Dedicated to our Pujya Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda

Dedicated to our Pujya Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda

Hari OM!

This blog is designed to serve as a library of art and craft ideas for our balavihar children. We hope that you will find this site useful. Please feel free to use any (or all) of the projects you see posted here. We ask, however, that you refrain from publishing (in any form) these templates, instructions, and photographs, unless you receive written permission. These projects are being provided for your own personal use or use in the Balavihar classroom.


All art projects are categorized by 1) material, 2) use, and 3) type. For example a Diya greeting card would be under the labels "Paper" and "Cards," while a Lord Hanumaan puppet would be found under "Paper," "Toys and Puppets" and "Gods and Goddesses." Most materials for these projects can easily be purchased from any local craft store — and some projects involve materials you already have laying around the house.


We would love to hear your suggestions and ideas about any of the information you find on this site. And, if you have any projects that you would like to share with other seviks/sevikas, please send a picture of the finished piece, as well as instructions on how to make the project – so we can post it.


Happy Creating!

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

OM Likhita Japa



















Click on image to view enlarged

This likhita japa was created from doodling patterns (see previous posting in May archive.) The entire mandala was designed with variations on OM.

Materials Needed:
• A smooth surface paper
• Pens of different sizes
• Bowls (or compass) for tracing circle outline
• Pencil
• Quality graphic eraser

Lightly sketch the outline design with a pencil — your details will emerge from the japa. Do not sketch the writing in ... that should be performed in ink when you begin your session. Gently erase all pencil lines only when you are completely finished with the likhita.

Experiment with color, too!