Nov 4 & 11, 2018 - Grade 9 (Sunday PM) + Thanksgiving Seva Project

Hari Om!

This upcoming Sunday, November 19th, our class along with the other 9th grade Balavihar classes will be making Thanksgiving baskets for the HomeFront Thanksgiving Drive. Students should arrive at 11:00AM to make the baskets. Hope to see you all there to participate in this great seva project!

The last two weeks we discussed samskaras and student life.

Samskaaras are acts that implant noble qualities in us and steer us away from vikrti. Samskaara karmas are purificatory acts that we take, and there are many examples of these. In addition to these, the Gautama Dharmasutra describes 8 inner qualities we should all imbibe. 

• Daya - kindness to all beings
• Ksaanti - forbearance, patience: patience to suffer silently and keep pursuing the goal of life
• Anasuya - absence of jealousy within: whatever we meet in life is a result of our past actions, and remembering this will help us be free from jealousy
• Sauca - Cleanliness and purity within and without: when we have a clean environment, our mind will also be pure
• Anayasa  - free from mental strain: avoid mental strain so you do not snap at or hurt people
• Mangalam - auspiciousness: spread happiness to others
• Akarpanya - do not be greedy: give generously whatever you have
• Asprha - absence of desires or clinging attachments: when we have desires, we lose our sense of discrimination between right and wrong

Additionally we talked about the 4 stages of life:

• Brahmacarya Asrama - student life
• Grhastha Asrama - householder life
• Vanaprastha Asrama - retirement/preparatory renunciation
• Samnyasa Asrama - renunciation

We discussed a quote regarding the brahmacarya asrama: If you are a seeker of comforts, then forget about knowledge, for it will not come to you.

One of the samskaara karmas that we discussed is upanayanam, the sacred thread ceremony. In this ceremony, the student performs different rituals, and learns the Gayatri mantra. The ritual is supposed to be an introduction to the education of the Vedas, and in the olden days, this is when students would go to live in a gurukulam with their gurus.

Food for Thought:

• How can we try to imbibe some of the inner qualities that are prescribed in the Gautama Dharmasutra? Pick one to act on this week and be prepared to discuss it when you come to class on Sunday.

Remember that we will be meeting at 11:00 before our usual class this week for our seva project. See you all then!

Pranaams,
Thejasvi & Nitya