Author: Krishnakanth Sistla

Sid Ramachandran, Hari Chandrasekaran

The 6th grade curriculum, “India, the Sacred Land”, helps students develop a better appreciation for the great country and its culture and traditions. After having learned stories of Krishna, Rama, Hanuman and many other Gods and Goddesses in the early elementary grades followed by the symbolism behind the spiritual practices in the 5th grade, the 6th curriculum provides a peek into what India stands for, its glorious heritage and time-tested scriptures. The curriculum also covers a variety of other topics like India’s geography, mountains and rivers, languages and festivals, food and clothing, various arts and sports, etc. It also deals with various saints and masters and their contributions.

These were fun topics for the kids and we tried to make it more interesting through discussions, jeopardy, and puzzles. 6th graders also collected points every week for the clothes they wore. The kids did a fantastic job of motivating each other to come in Indian clothes and they won themselves a bowling party at the Big Al’s at the end of the school year. We, teachers, had a great time with this year’s 6th graders and we wish them good luck!

– Sid & Hari

Uma Venkatachalam & Geetha Nathan

It has been a blessing for us to teach the 7th Grade this year! This was our first year teaching middle school and we were not sure what to expect. We taught the same group of children in third grade and we were looking forward to an exciting beginning of Bala Vihar 2018 -2019. Soon we found out that though they had grown by age and grade, they were still the same on the inside!

We had a wonderful syllabus to teach this year. For the first half of the year, the book was P.O.BOX Mr. GOD based on Ayodhya Kanda (Doha 127-131) from Ram Charit Manas. For the second half of the year, it was “Keys to success” based on Lanka Kanda (after Doha 79) from Ram Charit Manas.  It was a great opportunity for us to learn these gems from the Ramayana!

Each child was so unique in their own way. Many were talkative (sometimes too much so :), normal free flowing teenage hormones!!!), while some were quiet. But none of them ever took anything at face value. They would question everything (challenging for us!!!).  Despite having to miss some classes or showing up a little late due to their extra-curricular activities, they were fully in the moment at the times they showed up.

One of the highlights of this year was when we learned the Shiva Manasa Puja and a Ram Bhajan (thanks to Suma Aunty who sent us the recordings from India and filled up missing gaps in the song in our textbook!!!). Initially, there was reluctance to learn the bhajans and more so to go up on stage. However, eventually when the day came to perform they pulled it together beautifully. YAY!!!

We are very proud of our class and we are confident that they will go on to achieve great things in life! We wish them the same too!!!

Uma & Geetha

Year’s Reflections by 7th Graders

Sruthi Satyanath:

Goal of PO Box, Mr. GOD

• God is Omnipresent, He is within/ without us
• We can all become an address of God, if we assimilate the values described in caupais of RamCharitManas

Dharma Chariot (This Dharma Chariot was written by all from a poster that was on the wall)

• 2 flags  – Satya and Sila represent Truthfullness and Good Character
• 3 Reins – Kshama(Forgiveness), Krpa(Compassion), Samata(Equanimity)
• 4 horses – Bala(Strength), Bibeka(Discrimination), Dama(Control of Senses), Parahita(Caring for others)
• 2 Riders – Isha Bhajanu(Devotion to God), Sarathi Sujana(Intelligent charioteer)
• 2 wheels – Dhiraja(Fortitude, Patience), Sauraja(valor, courage)

What is happiness?

Objects or Beings which only give temporary happiness are not true sources of happiness.

Humans two weaknesses/ enemies(inner)

• Passion(Desire, Lust) & Greed(Jealousy, Ego)

Gowri Ganesh:

God lives in the hearts of people who…

• Never tire of listening to his stories
• Always long to see him
• Distinguish between right and wrong
• Do puja whenever they can
• Only give the best, say good things
• Always remember God

Dharma chariot

Same as above from Shruthi.

Keys to Success

Knowledge, Hard work, Determination are the KEYS that give you happiness.

