Hari Om!
Dear Parents,
Here is the summary of our class on Friday, May 14, 2021.
Opening prayers:
Om Sahana Vavatu
Om Sri Ganeshaya NamaH
Om Sri Saraswatyai NamaH
Om Sri Sadgurubhyo NamaH
Vasudevasutam Devam (Krishna Shloka)
Activity (1): Dharma Thermostat
Lessons: Gems: Be free from good and evil),
Be equal to friend and foe
Be the same in honor and dishonor
Be the same in heat and cold; pleasure and pain
Be equal in praise and censure
Be silent
Activity (2): Elevator Pitch/ Group Discussion
Pledge - led by student
Ending Prayers
Next Balavihar class: 5/21/21
Summary: It was a good class yesterday! We started with the opening shlokas followed by a Dharma Thermostat presentation by a couple students. The children have come a long way in identifying their slips in following the values and correcting themselves where needed and they have been really good with keeping up their values.
We then moved on to continue our discussions of the gems. The first gem we talked about today was to be free from good and evil. The objects of this world are not inherently good or evil. Our interaction with them and more specifically our reactions to them are the reason they appear as good or evil to us. What is good for one person may be evil for another and since it is ever changing, we can draw a conclusion that the reaction to it makes an object good or bad.
To be equal to a friend and foe is the next gem. How is it possible to treat a friend and an enemy the same? Our arm may have been injured and hurt and may cause pain and discomfort and yet we don't ever think that we should hate it or get rid of it! That is because we recognize the arm to be an extension of our very self. Hence no matter what trouble we experience because of it, we will still love it! We should adopt a similar attitude towards all beings that we interact with. When we see ourselves in others we will treat all of them equally.
The next gem is to be the same in honor and dishonor. The intellect is the one that judges situations and categorizes them as honorable or dishonorable. When a friend invites us to a party, we feel really good and popular. If the same friend, for some reason, forgets to include us for movie night and we come to know, we feel very insulted. In both cases, our intellect is the one that judges and decides to feel great or down! If we make up our mind to look beyond these and not let them affect our peace of mind, we will be the same in both situations. Here, the situations themselves do not change but our attitude could be shifted. It is, indeed, a very valuable gem if we are able to maintain such equanimity.
Equal treatment of pleasure and pain; heat and cold is the next gem. Our body experiences pain or discomfort and pleasure or comfort. Equal treatment, in this case, does not mean that we should not feel these physical experiences. That is not practically possible! Here, we talk about obsessing over and being bound by such experiences. We should condition ourselves to look beyond these and find peace. For example, if we just keep complaining when there is a snow storm on how much snow needs to be shovelled or how cold it feels, we will be even more miserable! Actually, in such a situation, we have a lot to learn from the children. They are very resilient and able to find joy even amidst such discomfort!
Freedom from attachment: When we channelize all our thoughts towards a particular object, we let ourselves be attached to the object. This, in turn, leads us to joy upon getting the object and sorrow upon losing it. It will send us on a rollercoaster ride of emotions, attached to mere worldly objects! When we analyze in this manner, we strive to decrease our dependence on external objects for our happiness.
Be equal in praise and censure: When Aristarchus, an astronomer who lived in 310 BC discovered that the solar system revolves around the sun, his peers laughed at him but years later, it was proved that we indeed have a heliocentric solar system. He was undeterred by such criticism (censure) in his quest for the Truth. Similarly, what is fashionable and praiseworthy today, may be archaic in, say, five years, and again become fashionable in ten years! The point is that praise and criticism are very superficial and temporary and we should not invest in them emotionally!
Silence is an invaluable gem. Many of us tend to fill our surroundings with music, or some form of white noise! We do this because we are uncomfortable with our own thoughts. When we start getting comfortable with our solitude and silence, we will realize that we rise above the mundane and the materialistic and become more spiritual. We should, therefore, strive to silence our thoughts when we are alone and get comfortable with solitude.
We, then, had a CHYK join our class for a group discussion on some of the gems we learnt about in class. It is heartening to know that the children are using the values they have learnt and try to apply them to real life situations.
We ended the class with Pledge and closing shlokas. We will conclude our discussions and the curriculum for this year in the next class. Please stay safe.
Pranaam,
Mythili and Anandhi
