Gayatri Mantram – Activity

1. Collect around 30 articles that we use/see in our home/school/ Balvikas class, like pencil, picture of a tree, picture of a dog, book, ball, kanjira etc. A combination of pictures and articles will make this game more challenging and interesting.
2. Select 20 articles from these and place the articles in a random fashion on the floor/table. Do not use the remaining 10 articles at this time.
3. Ask the children to closely look at these 20 articles for a few seconds (say 30 to 40 seconds).]
4. Now remove these 20 articles or just cover them with a cloth/blanket.
5. Ask the children to list down all the articles that they have seen. They may recollect some of them. Children with great observation and memory may recollect up to 15 articles.
6. Now tell the children to recite the Gayathri Mantra three times with total concentration.
7. Now take the 10 remaining articles that were not displayed earlier. From the 20 articles that were shown to them initially select any 10. Now we have 20 articles in all (10 from the 20 that were displayed earlier plus the 10 that were not displayed). Now place these 20 articles randomly on the floor or on the table.
8. Just as in step 4, ask the children to closely look at the articles for a few seconds (30 to 40 seconds).
9. After this, as in step 5, close the articles with a blanket or move the articles away.
10. Now ask the children to recollect all the articles that they have seen.

Debriefing

Gayatri Mantra is an extremely powerful mantra that increases focus, concentration and memory. The children will be able to recollect more number of articles the second time that is after the Gayathri Mantra chanting. If there are some children who do not recollect any better than the first time, then give them more chances after increasing the number of times they chant the Gayatri Mantra.

This is an amazing activity through which children understand the benefit of chanting the Gayatri Mantra and make it a regular practice everyday.