What, Why and How of SHINE?
‘Why should we pray?’
‘Why should we speak the truth?’
‘Why do we do puja?’
‘Why do we do namaste?’
Some questions that always cluttered our heads while growing up.
And now, it’s a full circle when our children ask us the same and many more questions.
Many of us, parents have come across such situations. Most of the times, children do not have answers to these big little questions contributing to self-doubt, inferiority and ignorance about one’s own culture. In time this reflects in the growing child ‘s identity. Surely we will not allow that.
Also, the glory of India ’s spiritual heritage needs to be told.
Our tradition revels in doing a puja, greeting with a namaskara, bowing down and touching the earth when we wake up in the morning, seeing that everything including wealth and knowledge is sacred and much more.
Why we revel in and practice all this, needs to be told.
How the living culture of India lays the foundation for success and innovation (as is evidenced in Indians across the world) needs to be established. Emotional quotient and Spiritual quotient have only been rediscovered recently in management circles.
And we need to sow the seeds now. There is no time to waste. Especially for our kids, our shining next generation.
Our education system is NOT able to focus on spiritual development of our children. Further, being a Hindu does not mandate our children to attend compulsory religious classes. What do we do until then?
Simple. We own up our dharma as parents to live the culture and share the strength of Sanaatana dharma , see and practice our interconnectedness with all beings .
If rooted in our Indian or Bharatiya heritage, our children will be unstoppable and have the wings to fly both as Indian and global citizens.
We recognised the need to start SHINE because there are not enough resources available. Here is a review of the online resources for children as of Dec 2020 – Click to download – A Review of online resources for Children and Youth related to the spiritual heritage of India
The Purpose of SHINE program is to share the spiritual heritage of India for children (upto 13 years) which will establish the spiritual foundation of their growth and success. Hence our objectives are
To conduct SHINE courses, camps and classes with our developed curriculum.
To create free videos and educational/entertaining content on spiritual heritage of India which involves children.
To create teachers of SHINE – Tejasvis who can spread this knowledge across the world.
The program was begun by Swamini Brahmaprajnananda and continues under her mentorship.
You can find us, like, subscribe and share Youtube channel Facebook
And our Instagram page
Watch, listen, learn, share and enjoy the greatness of Bharat ’s spiritual heritage.
Framework of SHINE program
Downloadable poster (color and black/white) is here
Journey of SHINE so far:
Update till Dec 2021: Programs conducted by Sonali Ambasankar 2019 onwards
- 60 offline sessions held over a period of 2 yrs amongst 5 children in Mumbai
- 12 online sessions amongst two 8 to 10 yr olds
- Ongoing 20 sessions amongst 5 to 7 yr olds amongst 7 children online
- Ongoing 24 sessions among 8 to 12 yr olds amongst 14 children online
- Ongoing 16 sessions among 8 to 12 yr olds amongst 3 children from USA
- 2 online summer camps of 5 days amongst 8 children in India and 4 children in USA
