Apr 28, 2019 - Grade 9 (AM Sunday)

Hari om everyone,

Hope you all had a nice spring break.  It was good to see you all back in class!

We started the class where we left off - the evolution of man.  A bee is a bee to its maximum possible capacity from birth to death.  A lion is a lion to its best extent from birth to death too!  So are all other animals.  Only humans have been given the free-will to evolve into better or worse beings during their life span!  We are talking about an intellectual evolution and NOT a biological one here!  (This point cleared the conflict in understanding we had during last class).

This evolution happens in our quest for happiness which is our true dharma (as established in the last class).  We discussed how to 'unplug' ourselves from the world, just like in the movie 'Matrix'.  Please watch this one, as well as 'Inception'.  Both are must watch movies!  We would have loved to watch these as a group, but unfortunately, time doesn't permit us.  Both are deeply vedaantic and we can benefit immensely by interpreting them in the light of topics learnt.  

We saw that the screen of the movie is not tarnished upon projecting a horror movie nor does it melt on showing a romantic movie!  Similarly, we saw the example of the man sitting on the bank of the river and enjoying the view rather than the one in the river who had to experience the good and bad in the waters.  

The benefit of being an 'observer' (one's true dharma) is that he will never go through the cycles of pain and pleasures.  

We learnt about the second puruShaartha - 'artha' (wealth).  We saw that our scriptures never asked us to renounce everything, become a sanyaasi and go to the forest :).  It does talk about earning wealth and enjoying that wealth as well!  With the example of a stock Analyst vs. a Trader, we saw how the Analyst is unattached to the wealth and still engaging in the events, whereas the Trader's heart palpitates along with the pulse of the market!  

We had announcements about the CYSP and Bhagavadgeeta essay writing competition.  Details can be found on the ashram website.  While talking about this, the natural progression was, you guessed it :) - 'College Essays'.  We had promised the kids that we will share a write-up about 'What NOT to do in their essays'.  Below is the link to read further

- https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/03/well/family/how-i-know-you-wrote-your-kids-college-essay.html

Hope you enjoy reading it!  

We started on the 3rd puruShaartha - 'kaama' (desire).  Will continue in the next class. 

Did gItaa chanting and finished the class to go to the auditorium.  

Enjoy the rest of your week.  See you Sunday.

Regards,
Rashmi and Sitaram.