1. We began with the Opening Prayers.
2. Today was an abbreviated class, as it was the Balavihar house inaugural session!!!
3. We briefly discussed again about Vedas. Sanskrit word sruti means - that which is heard. Vedas are not composition of any one human being, it was revealed to the Rishis in their deep meditation. For this reason they are also called apaurusheya -not of human origin. Vedas are considered to be the breath of God. Just like our breath happens naturally and effortlessly, the knowledge effortlessly was revealed by the Lord to great Rishis who had purified their minds with single pointed meditation. Just like on a radio station when we tune to a particular frequency we hear the music from that station; similarly when the Rishis tuned their minds to the frequency or vibrations of the revelations of the Lord they were able to receive this divine knowledge. The Rishis did not take any personal credit for this. So in summary, Vedas are breath of the Lord – eternal, revealed knowledge. The Vedas were classified into four by Sage Veda Vyasa – Rg, Yajur, Sama and Atharvana Vedas.
4. We briefly gave overview of our scriptures - Four Vedas, four Upavedas – Ayuveda, Dhanurveda, Gandhava Veda, Sthapatya Veda.
5. Smrtis; Ithihasa (Ramayana & Mahabharata) & Purnanas (18 Puranans & 46 Upapuranas) – discussed last class.
6. In addition there are six philosophies (Sad Darshanas) - Nyaya, Vaiseshika, Yoga, Mimamsaka, Vedanta & Samkya.
7. In addition knowledge of every field of worldly science, Sadangas (six limbs) – Siksha (phonetic), Kalpa (religious rites), Vyakarana (grammar), Niruta (etymology), Chandas (prosody) & Jyotisa (astronomy).
8. Students were told not to get bogged down with the details but to appreciate the vast amount of knowledge our fore fathers had in so many different fields of knowledge and how systematic & scientific their approach was…
9. Coming to the house inaugural all the students were divided up into break rooms along with their mentors they were given a task - based upon the theme of compassion / Daya (which is our theme for this Balavihar year). They were given a scenario where they came back 15 years from now to the ashram, they had about $1 million that they can use to solve any one societal problem. Different houses choose different issues such as eradicating poverty, fighting hunger, fighting inequality based on either color, race and preferences. They had to work as a team and come up with ideas how they going to tackle the issue that they choose both with and without money. It was very impressive to see how all these kids came out with different ideas within such a short period of time working remotely. At end of about 40 minutes couple of kids from each house did their presentation to everyone, I'm sure some of you must have seen this and enjoyed it. We personally were very amazed at the amount of talent and ideas that the kids have - to come up with beautiful ideas in short period of time (we both were mentors for Arjuna Arrows).
Final tally for Sunday AM was:
Krishna's Cowboys – 861
Arjuna's Arrows – 836
Durga's Daredevils – 802
Bajrangi's Bolts – 740
Congratulations to all the kids!!! Be tuned more activities to come through out the year…
Pranam,
Rukmani Sriram
Devender Akula
