Hari OM!
Govinda class 2020-2021 TEST
Key Points discussed on 10/25/20:
· Who is a good student?
o PASSION for the subject
o UNWAVERING practice
o RESILIENCE under pressure
o TUNING with the Teacher
o PLEASANT nature
· Watching his cousins, the fire of jealousy began to burn in Duryodhana’s heart
o Cause: Duryodhana was the eldest son, so he may have felt the most entitled and became jealous of the Pandavas, especially Bhima.
o Effect: Continued brooding on the object of his jealousy led to more and more frustration
o Lessons Learned:
§ Do not be jealous.
§ Accept others’ achievements
· Drupada felt Drona couldn’t be of any use to him anymore and denied the friendship and Drona promised himself revenge
o Cause:
§ Drupada conveniently forgot his promise to Drona
§ Drona couldn’t forgive Drupada
o Effect:
§ Draupada doesn’t know the power of Drona
§ Drona was silently building his army by teaching Gauravas and Pandavas
o Lessons Learned:
§ Be compassionate
§ To err is human, to forgive is divine
§ It is by forgiving that one is forgiven
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Key Points discussed on 10/18/20:
· Kuntí experimented with the mantra showing her disbelief in saint Durvaasa’s blessings.
o Cause: Disbelief in saint’s words. Fear of social disgrace made her do a wrongful act of placing a child in a box and set it afloat in the river.
o Effect: She had to keep a secret all her life which haunted her 24/7; ultimately, she had to admit.
o Lessons Learned:
§ Have faith in saint’s words
§ Don’t be afraid, confess or admit your mistakes
· Duryodhana fed poisonous sweets to Bhíma and threw him into a river full of snakes.
o Cause: Kauravas forgot the Law of Karma; they gave into jealousy and competition, and did many wrong acts.
o Effect: Only Kauravas suffered from agony of seeing Pandavas come out safe from all hurdles they created.
o Lessons Learned:
§ Remember, the Law of Karma never fails
§ Never give into greed and jealousy, and perform wrong actions
§ Jealousy ultimately hurts the one who is jealous
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Key Points discussed on 10/11/20:
· How do we harm others with our mind?
o Sins of the mind
§ Taking away one’s wealth
§ Have ill-feelings towards another
§ To not have faith in the Law of Action
o Cause:
§ Jealousy
§ Greed
§ Selfishness
§ Forgetfulness of Law of Karma
o Effect:
§ Think wrong action wrong result
§ Do we want to compromise our values?
§ Do we want charity for ourselves?
§ If I keep faith in the Law of action, I can save myself from doing wrong actions and resulting in unhappiness
· Gandhari’s willingly blindfolding herself and she deprived herself of enjoying what her husband could not
o Cause: An emotional idealistic vow.
o Effect:
§ Both parents now blind to their kid’s upbringing. Allowed them to run free, without morals. Was unable to guide their kids and ultimately the kids grew up in adharma and (SPOILER ALERT!) were killed in the war.
§ Dhrtarastra was blinded by his attachment to Duryodhana. He knowingly allowed many wrong things.
o Lessons Learned:
§ Don’t be emotional or get carried away by emotions.
§ Do not support adharma.
§ Blind love eventually brings disaster.
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Key Points discussed on 09/27/20:
· King Shantanu agreed to condition of Ganga:
o Cause: His lust to marry her.
o Effect: The king had to lose his wife and seven sons as he questioned his wife’s actions.
o Lessons Learned:
§ Think before you act
§ Do not succumb to desire, lust
§ Do not agree on things without knowing all the facts
· King Shantanu agreed to marry Satyavati
o Cause: His lust to marry her
o Effect: The ultimate fall of Hastinapura.
o Lessons Learned:
§ Do not succumb to desires
§ Learn from the past mistakes
· Devavrata vow to be celibate all my life and give up my claims to the kingdom
o Cause: Love towards his father.
o Effect: The boon, blessings.
