— Anand Godse
My experience during teaching Psychology has taught me a lot of things! And when I apply what I learn in the process of teaching, new activities come out that act as innovative ways and methods of learning.
Introducing field experience and continuous projects to the SY and FY students of BSc Integral Psychology was my new venture in the academic year 2018-19! We connected to 4 organisations that are working towards various issues and challenges that people in the society face. Seva Sahayog, Tribal Mensa Nurturing Program, Flow social sciences research organisation and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru Observational home were the 4 organisations that work for different intentions and structures but all for social welfare and wellbeing in some way. All the students, 50 in total, of SYBSc and SYBSc participated in some or the other capacity.
The idea behind proposing such collaborations was to gain insight in real life scenarios that make the students ponder about the application side of the theories that they study in the books. Social Psychology as a discipline theorises concepts like group formation, group dynamics, leadership, altruism and pro-social behavior and many more like these. The parallels in the Indic or VEDIC knowledge teach us about karma, bhakti, dharma, swadharma and many more concepts that explain the underlying principles of good deeds! These projects were an opportunity for the students to interact with the world around and gain real-time experiences, know themselves better, and be able to conceptually link these to the approach of Integral Psychology!
It was and is an insightful journey to be with the students and be a part of their learning process. Those who are contributing to the society are real examples of prosocial behaviour and karmayog! What inspires the other person is many a times the action along with the words. Sharing a common vision and being part of meaningful activities gives immense pleasure, more than any material gift. Our students are being part of actions that speak louder than the words!
I also thank all the mentors that are helping us and guiding us to take this mission forward – Dr. Narayan Desai (TMNP), Mr. Shailesh Ghatpande, Prasadji Shirsikar (Seva Sahaog), Amruta Godse (FLOW) and Mr. Uday Jagtap (Nehru Observational home).
We have a continuous plan throughout the year and are using our learnings in Psychology to bridge the gaps and contribute in this SEVA-YAJNA!
— The works as Associate Professor – Integral Psychology, MIT School of Vedic Sciences