Rainah Rajan:

After a year packed full of learning, these are the 5 main things I took away from this class:

• The Dharma Chariot has lots of important values that should be taken and applied to real life. These include Isha Bhajanu(devotion to God), Bala(strength) and Satya(truthfulness)
• There are 2 birds that demonstrate important skills

1. The Chataka bird only drinks rain water, symbolizing only taking in the purest things
2. The Hamsa bird can separate milk from water, just like how we should symbolize the good from the bad

• Listening is very important. Have ears like an ocean to be a good devotee to God by taking in Ram’s stories. Being quiet and listening can also help in the case of finding a pocket-watch in a room full of hay. If you stop, quiet your mind and listen, you can hear the watch ticking. Being still and quiet can help with many things in life.
• The most important thing Chinmaya has taught me is to be kind, above all else, be kind.

Akshaya Arun:

• You should separate good from bad like

      The Chataka bird who can separate milk and water

      The Hamsa bird who drinks only pure water

• You should always think and hear good things
• Each element of the earth is born out one another
• The Dharma Chariot has many values that relate to God
• God lives in everything and is everywhere
• The key to success is to believe in yourself
• Oceanic Ears: Hear the good things
• Believe in God, Devotion to God
• You should not discriminate
• Success is when you achieve something that helps you in life
• Actions are like Boomerangs, if you spread good, you will get good – spread happy ripples.

Maansi S:

• Parts of the Chariot (same as that of Shruthi)
• The stories I learned from both the books taught me lessons that I can use later in my life such as Patience, trust, thinking before speaking and the importance of my Devotion to God. I think the different parts of the chariot are the core values of someone’s life.

Khavya Balamurugan:

• I learned about the chariot which has many virtues in each part. For example, I learned about “Satya” which is truthfulness. I also learnt the true meaning of “Bala” which is strength. Many people think it is when you lift stuff. But in reality it is when you stand up for something you want. It is to take a leap and getting out of the box and into the real world. This year in Chinmiya, I learnt about “Kshama”. Forgiveness is important in your life. It’s when someone does something to you and you forgive and forget. Sometimes, it’s hard to forget the mistakes done by others, but sometimes it’s better than holding a grudge, Chinmiya has taught me my dharma and karma and the results of it.

Nivedita Giani:

• God is in everything
• There is a chariot of good values
• If you follow one good value, the rest will come naturally
• There are 5 elements
• Happiness is not something on the outside but on the inside
• The key to success is believing in yourself
• Happiness is something that makes everyone happy
• Believe in God
• Discriminate between good and bad, right and wrong.

Kavya Ananth:

• Cataka Bird – Drinks the pure, clean raindrop water
• Hamsa Bird – separates milk and water
• Dharma Chariot – (Same as above)
• God:

1. Control your senses
2. Never stop listening to His stories
3. Do a lot of puja’s for him

Tanush Sistla:

This year, a couple things stuck with me.

1.  That God, who exists infinitely everywhere, resides in so many places, in so many people, that it is useless to list where he resides. Some would say he resides in specific places, like those with oceanic ears, but in truth, he is not only everywhere, but everything. We must learn to acknowledge that, for then, we may be slightly closer to God, and understanding all that He is or represents.
2.   That to reach success, one must ignore the qualities held by most humans, like selfishness, ego, arrogance and so on. We must follow the Chariot of Dharma, which shows the many ways we must combat and defeat our evil qualities. We must use our Bala, Bibeka, Dama and Parahita as horses to guide us, since they are strength, discrimination, control and caring. Devotion and Intelligence control the 4 horses, leading them and us in the right direction. Weapons, though unlisted, must be used to combat the evil we feel, to destroy all that attaches us to the wrong ideas.

Roshen Nair:

1. Over this year, I learned about where God lives. In ears like ocean, open to everything and in the eyes like the jataka bird, pure. In mouth like the humsa bird which only sees the good and in the nose like those who smell only good things. God lives in the heart of the people who yearn for stories of Rama. This is what we learnt from the book P.O.box Mr. God.
2. We also learnt the Keys to success from the Bhagavat Gita. We saw the Dharma Chariot and what each part represents. We learned the wheels were Sourija and Dhirija, valor and fortitude. (The rest were from above paragraph of Shruthi). These are all important to practice the good Dharma of the Dharma chariot.
3. We also learned God is omnipotent (all powerful), omnipresent (everywhere) and omniscient (all-knowing). Also, the attributes of good people are equanimity, devotion to God, polite to all, well-wisher of all, beloved all, speak with truth, speak with love, don’t say the truth unpleasant and don’t say the pleasant seeming lies.

