Hari Om! Parents,
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!
We started the class with the beginning prayers and then the children
took turns to chant 5 verses of Chapter 2 of the Bhagavad Gita.
We would like the children to practice these verses at home by
chanting along with our Pujya Swamiji. The video is available on
Geetachanting.org
Our curriculum for the day was on Do your duties.
We recapped the introductory lesson about the 3 sections of the Vedas, namely,
Karma Kanda -- Deals with rituals which helps us to purify our mind
Upasana Kanda-- Deals with meditative practices which helps to cure
the restlessness of the mind
Jnana Kanda-- Deals with the knowledge of the self
Discussed the following points:
Karma Kanda dealing with Action is the expression of life in any living being
Shri Krishna teaches us 'Niyatam Kuru karma tvam....' ,do your duties
but with the right attitude.
With this attitude one can purify our mind and dilute our likes and
dislikes, or Raaga and Dvesha.
Discussed, our activities can be further classified into 4 categories
The children gave us examples in the life of a student for the following:
1. Nishiddha Karma-- Actions condemned by the scriptures, e.g.,
cheating on a test, plagiarizing, stealing etc..
2. Kamya Karma-- Actions prompted by desires keeping dharma in mind,
e.g., studying for a test,
3. Nitya Karma-- Daily duties to be performed by every individual
according to the stage in life they are in right now. As a student, to
study, helping with chores at home etc..
4.Naimittika Karma, Special duties for special situations. Duties
towards society, nation, world, egs., caring for the environment,
volunteering, donating to a charity etc..
Discussed and recapped:
Our human body is the result of our past good actions.
Continue the performance of good actions so that our future will be
bright and we can progress spiritually.
We discussed the types of karma that we carry (different from four
types of Karma above)
SANCHITA KARMA – store of all past karmas done by body, speech and mind.
PRARABHDHA KARMA- Karmas that come to fruition at the time of an
individual taking birth
AGAAMI KARMA – Karmas of the present which will yield results in the future.
What we meet in life = Prarabdha
How we meet it = PURUSHARTHA
As humans we can use the intellect and the freedom to discriminate and
act nobly in any situation we face.
Discussed with examples from the Puranas and present-day celebrities
in the sports, entertainment, and scientific world about how we can
turn our misfortunes in life into a blessing!
Discussed about our class performance on December 18th.
The children finally took turns to sing the Gurudev arathi and recited
the pledge.
Pranams
Uma and Nirmala
