Hari Om Parents,
We began class with opening prayers and Lingashtakam. To our pleasant
surprise , quite a few students already knew this chant, and like
previous years, the cadence of the words and tune engaged even those
new to it. We learned verses 1 and 2.
After chanting, we moved onto our meditation session of watching the
breath, with more detail on how to do that, culminating in us rising
and falling with the breath, like gentle waves to Soham.
We recapped the previous lesson- what we know about Hindu culture, the
recap of the videos watched and then explored Prakrithi, Vikrithi and
Samskrithi.
Prakrithi- natural tendency or desire, like desire for food when hungry
Vikrithi- out of proportion desire, perversion, like eating 10 donuts
when hungry
Samskrithi- set of values, making up culture that prevents prakrithi
from becoming vikrithi
Difference between culture and civilization
Discussed about the adaptability and simplicity of our culture and the
failure of other cultures like the Mayan,, Mesopotamian, Greek...,
moving with the times is the key.. Gurudev's talk on questioning the
'why' behind the 'what'. For example what namaste means or prostration
before our parents, elders guru etc..
Watched a short video about an introduction to Hinduism.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2nRK6Z_OWw
We then watched the Bhagavad Geeta primer video introducing the class
to various often occurring, key words in Chapter 2.
https://youtu.be/M2GEEF6qWf8
Please have your children read the class report before the next class.
It will be easy for us to recap.
Our next Bala Vihar class is on October 1st.
Pranams
Uma and Nirmala