Hari OM all,
We had a successful first class of the year! We had full attendance in the class. We discussed the syllabus that we are covering this year as well as the general dos/don'ts and class structure. We would like the class to keep being fun and participative, so having class discussions will be a big part of our lessons. There are two fundamental points we are expecting the students to pick up on - "What are the 5 things you have learnt in this class for this day" and "What is your point of view or your interpretation about what you have learnt".
There was a lot of enthusiasm and participation in the class as we played some ice-breaker games. One of the games was to get to know each other through questions. We broke the class into smaller groups using the Zoom break-out room feature. The students then went over 10 questions (that we had given) about themselves, their hobbies, interests, etc. Once the class re-assembled in the main room, we asked one student questions about the other one or two students in their sub group and continued to do this until we had asked every student to do this. There were some good laughs and giggles that came out of this activity! We also played a game of story completion in which each student used one word from a given list of random words to add onto a story.
We started the syllabus material by talking about "Karma and the Laws of Karma". There was good class participation at this time as well. We talked about the essential nature of Karma and how every action has its own equal reaction. It is then impossible for us to be action-less. Even doing nothing is considered an action! We elaborated on how what we do in the present is related to what we did in the past, and how what we do now will affect what we do in the future. The reaction to the action will come at its own time, whether it be instantaneous or after 100 births or more. It is difficult to predict the time of the reaction, so we might as well perform good actions to be saved from the consequences of bad actions.
The last part of the lesson was gIta dhyAnam and gIta chanting. Some students were asked to repeat line by line. We also learnt about Sanskrit letter pronunciation as a foundation for beginning the gIta chanting.
We will continue the Karma discussion in the next class. See you all next week!
Best,
Partha Turaga & Nikhita Kashi
