Karm Yoga

Q1. Explain about sustainable development goals and relate them with your field visits?

Solution: Sustainable development goals refers to the goals that aims at providing a better and
sustainable future to everyone.

They include issues like – extreme poverty, climate change, environmental damage, peace, justice for
all etc. Sustainable development goals are meant to deal with these issues and make the planet a
better place to live.

The Karm Yoga field visits allowed us to embrace the Sustainable Development Goals with an open
heart. It allowed us to contribute to the society, trying to make it a better place to live.

Being allotted the Veerapuram Village in Chennai, We could understand the importance of these goals
and the need to address them.

Goal 1: Improving the quality of Education: Our core focus was at providing the fundamental
education to the children at Veerapuram village. Though there were many children who belonged to
higher classes, yet they face huge problem in even constructing sentences. We did our bit by making
them capable of introducing themselves effectively to the audience.

Goal 2: Improving the quality of Life: With hospitals quite far from the village, they had little access to
the doctors. We provided them with a First Aid Kits and trained them on how to use it. This will
decrease their dependence on the doctors in case of small wounds which can become septic if go
unattended.

Goal 3: Reducing Poverty: We tried reducing their dependence on the external elements by making
them self-sufficient. By suggesting them how Kitchen farming can bring revenue to their households,
it could better off their current position.

Q2. How Karma Yoga is helpful in experiential learning and acquiring leadership skills?

Solution: Karma Yoga, in short refers to the Selfless Service. It embraces the fact the Work is Worship
and can be attained if we immune ourselves from external motivational factors like rewards and
recognition.

Karm yoga focuses on DOING rather than just planning strategies. It believes that the change can only
be brought by visiting the frame of reference and then addressing the problems.

Being a part of Karm Yoga for entire 1st Term, it has actually been helpful in Experiential Learning and
transforming me as an individual.

Having no prior experience of addressing the weaker sections of the society, it was a lifetime
experience. It gave me a reality check that even today, when the world has advanced by leaps and
bounds, many sections of the society have been left behind and unattended. By engaging with the
unknown people, right from the start, my abilities to communicate were put to test. With vernacular
language being the norm, it was extremely difficult to convey the ideas and thoughts. But, one has
rightly said, the heart has it’s own language and I learnt the language of heart. One of a kind
experiences, which helped me engage with 50 odd people and creating a memory in their heart. Who
knew that just 4 visits will attach an emotional string? This initiated my transformational journey, and
I stand a better individual that I was 6 weeks ago. Having inculcated qualities like – Calmness, self-
control, confidence and efficacy, I have gained the purpose in life. It helped me realize the importance
of Smile in our life. We often tend to forget the gifts of the nature and cribs about the things we don’t
have. But, that’s not the rule of the thumb. There are many sections of the society who don’t even
have access to the basic necessities and still they are happily sorted. That’s the mantra of life should
be. It transformed me into a non-judgemental human being who will now look at the things holistically
before presenting a solution to a problem. Indeed, Karm Yoga transforms humans.

Q3. What are the three important key take away from Karm Yoga both in classroom learning and field
visits?

Solution:

1. Service Silently: Being a part of this Generation Y, the tendency to flaunt every aspect of life
comes naturally, so is the service. We tend to show-off every deed we did in order to create a
positive impression about ourselves in the minds of the people. But being a part of Karm Yoga,
I could learn the true importance of Silent Service. It helped me get fully engaged in work that
the tendency to flaunt evaporated on its own. I learnt one thing candidly: ‘Work for the
Commonweal and Serve without being conspicuous’

2. Peace: Recalling the Guest Lecture Session, one thing became pretty evident that there is
nothing more precious than the internal gratification and peace. I learnt that if any work is
performed in the spirit of sacrifice, we enjoy an ineffable peace

3. Adaptation: All the visits guided me to accommodate and survive under all the circumstances.
It highlighted the importance of the balanced mind and be ready to accept the challenges that
life throws at you with a smile.

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Thank You