Hari Om Dear Parents,
Here is an update of : Apr 9th, 2021
Likhita Japa, Opening Prayers
Keys to Success:
After a quick recap of last class, we started discussing about the significance of horses and reins.
Horses : The 4 horses denote Strength (Balam), Discrimination (Viveka), Control of senses (Dama) and Caring for others (Parahita).
- Strength : We went over Gurudev's quote - 'I am the strength of the strong, devoid of desire and attachment'. We went over different desires in life and how we get attached to material objects, ultimately leading us in the path of Adharma. We asked kids to compare Ravana and Sita on their strength and had a good discussion on how to cultivate moral strength.
- Discrimination : To be able to discriminate right from wrong. Took examples of a school project situation where all kids put effort and one of them dont.
- Control of senses : We asked kids about their temptations and how they would control their senses. Once a monkey attended a satsang and wanted to practice meditation. It went and sat in meditation but was worried about food; it brought the food, placed it in a corner but the thought of not being able to reach once the meditation was over bothered him so much that it slowly kept it at a hand's distance, then put it in its mouth, swallowed it and went to sleep. We concluded that it was not supression of temptations but mastery of our sense organs.
- Caring for others : We went over how we should always put others first. We care for others because it always comes back to us multi-fold in other ways.
Reins : The 3 reins represent Forgiveness (Kshama), Compassion(Kripa) and Equanimity (Samata)
- Forgiveness : We asked kids why we needed to forgive others. They expressed that it would atleast bring peace to their minds. Rightly, said. We went over the story of Ekanatha Maharaja and Grandma's pet duck.
Showed them : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_AbkgFl99k&t=8s - Compassion: Compassion is to not only to feel for others but also to act. We discussed about Gandhiji's compassion towards others.
We showed them the following 2 videos and discussed on it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BUzj-zOya0&t=5s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUaelT-sjD8&t=19s - Equanimity : When things are going well, we are happy but the moment things go a bit wary, we become sad and succumb to the circumstances. We discussed how we should maintain evenness in our minds even under stress and how to be cheerful.
Bhagavad Gita : We revised 4 verses from Gita chanting. One of the kids led while rest of the class followed.
Aarthi and Pledge : Wrapped our class with Aarthi, Closing Prayers and the Pledge.
Next Class : Apr 16th 2021
Thanks and Hari Om
Purnima and Shankar
