Dear Parents:
Harih Om!
The following material was taught during Balavihar class on Sunday, May 23, 2021.
Beginning Prayers
We had the opportunity to welcome two students from the CHYK who taught the children Gems 13 through 18. The remaining gems were taught by both of us in the remaining time. The two CHYK students were Swetha and Nishi who explained the gems based on their everyday experiences. The children enjoyed the session taught by the two High School students and gave them a resounding applause at the end of the session.
Gem 12: Mind and intellect centered in the Lord (mayya-arpita-mano-buddih)
The lobby was buzzing with a lot of candidates who were waiting for an interview for an important job. An announcement was made from the public address system, which was very soft, only one person who was alert heard the announcement. He entered the interview room and was rewarded the job. Others had to go back home. Similarly, we need to develop ears to hear His announcements, have eyes to see the substratum of the universe. But how do we develop the alertness to be aware of "His announcements." When a movie is being projected is over, it is only then we become aware of the screen on which the movie was being projected. So also when we are able to quieten our mind and thoughts, the projection behind our thoughts - the Lord is experienced. One of the easy ways to try to quieten the mind is by praying regularly to God and developing devotion towards Him. We can chant His name and keep Him in our mind all the time. Pujya Gurudev stated that our actions should sing His glory and our feelings should have the fragrance of His purity, and our thoughts should express His dynamism. Such God centered life is true hymn praising the Lord.
Gems 13 and 14: By whom world is not agitated and whom the world does not agitate (yasmanno-dvijate lokah, lokanno-dvijate yah)
A true devotee of the Lord will not create any agitations in the world around him. Similarly, when we are with our friends and family, we should try not to spread negative feelings and create agitations and sow the seed of confusion in their mind. Things in the world are constantly in state of flux, there are many things that are constantly happening and things that we do not expect may happen. A true devotee of the Lord is one who is rooted in his devotion to the Lord and does not get disturbed by the happenings around. He does what needs to be done and sees the play of the Lord in all the various changes that are happening around. He is like a lighthouse which is firmly rooted in its foundation, erect and motionless, which watches all the waves crashing onto it. Similarly, we should not get agitated by the changes around us and should be firmly rooted and hold onto to the Lord who will protect us.
Gem 15 Free from joy, fear, envy and anxiety; harsamarsabhayodvegairmuktttah
When we get the desired object we feel happy, if you don't get the desired object we are envious of those who have it. Once we procure the desired object we have the fear of losing it and if the object goes missing there is an anxiety for the object. For a person who is free of attachment and does not have desires, these fears, anxieties do not exist. Fear is always because of unknown or uneasiness in our heart. Such emotions when left uncontrolled can prevent the blossoming of our personality. This happens due to lack of faith and lack of understanding of Lord. A child might feel fearful in the dark but holding onto the mother the same child can walk in darkness fearlessly. Similarly, if we hold onto the Lord we can have the courage to face any challenges and overcome our inner agitations such as uncontrolled joy, envy, fear, and anxiety.
Story - once in the depth of ocean lived a fish, which was restless to explore and swam up to reach the surface of the ocean. It saw the vast sky and looked down below at the deep ocean which was many miles deep. The fish overcame with fear. He thought it is going to drown in the ocean. So, it only swam on the top of the ocean. Lord of the ocean appearance asked the fish why it was only rolling on top of the water on the top and not swimming gracefully. The fish replied that it is trying to catch his tail by mouth so it may hold onto the tail and prevent itself from drowning. The Lord smiled and said that you should use your fins to swim gracefully; I am the one who is supporting you. It is my job to make sure that you float. The fish did not listen and succeeded in catching its own tail. Now the fins could not move so it slowly sank to the bottom of the ocean, the Lord could only look on. Similarly, we have been given a healthy body, hands and legs, utilizing which we should work and be free to act. We need to give up unnecessary worries and have trust in God who supports us. Do we get into the train and then carry the luggage on our head? Don't we put the luggage on the train so that the train can carry your burden. Similarly, while we are traveling in this life journey, we need to put the burden of her problems on God and let him support us in this journey. Make Him our friend and supporter so that our journey may go on smoothly.
