Objectives:

 Explain and give examples of a simple and free way to practically guarantee that a child will want to serve Lord Krishna  List ways of helping our children flourish in modern culture while maintaining their Vaisnava heritage.

10 minutes Story of Campaka waiting, scared, in school bus in Canada Story of father and early rising

Are there places, phrases, smells, foods, music, tones of voice, particular people, that always or almost always trigger a particular emotional, physical, or thought response?

Thinking, Feeling, and Willing—three interrelated embodied states

5 minutes Definition of a trigger or anchor “Any stimulus that is linked to and triggers a physiological state.” The reactions are unconscious and automatic and may be helping or hurting us.

What can act as a trigger? Things Places (section of the classroom, a particular board, the school in general) Touch Voice (phrases, tone, particular individual’s voice) Face Gesture Smells Tastes Music Note: for most people, smell and touch are the most powerful.

5 minutes How they are presently operating in our life Ask for participants’ suggestions

5 minutes How anchors can be helpful or harmful Relationships—faces and voices (a specific teacher; parents; spouses) Specific school subjects Taking a test Specific chairs Krsna conscious practices and KC in general

10 minutes What types of triggers would we like to create? Elicit responses from the participants

1 Some ideas: All positive feelings with devotional practices Safety with the temple Love and happiness with devotional practices Success with sastra study

10 minutes What types of triggers would we like to avoid? Elicit responses from the students Associating both teaching and discipline with the same thing Failure or misery with any aspect of Krsna consciousness Dislike with a spiritual authority or place or practice

10 minutes How can we have the various aspects of our devotional practices act as triggers for positive feelings? The process of Krishna consciousness is meant to bring up to the point where all of creation acts as a trigger for love of Krishna. If there has to be some correction or negative dealings, it is best to do such away from the temple room, and, if possible, at another time than the devotional activities Think about all aspects of the environment and relationships in the times and places where your children engage in devotional practices. What is good? What could be improved?

Break

15 minutes When we say that we want our children to be raised in our culture, what do we mean by culture? Elicit responses from the participants

Discuss the ways in which Prabhupada defined culture. He defined it as the development of qualities such as “Goodness, namely truthfulness, equanimity, sense control, forbearance, simplicity, general knowledge, transcendental knowledge, and firm faith in the Vedic wisdom”

He also defined it as ways of acting and thinking that will help develop and support the development and sustaining of good character.

“But gradually, as the basic principles of brahminical culture, namely austerity, cleanliness, mercy and truthfulness, became curtailed by proportionate development of pride, attachment for women and intoxication, the path of salvation or the path of transcendental bliss retreated far, far away from human society. With the progression of the age of Kali, people are becoming very proud, and attached to women and intoxication. By the influence of the age of Kali, even a pauper is proud of his penny, the women are always dressed in an overly attractive fashion to victimize the minds of men, and the man is addicted to drinking wine, smoking, drinking tea and chewing tobacco, etc. All these habits, or so-called advancement of civilization, are the root causes of all irreligiosities, and therefore it is not possible to check corruption, bribery and nepotism. Man cannot check all these evils simply by statutory acts and police vigilance, but he can cure the disease of the mind by the proper medicine, namely advocating the principles of brahminical culture or the principles of austerity, cleanliness, mercy and truthfulness. Modern civilization and economic development are creating a new situation of poverty and scarcity with the result of blackmailing the consumer's commodities. If the leaders and the rich men of the 2 society spend fifty percent of their accumulated wealth mercifully for the misled mass of people and educate them in God consciousness, the knowledge of Bhagavatam, certainly the age of Kali will be defeated in its attempt to entrap the conditioned souls. We must always remember that false pride, or too high an estimation of one's own values of life, undue attachment to women or association with them, and intoxication will divert human civilization from the path of peace, however much the people clamor for peace in the world. The preaching of the Bhagavatam principles will automatically render all men austere, clean both inside and outside, merciful to the suffering, and truthful in daily behavior. That is the way of correcting the flaws of human society, which are very prominently exhibited at the present moment.”SB 1.17.24

In the context of explaining culture, Prabhupada speaks of norms of behavior. He includes the idea that a woman will be faithful to her husband, even if he is unsuitable for her; the fact that Indians would starve rather than riot in a government created famine; the care of cows and the drinking of milk.

10 minutes How does one get and keep this culture?

Prabhupada also tells us that culture is not automatic by having a good family, but that

1) It must be trained

2) It can be spoiled by bad association

“It is said in other puranas that Narakasura was the son of Dharitri, the earth, by the Lord Himself. But he became a demon due to the bad association of Bana, another demon. An atheist is called a demon, and it is a fact that even a person born of good parents can turn into a demon by bad association. Birth is not always the criterion of goodness; unless and until one is trained in the culture of good association, one cannot become good.” SB 3.3.7

15 minutes How to give children training in culture?

Elicit responses from the participants as to what factors influenced their own character and standards of what is write and wrong.

Rank these, as a group.

Most significant are:

Approval/disapproval of those about whom we care the most Stories/metaphor

15 minutes Specific strategies based on this understanding

Approval/disapproval of those about whom we care the most

3 We will truly care about the approval of those we love and who we feel loves and cares for us. It’s not a matter of something simply “official.” Children may be trained to be externally obedient to their parents while secretly doing just the opposite.

How to have those people be the right people? Groups of devotee peers who shave the same social mores Developing a genuine relationship through shared activities and discussion. For boys, shared activities will be more important; for girls discussion

At the same time, we need to avoid groups of people with whom our children may develop close caring relationships and who will mock our standards of character, morality, and behavior and with whom our children may spend more time and/or come to value more

Stories/metaphor

Teaching culture through stories and metaphor is very powerful because it bypasses conscious awareness and allows the person to develop their own conclusions. There’s not the kind of resistance that comes from any type of direct instruction. Stories are also fun.

The danger of stories is that the influence is subtle; one doesn’t generally realize that one is being influenced… so it is very important to control the amount of kind of stories to which are children are exposed. It is largely because of the power of stories that the media’s influence is so powerful.

We need regular stories of Krishna and the great devotees; young children should be fully and completely saturated with these stories

Many children whose only contact with Krishna was when they were very young, and because of hearing stories about Krishna, later came back and became devotees.

How? Videos, tapes of Krishna’s pastimes, puppet shows, having the kids act out dramas, as they get older, engaging them in preaching, especially about Krishna’s pastimes.

5 minutes Conclusion: Associate spiritual life and culture with positive emotions Forming firm and close relationships with those who have high standards of culture and avoiding those with low standards Stories of transcendence and morality and avoiding stories of degradation

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