Hari Om Parents
We continued from where we left off from last class and discussed the Sins of the mind.
Mind
Sins committed by the mind are:
- To think of taking away someone else's wealth
- To have ill-feeling for anyone
- To not have faith in the Law of Action
All the above are committed due to jealousy, competition, greed, selfishness and forgetting laws of karma. All of these emotions lead to wrong actions leading to harmful results.
What was interesting to discuss if all good actions will always yield positive results. Students gave some very good examples of when kids help other kids cheat in an exam. THey think they are helping their friends but in reality that is not the right thing to do. Some other student took the example of charity. Some people give lot of money in charity and expect lot of praise and are pompous about their actions. The attitude in which an action is performed has a bearing on the result that they get.
He, the karmaphaladata (the giver of the fruits of actions) is looking everywhere. We have to live by Dharma, do the right actions and be happy.
To build bridges, to bring harmony wherever we go is Dharma.
The right action is to build bridges where ever we go. Thus, we must live by Dharma to be happy. This was beautifully supported by a story of two affectionate brothers who separate after a quarrel. ONe of the brothers hires a carpenter to build a fence between their two houses only to his surprise to find a bridge built between their two houses after he returns from work. ON the other side of the bridge was his youger brother with his arms outstretched. The carpenter leaves saying he has many more bridges to build
Result of Greed
This was supported by another story of a traveller who encounters a bear attack. Where he holds the ears of the bear with the belief that the bear will lost his grip and set him free. While that does not happen, in the struggle a few gold coins falls from his bag. Another passer by traveller asks him what he was doing. The first one takes advantage of the situation and lies to him that the bear was a special one that drops gold coins with each twist of a ear. Greedy traveller wants to try that now. The greedy traveler got hold of the ears of the bear while the man quietly releases himself from the bears' grip, picks up all the coins from the floor, and leaves.
As you sow, so shall you reap - Never ever let jealousy, selfishness, greed, and competition influence our quality of action.
This was further explained with the help of a story. Gautami loses her only son to a snake bit. A hunter Arujunaka feels sorry for her and captures the snake that killed her son. He wanted to kill the snake, but the snake asks for his mercy by saying Death made him bite the boy. The hunter then invokes death who escapes by saying he was ordered by Time. When the hunter invokes Time, he justifies his action by saying that it is his job to keep track of everyone's time, according to their karma (past actions). According to the boy's and his mother's karma, it was his time to leave the body. Gautami concludes that only she and her karma are responsible for her son's death.
We had a quick activity of scribing so kids can experience the power of Lord Ganesha who was chosen by Sage Vyasa as a scribe to record the epic. To be a scribe, one must be alert, should possess concentration, and must write accurately with speed.
Birth of Devaratha
We moved on to Chapter 4 where we introduced the Story of Mahabharata. The purpose of repeating the stories of Mahabharata is more to understand the essence of each of the stories as each of them imparts lesson to lead a meaningful life
We covered the story of Shantanu, his intense desire to marry Ganga and his impulsive agreement to her condition that he would never question her actions. The dire consequences of his decision led way to losing his 7 sons. On questioning why she killed their 7 sons, she leaves the place along with their 8th son because the king violated her condition. After many years he reunites with his son as a young boy trained in all aspects of his life. He is Devaratha, who becomes Bhishma in the latter part of the story.
Lessons learnt from this story
- Think before you act
- Do not succumb to desire, lust
- Do not agree on things without knowing all the facts
Regards
Vyjayanti ji and Sapna ji