o Lessons Learned:
§ Serve parents
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Key Points discussed on 09/20/20:
· Reality is wider than our views of it
o Assumptions pollute learning
o Existing knowledge narrows our learning
o Expand your thinking. Constantly look at things in a different way
o When you think you know something you have to look at it in another way even though it may seem silly or wrong
· Children are not vessels to be filled but lamps to be lit – Swami Chinmayananda
o You, as a student must strive to explore the life and see the truth yourselves
o In this class, we encourage you to explore the life with us, enquire and recognize the reality behind all
· What is righteousness, Dharma?
o To do good to others is righteousness, Dharma
· What is Sinful, Adharma?
o To harm anyone is sinful.
· Where there is righteousness Dharma, there is victory
· We are going to learn life lessons from this epic Mahabaratha, so that we can lead ourselves to victory
· God is looking and the giver of the fruits of actions. The result will go to the person who has done the action according to the action done. Do not harm others. We can harm others by
o Body
o Mind
o Speech
· Be alert! Live by Righteousness (Dharma) and do the right actions and be happy
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Classwork/Homework
Sept 2017 - June 2018
6/17/18
We had our last class on the 17th .
Punidha aunty told you about a great saint Tyagaraja . Tyagaraja was born in a family of musicians and wrote a lot of songs which showed his devotion to Lord Rama. Instead of a flower garland he dedicated a garland of songs to the Lord. Because of his intense devotion the curtain in front of God in Tirupati opened on its own and he could get a vision of God. We compared the curtain to our mind and how a, pure and devotional mind can get such a vision. Tyagarajs was given sanyasa by his guru and called Nadabrahmananda
With him we completed our book on "Saints and Sages of India and the west". Hope we all have learnt great values. We talked about the three philosophies again of Advaita, Dwaita and CVishishta advaiata and the saints who believed and talked about them. Hanuman's reply to Rama when asked "What do you think of me" gives the three.
He said " Oh Lord, while I identify myself with my body, I am Thy servant. When I consider myself an individual soul, I am Thy part. But when I look upon myself as the spirit, I am one with Thee. This is my firm conviction.”
Home work
Over the summer Complete the work book and we will collect them on the first class on September 9th
Also your thoughts on personal /favorite God and how you will try to follow /emulate them. I have this from Gobind , Tiya and Athulya
Have a happy and enjoyable summer and learn while traveling and enjoy every moment as Vara aunty says during meditation.
Hope you all enjoyed the eating meditation which Vara aunty showed us and will practice at least with one meal a day
6/3/18
Today Nanda gave us the thought " In life it is good to have friendships " Nanda cannot read who it is by.
Punidha aunty completed St Francis of Assisi.
We then went through our annual day presentation.
Missing a few of your presentations. I know you all have with them. Nanda please prepare yours and send on St Francis Please send them to me, so Punidha aunty, Vara aunty and I have a complete copy.
Missing ******
Nanda St Francis introduction
Sachin Ramanuja quotes
Aditya Swami Tapovanam quote
Arman Sarada Devi Quote
Saumya Swami Chinmayananda intro( don't forget to say that he is the reason we have Balvihar ) His words are
"Children are not vessels to be filled but lamps to be lit" And that is why he wanted to start Balvihar to prepare you all as shining lamps to illuminate the world and continue to spread our age old wisdom.
All dress in traditional Indian clothes for the annual day.
Athulya Thanks for offering to do the power point. Put the picture on one side and quotes from the presentation on other.
Will send the final copy as soon as I get the missing ones. Attached is what I have for you to start working on. (Send by Friday so we can check
For the 17th class remember.
1 Complete work books and hand over to Vara aunty
2 Write few lines on your favorite personal God and how you should become like him or her.
Gobind and Tiya thanks for sending yours. We will read all in class on 17th
5/ 20 /18
after our prayers and Geeta dhyanam which all chanted very well , Sasha shared a thought with us " A few bad chapters does not mean your story is over" Anonymous. What a great thought and on contemplation teaches us to be positive always. Punidha aunty talked about ELMO (Everyone Let's move On )
We covered Swami Tapovanam and Swami Chinmayanada. The former was the Shiksha Guru of Swami Chinmayananda who out of love for us started Balvihar for us, so we carry on the teachings of our culture forward.
