Spirituality
On mars
Spirituality on Mars (SoM) is a not-for-profit Spiritual + Tech initiative whose mission is to share Spirituality with Children & Youth.
Spiritual Education includes balanced development of an individual: Physical, Mental, Material, Social, and Spiritual.
This initiative is in very early stages. This website explains the vision for the future.
Some of the focus areas of SoM are Meditation, Positive Thinking, Grit, Happiness skills, Spiritual Realization, Simplicity, Yoga, Love & Kindness, Devotion, Natural Living, Handling Emotions & Anger, Inner-Strength, Social & Emotional Learning, Perseverance, Will Power, Growth Mindset, Fearlessness, Cheerfulness, Stress Management, Physical Fitness, Sports, Discrimination, Calmness, Diet, Extra-curricular activities, Experiential Academics, Mental Toughness, Critical Thinking, and other Character Traits.
SoM also focusses on Life-Skills.
SoM will welcome all children, youth, and parents as well, whether they are atheist or a believer, Gen Z or a millennial or an old-soul at heart, gym-bodied or parlour-bodied or pot-bellied. Everyone is welcome in SoM to experience the meditative Joy, Love, and Peace, to begin their journey towards satiating their longing for Happiness.
Watch for 3:05 min
Raashi acted opposite stars like Shahid Kapoor, Ajay Devgan, and Sidharth Malhotra in Bollywood and web-series like Farzi, Rudra, and Yodha.
Please note, Raashi Khanna has no affiliation with Spirituality on Mars.
Click here to read the Transcript of the above video
Raashi:
I think I sort of did it [meditation] for 10 days and after 10 days I was just smiling randomly sitting in a car... it actually gave birth to my joyful side. It is like you are clouded and suddenly the clouds go off and in the sunshine... you feel like that. I was constantly smiling. I was constantly joyful. I usually never get angry also as much... but that anger went away. I just felt like I am a very different person.
Interviewer:
That feeling is what? The feeling you have afterwards?
Raashi:
I think you can call it nirvana... I don't know... You can call it BLISS. This is the feeling a lot of us really really wanted for so long. You just sit, you do not want to open your eyes. You just want to be inside. You are really happy...
See, I am also saying this from a place where my job has constant stress, constant stress about everything. Despite that if I am smiling and I am happy then this is working. Because there is so much of stress, there are so many people at you and you are constantly working and there is so much on your head. But when I sit for those 20 minutes, I just do not want to open my eyes because I am so blissful. And I think that is what sets me for the day. So.. I think.. this just changed my life.
Interviewer:
I keep telling people... you guys do not realize happiness is sea level, happiness is normal. But when you experience BLISS, when you experience ECSTASY, those are completely different states from HAPPINESS. That is what actually you should be having a Goal for.
Raashi:
I just think, there are tools [meditation techniques] available we just have to sort of latch on to them because that is where we will find bliss or even if not bliss... atleast in the beginning you will feel less stressed.
SoM has equal focus on Rural and Urban populations.
Rural community can not be taught spirituality right away to solve all their problems. They need to be cared for and nurtured and helped in solving their financial, educational, and other major problems while using Spirituality as one of the major Tools and happiness, not money, as the Goal.
Of course, they need more money to be happy. Spirituality teaches us to be happy even while we are on the way to have all the things we need or want :)
Technology penetration is limited in rural areas. It is likely that some interested volunteers from SoM will frequently visit and even live in villages for weeks or months or more, to know and help the poor.
Almost everything, including Spirituality & Academics, will be nearly free for poor communities. Those regions who have a capacity to pay a fee, will be charged accordingly.
SoM may fulfill its mission through the following initiatives:
An Online Spiritual Development and Happiness Development Platform based on ancient spiritual teachings and scientific research and is applicable to modern, practical, busy, and fast-moving lives of Children and Youth.
This is the most important project for SoM.
