HariOm Parents
Greetings and namaste. We started with our usual pleasantries, followed by daily prayers and Krishashtakam.
We played the traditional Kahoot game to recap last week's story of lord Krishna and went into the logistics of next month's 4th grade monthly program. A few quick pointers
- A few kids may be tapped to play the role of storytellers in addition to their roles
- Each kid will
- will have an appropriate prop to depict their character - please let them use their imagination ( props need not be extravagant and think creatively and recycle where possible) and parents please help with the prop
- Write One sentence what / describe the guru is
- Write one sentence what the guru teaches, help them to tie into their contemporary experiences
- Memorize so that they can tell without looking at the prop.
Note: The time for each kid is between 30-45 sec and no more than 1 min, we have 24 teachers, introduction etc. and the slotted time is 15 - 20 min. Appreciate all the parents being cognizant of the timings and adhere to them as closely as possible. The plans for the concept of the presentation are still being worked
After discussing the logistics, we jumped into discussing one of the gurus - Pigeon. The folklore around the world, including India is full of stories of pigeons. Pigeons are symbols of love, purity (white ones) and were used in olden days as mail carriers. However sage Dattatreya saw and learned a completely different lesson from a pair of pigeons who he observed during many of his travels. On one such travels while he was resting under a tree - a pair of pigeon parents leave their nest with their young children to find food for them. Upon returning, they see their kids on the ground , trappedin a hunter's trap struggling and dead. Having seen the fate of kids. the mother pigeon over comes with grief and jumps down into the trap without even thinking for a moment and dies. The father pigeon observers the kids, the mother all die and now is full of sorrow, grief and loses any semblance of wisdom and succumbs to the worst fears and thinks - what use this world is to me without my dear loved wife and kids, what is the purpose of my life if I do not have my family etc... Thinking such, he too jumps into the trap and dies.
Isn't this situation all too familiar, many a times we are so attached to certain things in life- the old video game or a close friend , sibling, parents or something we think is very dear and are under the impression that we cannot live without it/ them. This irrational attachment skews our thinking when something bad befalls them. We react hysterically, act irrationally with irreversible consequences. The guru in pigeon is teaching us to not be attached and not act irrationally when calamity befalls our near and dear ones. We often confound love and attachment as the same, in fact they are exactly opposite. A person of love can never act irrationally and a person of attachment can never act rationally in times of crisis. Attachment prevents one from doing the right thing during crisis leading to consequences, that one repents at leisure later. T
The epic of Mahabharata is in some ways based upon this concept of attachment vs action/ dharma. One one side was the multitude of Kauravas attached to power, kingdom, throne etc. doing things that no one his sane state would do and on the other side were the five pandava brothers - always acting thoughtful even when going through turmoils - loss of throne, kingdom, wife etc... They acted rationally all the time and always picked up the broken pieces and put them back together and marched forward and whenever they were tempted to act irrationally, lord Krishana was on their side to guide them from doing it. Such is the power of their bhakthi, but it is a story for a later time.!!
With this we concluded the story and jumped to weekly Bhagavad gita slokas and concluded with aarti and pledge
Until we meet next time
Shivram & Meena
Upcoming event: 4th grade monthly program scheduled for Mar 19th 2021