Gem 16 - Free from dependence, anapeksah.
One who is free from wants or to be free from dependence. True devotee of the Lord is not dependent upon the external objects or things for his sustained happiness. We all feel happy when favorable things or situations happen and feel upset when facing unfavorably situations. For most of us our happiness or sadness depends upon external objects or relationships over which we have little control. In contrast devotee of the Lord draws his inspiration and joy from his attachment to the Lord, his happiness spring forth from deeper source inside him, so external objects and happenings have little influence over his inner peace and joy. Once we realize that the external objects emotions and thoughts are constantly changing and hence cannot give us everlasting happiness, we will try to find the source of happiness within us. Pujya Gurudev says that when we experience sorrow, tragedy, happiness we need to shift our attention to the one who is aware of these emotions. Then the attention is not on the object or on the experience of sorrow but is directed towards the consciousness within us. If you are alert and attentive, we can clearly see that many life circumstances show us that the joy or happiness that you experience from objects of the world or relationships is only temporary in nature. In fact, our sastras clearly state that these pleasures are not only temporary, but they also create bondage and have sorrow associated with him. For example, if you eat a food item that you like, initially it may give us pleasure, but if we continue to eat too much of it, then we will experience only misery and sorrow. In the long run this habit can also cause detriment to our physical health. God has given us so many precious things, in fact most important things that we need in life are freely available such as air, water and sunlight. We need to be thankful to God for this. Focus on what we have rather than dwell on what we don't. In fact, if you make a list of things that we need/want, most of us usually have 80% or more of what we need or want. Thus, by reorienting our mindset and focusing on positive aspects we can learn to be happier and less dependent.
Gem 17 - Be Pure, sucih.
We need to maintain purity both external and internal. Maintain cleanliness in our relationship with others and keep our surroundings clean. Our sastras have a lot of emphasis on externally cleanliness, because without external purity, internal purity will be a distant dream. Hence, we have to keep our body and our surroundings clean and organized. In addition, internal purity, that is, having pure intentions and clear thoughts is also extremely important. Pujya Gurudev states that we should not be satisfied by practicing passive goodness. We need to live a disciplined life following our values sincerely. When majority of people in a society have honest intentions and pure motives; then that generation will lead the nation to glorious summits of joy and success. Once a poor man decided to invite the King to his house. The kind King granted his wish. Royal messengers came before the King came and cleaned up his house, spread the carpet and decorated the place to receive the King. When the King visited everything was already set and ready. Similarly, if we invite God to take his seat in our hearts he will do what is necessary, he will send his messengers to clean our hearts so that our heart is a fit-place for him to arrive. One of the simple ways to invite God and achieve purity is to pray to him regularly with devotion. Prayer should be done not to ask God some specific material stuff but is done to ask for His blessings and guidance. We all need to learn to 'pray' to God but not 'prey' to God. We need to clean up our act, Purity or sucih - is emphasized in Bhagavad Gita so many times. External cleanliness is easy to achieve but with regards to internal cleanliness we may not even be aware that we have a problem. We don't pay attention to our own thoughts. Regular introspection is necessary to look at our thoughts. We can then identify and remove those thoughts that are not serving any good purpose for us. We should always question what we are doing and why are we doing a certain thing – thus explore our motives behind our actions. This helps us to keep our mind clean and free from malice etc.
Gem 18 - Be alert, be prompt, daksah.
It implies that we need to be clever in determining what should be attended immediately among variety of matters. One who knows 'first thing first' is a daksah or alert person. Pujya Gurudev says that opportunities come to everyone in life. Unfortunately, either we are out or sleeping in and not prepared to make use of them. We need to be alert and awake to make use of these opportunities. Being alert and vigilant is the price that will have to pay for leading spiritual life. In our day-to-day life, we are busy and don't pay attention to many small things and focus on big issues. If one is alert and aware and pays attention to all the details, we will know where our energies should be directed to and how we can best utilize our time and resources. Being alert also implies that we should always remember the final goal, moksha as we go through our life's journey. One may question how is this possible? When we are traveling from work to home, despite all the traffic issues and possible detours due to construction, we never lose sight of our destination which is reaching home. Similarly, we should never forget our final destination!