Implementation Priority:
Character Module and Online Community Module in Phase 1
Rest of the Modules from Phase 2 onwards
Alexa Infinity
An Artificial-Intelligence based video character in a Smart Phone app which will talk with students like Alexa, guide like a Spiritual Teacher, entertain like a standup comedian, remind like a mother, be kind like a professional, and will be ahead of current AI models in understanding & answering the user. Seeing the current development in AI, it will probably be able to properly guide an individual just like a Level 1 Spiritual teacher. If Computer vision advancement allows, it may even capture the user's physical body and suggest correction in posture to meditate properly. Even without computer vision, it will be able to teach meditation & other practises and will refer to a human teacher when needed.
This will be a part of the Life-University.
Implementation Priority: Phase 3
Coaching classes (Spiritual + Academic)
1–2 hour classes on Science, Maths, Robotics, etc, combined with 15 to 30 minutes of Spirituality, conducted during evenings, weekends, or summers.
Courses for rural population, like for Electrician, Plumber, etc, will also be taught on the same pattern.
Overtime, duration for spirituality can be increased to make it equal to the time allotted to academics.
Implementation Priority: Phase 1
This is a good starting point for SoM.
Schools & Colleges (Spiritual + Academic)
"I think they should put Spiritual Education in schools. That is very important! More than anything else, this is very important... how you deal with your life. I think today's generation needs it more than anybody else."
~ Raashi Khanna, Bollywood Actress
New and innovative Alternative Schools, for urban and rural population, which focus equally on Academics and Spirituality should be opened.
On the same lines, new and innovative Tier 1.5 colleges for Engineering, Vocational, and other popular courses need to be established which will focus equally on Academics and Spirituality.
Schools and Colleges for urban population will give 51% importance to Spirituality and 49% to Academics.
For rural population, the exact ratio will depend on what kind of problems children face in the area.
Implementation Priority: Phase 3
Spiritual Programs for existing Institutions
Practical Spiritual programs for existing regular Schools or Colleges or Companies , which would include meditation, stress reduction programs, happiness training, and a drilled down version of what is taught in other projects of SoM. All these students will become part of the Online Life-University and would continue to use it even after the course. The institution will run as it is with additional spiritual bent to it.
Implementation Priority: Phase 2
Conversion from a Regular Institution to a Spiritual + Academic Institution
Plan and implement complete transformation of those schools or colleges where administration and students are willing to see their institution getting transformed to a Spiritual institution, similar to SoM's school or college.
Implementation Priority: Phase 4
All of SoM's spiritual programs are likely to be free. SoM will generate funds by charging for academics and that may prove to be the primary source of funding from day one.
Therefore, SoM may not need any major funding to start. SoM can start teaching Spirituality in academic coaching classes conducted by SoM.
It may also generate funds through Donations and a Software Development Business.
Angela Duckworth is a Professor in University of Pennsylvania in US and is a world-famous Author of the book named GRIT. She is a Scientist and runs a non-profit "Character Lab".
She has developed a "Character Growth Card" that helps school children assess and develop Character traits like Perseverance, Kindness, Gratitude, etc. Her work is already being used in many schools in US with good results.
This path-breaking research in the area of Character Measurement and Development in Children & Grownups is central to SoM.
TECHNOLOGY USE
SoM will not use ultra-modern technologies to look fancy. Technologies will be used for utilitarian purposes, to reach more people and to teach more efficiently.
Artificial Intelligence: Highly trained interactive video-based AI-teachers will be created to talk to and guide children in spirituality and life skills, and may be also in academics.
Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality (VR/AR): If VR/AR becomes popular among the masses, SoM may use VR/AR for teaching spirituality. Using VR, a student may be able to visit a beautiful virtual-ashram where he would meet friendly teachers and learn from them.
Software developed as part of Life-University will be Open Sourced and is likely to use AI and Data Science. The data generated by the user may be stored anonymously in a public database to allow 3rd parties to do research on that data.
Community platforms like 'Discord' will be used along with collaboration tools like MS Teams or Zoom.
Social Media platforms like Youtube, Facebook, Instagram, Blogs, etc, will be used extensively.
