नमस्ते अस्तु भगवन विश्र्वेश्र्वराय महादेवाय त्र्यम्बकाय त्रिपुरान्तकाय
त्रिकालाग्निकालाय कालाग्निरुद्राय नीलकण्ठाय मृत्युंजयाय सर्वेश्र्वराय सदाशिवाय
श्रीमन् महादेवाय नमः
Maha Mrityunjaya Mantra
ॐ त्र्यम्बकं यजामहे सुगन्धिं पुष्टिवर्धनम् |
उर्वारुकमिव बन्धनान्मृत्योर्मुक्षीय माऽमृतात् ||
2. We started the class with Short Activity - From the textbook, The Missing Cause/Effect, was done for students – they were given causes and asked to predict effects and given effects so that they can predict causes – so that the connection between cause and effect was reinforced for them.
3. "I know not what the future holds, but I know who holds the future". Students were asked to comment about this statement. After our discussion the conclusion was that we ourselves write our own story. We decide what goes in our story and what does not. We decide the person we want to be.
4. Carpenters reward
Once a fine carpenter approached his boss and said that his was getting too old and he wanted to retire. The owner looked at the carpenter and said that you worked for me faithfully so many years, can you build one more house for a friend of mine, since you do such a good job. The carpenter grudgingly agreed but his heart was not in the job. He managed to complete the home. The homeowner later gave the keys of that house to him and said this is my gift for all the years of your hard work. The carpenter was shocked. If he knew he was building his own house he would have been more careful. He built his home haphazardly. Similarly we tend to build our life haphazardly through thoughtless actions and reactions. Life is a "do-it-yourself for yourself" project! We have to realize that we are Creator's masterpiece. There is none other like us in the world. We all are unique in our own ways. What a tiny needle can do a razor will not be able to. What water can do gasoline cannot. We all have potential to become something great. We are the authors of our life.
5. Right kind of effort
Once a giant ship engine failed. Many experts came and looked at it but could not figure out how to make it work. Finally an old man came, who worked on ships all through his life came and looked at the engine, pulled out a hammer and tapped gently on the engine. The engine started to work. The owners were very happy. A few weeks later the owners got a bill from the old man for $1000, they were shocked to see the bill. The only man explained that the tapping cost was $2 and the knowledge to know where to tap was the remaining $998. Inference; do we know where exactly to tap? Do we know what kind of right efforts we need to plan to achieve the goals in our life?
6. Willingness to change
Reportedly eagle can live up to 70 years only when it makes a conscious decision to change at age 40. By age 40, its talons (claws) can no longer grab a prey, the peak is bent and the heavy feathers make it difficult to fly. The Eagle has only two choices either to die or go through the pain of changing itself. To change it takes about 150 days. The Eagle will have to go to the mountaintop knock off the beak, pluck out the talons and pluck out heavy feathers. Over the period of time few months, new talons and new feathers will grow back allowing the Eagle to fly again. So with this change he will have extended his life for another 30 years! Are we ready to change your bad habits of thinking and living so we can accomplish our goals?
7. Am The Author - Life Story - We looked at a life story of a person, that we can identify with upto the point in his life when he starts his professional career and asked students to predict, what might have happened next in that person life? Students responded with a sequence of events that typically follow once a person begins his career. Upon further probing one student correctly guessed that this life story was Pujya Gurudev's life story. We therefore moved on to look at Gurudev's life story after his meeting with Swami Sivananda, his inner calling that changed his life and his Divine Mission. Brief clip of Gurudev's life documentary from youtube was shown https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKuK7dKGlw&list=PLX43msj4fJmTQS08ixzP5HpNIlxFISyvU&index=7, we will show more in later classes. If He Can, We Too Can - First, we begin with making small changes in our lives. We analyze our lives and learn to change our habits, our way of living, and thinking. To demonstrate how a change can be brought about, an activity was introduced.
Analyze Detect Fix
We teachers gave an example each and students followed with their examples. We encouraged each one of them to keep a log of their habits, what shortcomings they detect in them along with a plan to fix those shortcomings. This activity will be done throughout the year.
8. Our Scriptures
When Swami Chinmayanandaji was asked "Who is the author of Hinduism?" He replied can you tell me who is the author of physics? Gurudev replied there is no one author for physics as many scientists with their discoveries added to the knowledge base which constitutes the physics subject. In the same way there is no one author for Hinduism. Vedas are not opinion of anyone individual. Hinduism is a science of living. We reviewed our Hindu Scriptures, which are our life guides. For Hindu culture the principal sourcebook are Vedas. Also termed as sruti or revealed knowledge. The Veda which was originally one was classified into four by Sage Veda Vyasa. Veda is derived from Sanskrit root "vid" "to know", and can be generally translated as treasure of knowledge, or the source or means of knowledge (more on vedas in next class).
The second category of Scripture is Smrti. Smrti means to remember. Smrti sastras are Dharma sastras that describe ethical and moral conduct and duty. Popular one is Manu smrti. This is a knowledge that is been taught and spoken from memory. Hence the method of teaching will differ from person to person.
Itihasas - the meaning of the word itihasas is - thus it was, as it happened. These historical events that took place in the past, that we haven't seen it ourselves, but it has been reported to us by others. This study is not just for learning some factual information but through the history we want to discover the ultimate Truth. Two great and well known itihasas are the Ramayana, written by Sage Valmiki and the Mahabharata, written by Sage Veda Vyasa. These great epics reveal the history of humanity as a whole.
Puranas - Purana means ancient but timeless and eternal. In puranic literature the absolute reality is revealed by unique method of story-telling. There are 18 puranas with different names such as Siva purana, Visnu purana etc. Bhagavatam is one of the most well-known Purana. These puranas were also written by Sage Veda Vyasa. In addition there are 46 Upapuranas. To be continued …
We wish You all a Very Happy Devi Navaratri and Vijaya Dasami. Be Safe and be healthy.
Pranam,
Rukmani Sriram
Devender Akula
