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)