Friday, June 25, 2010

Trip to Sikkim


Description:  
6 day trek from Yuksam to Dzongri (Kanchendzonga base camp) and back, West Sikkim

Date: 
Late April, 2010

Why (or why not on Discovery channel):
To stand at the highest point of our trek (14000 ft) at 5 AM in freezing cold surrounded by majestic white mountains to watch the sky lightening as the sun rises over the kanchendzonga mountain range and to feel the incredible joy and incredible sadness of being there

Team:
Family 1: Kanti, Arun, Aditi, Srikant, Dinkar
Family 2: Sangeetha, Sathish, Shalom, Ishaan
Guide: Jeet Bahadur Gurung alias JB 
Cooks: Bir Bahadur alias BB and helper Ashish
Yakmen: Mani alias Baichung and Indra the intrepid Chang drinker
Yaks: Blackie 1, Blackie 2, Snowwhite, Brownie 1, Brownie 2

Problems:
- Walking trails full of yak and pony dung, slushy slippery mud, leeches
- Bitter cold, Hailstorms and at Dzongri a proper snowstorm, leaking tents, no proper toilets, no change of clothes
- Mild altitude sickness, low energy on the way up (only for the adults, children were fine throughout)

Discoveries:

- Chang a wonderful millet wine that you have to see and taste to believe
- Our own arrogance (or is that ignorance) in thinking we could do this difficultish walk. (The first people we talked to said we can't take 7 and 8 year olds up)
- Our guide whom we chanced upon and who made the whole experience very very special indeed (Contact JB at 9647888415 if you want to do this or other treks in Sikkim. He comes with a very high recommendation from all of us adults and especially children for his exceptional efficiency and good humor)

Random photos:


 The children. Ever cheerful and ever ahead

 The tents we stayed in on 3 of the 6 nights we were trekking

JB with Ishaan. Believe me, JB is magic!

Viewpoint at Dzongri. The highest point of our trek

Majestic Kanchendzonga range. Praying distance away

Mist on the way down

Dinkar test rides a yak. Yes, I will take this one with the power steering option please!

The adults celebrate with Chang. The smiles on the faces and the haziness of the picture depicts their collective state of mind

Sunday, June 20, 2010

What is 'Spiritual education'?

Over the years I have been feeling that the most important component of our educational journey, the most value we have created together, has been due to the simple fact that due to great good fortune all of us ended up spending a whole lot of time together as a family. This i have been feeling has resulted in all of us growing up TOGETHER and also miraculously growing TOWARDS each other.

Examples:
- I got interested in history because of Aditi my daughter's interest
- Dinkar our 7 year old got interested in kabir bhajans because of me
- 10 year old Srikant likes and understands carnatic music so all the rest of us are also very interested in it
- All five of us together have begun to awaken to beauty in art and nature

I can give many more examples but you get the point no?

Now take a look at this excerpt:

After all, the child is essentially a soul with a body, life-energy and mind to be harmoniously and integrally developed. The education is therefore so organised as to secure:
* the fullest possible development of the physique;
* a fruitful channelisation of the life-energy in pursuits that contribute to the growth of the personality;
* a sufficient training of the mental faculties in the fields of various Humanities and Sciences; and
* the requisite help, through a powerful spiritual atmosphere, for the soul to come forward and gradually begin to govern the rest of the being.

- Excerpt from the website of 'SRI AUROBINDO INTERNATIONAL CENTRE OF EDUCATION'

 

This now makes me ready to attempt a tentative definition for what spiritual education may mean. Here goes...

IF
we can define 'Spiritual art' as art that is created by a 'spiritual' artist
(Think of Ajanta or the great temples or a beautiful Tibetan Thangka all of which if it moves you inexplicably are probably created by spiritually evolved humans)

THEN
we can probably define 'Spiritual education' as education happening around a 'spiritual' educator
(Or in other words education taking place within a spiritual atmosphere)

Does that make sense or does that sound a lot like trying to define one variable in terms of another? What do you think?