Vision

"To help children learn values with fun, to delight like the Moon and shine like the Sun!"

Motto

To give the maximum amount of happiness to the maximum number of people for the maximum amount of time.

Objective

"Children are not vessels to be filled, but lamps to be lit.”“The seed of spiritual values should be sown in young hearts, and theconditions made favorable for sprouting and steady growth through propercontrol and discipline. It must be cared for with the warmth of love andaffection, and such a tree shall blossom forth flowers of brotherhood,universal love, peace, bliss, beauty, and Perfection.”

- Swami Chinmayananda

The Chinmaya Mission Balavihar program offers weekly spiritual classes for children in their formative years. Our teachers are volunteers trained by Brni. Shuchita Chaitanya, and periodic teachers' training. The classes are categorized by school grades. They start and end with Sanskrit prayers and include chanting, bhajans, interactive discussions, creative games, and stories of devotion and morals drawn from our scriptures. As envisioned in our culture, the children learn the stories of the Puranas, moving to the character building of our Itihasas, and then graduate to self-unfoldment through Vedantic teachings.

Conducted worldwide, the 90-minute classes (half hour assembly followed by one hour class) are based on a specifically laddered, dynamic curriculum, with the aim of accomplishing the Bala Vihar rationale set forth by Swami Chinmayananda:

• To instill in our children a reverence for our ancient culture, and inspire them to live up to it with correct understanding.
• To create self-confidence that will enable them to serve and act cheerfully.
• To inculcate personal discipline, dynamic leadership, and true affection in all contacts.
• To mold their capacity to brilliantly express their individuality.
• To bring out their dormant faculties and detect defects, and to cultivate and improve their creative abilities.
• To help our children develop a healthy resistance against temptations in the atmosphere in which they grow.
• To provide an atmosphere that will enable our children to grow with noble ideals, healthy emotions, and physical discipline.