On 4th September 2010, the very first Midwest USA Bal Samagam was hosted by the Chicago Branch of the Sant Nirankari Mission. Children in the age group of 4-13 years, actively contributed and participated in this Samagam to make it a grand success and an inspiring example. Theme of this Bal Samagam was “Nanhe Sitaren” meaning Little Stars!

The Bal Samagam started with Guru Vandana where children praised the Satguru using inspiring quotes from various scriptures of different faiths. This was followed by other contributions from all little saints. There were various cultural events based on spirituality, including devotional songs, couple of skits namely “Saare Ran Indradhanush ke Sang” and “Flavors of Life”, a song quiz based on AvtarBani, devotional music and dances by little kids etc. They all showed the message of universal brotherhood, love, peace, tolerance and social reformation. Dark blue backdrop for Bal Samagam was decorated with shining stars which were colored and crafted by these enthusiastic children.

This event was also accompanied by a colorful slide show as it progressed, showing individual program details and then names of the performers who participated to encourage and applaud them.

On this occasion a special exhibition was also organized with the theme of “Divine Oasis”. It depicted how “Sewa”, “Simran” and “Satsang” can provide a spiritual oasis in the dessert of this material world. It had many attractive hand crafted models based on this theme and were created by children with the help of their parents.

The final discourse was delivered by Rev. Sudhir Dureja of Chicago who shared the power of Simran as a tool to communicate with Nirankar and then answered many curious and interesting questions coming from attentive little stars at the end.

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