Hari Om Dear Parents,
Here is this week's update: May 14th 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.
Keys to Success:
We continued our discussion of armor of Devotion to the Guru to protect ourselves. We chanted Guru Stotram and We continued the learning and interpretation of the Guru Stotram verses 10 – 14.
We revisited the topic of Weapons needed in the battlefield when we are confronted with our enemy. We briefly touched upon the various weapons we have discussed so far and then did a deep dive on Quiver and the Arrows.
Quiver: The Quiver represents the calm and quite mind. Just like the Quiver which holds the arrows need to be firm and steady else would not be able to hold the arrows…The mind needs to be pure and Steady to handle the challenges we face in life. The Lord says that "the pure (amala) and steady mind (acala mana) is the quiver. A pure mind is always ready, steady, and alert.
We compared the mind which is flow of thoughts to the water flowing in a river. We used pictures of various situations to understand pure and impure mind.
Story: We talked about the pizza orders and the Hare and tortoise race story to discuss the importance of a pure and steady mind.
In this lesson, we discussed that:
· To be steady, is to stick to your decision; being steady means, direct and sure in movement.
· To have pure thoughts, we must guard where we go, what we associate with or befriend, and what we do, hear and see!
Arrows: Typically a Quiver holds many arrows. The arrows (silímukha) are quietude of mind (sama), the five noble values of life (jama - non-injury, truthfulness, celibacy, non-stealing, and not hoarding), and following the daily disciplines niyama (austerity, study of the scriptures, purity of mind, contentment, and worship of God).
We started our discussion with the five noble values of lives:
· Non-injury, avoidance of violence, is ahimsa in Sanskrit. Ahimsa refers to physical violence as well as the violence of thoughts and words. The practice of ahimsa includes constant vigilance and observation of ourselves when interacting with others, taking note of our thoughts and our intentions. To practice non-injury, one must replace hatred with love and cultivate forgiveness.
o We discussed the Story of Gautama buddha and an attempt by one of his disciples to kill him deceitfully to take his place, role and respect. However, that did not work out as Gautama Buddha did not hurt or harm anyone and thus no one would harm him either (including the mad elephants that was released on him)
· Truthfulness: We did a short game for the kids to do the opposite of what we said. We demonstrated how difficult it is to do the opposite and so is the case with telling Lies. It is a very difficult activity to say a lie and support it as against speaking truth which comes naturally and is human nature. We discussed various quotes related to being truthful to drive the point home further.
o If you tell the truth, you do not have to remember anything. - Mark Twain
o Anyone who does not take truth seriously in small matters cannot be trusted in large ones either - Albert Einstein.
· Celibacy – Control of senses: Celibacy is "Brahamacharya" in Sanskrit which means self-control. We discussed the importance of self-discipline. We discussed various quotes from the world and spiritual leaders to understand the importance of Self-discipline.
o We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline, and effort. - Jesse Owens
o In reading the lives of great men, I found that the first victory they won was over themselves... self-discipline with all of them came first. - Harry S. Truman
· Non-Stealing: If we examine our life, we will say, "Of course we do not steal. We know stealing is bad." However, we observed a few situations where we waste energy or water and other such natural resources and in the process deny others of the same, be it our kids in the next generation or folks in other countries where some of these natural resources are a real shortage. We should practice on consuming only what we need and observe our consumption closely to ensure we are not stealing or denying others of the essential things as well.
o The antidote to stealing is to give. Give as much of yourself as you can— your time, money, energy, knowledge, skills—and see how much richer your life becomes.
· Non-Hoarding: We discussed how greed will lead us to endless desires making us work like a slave to our desires. Just the opposite is true: not hoarding on the things will make us free. We briefly discussed this quote.
o Greed is a bottomless pit which exhausts the person in an endless effort to satisfy the need without ever reaching satisfaction. - Erich Fromm
We would continue this discussion to talk about the daily disciplines in the next session.
We concluded the session with closing prayers and pledge.
Next Class: May 21st 2021
Unto HIM our best
Purnima and Shankar
