Dear Parents:
Harih Om!
The following material was taught during Bala vihar class on Sunday, May 1, 2022.
Important Note
Bala vihar class on May 8th will be in person at the ashram starting at 9:15 AM – same time as the regular class – children will participate in Guru Paduka Pooja on occasion of Pujya Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda's Jayanti; there are monthly programs and group activities planned on that day. We humbly request that all children and parents come and participate in this important program.
Beginning Prayers
Tapovan Shatakam: We chanted verses 1 to 4 and taught verses 5 and 6 this week. The following children chanted verses 5 and 6 on their own: Hasini, Kavin, Vickram, Anwita and Nithya.
We started a project called "Thank you Project" – last week – we told the children that they have to say a prayer or thank you to God before sleeping every day– we have been learning all through the year, directly or indirectly, that we are able to do anything in this world only due the presence of God in us as Life Principle – we see, hear smell, talk, food digests, heart pumps … etc all because of His presence. This beautiful universe – sun, moon, air, space, rivers, mountains, flowers, fruits… all His gifts to us – so only thing we can really do in return is say our since "Thanks" to God. Glad to inform that all students started doing it – though none of them remembered to do it every day – we will keep reminding them about this every class, next few weeks. We hope it will become a lifelong habit for them.
We continued with the 35 gems/ values prescribed by Lord Krishna – so that we can become his true devotee:
Gems 13 and 14: By whom world is not agitated and whom the world does not agitate (yasmanno-dvijate lokah, lokanno-dvijate yah)
A true devotee of the Lord will not create any agitations in the world around him. Similarly, when we are with our friends and family, we should try not to spread negative feelings and create agitations and sow the seed of confusion in their mind. Things in the world are constantly in state of flux, there are many things that are constantly happening and things that we do not expect may happen. A true devotee of the Lord is one who is rooted in his devotion to the Lord and does not get disturbed by the happenings around. He does what needs to be done and sees the play of the Lord in all the various changes that are happening around. He is like a lighthouse which is firmly rooted in its foundation, erect and motionless, which watches all the waves crashing onto it. Similarly, we should not get agitated by the changes around us and should be firmly rooted and hold onto to the Lord who will protect us.
Gem 15 Free from joy, fear, envy and anxiety; harsamarsabhayodvegairmuktttah
When we get the desired object, we feel happy, if you don't get the desired object, we are envious of those who have it. Once we procure the desired object, we have the fear of losing it and if the object goes missing there is an anxiety for the object. For a person who is free of attachment and does not have clinging desires, these fears, anxieties do not exist. Fear is always because of unknown or uneasiness in our heart. Such emotions when left uncontrolled can prevent the blossoming of our personality. This happens due to lack of faith and lack of understanding of Lord. A child might feel fearful in the dark but holding onto the mother the same child can walk in darkness fearlessly. Similarly, if we hold onto the Lord, we can have the courage to face any challenges and overcome our inner agitations such as uncontrolled joy, envy, fear, and anxiety.
Story - once in the depth of ocean lived a fish, which was restless to explore and swam up to reach the surface of the ocean. It saw the vast sky and looked down below at the deep ocean which was many miles deep. The fish became overcome with fear. He thought it was going to drown in the ocean. So, it only swam on the top of the ocean. Lord of the ocean appearance asked the fish why it was only rolling on top of the water and not swimming gracefully. The fish replied that it was trying to catch its tail with its mouth so it may hold onto the tail and prevent itself from drowning. The Lord smiled and said that you should use your fins to swim gracefully; I am the one who is supporting you. It is My job to make sure that you float. The fish did not listen and succeeded in catching its own tail. Now the fins could not move so it slowly sank to the bottom of the ocean, the Lord could only look on.
Similarly, we have been given a healthy body, hands, and legs, utilizing which we should work and be free to act. We need to give up unnecessary worries and have trust in God who supports us. Do we get into the train and then carry the luggage on our head? Don't we put the luggage on the train so that the train can carry your burden. Similarly, while we are traveling in this life journey, we need to put the burden of our problems on God and let Him support us in this journey. Make Him our friend and supporter so that our journey may go on smoothly.
Gem 16 - Free from dependence, anapeksah.
