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Children are not vessels to be filled but lamps to be lit.
- Swami Chinmayananda
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Jan 12, 2020 - JCHYK Gr. 10-12 (Sunday AM)

Hari om everyone,

Hope you all had a nice Makara Sankraanti/Pongal/Bihu/Lohri festival. In South India, we say 'eLLu bella tiNDu oLLE maataaDoNa' (Kannada) or ' til-guḍ ghya goḍ goḍ bola' (Marathi) meaning 'Let's eat til-guḍ (a mixture of sesame seeds and jaggery) and speak pleasantly to each other!'  Wishing everyone this for Sankraanthi and throughout the year!

We started the class with our regular meditation and chanting.  Today, we went ahead and learnt ch. 1 until verse 27.  Below is the recording for practice. 


Given that our students are all high schoolers and are planning for college, 
We asked: 'do you know the best or toughest University to get into?'
They said: Harvard..., Yale..., Cambridge..., UPenn...,
We said: These are all local to the US (except Cambridge, of course).  But do you know any that are harder to get into than these colleges?
They: Really?...  Where?...  Don't tell me in India, aunty :) 
We: Of course!  It is in India!!  IIT entrance exams in India are very hard to crack and many who apply there, apply to the Ivy leagues as safe colleges, just in case they don't get into IIT :).
They:  What?!  Really?!  Yes, I'd heard!! (some of them knew)
We:  We are not trying to just patronize anything and everything from back home but there is a long history to it.  We were a culture of imparting great knowledge from eons ago!  Ever heard of the biggest University and library from our history?  It was called Nalanda University!  Let's watch this video to learn more - 

Story of Nalanda University #followinglove


Such was the greatness of our education system and the knowledge that they had in those times!  This is a story that we should all know about, especially those who have grown up here in the US.  The students sat with their jaws dropped at the end of the video...  Many times, we trivialize ancient knowledge without knowing the magnanimity of our culture or the rich heritage we have inherited!!  Something as simple as 'how to handle books' or 'why should we be respectful towards books'.  We have seen children having their bags callously, at times, placed by their feet even!  We are a culture that celebrates knowledge as divine, can't dream of showing disrespect towards books which carry that knowledge!! 

We started discussing Chapter 8 of bhagavadgeetaa today.   This chapter is called 'akShara-brahma yoga'.  This chapter starts with Arjuna asking Lord Krishna 7 questions.  We started with the last one as that seemed to get a lot of attention :) 

Arjuna asked: 'how does a jnaani (learned person) make sure to remember You at the time of death?'  
We discussed at length: So, is it okay to be bad all my life and just remember God before dying?  How does that work?  That doesn't even sound right!  
Yes, they were all right!  We brought up Kamsa..., oh wait!  He got mokSha.  How about RaavaNa?  Oh..., he got mokSha too...  How about pootanaa, vaali, hiraNyakashipu, etc?  They were all such evil characters and..., they all got mokSha too!!!  
They said: then why in the world do we have to be good?  We can just be like them and get mokSha in the end then...
We:  Aahaa!  There is a technical problem with that...  They were so evil to the core that they CONSTANTLY thought of the Lord, although in a negative manner!  We are not evil every minute of the day...  So, we will have to drop this idea :).
We:  Actually, that brings us to another topic.  There are many ways to connect with the Lord or relate with the Lord.  
  • It can be as a friend, like Sudhaama or Arjuna; 
  • it can be as a beloved like Raadhaa or Sitaa; 
  • it can be as a parent, like Yashodhaa, Nanda, Devaki, Vasudeva; 
  • as a brother like LakShmana or Balaraama; 
  • as a devotee, like bhakta Raamadaasa, Meerabai, etc; OR 
  • even as an enemy, like Kamsa, RaavaNa and others!  
Whatever relationship we build with Him, we HAVE TO do full justice at all times, because..., there is no guarantee that He will come in our thoughts at the last minute before we die, because..., "the outcome of our lives is based on practice and not planning!"  We can plan to remember the Lord all we want, but the problem is, we do not know which breath will be our last and won't inhale again!  Without practice and reinforcing His thoughts all along, we will not be able to invoke Him in our thoughts during our last breath.  This can happen only when the brain is trained in a certain way during normal times.  When we train our mind that way, automatically we will lead a life of dharma.  Living a dhaarmic life all along is the only way to remember the Lord during the last minutes.  We saw in the examples of Bheeshma (who gave us the vishNusahasranaama on his deathbed), all the asuras and the latest, Gandhi also (his last words were 'Hey Raam' when he got shot).  
They:  Wait..., how about we say 'Hey Raam' and shoot ourselves?  We will know that is our last breath..., so just commit suicide! (Cheeky kids, aren't they!)
Us:  Ya, then why are you trying to take away the wonderful gift of life given to you by the Lord? If remembering Him was your goal, then the next thought will automatically be gratitude towards Him!  And when that thought comes, unwanted thoughts of killing others or oneself won't stand a chance!  Now that's a catch-22.   So, killing oneself by taking the Lord's name..., isn't happening :)
Us:  Let's train ourselves to develop an attitude of gratitude for everything we are blessed with!  We will learn about the first 6 questions in the upcoming classes :)

See you all soon.  Until next time, happy contemplating.

Regards,
Rashmi and Kishore.


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