Founder and Guru
Mrs. Bhuvana Iyer with her students
Bhakthi Manjari was establised in 1992 by Bhuvana Iyer as a tribute to her parents Padmini and Madhavan Iyer. It was on February 6th of that year that Bhuvana lost her mother. In remembrance of the joyous memories and values instilled in her by her parents Bhuvana discovered an overwhelming need to educate children in the USA about the rich heritage of INDIA.
Bhuvana hopes to essentially emphasize that through her teachings "bhakthi" (devotion) is instilled in her students hearts and will continue to "blossom" (manjari) throughout their lives.
Bhakthi Manjari's goal is to make Indian children aware about their culture through different streams. They are taught the various slokams / manthrams with emphasis on the pronunciation. The children are made to realise how a meaning of a word changes if it is not pronounced right.These teachings are supplemented with fun filled activites like story time and pop quizzes during class in addition to the actual celebration of festivals like Deepawali, Ganesh Chathurthi, Navarathri etc either at the temple, Bhuvana's home or the class venue.
Bhakthi Manjari also offers the children numerous opportunities to act in religious plays and perform in various folk dances in an effort to make the themes less abstract and thus enhance their learning process.
Bhuvana also neatly ties in some of the American holidays which inherantly reflects our Indian values like Mother's and Father's day.Bhuvana grabs any opportunity that she gets to instill the desire to give and share to the needy and presents ways of contributing at their (children's) level whenever Bhakthi Manjari contributes to any institution. To date Bhakthi Manjari has contributed to both Indian (ASHA foundation, HELP foundation,Gujarath earthquake victims)and American foundations( American Legion Veteran Association, Edison Soup Kitchen).
Bhuvana shares her gifted voice by teaching the children Bhajans and prepares them with the appropriate bhajans whenever a festival is coming up. This is yet another way in which she aspires to inculcate a sense of belonging by giving them an opportunity to personally be part of the ceremonial celebrations!
Bhakthi Manjari's main aspiration is to give a strong fundamental root in Indian culture to our children and to encourage them to preserve their heritage.
Contributed by Bala and Narayana
