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Program Details: Note: Your grade is the one
you will be entering in the new school year.
Registration:
For Participants' Pre-registration click here
For Judges' Pre-registration click here
For Volunteers' Pre-registration click here
Contacts:
For more information please contact
Competition Director: Mahati Malladi (703) 887-8523
Competition Director: Vivek Vangala (571) 421-4051
Vaidy Bhaskaran (703) 391-7267
Jothi Radhakrishnan (703) 598-3761
Send E-Mail to info@balavikas.org
Rules:
Please bring your own pencils, crayons, and paper. To be consistent, only crayons will be allowed for coloring competition.
If interested in entering Recitation, you can download/print from this web site. If you are encountering problems, call Syamala at (703) 968-7176 and the piece will be sent to you.
Drawing for the coloring competition will be given on the day of the competition, and a 60 minute time period will be allotted for coloring.
Essays for these assigned topics can be prepared and researched ahead of time, however on the day of the competition, no notes or references can be used. Essays must be written in the 60 minute time period allotted.
Speeches must be between 3-5 minutes with a 30-second grace period.
Every religious chant (regardless of language or religion) must be explained in English. These chants must be between 2 - 3 minutes with a 30-second grace period.
Stories with a clear moral and ethical message will be accepted. Stories must be between 2-3 minutes with a 30-second grace period.
Your grade is the one you will be entering in the new school year.
PLEASE NOTE: All competitors will be recognized with Certificates. First three winners in each category will receive trophies.
Recitation Text:
You are all intelligent people listening. Can I say that all of you are understanding in the same way? It cannot be. You receive the idea and interpret it according to your own mind. He understands it with his mind. So your world outside is ordered by, governed by, controlled by your mental attitude. Haven't you heard people say that this world is a Hell? Haven't you heard people say this world is a Heaven? Successful people say that this world is wonderful. Unsuccessful people say, "I want to die." Why? It is the same situation, the same sun, moon and stars. The same atmosphere and elements. Yet one feels it is wonderful and the other is miserable. When mommy and daddy are home, the elder son thinks it is heaven. The younger son thinks, "I am waiting to become 18 years old so that I can get away from these wretched people." His parents are loving him fully and completely, yet his interpretation is that he is in Hell. These undisciplined mental disturbances prompt us to live on instincts and impulses of the mind. They are utterly selfish, heartlessly desiring everything in the exterior world, wanting to acquire, possess, embrace, indulge and enjoy. They are like any cattle and we live only at the mental level at this moment.
All of us have intelligence to analyze and realize that what I am doing is wrong, but you do not have the strength to live up to it. There is no one who does not know that he is immoral, drinking is bad, smoking is ruinous. And yet we ask them, "Why are you drinking?" It is not that I don't know it. I know it, but I can't give it up. Everyone! Cheating, telling a lie, becoming angry, cruel and criminal in nature. It is not that you do not know it is wrong. But you say, "I am sorry, I cannot be away from it. I am compelled to do things." Think!
Now friends, each individual is a unit in this universe. All individuals put together is called a community, nation or world. Apart from the individuals, there is no world. Without distinction, all your minds put together is the world outside. If the majority of the minds are egocentric, utterly selfish, arrogant, vulgar, without character, that society, that community will be of the same character. That nation is no nation, it is only a country where a population lives. There is no integrity between themselves and no understanding internationally... Through individual perfection alone can world perfection be aspired.
- Swami Chinmayananda
UN speech 1992
The more knowledge you have, the more wealth you can create; except through efficient work inspired by knowledge, there is no other way to gain wealth. You cannot create wealth by magic and mystery. That lesson we have to learn today. Sarasvati is primary, and Lakshmi is a by-product of Sarasvati. This knowledge must come so that poverty will be eliminated in India. Pure science is Sarasvati, and applied science is Lakshmi. Knowledge applied to agriculture improves the wealth of the nation; so also industry. Everywhere these two austere goddesses reign, but we in India have to re-learn how to truly worship them. Merely making arati, waving of light, before their pictures is not the way to worship them. Go to the university, study various books, think for yourself - this is how you become students of Sarasvati. And, hard work, teamwork, trying to improve efficiency - that is how we have to worship Lakshmi. Arati we can do once a year, but everyday we have to worship Lakshmi only through this kind of hard work. Then alone Lakshmi kataksha or grace will come to us.
