Today was an interesting day. I had a wonderful time teaching Balvikas today even without covering my teaching materials. I was able to see a child smile after such a long time of not smiling. She confessed that it is because none of her peers like her. Long story short, I helped the girls clear up some misunderstandings from ages ago. I shared as to how holding grudges is not good for health. I also kept talking about gratitude and it’s benefits.
Gratitude… the more and more I talk about gratitude… the more and more grateful I become. I am and will forever be grateful for this beautiful opportunity to serve here. I was able to articulate to the children as to how gratitude has different levels. First, we can start of by being thankful for the beautiful temple we have, our body. When seeing the kids around who are physically and mentally disabled, I was thankful to God for making me whole. When I see small behaviors of each child, good or bad, I think about how their family could have possibly abandoned such a beautiful child. I then feel grateful for having a wonderful family that loves and takes care of me. Due to weight constraints of my luggage, I left behind my hair dryer and my hair straightner. My Dad is concerned about how my hair looks without a hair dryer. I thought, how weird, for a Dad to care for his daughter’s hair of all things! When our parents see to it that every need of ours if fulfilled to the best of their ability, I feel bad that perhaps these children might be cheated of individual attention. On the other hand, I’m so happy for the kids here because they have a structured life and care taker mothers to teach them life skills. Overall, gratitude can be as simple as thank you for giving me the ears to listen to the good, eyes to witness whatever happened that day, hands to have performed that day’s activities. It could also be as simple as thank you God for my shelter, today’s food, a family and more. Or, it really should be internalized and thought out as much as what we’re thankful for, why it’s important and in what circumstances that occurred.
Today, I was thankful for the opportunity to silently observe Papa Vidyaakar at this Band Concert. Sri Sathya Sai Balvikas Students from a college near by came to perform. The room was really crowded and so I opted to listen to the band from the outside. Papa Vidyaakar had the most serene look on his face. He was making sure that everyone was taken care of. He was walking barefoot in water and washed his feet in a puddle of water like a little kid. He took care of a psychiatric patient for her needs at that very moment.
I then remembered hearing that there is no work that he has not done for his people. He has raised children, he has cooked for the kids, he knows how to comb and plat the hair for girls, he knows how to counsel people, he knows how to rescue a psychiatric patient and clean them up and take care of them. He even knows how to pump the stomach of someone who just attempted suicide. He knows how to do everything from A to Z about social work and all the work that's being done in Udavum Karangal.
The band was about to sing their next song and they asked the audience what types of wishes (aasaigal) they have at the corner of their hearts. Each child came up and said, I need to grow up well and earn Papa Vidyaakar a good name. Then each child followed by some of the following: I want to open a place for disabled children, I want to become a social worker like Papa, I want to come here and serve after I finish my education, I want to serve 10,000 people just like Papa. With awe, I was watching Papa to see his reactions… he was so proud and overjoyed to hear that from his own children.Then the band sang "Chinna chinna Aasai, siragadikum aasai."
The band’s compeer/ MC asked so who is “Amma” (mom) for all of us? The kids all answered “Papa.” The MC was confused. She was looking around for an explanation and the kids repeated “Papa, papa.” She goes, okay… so, who’s the mother for Papa? God right? This next song is about the divine Goddess. She was confused and shocked to hear such an answer from the kids… imagine all the kids owning the fact that Papa Vidyaakar is not only their father, but also their mother too!!
Then the songs that the band prepared were done. They invited people from the audience to come sing. 3 psychiatric patients sang in different languages. Imagine a young married couple’s 4-year-old child performing on stage. How excited would the parents be? They’d be cherishing the moment so well, making sure they have photos and videos and watching with awe. The same way, Papa Vidyaakar was laughing and smiling proudly as each patient sang. When the last patient sang, he asked everyone to be quiet and he went much closer than where he was sitting. I was like, wait, what’s going on? Well, the lady is a soft-spoken lady, so he wanted to make sure she was heard. How profound! Then a few kids sang some songs and when he saw them do well he was so proud. His facial expressions kept changing a lot out of an intense level of affection and love that he has for each individual at Udavum Karangal. This level of intense affection oozes through someone only when he considers someone’s as his own. More than watching the band perform, I learnt a lot out of observing Papa. Thanks to him for the lessons learnt today!
As soon as the event was over, many female psychiatric patients came towards me to say hi and shake my hands and make sure I was coming to teach them bhajans tomorrow. They said they missed me because I was not there on a Saturday. It was so nice to see them with so much joy, once again! Then I saw the dyslexic children on their way to their place. When I said hi to one of the girls, the rest of them insisted that I visit their home. They took me there. Long time ago, I went to Jeevan – the school for dyslexic children and mentally retarded children. I taught some of the kids there 4 bhajans. The teacher there said that these children will forget what they learnt the very next day. However, these kids took me to their home and sang the four bhajans I taught them in order and almost correctly with just dyslexic mistakes only. I was AMAZED. They asked me to come back to visit them at their school, and with a smile, I left to go home.
Was this a beautiful day or what? I couldn’t possibly ask for more! Thank you God.
___________________________________________________________________
Attention readers: If you have been touched by any of the previous posts and would like to help the people of Udavum Karangal... I urge you to support us with your pledge amount! Thank you, in advance, for your generosity! :)
No comments:
Post a Comment