Hari Om Parents,
We have been giving the students an incentive to come in early or on time to BalaVihar Sunday mornings by allowing them to try to view stereograms. It's sort of an exercise in concentration as well as trying to see what is right in front of us but not necessarily immediately visible. Only 2 of our 26 students have been able to crack the code so far. Hopefully more of our kids will be able to see at least a few of the stereograms soon.
We asked the kids if they knew what a Boomerang was. They all did. They knew the physics of it and pretty much knew what was gonna be discussed right after the word "boomerang" was said. We have a very smart and engaged group of kids who are always ready to participate and question and engage in discussion.
The law is what goes around comes around. As you sow, so shall you reap is the "boomerang effect."
Life is a boomerang. What we do in life alone returns to us in the form of results; our actions are the cause and the result of the actions performed is the effect. If we are kind, the world will be kind to us.
Lord Rama says, "If you want to succeed, follow values in life."
"Boomerang - if we dont change our behavior, like a boomerang, it will come back to us.
Eg. - 'What we sow is what we reap'; 'what goes around comes around'
We discussed various scenarios where the kids may have compromised or felt like compromising values. We talked about what was inside of you that made them compromise or not compromise, It was a discussion that most kids had their hands raised and wanted to speak up! Unfortunately we had to cut it short to be able to jump to our next topic. Please take some time to discuss with your kids what we talk about during class.
Vibhisana Gita- From RamcharitManas by Tulsidas ji. The conversation between Vibhisana who was really concerned and showed compassion for Rama who just stood on the battle ground with just His bow and arrows, while Ravana had all magical weapons and blackmagic which does anything to win over the opponent.
Lord Rama told Vibhisana not to worry and He is ready to face Ravana with the Dharma chariot He has. The Lord says anyone having this chariot sees only victory and hence it is also called the Vijaya Ratha. We discussed 'who is Rama" and expressed that what is within is more important than the showy exterior. We then talked about who is "Ravana' and how he is visually so powerful to look at on the battlefield.
Our conduct in the world is either like Rama or Ravana. When we are overcome by negativity like hate, anger, jealousy we become like Ravana, on the other hand, when we are full of love and compassion, we are like Rama.
We talked about watching T.V. it doesn't mean that we are looking at the T.V., what interests us is what the actual program is. likes and dislikes differ for different people and if we don't like the program that;s on, we turn the TV off. We discussed happiness from "within" and about permanent bliss. All in terms of how Rama is the ideal person and was able to be a source of delight to all.
We discussed the story of Lord Shiva and Parvathi's palace housewarming ceremony to further discuss "Ravana's" character traits even though he was probably Lord Shiva's #1 devotee.
We will continue to discuss the various parts of the dharma chariot in detail in our upcoming classes. The kids will put together and present their own Dharma Chariot as our year end assignment. Our class stage performance will be on March 8th as mentioned during our 1st class. Please make sure that all the kids are available as we are all excited to put together our presentation.
BalaKanda Quiz - We had a fierce competition between the 3 teams as they took on questions from the Balakanda. We had some tricky questions that the kids were able to answer. It served as a good recap and conclusion.
The kids have decided that they would like to take on "Surpanakha" and "Sita's kidnapping" as topics for our class stage performance, along with some Vibhishana Gita. We have welcomed the kids to come up with their roles and have also asked them what direction they would like the show to go in. We are in a bit of a time crunch even though it may seem like we have a long time. Please brainstorm with your kids and have them bring their thoughts when they come next class.
Wishing you all a very Happy Thanksgiving!
With warm regards,
Rahul & Keerthi
