Sunday School
About Sunday School Online Registration
Every week about 20 children attend the
Hare
Krishna
Temple’s Sunday school program from
5pm to 6.45pm where
Krishna is the centre of
all the activities.
The children learn more about spiritual values and practices
whilst engaging in class activities that include stories, quizzes, games,
drama, movies, arts & craft.
After each class the children take dinner Prasadam together.
The children have become really good friends and you can
often see them playing together around the temple. Many of them also took part in a dance presentation for the Krishna Janmastami festival in 2011.
 The program in its 3rd year, was started Vilasa
Manjari Devi Dasi, a disciple of HH Indradyumna Swami as she saw a need for such
a program for children who come to the temple with their parents (although some
of the children do joke that it is they who bring their parents to the temple).
Vilasa Manjari besides running the program, also teaches one
of the classes. The other classes are taught by Raga Manjari Devi Dasi and
Prananatha Das.
The children are divided into 3 classes depending on their
age and the ages range from 5 to 15. There is a small fee per child for each
term.
All the teachers for the children are all initiated disciples
of ISKCON and the program is based on the Hare Krishna Sunday School
Curriculum, which has been used successfully in
Alachua,
USA
(the site of a huge Hare Krishna Community) for many years.
Education of children was especially dear to ISKCON (International
Society for Krishna Consciousness) Founder Acharya, Srila Prabhupada, who
inspired the first ISKCON Gurukula for children in the early 1970’s in the
USA. Indeed
Srila Prabhupada would say many a time that these children who are born to
devotees are very fortunate and are not ordinary children. He stressed the
importance of teaching the children from an early age in
Krishna
consciousness. (from a Srimad Bhagavatam lecture 1974 in LA). Srila Prabhupada
many times would comment also in his books that the children should be given
the opportunity to learn how to chant, dance, and know more about
Krishna so that when they are grown up they will not
change but instead will make further progress in spiritual life. (Science of
Self Realisation Ch5).
 We have all heard the saying, “children are our future”, so
we encourage all of you with children to please send your children along to the
Sunday school so that they can learn more about Lord Krishna, Lord Rama, Lord
Chaitanya and many more wonderful spiritual personalities, along with spiritual
values and practices.
The program’s main benefit is that it shows students
practical ways to apply
Krishna consciousness
to their daily lives and we have seen that as children become more
enthusiastic, then parents become encouraged to modify their lifestyle to
accommodate the spiritual advancement of their children.
In this way, ISKCON’s
congregation is expanding around the globe to ultimately in future fulfill the
prophecy of Lord Chaitanya that the holy names of God will be spread to every
town and village around the world.
On behalf of the teaching staff, I (Prananatha Das) would like to thank the
ISKCON Sydney Temple President Vara Nayaka Das for giving us his blessings for
the classes and for allowing us to use the facilities of the temple. And I
would also like to thank the parents and their children for giving us this
fantastic opportunity to serve the children. And besides sometimes the children
teach us a thing or two.
Sunday School Time Table
4:30 pm - Arati
5:00 pm - Bhagavad Gita Presentation
6:00 pm - Kirtan
7:00 pm - Arati
If you would like your
child to attend then please register Filling up an on-line form. Click here
You can Call Temple Reception between 9 am to 1pm
Mon to Sat and on Sundays from 9am to 8:30 pm for more information.
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