March 23, 2014 - Class Happenings

Hari Om,

The class blog volunteer for this class was Srinaath. Here is his summary:

 This week, in the Vijayam classroom, we discussed the phrase "This too shall pass." This means that happy times and sad times alike will all soon go away, so one should not be prideful of the amount of wealth or power one has, because it will eventually disappear. Similarly, one should not lose hope and determination if life is not at its best because it will get better sooner or later. "This too shall pass" is the perfect quote to remember during hard or cheerful times, and it will remind us that nothing is forever. We also talked about a story involving this quote:

     A king asked his courtiers to find a saying for him to engrave onto his ring so that  no matter which day, no matter which mood he was in, he could look at his ring and remember to stay positive in bad times and be humble during prosperous times. None of the king's courtiers were able to find such a saying. Some time later, a visiting brahmin came to the court of the king and, after hearing about the challenge posed to the courtiers, said that he knew such a quote for the king's ring. It was "This too shall pass." He went on to explain the quote to the king, who ordered the saying to be carved onto his ring.

    After that, we had some fun. We played charades with terms previously covered in the year (some words were Pooja and Chataka bird). For some reason, one group got very hard-to-act and hard-to-guess words! For example, they got "God's gifts," which was repeatedly mistaken by the guessers as "offering to God."

     We talked about "This too shall pass" a little more before reciting closing prayers and ending the class.

Teacher's Comments: We started the chapter on Bhakti - Devotion, unravelling what it means and going over examples of great devotees and the values they espoused. We will continue on this topic next class, especially going over the story of Shabari and Lord Rama.

Reminder: There will be a quiz on April 6 class. The syllabus will be from the workbook "Values in the Bhagavad Gita": chapters covering 1. Amaanitvam (Humility), 2. Adambhitvam (Non-pretentiousness). 3. Ahimsa (non violence). 4. Kshanthi (Forebearance, patience) and 5.Aarjavam (Uprightness). There could be questions from other handouts distributed in class too.

Students are encouraged to come up with ideas for the Samskriti skit/musical.

Dhanyavadah

Vijayam Teachers [Aparna & Sri]

March 16, 2014 - Class Happenings

Hari Om,

The class blog volunteer for this class was Suchetan. Here is his summary:

This week in Balavihar, we began with yoga taught by Mythri Aunty. We sang our opening prayers, and then started with Surya Namaskar a couple of times before we were reintroduced to the jumping motion to Santolasana (Plank position). After that, we did Surya Namaskar for a while again until we moved on to balancing exercises.  We started with the tree pose (Vrikshasana), then to the crow pose (Kakasana), then to Garudasana. Finally, we finished with our concluding prayers and headed to class.

When we got to class, we took a break until 11, and then recapped on what we did last week, but we first talked about the quiz about all the topics learned so far on April 6^th. Sri Uncle told us a story to recap charity about a Tibetan Monk Recruit who amongst the 1,000 Buddha statues in the monastery, had a favorite one, the 10^th one. When he tried to worship that particular statue by lighting a candle or incense, the light and fragrance went to the other ones around it other than his. As he was very possessive of his idol and selfish, he put a curtain around it, but that plan soon backfired. As he soon realized that his statue ended up becoming black and covered in soot, while all other statues were clean, due to his selfish act. After that, we talked about how charity isn’t the same when you get something good out of it. To move on, we talked about our supreme guru is god and that God is benevolent to all including atheists, irrespective of whether they strongly believe or not. God is the ultimate source and the ultimate Guru. Knowledge flows from God to the teacher, who then distributes it from a secondary, tertiary, etc. source. Finally, to end class, we brainstormed ideas to do in Samskriti.

Homework: Arjavam section in the Values in the Bhagavad Gita book, and brainstorm ideas to do for Samskriti.

Dhanyavadah

Vijayam Teachers (Aparna & Sri)

March 9, 2014 - Class Happenings

Hari Om,

The class blog volunteer for this class was Samyu. Here is her summary:

Highlights

* Charity - To give the needy. e.g. Giving Knowledge to someone who needs it.

* What the Dictionary says about Charity: To help the needy; lenient love for others. Act or feeling of good will.Giving unconditionally.

Examples - If you give a man a fish, it will last for a day, but if you teach a man to fish, it will last for a lifetime.

* When you are doing charity, it can be aimed either for a person, community, society, nation or the world.

Charity is better if no ulterior motive is assigned to the act of giving. For example giving TIPS to a waiter is not actually charity it is to To Insure Prompt Service (TIPS)

Guru : Remover of darkness.

