Power of Mom

This week's bal/balika-2 syllabus has an amazing topic on Amazing Lady Devotees during Shriji Maharaj's time, primarily focusing on Laduba, Jivuba, Zamkuba, and Kushalkunvarba. Let's look at the three question rule to see how this would work.

Simple

What is the simple message? This really can be geared for which mandal (bal or balika) and age group that we have in our mandal. Here are some ideas:

• Moms are very important. They help us understand Satsang.
• During Maharaj's time, lady devotees had the same bhakti and attachment to Maharaj as great men devotees.
• Bhakti and devotion to Maharaj transcends gender (and race and creed).
• Maharaj stressed respect for all.
• We can have the same type bhakti towards Maharaj today as these devotees did during Maharaj's time.

The key here is to focus on our audience and choose the message accordingly. Once the message is chosen, we need to focus one ensuring that message goes through. Sometimes, we shy away from saying the message directly; however, in bal/balika mandal, it maybe a good idea to say the message you want to impart several times directly and link it back with stories since children retain better through repetition.

Unexpected - Funtivity

The challenge with Bal/Balika mandal is to find an age appropriate activity. If we miss this aspect, then the message or activity goes over their heads or they get really bored. It is tricky, but something new is always better than nothing new. We also need to tie in these examples with our simple message. Here are some ideas.

• Write a letter to mom. After we say the prasang, a good way for repetition is to have the kids write a letter to their mom repeating what they learned and adding how their mom helps them. This will also really make the mom happy as well. And happy moms mean happy kids. This is generic enough that we can say our simple message and have the kids explain that simple message to their moms in a letter.
• Read the following letter or put it on a screen. This can be tied to the fact that mom's do so much that we take for granted. A very nice tie in with the first simple statement. Really this can be transitioned into any of the simple statements - Maharaj understood how much mom's did, thus he stressed respect for all, etc. Son can easily be change to daughter in the following text. Again gauge how successful this will be with your kids, or try it and see.

A little boy came up to his mother in the kitchen one evening while she was fixing supper, and handed her a piece of paper that he had been writing on. After his Mom dried her hands on an apron, she read it, and this is what it said:

For cutting the grass:$5.00
For cleaning up my room this week:$1.00
For going to the store for you:$.50
Baby-sitting my kid brother while you went shopping:$.25
Taking out the garbage:$1.00
For getting a good report card:$5.00
For cleaning up and raking the yard:$2.00
Total owed:$14.75

Well, his mother looked at him standing there, and the boy could see the memories flashing through her mind. She picked up the pen, turned over the paper he'd written on, and this is what she wrote:
For the nine months I carried you while you were growing inside me: No Charge

For all the nights that I've sat up with you, doctored and prayed for you: No Charge
For all the trying times, and all the tears that you've caused through the years: No Charge
For all the nights that were filled with dread, and for the worries I knew were ahead: No Charge
For the toys, food, clothes, and even wiping your nose: No Charge
Son, when you add it up, the cost of my love is: No Charge.

When the boy finished reading what his mother had written, there were big tears in his eyes, and he looked straight at his mother and said, "Mom, I sure do love you." And then he took the pen and in great big letters he wrote: "PAID IN FULL".

• If you have really little kids show them this video or even reading this book maybe a good way to start the conversation about mothers in general.

Stories

The prasangs themselves are great. The emphasis here should be two things: storytelling and tying back the story to simple idea.

Swami ni Vaat 7.6

A presentation based on a Swami ni Vaat - talk about a curveball! This type of presentations really excite us since Swami ni Vaat are very deep and very subtle. This means there are many ways to take this presentation. We may think that since the text itself is too short for a sabha presentation. However, let's dive into the depths of the enlightenment this Swami ni Vaat has to offer.

Step 1: Synthesize the simple statement.

• Shriji Maharaj's exists both above and within all entities in the universe.
• We must earn the ability to understand Shriji Maharaj's form.
• Understanding Shriji Maharaj requires understanding His mahima.