These days Companies working in the area of Education are called EdTech companies because they use Technology to achieve their goal of imparting Good Education to maximum people.
SoM can be called a SPATech company because it intends to achieve its Mission of imparting life-giving Spiritual Education efficiently and widely, using Academics and Technology as a means.
INITIAL MONTHS/YEARS OF SOM
Funds generated by teaching Academics will help SoM to start the work.
Also, SoM will need to gain a lot of experience in SoM's new philosophy of education and will need to test out the innovative ideas at a small level to become an expert in this new philosophy of academic & spiritual education. Then SoM will be more ready and prepared to run a larger and more complex initiative at scale, like Life-University and later on a School.
So, it is very essential for SoM to go slow and gain experience working with a few children and gradually build-up on that experience to do something at a bigger scale.
Therefore, SoM plans to start with 1-2 hour evening classes on Science, Maths, Programming, etc, like the coaching classes which are very common in India. In these classes, in addition to the allotted time for academics, about 30 minutes of Spirituality can be taught which may include Meditation and discussions on Spiritual topics. The children may be focussing on character development also. SoM will charge for these classes for teaching academics.
Join Spirituality on Mars WhatsApp Group to stay updated about Spirituality on Mars.
No extra information is shared on this group. Whenever there is a new update on the website, the group is notified.
PILLARS OF SoM
The goal of SoM is to help every modern, busy, spoilt, or simple child or a youth have an actual inner-experience of the Divine that begins as Peace and then blossoms into Joy, Love, Inner-Strength, and Wisdom, and brings happiness that pervades all day-to-day activities in school, college, work, and later-on in married life.
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Daily long Meditation as per student's willingness, and Devotion, when the child feels ready for it, may be because of his own inner-experiences of the Divine during meditation, is central to SoM.
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SoM focuses primarily on Teens and Youth (upto 25 years of age). Smaller Children and Parents, and also people of all age groups, are also the secondary focus of SoM.
SoM's Motto
Spirituality need not be boring, impractical, or force anyone to believe in something that seems unreal! It can be logical, life-changing, entertaining, interesting, science-based, happiness & life giving, relevant in day-to-day life, and something that children and youth will look forward to.
Actual Experience of the Divine
SoM exists not to give a superficial knowledge of Spirituality, but to facilitate an actual experience of the Divine, so that anyone who is associated with SoM - a Child, a Youth, or a Grown-up - must experience the most tempting and all-fulfilling Joy, Love, Peace, Inner-Strength, Wisdom, and other aspects of the Divine in Meditation, irrespective of their religious background. Experiencing these attributes of Krishna, Shiva, Jesus, Allah and the other Great Ones, is the ultimate Goal and the Crux of all Religious Scriptures.
George Harrison, who achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the famous Beatles Music Group, speaks about the importance of inner-experience.
Among Catholics also, there have been many great Saints who have experienced the Divine. Read More
Beyond India
SoM may start from India but the intention is to establish the institutions in other countries as well to bring spirituality to maximum number of children, youth and others.
Spirituality is not bookish knowledge, it is all about realization through Spiritual practices, like Meditation and Devotion. SoM will select those for teaching Spirituality who have gone through years of rigorous Spiritual Training by themselves (or through other means) and have at least some level of Spiritual Realization and Selflessness.
Sister Nivedita, a disciple of Vivekananda, was a good example of what a SoM teacher should be like. The Black & White image that you see is of her character from a movie on her. Read More to find the download link of the movie.
Please note, SoM is not a monastic organization. It will be primarily run by house-holder spiritual seekers who have a family to take care of.
Academics will not be based on rote learning. Instead, it will be very hands-on, project based, and experiential.
Rote learning is boring. Hands-on, experiential, and active-learning methods are much more effective for learning, as per research in Education (Pedagogy).
Scientific Research (not Pseudo-Science) has well-proved some important areas of Spirituality.
To be specific, Quantum Physics and Theories of Einstein prove that the world is unreal and is an illusion.
Near Death Experiences and Research in Reincarnation brings out convincing evidence of Reincarnation and thus existence of souls.
