Hari Om everyone,
NOTE: As we discussed in class, Bala Vihar's location is shifting to Rashmi Aunty's house
for Movie Mania next weekend 😊. More details on the WhatsApp group. Please email in case any of you are not in the group.
Here's a synopsis from class. We started with a quick praaNaayaama practice and chanting BG ch. 12.
Quirky Question (QQ) of the Day: “There were 24 monkeys and one baby monkey on a tree. Seven of them decided to jump off. How many were left on the tree?”
The answers came quickly.
“Seventeen!”
“Just the baby monkey!”
“Zero!”
“Listen carefully,” we said. “They decided to jump. Did I say they actually jumped?”
Suddenly, the room got quiet.
“All 25,” they said.
Exactly.
Because deciding is not doing.
That became the heart of the lesson.
How often do we decide to do something—but never actually do it? We decide not to talk in class, to study on time, to be kinder, to stay disciplined. But thinking, saying, and doing are often three different things.
Krishna reminds Arjuna of the same principle—there must be alignment between thought, speech, and action.
“What happens when there is alignment?” we asked.
“You become trustworthy.”
“Reliable.”
“You build credibility.”
When your words and actions match, people trust you. Over time, credibility becomes your character. That is true in school, at home, and even later in workplaces. People believe in those whose actions match their words.
From there, we returned to the deeper question—Who am I?
We used the ocean as our example.
Each of us is like a wave.
Some waves are big, some small, some calm, some powerful—but every single wave is only water.
If one wave freezes into shape, it looks different from another. One may carry a pearl, another a shell, another debris. Those are like our talents, qualities, and gunas—sattva, rajas, tamas.
But the essence?
Still just water.
That is us.
We mistake ourselves for the shape of the wave—the body, the personality, the labels.
“I am tall.”
“I am smart.”
“I am better.”
“I am less.”
But Krishna says—we are not the shape, we are the content.
Not the wave. The water.
Birth is the wave rising.
Death is the wave settling back into the ocean.
Nothing is truly lost.
This is exactly what Krishna tells Arjuna when he fears fighting his own people—Bhishma, Drona, who were his own grandfather and guru.
“They rose, they will fall,” we said. “Just like every wave.”
The problem isn't really that we do not know who we are.
The problem is that we wrongly identify ourselves as something we are not.
That is where the ego begins.
We laughed, using the brave bug-rescue moment as an example.
If someone helps remove a bug and then thinks, “Only I am brave; everyone else is useless,” that is ego.
And honestly, that is life.
All day long, we compare.
“I am better.”
“I am worse.”
Sometimes a superiority complex, sometimes an inferiority complex.
Both are ego.
Because both come from comparison.
Every wave thinks another wave has better content.
But if all waves are only water, what exactly are we competing for?
That led us beautifully into Karma Yoga.
Krishna’s famous teaching:
Karmanye vadhikaraste…
Your right is only over action, never over the fruits.
As students, your job is to study well, prepare sincerely, and give your best.
Not to obsess over the result.
“Then are we not supposed to aim for an A?” someone asked.
Of course we are.
The goal matters.
But obsession with the result creates suffering.
Like basketball—you throw with the intention to score, but not every shot goes in.
You keep playing.
You do not collapse over every missed basket.
That is karma without doership.
Act fully. Release the result.
And most importantly, do not let success or failure feed the ego.
We spoke about how the ego is like a whack-a-mole game.
It pops up from everywhere—unexpectedly, constantly.
You need alertness like a hammer.
Catch it before it grows.
Or like a balloon.
The more you inflate it—pride, comparison, validation—the easier it is to burst.
So how do we stop feeding it?
Offer the fruit to the Lord.
If success comes, offer it.
If failure comes, offer that, too.
That is Ishwararpana Buddhi.
You do your best, and leave both praise and disappointment at His feet.
Then nothing stays with you long enough to become pride.
That is freedom.
In essence, we can summarize by saying:
“Deciding is not doing.”
“Thought, speech, and action must align.”
“We are not the wave, we are the water.”
“Superiority and inferiority are both ego.”
“Do the action, but don’t carry the doership.”
"Do actions according to your dharma."
“Offer the results to the Lord.”
And perhaps the strongest reminder of the day:
“Do not inflate your ego. Keep hitting the mole with the hammer of alertness.”
Until next week, here's an equation to contemplate upon -
Regards,
Rashmi and Jacqueline.
