Exploring the Role of Spiritual Teachings from the Bhagavad Gita in Enhancing Male Adolescent Self Esteem
Abstract
Exploring the Role of Spiritual Teachings from the Bhagavad Gita in Enhancing Male Adolescent Self Esteem
Ms. Avanti Badhe, Dr. Arun Tipandjan, Dr. Umapati Prasad, Mr. Rajiv Satoor, Mr. Sushrut Badhe
The effect of a Bhagavad Gita-based intervention in relation to the self-esteem of the male adolescent students aged 12-17 years was assessed in this study. A sample size of 72 students in a Gurukul school in Jodhpur was divided into intervention (n=36) and controls (n=36). The intervention group was exposed to a 3-month-long workshop on the basis of the module Krishna’s Butter for Champion Students with the use of 99 Gita shlokas and interaction sessions. The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale was used to determine pre and post-self-esteem. In the results, a statistically significant improvement of self-esteem within the intervention group (20.5 to 24.61; p<0.001) is observed. The findings indicated that the intervention group had a significant (20.5) rise in self-esteem (24.61; p<0.001), whereas the control group had no significant (18.88 to 18.58) increase in self-esteem. From Qualitative analysis, the themes of anger management, caste equality and truthfulness had a high level of comprehension and behavioural reflection among the participants of the intervention. This Gita based module proved as one of the instruments for improving the self-esteem in adolescent males pointing the applicability of using a Gita based module in educational establishments for encouraging overall development of teens.
Keywords: Bhagavad Gita, self-esteem, school-going, adolescents.