Swami Chinmayananda was initiated into Sanyasa by Swami Shivananda who was a great humanitarian (doctor) while teaching our scriptures to many. With regard to Sanyasa we talked about four stages in life (Brahmacharya or student , Grihastha or householder raising a family. Vanprastha or continuing to live and helping to carry on traditions and beliefs to next generation and sanayasa where you live as a renunciate. We also said this is not just physical stages but also at mind level. Want you all to think about these
For home work Finish the questions of the four sages we covered and hand over your books to vara aunty next class. Should have finished all except St Francis and Tyagaraja which we will do next week.
I got Gobind's home work on Personal God and qualities. Every one else please send yours.
Though Nanda for next week.
5/13/18
Hariom Govinda class
I have added new emails and hopefully am covering everyone.
Last class after daily prayers and Geeta dhyanam ( most of you know it and will be able to chant and lead the class),
we learnt about Swami Shivananda who gave our Gurudev Sanyasa (Diksha Guru)
Next week we will do swami Tapovanam , Swami Chinmayananda and St Francis . After this we have only one more class before annual day.
Expect all of you to do the questions in your work book and teachers will collect them on June 3rd. Also write a few lines about your favorite (personal) god or goddess and the qualities you want to emulate. This we will collect this sunday.
To date , Shankar ,Swaraj, Lakshmi, Atulya, and Varsha, have sent me their parts for the annual day. I want to get everyone else to send also so we can start practice and go over to look at the time it takes.
Everyone should wear traditional Indian dress for annual day.
Come prepared to next class
5/6/18
Vivekji visit
4/22/18
Again all of you should know and memorize daily prayers and Geeta Dhyanam and also know the meanings
Thought was given by Trisha " Everyone is a genius, but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing it is stupid" What a beautiful statement. Trisha I looked it up and it seems to be Albert Einstein who said this. With this regard we spoke of our individual "svadharma" what innate nature/ inclination/talent we are born with. If we follow that we will be successful. Everyone is unique and special, that way.
We completed Ramanuja and again talked about the 3 paths /philosophy in our culture.
We started Shankaracharya and we talked about the place of his birth and various miraculous events in his life.
With these two saints for home work we assigned
"Who is your personal God and his qualities" Write down and how you will emulate those qualities
Language spoken in various parts of India , National and official language of India. We talked about Sanskrit language a bit.
Everyone was a bit distracted this class and we have to discipline ourselves to pay more attention. We have a lot more saints to complete.
Hence next class questions on Shankaracharya will be done by Akshaya (who volunteered, Thanks Akshya ) and Aditya and Nina who were assigned
Thought will be by Sasha.
Hoping for a more productive class next time
May 6th is next balvihar and Acharya Vivek will be visiting us.
After that we have only 2 more classes.
4/15/18
As usual we did our daily prayers and revised the meanings . We chanted the Geeta dhyanam and most of you did well. We will chant this at annual day.
Thought was shared by Trisha "What the world fails to realize is that a villain is some one whose story has not been told" (Evil Queen) from the show OUAT. Thanks for sharing Trisha and this is indeed true. Every one has a story to tell and that is what is unique about us and our actions. I will definitely watch the show.
Main Topic We completed the questions on Swami Vivekananda.
We also completed Ramanuja's life. We talked a bit about three philosophies of Advaita (Oneness with Brahman God). Vishishta advaitha as we are part of God and Dvaita as God and I are separate and God takes care of all our needs. We talked about Ranganatha temple in Pomona and concept of Saranagathi (total surrender to God).
For home work
Do the questions on Ramanuja
Thought by Sasha
Annual day presentations mail to me
Attached is the revised assignments as Nisha will not be there for annual day Meghana can you also prepare the conclusion and talk a bit about what else besides the saints you learnt. Like PO box Mr God, Meaning of shlokas etc
4/8/18
We welcomed two guests to our class today.
