Hari om everyone,
Quick update from our class this week:
We started the class with meditation. In our chanting segment, we chanted verses 39 - 72 from 'BG chapter 2'.
After a brief conversation regarding the Teaching assignment, we started with a recap of the topics we have learned so far, from Chapter 2. The below flowchart gives a nice overview of the subject matter in this chapter. Using this flowchart, we recollected with examples what we had discussed so far.
In the 2nd chapter, Krishna had said renunciation is a better choice. Arjuna was confused as to why Krishna was asking him to fight the war then! He asked this question to Krishna in the 3rd chapter. So in the 3rd chapter, Krishna explained the 'right' way of doing any actions.
In our interactive segment, we asked our students, 'when can a person be doing nothing?' In a matter-of-fact way, they said, 'you really can't do nothing at any time... even if you are simply lying down, you are doing something!!' And they were right! Physically, one can not do nothing at any given time. We perform actions all the time. But how well we do them is entirely our choice.
The students were then shown a few pairs of pictures and questioned:
- a mirror that had lots of scratches and a new mirror; which one shows a better image?
- a lake with placid waters and a lake full of ripples; where can you see your reflection better?
- a blazing fire and a huge fire engulfed in smoke; where can you see the flame clearly?
Of course, they picked all the correct options. The point here is, these are depictions of our mind. If our mind is hazy, turbulent, or covered anyway, we will not be able to see ourselves clearly. With a mind full of confusion, we will not be able to act in the right manner.
Krisha said, 'Action itself is not a problem. It is the purpose behind it that makes all the difference!' Actions steeped in selfish motives will trap us in the cycle of pain and pleasure (birth and death).
To understand this better, we devised a game. 'Apples in my yard' game. Rules of the game are simple - there are a few apple trees in my yard. I have to eat all the apples and get out of my yard to win the game! But there is one small catch - every time I like an apple, I have to sow its seed in my yard. Every time I hate an apple, I have to sow that seed in my yard, too. As simple as this may seem..., the repercussions can be spin out of hand very quickly! Imagine every seed sown growing into a full-blown tree with more apples!! Remember, so long as there are apples in my yard, I can't get out of my yard to finish the game!!
What are we talking about?! Eating every apple can be equated to my actions. My likes and dislikes will sow seeds to make more apples for me and pretty soon my yard will be a jungle, not allowing me to get out. The remedy is, performing actions without intense likes and dislikes, without selfish motives, greed, anger, egotistic thoughts, etc.
We all seek happiness. The key is to understand the definition of happiness itself.
Being happy and content with an attitude of gratitude is the way to go!!
We will discuss this further in our next class.
Have a great rest of the week.
Regards,
Rashmi and Raghav.