PREACHING IS THE ESSENCE

Aruddha Devi Dasi

Through preaching, children gain a greater understanding of the philosophy and their faith in Krishna becomes stronger. This is because they have to articulate their own experience of Krishna consciousness in a way that makes sense to others. They have to answer questions, respond to arguments, and sometimes deal with challenges. Skills such as public speaking, marketing, debate, interpersonal communication, and conflict management are taught in many schools and colleges. Yet, by preaching, the devotee child automatically learns all these skills. Conducting preaching programs in schools--first K - 12 and then universities--was a significant and effective part of our home schooling. Here is how we went about it... Srila Prabhupada said that a tree can be known by the fruit it bears. Similarly, whatever a student learns in home schooling can be seen by how well he or she can explain Krishna Consciousness to others. Many of us think that childhood is the time to learn, and once the child is done learning, then he or she can teach. But we must remember that preaching itself is a type of learning. A person learns something best when they teach it to others. This is what my younger son, Gopal, wrote about his own experience teaching. "When I was thirteen years old, I did my Bhakti Sastri for which I had to study the Bhagavad Gita, Nectar of Devotion, Nectar of Instruction and Isopanisad. A year later, the devotees in the temple asked me to give a two week seminar on the first 19 chapters of the Nectar of Devotion. I distinctly remember, when the time for the seminar came, I was preparing my notes all day long, studying the Nectar of Devotion and reading its chapters over and over again. Then in the evening I was explaining it to the devotees and answering their questions. In this way, by the time the seminar came to an end, I had a far deeper understanding of the Nectar of Devotion then when I had studied it for the Bhakti Sastri course. I realized that of all the people in the seminar, I had benefited the most." Through preaching, children gain a greater understanding of the philosophy and their faith in Krishna becomes stronger. This is because they have to articulate their own experience of Krishna consciousness in a way that makes sense to others. They have to answer questions, respond to arguments, and sometimes deal with challenges. Skills such as public speaking, marketing, debate, interpersonal communication, and conflict management are taught in many schools and colleges. Yet, by preaching, the devotee child automatically learns all these skills. Conducting preaching programs in schools--first K - 12 and then universities--was a significant and effective part of our home schooling. Here is how we went about it:

PROGRAMS FOR CHILDREN UNDER 5 (PRESCHOOLS, DAY CARES, LIBRARIES) We contacted preschools, day cares, and Montessori schools to see if they were interested in hosting programs on Vedic culture from India. People in Boise know us as the Hare Krishnas, and they like and respect our philosophy. Some of the schools would respond affirmatively.

We planned for each event in quite a bit of detail. We practiced the different tunes of the mahamantra, decided on the content of the talk, cooked prasadam sweets for the occasion, and gathered the paraphernalia to take with us. We took Prabhupadas books to gift to the teacher, musical instruments, a peacock fan and a conchshell. We dressed in our devotional attire with tilak and neck beads. We divided our presentation into different topics: geography, music, food, dress and dance of India. This covered several aspects of Krishna consciousness, namely, chanting, vegetarianism, why the cow is sacred, and the Krishna conscious lifestyle. Our children made small presentations on the music and dance of India. At the end we told stories of Krishna with the help of the Krishna Art Book. The school children were completely fascinated by these stories and they always wanted to hear more. Krishna would capture their hearts. At this age, we conducted the programs and the children assisted us. Even though we did the majority of the talking, our children would sometimes explain their traditional dress, eating habits and musical instruments. They would chant with us and distribute prasadam. The idea was that by observing and participating in the programs they would eventually be able to do them without our help. The programs were always a success, and each time the boys came home more convinced of the philosophy and confident of their identity as devotees of Krishna. I also went to public libraries and asked them if we could arrange a program there. The libraries were almost always willing, and sometimes they even advertised our programs.

PROGRAMS FOR CHILDREN BETWEEN 5 AND 10 (PUBLIC AND PRIVATEELEMENTARY SCHOOLS) After we had gained enough courage and experience with programs in preschools and libraries, we decided to try the public and private elementary schools. These are tougher to get into, so I tried a different route. I contacted friends, acquaintances and congregation members whose children were attending local elementary schools to consider holding programs in their childrens schools. Some of them agreed and asked the school authorities for permission. Generally they gave us about half hour to forty five minutes of their classroom time and we spoke on many aspects of Krishna consciousness. We began by explaining the geography and culture of India and its close connection with religion and spirituality, since the temple is the center of all activities. That brought us to vegetarianism and the Bhagavad Gita. Every few minutes we invited questions from the students and teacher, which brought up many topics such as why the cow is sacred, reincarnation, our dress, the meaning of tilak, yogis, the Ganges, and festivals. Then we chanted the mahamantra with mrdanga and kartals. We wrote the words on the blackboard and all of them repeated and tried to sing with us. For bigger events we would invite a Bharat Natyam dancer to come with us. She would dance and explain the meaning of the various gestures. As we became bolder in our preaching efforts, I contacted schools directly when I heard that they were having a special unit on cultural diversity or a comparative religions course. At one public school, a 6th grade teacher was doing a special unit called "Discover Idaho," a diversity program to educate children about different cultures in Idaho. Another time, a private school wanted to devote a whole week to India in all their classes, kindergarten through sixth grade. We went from one classroom to another, talking about Krishna

