by Deepti Kharod
San Antonio, Texas

As the children's librarian and I got to know each other, she was pleased to let me help in planning some of the summer programs for the 1st through 3rd graders. Through Swami's grace, I realized that this was a golden opportunity. For me it was a chance to put my skills as an SSE teacher to the ultimate test - by taking them outside the Sai center to a publicly funded setting, where even referring to spirituality when teaching children is taboo. His message had to be so well integrated into each program that it would not be visible as anything other than an enjoyable summer story time plan. For the children who were about to be the audience, they would unknowingly be a part of this experiment. I felt they were fortunate indeed, not because they were part of my experiment, but because they, like me, were to be part of another one of Swami's grand experiments.

As it turned out, I was to plan four hour-long story-time sessions out of a total of seven. The librarian told me that each session must include one book as the anchor, as well as a craft or other activity. I began praying for guidance on the spot and kept praying until Swami spoke in my heart.

The themes were: Helping others, Patriotism - since it was Fourth of July week, Love for all/ Unity, and Sharing.

Before I talk about the details of the programs, I want to dwell a little on why this was such a special situation. First of all, I had just left a Sai center where I was a regular SSE teacher. The new center did not need my services in that capacity, and I felt a noticeable gap in my life from not working with the children. Also, I could not have imagined that in this small south-Texas town I would easily find a setting so conducive to sharing the human values with children.

Thirdly, I realized that if we wish to really spread Swami's message far and wide, we must be ready to let go of the familiar trappings with which we identify His words. For me, that included His Form and all references to not only His Name, but to God, or even spirituality in the most general sense. Finally, I was reminded repeatedly through this experience that there is so much that even one person can do and we need not wait for others to join us, nor is it necessary to become part of a service group in order to offer service that can transform.

So, back to the story times; I approached each one as I had been taught in Berniece Mead's teacher training workshops in how to prepare a lesson for SSE students. There would be a value, with a quote from Swami to highlight it. Then for each value, there was a story, sometimes a song or otherwise an activity or craft. As it turned out, for each of the four sessions, Swami sent me one of His quotes that was not only absolutely appropriate, but also sufficiently secular-sounding so as to pass the church-state separation concerns of this public library. I will focus on two of the sessions, just to give a flavor of the experiment. The first is the July 4th story time. This one was a natural for Swami's teachings, because He is very concerned about revering the motherland. I used the quote about this theme from the guiding principals that are listed at the beginning of the SSE Teacher's Manual and also took with me a map of the USA tacked to a large piece of cardboard. The props needed for an effective lesson can be very simple.

By "chance," Swami sent two sweet young Sai sisters from Houston (SSE Group II), who happened to be visiting us that day. They helped me sing "Fifty, Nifty United States" and "This Land is Your Land." The first song involves singing the names of all 50 states in alphabetical order and usually sounds impressive to elementary school children. Then, since most of them have learned "This Land is Your Land," this was a nice second-choice. The Internet also turned up quite a few interesting facts about the American flag, which added good trivia to the lesson.

The second session was a sharp contrast to the July 4th day when all the symbolism and language was quite familiar to the children. To illustrate the "Helping Others" lesson, I wrote a story that was set in India. That began with another "coincidence" as well. My aunt from India was visiting some time before. She teaches Gujarati folk dances to young girls in her small town, so she taught a song and dance to my daughter. The song, in Gujarati, is about a little girl who goes to fetch water from the village well. As the water is too low, she appeals to the well as she would to her brother to help her by raising the level of the water. So, Swami helped me write a story about helping others that could fit around this song and dance. By the time my daughter and I performed this little act, the children from the story time knew us and were very open to listening to something from an unfamiliar culture, including even the song in a different language, which I translated for them.

With each story time session I saw that once I could get beyond my own nervousness and doubts about my own delivery and how the children would receive these ideas and stories, I could connect better with the children. Since it was a voluntary summer activity, the numbers and faces changed a little each week. Usually, there were about 40-50 children. But by the end of the summer I began getting positive feedback from these children about the homespun stories and activities. Also, my own daughter was enjoying coming up with ideas for each theme.

I felt that most of all the children were responding to the substance - the underlying effort to build each session around a values theme, rather than just throwing together some useful facts tied together with an entertaining story and a crafts project. After listening to my homemade story about the girl and the well, one girl, about 8 years old, came and told me, "I really liked your story." When I said "Thank you," she replied, "I'm not just saying that, you know. It really was better than a lot of the book stories."

To my heart it confirmed that children are most satisfied when they receive food for their hearts, not just their minds, when they are learning. And, as Swami says about service, especially teaching, that through teaching, we ourselves learn the most. Through helping others, we actually help ourselves the most. The major lesson for me in this experience was this: the greatest power is the power of the one. That one is each individual - and, of course, it is the One inside each one of us.