Hari om everyone,
We started our class with meditation and chanting as usual. We finished learning the geetaa dhyaanam fully. We also learnt Chapter 1 up to verse 18. They are learning very well. Below are the recordings for practice.
Gitaa dhyaanam .wav
We did a quick review of what we have been learning in the last couple of classes. We picked up from where we had left off last class. Our question about the concept of God. We spoke about how nothing can exist in this world devoid of the presence of God.
Us: Can you remind us of the difference between jnaana and vijnaana? Knowledge and Wisdom
Students: Knowledge is knowing something, Wisdom is putting it to practice!
Us: Awesome! So..., someone at school told me weed is really good..., that's knowledge. Now to make myself wise, I have to smoke some weed?!!!
Students: NOOOOOO!
Us: Then..., you said knowing is knowledge and putting it to practice is wisdom!
Students: All giggle hysterically :)
Us: Why wouldn't you do that?
Students: We have some sense to not do something like that...! We are taught about the ill effects in health class...! We are smarter than that...!
Us: Excellent! That intermediate step between knowledge (shravaNa) and wisdom (nidhidhyaasana) is called contemplation (manana). It is extremely important to contemplate on what we learn and then own that knowledge as our wisdom. This step cannot be ignored! Don't do anything, 'because I told you so!' Think it through yourself.
We discussed about dharma. We saw that dharma is that which upholds; the dharma of an object is that which holds good at all times and anywhere, irrespective of any other factors. "dhaaraNaat dharma ityaahuH" in Sanskrit.
Students: How do you explain this in English? What is the word for dharma?
Us: It is better to use the word as 'dharma' itself. We can call it righteousness, we can call it duties..., But it won't suffice... There are certain words which do not import their full meaning into another language. Dharma is definitely one of them. So is 'karma', so much that it has found its place in the English dictionary!
As we said, dharma is that which holds good at all times. What do you think is the dharma of water?
Students: Water is wet! (They giggle)
Us: Was water wet when the dinosaurs were drinking it? Yes, of course! ('Did you know' moment: we are drinking the same exact water that the dinosaurs drank eons ago. It gets recycled by nature!).
Will it be wet 5000 yrs from now? Yes, of course! So, that is the nature of water.
Students: How can water be anything else? That's so funny to say it is its dharma!
Us: Okay, what if water decided that it was tired of being wet and 'chose' to start burning?
Them: What about boiling water?
Us: Na, na. It will scald you alright, but the water itself won't be burning. It will still be wet, isn't it?!
Them: How about ice?
Us: Be it in solid, liquid or gaseous state, water is still wet! (One student asked, "how about dry ice?" Someone answered, "dry ice is carbon-di-oxide, not H2O"). Everything in nature abides by their respective dharma at all times.
As we were speaking in last class, a Lion can't become a herbivore or Deer can't eat meat. It is NOT in their nature. Only humans can make choices! Btw, what is legal isn't necessarily dharma.
An interesting argument occurred among the students at this juncture. We said slavery was legal once upon a time but that doesn't make that practice dharmic! They bought up President Washington and how to be the best President, he had to allow people to bring in slaves to work at their plantations. But that practice was later abolished considering human rights.
Us: So, dharma is something that can't be changing over time or place. What do you think is human dharma?
Them: To stay alive!
Us: Then no one should die... If that is their dharma, then they should continue to live always... Can't change over time, right!
Them: What else can it be? Everyone does anything to only survive and not die!
Us: Why do you want to live? What is your purpose?
Them: So we can..., uh... (no answer)
Us: The goal of any human is to be happy! He wants to live to experience happiness forever. Anything we do is to somehow try and achieve a happy state of mind. Have we ever seen anyone getting up in the morning and striving really hard with the goal of making themselves unhappy? NO! Even those who are cribbing and complaining do so because cribbing makes them 'happy' :).
Them: Then, if that is our dharma, why are we not happy all the time...? We get sad... Ya... true! Also, why are there so many people with depression in the world?
Us: Excellent questions, everyone! We are mistaking ourselves for our BMI and 'thinking' we are unhappy due to this wrong identification. The nature of our true Self is pure bliss. We need to understand this concept of pure happiness. Now, please define what is light.
Them: That which is not dark (they giggle).
Us: How about dark?
Them: That which is not light (giggle).
Us: How about cold?
Them: That which is not hot (giggle more).
Us: And..., hot?
Them: That which is not cold (giggle even more). (They are thinking they are giving cheeky answers in our face and totally enjoying the feeling!)
Us: Exactly! This is how we understand the world. Our definitions of the world are understood through our intellect, as pairs of opposites. Absence of one is presence of the other and vice-versa. Hot is - not cold; cold is - not hot; light is - not dark; dark is - not light; happiness is - not sadness; sadness is - not happiness...
The pure happiness that we are talking about has no opposite! It is 'samatva', a flat line, with no ups and downs. What goes up has to come down, isn't it? This happiness is not a variable one.
Them: Oh ok! Then happiness is in death because you know how the line goes flat (the EKG line) when we die! (Now it is our turn to smile :)
Us: No, no! That measures only your pulse, not your state of happiness, right :).
Them: Oh ya.
Us: We mistakenly term our 'pleasures' as 'happiness'. We need to understand the difference here. Any kind of feeling obtained from sense objects is called pleasure or displeasure. What we experience upon knowing our higher Self is 'happiness'. This has no opposite feeling.
There were many such wonderful and funny discussions in class. We only give some samples and still end up with lengthy emails :). Please discuss further with your children about the topics we debate in class. This is a fun group of kids who are as alert and ardent to learn as Arjuna! ALL of them participate and contribute to the discussions. It has been a pleasure teaching them.
We finished the class with ending prayers and went to the auditorium for Swaranjali performance.
Until next week, happy contemplating.
P.S.: All our weekly emails are archived on a blog for posterity. Click on the link below to access any of our class summaries anytime -
Regards,
Rashmi and Kishore.
Rashmi and Kishore.
