Hari om everyone,
Class started with meditation and chanting. We have finished learning all of the verses that we were scheduled for this year. We have finished learning aaditya hRudayam and BG ch. 1. Below are the links to the audio of the entire set of verses.
Last week's Brain Teaser: What is it that even a blind person can see? And no, the answer is not darkness :). Think, think!
Answer: Dream! There is no stopping for that. Any kind of disability does not come in the way of having a dream or making it a reality. Reminds of Helen Keller's saying - "The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision."
Today's Brain Teaser: Have you seen or met anyone who has never lied in his entire life?
We revisited the topic of 'viShvaroopa' of the Lord. We saw that the Lord is in each and everything. As a natural progression, Arjuna was overwhelmed with reverence, that turned into devotion towards the Lord. This brings us to the 12th chapter of bhagavadgeeta called 'bhakti yogaH'.
A question arose in his mind. "Krishna, as children, we learnt Vedas in the gurukulam. There, we are taught that the Lord is formless, imperishable, unchangeable, unmanifest, etc. But now, you have shown me this unfathomable, enormous, gigantic form of yours! Which one should I worship and what kind of devotion is dearest to you?"
Arjuna wanted Krisha to give him a readymade answer served on a platter so that he could simply take that path. But does the Lord give answers so easily?! He makes Arjuna think through and find answers himself.
Krishna explains to him the true aspects of each of the path. To develop devotion towards anything, one needs to have 'shraddhaa' (faith). Without shraddhaa, no devotion can develop.
We established this with a couple of examples - the story of the Monk and the King. The king had no value for idol worship. A monk came to visit the king at his palace. He asked the king to disrespect a picture of his great great grandfather. The kind hadn't seen him anyway (just as he hadn't seen God), so why can't he be disrespectful to a picture? It is not the real person anyway! The king understood the depth of the monk's words. The monk had taught him that the value of an idol is not in the material it is made up of, but in the thought that invokes divinity in the object.
While scrolling through our Facebook feed, we express our emotions to different pictures differently. Facebook even gives a few select emojis to express our emotions. Our computer screen was the same. A picture of Coronavirus is a bunch of pixels and so is the picture of a baby shared by a friend. How come it generates different emotions in us based on the structure of the pixels?! Similarly, the 'moorti' (we prefer not to call it an idol) is an embodiment of the attributes of the Lord. It means something higher to us than just a piece of stick or stone or mud (whatever it is made up of).
We discussed how in our schools (6th grade) here, children are taught about World History. In the tiny segment that is reserved for Hinduism, a lot is spoken about 2 biggest misnomers - one is casteism and the other is idol worship! They are presented in a belittling fashion. It is our responsibility to understand these aspects of our culture in their correct sense. When we know and understand the truth, we will develop more faith and love for the rich fabric of our culture! This love builds into devotion and as a result, we become better humans.
Devotion is 'not just rituals'!! Devotion towards the Lord is shown by every selfless act we undertake, big or small. When we have faith in the higher good, we will set our egotistic agenda aside and act selflessly! That's the truest form of devotion.
We will discuss more regarding types of devotion in the upcoming classes.
Until then, happy contemplating!
