BALA VIKAS OF FAIRFAX

PRESENTS

YOUTH DAY COMPETITIONS 2016

(Competitions ForPre-elementary To High School Students. Rules And Topics Are Attached to This Flier.)

Saturday, July 23rd, 2016

Check-In: 9:30 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.

(Competitions start immediately afterwards.)

at

Durga Temple

8400 Durga Place
Fairfax Station, VA 22039-3079

All are welcome to participate. There is no cost for participation.

All participants will be recognized with certificates. Winners will be awarded Trophies.

Competitors Pre-register Online at http://www.balavikas.org/youthregform.asp

*Registration closes July 17th, 2016 at 11:59 PM*

**No onsite registration available**

Judges/Volunteers Pre-register Online at http://www.balavikas.org/jvregform.asp

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE Contact

VaidyBaskaran (703) 391-7267or P. Srinivasan (703) 251-0900

Or Send E-Mail to or visit us at http://www.balavikas.org

CATEGORIES

Pre-Elementary (Grade 1 and below): Coloring, Religious Chanting, Story Telling

Elementary I (Grades 2-3): Coloring, Religious Chanting, Story Telling, Recitation Elementary II (Grades 4-5): Coloring, Religious Chanting, Story Telling, Recitation

Intermediate (Grades 6-8): Religious Chanting, Recitation, Speech, Essay

High School (Grades 9-12): Religious Chanting, Recitation, Speech, Essay

* If interested in Recitation, download the relevant pieces from http:/ *

** If you are encountering problems, please call Veda Prasad, (703)-498-9996 or send e-mail to , so that we can mail you a Recitation piece. **

Competition Directors: Veda Prasad (703) 498-9996

BhavanaChannavajjala (571) 337-6149

PLEASE VISIT http://www.balavikas.org FOR FURTHER INFORMATION.

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO FORWARD THIS TO OTHERS WHO MAY BE INTERESTED.

High School:

Essay: “What role can the Classical Arts (music, dance, etc.) play in deepening one’s religious faith?”

Speech: “What are some misconceptions of Hinduism in society? How can

you work to correct these misconceptions?

Intermediate:

Essay: “Even without a physical place of worship, how is it possible for people to continue their prayer?”

Speech: “How can we increase ourrespect for other religions while also staying true to our own?”

If interested in entering Recitation, please download the relevant piece from our web site: .

RULES

  1. Please bring your own pencils, crayons, and paper. To be consistent, only crayons will be allowed for coloring competition.
  1. Drawing for the coloring competition will be given on the day of the competition, and a 60-minute time period will be allotted for coloring.
  1. Essays for these assigned topics can be prepared and researched ahead of time, however on the day of the competition, no notes or references can be used. Essays must be written in the 60 minute time period allotted.
  1. Speeches must be between 3-5 minutes with a 30-second grace period.
  1. Every religious chant (regardless of language or religion) must be explained in English. These chants must be between 2 - 3 minutes with a 30-second grace period.
  1. Stories with a clear moral and ethical message (irrespective of religious origin) will be accepted. Stories must be between 2-3 minutes with a 30-second grace period.
  1. Your grade is the one you will be entering in the new school year.

PLEASE NOTE: All competitors will be recognized with Certificates. First three winners in each category will receive trophies.

BalaVikas Youth Competition - 2016

High School

Recitation

Three Visions for India

I have three visions for India. In 3000 years of our history, people from all over the world have come and invaded us, captured our lands, conquered our minds. From Alexander onwards. The Greeks, the Portuguese, the British, the French, the Dutch, all of them came and looted us, took over what was ours. Yet we have not done this to any other nation. We have not conquered anyone. We have not grabbed their land, their culture, their history, tried to enforce our way of life on them. Why? Because we respect the freedom of others.

That is why my first vision is that of Freedom. I believe that India got its first vision of this in 1857, when we started the war of independence. It is this freedom that we must protect and nurture and build on. If we are not free, no one will respect us.

My second vision for India is development. For fifty years we have been a developing nation. It is time we see ourselves as a developed nation. We are among top 5 nations of the world in terms of GDP. Our poverty levels are falling, our achievements are being globally recognized today. Yet we lack the self-confidence to see ourselves as a developed nation, self-reliant and self-assured. Is this right?

I have a third vision. That India must stand up to the world. Because I believe that unless India stands up to the world, no one will respect us. Only strength respects strength. We must be strong not only as a military power but also as an economic power. Both must go hand-in-hand.