consciousness and answering many questions. On another occasion, a public school invited us to do an India Day for their 400 kids. We invited women from our temple congregation to help us with classical Indian dancing, mehndi and face painting while we talked about Krishna conscious culture and philosophy. For prasadam we distributed about 400 pieces of papadam. Our biggest program was when the school district invited us to share our culture in 14 public schools. They had received funds from the state government to hold diversity programs in their schools. This was to be done in two weeks, a performance everyday, and they paid us $1,000 for it. Depending on where the program was held, we tailored it accordingly. If we expected a conservative audience, we made the program more cultural and if we expected a more liberal attitude, we made it more directly Krishna conscious. Nevertheless, we always had chanting and prasadam, some talk on our lifestyle, food habits and some basic philosophy of the soul, karma and reincarnation. There were always questions at the end from the children and parents. It was amazing- most of the questions were about Krishna consciousness and so we could preach quite openly since it was coming from them. At the end, we always had prasadam snacks, which would remove any misgivings if there were any. We found that our expectations about the teachers and students were often wrong. Where we expected to encounter some difficulty, they turned out to be quite friendly and wanted more Krishna consciousness, and vice versa. So we learned not to speculate and keep a standard program as far as possible. Our children enjoyed these programs very much. These days would be different from the normal study routine but they were learning invaluable skills that would be impossible to teach in a classroom. Not only were they learning communication and oratory skills but their hearts were becoming fixed in Krishna Consciousness.

PROGRAMS FOR CHILDREN 1O AND ABOVE (HIGH SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES) As the boys matured we got in touch with area high schools to find out if they would be interested in having a class on Vedic religion, philosophy and culture. Some high schools offered comparative religion courses and they agreed. When we were first invited by Bishop Kelly, a Catholic high school, my older son was twelve years old and seemed ready to speak. My younger son, 10, was a good harmonium player and singer. Together they made a wonderful team. We were enthusiastic but nervous because this was to be their first program for a high school level class. We carefully decided on the content of the talk and practiced our chanting - timing and refining it. The program went very well and there were an amazing number of sincere questions from the students. My son told me later that he had been very nervous and his legs were shaking but no one noticed. The early years of training, observing and participating with us bore fruit. He spoke on sanatana dharma, karma, reincarnation and mantra meditation. And of course there was the kirtana which brought the whole class together. The students immediately relaxed and even started clapping and singing with some encouragement.

The teacher was so impressed with the boys that she invited us every semester and placed many of Srila Prabhupadas books in the school's library. The students enjoyed the program so much that word would spread in the school and many would skip their own classes and come to ours. One time a senior devotee was visiting Boise, and we suggested to the teacher that he could give the class instead of my sons. But the teacher was adamant that the boys speak. The beauty of your religion is that the youth of your faith can explain it so nicely and convincingly, she said. After several years of visiting the high school, now the teacher brings her students to the temple for the Sunday program, as part of the requirements for the course. The students participate in the entire program - kirtan, class, arati and prasadam. The teacher especially likes the chanting and she encourages every student to sing the mahamantra by doing it herself. During the arati, the students often join in the dancing. It is really quite amazing and fun! Whenever traveling sannyasis visited Boise, we would arrange guest lectures for them at the university. We picked out classes that could relate to Krishna consciousness, and then called the teachers to find out if they would be interested in a Vedic perspective on the subject. Often the professors would agree. Eventually, the boys were also able to speak to the classes. We focused more on the philosophy and less on chanting and dancing. These classes were longer and more challenging, and covered various subjects, including philosophy, sociology, education, literature, art, music and theatre. We always took free books for the teacher and invited the students to the temple.

CHURCHES AND INTERFAITH DIALOGUE

Another wonderful way to reach out to the local community is by participating in interfaith services held at local churches. These interfaith programs are often held for public holidays like Thanksgiving and New Years Eve. Usually, we would be given five minutes to chant the mahamantra and read a prayer or verse from the Bhagavad-gita. We would also participate in panel discussions put on by local interfaith groups. Here, the boys learned how to present their own philosophy in relation to other religious views and to appreciate the commonality of all religions.