Hari Om! Parents 🙏
This will be our last class report for the year. Thank you, Parents. We had a great year teaching children the values from the Ramayana and Vibhishana Gita. The children performed beautifully at our April 12th show.
We started class with our beginning prayers followed by the chanting of Nama Ramayanam.
For the last class we briefly discussed Rajaji's comments and advice with the children.
Rajaji quotes Adi Shankara, who says that anyone who keeps Sri Rama in his heart and meditates on him his sins will be washed away by the Lord's grace. The Lord manifested as Shri Krishna in his next Avatara and made himself more accessible to his devotees. He lived among the people in Northern India.
We talked about love and attachment. Attachment brings destruction like we learn from the story of Dasharatha. Having love for all is what the Lord taught. His love for Shabari, Guha and Vibhishana are great examples. Seeta is the embodiment of compassion and grace.
Rajaji advises the children
Look upon Sri Rama, Lakshmana, and Hanumanji as our father and older brother as they are eager to help you with life lessons. Grow to be like Bharata, Lakshmana and Hanuman and have love for all.
Lastly, we discussed Rajaji's advice,
Don't look upon your life as a burden. Hard work is the secret to success. Learn to love what you do. He says when I stepped down from the high office, I did not feel low, but on the completion of Ramayana my heart was heavy.
We discussed how we can perform better if we do what we love.
Hence, we concluded the Ramayana. We have used both Tulasi Das ji's and Valmiki's work to teach the children. Please encourage the children to read the Ramayana for their summer reading..
Next, we went to Vibhishana Gita and discussed some more values from the Dharma Chariot.
The Lord continued teaching Vibhishana:
Ignorance of anything including self-ignorance can be destroyed by knowledge. Knowledge is represented by the bow which can be gotten from a guru.
Our enemies are an impure mind..
The quiver represents a pure and steady mind.
Being steady means to stick to our decisions. We talked about breathing practices and meditation for acquiring a steady mind.
The arrows in the quiver are represented by the yamas and niyamas or the do's and don'ts as prescribed in the yoga shastra
The 5 Yamas we discussed were
Non injury or ahimsa which included both physical and mental ahimsa
Truthfulness or Satyam, always speak the truth
Celibacy
Non stealing
Not hoarding but sharing
The 5 Niyamas
Austerity or self- discipline
Study of scriptures like the Ramayana
Purity of mind or a quiet mind
Contentment
Discussed Gandhiji's quote
And talked about needs and wants
We talked about saying prayers upon waking, before eating etc. All this helps us to express gratitude to the Lord and quite our mind.
The Armor is depicted by the devotion to the guru or teacher. This is the shield that protects us.
We thanked our Gurudev and our Swamiji who made our learning in Bala Vihar possible.
Final discussion:
Learn to ride on the Dharma Chariot by living by all the values discussed and make our mind quiet. A quiet mind is ready to absorb knowledge both material and spiritual. This can major lives happy and worthwhile.
Our next class is on June 7th
June 15th is our annual day. Please sign up for potluck dinner..
Aug 9-1 we will be celebrating our 10th anniversary of our temple. There will be Swamiji's discourse, food, fun
Pranams
Mythili and Nirmala
