High Level Agenda:
· Opening Prayer
· Guru Stotram
· Geeta Chanting and Attendance
· Recap of last class
· Topics for today: Story of Prachinabarhi, Priyavrata and story on how everything happens, happens for the best!
· Closing prayers and joined to listen on Grade 8 program
Today's Class in detail
Prayers:
· We started by chanting OM three times, and our opening prayers
· Guru Stotram: we learnt verses 13 & 14
· Geeta Chanting: Verses 49 & 50 from Chapter 2
Story time: - Stories on Prachinabarhi, King Puranjana and Priyavrata (Importance of understanding what we are doing, and more importantly why we are doing something before doing it. Also about following God's will even if not comfortable with it)
Prachinabarhi was the grandson of King Prithu. He did many yagnas and sacrifices. He thought that these would fulfill his desires but was in a confused state of mind as he did not know the actual purpose of everything.It is important to understand what we are doing and why.
Sage Narada wanted to guide him and clear his confusions, by narrating the story of King Puranjana.
KIng Puranjana is in search of a place where he could live happily. He has a very close friend who is always following him, but Puranjana always ignores him. He finally finds a beautiful nine gated city in the Himalayas, marries the princess and starts living there. He is emotionally so attached to the princess that he gradually becomes totally dependent on her. He loses his own happiness and peace. As enemies attack, he is thrown out of the city. He passes his last days as a mad man, and is reborn as a woman. Even in the new life as a woman, she is completely dependent and attached to the husband, so when he dies suddenly, she wants to end her life as well, That's when the invisible friend stops her. The friend is none other than the supreme lord, who has always been close to Puranjana in both the births.
Sage Narada explains to Prachinabarhi that a person gets so attached to the worldly things, that he forgets and ignores the supreme lord within himself.
We pray to God -
· because someone asks us to, or because we are afraid and/or
· because we want something and/or
· because we are thankful to God and/or
· because we love God.
Although we may start off with fear or desires, we ultimately realize the greatness of God, so pray to him just out of love.
We don't have to be afraid of God, as he only loves us and protects us. It's also not wrong to ask God for things we desire, but we have to remember that God only gives us what is best for us.
King Puranjana is compared to a normal person, whose kingdom is nothing but his own body. Just like it's the King's responsibility to keep his kingdom clean, and protect it from the enemies, every person needs to keep his own body clean inside and out. He needs to keep guard to make sure no enemies enter the body. The enemies could be in the form of bad things a person sees or hears. Also, everyone has this invisible friend, "Avijnata"(cannot be seen or touched). He is always with us, and guides us to do the right thing. We cannot see or touch him, but can surely hear his voice from within us if we are quiet. When we want to play a video game instead of doing homework, it is his voice we hear that tells us it is wrong, but we ignore it. If we spend some time everyday thinking about him and praying to him, he will make sure we are happy all the time.
Priyavrata is the son of Manu. Although his father wants Priyavrata to be the KIng, he has no interest. He wants to renounce the world and become a sanyasi. One day Lord Brahma appears and tells him that he should take up the responsibility of ruling the kingdom. He accepts God's will and rules the kingdom for many many years, and then takes sanyasa.
To explain the concept of accepting God's will, we narrated another interesting story of a King and his minister.
The minister strongly believes that whatever happens, it is the Lord's wish. Everything that happens, happens for the best, and he keeps repeating this sentence over and over, much to the annoyance of the king. The king, who initially does not believe in this and is annoyed, over a sequence of events understands the wisdom in his minister's words, and recognizes the greatness of God.
Discussion time:
We discussed on how King Puranjana got lost and forgot about his dear friend, Avijnata.
We discussed on how it is important to understand what we do and why we do it
We discussed on how Priyavrata accepted God's will and did His wish
We reviewed new Geeta Slokas and joined the main group for Grade 8 Annual program. Then did our pledge
With sincere regards,
Grade 3 Chinmaya Bala vihar Teachers
(Vasudha and Aruna)