Hari om everyone,
Another special week at Bala Vihar today. Today, Swamini Radhikananda amma joined our class! We were very happy to have her blessings, hear her speak, and interact with our students.
We started off with a brief meditation, followed by chanting the Bhagavadgeeta. We chanted verses 39 - 72 from 'BG chapter 2'. Swamini amma was very impressed with the ease and clarity with which our students chanted the verses! They have all become very comfortable with the verses and we are very proud of them for that!
We briefly discussed students' thoughts regarding their teaching assignment last week. It was nice to hear that they look forward to this every year and are happy to take the role of teachers!
In our discussion segment, we reviewed the topic of rights, duties and actions we have been discussing. We asked questions about how often one has to do duties, what kind of duties one has to carry out, what kind of actions one should avoid, etc. Our students were clear and precise with their answers! We discussed that that's exactly what is said in the Geeta by Krishna! He speaks of nitya karma (daily duties), naimittika karma (occasional duties), nishiddha karma (forbidden actions), and kaamya karma (desire-driven actions). Sanaatana dharma never asked us to shun our desires and wants. We are given allowance to that too, so long as it is not rubbing against the grain of dharma.
To understand this better, we heard the story of PunyakoTi, the cow. It is a very popular folklore from Karnataka. The cow PunyakoTi encounters a tiger while returning home one day. Obviously, the tiger wanted to eat the cow. But the cow pleaded to let her go home. She said she would come BACK to the tiger after feeding her calf, explaining the situation and consoling her baby! Although the tiger didn't believe it at first, he wanted to test the mettle of the cow. He allowed her to go back. PunyakoTi went home, finished her duties and promptly CAME BACK!! Seeing the honesty and diligence of the cow, the tiger jumped off the cliff and gave up his life as he didn't want to eat such a pious cow.
We asked our students to identify the 4 different karmas in the story, as discussed. They were able to explain most of them! We understood that putting our words into action is as important as speaking them. Because,
At this point, Swamini amma interacted with the students. She steered their thoughts towards how any of their actions made them feel inside themselves. After all, all that we are learning is to help us introspect our own actions and progress in the positive direction every day. She showed us that every action will have an external as well as an internal impact. She initiated a nice thought too! She asked the students to contemplate, for their practice during the week, on actions that made them feel peacefulness, contentment, inner joy, etc. These feelings are deeper inward feelings that automatically arise and confirm to us that our actions are coming from our higher intentions and in unity with the divine Self within. These kinds of thoughts strengthen awareness of our own intuitive feelings, these are the immediate and subtle result of every action. They can help guide us from within, to rise higher...
It is a great idea! We will discuss this more next week.
Have a great rest of the week.
Regards,
Rashmi and Raghav.
Rashmi and Raghav.