Tattva

Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh held several training camps all over the United States and in Canada. Tattva Magazine shares a report written on one of these camps held in southern California.

Through June 28th to July 5th, Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh conducted a week long training/instructional camp, known as Sangh Shiksha Varg.  The attendance for this camp was roughly 150 volunteers, all of whom had some previous experience in Sangh.  The attendees came from all over the West Coast region, including the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Denver, Seattle, and Surrey, Canada.  There were also around 6 instructors, along with a range of speakers.  Comprised of both men and women, albeit in separate campsites, the age of the attendees ranged from 13 to 50+.  The camp was located in the Southern California region in the town of Wrightwood, about an hour away from Los Angeles.

The main purpose of this camp was to teach Hindu Dharma’s importance and principles, along with the inner and practical workings of the organization to the attendees. And ingrained within all these sessions was the characteristic of personality development.  The theme for this particular training camp was How to Run an Effective Shakha, or a local chapter of the organization; these community based chapters act as the basic unit of spreading Sangh’s message and working towards the organization’s vision.

With a wake-up call at 5:30 AM, the entire day was composed of a disciplined and busy structure, with continuous sessions of both physical and intellectual activities.  Within each camp, the attendees were divided by level, depending upon the number of previous such camps they had attended, and separate sessions were conducted accordingly.  The mornings began with yoga and recitation of a prayer paying respect to all the great men and women, rivers, mountains, scriptures and other important characteristics of Bharat, that is, India.  This was then followed by lessons in martial arts and yog chap, a synchronized dance in which participants strike a small wooden stick against several cymbals, all of which are strung on a piece of rope. Also there were lessons in unified marching, basic physical group organization skills, and the formalities and commands used whenever a session of shakha is held.  After breakfast and break, a talk given by a variety of speakers throughout the week on a wide range of topics including Sangh’s Mission and Vision, Concepts of Hindu Dharma, and The Application of the Bhagavad Gita to Daily Life.  After this talk was a music session during which attendees could learn the flute, the marching drum, or the bugle and practice regularly.  Following this would be an open forum discussion on questions such as How can I be a Practicing Hindu, and What is the Ideal Sangh Volunteer.  Later during the day would be a workshop, where one developed public speaking, event planning, and other leadership skills; this was followed by a reading period where one could peruse through both Hindu and Sangh literature.  The evenings consisted of another round of physical activity lessons, and then story time during which the attendees heard narratives of historical Hindu figures such as Sant Ramdas and Queen Channama.  Finally, after dinner would be a large, more relaxed hour of skit performances, games and other very interesting sessions where the entire camp was involved which was then followed by an experience sharing session to conclude.

Overall, the camp was a great success due to both the attendees’ immense enthusiasm and the drive, patience, and helpfulness of the instructors.  Credit must also be given to the logistical team who provided healthy and very good vegetarian meals and snacks many times throughout the day.  The camp ended with a demonstration of the many impressive skills the attendees had learned during the week and was a very valuable and enjoyable experience for all.

Praneet Wadge is a freshman at the University of California at Berkeley.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, August 1st, 2009 at 12:01 am and is filed under YUVA News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.