LEARNING IS LIFE

According to Vedic traditions, one must ring in New Year Day auspiciously with a peace prayer facing rising Sun to wish well all sentient beings.  It has suggested that the  New Year Day should be heralded as the sun rises with folded hands with a prayer for divine blessings for peace and prosperity for the humanity.  The five-line prayer is to be said with folded hands while facing the rising sun has been given in Roman below and its five-phrase Sanskrit version is given in the inset visual. PRAYER 1. OM SARVE BHAVANTU SUKHINAH 2. SARVE SANTU NIRAMAYAH | 3. SARVE BHADRANNI PASHYANTU 4. MAA KASHCID-DUHKHA-BHAAG-BHAVET 5. OM SHANTIH SHANTIH SHANTIH || Meaning of the prayer 1: Om, May all sentient beings be Happy, 2: May all be free from illness. 3: May all see what is auspicious, 4: May no one suffer. 5: Om Peace, Peace, Peace!

    Take a U-Turn to Spirituality: Sketch Note and Haiku   HAIKU Awaken your soul Your non-material essence We’ve hard-wired soul-genes! *** The first and foremost Mind your spirituality Be soulful humans *** Perform selflessly With the Bhagavad Gita Anything you do *** Perform your duty Any assigned task, role As selfless service

  SKETCH NOTE ON SPIRITUALITY J. KRISHNAMURTI ON SPIRITUALITY PATH    I have to study myself in actuality – as I am, not as I wish to be.   If you as a human being transform yourself, you affect the consciousness of the rest of the world.   A mind that is not concerned with itself, that is free of ambition, a mind that not caught up in its own desires or driven by its own pursuit of success – such a mind is not shallow and it flowers in goodness.    Nobody can teach you about yourself except yourself, so you have to be the guru and the disciple yourself, and learn from yourself. What you learn from another is not true.    Intelligence is the capacity to perceive the essential, the what is; to awaken this capacity, in oneself and in others, is education.

  C1; Critical thinking skill haiku  Look at a problem Objectively, wholly To infer, resolve *** C2: Communication skills haiku Communicate actions – Thought process, working process  Document, shape, spread! *** C3: Collaboration skills haiku Collaborate, link Blend, team up, and integrate Include for aptness! *** C4: Creativity haiku Think out of the box - Break the mould, be original Be innovative

  Significance National mathematics day in India is observed on  December 22 to remember and a tribute to Indian mathematics genius Srinivasa Ramanujan. The observance is dedicated to his birth anniversary   Quotes on zero A zero itself is nothing, but without a zero you cannot count anything; therefore, a zero is something, yet zero. ~ HH The Dalai Lama To create is always to learn, to begin over, to begin at zero. ~ Matthew Fox I have zero desire to be in the limelight. ~ George W. Bush One percent doubt is zero percent faith. ~ Oprah Winfrey I went from zero to my own hero ~ Katy Perry   Haiku on zero Starting of all things - Set of numberless members - A null set is zero! *** Sets, states begin with Or come to naught, zero state - Become naught, be naught! *** Be naught, be nothing Be naught to be all in all}} Zero is for ever *** Zero is beginning Zero is evolution - Full of potentials

 The first edition of the UN-proclaimed World Meditation Day is being observed on December 21, to promote well-being, inner peace and mindfulness across globe. "World Meditation Day is a powerful reminder of the transformative potential of meditation in navigating the complexities of contemporary life. Practice of meditation is a holistic approach to mental, emotional, spiritual and physical wellness. At its core, it represents a deliberate technique to enable practitioners to achieve a mentally harmonious and emotionally calm state of being," is the message on the eve of the World Meditation Day, 21 December 2024. While calling the present era as the time of 'unprecedented technological development and information flows' that is destroying inner peace  and mental well-bein, the UN adds, "Meditation offers a crucial sanctuary of inner calm and introspection. Scientifically validated research demonstrates its profound impact on neuroplasticity, stress reduction, e...

 Haiku  Memory of past – Our roots, traditions, place - That is our culture *** Our old traditions Heritage, language and place – Are learning assets *** New generations Must learn and recreate culture To preserve and guard *** Life and learning Become futile and   phony When they get delinked *** Culture learning is Behaviour shaping for just life - Faith based living style *** Real culture learning – That’s made of bequest, traditions To lead righteous life

  At the International Gita Conference 2024 hosted by Kurukshetra   University, Kurukshetra from December 5-7, the paper authored   by Dr Inshore, et al received the best paper award. In the interdisciplinary research Dr KIshore (pedagogy expert),Subhash (Hockey Coach) and Prabha (Former hockey player and English teacher) gave the triangulated validity to the research The paper titled “ Developing a Sports Psychology Based Training Module Inspired by Select Verses of Bhagavad Gita to Enhance Intuitiveness of Teen-Age Hockey Enthusiasts ” was adjudged the best paper in category two of the papers.   The other two papers by the   above mentioned authors “Relooking at Social Action and Reforms from Karma Yoga Tenet of the Gita: Content Analysis of Select Karma Yoga Related Verses” and “Towards Creation of Gita-Inspired Prayers for Micro-Credential Self-Management and Communication Skills Course under Indian Knowledge System and National Education Policy for Scho...

  Indian STEM educators, Dr Lalit Kishore and Subhash Chauhan, et al. , have won the the Findel CASTME Commonwealth Awards for the year 2024 for innovative STEM Education Projects. While the other three awards have  gone to the educators one each from Malaysia, United Kingdom and Antigua – island country in Caribbean . It needs to be mentioned that Dr Kishore has won the awards for his individual entry as well as a member of the team entry with Subhash Chauhan. The tiles of the award winning entries are as follows   1. Creating and Linking Forest Garden Complementary Curriculum to Environmental Science Curriculum and Vocational Modules on Skills of Forestry, Agriculture and Culinary at Middle School Level: Heightening Awareness to Climate Change and Sustainable Development (FINDEL CASTME Education Award, Som Gurukul School, Kurukshetra, Haryana, India)             2. Initiating Pre-School Kids into Talking Science by Displaying and Dem...

  ABC's of legal literacy L EGAL LITERACY IN BRIEF Legal literacy is the intervention that empowers individuals concerning issues that involve the law which helps in the promotion of legal consciousness, participation in the formation of laws and policies and rule of law. ABC POEM ABC of legal literacy A: Apex law is the Constitutional Law as an ultimate authority that governs all Indian citizens B: Basic knowledge of laws, rules, rights, responsibilities, norms, obligations, entitlements and regulations for protecting the rights of all and to ensure the wellbeing and development under the ambit of the law. C: Considering laws as tools to serve the people and to achieve of welfare of one and all D: Developing awareness and understanding of existing laws and the available remedies in the legal system E: Enlightenment about civil liberties , human rights , constitutional directives and other guidelines and principles that protect the dignity, liberty and freedom of people

  Quotes A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way. —John Maxwell Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.        - Steve Jobs Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. - Ralph Waldo Emerson A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus. -Martin Luther King Jr. Leadership is the art of giving people a platform for spreading ideas that work. -Seth Godin A leader is best when people barely know he exists. When his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves. -Lao Tzu