We did the opening prayers and the meaning of "KayenaVacha" . Meghana helped with this
" Whatever we do with our body, speech, mind, senses, intellect , spirit(Atma the Self in us) and our very nature we dedicate to Narayana the Lord"
We chanted the Geeta dhyanam and most of us know it well. Our Guest spoke to us about Bhagavan Vyasa and his works with the Vedas, Upanishads and made them available to us, so we can learn and read them and pass this knowledge on for generations. Prior to him they were as Shruti(what is heard) and Smriti (what was remembered) . We went through the premise of Bhagavat Geeta as the song of the Lord in Mahabharata
And shared a thought with us by Robert Lypsyte . " It is not if you win or lose but how you win"
We di some of the questions on Swami Vivekananda from the work book .
We started talking about Ramanujacharya. At this time we talked about Advata, Dwata and Vishshta advaita.
What Hanuman said when asked by Rama " How do you think of Me" gives these three philosophies.
He said " Oh Lord , when I identify with my body I am your servant, when i consider myself as an individual soul I am your part, and when I see myself as spirit I am Thee"
Home work Complete Vivekanada work book questions
Each of you know what you parts are for annual day. Email to us your presentations, so we can put together and practice.
Attached is a list again
Thought next week by Trisha,
3/18/18
Today after opening prayers and Geeta dhyanam , Tiya gave us a quote by Socrates
"Strong minds discuss ideas, Average minds discuss events, Weak minds discuss people" All of you had great explanations about this quote. We also talked about how all these minds can be Satwik, Rajasik or Tamasik.
We then studied Swami Vivekanada and how the West came to know of Indian /Hindu philosophy and thoughts due to him. Remember the Shloka, meaning of which is, just as rain falls from sky and becomes rivers and goes to sea, so also worshiping all Gods got to Vasudeva. All religions convey the same thought and Swami in his speech said that and was respected by all . He also thought like our pledge Service and devotion to the country and people is the service of Lord and to the supreme SELF
Home work
Vara aunty asked you all to think of what you admire about yourselves.
Questions on Swami Vivekananda.
Work on your annual day presentation
Thought by Trisha
3/11/18
Last class after opening prayers and Geeta dhyanam, Anvi did the thought for the class. " The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are so certain of themselves, and wiser people, so full of doubts" Bertrand Russel . As discussion about this quote we said we have to speak up but after thinking through the situation.
Vara aunty went through what you all wrote about your Balvihar friends and how it is important know each other. Our pledge says "We stand as one family.... "
We completed Sharada Devi.
Discussed a bit about class presentation . Attached is the assignments for annual day.
As home work think about your presentations
Read about Swami Vivekananda
Thought next week is by Tiya.
2/25/18
We began with daily prayers.
We learnt the third verse of Geetha Dhyanam with the meaning.
Thought for the day by Monishwar:
"The cave you fear is where the treasure chest is" - Anonymous.
We discussed about the 5 senses and Ganesha symbolism.
We began learning about Matha Sarada Devi.
2/18/18
We began with our daily prayers.
We learnt the second verse of Geetha Dhyanam with the meaning.
Thought for the day
"Ability is what you are capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it" - Lou Holtz.
We completed the questions on Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa.
Thought for the day assigned as follows:
Monishwar - 2/25/2018
Anvi - March 11, 2018
Tiya - March 18,2018
Nandakishore - March 25, 2018
We concluded with closing prayers.
2/11/18
Started the class with Morning prayers . We took attendance and then read the story of the 5 senses from the Book ‘p o box god’.
Then we handed out papers to everyone and they wrote their names. They exchanged the papers with their Neigbors and wrote something about their Neigbor they knew . They acknowledged their Neighbors.
