FIFTH SWAMI GITANANDA YOUTH AND CHILD AWARDS-2004

[Guest guest]

FIFTH SWAMI GITANANDA YOUTH AND CHILD AWARDS-2004

A Report By YOGACHARYA DR ANANDA BALAYOGI BHAVANANI

Hon General Secretary Pondicherry Yogasana Association

 

http://www.geocities.com/yognat2001/bestyouth2004

 

 

Pondicherry Yogasana Association organised the SWAMI GITANANDA YOUTH

& CHILD AWARDS 2004 competitions during December 2004 and January

2005 at the Yoganjali Natyalayam premises in Pondicherry. More than

130 children and youth in three age categories participated in this

event. This is the Fifth year that this competition is being

conducted and the Youth Awardees in the last four years are Miss D

Lakshmi (2000), Miss N Ramya (2001), Miss V Renuka Devi (2002) and

Mr. S Tamilsengolan (2003). Recipients of the Child Awards in the

last two years are Miss Desh M (2002) and Miss R Subhashini (2003).

The Hon President of the Pondicherry Yogasana Association our beloved

Amma, Yogacharini Meenakshi Devi Bhavanani inaugurated the

competitions with a message to all youth and children to take up the

wholistic practice of Yoga as a ¡§way of life¡¨. Amma reminded all

participants that Yoga is defined as ¡§Skill in action¡¨ in the

Bhagavad Gita and that these competitions are meant to provide an

opportunity for them to prove their skill. ¡§The joy lies not only in

winning but also in running¡¨ was Amma¡¦s potent message to all of us

on the occasion.

Youth in the age group 13 to 22 years were eligible to participate in

the Youth Award competition that consisted of Team Yogasanas, Team

Yoga Quiz and Team Yoga Dumb Charade competitions in addition to the

individual based Yoga Creative Writing, Artistic Yoga Display, Yoga

Novelty, Yoga Designing and Yoga Block and Tackle competitions.

Points were given according to their placement in the various

competitions. Mr. G DAYANIDY, a student of Tagore Arts College and

Yognat won the maximum points overall and will receive the SWAMI

GITANANDA YOUTH AWARD 2004.

Children below 13 years were eligible to participate in the Child

Award competition that consisted of a Team Yogasana Competition, Yoga

Quiz and Yoga Dumb Charade Team competitions in addition to the

individual based Yoga Elocution, Yoga Fancy Dress, Artistic Skill and

Yoga Art competitions. Miss NIVEDHA KANNAN, a student of the Cluny

school and Yognat won the maximum points overall in the 10 to 13

years category while Miss V ROSHINI, a student of Cluny school and

Yognat won the maximum points overall in the below 10 years category.

They will receive the SWAMI GITANANDA CHILD AWARD 2004 for the above

10 and below 10 categories respectively.

 

INDIVIDUAL EVENTS:

The youth and child category competitors participated in various

events that are described below for the benefit of the readers. YOGA

DESIGNING was an individual based competition where they created

designs related to yoga using material such as clay, Kolam powder,

flowers etc. amazing creative designs flowed from their imagination

as simple materials took on complex form in their young hands. BLOCK

AND TACKLE was an interesting competition where the competitors had

to both support (when told to ¡¥block¡¦) and oppose (when told

to ¡¥tackle¡¦) the topic given to the on the spot. This competition

teaches us to look at both sides of the coin in regard to all ideas.

