Happy Makar Sankranti, Pongal, Uttarayan, Lohri to all!!
Today's topic primarily focused on the discussion of the two paths of decision making: Sreyas vs. Preyas. Sreyas is the path of the "good" or righteous decision; Preyas is the "easy" path or that which is convenient or gives us most pleasure. We defined that Preyas is not necessarily a "wrong" path, but more a decision that seems convenient and takes less effort, but may not be the right thing to do. We did an activity with the students, asking them to list their daily activities in order of when they would complete it: List 1 a typical day and List 2 an "ideal" day without any deadlines. As a class, we concluded that List 2 were ordered in a way that felt more convenient for the students, as the activities completed first were those that were easier or "more fun" for the student; thus, List 2 mimicked the path of Preyas. We also went through some hypothetical situations, and had the students brainstorm the path of Sreyas and Preyas for each scenario (ie: using social media: Sreyas is using it for networking or spreading positive awareness purposes, Preyas is indulging into the pressures and addiction).
We also talked about the "Art of Right Contact" where we listed random objects and discussed the positive and negative uses of each (ie: a knife: can be used to cut vegetables or can be used to hurt someone). We concluded the class with showing a video by Pujya Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda speaking on Sreyas vs Preyas. We always try to engage our students in dialogue and discussion on how these concepts can be applied to their daily lives! We sincerely hope these critical messages are absorbed and stay with them as they are growing up.
If you have any questions, please feel free to email us. See you all next class on January 30th!