The 2nd projects was -
We made 5 groups
Group 1 - can't hear
Group 2 - can't talk
Group 3 - can't see
Group 4 - can't hear, see and talk
Group 5 - can't hear, see, talk and also can't touch
We started to converse among the groups "a simple sentence" and realized it was very hard to converse or share.
We spoke about the importance of these senses and what it meant to us . We should be very blessed to be able to talk, hear, see and touch .
Kids really enjoyed this class . We ended with closing prayers .
1/28/18
We chanted all the daily prayers. All of us must be chanting these verses everyday.
We learned the first 2 verses of Geetha Dhyanam. Meaning of the first verse was discussed. The story of how Mahabharata was recited by Sage Vyasa as Lord Ganesha wrote it was discussed.
Thought for the day by Trisha. Even though Trisha could not come in today, she showed her diligence by sending the thought via email and it is certainly appreciated!
“A brave man acknowledges the strength of others - Veronica Roth, Divergent.
We have completed the topic on Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. We discussed about his disciple Swami Vivekananda.
Gods and Goddesses with weapons/accessories- Lord Shiva with the Trident, Lord Vishnu with Shanka and Chakra, Goddess Saraswathi with the Veena and book and many more. Spiritual significance of Veena will be discussed further.
1/21/18
We did opening prayers and most of you know the meaning of all of them. We went through some meanings of invocation prayers. Sahnavavatu, saraswati namasthubhyam, Sadashiva , Samasta jana . Try to remember the meaning of all.
We will go through Geeta dhyanam meaning next class. We are learning to chant this.
Thought was by Ayush " The noblest art is that of making others happy" PT Barnum
We almost completed Ramakrishna Parmahamsa.
His name was Gadhadhar as a young boy. We talked about the various weapons of God. Hope you all went to the temple and looked at all Gods and what they carry. We will discuss them next class.
Home work
Look through the questions on Ramakrishna
List of great people from West Bengal
Thought to be done by Trisha
You will get to pick next class who is the saint you will talk about for annual day.
12/17/17
Today we some time going through meaning of daily prayers. We have covered all. Should know all with meanings.
Thought shared by Nanda Kishore "Brave men don't hide their fears but over come it" Nelson Mandela.
We completed the questions on Narsi Mehtha . His famous song loved by Gandhiji is "Vaishnav Jan to tere kahiye"
We started the chapter on Ramakrishna Paramhamsa.
For Annual day we chose some of few to start writing . Meghana, Akshaya, Saumya, Sasha, and Monishwar.
We skipped Geeta dhyanam but need to complete by end of May.
Next class Jan 7th
Thought by Ayush
Home work List great people from W Bengal. They used to say" What Bengal thinks today,India follows tomorrow"
12/10/17
We are at the last daily prayer meaning that is Sarvesham swastir bhavathu" This is a universal prayer for prosperity, peace, contentment(completeness )and well being of all. Also the prayer is for the everyone to be healthy, happy and to have no sorrow. Hope you all remember all the meanings. Next class we will test ourselves.
Thoughts were shared by three of you. Varsha Soumya and Govind
They were "If Cinderella's shoe fit perfectly why did it fall off"
" If plan A does not work, there are 25 letters in the alphabet"
" It takes millions of ponds of force to make a diamond"
All were very thought provoking and we all had ideas of what they were. Talks about not giving up and learning from all experiences positive or negative.
We completed Narsi Metha among the saints.
In PO box Mr God we talked about our sense of hearing and how what we hear becomes our thought and we keep thinking and acting on it it becomes part of us and we start to love that. You all told the teachers about Taylor Swift as your favorite singer.
Home work
Thought Nanda
Questions on Narsi Metha
Letters to God .
Think about our other senses
Last day to bring non perishable food for the food drive
12/3/17
Hari Om
We began with daily prayers.
Why do wear Tilak was discussed.
Thought for the day by Gobind:
“Mistakes are bruises, not tattoos”.
Thought for the day for next week: Trisha
We completed Mirabai questions.
We started to discuss about Narsi Mehta from Gujarat.