Therefore, in this modern age, the ideal is janana, and everyone is to be on the road to knowledge. Nature has given human being the capacity to oppose the thumb to the forefinger, and thus manipulate the world around him or her, and acquire knowledge and power. This is the beginning of human evolution. In the description of Sri Krsna, this wonderful expression is there; jnana mudraya krsnaya. In all the iconography of India, of great saints, sages, incarnations, and of the Divine Mother, you will find this particular pose of jnana mudra. It is especially seen in depicting Shiva as Dakshinamurthi. By this jnana mudra, he is able to remove the doubts of students around him. This is the tradition coming down to use from very ancient times and we should apply the essence of this tradition to deal with our own present-day problems. The whole land must become dedicated to knowledge and knowledge-seeking.
- Swami Ranganathananda
I am young in spirit though old in body. I do not wish to lose this privilege of youth. To deny the growing capacity to my thinking power is to admit that I have no right to speak on this resolution. Whatever I am going to speak today is eternally young. The body might grow old, decrepit and it might perish, but the soul is immortal. Similarly, if there might be an apparent lull in our Home Rule activities, the freedom of the spirit behind it is eternal and indestructible, and it will secure liberty for us.
The Soul means Parameshwar and the mind will not get peace till it gets identified with Him. If one body is worn out the soul will take another: so assures the Gita. This philosophy is quite old. Freedom is my birthright. So long as it is awake within me, I am not old. No weapon can cut this spirit, no fire can burn it, no water can wet it, no wind can dry it. I say further that no CID can burn it. I declare the same principle to the Superintendent of Police who is sitting before me, to the Collector who had been invited to attend this meeting and to the Government shorthand writer who is busy taking down notes of our speeches.
- Bal Gangadhar Tilak
Freedom is my Birthright
One of the greatest lessons I have learnt in my life is to pay as much attention to the means of work as to its end… I have been always learning great lessons from that one principle, and it appears to me that all the secret of success is there: to pay as much attention to the means as the end. Our duty to others means helping others, doing good to the world. Why should we do good to the world? Apparently to help the world, but really to help ourselves. Do not stand on a high pedestal and take 5 cents from your hand and say, ‘Here, my poor man,’ but be grateful that the poor man is there, so that by making a gift of him you are able to help yourself. It is not the receiver that is blessed but it is the giver.
- Swami Vivekananda
His Call to the Nation: Serve Man as God
Essay and Speech:
Essay: "Arise! Awake! And stop not until the goal is reached" is a famous
quote by Swami Vivekananda. How has this ideal of perseverance shaped your pandemic experience?
Speech: "What are some misconceptions of Hinduism in society? How can you
work to correct these misconceptions?"
Essay: "What role can the Classical Arts (music, dance, etc.) play in
deepening one's religious faith?"
Speech: "How does our Hindu upbringing shape our personalities?"
Frequently Asked Questions:
Q.
What is registration?
It is a very simple process -
participating children have to register their names, and categories either online (recommended) or with
the volunteers manning the registration desk.
Q: What
is religious chanting?
Children have to sing/recite
a bhajan or sloka that has religious theme, and explain the meaning. . The explanation does not have to be word for word translation. It can be as brief as 2 or 4 sentences demonstrating the reciter�s understanding of the meaning of the chant. These chants, including explanation, must be between 2 - 3 minutes with a 30-second grace period.
There is no restrictions on selection, and we have listed several
bhajans in this site to get you started. You may select one from these or select one of your own.
Q:
What is story telling?
You can select any short story
that has a moral; You have to conclude the story with the moral. Do
you need help to select a story? Here we got them!! A
click will take you to the wonderful world of short stories ready
for printing/reading.
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