One who is free from wants or to be free from dependence. True devotee of the Lord is not dependent upon the external objects or things for his sustained happiness. We all feel happy when favorable things or situations happen and feel upset when facing unfavorably situations. For most of us our happiness or sadness depends upon external objects or relationships over which we have little control. In contrast devotee of the Lord draws his inspiration and joy from his attachment to the Lord, his happiness spring forth from deeper source inside him, so external objects and happenings have little influence over his inner peace and joy. Once we realize that the external objects emotions and thoughts are constantly changing and hence cannot give us everlasting happiness, we will try to find the source of happiness within us. Pujya Gurudev says that when we experience sorrow, tragedy, happiness we need to shift our attention to the one who is aware of these emotions. Then the attention is not on the object or on the experience of sorrow but is directed towards the consciousness within us. If you are alert and attentive, we can clearly see that many life circumstances show us that the joy or happiness that you experience from objects of the world or relationships is only temporary in nature. In fact, our sastras clearly state that these pleasures are not only temporary, but they also create bondage and have sorrow associated with them. For example, if you eat a food item that you like, initially it may give us pleasure, but if we continue to eat too much of it, then we will experience only misery and sorrow. In the long run this habit can also cause detriment to our physical health. God has given us so many precious things, in fact most important things that we need in life are freely available such as air, water and sunlight. We need to be thankful to God for this. Focus on what we have rather than dwell on what we don't. In fact, if you make a list of things that we need/want, most of us usually have 80% or more of what we need or want. Thus, by reorienting our mindset and focusing on positive aspects we can learn to be happier and less dependent.
Gem 17 - Be Pure, sucih.
We need to maintain purity both external and internal. Maintain cleanliness in our relationship with others and keep our surroundings clean. Our sastras have a lot of emphasis on externally cleanliness, because without external purity, internal purity will be a distant dream. Hence, we must keep our body and our surroundings clean and organized. In addition, internal purity, that is, having pure intentions and clear thoughts is also extremely important. Pujya Gurudev states that we should not be satisfied by practicing passive goodness. We need to live a disciplined life following our values sincerely. When majority of people in a society have honest intentions and pure motives; then that generation will lead the nation to glorious summits of joy and success.
Story: Once a poor man decided to invite the King to his house. The kind King granted his wish. Royal messengers came before the King came and cleaned up his house, spread the carpet and decorated the place to receive the King. When the King visited everything was already set and ready.
Similarly, if we invite God to take his seat in our hearts, he will do what is necessary, he will send his messengers to clean our hearts so that our heart is a fit place for him to arrive. One of the simple ways to invite God and achieve purity is to pray to him regularly with devotion. Prayer should be done not to ask God some specific material stuff but is done to ask for His blessings and guidance. We all need to learn to 'pray' to God but not 'prey' to God. We need to clean up our act, Purity or sucih - is emphasized in Bhagavad Gita so many times. External cleanliness is easy to achieve but with regards to internal cleanliness we may not even be aware that we have a problem. We don't pay attention to our own thoughts. Regular introspection is necessary to look at our thoughts. We can then identify and remove those thoughts that are not serving any good purpose for us. We should always question what we are doing and why are we doing a certain thing – thus explore our motives behind our actions. This helps us to keep our mind clean and free from malice etc.
A question came about one of our shanthi mantras in one of the class –
ॐ पूर्णमदः पूर्णमिदं पूर्णात्पुर्णमुदच्यते
पूर्णश्य पूर्णमादाय पूर्णमेवावशिष्यते ॥
ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ॥
Om Puurnnam-Adah Puurnnam-Idam Puurnnaat-Purnnam-Udacyate
Puurnnashya Puurnnam-Aadaaya Puurnnam-Eva-Avashissyate ||
Om Shaantih Shaantih Shaantih ||
Meaning:
Aum! That is infinite, and this (universe) is infinite.
The infinite proceeds from the infinite.
(Then) taking the infinitude of the infinite (universe),
It remains as the infinite alone.
Aum! Peace! Peace! Peace!
We watched a part of the video which tries to explain mathematically how when we remove infinity from infinity – infinity alone remains - Banach Tarski Paradox
We also watched following youtube video of Swamini Supriyanandaji:
What We Have is His Gift to Us.: Thinking About It | #ChimayaMission | #Motivation - YouTube
See you at ashram on May 8
Pranam,
Mekhala Girish
Devender Akula