Geetha Dhyanam was chanted
Guided meditation was done
Annual day thoughts:
Play about one of the saints
Get the morals from all the saints and create our own play.
We ended with closing prayers.
REMINDER: Please bring non perishable food items for donation to the Center for Food action.
11/19/17
I hope you all had a wonderful thanksgiving with your families!
Here is the summary of our last class.
We began with daily prayers.
Meaning of the Shloka "Asato ma sadgamaya" was discussed. Oh Lord, please lead me from the untruth to the truth, from darkness, lead me to the light and from death, lead me to immortality.
We completed the topic Mirabai.
We chanted Geetha Dhyanam
We sang a Mirabai bhajan,"Hari tuma haro"
Thought for the day by Varsha,"Don't call it a dream, call it a plan"
By Radhika aunty, " Every Body dies, but nobody dies" - Swami Chinmayananda
By Punidha aunty, "Don't mistake my kindness for weakness".
HOMEWORK
Thought for the day assigned to Govind
Think about Values/Valuables
Answer Questions on Mirabai
Start thinking about Annual Day presentation
11/12/17
We had a short class today. In daily prayers we went over again the meaning of " Karagre Vasate Laxmi" and the importance of our hands to work with wealth (Laxmi) of knowledge (Saraswati) and surrendering to (Govinda) the SELF in us.
Thought given by Atulya " Where there is love there is life " Mahatma Gandhi. Here we discussed whether we can not like someone but still love. We have to love all and then there would be no hatred or wars etc.
We had two guests and hence we talked about "How we treat guests in our culture. Athithi Devo Bhava" and discussed the whole shloka. Will talk about the 16 step pooja for God and how it relates to guests too.
We completed the questions on Rumi and did most of Mirabai. We talked about Emperor Akbar bowing to Mirabai and Jiva Goswamiji realizing that there is no difference between man and woman as far as Bhakti is concerned.
Next class will complete and do questions on Mirabai
Will discuss meaning of Asato ma sadgamaya" and why do we wear a Tilak.
By the way we have not talked about "Who is God" And your qualities of Satwa Rajas and Tamas.
Did not assign Thought for class. Open those who did not do one.
11/5/17
Today we did the meaning of "Poornamadah, Poornamidam" and discussed how we are all complete and infinite but we do not know this and act as limited beings.This shloka gives us this message.
We talked about "Why do we have a Pooja room "
Thought shared by Akshaya "Do not go where the path may lead.go instead where there is no path and leave a trail" Ralph Waldo Emerson. This thought tells us to be leaders. We all have our own individuality and nature and we choose that path which makes us realize this. . With this respect we talked about YOGA Meaning to join/to unite. Yoga is not a physical exercise. With yoga we connect with our SELF(higher) by body mind , intellect and more. Physical Hata yoga , meditation Dhyana yoga.
In order to answer the question "Who is God" we talked about Valmiki whose story we all know and Tulsidas who wrote Ramayana in "Avadhi" Language and got Shiva's blessing.
We did part of Mirabai and will complete next week
Home work Complete questions on Rumi.
Shloka for next class "Asato ma Sadgamaya ".
Why do we wear Tilak? Read about and will discuss
Thought by Atulya
We have Diwali lunch next week , so will be short class.
10/22/17
Today we discussed the meaning of Shubham Karoti Kalayanam and discussed the importance of Lamp. Specially as we just celebrated Deepavali .
We talked about "Why do we do Namaste"
Thoughts " A ladder of success is best climbed by stepping on the rug of opportunity" Ayn Rand
" This is the good , This is bad , This is bad in the good , This is good in the bad , This is life
We chanted Geeta dhyanam and we plan to learn it by end of year
Completed Saint Rumi and learnt his Ghazals/poems showed Advaita and Dwaita (Bhakti)
Home work Do questions on Saint Rumi from the book
Your qualities Satwa Rajas and Tamas
Thought NandaKishore .
