Hari Om! Parents,
We started the class with our beginning prayers followed by the vedic chants,
Om namaste astu..
Trayambakam yajamahe....
We then chanted verses 22,23 from chapter 1 of the Bhagavad Gita along with Pujya Swamiji.
Some of the children led us to chant the previous verses from this chapter. They did a good job.
This week's our curriculum was based on 2 values viz,
1. Don't cover other's wealth,
Discussed the Ishavasya mantra,
Om Ishavasya idagum sarvam…. which states that the whole universe is pervaded by the lord and how we can and should become one with very aspect of the universe.
We then talked about why we seek to covet someone’s wealth.
The children came up with the bad qualities namely, desire, greed and jealousy which makes us commit these wrong actions.
We then told 2 stories to reinforce these values,
One was about a greedy fisherwoman who lost everything she had achieved gained due to greed.
The second one was the famous story of the little boy Satyakama, the disciple who went to Rishi Gautama for Brahma Vidya.
Satyakama followed his guru's instructions and finally became a great Brahmajnani imparting and spreading knowledge.
He also followed the teachings he learnt from his mother that the whole world is one great family.
Finally we concluded that seeing the world as one family is the key not to covet anyone's wealth
Our second value was based on a commandment from the Kathopanishad.
"Arise Awake"….
These lines were made famous by Swami Vivekananda which goes,
“Arise Awake and stop not till you reach your goal."
Discussed that by thinking independently and surrendering to the guru with faith we can achieve both short term and long term goals. Also discussed about both long term and short term goals in a student’s life.
The children watched last year's presentation of this value, based on 2 stories which were,
King Bruce the Scottish king, who retrieved his lost kingdom by watching a spider who built a beautiful after repeatedly failing 6 times
The second story was the story of Shri Hanumanji who could cross the mighty ocean to find Sitaji, in Lanka, only because of his surrender and faith to Shri Rama.
Pranams
Nirmala and Purnima
Announcements
Please look out for WA messages regarding our satsang with Swamiji
Our next class is on February 7th
