Hari om everyone,
We started our class with meditation and chanting. We learnt aaditya hRudayam till verse 20. Below is the recording. Since the number of verses are increasing, we have decided to do half of the BG ch. 1 each week. (We have finished learning the entire chapter already.) Hence, we chanted until verse 25 today.
Last week's Brain Teaser: Tell me something about that which never was and never will be! (na bhooto na bhaviShyati). What is it?
Answer: Today! It never existed before nor will it ever come again!! That's why it is called 'present'. Let's live it to the best possible extent.
Today's Brain Teaser: Which is the best and most useful flower in the world and why? Feel free to dig for answers. You may learn something you never knew!
After discussing the previous Brain Teasers, we continued our discussion - the 'vibhooti-s of the Lord'. We continued to understand the 'rope snake example'. It led us to another example, the example of a dreamer. Once a dreamer (I) was standing in a checkout line at Costco and started daydreaming. The dream had multiple layers, meaning - dreams within the dream! After a lot of funny and scary events, I woke up... only to find out that the fact that I was standing in the Costco line itself, was a dream, to begin with!! I was just in my bed, imagining to be at Costco, that turned into a forest where I was sleeping under a tree when I was swallowed by a python and I was struggling inside the python's tummy to escape! :)).
When I kept zooming out I saw the reality from sleeping in the python's tummy; sleeping under the tree; daydreaming in the Costco line; dreaming in my bed... What if I zoom out further from my waking state also?!! That is the true awakening to my real nature.
This is a quest of many births! We have to contemplate on this continually and realize the meaning of these intense words. These thoughts we share in class function like seeds. Contemplation, intrigue and effort act as soil, water and the Sun that allow these seeds of thought to sprout and grow!
The Lord while explaining His true nature to Arjuna, said, I am the very essence of what makes an object to be defined as that! To explain better, He said, I am the sapidity (wetness) in the water. I am the heat in the fire, etc. He also proclaimed that I am the best of the bests. In this chapter, Krishna enumerated a few categories and identified who He is.
Funnily enough, after explaining the concept, we named the categories and the students identified most of them themselves! Here they are -
Us: He is the brightest of all luminaries. Who is He?
Us: Biggest of all bodies of water?
Us: Best of the rivers?
Us: Best of the mountains?
Us: Among seasons?
Us: Well, Spring is said to be the King of all seasons because it brings forth life! The leaves spring through after a long spell of winter; bulbs break the ground and put forth flowers; bunnies, deer all over... So, spring is said to the best of the seasons! Yay! Spring :)
Us: Now, how about among the birds?
Us: Right, Eagle it is! How about among animals?
Us: Among all knowledge?
Us: Well, close enough... The knowledge we get from the scriptures, knowledge about the Self. What about in ALL living beings?
Us: Well, kind of... The Lord is that awareness, that consciousness in all beings that makes them alive! If there is no awareness there is no life. I wouldn't wake up in the morning if that awareness of existence left my body, isn't it?! That very reason why a living being can be categorized as a living being is bhagavaan Himself!
See you soon in class. Until then, happy planning for the teaching assignment :).
Regards,
Rashmi and Kishore.
Rashmi and Kishore.
