Vasudaiva Kutumbakam-ma

Vasudaiva Kutumbakam

(Kindness to Animals)

Vasudaiva Kutumbakam is a matching game that requires children to match the given animal skin patterns with the respective animal names.

Objective:

This game enables the children to understand and appreciate the uniqueness of God’s creation which is characterised by a wide range of awe-inspiring diversity. Our scriptures tell us that the whole world is the Lord’s family and there is Divinity present in all the creation. We should strive to manifest this awareness in our thought, word and deed. The game can help the children to develop an empathetic attitude towards their animal friends and desist from harming them in any manner. Children learn to appreciate the underlying unity, often emphasised by our dear Swami – “All are One; and be Alike to All”.

Related Values:

• Observation
• Memory
• Spirit of enquiry
• Discrimination
• Love for nature and God.

Materials Required:

1. Gurus to make a set of flash cards of the animal/bird prints by sticking the pictures of the prints to cardboard pieces.
2. Same way, the Guru can make another set of flash cards with animal names.

How to Play

1. The Guru divides the class into 2 groups.
2. Each group is given few flashcards – prints and names.
3. By giving an example, the Guru explains to the class that they have to guess the animals/birds with which the skin patterns match.(Example: Peacock – feathers)
4. Some clues can be given if required.
5. The group that is able to match all the skin patterns correctly with the names first, is the winner.

Tips to Gurus :

• Gurus can make the class more interesting and effective by relating the activity to human values. Gurus can highlight about the ill-effects of: hunting animals, poaching them for their skin, Cruelty to animals, etc.,
  A quiz can be conducted on this topic.
• Gurus can talk about Swami’s love for animals -dogs, the elephant Sai Geeta, cocks, buffalo, cows, deer, etc.,
• Gurus can talk from scriptures about Kamadhenu, the cow of plenty who is often portrayed as Gomatha or the mother of other cattle. Hinduism believes in respecting and protecting cows.
• Gurus can also talk about the popular image of the family of Lord Shiva and Parvathi sitting with Ganesha and Karthikeya. There are different animals and birds present in this picture. All animals are in perfect harmony. This image is an example of Unity in Diversity.
• This may be followed by a group discussion on kindness to animals. Children can be asked to make posters on this theme.

Variations:

Group 1: Matching the animal skin patterns may be done without providing clues.

Group 2: Matching leaves with trees.

Teachings from Mythology:

Example – Fish :: Matsya avatar, parrot :: Suka Muni, Tiger :: Lord Ayyappa, Peacock :: Krishna & Kartikeya, Tortoise :: Sense control, Zebra :: life is a contrast (pleasure and pain :: white and black stripes).