I am an Australian visiting Bangalore to meet with old students and devotees of Swami Muktananda, who taught yoga in Bangalore from 1978 to 1985.  Together with Swami Buddhananda she established the Atma Darshan Yogashram which still provides yoga programs to this day.

My friend Sw. Yogaratna explained to me that she had offered to take yoga classes with the children at a cancer hospital after learning about them from her friend Sandhya, who runs an NGO providing educational services to the children (Samiksha Foundation).

Swami Yogaratna offered to take me to the ward and I was very happy to accompany her.  She is very proficient at using the Bangalore public transport system, jumping on and off buses and in and out of autorickshaws with the ease of an old Bangalore wallah, a sometimes hair raising experience for an Australian.

The Children’s Ward is in a separate building in the extensive hospital grounds.  The ward impressed as it was spacious, airy and clean with high quality tiling on the floors: in Australia we don’t have such excellent quality tiling as you have in Bangalore.  Sandhya told us that eighty percent of the children in this ward have blood cancers.

Sw. Yogaratna gathered the children by going through the wards singing a simple song.  She has found that this is the most successful technique of attracting the children away from the TV and other diversions, a bit like a Yogi Pied Piper.

After 20 minutes or so she had collected a group of up to 17 children, together with some mothers.  Some of the smaller children were coming and going: as well as being very sick they are easily distracted like all small children are.  However the door watchman helped by shepherding errant children back into the group.

Sw. Yogaratna started the class by getting them to chant Om and sing a couple of simple songs .  Next she took them through the Pawanmuktasana series of simple yoga exercises, to warm them up and improve their flexibility. This was followed by a short talk introducing the next part of the class, the Yoga Nidra (yogic relaxation).

Sw. Yogaratna commenced this by asking the children to lie down on the floor in a radial pattern, with their feet in the centre.  After much wriggling and giggling the children managed this.  She then instructed them to feel into the sensation of their body lying on the floor, and to feel inside the body, looking for any sensations such as the breath.  Some children reported being aware of their blood circulation.

The visualisation part came next.  The children were asked to visualise their white blood cells fighting and killing the cancer cells, and the red blood cells recovering in huge numbers, both together driving away the ‘bad guys’, the cancer cells.  Each child was asked to visualise this in their own particular way.

After the yoga nidra was finished, the children were asked to draw a picture of their visualisation experience.  These were very varied.  One little girl drew a big shark, the white blood cells, chasing two small fish, the cancer cells.  Another girl drew circles of equal size, happy ones (the whites) and sad ones (cancers).  One boy drew a crocodile chasing a turtle, two other boys had tigers attacking deer and rabbits, A third girl drew some ducks eating small insects.  Sw. Yogaratna complimented the children for their efforts and offered some suggestions as to how to improve and clarify the images that the children had so beautifully created.  The yoga session was completed with Om chanting, some of the children demonstrating great flexibility by sitting in Padmasana, one of the most difficult yoga poses.

Sw. Yogaratna explained to me afterwards that she was incorporating techniques of ‘art therapy’ into the yoga nidra visualisation.  The reference she uses is ‘Getting Well Again’ by Carl Simonton.  Her feedback to the children was based on the research described in his book.

At the end the children jostled each other to have their photos taken, checking my photography technique after each photo to make sure I got them looking their best!  Then we reluctantly said goodbye.  All in all it was a delightful experience, or as we say in Australia, ‘awesome’.  If you have a chance please think of joining the Samiksha Foundation with Sw. Yogaratna in this very worthwhile project.

John Ransley

Someone mentioned to me that this means we have to start all over again with a new lot of kids… new books, new supplies, new friendships … then Thishya reminded us that it  is  a GOOD thing and a relief to see  so few faces here.. Its a paediatric oncology ward for crying out loud! We should be happy for those who have gone home… And so we are. We wish them the best.

Sandhya

This was supervised by Manmohan Iyer, Sandhya Sharad, and Manjari.

Samiksha Foundation also took part in the proceedings, and set up a stall at the event, which was run by our trustee, Mrs. Nanjundeswaran, and our founder director, Mrs. Sandhya Sharad.

The Peace Games are an event held across the world. Each set of Games is organised privately, but a report on the Games for the year is published by the United Nations. The Games aim to promote peace and friendship by getting children and youth together to play sports.

First, a few speeches and messages sent from the UN official on Sports and Development and the President of FIFA were delivered. All the participants then took an oath to promote peace in the world.

Teams were made and the youth present played games of cricket, football and hockey. Various side activities such as carroms, card games and basketball shootouts were also set up.

‘Youth’, as in young at heart. The participants in each sport actually ranged from age four to fifty plus. The senior citizens of the street were the enthusiastic audience. They were also given medals for their contributions to the society.

Samiksha Foundation flyers flew. So to speak. Nearly everyone could be seen holding one. Several people signed up to be volunteers.

Students of a local school, as well as the residents of the street and their families, took part in the activities. The Games served their purpose – friendship and fair play had been of the utmost importance, and even teams that lost their matches would celebrate the fact.

The Foundation was happy to have been part of the event, and would like to thank the organizers, the people of DN Street and the volunteers and children who helped out. Special thanks to Archita Narayanan and Thishya Ramesh for all their help.

- Aditya

Return to main blog