It's fun being an older student. You inspire the younger students, and you can also help the teacher. So not long after this year's Bhakti Shastri course started in November, our senior facilitator, Atul Krishna Prabhu, asked me to assess the students' sloka-learning for each unit. An old sloka-walla of sorts, I happily complied.

Part of the ethos at the Mayapur Institute is a lifelong commitment to learning, so when I began to assess the students' sloka-learning, I became concerned. While some took to sloka-learning well, too many weren't taking it to heart; they were cramming the slokas for their assessment. So on Saturday, November 23rd, after a wonderful Prabhupada seminar by HG Hari-sauri Prabhu in the MI courtyard, I took the mike and, to the tune of the old 1962 Shirelles hit "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow," I sang the students a little song.

Today's the day, examining
You've been up all night, acramming
So chant the verse, and I won't ask again
Will you still know it, tomorrow.

You're sitting there, so focused
You say that Krsna's the only wah ah-ah ah-un
But will your memory, be broken
When the moon meets the morning suh uh-uh un.

I'd like to know if your love
For this new sloka is pure love
So sing it now, and I won't ask again
Will you still know it, tomorrow,
Will you still love it, tomorrow,
Will you still live it, tomorrow.

click here to hear the song

I noticed Hari-sauri's face turning a distinct crimson while I sang the song. A few other old-timers also recognized the tune from their misspent youth in the West, as well as a couple of recovering oldies-addicts among the younger students. I had sung the song as a light-hearted call to take the slokas to heart. What surprised me was how many students came up to me later saying they really needed help learning their slokas. Yes! I knew it! I began to hatch a plan to help them. The Shirelles and I were on our way to redemption.

I envisioned "Sloka Support Sessions" and started to gather reference materials: practical pages from Dravida Prabhu on how to learn verses; the whys and hows of learning verses from Rohininandana Prabhu's original Vaisnava Verse Book; my personal memoir of how I connected slokas to feelings and memorized the Gita as a young brahmacari in the 1970s; and finally an empowered exhortation from Srila Prabhupada to "get all these verses by heart, and chant, and offer prayer to the Lord." (SB Lecture 1.8.22, 14 April 1972, Los Angeles).

With Atul Krishna's blessings, I passed out the copied materials and started the sessions on Tuesdays and Thursdays, a half hour before the Bhakti Shastri class. Using the slokas we're learning for each unit, I focus on the sound and sense of the verses, as well as tips and techniques for getting them from the memory to the heart. The sessions are just motivators, really, to get the students to practice using the materials on their own, long after the course is over. And if you'll click on this link, dear reader, you too can use these materials, to make "sloka-puja" a regular daily function in your blessed life serving guru and Krsna. Hare Krsna and happy chanting!