Purna Vidya: Isvara and Religious Discipline Text Book

Purna Vidya is a twelve year program designed to provide a structured and developmentally based teaching of Vedic tradition and culture to children. It consists of teaching materials, assignments, lesson plans, and fun filled exercises. It is very comprehensive and includes a wide range of subject matter. The subject matter selected is based on the developmental and chronological age of a child such that the concepts are well within their grasp. Purna Vidya curriculum is used in several schools and communities in many countries. Isvara and Religious Discipline Text Book, the seventh of twelve parts has as its subject matter Isvara-the Intelligent and Material Cause of the entire creation as envisioned in Hindu scripture. In this connection it covers many important topics such as the Trinity, various Deities such as Planetary Deities (Navagrahas), symbol worship in Hindu tradition and Divinity as expressed in elements and various aspects of creation. Also included are topics such as devotion, surrender, prayer, and forms of worship(Upasanas). Various forms of religious discipline such as fasting, pilgrimage, religious vows, charity, japa and so on are also explored and studied. Traditional forms of worship such as Sandhyavandanam, Panchayatana Puja and Religious Purity (Madi/Achara) are explained. The book has age related fun filled exercises such as, multiple choice questions, fill in the blanks, true or false, puzzles and points to ponder and discuss that encourage free thinking, foster understanding and memory. The text book is accompanied by a separate book, ‘Guidelines for Teaching Values’ meant for adults to teach this text with a well defined syllabus which can be utilized in classroom, group or individual basis.