Hari Om Parents,
The sequence and summary of today's class are as follows
-Opening prayers and Om chanting
-Guru Stotram
-Today's lesson
Today's main story - King Prithu, a descendant of Dhruva. HIs Kingdom was prosperous and people were happy when he started ruling. The people were rejoicing for a very long time and had even stopped working. As time passed Mother Earth stopped giving, and there was a famine. The famine was not only of food, but also of arts, love and happiness. One day Mother Earth tells Prithu that although she can give more, all the seeds are buried inside. The people have to stop being lazy and word hard to bring them out, and she will then give all that her children desire. Under King Prithu's guidance, all the people worked hard and soon the earth became green again and everyone became happy. The King embraced the earth and called her his daughter, "Prithivi". We discussed how it's important to sow the seeds of hard work to achieve any goal we have. We also talked about how important it is to respect the Earth and her resources and as we say in our pledge, "producing more than what we consume and giving more than what we take".
One day the Sages, Sanat Kumaras, visit King Prithu and teach him many things as to how one should live. They talk about the six sharks that exist in the ocean of the world - lust, anger, greed, pride, delusion and jealousy. By trusting in God we can cross the ocean with ease.
Lust- excessive desire or craving for things. Example given - wanting to eat one or two candies is okay. But if you want to have all the candies for yourself and want to eat all of them without sharing it is lust. Such an intense desire is unhealthy. One can truly be happy by giving and sharing.
Anger - There can be many incidents that can make us angry, but if we are totally focussed on our goals, we will not be affected. One can say or do hurtful things when angry and we can end up losing many things.
Greed - Story of a KIng who gets his wish that everything he touches turns into gold, and how he ends up losing everything dear to him and suffers because of his own greedy wish. If we have a tight fist and keep holding on to things, we become miserable. We need to let go of the greed to be happy.
Delusion - Not seeing things the way they are, like seeing a hanging coat in the dark and getting that it's a ghost.
Pride & Jealously- We just touched upon these topics as we had discussed several related stories in earlier classes.
We then talked about what is the trick to get rid of these sharks in our mind - To see unity in diversity is the trick. The feeling of oneness dissolves all differences and helps us get rid of the sharks. Diversity is what makes the world interesting and beautiful....if we are able to recognize the unity in diversity.
We explained all these concepts with appropriate stories and examples.
Story of Sarah - A little girl who missed a muscle in her leg and had to wear a brace all the time. How she overcame the challenge and won races in her school's field day with sheer hard work and determination.
Story of King and the Wizard - A King, who was happy, handsome and rich was visited by a wizard. He offers to grant any wish that the King had. The KIng didn't have anything to ask then, but seeks the wizard after some years. The King now looked tired, obese and sad. He tells the wizard that he is neither handsome nor happy anymore and asks him to do some magic. The wizard tells him that there is a magic mirror in the mountains, and he must find it to regain his original form. The condition is that he has to go on foot early in the morning to find it. The King did this for many months, and found himself handsome and happy again. The daily exercise and the fresh mountain air were the actual magic there. This is another story to tell that one can achieve anything by letting go of laziness and working hard.
Activity - Cutting, and pasting of the six sharks and labelling them. As we ran out of time we asked the kids to complete the coloring part after class. Once they complete, it'll be great if you can send a picture of the activity sheet with their name written on it.
-Gita Chanting : Today we learnt Shlokas 17 and 18. The link to the video is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsyap5xf6qs&feature=youtu.be
Please encourage the kids to practice a few times before next class.
- Pledge and closing prayers.
We look forward to seeing the kids in the class next sunday.
Pranaam,
Vasudha & Neelima
