Hari Om Parents,
Following was discussed in the e Balavihar class on April 19.
1. Class was conducted again using Zoom conferencing technology – thanks to all the hard work by the coordinators/administrators.
2. Initial prayers.
3. We chanted 30 verses of Bhagavad Gita chapter 1. Bhagavad Gita Chanting was led by Pranav and Avani.
4. Varun Mannam led the class in chanting all the six verses of Tapovan Shatakam.
5. We continued with the values taught by Sri Krishna in Chapter XII of Bhagavad Gita, where He enumerates 35 virtues or gems for us to live by. Bhagawan says he is showing us these gems so that we can make use of them and be happy. He says "anyone who lives by these virtues is My darling". Gem 1 – Hate None (advesta sarvabhutanam): Gem 2 – Be Friendly; Maitrah; Gem 3 – Be Compassionate; Karunah; Gem 4 – Free from attachment, Nirmamah; Gem 5 – Free from ego, Nirahamkarah; Gem 6 - Equal minded in pleasure and pain, samaduhkhasukhah and Gem 7 – Forgive, ksami have been taught so far.
6. In the class that took place on April 19th, JCHYKs, Ujjayi and Rithika, taught the 8th grade class the next two gems in the curriculum. We are proud to present unedited version of their write up so we can all feel proud of the wonderful work that they have done.
7. The key questions we JHYCKs asked were: "what right do we have to judge others?" and "how can we calm the river that is our mind." In respect to the first gem, To Be Ever Content, we began by asking the class what they thought the word meant. Students answered "happiness and being ok with what you have." After telling them they were correct in their definitions, we spoke about the linear path that money and greediness puts you on. Essentially, it is how the want for more money drives everything some people do and how once we are greedy it is hard to escape that. To keep the session interactive we asked the students to name some of the wealthiest people they could think of along with the greatest sports stars of all time. Although they answered the questions it took them some time to come up with the names. We then asked them a second set of questions and asked them to think about the answers mentally and raise their hands when they thought of someone. The questions were: think about a teacher who has helped you, think about a role model who you look up to, think about someone you can trust wholeheartedly. Students took just a few seconds to raise their hands and we asked them why they thought answering the second set of questions was much easier. They responded by saying that it was because they interact with these people often and think about them in tough times. We reminded them that these people that they thought about in the second set of questions are those whom we care for and who care for us regardless of their wealth or power. Before discussing a story we asked them to think about this statement: let us be content with power, prosperity, and position but also be the ones who care.
8. We then told the following story:
Once, two mules were going with their masters. One was loaded with oats as his master was a farmer; the other was loaded with gold coins as the master was a banker. Both were on the same path travelling from one village to another. The mule carrying the gold coins was trotting with full pride as he was aware of the value of the gold coins he was carrying compared to the oats of the other mule. Half the way, they met with robbers who heard the clicking noise of the coins on the mule's back. They beat the mule with sticks and stole the gold coins. The other mule felt sorry and said "being rich is important, but it also has its drawbacks"
9. We reminded the students that being rich isn't everything and essentially has its drawbacks even though they are not obvious. To wrap up the discussion about gem 8 we gave them some food for thought and asked them to think about something that they could have an infinite amount of without it causing problems (we wanted them to understand that there is no such thing and that too much of anything is never good).
10. We then moved the discussion to Gem 9 which is "Steadfast in Meditation." We started the conversation by laying the fundamentals through the discussion of some key words. We talked about who a Yogi is and what having Laser focus means. We told the children that their minds are like a river and they are controlled by memories of the past, fears of the future, anxieties of the present... all of these cause flooding of the mind. Through yoga and meditation the goal is to have no vasanas (disturbances within oneself) and we discussed how to meditate briefly as well. To close the discussion for the class we reminded the students that opportunities to learn concepts like this are rare and should be taken as golden opportunities to grow for themselves. We also gave them something to do throughout the week and told them that every time they think about Balavihar in the following week they should in the next 5 seconds of having that thought try to apply what they learned in the last class or at least spend a few minutes meditating at that moment. All in all, we JCHYKs had a great time working with the 8th grade students as we learned much more about these concepts and enjoyed imparting what we knew to these students.
11. As you can see the JCHYKs – Rithika and Ujjayi – did a wonderful job conducting the class and explaining these difficult topics to the students – we all know they connect better with the students than we do. They also serve as a great role models for the kids.
Pranam,
Mekhala Girish
Devender Akula
Sun AM 8th Grade Teachers
