Hari Om Dear Parents,
Here is the update of our Feb 3rd balavihar session.
We started our class by greeting the students followed by Yoga (Focused on Surya Namaskar) , Opening Prayers and chanting / practicing Geeta Dhyanam.
We begin with a brief refresher of the last class discussion on Dharma and the three pillars of Dharma – Satyam (Courage of conviction), Brahmacharya (Control of Sense Organs and ahimsa (Non-Injury)
In this class we went further deep into the topic of Ahimsa and Satyam
We started our discussion with the principle of non-injury (ahimsa)and talked about the various forms of Himsa
· Himsa by actions – Physical actions, Hurting others physically.
· Himsa towards the environment – Air/ Water pollution, Forest burning and chemical dumping, Trashing in our parks and outside, unkempt surroundings and untidy personal habits etc.
· Himsa towards the Animals : killing of animals for pleasure (hunt), for use in our regular daily use items, Leather coats, Bags, Car seats etc.. And also for meat products that people eat. We talked briefly about the negative impacts of eating meat.
· Himsa towards self: Poor / fussy eating habits, being lazy, watching too much of Tv, Video games etc being harmful to mind and intellect as well
· Himsa/ Ahimsa by Speech: Words and speech can be used in a positive way to make more friends and earn the trust of people. It can also be used to hurt people and be the cause of death in some cases.
We discussed briefly about Gurudev's response to the question of how he gets money to run such a big institution (Chinmaya mission) and his response being it is his ancestral property - Three inches of land – 'My Tougue" . That is he got this by his power of speech.
Thus by learning how himsa can be caused we learn how ahimsa can be practiced in our daily life.
We then discussed definition of satyam – To live up to one's intellectual convictions and to act in harmony with them is satyam. We continued our discussion on how our instrument of BMI – Body , Mind and intellect can be effectively used to keep our values and ideals.
We then concluded the discussion today with a small game of question and answers with a focus on the typical life situation we are faced with and how Satyam principle can help respond to those situations. We also discussed the geeta teaching of - Satyam Vada (Speak the truth), Priyam Vada in a kind way) and Hitam Vada (not hurtful to anyone).
We followed Swamiji on Tv and chanted Geeta chanting verses 19 and 20. We then concluded the class with Closing prayers, followed by Aarti and Pledge in the assembly hall.
Next Class : Feb 10th 2023
Thanks and Hari Om
Purnima and Shankar
