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Learning at the templeBala Vikas for children, Sanskrit and Bhagavad Gita study for every age, yoga and mentoring for adults — taught by volunteers from our own congregation, in the hall where we all eat together afterwards.
Most of our children are growing up in a place where these traditions are not the weather around them. Nobody in the neighbourhood is lighting a lamp at dusk. The stories that a grandparent would once have told between chores are not being told, because the grandparent is nine thousand miles away and it is the middle of her night when it is the middle of our day.
So the temple takes on the work that a village used to do without noticing it. In our classes a child learns why the lamp is lit, what the Gita actually argues, how the Sanskrit letters are shaped and sounded, and — more than any of it — what honesty and patience and kindness look like when they cost you something. We are not trying to raise children who can recite. We are trying to raise children who are steady.
The adults come for a different reason. Many of you grew up inside these practices, drifted from them through university and work and small children, and are now looking for a way back that does not require pretending you never left. Our adult classes assume nothing. You may come with fluent Sanskrit or with none, with a lifetime of study or with a single stubborn question. Both are welcome, and they usually end up sitting next to each other.
Classes are taught by volunteers from the Austin community. Everything on this page is coordinated by the temple office, which is the right place to send any question this page does not answer.
Registration for the Fall 2026 term of Bala Vikas and our other classes is open now. Places are held in the order the office receives them, so if you already know you would like your child in class this autumn, write to us early rather than waiting for a deadline.
All registration goes through the temple office. Email us and someone will reply with the current term dates, the class schedule, what is offered at your child's level, and any fee or materials cost that applies. Please do not send payment before the office has confirmed your place.
Temple office 512-528-0807 · Temple 512-260-2721
info@saiaustin.org
Seven programs run out of this temple across the year. Days, times and term dates change from term to term, so the office confirms the current schedule when you register.
Values-based spiritual education for children, built around the five human values. Sessions mix story, silent sitting, group song, and activities that put the week's value to work — sharing, telling the truth when it is awkward, noticing who has been left out.
Who it is for: school-age children, grouped by stage so that the youngest and the oldest are not in the same conversation.
The Devanagari alphabet, correct pronunciation, basic grammar and vocabulary, and enough structure to read a simple verse and understand what it says rather than only how it sounds. Students work up to reading familiar slokas on their own.
Who it is for: older children and adults, including complete beginners who have never seen the script.
A chapter-by-chapter reading of the Gita with chanting alongside discussion. Each session takes a short passage, learns to chant it, and then works through what Krishna is actually saying to Arjuna and what that asks of someone with a job, a family and a commute.
Who it is for: teenagers and adults. No Sanskrit needed — translations are used throughout.
Weekly asana and pranayama in the community hall — practised as it was meant to be, as steadiness of body and breath in service of a steady mind, not as a workout. Postures are adapted for stiff backs, older knees and people who have not stretched since school.
Who it is for: adults at any level of fitness or experience. Bring a mat and clothes you can sit on the floor in.
Reason-based spiritual teaching for people who want the why before the how. This class takes dharma as something to be examined and argued with — where the ideas come from, what they claim, how they hold up, and how they translate into decisions at work, at home and with money.
Who it is for: adults and older teenagers, especially anyone who finds ritual easier to accept once they understand it.
A quieter, one-to-one thread that runs alongside the classes. An experienced member of the community walks with a young person or a newer family through the questions that do not fit into a classroom — belief, identity, pressure at school, how to hold a practice when nobody around you shares it.
Who it is for: young people and adults who ask for it. Arranged individually through the office.
Over the summer the temple runs a shorter, more concentrated season of classes while school is out, as we did in 2026. It is a good way for a family to try Bala Vikas or Sanskrit without committing to a full academic year first.
Who it is for: children and adults. Ask the office in spring what the coming summer will hold — it is set closer to the time.
Parents often ask what happens in the room. The honest answer is that Bala Vikas is not religious instruction so much as character education, carried on the back of our own stories. It is built around five human values, and every session comes back to one of them.
Children of every background are welcome. Nothing in the class requires a family to be of any particular tradition, and no child is asked to profess anything.
Three things run for grown-ups: a weekly yoga practice, a study circle around the Gita, and mentoring for anyone who wants to talk it through one to one.
An hour of asana and breath in the community hall, taught gently and without mirrors. Most people who come have desks and knees that object to them, and the class is built for exactly that. Come as you are; nobody is watching your form but the teacher.
A circle rather than a lecture. We chant a passage, then argue about it — kindly. Practical Vedic Dharma sits beside it for those who want the reasoning laid out plainly. Bring the objection you have been carrying since you were nineteen; it is probably a good one.
Sometimes the thing you need is not a class but one person who will sit with you for an hour. Mentoring is arranged quietly through the office and is available to parents and young adults as well as to teenagers.
Every one of these classes exists because somebody in the Austin community decided to give a weekend morning to it, week after week, for a whole term. There is no teaching staff behind them. There is only us.
You do not need a teaching qualification and you do not need to be a scholar. What is genuinely needed is reliability — children notice very quickly whether an adult turns up — plus patience, and a willingness to be trained in how the Bala Vikas material is structured. If your Sanskrit is rusty or your Gita is half-remembered, say so; there is room to learn alongside the class.
All volunteers who work with our classes complete a volunteer agreement with the temple before they begin. The office will send you the form and explain what else is required for anyone working with children.
Classes are held in the temple community hall on our Cedar Park campus — the same hall used for Annadanam and functions, so on a class morning you will usually find food, families and a lot of shoes at the door.
Come a few minutes early the first time so someone can point you to the right room. Shoes come off at the entrance. Most families take darshan before or after class, and children are used to moving between the hall and the temple.
We do not publish fees, term dates or class times on this page, because they are set fresh each term and we would rather you had the correct answer than a stale one. The office has all of them.
No. Classes are open to any family in the Austin area, whether or not you are a member here and whether or not you have ever set foot in this temple before. If your first visit is the morning you drop your child off, that is fine — come a little early and someone will show you where to go.
Not at all. Bala Vikas is taught in English. Sanskrit is taught from the beginning, on the assumption that students arrive knowing nothing of the script or the sounds — that is the point of the class. Gita study uses translations throughout. Plenty of the children here speak only English at home, and plenty of the adults are relearning what they half-knew as kids.
Our classes are run by volunteers and the temple keeps them as accessible as it possibly can. Whether a particular class carries a fee or a materials cost varies, so please ask the office rather than assume either way — write to info@saiaustin.org or call 512-528-0807 and you will get a straight answer. Cost should never be the reason a child does not attend; say so to the office and it will be handled quietly.
Yes, and we need them. Parents regularly stay and help with the younger groups, with materials, or with snacks and clean-up. If you would like to help regularly rather than occasionally, the office will ask you to complete a volunteer agreement first, along with anything else required for adults working with children. Sitting in on your own child's class to see how it works is welcome any time.
Festivals take priority — the hall is needed, and the whole community is here for something else. Classes are usually moved or paused on major festival weekends, and teachers let their families know in advance. Children are very much encouraged to come to the festival instead; watching an abhishekam or helping serve Annadanam teaches more in a morning than we could in a term.
Email info@saiaustin.org with your name, your child's name and stage at school, and which class you are interested in. Registration is handled entirely by the temple office, and someone will reply with the current schedule, what you need to complete, and anything to bring on the first day.
The best way to judge whether these classes are right for your family is to walk into the temple on an ordinary morning and look around. And if you would like to keep them running, the classes are funded the same way everything else here is — by the people who use them.
