Study Programs

The Purna Vidya Outreach through its Study programs– is a structured method of learning, targeted for adults, youth, children and families. The study imparts spiritual values, culture and tradition, societal harmony through leading a life of awareness based on Vedic teachings. The program uses powerful tools such as workbooks, workshops, exercises, discussions etc for varied age groups. Unique to the program is also a detailed teaching guide for each topic enabling easy propagation for trained teachers. It is available in English, Hindi and Tamil languages and may be taught from a ten-day period upto twelve years span of time. The course is set for sustained long term class room teaching on a weekly basis in learning institutions such as schools, colleges, temples, art centres, communities, etc. The study is easily amenable and maybe modified to suit the community.

The Courses offered are:

One-day basic introductory course trains volunteers for conducting a ten-day program of the text book called “Purna Vidya Gurukulam”. The trained volunteers will, in turn, empower other teachers in their areas to teach children or they will themselves teach the program to children during their Holiday season.

One-day introductory course of Purna Vidya 23 book-set trains volunteers on specific text books of the twelve year study program. At completion, the participant will be trained to conduct the year long classes on the specific text books, for the young and old alike.

One-day intermediary course of the Abridged Version of “Purna Vidya – The vision of Vedic Dharma” trains volunteers for conducting the classes for youth and home-makers.

Residential learning course of the basic tenets of Purna Vidya, its vision & mission, trains volunteers to learning the Vedic scriptural texts, Vedic chanting, Sanskrit, Meditations and Satsangs. The residential learning course is offered for a weekend, a week and a month.

NOTE: As they cultivate their own spiritual resources during the training, the participants will pledge two hours a week of their personal time to share their spiritual heritage with others.

How can you participate?

You can participate in the following ways:

• start a Purna Vidya class in the schools
• start a Purna Vidya class in the colleges
• start Purna Vidya as community classes in your neighbourhood
• volunteer your time for the propagation of Purna Vidya
• serve as a teacher of Purna Vidya and share the knowledge
• be a teacher /coordinator of the village program of Purna Vidya in your district or state.

Why should the volunteers be trained?

Much of our current education is geared toward training young people for the work place, providing the skill they need to compete in the job market. There is too little focus on strengthening the cultural values and guiding them so that they can know how to cultivate their inner resources and have fulfilling lives.

The meaning, purpose and function of education has been to merely pass on knowledge by memorizing facts, rather than give the ability to use the tools of their own intuition and their deepest inner wisdom of knowing . If education cannot use culture to inspire and ignite the creation of internal values in its children, then what use is that education?

This program on Purna Vidya, based on the foundation of oneness focusing on values that support this vision, teaches concepts in living through the classical epics and mythology. The program unfolds the rich living traditions, by providing knowledge of its cultural forms and the underlying divinity that forms the fabric of the spiritual culture.

The sessions will be held on unfolding the key concepts as well as group discussions and experimental model of hands-on teaching the Purna Vidya books to the next generation will be offered.

Learn & Share Purna Vidya– A Teacher Training Program

Learn & Share Purna Vidya is a Training Program that empowers people to know their spiritual roots and prepares them to share the heritage of India with others.

Based on the foundation of oneness and harmony, the program teaches

• values as taught in the epics and mythological works
• uniqueness of the native culture – as respecting life forms and environment
• the goals of human life and definition of success

Program Details
Duration: 10:00 am to 4:00 pm
Eligibility: Volunteers interested in learning and sharing the Spiritual Heritage of India
Certificate will be issued on completion

The Outreach of Purna Vidya through the 23 Books Study Program

Communities

In the fast changing society it is important that we preserve our spiritual tradition and culture through our own learning. Our message to the world religious communities is not “We are holier than you” but “You are as holy as we are”. “Namaste” itself means “the God in me honors the God in you”. In the Vedic culture we have a statement - "Vasudha eva Kutumbakam” - The whole world is our family. We are committed to sharing with the world community, our spiritual traditions and our cultural forms that nurture the attitudes of reverence and gratitude in our lives. Purna Vidya brings confidence and pride in the families as they get to know their roots living in a foreign land. It helps the Hindu communities form a support network like the extended family system of India. And last, but not the least, it gives the Hindu community an identity as a peace-loving community in the inter-religious nations of the world.

Village

The propagation of Purna Vidya at the village level in Tamil Nadu is being undertaken to deal with the challenges that the Hindu society faces today. Outside influences often come into the villages in the guise of development, but true development is far more effective and sustainable when organically generated. Poverty and lack of knowledge of the native culture has made certain populations vulnerable to these threats, tearing apart the social, religious fabric of the communities. Purna Vidya, in non-formal education, helps develop communities with cultural integrity, in a way that maintains the spiritual values and indigenous culture of India.
The children learn to chant prayers, to do puja, write Ramanamalikhitajapa, and play games on great epics like Ramayana. In Tamil Nadu, the content of Purna Vidya has been localized in the Tamil language to include Tirukkural, Grama Devata, etc. thus catering to the needs of the village children.

Schools

Young people today are coming of age in a globalized consumer culture and are leaving behind much of their cultural heritage. Some customs and traditions need to change but there is much of benefit that should be preserved. If the Spiritual traditions of India are to survive and flourish, we must find the language and the means to engage the next generation. How can we adapt tradition without losing the spiritual essence or diluting our cultures?

What parameters are we going to offer them to help them achieve their new world of harmony within the human race, with our environment and with the universe? Our young adults can only experience life as they perceive it, and they can perceive life only as they have been taught about it. It is important that they are given the precious knowledge of wisdom of life.

No education is complete without imparting the wisdom of living. Education should provide the children the tools to participate in cosmic harmony and not denigration of our planet! It must offer core concepts of holistic living such as Awareness, Honesty and Responsibility! It must give

• Knowledge of the ultimate goal of life and the relative goal of life
• Knowledge of important universal values of life
• Exposure to some form of worship

Not only that, we need today spiritual education programs offered in a language which children can identify with maybe an interactive play-way method of education, rather than the monologues which has been the classical method of spiritual instruction.

Purna Vidya is a program with these parameters, and it is one of the leading programs to impart culture-based value education in Hindu communities around the globe. It integrates the basic moral, ethical values in one’s thoughts, words and actions. It helps a child discover the sanctity in all aspects of life including food, dress, language, arts and customs and guides the child to connect with nature in reverence and humility.

Adoption program

The study program is being used by many organizations in India and abroad as a Hindu catechesim course. To put it in the words of a education coordinator and religion teacher at the Hindu Temple Society of North America, New York, “We started using Purna Vidya series two years ago. We noticed a marked change in the knowledge base of the students in that they were learning the important information with ease our student population in the religion classes has grown from some 40 or so to close to 100 in two years. We have now broken them into three age groups. An organized approach to teaching and an increased level of confidence of the teachers that use Purna Vidya, surely has contributed to this growth. Our ganesapatasala, the weekend school run by the \Hindu Temple Society of North America in New York, comprise mostly volunteer teachers, including those that teach Hinduism. \not being professional teachers, the Purna Vidya series turned out to be a valuable tool in our hands. It cut down the time that we previously spent researching on topics for the classes. We believe that the values book, along with the Puja and Prayers book, will be the cornerstone of all our teaching in the coming years. We are delighted that we are able to offer atleast some bits of our Hindu philosophy to the next generation of Hindus here in the United States for which we thank the publishers and the authors of Purna Vidya.”- by Ramasamy Mohan.

NOTE: Those interested to participate in the study programs for your community villages, schools , colleges and instituions click here to contact us