- Friday, April 19, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
Samvardhinee Nyas, an affiliate of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) — a Hindu nationalist organisation and mentor to India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) — has started a campaign titled ‘Garbha Sanskar’ for pregnant women to teach their still-to-be-born babies culture and values in the womb, its national organising secretary Madhuri Marathe said on Monday (6).
Nyas, which is a wing of the Rashtra Sevika Samiti, the women’s arm of the RSS, is planning to reach out to at least 1,000 women under this campaign.
The organisation is also planning to hold a campaign along with gynaecologists, ayurvedic doctors and yoga trainers which will comprise chanting of the Gita, the Ramayana and yoga practice during pregnancy to “impart cultural values to babies in the womb.”
This programme will start from pregnancy to babies two years of age, will emphasise on chanting of Gita shlokas, ‘chaupais’ (quatrain verse of Indian poetry) of Ramayana, said Marathe, adding, “a baby in the womb can learn up to 500 words.”
“The aim and objective of this campaign is to develop a programme which ensures that the baby can learn sanskar (culture and values) in the womb and the process continues till the baby gets two years old,” Marathe said.
As part of this campaign, the Nyas on Sunday (5) held a workshop at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, which was attended by several gynaecologists, including from the elite All India Institute of Medical Science in the national capital.
It is said that in Indian epic Mahabharata, Abhimanyu, the son of Pandava warrior Arjuna, had learnt a battle skill while he was still in the womb of his mother Subhadra while Arjuna was explaining it to her. However, the knowledge remained incomplete as Subhadra fell asleep and a young Abhimanyu failed to complete a mission during the great war of Mahabharata and was killed by the enemy Kauravas.
(With PTI inputs)
