By Madhava Smullen
New paperback editions of Srimad-Bhagavatam: A Comprehensive Guide for Young Readers Cantos 1, 2, and 3 are now available on Amazon.com, along with the just completed Canto 4. The first three cantos in the series, compiled by Aruddha Dasi, were originally each released in two parts starting in 2016. However the new editions, redesigned by Raghu Consbruck, and featuring new illustrations by a variety of artists, have been revised into a single volume per Canto, making them more affordable.
Aruddha Dasi is known in ISKCON for homeschooling her sons Radhika Ramana Das and Gopala Hari Das using the Srimad-Bhagavatam, through which she taught them language arts, critical thinking, debate, and communication. The idea for a comprehensive guide to the Bhagavatam for young readers began to develop as she was invited to conduct seminars on homeschooling and Krishna conscious parenting over the years.
“I met many parents who wanted to teach their children Srimad-Bhagavatam but who needed more guidance on how to do it,” she writes in her introduction to Canto 3 of the series. “It was then that I started doing workshops, during which we would sit together with their children and I would demonstrate how to guide a discussion in a way that evoked the child’s curiosity about the nature of the world, God, the self, and the purpose of life. Together, we would read the translations of a chapter of Srimad-Bhagavatam and discuss the stories, main themes, and great personalities. We would talk about the relevance of Srimad-Bhagavatam in our own lives – how it provides spiritual solutions to material problems. Both the children and parents were thoroughly enlivened and absorbed in the discussions.
“When I explained at my seminars how I taught my boys Srimad-Bhagavatam through interactive reading and discussion, hundreds of parents were inspired to follow. However, many parents who wanted to study the Bhagavatam with their children were uncertain about how to do it. They needed a formal curriculum, and I pondered how I could help.”
Over five years ago, Aruddha started a collaborative project, involving devotee parents from around the world, and formed an online group in which approximately fifteen parents – from Australia, New Zealand, India, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States – worked together to create study resources for each chapter of Srimad-Bhagavatam Canto 1.
The team of parents, which included English teachers, musicians, artists, and computer professionals, brought their own skills to the table, and used the curriculum with their own children as they designed it to see the results firsthand. After every chapter was completed, Aruddha gave her feedback. The material was then systematically edited, organized, compiled as a book for use by parents everywhere, and the first book was published by Torchlight in 2016.
Read more: https://iskconnews.org/srimad-bhagavatam-a-comprehensive-guide-for-young-readers-releases-new-paperback-editions,7879/
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