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.