February 23, 2014

Today in class we discussed the skit. The scriptwriters are Mahima, Ameya, Nivedita and Ananya. The directors are Disha and Bhargav. The video recorders are Deepshika and Sashank. The story line the scriptwrites came up with is based off of 3 Idiots.

For the skit casting will be done next week.

The characters are:

• Rancho
• Raj
• Tamaz
• Bacteria
• Shreya
• Shruti
• Shivani
• Hippie Counselor
• Girls(extras)
• Students(extras)
• MC’s (2)

Along with discussing the skit everyone made cards for St. Jude’s patients as well. We wrote get well cards that will be posted to them. Remember to keep on collecting money! We have about 200 dollars so far.

Check out the beautiful cards our class made for the patients of St. Jude's

Finally, we talked about the importance of charity, which ties in to our St. Jude’s project. It is important to give with sincerity, love and effort. You should also give in plenty and with an open heart. If you give 10 dollars today you will get 1000 dollars tomorrow.When giving be modest. Don’t do it for your name at the top of the college or so everyone will know what you did. The most important of all is to donate with sympathy and donate with feeling for someone else. The goal for this week is to think of people who have helped you in the past and try to start a gratitude diary. Write one thing you are thankful for everyday in the gratitude diary.

--Deepshika Muruganathan

February 9, 2014

Today in class we discussed our upcoming skit and brainstormed for ideas. An abridged list of those ideas includes Macbeth, 12 Angry Men, 3 Idiots and Inception. We finally decided on letting Ananya, Ameya, and Mahima decide the premise on their own, due Feb 12. Afterwards, we intended our story to branch off into two possible outcomes, the groups writing these are Deepshika and Bhavani, for possibility one, and Nivedita and Sindhu for possibility two. Their ideas are due Feb 15. Each of these then proceeds to separate endings, written by Bhargav and Nirmal, and Uday and Nihal, due Feb 20. We discussed extensively the various ways that we could portray aspects of Hinduism in our skit/movie. We thought we could portray it through the characters of Macbeth, an idea that was eventually scrapped due to the difficulty of portraying the intricate plot of it within ~10 minutes. We additionally considered adding themes of dharma and adharma into the play 12 Angry Men and changing the premise slightly to show our point. We even contemplated an amalgam of 3 idiots and Inception, with the 3 idiot characters portraying Satvic, Rajasic and Tamasic qualities individually and the audience deciding the outcomes of what happened to them in Inception. We brainstormed for the majority of our class.

After deciding this we learned about Upanishads and how we should worship guests, parents, and teachers as god. We were taught how the Hindu culture regards many different people as god or even before god. We discussed this and other aspects of Tattiriya Upanishad in our class.

- Abhishek Shivkumar

February 2, 2014

Today in the 9th grade Balavihar class we talked about the Penny Drive.  The class goal is to bring 25 dollars per person.  Not cents.  DOLLARS!!!  That will bring a total of, if I did the math correctly, $875.00.  This money is going to the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.  The money is enough to fix a broken bone.  The feeling that you just saved a child is just unbelievable. So let's share and help.

The class brainstormed ideas for the annual day in May. After much discussion the ideas have been narrowed down and we hope to work as a team and put in our best effort for a fabulous show!

We all played the fun game Jeopardy today as well. Categories included "SELFIE","BH-AT-LE",DHARMA,GURU,RX, CAST-->WAY GUNAS.The entire class was screaming out with joy (not really 'screaming').  Everyone had fun and the teams really know how to work together.  The teachers also had a lot of fun. The teachers hope that we remember what we have learnt !

Also a group of students from NYU came and observed our Balavihar class to get an idea of how the Chinmaya System actually works.  They also seemed like they were enjoying themselves.  It was another beautiful day at Chinmaya Balavihar.

 

- Arjun Sunil Veettil

January 26, 2014

Today in class, we first discussed the three ways to reach spiritual success. The first way was practicing Bhakti. This means you devotedly worship God. The second way is Karma Yoga. To do this, you have to practice selfless actions and can’t harm anyone. Finally, Jnana is the third way to reach spiritual success - when you have true knowledge and self realization.

Dharma Chara means to do your duties.  We categorized Dharma into the duties based on different stages in life. Among the duties of a child, there are specific duties we need to do for home, society, nature, yourself, animals and our country. For  home, our duties include things like cleaning after ourselves, our room, helping parents and also respecting them. Duties for society include doing selfless acts like volunteering to help better our communities. For nature, we should do things like save energy, recycle, not wasting food or anything from nature, and making sure not to pollute. Duties for ourselves include going to school, learning, and studying. Animals should be treated nicely and we should be good citizens by doing our civic duty of voting and ect. We also talked about treating our body like a temple, being clean and not harming our bodies. The best way to complete these duties is to make a change in our lives to do them.

Cheating was a topic the class debated on for a long time. We first established that most of the time success in school means you will have success in life. However, many argued that famous businessmen like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs were all dropouts from school and they ended up being some of the most successful people today. But there was also the other side that only less than 2% of the people who drop out actually came close to their position. Then, this led to the topic of Satyam Vada and after a lot of debate, we all agreed that cheating and lying are bad things to do.

This brings us to today’s main topic which was Ahimsa. Ahimsa means non-violence. When we think of Ahimsa, the first person that comes to our mind is Mahatma Gandhi. His non violence movement led India to its independence. Violence can be caused through our speech, thoughts and actions.  A doctor may be doing surgical actions that can be considered violent in ways but when we look at his intentions or thoughts, he does not want to harm a person - as his duty is to help and save people. After this, we ended class with prayers.

