Hari om everyone,
Here's the last class synopsis of Bala Vihar for this year. Cannot believe that a whole year has already come to an end!!
We started the class with meditation and chanting Bhagavadgeeta chapter 3, as always.
The Kyun Kyun (QQ - Quirky Question) of the day was - What is it that you can add to a cup with milk to the brim, without spilling it over?!
Students: Heat
Me: Can't be. Heat expands the milk and milk certainly loves to spill over :)
Students: Light
Me: Well, the top of the cup is lit, but not the whole cup.
Me: How about Sugar?! Sugar dissolves into the milk harmoniously and at the same time sweetens every drop of milk in the cup uniformly!!
This was a precursor to continuing our discussion of Chapter 12 (bhakti yoga). Krishna had shown his vishwaroopa in 11th chapter and had started explaining to Arjuna the importance of devotion, be it the manifest or unmanifest form of the Lord. Arjuna had asked which kind of devotion is better. Krishna did not answer it directly but he said, 'no matter which (manifest or unmanifest) form is worshiped, one must have bhakti (devotion)'.
Our life is like that cup of milk filled to the brim. Bhakti is like sugar that is added to that cup of milk! The element of bhakti makes everything that much sweeter, just as sugar makes every drop of milk sweeter!! We could be doing the same actions that we do already. But doing it with devotion purifies the very action and makes the person dearer to the Lord! Why is that? Because, when we do anything with devotion, we are doing the action with a sense of gratitude to Him. We will not have self-centered thoughts and will be performing the same action with more genuine intentions.
Krishna also enumerated 35 values to be inculcated to become true devotees of Him. They were - no enmity towards any beings, friendliness, kindness, no intense attachment to anything or anyone, no egotism, no arrogance, having equanimity, forgiveness, one who doesn't swell up due to praise or succumb when chastised, etc.
Even if we work on a few of these values, we would have made great progress in improving ourselves. We discussed a few of these with examples.
To be grounded and well-rooted, one should have the right knowledge. Half-baked knowledge is dangerous! How can we explain this? A pot filled to the brim will not swish the water around while carrying. An empty pot also doesn't swish ('coz there is nothing in to swish :). Whereas a half-filled pot swishes and tends to make a lot of noise! One should strive with all effort to gain the right knowledge in the right manner.
With this, we finished the assigned curriculum for this academic year!
It has been a FANTASTIC year with lots of fun, learning, laughter, and memorable conversations!! This was a great group of students who were always attentive and willing to learn! How do we know this? At the end of each class, we had our Review Time where quickly and randomly everyone was asked to say one thing that they learned in class that day. Collectively, they would summarize the entire material covered that day!!! We are super proud of our students.
We bid a bitter-sweet adieu to our Seniors who will be venturing out into different colleges for the next academic year. We wish them the very best and we are absolutely positive that they will do very well wherever they go! Their values are already deep-rooted and will be their guiding light as they spread their wings to fly away!! Lots of love and regards to them in all their future endeavors. We encourage them to come visit us when they are visiting home and we would love to see them again.
Until next time, we will leave you with these thoughts -
Stay rooted and reach for the stars!!
Have a wonderful summer. Signing off until we meet again 
Regards,
Rashmi.
Rashmi.
