India: Students and Teachers Practise Falun Gong

On August 15th, 2008, I boarded an airplane for Bangalore, India, to carry out my promise to the principals of several schools and to fellow Falun Gong practitioners. This was my third trip to India.

Students at Jyothi School practising the Falun Gong exercises

Promoting Falun Gong at the Bangalore Flower Festival

Principal Verkey leads the exercises

Teachers at Jyothi School demonstrate the exercises for the students

Promoting Falun Dafa at Bangalore Flower Festival

August 16th was a Saturday and the schools were closed. Fellow practitioner Chitra took us to the largest flower park in the city. The park was packed with people. I was told that over one million people had visited the flower festival as of August 15th. Chitra walked among the crowds and talked to the people working at the booths in both Indian and English, introducing Falun Gong to them.

The lotus flowers with the Falun Gong bookmark were helpful in introducing the practice. Indians are kind and pure. They liked the pretty lotus flowers and the bookmarks and listened to Chitra's introduction closely. Some of them shook hands with me. We hope that those predestined people can obtain Dafa soon.

Teachers and students at over 80 schools are practising Falun Gong

After Chitra's promotion of Falun Gong to the schools, more and more students and teachers are practising Falun Dafa now. Chitra said that Bangalore has the largest number of people practising Falun Gong. There are over 80 schools in the Bangalore area that do the Falun Gong exercises as part of the Physical Education curriculum.

Joythi School is in the small town of Chintamani, not far from Bangalore. Father Verkey is a Catholic priest and principal of the school. After his own experiences with Falun Gong, he shared the practice with teachers and students. After a short time of trying it out, both teachers and students experienced health improvement. In addition, the naughty students were able to concentrate in class better and the overall grades of the students are improving. In a society lacking many medical resources, the free Falun Gong exercises is like a gift from heaven.

Principal Verkey's experiences and the miraculous effect of Falun Gong on teachers and students soon spread to other schools. Father Verkey also promoted the practice at meetings and conferences. Chitra herself experienced tremendous health improvements from the practice. Many principals wanted to try it out at their schools, too. Since the exercises are so effective, in a short period of time, over 40 schools adopted Falun Gong as a PE class.

Last year, Father Verkey shared his experiences with Falun Gong at a national conference for principals of schools with high academic achievement. His speech attracted a large response from other principals that wanted to participate in the program and wanted to invite instructors to teach in their schools. Later, another 40-some schools decided to learn Falun Gong.

Many of the teachers have strong spiritual beliefs. When the principals organised the group practices and began to experience the benefits of Falun Dafa, they immediately loved it. Their sincerity and happiness can be seen on their faces.

Studying the Fa

On the morning of August 18th, we took a bus to Chintamani Town to visit the Jyothi School. Soon after meeting with Principal Verkey, the morning group exercise started. The teachers and students practised the exercises and the very young students stood in the corridors to watch. In the 30-minute group exercises, practitioners from Malaysia and Taiwan joined the teachers and the principal to demonstrate the exercises for the students. Since the students have practised Falun Gong for a while now in PE classes, their movements were mostly correct. Also, since many students are very devoted to studying the Fa, the school provided two classrooms for students to study the Fa. This is the first school in India that has done this.