyes were moist as the camp had come to an end. Indeed, everyone reveled in Rama!!
Reveling in Rama…