Hari Om Dear Parents,
Here is an update of : May 21st 2021
Likhita Japa, Opening Prayers
Key to Success:
We continued our lesson on Arrows, after a quick recap of last class' lesson.
Arrows - represent Quietude of Mind
Five noble values of life - Non-Injury, Truthfulness, Celibacy, Non-stealing, Non-hoarding.
Daily Disciplines of life (Niyama) - Austerity, Study of Scriptures, Purity of mind, Contentment and Worship of God
Non-hoarding : One of the examples that kids gave for this topic was hoarding toilet paper during pandemic. Buying more than what we need becomes a habit leading to greed and ultimately hoarding.
Daily Disciples:
1. Austerity - Leading an austere life would help us quieten our mind and ultimately lead to happiness. Leading a life of an ascetic is very hard but we can make small attempts like sticking to our New Year resolutions.
2. Study of scriptures - Our scriptures have answers to any kind of problems we face in our life. Problems are imminent. So keeping up with studying scriptures will help us overcome those issues and keep us happy.
3. Purity of mind - A pure mind is always ready, steady and alert. It will lead to happiness
4. Contentment - We asked kids to think about 'Less is more' quote and discussed on some of the examples. Kids explained how having less will curtail greed and hence they will be more happy. Contentment is like a balance scale - the less waste we have, the more green we will have around us; less furniture in the house mean more room to play, exercise and relax; less driving means more walking which will help us keep fit.
5. Worship of God - We asked kids to brainstorm on 'Why we should pray'. Here is a screenshot what they said:
Once a student asked Gurudev to clarify if praying is begging. Gurudev said that if we ask God to give us stuff, then its begging. Prayer is to invoke the noble qualities within us - for eg., the noble qualities that we get reminded of when we stand in front of Hanumanji. Like striking a matchstick against a matchbox ignites/invokes a fire, or smiling at even a complete stranger invokes friendliness, when we pray we invoke noble qualities of God within us. We discussed the importance of praying to God both morning and evening when we light the lamp.
We went over the meaning and importance of different prayers that we need to say during the day.
- Upon waking - 'Karaagre vasate Lakshmi...'
- Getting down from bed - 'Samudra vasane devi...'
- Before studies - 'Saraswati namasthubhyam...'
- Before lighting the lamp - 'Subham karoti kalyanam...'
- Before eating - 'Brahmarpanam Brahmahavihi...'
- Before sleeping - 'Karacharana krtam vak...'
Bhajan - We learnt a new bhajan - Prema Mudita Manase Kaho... We will continue learning it next class.
Have a wonderful and safe Memorial day weekend!
Next Class : June 4th 2021
Thanks
Purnima and Shankar