Why is the media here so negative? Why are we in India so embarrassed to recognize our own strengths, our achievements? We are such a great nation. We have so many amazing success stories but we refuse to acknowledge them. Why? We are the second largest producer of wheat in the world. We are the second largest producers in rice. We are the first in milk production. We are number one in remote sensing satellites. There are millions of such achievements butour media is only obsessed with the bad news and failures and disasters. In India we only read about death, sickness, terrorism, crime. Why are we so negative? Another question: Why are we, as a nation so obsessed with foreign things? We want foreign TVs, we want foreign shirts. We want foreign technology. Why this obsession with everything imported. Do we not realize that self-respect comes with self-reliance?

I was in Hyderabad giving a lecture when a 14 year old girl asked me for my autograph. I asked her what her goal in life is. She replied: “I want to live in a developed India.” For her, you and I will have to build this developed India.

-Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam

BalaVikas Youth Competition - 2016

Intermediate

Recitation

Universal Responsibility in the Modern World – Promoting Religious Harmony

His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Now I will talk about the promotion of religious harmony. If you have a sense of global responsibility, all human beings, including non-believers, and even those who criticize religion, who are anti-religion, are your brothers and sisters. Once we develop that, there is no problem with people having different religious faith. That is their right. If you look closely, all major religious traditions, as I mentioned briefly before, carry the same message of love, compassion and forgiveness. A different approach is necessary because of different locations, different times and different climates. People’s mentality is a little different. Therefore a different approach is necessary to promote these human values. All major religious traditions carry the message of love, and a sense of brotherhood and sisterhood. So, it is a matter of a different approach.

Some say that there is God, that God made all these things and that we are therefore brothers and sisters in a true sense. Some say it is the law of causality. Again, good experience comes from love and respect for others. Bad experience comes from harming others. That brings negative consequences. It is the same end but with a different approach. Therefore, if you understand these things, you will see that there is no obstacle to bringing genuine harmony among religious traditions. It may be useful here to make a distinction between faith and respect. Faith is towards one’s own religion, respect is to all religions. That is one thing. Another thing is the concept of one religion, one truth and the concept of several truths, several religions. Those two things appear contradictory, but that is due to the different context. On an individual basis, the concept of one truth, one religion is very relevant in developing a single-pointed faith, but in terms of a group of people, the concept of several truths, several religions is relevant. That is a fact. That is reality. Therefore, there is no contradiction between the concept of one truth, one religion and the concept of several truths, several religions. That is my way of promoting religious harmony.

-His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Universal Responsibility in the Modern World: Promoting Religious Harmony

BalaVikas Youth Competition - 2016

Elementary II

Education and Society

Education is the manifestation of the perfection already in man. What is education? Is it book-learning? No. Is it diverse knowledge? Not even that. The training by which the current and expression of will are brought under control and become fruitful is called education. To me the very essence of education is concentration of mind, not the collecting of facts. If I had to do my education over again, and had any voice in the matter, I would not study facts at all. I would develop the power of concentration and detachment, and then with a perfect instrument I could collect facts as will. The education which does not help the common mass of people to equip themselves for the struggle for life, which does not bring out strength of character, a spirit of philanthropy, and the courage of a lion – is it worth the name? Real education is that which enables one to stand on one’s own legs.

Education is not the amount of information that is put into your brain and runs riot there, undigested all of your life. We must have life-building, man-making, character-making assimilation of ideas. If you have assimilated five ideas and made them your life and character, you have more education than any man who has got by heart a whole library. Knowledge is inherent in man; no knowledge comes from outside; it is all inside…we say Newton discovered gravitation. Was it sitting anywhere in a corner waiting for him? It was in his own mind; the time came and he found it out. All knowledge that the world has ever received comes from the mind; the infinite library of the universe is in your own mind. The external world is simplythe suggestion, the occasion, which sets you to study your own mind.

-Swami Vivekananda

His Call to the Nation: Education and Society

BalaVikas Youth Competition - 2016

Elementary I

Recitation

Serve Man as God

One of the greatest lessons I have learnt in my life is to pay as much attention to the means of work as to its end… I have been always learning great lessons from that one principle, and it appears to me that all the secret of success is there: to pay as much attention to the means as the end. Our duty to others means helping others; doing good to the world. Why should we do good to the world? Apparently to help the world, but really to help ourselves. Do not stand on a high pedestal and take 5 cents from your hand and say, ‘Here, my poor man,’ but be grateful that the poor man is there, so that by making a gift of him you are able to help yourself. It is not the receiver that is blessed but it is the giver.

-Swami Vivekananda

His Call to the Nation: Serve Man as God.