December 17, 2017

This class blog written by Dhruv Hemmige. 

Last week, during Balavihar, our class covered many topics and lessons. We began class as usual with the opening prayer and got settled, when a question came up: What is the point of a Bhiksha? We learned that a Bhiksha is a food offering to Monk/Sadhu. After that, we went back to the Dharma Chariot. We reviewed what we learned last class: the bow. We talked about how the bow is used to kill enemies such as Spiritual ignorance and other negative tendencies. This ignorance can be destroyed with the bow, that is the knowledge of the Self.

If we get rid of these bad qualities such as anger, greed, hatred, jealousy etc., we can become happy. Also, to be happy, we need to get rid of attachment. Otherwise, we will always be worrying about so many bad things, we won’t be able to see all the good things right in front of us. After understanding that, we moved on to new qualities in the chariot.

The two things we learned were the quiver and the arrows. A pure and steady mind is the quiver (trona). The arrows, silimukha, stands for quietude of the mind. These are connected because if you want your mind to be quiet, it needs to be pure and steady, otherwise you will always be thinking like crazy. The mind can be compared to a river. The same way that a river flows, your minds has thoughts. When the waters are clean, the river is clean. When the water is muddy, the river is the same way. That's why it is important to have clean thoughts.

A second example we used to understand this was the race between the hare and the tortoise. The hare obviously had a unsteady mind, since he was so overconfident. The tortoise, however, had a steady mind as he was focused on winning the race. To be steady, is to stick to your decision and follow the path to goal patiently. Slow and steady won the race for tortoise.

We also learnt how a caterpillar transforms into a butterfly with patience.

After that, we looked at multiple pictures. We saw kids cheating on tests and doing other bad things, and instantly knew that they were thinking bad thoughts. In the other pictures, we saw kids getting along and having fun, again knowing instantly that they were having good thoughts. A phrase we learnt was Acala Amala Mana, meaning steady, pure mind. The lesson we took away from this part of class was that if you think pure thoughts, you get pure words, and then pure actions. And if you are around negative people, you will become negative.

We then moved on to the next part of class, which was our value from the Bhagavad Gita: Stairyam. Sthairyam is steadfastness, which means determination, or perseverance. Then, we were told a quote from Swami Vivekananda: “Arise! Awake! Stop not until the goal is reached!” Basically, if you fail, get up and try again. We learned two words: Shreya(path of good) and Preya(path of pleasures). Since we were on the topic of determination and perseverance, we learned about Sudha Chandran. She was a Bharatanatyam dancer who was in a car accident. After hurting her leg in the accident, it got infected and had to get amputated. After getting a prosthetic leg, she kept training and practicing, eventually dancing how she used to.

After learning about her, we moved on to Na Karmana, practicing many times so we would say it properly in front of Swamiji. Following that, we also practiced the Geeta Dhyana Sloka multiple times. We said our closing prayers and then went down to the cafeteria for the Bhiksha. After chanting our slokas, we ate lunch, and then we asked Swamiji questions.

December 10, 2017

Hari Om, Parents

Pleased to present the December 10th Class summary from the eyes of our student blogger, 'Suchir Peyyeti'.

     During Balavihar last week, our class accomplished many things. After chanting the opening prayers, we reviewed everything we had learned from the previous week. Next, we continued our learning of the Dharma Chariot. So far, we had learned about the four horses, the wheels, the flags, the reins, the shield, the charioteer, the ax and the sword. All of these having their own different morals as well as traits on how to act and be as an individual. This past week, we learned about the bow on a chariot. The bow symbolizes self-knowledge and understanding yourself. It also represented learning from the past and prior experiences. In addition, the teachers told us a story of a man who walked into Paradise. While in paradise he realizes that he is very tired and needs some rest. He then takes rest under a gorgeous tree. When he wakes up in the morning he finds that he is very hungry. As soon as he wishes he had food, food appears. After eating, he becomes very thirsty. The second he thinks of a drink, a drink appears in front of him. So, whatever he wished for, it appeared instantly. Over time, the man wished for many things. Suddenly, he wonders whether there are ghosts who are giving all these things to him. As soon, as he thinks of a ghost, a ghost appears. The man is frightened and ponders on whether the ghost will eat him or not. When he thinks about this, the ghost comes over to him and eats him. As a class, we came to the conclusion that the clear moral of this story was to not be greedy. The man never had enough and didn't think of the consequences of his actions. After hearing this story, we moved on to vasanas. We learned that vasanas are your impressions from the past. For example, as a baby, you are playing in a river and suddenly get pushed down by the sudden current. Although you are okay, this could come back to haunt you later. Such an experience could make you constantly afraid of water. Once we finished talking about vasanas we briefly talked about Dvaita and Advaita. Dvaita is the belief that you and God are different. On the other hand, Advaita is the belief that you and God are one, the same. We then learned about Sankara, a man who preached Advaita. Once we wrapped up Advaita and Dvaita we talked about this weeks value of the Bhagavad Gita: Soucham. Soucham means cleanliness. The two types of Soucham are internal and external. Internal meaning a purified mind, and getting rid of bad thoughts. External meaning when you brush your teeth, take a shower etc. After talking about Soucham we finished our class with the Sannyasa Suktam. We finished practicing the Suktam and the Geeta Dhyana Sloka as we will be chanting these two slokas next week at our Bhiksha. Lastly, we wrapped up our class with the closing prayers. 

December 3, 2017

Hari Om, Parents

As mentioned earlier, beginning with Dec 3rd class, this blog will feature Student Summary of the class happenings. We are pleased to present the summary from our first student blogger, 'Maanas Gopi':

In our Balavihar class, we learned a lot about the Dharma Chariot and about the values we can take away from it. After our opening prayers, we started to review what the parts of the chariot symbolized, and how it related to our wellbeing and mental state. We went over how the horses were necessary to pull the cart, and at the same time, the charioteer was necessary to guide the cart. We also relayed what the wheels, flags, weapons, horses, and reigns represented.

Wheels:
• Sauraja - Courage

• Dhiraja - Fortitude

Flags:

• Satya - Truthfulness

• Sila - Good Character

Horses:

• Bala - Mental and physical strength

• Viveka - Good Decision Making

• Dama - Control of Senses

• Parahita - Caring for Others

Reigns:• Ksama - Forgiveness

•Kripa - Compassion

• Samata - Equal-mindedness

Weapons:

• Shield - Dispassion

• Sword - Contentment

• Axe - Charity

• Bow - Self-Knowledge

Afterwards, we worked on chanting Na Karmana. We were, ourselves, able to chant the whole prayer, but we still need practice.

Lastly, we preformed many different asana's while doing yoga. We recited a prayer before starting, and we soon started stretching out our legs, arms, hands doing 16-point asanas. At the very end, requested by the majority, we "practiced" the sleeping asana, until we finally said our closing prayers, and ended this week's Balavihar session.