YOGA NOVELTY was an individual based competition where the

competitors presented a novel concept related to Yoga within the time

limit of 10 minutes. Dayanidy presented a novel idea of performing

Yogasanas while balancing a lighted lamp on his head. YOGA CREATIVE

WRITING was an individual based competition where the competitors had

to use their imagination to the maximum in writing a creative piece

on the topic, ¡§PATANJALI REVISITS THE MODERN YOGA WORLD!¡¨ It was

amazing to read the creative expressions of the children youth and

one even had Patanjali committing suicide at the end while another

had Patanjali caught by a circus owner. One of them had Patanjali

revise his Yoga Sutra in tune with the modern world. YOGA ARTISTIC

TEAM SHOW has a team of two competitors presenting an artistic and

pleasing display of Yogasanas choreographed to classical or light

classical instrumental music. Points were given based on creativity,

synchronicity and grace of presentation. The children regaled

everyone with an amazing variety of fancy dress potentialities during

the YOGA FANCY DRESS COMPETITION and one saw a lot of Shiva, Hanumans

and Snakes but the piece that took the cake was the depiction of Amma

and Swamiji as Ardhanarishwara and the other was a half-half

depiction of a Bhogi and a Yogi in one body. A wide variety of skills

including rope asanas, Bharathanatyam on skates, cooking, flower

arrangements and of course music and dancing talents were exhibited

by the children in the ARTISTIC SKILL competition designed to test

their ancillary skills in arts compatible to Yoga. The children did a

wonderful job in presenting their ideas in a true and innocent manner

as they spoke on topics such as Yoga Sport competitions, Yoga is fun,

and Animal and bird poses in Yoga, Why I want to be a Yogi/ Yogini,

and Why I learn Yoga in the YOGA ELOCUTION event. The YOGA ART event

had a time limit of an hour where the children drew any topic of

their choice in any form of art (pencil, painting, crayons etc) with

Yoga as the central theme. Yoga for world peace and Yoga as a

unifying principle were most commonly depicted in addition to the

many copies of drawings from Dr Ananda¡¦s book of Yoga cartoons.

 

TEAM EVENTS:

Teams of ten members consisting both youth and children participated

in team competitions as follows. YOGA DUMB CHARADES had the teams

trying to decipher the miming of their teammate in finding out the

Yogic term that was being acted out. The TEAM YOGASANA COMPETITION

had a team member from each team performing a given Asana that was

compared against the other teams by a panel of judges. The total

points earned by the each of the team members got added to the team

total in deciding the final placement of the teams. This was a true

sublimation of the individual ego for the betterment of the team

spirit. The YOGA TEAM QUIZ was an informative session of a great many

difficult questions on Yoga that were excellently answered by the

team members.

 

PANELISTS OF THE JURY: Members of the PYA Governing Council such as

Sri C. Shanmugam, Yogachemmal Lalitha Shanmugam, Yogachemmal E

Gajendiran, Yogacharini Devasena Bhavanani, Smt Prabhavathy Mohan,

Yogachemmal G Kumaran, Yogachemmal Anbazhagan, Dr Madhusudhanan,

Yogacharya O Gangadharan. Shri G Moorthy and Smt Meena Ramanathan

consisted the PYA Jury Panel that judged various events. Students of

the International Yoga Teachers Training Course at ICYER were also

nominated to the panel. Past winners of the Youth Awards such as Miss

V Renukadevi and Mr. S Tamilsengolan helped Dr Ananda to organise the

various events and along with Miss D Lakshmi also served on the Jury

panel.

 

AIM OF THE AWARD COMPETITIONS:

The aim of the Swami Gitananda Youth and Child Awards Competition is

to stimulate the youth of India to take up the study of the wholistic

concept of Yoga. This ensures their present and future health,

happiness and well being, and enables them to avoid the pitfalls of

modern living, that is, various bad habits like drug addiction and

alcoholism etc. Furthermore, the Project aims to educate the public

as to the true meaning of Yoga. In modern times, most equate Yoga

with the term " Asana " , and believe Yoga only to be a good exercise to

lose weight, cure illness or prevent illness. In fact, Yoga is an

ancient science and art developed by our Rishis, which cultivates an

entire life style, a wholistic way of living. Classical Yoga

includes a Cosmic World View, a life-affirming philosophy, a

practical and valuable set of moral and ethical principles, deep

understanding of the Karmic law, intellectual exercises, emotional

cleansers, body purifiers, nerve strengtheners and gland

stimulators. Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita tells Arjuna: " Yoga

is skill in action " .

