Dear Parents,
Harih Om! The following material was taught to your children on Sunday, September 30th.
We request you to make sure that your child is dropped off on time for their Balavihar class. Please understand that if your child is late, it is a distraction for other children and also the teachers.
Required Reading: Chapters 1 through 5 of the Mahabharatha by C. Rajagopalachari:
Beginning of Class: Chanting Om three times and beginning Prayers:
Re-visited the topics taught in the last Balavihar class including definition, meaning of Dharmah, three aspects of Karma: In addditon, did a brief recap of the three karmas of the body and four karmas of speech that need to be avoided. Many children did not agree that complaining could be considered as something that needed to be avoided.
III) The three karmas of mind to be avoided are: a. to covet someone else's wealth: We covet what somebody else has because we feel inadequate. This could be in the form of stealing intellectual capital belonging, plagiarism. We spoke about how any report in school needs to be handed in with an appropriate bibliography giving people credit where it is due etc. use of turnitin to detect plagiarism etc.
b. to have ill feeling towards somebody again stems from a sense of greed, jealousy and inadequacy and must be quelled. Realizing that behaving badly with someone results in bad karma
c. to not have faith in Karmaphala : we sometimes do not see the immediate results of our karma ( good or bad). We get lulled into thinking that we got away from our bad action but we will eventually pay the price for the deed.
We concluded that sometimes seemingly perfect actions may give undesirable results if the action was driven by ego. The most important aspect while performing an action is having the right attitude and intention. Even though we may think that no one has seen/read our thoughts, God is everywhere! We need to always be vigilant and keep our mind reigned in so that Dharma alone guides us when we perform action.
We discussed a story of two brothers who let a small misunderstanding create a major rift between them. We concluded that Dharma means that which brings society together and works for unity amongst all.
In addition, we taught the first two verses of Geeta Dhyanam and the verses 41 through 44 of Bhagavd Geeta chapter 18.
We had the house inaugural assembly today! Each House entered the Assembly led by their captains and waving their flags amidst cheers and drumroll. All the High School captains and mentors were introduced. They all then sang their House Bhajan. There was a short group activity which involved making word bracelets from the beads given.
CORD Walkathon is coming up on Sunday, October 28th, 2018 at Mercer county Park. Please encourage your children to register and raise money to empower women in Rural India. Please register your entire family!
CORD Walkathon: Oct 28th, Sunday 10:00 AM at Mercer County Park. East Picnic area. Please register at http://www.chinmayavrindavan.org/cord-walkathon/. Please spread the word, bring all your friends and family members and walk with us. $25/walker. CORDUSA, Tax-ID:27-0540459, qualifies for most of the corporate Matching Gifts program. Help us maximize the funds by checking with your employer. Raffle prizes for the most number of pledges collected. Please that walkathon is followed by Field Day activities.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JzXrTt3244
Pranaams,
Mekhala & Vyjayanti