10/15/17
Today we discussed meaning Brahmarpanam and the reason we chant before we eat food. In our culture everything is divinized and hence the food is brahma and is being offered to Brahma in us and is used for the work to be done by Brahma through our bodies. We talked about the Agni or fire in us as digestion. We talked about the Yagna (Homa) place where priest puts all kinds of things as the Body symbolically.
Thought shared by Sasha "Do what you have to do before what you want to do" Oprah Winfrey. With this we talked about priorities e.g coming to balvihar to learn our culture and values, studying and not watching TV before an exam.
PO box MR God. We are writing letters to God. Some of you have given already.
Question Who is God ?
We talked about our good and bad qualities. and classified them as Sayva, Rajas and Tamas . We talked in this regard about Vibheeshna ,Ravana and Kumbhakarna. All of them prayed to God but for what??
We did the questions on Madhvacharya and story of Udipi Krishna temple with god facing backwards.
Home work
Who is God?
Your qualities good or bad classify them as Satva , Rajas or Tamas
Prepare shloka Shubha, Karoti klayanam
and Why to we do Namaste?
10/8/17
Today again we discussed Samudra Vasane devi prayer to mother earth.
Thought shared by Saumya "Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how we react to it" Charles Sandsburg. We discussed and talked about action and reaction. What is Sin?
We again talked about Navaratri and the story of Devi killing Mahishasura (our Ego) and also Rama son of Dasartha( control over his 10 emotions /senses good and bad) killing the extroverted Dasamukha Ravana ( full of various bad emotions of anger greed etc)
Nava also means ever new. Ratri indicates ignorance and Mother goddess gets rid of our ignorance and makes a new you every day.
We talked about Saint Jalaluddin Rumi and his love for God . He was a Sufi saint who wrote a lot of poetry. His meeting with Shams changed his life.
From talking of religion he started talking about love of God. We will read and talk more about this next class.
Home work Write down your 10 good and 10 bad qualities .
Thought by Sasha
9/24/17
We began with our daily prayers.
Meaning of the Shloka Samudra Vasane Devi was discussed.
Thought for the day by Trisha - "Stop running away from what you fear". We should be brave to face what we are afraid of.
Significance of Navarathri was discussed.
Why do we pray to Goddess Durga?
Why do we pray to Goddess Lakshmi?
Why do we pray to Goddess Saraswathi?
We discussed about Saint Madhwacharya and Dwaita philosophy and about the Udupi temple in Karnataka.
Discussed about Shukla paksha and Krishna paksha.
We chanted Mahishasuramardini Stotram.
We did one minute of silent meditation. I wish everyone stayed silent
9/17 /17
After opening prayers Nisha and Govind told us the meaning of Karagre Vasate Lakshmi. With Govinda (Lord ) as our Driver and with the wealth (Laksmi) of Knowledge (Saraswati) if we use our hands to work we will never fail.
With Navaratri festival coming we can talk further about goddess Durga,Lakshmi and Saraswati. From now on all 8th graders will discuss meaning as they understand of the prayers.
Thought shared by Meghana " Ignorance is the cause of egotism,attachment,aversion,and clinging to life" Swami Vivekanada . We discussed about ignorance of SELF and the rest of it we discussed with reference to Bhagavad Krishna , how he being completely "in SELF" (I in all of us)is able to act without ego,attachment,and aversion and left his body when it was time to do so. Hope you all remember the stories
We read some letters you all wrote to God and they were all very positive and thank full for various things. For Body Mind and Intellect
Then we did " Why Balvihar" and all of you gave various reasons. Ultimately both thees topics is about being Happy. Whatever we do we want to be happy. If we realize happiness is our very nature then we do not have to look for it outside.
9/10/17 was a short class
After opening prayers we went through,our plans for the year
We are going to learn about few festivals, Symbolism , meaning of all the shlokas , PO box Mr God , and as main text Saints and Sages of India and the west.
As introduction we defined Dharma as duty and it varies depending on person, place situation and time. Think about this and we can further define Dharma.
Radhika aunty Punidha aunty and Vara aunty