Harih Om Parents,
Following was taught to your child in the Balavihar class on Jan. 26, 2020:
1. After initial prayers we chanted all the verses of Bhagavad Gita Dhyana sloka.
2. Swamiji has completed 23 verses of Bhagavad Gita chanting – please have your children practice at home.
3. We taught the children the first two verses of Sri Tapovana Shatakam
4. IMPORTANT: BALAVIHAR CLASS ON SUN FEB 23 IS CANCELLED, INSTEAD THERE WILL CLASS ON SUN MARCH 15th, 2020. PLEASE MAKE A NOTE OF THIS CHANGE.
5. So far this year we have covered – Law of Karma, Story of Mahabharata briefly, What is Dharma & Yato Dharma Tato Jayah.
6. Next couple of classes we discuss – facts of our life, what is our ultimate goal in life and how to draw a roadmap to reach that goal?
7. See if your children are using their Vaacha / speech appropriately at home & school – if they say things that they are not supposed to – they need to introspect and change; this is one of the 'home work' assigned to them – At the end of this exercise we hope they will become proficient in using their "Vaacha".
8. If we have mastered the art of using sweet words, as our Gurudev says, we have beautified our personality to that extent.
9. 'World is a stage we are all actors in it' – Gurudev. But in order to act well – we need a script to follow. Imagine solving a puzzle with missing pieces or trying to complete the puzzle without a final picure! This script for living our life is provided to us by our scriptures – which act as beacon light to guide us. This guidance is needed not only to achieve higher spiritual ideals but also to lead a productive and joyous life.
10. Following facts of life were discussed:
- There are no rehearsals in life
- Life is a one way street – from birth to death; from womb to tomb.
- There are six stages of life we all have to go through – born (jayate); live (asti); grow (vardhate); body changes (viparinamate); body decays (apaksiyate) and body dies (nasyati).
- One cannot rewind life - once a certain time is gone, it will never come back.
- We will all have ups and downs: we need to learn to live with poise and equanimity.
- We all need to have a goal in life otherwise we will be lost in the cross roads of life, like Alice did in Wonderland.
11. Yaksha Prasnas:
- What is ego? – Ignorance is ego. Ego is result of ignorance of Self (our own Divinity).
- What is pretence (dambha)? – To show off one self as a greater being, like a donkey pretending to be a loin with loin's skin – as soon as it opens its mouth – the secret will be out!
- What is divine (daivam)? – Result of danam is daivam. If we give wholeheartedly, it will come back to benefit us only! Of course when we give we should not have arrogance that we are 'giving' – but need to do it as a blessing of God.
- What is cruelty (paisunyam)? – To point a finger (blaming) others for our problems is cruelty.
Just like to be able to arrange the puzzle pieces into a complete picture gives us the satisfaction of a job well done so also, if we have the whole picture of our life mapped out in front of us, then it will be easy to arrange the pieces of our life's puzzle. Most of us tend to live life mechanically attending to chores, solving one problem at work and another at home! Rarely do we give thought to the quality of life we are leading. We rarely wonder why we are on this planet and what the purpose of our life is.
If we want to get into a University or Program of our choice, we would work hard to get the appropriate grades, scores in exams, we would research the University by visiting it, contacting people who are currently attending the University or have graduated from it etc. Similarly, if we wanted to bake a chocolate cake for Dad's birthday, we would make sure we followed a good recipe to the "T". Unless we had at least a glimpse of the finished picture of a puzzle, we would be unable to complete it. Similarly, if we at least had a blueprint of our life then it would be so much easier! Here we are not talking of each and every detail. Just like the goal of attending college is to graduate from it and get a job so also the goal of human life is to graduate from this Earth. We can only graduate from the school called Earth if we learn our lessons so that we do not take re-birth. This graduation is called "moksha". This is liberation from unhappiness and pain and being happy forever.
Yaksha Prashna:
How does one become a Brahmin?: A person becomes a Brahmin by good conduct alone! One cannot become a Brahmin through birth, or heritage or by an intense study of the scriptures or by listening to the scriptures. Good conduct refers to living our life harmoniously in accordance with the ten values put forth by Manu Bhagavan.
Thank you!
Devender Akula and
Mekhala Girish ( Balavihar teachers Grade 8, Sunday A.M.)
