November 5, 2017

Hari Om, Parents

We are progressing well with 'Sanyasa Suktam' chanting, and are planning to chant at the December 17th Bhiksha. Please mark your calendar for the same. More details to follow.

We are also marching along nicely in our quest to learn the Dharma Chariot. After learning about the various parts of 'Dharma' Chariot - valor, and fortitude as wheels, Steadfastness in truthfulness, and good character as flags of victory and safety, Strength, Discrimination, self-control and caring for others as the horses, forgiveness, compassion, equanimity as the reins, today we learnt the most important part of the Chariot - an intelligent Charioteer. This is 'Isa Bhajanu', that is, devotion to God. When you completely surrender to God, HE takes charge of our life. When you want Him to do as you want, it is not surrender but command. 

The Lord bears the burden of the world.  Whose fault is it if the traveler, instead of putting his luggage in the cart, which bears the load anyway, carries it on his head to his own inconvenience ? Surrender to HIM and accept HIS will. This important point was driven home, with the help of the kid volunteers who tried to carry the load themselves, but chose to use the 'hand truck' because it is so easy. and intelligent to do that way. Here's Maanas, with 'complete devotion to God', using the hand truck to carry the load.

Next we learnt about the Shield of Dispassion (Birati), that we should use against our enemies - attachment and passion. We talked about our attachments, and passions, and did a small exercise to illustrate how we want to hang onto what all we have and we want to collect more and more! Ask the kids about it, and what they learnt !

Attachment Detachment Yoga:

Life is a practice of attaching ourselves to the higher goal and detaching ourselves from the lower habits. The ultimate goal of each human being is to attach ourselves with the Lord who is within and without. We learnt this through a demo using a step ladder where the kids have to 'detach' themselves from the lower step, so they can 'attach' onto the higher step.  This attaching ourselves to the higher step, detaching from the bottom step is called yoga. As you know, this is in line with our pledge, 'ever ready to fight against all low tendencies and false values, within and without us'.  Let us detach ourselves from goofing off, gossiping, cheating, and lying and so on and be passionate about loving, serving, being truthful, etc., Below, Diya is 'attaching to a higher goal, and detaching from a lower one'

Dispassion is the shield to protect ourselves from our attachment and passion. How do we develop dispassion? By 'letting go' and not clinging on to worldly objects which yield only finite happiness. We also learnt a story about a man who was walking on a mountain road heading home, who tripped and fell off the side of the road. He saved himself from further fall by grabbing a protruding tree root, and spent a nervous and painful night by clinging tightly to the root only to discover in the morning that the ground was only a foot away. Similarly, we grip tightly onto this world, afraid to let go. We need the sun, the knowledge to dispel the shadows and illuminate the truth about ourselves.

We also learnt a value from Bhagavad Gita, Arjavam - Straightforwardness

Reminders:

• Please mark your calendar for Thanksgiving Luncheon on Nov 19th. You must have received the invite. If not, please let us know. Here's the link for the Thanksgiving Potluck: 
• http://www.luckypotluck.com/cgi-bin/display/potluck.pl?id=15092908276472475385
• Also for Bhiksha on December 17th. More details to follow
• Please ensure that your child carries a note book, and a folder with Pens/Pencils, along with Slokathon, and 'Values in Bhagavad Gita' Manual.  Taking notes during the class is highly encouraged.
  
• Please share this email and blog with your child. In case you want yours kids' emails to be added, please forward. Thanks! This is very important, because they are also getting an opportunity to write the blog ! This is going to reinforce and reflect on the values learnt, and also showcase their 'writing' talent!
• Homework: 
• Children are asked to pre-read the lessons in the 'Values from Bhagavad Gita' Manual. (Chapters upto Arjavam have been covered so far) and attempt the questions.  Acaryopasanam will be covered next class. This year's lesson homework exercises require them to reflect on what they learnt in the class, do some introspection, and complete the homework. Please encourage them to attempt the questions.

See you next class - Sunday Nov 19, 2017.

With Om & Prem,

Vijayam Class Teachers