Step 2: Start with the shakeup.

• What is Pizza? What seems to be a stupid question on the surface proves incredibly difficult if asked by an individual who has no familiarity with pizza, like an Indian villager. Ask an audience member to describe pizza to the audience but then repeat it now assuming that the audience is a group of Indian villagers who have never experience pizza before. The difficulty in this scenario reflects the difficulty Shriji Maharaj had in explaining His nature to other devotees at the time.
• The Violin Player: Joshua Bell, a world-class violinist, played several pieces of music for 45 minutes in a metro station in Washington DC, yet hardly anybody paid him attention. An individual who sold out a theater in Boston only two days before received no recognition or praise from commuters. Just as they did not understand his greatness, we too pass each moment and day without fully understanding the mahima of Shriji Maharaj. Actual story can be found at the link above; mix it up by showing parts of the video as well.

• Pup Ponders the Heat Death of the Universe: Yep, it's as eccentric as it sounds but illustrates this principle very well; when we take time to fathom just how small we are in scale to Shriji Maharaj Himself, we begin to understand His mahima. Pause at the black block before heading into the strip where he goes out and plays sports. However, while we can easily attain that understanding, we can easily lose it when we focus in on the present which for Pup are his sports.

Step 3: Support the simple statement with stories filled with details (concrete) and validity (credibility). For example, we linked three prasangs from the presentation to the second simple statement, "We must earn the ability to understand Shriji Maharaj's form."

• Bhai Ramdas - Why was Bhai Ramdas a genuine devotee? We may think it is because of his ability to have Shriji Maharaj's darshan in all three states, but the real answer lay in his understanding. He thanked Shriji Maharaj for giving him the ability to see His form. We too must recognize that to attain God, we must first secure His permission.
• God or Sadhu? - The assembly initially saw Shriji Maharaj's demonstration as funny, but what if the prasang had been different in that Bhai Ramdas had been present? While the others may have laughed, he would have felt touched that Shriji Maharaj Himself felt all those sitting in the assembly to even be eligible to hear of His true form.
• Riding a Rolls-Royce - We keep seeing how important it is to earn the ability to understand Shriji Maharaj's form, but it seems that it is easier said than done. However, we have a living, breathing example in the form of the Satpurush to demonstrate to us the way to earn this understanding. In 1982, Pramukh Swami Maharaj, as the guest-of-honor, humbly sat on the gearbox. We cannot fathom such a scenario, yet it's the way of the Satpurush that will help us earn the ability to understand Shriji Maharaj's form.

We may find it difficult to imagine how to create a 20-minute presentation out of this paragraph-sized Swami ni Vaat, yet in these words lies the wisdom of a lifetime. Let's take some time this week to familiarize ourselves and earn the ability to win over our audience to God & His Sant.

Power of the Divine

In bal/balika-2 sabha this week, we explore Bhagatji Maharaj's divinity. As we narrate these prasangs, our young audience may only see the miracle. However, we must reiterate how there is more to the story than what we hear on the surface.

For example, in the case of these magicians, what's the secret behind their success? Check out the video below to see one of their famous tricks exposed on camera.

Similarly, when we hear of Bhagatji Maharaj's miracles, we may get caught up in whether he could have actually done the things he did, like giving Kanji Darji the ability have constant darshan of the murtis.

However, when are listening to a prasang that seems fictional, we are unintentionally distracted from what’s really going on. We focus too much on the “magic” part of it that we fail to understand the real core message the prasang is giving us.

Challenge the audience: Remind them that if they look at a prasang ready to discern fact from fiction, they’re missing the main message. As in the video above, they're paying attention to the "face."

So then what is the message behind these prasangs?

Bhagatji Maharaj's miracles helped devotees to focus on Shriji Maharaj, the true source of divinity.

In short, open sabha up with this wager and embrace their engagement in trying to find the hidden message.