Hari Om Parents,
We began with the Opening Prayers. We continued to learn Lingashtakam. Today it was a slightly abbreviated class due to 7th graders monthly program – we hope some of you got to watch it, the children did a wonderful job conveying message about dharma and righteousness utilizing Ramayana characters
We started the class with a question:
You have $ 500 dollars that you earned by working hard during summer; you want to donate it to a charity. Who among the following, in your opinion, deserves your charity? Why?
1. Blind man who is otherwise healthy and working as a violinist in a band
2. Orphanage for destitute children you have seen on internet, in your home town in India, that you have no direct contact with
3. Homeless person on roadside of inner city
4. St Jude Children Hospital
With this question we opened up the discussion regarding charity. Several students choose different options that they wanted to donate as their first choice, with various reasoning.
Taittriya Upanishad stated that we should give with faith, and give in plenty with modesty and sympathy. We have to do independent inquiry about the charitable organization or person that we want to donate. After having got convinced about the worthiness and legitimacy of the cause, charity should be pursued with open arms. Unfortunately in name of charity we do many things that destroy both the person who is giving and the recipient. The giver gains vanity while the recipient becomes lazy and idle. Charity should not bring the feeling of egoism and vanity in us. Hence it has to be given with modesty and sympathy. Sympathy will generate love in us and it is this love that will help us to identify with the cause. Then vanity and egoism will not develop, but it will lead to our self-unfoldment. Again once convinced about the good cause we should give and give in plenty with humility. You can only give what you have, hence first it is important for us to work hard and accomplish ourselves and then be generous in our charity.
We then showed youtube video of Pujya Gurudev talking about charity (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PY_bpxwMoog) – "He states that charity should not be like a river or tree that gives to all without questioning. Charity has to be done to the appropriate person or cause at the right time and in the right place. In addition we should give without any expectation in return. To ignore needs of others around is not religion. Religious unfoldment can reach only the heart that has steadily unrolled itself to invite into each chamber a wider circle of loving brother work" Even in Bhagavad Gita Sri Krishna says that this kind of charity is of the best (sattvika danam). . Henry Ford all also had beautifully stated "Help others. Only to help your own self."
The next question we had for the students was why should we give? Again there was a lively discussion with the students. We should do so because we have an obligation to return to someone who has helped us. When we look around and analyze our life don't we see that this body is a gift from our parents who have nourished and protected it; the food that we eat and the water that we drink belongs to the world; the air that we breathe and the sunlight that we get exposed to was given to us freely by the Lord; so many people have worked hard to make many different resources available to us which makes our life comfortable - so in this way if we analyze we owe a lot to the people around us and to the society at large. Hence it is important to be charitable. Charity does not mean only monetary help – any help we can give others is charity. Sometimes it is sharing our knowledge or sharing out time to comfort others or speaking nicely to someone in distress or doing physical labor for a good cause etc.. So charity can be performed in many different ways. Hence it is important for us to practice what our pledge states "producing more than what we consume and giving more than what we take". Here we shared story of teacher in India Mr Disale who recently won a million dollars for best teacher award. He immediately declared that he would share half of the prize money with the other finalist teachers so that their work of helping the students can go on … what a noble thought and selfless act. He himself was poor but wanted to see greater benefit being bestowed upon many more needy children through his action. This is a perfect example of sattvika charity.
After Charity the next very important aspect in the code of conduct is Sraddha, which is Faith.
What is Faith? Let's define Faith. (Students responded.)
What we know of faith is, we believe in something or someone and follow that. A simple example is, you are in a new town and you ask directions to a store or post office to a bystander and you follow his directions exactly. Why? Because you have faith that the person will direct you correctly, otherwise he will say, I don't know. We all function with this kind of faith in our lives. Faith is also that conviction within. As children you all have the faith or conviction that your parents will guide and support you no matter what and so you follow their directions (mostly I guess in important matters) with implicit faith. Sraddha as defined by Acharyas is Faith in the words of the Guru, and in the scriptures. Faith is a belief in what I do not know now, so that I may soon come to believe in.
Here is a true story to show a boy's complete faith in his father:
In 1989, there was a massive earthquake in Armenia. A devastated father realized that his son was in school and so he rushed to find out. The school building was flattened but the father went to the exact spot where the classroom was and began digging. He was discouraged by other parents and the fire chief and was told to accept reality and leave. But the father relentlessly continued digging and after 36 hours as he pushed a big boulder he heard his son's voice. The boy along with other classmates who survived were brought out. The boy told his dad, "I know you will come and get me. I told my friends you would save us and you did!" The boy had faith in his dad and that kept him alive and strong. More to follow …
Pranam,
Rukmani Sriram
Devender Akula
