We would like to start this week's summary of Balavihar with a meeting with parents (you all) on Oct 3, 2020.
We had a good participation from the parents. We made a slide deck to show the parents what we are going to cover this year. The agenda of the meeting was about the syllabus for this year and the general class structure, the class & zoom meeting expectations, how we will communicate (whatsapp, email, blog, meetings etc.) with students & parents. We also covered what games, Kahoot & group event[s] we are planning this year.
We shared snapshots of the slide deck we covered in the class (about Karma), some games we played with them including a "reading relay" called popcorn reading, and some funny experiences with the kids. We then talked about any questions they have and how we can help each other to make the class fun for the students. The parents showed interest and we plan to have more such meetings to share feedback with each other.
In the Balavihar class on Oct 4, 2020, we did a recap on Karma and started Dharma. Our plan is to talk about the concepts of Karma & Dharma: talk about Law of Action (Karma), understand the facets of Dharma we should be aware of and then apply these to understand the great personalities from Mahabharata that we plan to cover in the subsequent weeks of Balavihar.
The recap was done in the class interactively this week. However, the class showed interest in doing Kahoot. So, we will try to switch to Kahoot in the upcoming classes. The recap covered the fundamentals of the Law of Karma where an action will have its consequence and that consequence can come immediately, later in the life or in the next life. We also covered the sins of Mind, Body and Speech that we must avoid all the time.
We started Dharma by discussing the difference between the convention meaning that associates the word with Religion and other deeper interpretations that the word means to Hindus. The root word "Dhri" means "to support" or "to uphold". It also means the inherent nature or the "Law of Being". Eg. The inherent nature of sugar is to be sweet or the inherent nature of fire is to be hot. Similarly, the ultimate inherent nature of humans is Divine. The essential nature is inside the changing body, mind & ego. And we need to attempt to identify with The Inner Divine.
We then talked about 4 types of Dharma - "Svadharma, Paradharma, Paramdharma & Adharma". We talked about a short story about how a Brahmin, who was teaching his students, saved a cow from some hooligans by lying when he was put in a spot when some passerby put him in a spot. The class did very well by associating the 4 types of Dharma with actions by characters in the story.
We then read a story in our "popcorn reading" session. This time we transitioned very quickly and students had a lot of fun. The story, "Beware of the Hunter", talks about an important message that a saint preaches to the birds. However, the birds remember the message but do not incorporate it. Thus, they simply chant the message instead of following it and get caught by the Hunter. We discussed how we too learn important messages but do not internalize them.
We then talked about Sanatana Dharma, what it means to Hindu civilization and how it is the Eternal Way - Something that is "always new" and stands the test of time, being widespread enough to incorporate various philosophies without compromising on its ancient values. We talked about the practice and doing our Duty. This is more important than asking questions.
The ten-fold forms of Duty were discussed in the Manu Bhagwan Shloka -
"धृतिः क्षमा दमोऽस्तेयं शौचमिन्द्रियनिग्रहः । धीर्विद्या सत्यमक्रोधो दशकं धर्मलक्षणम् ॥ ९२ ॥"
The ten forms - (1) Steadiness (2) Forgiveness, (3) Self-control, (4) Abstention from unrighteous appropriation, (5) Purity, (6) Control of the Sense-organs, (7) Discrimination, (8) Knowledge, (9) Truthfulness, and (10) Absence of anger will be discussed in more details in subsequent class.
The structure of Dharma is anchored in following Duties. We talked about the difference between Rights and Duties and what happens if we focus too much on Rights but neglect doing our Duties.
Please Note: We gave a home assignment for the students to think about roles around them eg. say a Teacher, Mother, Father, Governor etc. and to see how those roles would work if they areRights based vs Duty based.
So, now that we know what Dharma is and what its 10 forms are, how do we know how well we are following it? We then talked about the Dharma Thermostat: a way to measure how you are following Dharma.
As usual, we covered Geetha Dhyanam and Geeta Shlokas. A few student volunteers read the shlokas and we all repeated after them. The class finished after doing Aarti and the Pledge.
We will continue talking about the ten-forms of Duty as per Manu Bhagwan's Shloka in the next class.