Story – King Akbar had a wise minister by name Birbal. He was always king's favorite because of his wisdom and cleverness. But it made many people jealous of Birbal. Once the king's barber told King Akbar that he had neglected to inquire about his forefathers in heaven. He suggested that they send Birbal to heaven to check them out. King liked the idea. So they prepared a fire ritual as a way to heaven. Barber and his friends started thinking Birbal will sit on the fire and he will burn to ashes. The fire was started and Birbal was asked to enter the fire. Birbal entered the fire without hesitation. People thought he was burnt. But Birbal who learnt about the vicious plan of the barber and his friends, had secretly made a tunnel for himself where the fire was lit so that he could escape from the fire. He appeared before the king a few days later and told him that he went to heaven that all his forefathers were living happily. But they had one problem that their hairs and beards were growing too long because they did not have a barber in the heaven (similar to our covid situation!). So King order the barber to enter the fire to go to heaven. Barber got burned into ashes. Hence it always pays to be alert!
Gem 19 – Unconcerned, udasinah.
One who is fair and does not take sides is said to be unconcerned. Unconcerned attitude helps to consider our energies. It does not mean apathy! In life we all have difficulties, discomforts and sorrows. We tend to exaggerate their importance and try to run away from them. In this way our life is a constant struggle trying to adjust to various situations and difficulties. Instead, we need to learn to overlook the small pinpricks in our life. This overlooking is called udasina or unconcerned attitude. It does not mean being lazy. It is a cheerful attitude of accepting various situations and circumstances that come across in our life and facing them bravely. This is the intelligent way of living. It has been beautifully said that God keeps us in water not to drown us but to clean us. It is only when a diamond is chiseled the beauty inherent within it comes out. Similarly difficult or sorrowful conditions, depending on how we react and respond to it, can help to polish your personality and lead to inner unfoldment.
Gem 20 :Untroubled – gatavyathah:
When the Lord himself is carrying our burden why should we be troubled or worried? We should learn to do our best and leave the rest. People complain that God has forsaken us. But can mud ever forsake the mudpot? Can gold disown a gold ornament? In the same way God has never really forsaken us. Once a man had a vivid dream at the end of his life. He could see himself walking with Bhagwan on the beach and was able to replay his entire life. He saw two sets of footprints on the sand for most of his lifetime, but during difficult times he saw only one set of footprints on the sand. This disturbed him and he asked Bhagwan, "when I needed you the most I see only one set of footprints how could you forsake me?" Bhagawan kindly replied and asked him to look carefully. The single set of footprints that he was seeing were the footprints of none other than Bhagwan Himself. Bhagwan told him the reason he saw only one set of footprints was that during troubled times He was carrying him! So whatever happens we should remember that the Lord is with us. We should remain untroubled and unperturbed.
Gem 21: Renounce all undertaking – sarva arambha parityaagi
Means one who has renounced all desire prompted activities. Aaramba means beginning. To end all beginnings does not mean that we should not to undertake any new actions. It implies that we do all the activities without ego. We should renounce the feeling that I am solely responsible for any action that I perform. If we carefully analyze and dig deep into the meaning, we see that all our actions are controlled, regulated and governed by the world of things and situations around us. We are only a part of a long change of events that is happening in the world. No undertaking in our life in fact has an independent beginning or end. For example, when we decide to play a game of football, we get the football out and have some friends over; play the game, enjoy and have a good time. But to play the game we needed a football which we did not make, gravitational force that needs to bring the ball down, we did not invent or manufacture the material with which the ball was made, have other people around us to participate with us so that we can enjoy etc. So even for a simple game there are so many factors involved, hence we should give up the attitude that I am solely responsible for doing certain thing or performing certain action.
Thank you!
Sitaram Kutchibhotla
And Mekhala G
