Hari Om! dear Parents,
Happy Deepavali greetings to everyone!
We started our class with the beginning prayers followed by
progressive meditation with relaxation.
Revised 3 verses from Lingashtakam and learned the 4th verse
We chanted verses 5 and 6 of chapter 2 from the Bhagavad Gita along
with Pujya Swamiji.
Our lesson for today was to learn about the life and contributions of
some gurus and talk about our rich guru parampara. We had talked about
Shri Veda Vyasa in our earlier class.
In this class we talked about Sri Adi Shankara.
Talked about his early life, his guru and all his contributions to
writing bhashyas or commentaries of various Vedantic texts.
Talked about the monasteries he established in the four corners of India.
Talked about his contributions to the revival of Hinduism and the
preservation of our rich cultural heritage.
Concluded Shankara was not a mere personality, he was an institution.
Our next Saint in the discussion was Swami Sivananda (see attached documents)
Shri Tapovanji Maharaj (see attached documents)
Talked About Gurudev's early life, education and his first job.
Talked about his assignment in Rishikesh and meeting with Swami Sivananda.
Talked about his intense quest for knowledge and desire to study our scriptures.
Swami Sivananda gave sanyasa to Gurudev and gave him the name Swami
Chinmayananda.
Talked about Swamiji's learning with his teacher Swami Tapovan, his
love and compassion to serve and educate the common man
about our scripture and his divine mission leading to the setting up
of the new organization Chinmaya mission,
Talked about Swamiji's teaching throughout the world and the opening
of various Chinmaya centers across India and the world.
Talked about Swamiji's immense contributions to writing commentaries
on various Vedantic texts and books.
People lovingly called him Gurudev
Gurudev like Adi Shankara was an institution.
We also discussed about our stage show coming up on December 18th.
We concluded the class with the children taking turns to sing the
arathi and reciting the pledge.
Our next BV class is on November 20th.
Pranams
Uma and Nirmala