The practices of Yoga are encoded in the eight-step process

termed " Ashtanga Yoga " by Maharishi Patanjali in his Yoga Sutras,

which was written more than 2500 years ago. The Ashtanga Yoga of

Maharishi Patanjali envisions the Yogic path to Moksha or

Enlightenment as entailing eight steps: first and second steps are

the Yama and Niyama, a practical moral and ethical code to regulate

life style. The third step is Asana, the attainment of perfect ease

and stillness of body, through various physical practices. The

fourth step is Pranayama, various types of breath controls, which

culminate in mastery of Prana, the Universal Life Force. The fifth

step is Pratyahara, an understanding of the role of the sense organs

in human life and proper care and control of these " windows of the

soul " . The sixth step is Dharana, concentration practices that

develop the mind's ability to focus itself on one point. The seventh

step is Dhyana, meditation, (but not as popularly conceived). In

classical, wholistic Yoga, Dhyana was an exalted state of

consciousness achieved by the rare few who had perfected Dharana, or

concentration. It is a state where the " personal " merges into

the " Universal " consciousness. The eighth and last step of Ashtanga

Yoga is termed " Samadhi " . ¡§Samadhi¡¨ literally means " becoming one

with the Highest " . When the individual Jiva merges permanently and

irrevocably with Atman, or the Universal Consciousness, the Goal of

Life, Moksha, is achieved.

Through this brief description, one can see the immense scope of

Classical Yoga and how its meaning has been pathetically reduced in

modern times to a simple ¡§keep-fit activity¡¨ or ¡§quick-fix avenue¡¨ to

a nebulous " peace of mind " . The study and practice of Classical Yoga

produces a strong, healthy, active, alert and disciplined

personality. Hence, such a science should be cultivated in the

practitioner from a very young age. The child should " grow in Yoga " ,

thus becoming a good human being, one who is a boon not only to

himself and his family, but to his community, his nation, the earth

planet, and indeed, the very Cosmos.

It is to promote the concept of Classical Yoga, that the Swami

Gitananda Youth and Child Awards Competition has been envisioned.

True Yoga knows no religion. It is not a cult, or a sect. It is not

exclusive, but rather inclusive. It is not introverted to the

individual personality but rather extroverted to the universe. Thus,

it may be practised by anyone who has a sincere desire to understand

his or her purpose in life and who wishes to live a happy, healthy,

meaningful and productive life. This Competition was designed to

stimulate, foster and test various Yogic traits of personality,

including:

„h Discipline of body, emotions and mind

„h Clear strong intelligence

„h Ability to communicate orally and in written form

„h Development of presentable personality

„h Knowledge of Yogic philosophy and theory

„h Skill in Yogic Practices such as Asanas and Pranayamas

„h Skill in arts which are complementary to Yoga

„h Quick thinking, on-the-spot, alert consciousness

„h Calmness of mind. Self control under all circumstances (Sthitha

Prajna).

The competition also aims to motivate both the children as well as

the parents to put in that extra bit of effort in trying to improve

themselves and be, ¡§Better today than they were yesterday and better

tomorrow than they are today¡¨. The ability to take a ¡§win¡¨ with the

same attitude as a ¡§loss¡¨ as well as the realisation that we

always ¡§win¡¨ because we learn from every situation are qualities that

this competition strives to develop in all participants.

The Swami Gitananda Youth and Child Awards are named after the

illustrious Guru Yogamaharishi Dr. Swami Gitananda Giri, who was

considered one of the five leading authorities of Ashtanga Yoga, or

Classical Yoga, in the twentieth century. We bow our heads to this

great Guru and all the Great Gurus and Rishis of our Indian culture,

who have shown us this wonderful spiritual path, which truly leads

us " from untruth to Truth, from darkness to Light and from death to

Immortality " .