Also we discussed 15 things that we should do to ensure that we are doing better than good. Excerpt from Zig Ziglar.

March 3, 2014 - Class Happenings

Hari Om,

The class blog volunteer for this class was Savitha. Here is her summary:

This week in Balavihar, we started our day with our directed breathing and meditation in a different format; we closed our eyes and focused on the meaning of two slokas while listening to it. This soon led to the realization that it is difficult to focus on one thing because our minds wander off too easily. Therefore, we discussed how you need to realize what your mind is thinking about, and bring it back to the wanted subject.
>  Later, we discussed the importance of theerthas, or sacred places. Theerthas usually involve having to take a journey to get there, so it normally isn't the place you can plan and go in the same day. The Thirupathi temple in south India is an example, but the Bridgewater temple may not necessarily be. This also ties into how people take the journey and go to the 106 accessible divyadesams out of the 108. In addition, we talked about how you don't necessarily have to go to the temple to pray or feel sacred. However, we also talked about how if you go to a temple, you aren't immediately one with god. This tied into a story.
>  The story goes that a group of people decided to go on pilgrimage and asked one saint Tukaram to come along. Saint Tukaram declined, however he asked them to bring a bitter gourd with them and dip it into the river in front of each theertha spot. Once the group came back, Saint Tukaram gave the bitter gourd to the village, and it tasted bitter. He asked the group why the bitter gourd wasn't sweet after being dipped into the water. Like the group, the bitter gourd wouldn't immediately change after going to each place- it took time and devotion.
>   The number 108 also came up and the students wanted to know the significance. You breathe about 90 times in one hour, so in 24 hours that is 21,600. If you sleep for half the day, you are left with 10,800 breaths for every 100 times you think of god. In other words, you should think of god one time every 108 breaths.
>  We spent the rest of the class going over homework, pg.22 in the Values of Bhagavad Gita workbook. The article talked about forbearance, or being able to tolerate and understand things others normally wouldn't and accept it.  We reviewed how this tied into patience, forgiveness, and self control, and students reviewed how they exemplified forbearance or situations where they could've.
>  Soon it was 11:40, and we ended the class with closing prayers

Dhanyavaadah

Vijayam Claas Teachers (Aparna & Sri)

Feb 23, 2014 - Class Happenings

Hari Om,

The class blog volunteer for this class was Karthik. Here is his summary:

Vijayam class had a wonderful balavihar session with extra fun, on Feb 23^rd. We had a Biksha with swamiji. In class we all first opened with the invocation slokas, and then we talked about belief and it’s importance. The whole class had some good debates about certain beliefs. Then we learnt the Vedic Aarathi (nakarmana). It was very tongue twisting and challenging to many at first, but soon everyone got the hang of it. Then we all had our snack brake. We had some funny jokes and great riddles. Once it was over, we all got serious and started practicing the chants we were going to do for the Biksha. Soon it was time to meet our Swamiji for the Biksha. We all sat in front of swamiji and chanted Shiva Manasa Pooja, Vedic arathi and Mantra Pushpam. Everyone applauded at our Vijayam class performance. Then all of us served lunch for swamiji and we all joined him too! After lunch was over we had a session with swamiji.

Many of us asked lots of good questions like “Why do you have so many material possesions?” Swamiji answered quite simply, “I am detached, I do not need them. They are just to make things more efficient.” Another really good question was, “What is the perfect balance of Sattvic, Rajasic and Tamasic in an ideal person?” Swamiji answered, “80% Sattvic, 15% Rajasic and 5% Tamasic.” Soon swamiji had to leave, so we bid him farewell and we all went home.

 

Dhanyavaadah

Vijayam Claas Teachers (Aparna & Sri)

Feb 9, 2014 - Class Happenings

Hari Om

The class blog volunteer for this class is Maya. Here is her summary:

This week at Balavihar, we started off class with a yoga session with Mythri Aunty. We started out with three Om’s, then went straight into Surya Namaskar. After that, we continued on and did several poses, including Talasana, Konasana, and Samakonasana. Next, we learned how to correctly transition from Hasta-Uttanasana into Padahastasana. We also attempted Crow’s Pose, after which Mythri Aunty requested that we go onto www.yogajournal.com and read up on it.

After Yoga, we returned to the classroom and went over our Ahimsa homework. Similarly to last week, we had a discussion on vegetarianism, but this time, it was about how it is related to ahimsa. This discussion was prompted by one of the homework questions. We subsequently chanted the Siva Manasa Puja. I would like to remind the class that our Bhiksha is on the 23rd, and to be prepared for it.

Dhanyavaadah

Vijayam Claas Teachers (Aparna & Sri)