Dec 20, 2020 - Grade 9 (Sunday PM)

Hari OM! 

Welcome to the 9th Grade Sunday PM Balavihar class for the 2020-2021 school year. We wanted to give you a brief rundown of the topics we have covered in class thus far.

Curriculum: Hindu Culture

Topics Covered to Date:

• What Does it Mean to be a Hindu?

• Believing in the Theory of Karma (we are the products of the actions and consequences from previous births, and our actions NOW will affect what happens later on life and next birth)

• Believing in Reincarnation

• Believing in the ultimate goal in life is to attain Moksha (liberation)

• Our Scriptures: there are 7 categories in our Hindu scriptures

1. Sruti (the 4 Vedas)

1. Rg

2. Yajur

3. Sama

4. Atharva

2. Smrti (Dharma Shastras)

3. Itihasas 

1. The Ramayana

2. The Mahabharata (The Gita)

4. Puranas

1. 18 Puranas

2. 46 Upapuranas

5. Sad Darshanas (6 Philosophies; ie: Vedanta)

6. Sadangas (6 Limbs)

7. Upavedas (ie: Ayurveda the study of life and medicine)

• The Pioneers of Hindu Scriptures:

1. Veda Vyasa

2. Sri Adi Sankaracharya - the Father of Vedanta (Advaita Vedanta or non-duality)

• The Types of Karma:

• Nitya Karma: daily actions that must be performed

• Naimittika Karma: actions that are performed for special occasions

• Sanchita Karma: karmas accumulated from past lives

• Agami Karma: karmas that will fructify in the future

• The Law of Karma:

• You will receive the consequences of actions from your previous and current life

• Consequences of your actions will affect your next life

• Punya vs. Papa:

• Punya: good deeds, good and positive Karma

• Papa: bad deeds, negative or opposing Karma

• When Papa > Punya: rebirth as something of "lower intelligence" such as an animal

• When Punya = Papa: rebirth as a Human to continue to Cycle of Karma and exhaust all tendencies/desires/attachments

• When Punya > Papa: attaining Moksha, liberation from Cycle of Karma

• Prarabdha vs. Purushartha:

• Prarabdha: destiny/fate of certain situations and circumstances in this current life (such as certain medical conditions you are born with, family you are born into, etc)

• Purushartha: free-will (one has control over certain decisions and actions that will shape their future)

• The 3 Gunas (qualities/characteristics):

• Sattva: pure, balanced, calm temperament; bland or not overly spiced food

• Rajas: active, passionate temperament; spicy, garlicky, and highly flavored food

• Tamas: lazy, procrastination, sleepy temperaments; old, spoiled, rotten food

• The Caste System:

• Brahmana: teachers, educators

• Kshatriya: warriors, military

• Vaishya: business owners, merchants

• Shudra: laborers

• In the metaphor of the human body:

1. Brahmana is the Head

2. Kshatriyas are the Arms

3. Vaishyas are the Thighs

4. Shudras are the Feet

• Bottom line… each section and every job has a particular role in how the community and the world functions. There is no hierarchy.

• Which "caste" we belong to is determined by which Guna(s) we comprise of the most.

• For Example: Kshatriyas are primarily Rajas guna because of their continuous active roles and job requirements.

• The 4 Ashramas (stages in life):

• Brahmacharya: student life; ages 0-25 years

• Grihastha: married/working life; ages 25-50 years

• Vanaprastha: retirement, initial stages of renouncing attachments; ages 50-75 years

• Sannyasa: renouncing all attachments and desires, primary aim is for liberation and total renunciation; ages 75-100 years

• Most of us go through each of these stages in our lives depending our role, interests, and what is necessary for society.

• Exceptions are included, but not limited to:

1. Those who seek to attain sannyas after college or possible working a few years (ie: Swami Chinmayananda)

• The 4 Purusharthas (goals in life):

• Dharma: desire to follow moral duty

• Swadharma: our own personal Dharma or purpose in life

• What we like to do

• What we are good at

• What the world needs

• What the world will pay for

• Artha: desire for success/wealth

• Kama: desire for enjoyment and hobbies/pleasures

• Moksha: desire for liberation/exit from the Cycle of Karma

We look forward to seeing you all in the New Year… with exciting more topics and activities to cover.