My Role in som
I, the writer of the content on this website, did start this website and this work but I do not see myself the owner of this work. I am a volunteer, with a certain set of important responsibilities. This is a work that is expected to be owned and run collaboratively by many devotees and non-devotees who would be willing to give their lives to this cause.
The concept of Social and Emotional Learning, was popularized by Daniel Goleman. He is a long-time devotee of Neem Karoli Baba and is a world famous author of the best selling book, "Emotional Intelligence".
Now, many schools in US teach Social and Emotional Learning though meditation, anger management activities, emotional regulation through deep breathing, empathy and other social & emotional traits.
SoM will teach unity of all religions. Those who have experienced God, they say that all religions are good. Stories may differ, rituals may differ, beliefs may differ, words may differ but meanings are the same in a deeper sense. They differ only at superficial level. There is underlying unity between religions. Divinity experienced by spiritual practitioners of all religions are marked with same feelings of Joy, Love, Wisdom, and Peace.
SoM is God's Bhandara
We all have heard of Bhandaras, also called Langars among Sikhs. These are events where devotees, out of devotion for God, serve free food to all at a large scale. These events are not organized by one person but by many devotees, in God’s name, for serving and feeding God’s children.
Spirituality on Mars is God's Bhandara which will be run by devotees of God, in God's name, to serve the Spiritually Hungry, with God's help.
A bhandara satiates hunger of the hungry. SoM will help in satiating the hunger of the happiness-hungry souls.
It will be run collectively by devotees through and through, with the thought that they are doing it for God alone, not for the leader of the organization. Someone has to lead in the leading position, but God will be the main leader.
Current Status of SoM
The work is in very initial stages. No children are being taught as of now. The word is being spread. Study, planning and research is on.
There are a few people who have shown interest in volunteering.
No particular person will be looked upon as the main creator or founder of this work. Everyone will be a contributor and will do their part of the work while staying devoted to God and the Great ones. Some will also be in the leading positions, but no one person will have complete authority on the Organization.
SoM's Board of Members will have a major role to play in the decision-making process. It will not be the leader of the organization alone who would make decisions. Instead, Board will have a lot of power to decide how the organization would run.
I am just a volunteer in this work, with a certain set of important responsibilities.
If you too wish to give your name for volunteership, please feel free to fill the form. I filled out the same form for adding my own name to the volunteer list.
People often express their desire to teach spirituality. If you too have such a desire, please do check the section "Who can Teach Spirituality?".
SoM is a LOVE-ORGANIZATION
Spirituality on Mars is not just an organization, it is a love-organization. Every individual will be taken care of lovingly and caringly.
Most of the educational institutions these days are business-centered or teacher-centered. SoM is child-centered. When decisions are made, they will be based primarily on what is good for children instead of thinking primarily about what is beneficial for the teachers or the organisation.
Spiritual joys are indeed more joy-giving than the more human pleasures of life. But it takes a lot of years and efforts to reach that state of realization in which joy, love, contentment, and happiness become so fulfilling and strong that one feels more interested in Spiritual joys than normal pleasures.
Watch THESE VIDEOS to UNDERSTAND SOM BETTER
SoM has a Youtube channel that has a lot of videos of initiatives that are doing work that is similar to what is planned in SoM. Watching these will help in understanding SoM better.
Read These DOCS to Dive EVEN Deeper into SoM
FAQs
Are you conducting any classes already?
Not yet. Read this.
Is 'Spirituality on Mars' part of an existing organization?
Not really. The core requirement for 'Spirituality on Mars' is that it should be done as a new initiative, as a new independent organization.
Also, 'Spirituality on Mars' needs to help in building friendships and alliances between existing spiritual organizations.
Is 'Spirituality on Mars' going to be run by monks?
No! It will be run by married or single people.
What will be 'Spirituality on Mars' approach to teaching Spirituality?
