Sri Vaishnava Summer camp

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Sri:Srimathe Ramanujaya Nama:Why dont we have Sri Vaishnava summer camps? Here in the US i.e.Adiyen is sure many of us would definitely like to volunteer our timeif somebody guides us.Adiyen dasan.http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/21/us/21hindu.html

 

Camp Joins Summer Fun With Teaching Hindu Faith

 

 

 

 

Brendan Smialowski for The New York Times

 

At the Chinmaya summer camp, American-born children of Hindus are

taught traditions like the Brahmaarpanam, a prayer of thanksgiving.

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By NEELA BANERJEE

Published: July 21, 2007

 

ANNANDALE, Va. — The first hour at the

Chinmaya Mission day camp unfolds as at any other camp. Children shriek

through tag, while a few others play Uno.

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Reaching the Children

 

 

 

 

But by 9 a.m., the

grammar-school-age campers are sitting down, their attention focused on

a long-haired Indian man in the front of the room, Swami Dheerananda,

the mission’s Hindu teacher, or acharya. Together, they chant prayers

in Sanskrit. Many recite passages they have memorized from the Bhagavad

Gita, a holy Hindu text. Like American Jews before them, Hindu

parents, most of whom are recent immigrants to the United States, are

turning to well-established institutions like summer camp and weekend

school, and to decidedly more contemporary Internet sites, to teach

their American-born children ancient religious traditions and help

maintain their Indian identity. “I would venture to say that it

is children’s programming and education that has become a primary, if

not the primary, focus of Hindu-American leaders and institutions,”

Shana Sippy, a candidate for a doctoral degree in religion from Columbia University,

wrote in a recent paper. “In California alone, over 10,000 children

attend some sort of Hindu or Indian instruction on the weekend.” But

explaining Hinduism to Americans is another challenge, one that is

leading to a homogenization of a faith that, in India, is characterized

by the variety of local beliefs and worship practices, some scholars

and Hindus say. “It has to be homogenized at some level because

if I ask my daughter, she doesn’t know the difference between the

practice of Hinduism among South Indians and Bengalis,” said Sanjiev

Chattopadhya, whose 8-year-old daughter, Maya Chatterjee, attends the

Chinmaya camp here. “There has to be dilution at some level, because

there hasn’t been a critical mass of us, though that may be starting to

change.”From 1.2 million to 2 million Hindus live in the United States, according to estimates cited by Harvard’s

Pluralism Project on religious diversity, a tiny fraction of the

approximately one billion Hindus worldwide. Hindus may be better

understood now than a generation ago, partly because yoga has generated

interest in Hinduism, said Suhag Shukla, legal counsel for the Hindu

American Foundation, an advocacy group, but conflicts still occur.

On July 12, three Christian protesters shouting, “This is an

abomination!” disrupted prayers offered by a Hindu priest at the start

of a Senate session. Earlier, Christian conservatives had argued

against a having the Hindu chaplain lead prayers in the Senate chamber

because, as David Barton of the evangelical group Wallbuilders,

explained, Hinduism “is not a religion that has produced great things

in the world.”Though the children at the Chinmaya camp have

their summer booked with all sorts of other camps and activities, here

they do not stick out. Elsewhere, “people always ask, ‘What language do

you speak? What food do you eat? ’ ” Maya Chatterjee said. “Sometimes

they see the food in my lunch box and think it’s gross.”About 65 children attend the monthlong camp in Virginia,

one of two in the Washington area run by the Chinmaya Mission, part of

a worldwide Hindu movement. Hundreds more attend Sunday school classes

during the school year. The children here spend the morning learning

Sanskrit prayers and broad lessons from the Bhagavad Gita about “caring

and sharing,” the main theme of this year’s camp term. Afternoons are

devoted mostly to traditional songs and dances that mix Bollywood with

religious tales. Hindus in the United States have long

bolstered their children’s cultural identity by having them take Indian

dance and music classes. But over the last two decades, many Hindus’

anxiety about preserving their culture has translated into a drive to

teach religion more explicitly, said Vijay Prashad, professor of South

Asian history at Trinity College. One morning recently,

Veronica Hausman stood in front of 20 restless 8- and 9-year-olds,

trying to get them to settle down. When that failed, she sat, closed

her eyes and chanted a long “Om.” The chatter stopped immediately. Ms.

Hausman asked the group why a person cares for others. Several

youngsters said that it had to do with what the person might get in

return. But Ms. Hausman explained that caring for others was embedded

in the simplest acts of their faith.“How do Hindus greet each

other?” she asked, bringing her hands together before her chest in a

namaste, which some Hindus believe has a religious meaning. “Look at my

hands at the heart. What does it mean? It means the Lord in me bows to

the Lord in you. If everyone saw the God in everyone else, wouldn’t we

care? I see all of you are zoning out now, so just remember this.” The

children seemed engaged by the camp. Arthi Bala, 8, said she enjoyed

doing “yagnas and stuff,” a reference to some worship rituals.Hinduism

has no founder, no single sacred text like the Bible, and no recitation

of creeds that define a believer. The immigrant parents whose children

attend camp became Hindu “through osmosis,” said Vasudha Narayanan,

director of the Center for the Study of Hindu Traditions at the University of Florida. In

India, Hindus hear the epic Ramayana as a bedtime story, repeat the

religious ceremonies of their households and celebrate festivals with

the entire community. But in the United States, Hindus often must

explain their faith to other people, including their children, which

many are not prepared to do.“Parents knew the rituals but not the significance behind them,” Swami Dheerananda said. Yet

some scholars contend that making the religion more accessible has

eroded some of its diversity. In the United States, the sacred

utterance “Om,” has become the symbol for Hinduism, Ms. Narayanan said.

But in India, other symbols are widely used, like the letter “Sri,”

which signifies Lakshmi, the goddess of prosperity. Many Hindu groups

here espouse a philosophy from the seventh century that “the Supreme

Being and you are identical,” she said. But in areas of South India,

people think of the divine as a mother and the individual as the child

she protects. “This is an essentializing of Hinduism,” Ms. Narayanan said, “and the diversity of Hinduism in India is lost here.”Such homogenization may be inevitable, Ms. Sippy said. “All traditions undergo transformation as a normal process of immigration,”

she said, “and American religious leaders of all backgrounds have

commonly simplified their traditions to transmit religious identity to

children.”Some campers finished reciting Chapter 4, Verse 33 of

the Bhagavad Gita in Sanskrit and clamored for a translation. Swami

Dheerananda shrugged off their request, explaining later that they were

too young. That did not sit well with about half the class, including Maya Chatterjee. “I’d feel better if someone explained it,” she said.Roshni

Yaradi, 7, said her parents sometimes explained. If they had that day,

they would have told her that in that verse, Lord Krishna says to his

disciple Arjuna, “The sacrifice of knowledge is greater than the

sacrifice of material possessions.” Akhila Bhuvana Janma Shtema bhangadilileVinata Vividha bhuta vrata raksaika dikse,Sruti sirasi Vidipte Brahmani SrinivaseBhavatu mama parasmin semusi bhaktirupa.May knowledge transformed into intense love directed toSrinivasa, the highest Brahman, become mine;the Being to whom creation, preservation and dissolutionof the universe is mere play, whose main resolve is to offerprotection to all those who approach Him in all humilityand sincerity, and who shines out like a beacon lightout of the pages of the scriptures

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