Practices Search Results
By Nimai Agarwal for KidSpirit’s Climate Change: Tending Our Planet issue.
When I was eight years old, my parents used to take me to the National Mall in Washington, D.C. We would go every week of the summer, spread out a blanket on the grass, and enact a tradition central to our monotheistic branch of Hinduism: singing devotional songs to passersby, often accompanied by a harmonium and brass hand symbols.
This type of singing is called kirtan and is meant to praise God. While they sang I would spend hours playing in the dirt and sand, making little houses out of twigs under the shade of trees. Even though I was focused on my work, I now realize that I unconsciously connected my time with the earth to my parents’ religious singing. These are my earliest memories of being in contact with Earth, and they were tied with my faith.
By Nimai Agarwal for KidSpirit's The Soul of Gender Issue.
For those who don’t know, the Vedas are ancient Hindu scriptures, a vast collection of knowledge that stretches over many subjects, compiled in Sanskrit, one of the oldest languages known to humans.
From art, music, archery, martial arts, politics, religion — the Vedas have it all. They’re described as being a guide to the world.
by Prerna Chatterjee for KidSpirit’s Conflict and Peacemakers issue
"Love feels no burdens, thinks nothing of trouble, attempts what is above its strength, pleads no excuse of impossibility; for it thinks all things lawful for itself and all things possible."
– Thomas à Kempis
One fine evening during our stay at Madhya Pradesh, Daddy took me to a local fair. I was hardly five years old then. Fairs always excited me. Daddy bought tickets for a ride on the Ferris wheel. He also bought me some colored bangles from a shop. Then we both devoured candy floss. Suddenly at a distance I noticed a crowd of people. I dragged Daddy over. He scooped me up and had me sit on his shoulders. I saw a strange man amidst the crowd, draped in a simple cloth which clung to his waist. His head was clean shaven and he wore specs. He also carried a stick in his hand. People all around us clapped and cheered as he bowed. I wondered if he was a film star, but as far as I knew, film stars were drop dead gorgeous and this weird little fellow was anything but handsome. While walking back to our hotel, I asked Daddy who the man was.
By Nimai Agarwal for KidSpirit's Human Dignity issue.
Short.
It's often the first thing that comes to mind when people see me. At five feet four inches tall, I'm far below the average height of American men.
I used to get uncomfortable in middle school when my friends stood side by side and compared heights. I faced their jokes about my height with resentment. Visits to the doctor left me with a sense of impending doom. Why was I so freakish? Would people ever take me seriously?