Learning
Hinduism in Madania
By Icha 12K
After studying here in
Madania for about 12 years, I’ve learned a lot of stuff. One of them was
learning Hinduism. It was fun learning Hinduism here, the study method
persuades us, the students here, to learn more than just from power point
presentation, papers, and pens like what we are used to in our base class.
Here, we made displays, presentations, also we often discuss questions we want
to ask from a particular topic we are currently studying. Although currently,
I’m the oldest among Hindu students in Madania, it didn’t really make a
difference from when I was the youngest 12 years ago. We, I and the other Hindu
students in Madania, can still communicate and have fun despite of our age
difference. However, sometimes I do feel lonely for not having anyone that can
relate to all the problems I face at high school, that explains why now days, I
find excuses not to join Tirtayatra or any activities if it involves going
outside the school. Sometimes I do have something important to do like tests,
yet, sometimes its just because I don’t have someone that I can relate with.
Despite the atmosphere around Hindu gathering room, being a Hindu alone is
honestly quite challenging. I often get questions from people about my own
religion and to be honest sometimes I can’t even answer a few. But that’s okay,
if it really bothers me I often asks Ibu Ayu about it, but most of the time, me
being a shy person, I avoid to ask and just find the answer online.
Growing up, Hindu was never
that hard. At least it’s not as hard as what a lot of my friends portray
learning about their religion. They always describe religion as something “very
hard” or “have to memorize a ton of stuff”. But as I grow, Hindu got a lot
harder. Although I often study what I have studied before, but sometimes, the
varieties of things I need to memorize and understand gets wider and wider,
especially at high school. Honestly, sometimes I blame the authorities in
Indonesia for changing its curriculum exaggeratingly every time. Hindu gets
very confusing and hard to understand. That one time in grade 11, I believe,
the curriculum asks me to memorize a huge book full of philosophy, the topic
was called Sad Darsana, and I kid you not, it was the first time I need to do
remedial studying religion. Often times, I repeat what I’ve learned before more
than 2 times like when I learned Sad Ripu in Lower Secondary, at each grade. I
get easily bored because of the repetition, also, my chances to learn a more
broad topic of Hindu gets shrunk. Let’s take example, I was always excited to
learn about Dasa Avatara, a topic I
always see in displays of my juniors or even seniors, but I never got a chance
to learn it because the curriculum keeps rolling.
Along the 12 years of learning
Hindu here in Madania, the most interesting lesson I got was being able to
memorize 8 Sloka of Bhagawad Gita. The first time Ibu Ayu told me about the
existence of Bhagawad Gita was sometime around grade 2 in Primary school. What
catches my attention is the word “Gita” in it, well, long story short, Gita is
my name, and soon from then I got amazed by the meaning of it. Gita means
singing, and for a very long time, singing has been a hobby of mine. That’s
why, from then I started borrowing the Bhagawad Gita from the religion room.
Even when we went on Tirtayatra to Bandung and could get Bhagawad Gita for
free, I took 2 home. I read it and bring it everywhere, I brag to my friends,
to my parents and siblings without really knowing what’s the real meaning of
the sayings there, it’s just a very interesting story. For a very long time
Bhagawad Gita was a very interesting topic to learn, I always got exited every
time Ibu Ayu asks me to rewrite one sloka from Bhagawad Gita in our reflection
book complete with my reflection of the sloka, but never in my mind I ever
think of memorizing even one sloka from Bhagawad Gita. Until, when I entered
high school I am forced and insisted to memorize at least 5 Sloka. Honestly, it
was hard, memorizing it and being able to sing the Slokas, but once you got the
hang of it, you’ll love it. Although for me, I don’t love it much enough to get
me memorize more than 8 slokas I have memorized, maybe because I don’t really
have time for it, but hopefully in days to come, I can memorize more slokas.
Hinduism room in Madania,
both the old one and new one, is one of the legend witnesses of my life. On
happy days or even sad depressing days. Despite of all the problems I face
learning Hinduism in Madania, the experience has been amazing, I get to learn
so many stuff, like literally from learning how to read and write here, to
Balinese dancing, to singing, to recording dramas, and so many more amazing
things. I thank Ibu Ayu for always giving me chances to become a better version
of myself through teaching me Hinduism. Honestly for me, going to Hinduism room
at 12 PM every day after a long half day of school is always a happy escape
from my responsibilities, and that will soon be gone as I will attend college
not more than 5 months. May Hindu in Madania became better and better
throughout the years to come. It was a privilege to be inside of the history of
Hindu in Madania.
16
November 2017
Best
Regards,
Made Ayu
Gitagayatri 12K