-Manasa Dornala

January 12, 2014

Today, we started with the teachers brought up a discussion on how our (the students’) resolutions were. Next, we reviewed what we had learnt so far this year in Balavihar, starting with the Hindu samskaras.  We discussed on the three gunas which are satvik, rajasic and tamasic. The dominant guna in most humans is satvik because we are good living human beings. We went on to understand the caste system in India which had four groups - brahmanas, kshatriyas, vaisyas and sudras. 


The brahmanas are inherited with the satvik guna because they are the teachers who spread knowledge to all. In addition, they do not ask for anything in return such as money or food for their education. Next, the kshatriyas are somewhat satwick because they do their their duty as a warrior, protecting the common people. The Kshatriyas are also rajasik because they fight in wars to kill and also are sometimes greedy for land and gold. The vaisyas dominate the rajasik characteristic because they are the merchants and the business men who ask for money in return for their products. The Sudras dominate the tamasik over the other gunas because they are usually very lazy and depend on others to do their work (often as parasitic). For example, a scientist is satvik because he works hard for the welfare of the common men by finding cures for all diseases that arise. Another example, an actor is rajasik because he acts for entertainment for all people, but works for money in return for his hard work.


Then we discussed about Satyam Vada: Always speak the truth.   On the Indian National Emblem, it states that “Truth always wins”. No matter how far you argue, you will some day realize the importance of the phrase on the Emblem. The Emblem states that “In order to realize that truth always wins, you need to slog like a bull and jog like a horse and follow the path of dharma”.


The next chapter of our class was about the Dharmam Chara. Dharma Chara is to do your duties. Not only students, but parents, grandparents, aunts, sisters, wives, uncles, or whomever it may concern must follow these rules, respectively. Sons or daughters must respect their parents or other adults in other places.  These words are the most important for a brahmacharya or a student because it defines even more in depth the prescriptions of what they need to accomplish at that time period. In addition, our duties towards our parents are to be obedient, respect them, do some chores without complaining and to clean up after ourselves. You need respect for all your elders, even though you may encounter some situations with these problems. But, it is our duty to give our elders some basic respect at the least.   


We wrapped up the class having some announcements on the future programs that will occur later. We will be having an Anna Danam, an offering to the common people arranged at a Soup Kitchen. There were many students who offered to provide food for the Anna Danam. The teachers offered a special thanks to them. Our grade is having a penny drive. Our teachers have a special request that you bring pennies for charity before February ends, because the penny drive will end then.


-Bhargav Singaraju

December 8, 2013

Today in class we learned about what differentiates us from others. We heard a talk by Swami Swaroopanada (Swamiji from Chinmaya Mission UK) via you tube on the topic "Conquering our destiny". Click here for link to Swamiji's talk.  According to Swami Swaroopananda each of us has our own mental texture which is composed of our personality, our actions, and our choices. Another important highlight from class was whether we truly have control over our lives or not. But what are choices? Choices are options that allow us to change or alter the direction of our lives.

 

Another question was do we as individuals have control over our own lives or is everything predestined? Many of us argued that we don’t necessarily make choices for ourselves rather decisions that we make are influenced by choices that we made in the past. So, they aren’t necessarily choices considering that they are influenced or affected by other sources. Factors that don’t have control over, influences what you do have control over. If we are influenced by other sources then do we really have control? If we have bad influence, then our actions will result negatively also. This is why we should try to get good thoughts/ ideas from valid sources; in this way we can become a better person.

 

Some people act without thinking but why does this happen? the body reacts to the command from the mind based on the sensory stimulus, the mind is trained or helped by the intellect which acts like the filter based on actions learned. As long as the MIND and the INTELLECT work in sync following the Right values the actions will be successful and will happen smoothly.(Eg: we know that fire burns, so when we see a fire we are careful and do not try to touch it or are very cautious around it as the intellect which has learnt this has informed the mind which has listened to the intellect. )

- Rachna Ammanamanchi

November 24, 2013

Today, in class, we mainly discussed the three types of Gunas:

 

Sathvik Guna: This guna generally represents the purest and best attributes that one can possess:

·         Just action – action for justice (against injustice)

·         Generosity

·         Selflessness

·         Kindness

·         Love for everyone and everything

·         Calmness – polar opposite of anger

 

Rajasik Guna: This guna represents the “middle” level of attributes. These attributes are better than Tamasik Guna attributes, but are not the best attributes that one can have:

·         Action oriented

·         Greed for more than oneself

·         Less selfishness and more empathy

·         Firmness, but not Cruelty

·         Not Lust, but just liking things

·         More controlled anger (against unjust causes)

 

Tamasik Guna: This guna represents the lowest attributes that one can have:

·         Laziness

·         Greed

·         Selfishness

·         Cruelty

·         Lust

·         Anger 

Once we were taught about these ideas, the whole class then collectively took a survey. The survey consisted of the teachers giving the class a scenario and 4 responses – we (as students) had to choose the response that applied to us. In the end, it showed everyone in the class what attributes they had, which would in turn show them what guna they were a part of.

 

This activity showed us what we need to improve on by showing us what attributes we possess. Therefore, it was highly beneficial for everyone that participated in it.

 

- Srivats Narasimhan