SoM will primarily focus on teaching basic spirituality & encouraging children/youth to take an interest in Spirituality. They may focus on topics like - the lives of well-known saints, Bhagavad Gita, Science & Spirituality, Ramayana, and other texts. Everything will be discussed in a very modern & interesting way. For example: A small clip of Shahrukh Khan (Indian actor) may be discussed where he is very angry and acting out of anger. This may lead to a discussion on understanding Shahrukh's situation in the movie and with whom he is angry. The discussion may lead to how anger affects our thinking ability and makes us do wrong & illogical actions which are contrary to our own happiness.
This is an important teaching of the Bhagavad Gita. Krishna had said in Gita - "It is desire, it is anger, born of Rajoguna (the impulse of action), all-consuming and all-evil. Know this as man's greatest enemy. As fire is enveloped by smoke, as a mirror by dust, as an embryo by the amnion, so wisdom is enveloped by Desire and Anger." (Ch3; v37,38)
Similarly, many such clips from movies can be discussed to understand different emotions & the associated spiritual teachings.
SoM will focus primarily on Level 0 spirituality so that children may build up spiritual interest and move on to more serious spirituality over time. The spiritual techniques will be very basic. No advanced forms of meditation will be taught by SoM. SoM may collaborate with other organizations to help children learn special techniques for Self-Realization. SoM will not break any rules! SoM will facilitate the whole process and will keep children motivated so that they keep moving ahead on the spiritual path. It is not SOM's job to take children all the way to the complete Realization of the Self. SoM's job is to ignite Spirituality in young hearts and give them initial care till they commit themselves to a more serious Spirituality.
Also, SoM needs to create appropriate spiritual reading material (books) and spiritual videos (on youtube) for different age groups of children.
If someone wants to seriously prepare themselves for longterm volunteering in SoM, what shoud they do?
There are no restrictions on who can volunteer for short-term. The selection may depend on the skill and the requirement for volunteers.
But if someone is thinking seriously about volunteering for longterm, they should take YSS or SRF Lesson Membership and practise the spiritual teachings. After about a year, they will qualify to be initiated into Kriya Yoga through YSS/SRF. It is likely to take at least a few years of Kriya practise and following the whole teachings to really gel well with SoM.
Those who are not on this path, may still volunteer for a few hours a week or for full time. If after joining as a volunteer they think of working for SoM more seriously for longterm, they too are likely to go through this process of Lesson membership and daily Kriya Yoga practise. This whole process of spiritually changing from within takes years, but it changes you deeply from within and benefits you in every aspect of life and brings you closer to the Lord of Happiness within.
SoM has respect for other serious spiritual paths also. But every spiritual path is different and focuses on different aspects of Spirituality. Some are less serious about Self-Realization and some are more. This spiritual path of Kriya Yoga (through YSS/SRF) is more strongly compatible with SoM.
Depending on the need for volunteers in your area of expertise, you may be able to volunteer for SoM, irrespective of whether you are spiritual or not. But sincere Kriya Yogis (YSS/SRF) will be able to gel well more easily and will benefit SoM much more.
People may think that if they have more experience with teaching, or with children, or with software development, or in some other field, then they can be more helpful. I do not agree with that fully. If someone has expertise in one or more of these areas but has no deep attachment to Kriya Yoga path of YSS/SRF, it may be difficult to be attached to SoM for a long time. In regular for-profit businesses, people get monetary benefits in return for their time and effort. In non-profit organizations like SoM, such benefits are much less. So, what binds people together is their attachment to God and spirituality. People get more attached to the spiritual organization and the people working there if they are following the same spiritual path. That is because, as a sadhak becomes more one with a spiritual path, he actually becomes more one with all the spiritual practitioners on that path. This leads to deep bonds of selfless love and spiritual unity. Such unity between people lasts for lifetimes. And when they work with this unity, they are able to carry burdens with selflessness and purity.
(This is not just for those who are interested in working for SoM. Whenever I meet people whom I really care for, I try to encourage them to take an interest in getting Kriya Yoga through YSS/SRF. Happiness is the Goal of human life and this path brings us closer to this goal over time.)
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