Wish you all a safe and healthy Happy New Year!!

In His Service,

Devika Krishnamoorthy and Sanjana Manikandan (Grade 9 Sunday PM Teachers)

Oct 11, 2020 - Grade 8 (Sunday PM)

Hari OM All, 

This was yet another fast-paced class filled with lots of information and activities. 

We began the class with usual prayers and review of class etiquettes and continued into a fun recap using Kahoot. The students seemed to really enjoy reviewing through Kahoots, so we are planning to do more in the future. The recap was on the previous class' material on Dharma. 

After finishing the recap and discussing the questions that were slightly tricky, we quickly jumped into our material for this week: Dharma Part 2. 

Last week, we alluded to the 10 values of Sanatana Dharma to be discussed in class as per the syllabus. A quick recap of those are below:

"धृतिः क्षमा दमोऽस्तेयं शौचमिन्द्रियनिग्रहः । धीर्विद्या सत्यमक्रोधो दशकं धर्मलक्षणम् ॥ ९२ ॥"

The Ten forms - (1) Steadiness, (2) Forgiveness, (3) Self-Control, (4) Non-stealing, (5) Purity, (6) Control of the Sense-organs, (7) Discrimination, (8) Knowledge, (9) Truthfulness, and (10) Absence of anger. 

We used "Star Wars" to provide a context for these values, giving examples from the movies as well as character analysis. For each value, we had a character on the slide. For example, Rey was the character that displayed dhriti (fortitude) and Princess Leia was shown for dhIra (discrimination). The Star Wars fans in class provided good insight when connecting these examples with the 10 values! 

Along with Star Wars characters, we gave simple stories to emphasize the meaning and importance of each value. One example of that would be the story "It Will Not Let Me Go" for damaH (self control) -

One day, a businessman who sold rugs was walking along a river. He saw a rug in the water and immediately jumped in to take it. But, upon pulling and pulling at the rug, it did not seem to move! The businessman's greed for the rug and future profit he would receive from it kept him going and he did not stop pulling. Soon, another man was walking down the same path and saw this foolish businessman. He screamed out, "What are you doing! That's a water bear! Get out of the water!!" Alas, the man warned this greedy businessman in time and he was able to avoid what could have been his death. The moral in this story was to exercise damaH and have self-control especially when it comes to desires. Otherwise, we can be in worse situations than even this man holding onto a water bear!

We went through all 10 values in a similar fashion and then did a recap of them through a video clip. We showed the students a clip of the 2016 movie Sully. The scene was specifically the one where Capt. Chesley Sullenberger made the decision of making an emergency landing in the Hudson River, saving all 155 passengers and crew members. To say it was a powerful clip would be an understatement.

As a class, we were able to identify many of the 10 values discussed displayed in the clip. For example, the Capt. had great control over his senses (indriya nigrahaha) even in the most stressful situation. He had to use his prior knowledge (vidya) and years of experience to discriminate (dhIra) between the choices in front of him and did so while having dhriti (fortitude) about doing the right thing for the greatest number of people. 

 

Upon finishing the values, we discussed the festival coming up: Navaratri! A special team project was assigned as well… :)

Attached below are the slides with the overview of Navratri that they can use in their projects, as well as the instructions they should follow. The students were split into groups and gathered their team's contact information to collaborate over google hangouts/email. 

Here are the teams and topics : 

-Karthik, Sahishnav, Sanjay Rishabh —> Sarasvati

-Saanvi, Shethra, Diksha —> Lakshmi

-Anirvina, Amit, Archish —> Durga

Lastly, we had Anjana Aunty come in to do the House Sorting for the students. Each student took a personality quiz and was sorted into either Arjuna's Arrows, Bajrangi's Bolts, Krishna's Cowboys, or Durga's Daredevils. They will be participating in various activities with their Houses and will attempt to collect points for their Houses during the process as well. 

That's all for now. Hope you all have a great quarantine Navaratri. Looking forward to seeing the students' projects!!

Best, 

Nikhita and Partha 

Welcome to Gr 9 - Sunday PM Session

Please look out for regular updates from the teachers soon after the session starts on Sept 20th