Integral Education

13-15 June 2019

The Summer Course in Indian Culture & Spirituality serves as an induction programme to all students and teachers of Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning with an objective to expose students of the University to the rich cultural and spiritual heritage of Bharat. It orients students into Bhagawan Baba’s educational philosophy and gives them deep, first hand insights into how they can directly benefit from this unique institution.

During the academic year 2019/20, the event was held at each of the four campuses of SSSIHL – Prasanthi Nilayam, Anantapur, Brindavan and Muddenahalli – from 13 to 15 June 2019.

All students and teachers of the University participated, along with several invited guest speakers. On display was a smorgasbord of creative and engaging topics, discussions, talks, singing, chanting and quizzes – each purposefully curated to imbibe in students the key teachings on Indian culture and spirituality from the ancient scriptures and Sai literature.

Some of these included:
Quiz on Great Epics of Indian Culture, Swami’s Guidelines for good living, Bhagawan on the significance of the Summer Course, Divine Directions and their practical implementation in our daily life, Lessons from the Bhagavatam, Panel Discussion on Indian Culture and Spirituality, Sri Rama and Sai Rama, Importance of Vedic Literature in Indian culture, Impact of Bhagawan and the Sri Sathya Sai System of Education, Spirituality in Daily Life, Sarva Karma Bhagavath Prityartham – Lessons from our scriptures, Self-Image and Positive Psychology, Head in the forest, hands in the society – Lessons from the Bhagavad Gita, Help Ever Hurt Never, Role of Discipline, Duty & Devotion in the development of Personality of a student, Workshop on devotional singing, Sadhana and Seva, Food Habits and Health, The profound Truths in Hindu Mythology, The science behind ancient Bharatiya traditions and practices, The inner connect with Bhagawan

#GramaSeva
Initiate. Serve. Love. Repeat.

Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day
Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime

This is what the students, doctoral research scholars and teachers of SSSIHL Prasanthi Nilayam campus put into practice for several months when they made multiple visits to the villages of Narsimpalli, Bukkapatnam Mandal (Population: 2500), Bonthalapalli, Puttaparthi Mandal (Population: 2500) and Marlapalli, Puttaparthi Mandal (Population: 1000).

Just as the years gone by, when they would deliver food, clothing and love to villages around Puttaparthi and its surrounding mandals, this new initiative by the Prasanthi Nilayam Campus – with the kind support of the Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust – has renewed #GramaSeva and made it a more sustainable model.

The several teams of students and teachers (which included all students of the Campus), after multiple visits, made visible progress in various areas of the programme during the year. Some of these included:

Sports and Fitness: Prepared grounds by removing weeds. Played volleyball matches with the village youth. Conducted different races (such as sack race, lemon-spoon race, etc.) For children aged 5-10, conducted games based on jumping and balancing. They were also schooled in basic health areas and taught a few yogic postures such as the Surya Namaskar.

Education: Math, Science and fun games, as well as Bal Vikas for Primary school, II to X Std. kids. This included training in basic Mathematics activities using a geoboard. Students also made some educational kits and gifted them to the school.

Music: Bhajan singing, vedam chanting, flute renditions, teaching the basics of Music (by a teacher at the Dept. of Music), and teaching musical instruments, such as Kanjira and Talam.

Cleanliness / Hygiene Drive: Played ‘Waste Plastic Picking Game’ with all children of the villages. Students exhaustively cleaned walls of various temples and mosques in the villages, Anganwadis (rural child care centers), play areas and even wells that had been used as a rubbish dump for years! A handful of flowering plants were then planted across the villages. Villagers were also given basic education on the importance of hygiene and cleanliness.

Greenery: Plantation of trees and beautification of the village and surroundings

Plumbing work: Students took on a host of civil and plumbing duties. From changing of a 3-inch outlet pipe from the 2000-liter main storage tank to laying a CPVC pipeline for the school underground water storage tank, this is where the maintenance training they got as part of the Self Reliance activities at the hostel really kicked in. They fixed overhead tanks, constructed urinals and toilets (including tiling work), fixed leaking taps across the villages and also assisted in fixing mesh windows and doors to prevents unwanted guests such as insects and reptiles into washroom areas.

Surveys: Students split into different teams to conduct comprehensive individual and household surveys for issues such as the number of elderly folks and how to serve them better on future visits, what their immediate needs are, etc. They also conducted a data survey of all households of the villages to map the socio-economic and demographic challenges. The Chemistry students performed certain experiments as a preparatory phase to check for the efficacy of usage of ground shells at the villages.

As a result of this sustained care and effort, the villagers were really happy and joyful and full of appreciation. The long-term goal is help the villages achieve self-sustainability. Once the village is a model village, they will be able to help other villages achieve the same.

Love All, Serve All, as our Revered Founder Chancellor always taught us.

#SSSIHLService #SSSIHLIntegralEducation

What do SSSIHL students do after their classes on a weekday afternoon?
Plant trees, of course!

Neem, Banyan, Tamarind trees and a few other varieties of trees were planted by students across campuses.

The trees were tagged and named after the student who planted them, so that when they back in the future to visit their Mother Sai, they can also pay a visit to the very Mother Nature that He nurtured.

The students were ably chaperoned by their teachers. Even the Directors of Campuses and the Vice Chancellor got involved and planted a tree.

#SSSIHLIntegralEducation #SSSIHL