Hari Om Dear Parents,
Here is this week's update: Apr 30th 2021
As always we begin our class with Likhita Japa, Opening Prayers,
We heard the caupais of Ramayana which represents the Vibhishana geeta – Lord Rama responding to Vibhishna's question.
We also had kids prepare some Kahoot games related to the learnings from Vibhishna Geeta – Keys to success and used this to recap some of the learnings.
Keys to Success:
We continued the discussion of weapons that are needed in the battlefield when we are in front of the enemy. In the last session we covered a few such Weapons – The Shield, Sword and the Axe. In this session we covered Budhi , Bow and their symbolism.
Understanding (Buddhi): This is an astra (can be wielded from afar), to destroy deeply embedded vasanas (impressions from the past) that continue to rise up and cause mental agitations. Buddhi facilitates a clear, calm mind, which can then distinguish between right and wrong.
Story : We discussed the Story of travelers on their journey to the Himalayas asked by a celestial being to gather pebbles as many as they can. They were told that by the time they reach the destination they will be both Sad and happy. True to the saying they were happy as each pebble had turned into a gold coin and they were sad that they had only collected few pebbles!
In life, when we are growing up, we should collect as many pebbles as we can. Though they seem like only pebbles, they can turn into gold coins as we understand the meaning and purpose of these pebbles. Here the Pebbles refer to the words of wisdom of saints and sages; words of advice that we receive from parents and our well-wishers. Such pebbles make our missile of understanding in life. They show us the goal of life, the purpose of life.
We discussed a few such words of wisdom provided by our Pujya Gurudev
· What we each have is a gift from God, but what we do with what we have is our gift to God
· God never created you to fail in life.
Bow – Self Knowledge (Bara Bigyana)
Spiritual ignorance is our chief enemy and all the other negative tendencies that follow are its soldiers. This Ignorance can be destroyed with the bow (kodañda), that is the knowledge of the Self (bara bigyëna).
Story : We discussed the story of "mirrors in the moon village" where we see a lot of assumptions among the family members that had not seen a mirror before until a guru reveals they are seeing their own image in that piece of glass they were looking at. This is with the view to Drop assumptions and learn or understand based on Knowledge based facts.
We also discussed a story of a person asking Vishnu to give him his crown as we wanted to write the future of his son. Once he got the crown he saw lots of people and could not identify or locate his son to grant the wishes. Key take away: Because of the ego, we see the differences in the world and live a miserable life.
Scriptures say God is everywhere. If God is everywhere, there is no place where He is not. Meaning what? I too am God!....We did a bit of role play and asked youths to assume that they were god then what would they do and it was nice to see the positive impact things like eliminate hunger , Equal opportunities, treat everyone fairly , Eliminate pollution etc was brought up. This was an interactive session.
We concluded the session with Aarti, closing prayers and pledge.
Next Class : May 7th 2021
Thanks and Hari Om
Purnima and Shankar
