This class we continued the theme around "Why go to college" and picked up from the answers the students gave to that question. Answer to the why question leads us to the result we are expecting. We reviewed this concept by asking students to complete sentences like "Seema has 4.0 GPA because … or Avinash plays tennis very well because …". The answers to these questions tells us that to get something, we need to put commensurate directed effort.
How we shape the future depends on us. E. Stanley Jones said "I know not what the future holds, but I know who holds the future." There was a good discussion in the class about if we can control our future and how much of it we control.
At the same time, we need to understand ourselves. To illustrate this point a confused orange quipped "I changed myself to a mango for the mango lover, to a banana for a banana lover, to a tiny little blueberry for a blueberry lover! Can someone tell me who I really am?
The effort leads to results but this effort needs to be the right kind of effort. We read a story where a smart repairman fixed an engine with little physical effort but charged a significant amount for the work. The itemized breakdown of this fee showed that most of that effort was for knowledge.
The second story that we read was about how an eagle sheds its feathers and breaks it's beak, so that it can extend it's life from 40 years to 70 years. It would have otherwise died at 40. It is possible to get the most out of ourselves only if we introspect and direct our efforts properly.
Together the theme we covered was about understanding the Law of Consequence - Every action has a consequence. It is a continuous cycle. The results, thus, depend on understanding ourselves well and directing our actions according to our capabilities.
We saw the Geeta chanting video and covered chapter 2, shlokas 41-42.
We then went to the next phase of our conversations about the Law of Consequence. How do we explain interests/inclinations right from our birth, how do we explain prodigies/geniuses and then how do we explain well documented cases of past life memories?
So, maybe, some of these inherent skills from childbirth are results of the action done in the past birth. So, if these can be carried forward from the past birth then maybe these get carried forward to the next birth too. The Law of Consequence according to our scriptures carries forward from one birth to another. So, our effort is to keep trying to improve ourselves continuously.
We are going to cover this in more detail in the upcoming class.
regards,
Rukmani & Partha