 

Aparna Easwar, Raj Sistla, Sushil Nema

8th Grade 2018-19

The theme of the Bala Vihar for 8th grade is Yato Dharmah Tato Jayah (Where there is Dharma, there is Victory).    

Our wonderful students:  Dhvani, Anika, Sitara, Idika, Kumkum, Annika, Sagarika, Nividh, Suhas, Jayant, Rahul, Tej, Manas, Rohan, Aditi, Arshia, Arya, Sudarshan.

We started off the year with a discussion on the Karma, and the law of Karma.  

We spent a good portion of the 8th grade curriculum reading  & discussing the Mahabharata, which chronicles the story of the Pandavas, the Kauravas, their elders & relatives, and of course Lord Krishna.  The Mahabharata is the longest epic in the world and is several thousand years old. Dharma in action, and references to Dharma, are conspicuous in almost every chapter of the Mahabharata and it was a great experience to analyze the motives, the choices made and the consequences experienced, by the characters in the Mahabharata.   We are grateful to the version of C. Rajagopalachari’s translation of the Mahabharata which we used in this class. The students had lots of interesting observations, questions & debates along the way.

A wonderful episode in the Mahabharata is the “Yaksha Prashna” – a morality filled questions & answer dialogue between Yudhishthira and a Yaksha.  As a class we spent a good deal of time discussing this thought provoking Q&A.

With the backdrop of the Mahabharata story, the class then discussed what Dharma is, and how to live by our Dharma.   We then discussed the ten values of Sanatana Dharma as laid down by Manu, the facts of life and the roadmap to success.  Then we capped off the year with a module on “How to be a darling of Krishna” by living the values of “Thirty Five Gems” from Chapter 12 of the Bhagavad Gita.    

Oh..along the way, the class also had the opportunity to :

• Cook over a hundred meals for the Transitions homeless shelter  (way to go, class!).
• Break new ground and fall in love with the concept of “Bala Vihar homework”  

-Raj Sistla & Aparna Eswar

Praveen Gopalakrishnan & Shyam Venkatesh

The 9th Grade curriculum focuses on Hindu Culture, and exploring core tenets and practices of Hinduism. Topics included:

– Study of the Vedas

– Exploring karmakanda, upasanakanda, and jnanakanda

– Karma and Dharma

– Exploring various samskaras including upanayana

– Caste based on guna (qualities) and karma (action)

– Ahimsa (non-injury)

– Dana (charity) and Seva (service)

– Panchasraddha, the five basic beliefs of Hindus

– 16 steps of a puja

– Mahavakyas, or the four great truths

– The 4 purusarthas (human goals)

– Panchayajnas, the five daily yajnas we should perform each day

Kalpana Krishnamurthy & Krishna Sistla

High school is a time of tumultuous change. It is when the journey to discover oneself begins. It would be helpful if there was a guide to help us on this journey. Alas! For many in the world, no such guide exists. As descendants of the eternal path of Dharma, we are blessed to have Gurudev as our guide and Bhagavad Gita as our Guide book. In 10^th grade, we begin this journey of self-awareness earnestly. Students and teachers learn together and connect the concepts we learn to our experiences as an individual, family, nation and the world as a whole.

Our vibrant student group includes Devak, Deyvak, Kartik, Shruti, Ramya, Vishwesh, Anusha, Sriram, Shriya and Navya. They are an inquisitive bunch. On one occasion the discussion was so immersive that we all lost track of time. On other occasions the class breaks into fits of laughter that seem to go on forever.

Through the year, we journeyed through the garden of Bhagavad Gita. First we met the despondent Arjuna who is confused about who he is, unsure of what path to take, his energies have been laid to waste by his mental state. To his credit, Arjuna sets aside his ego and accepts Krishna as his guru and asks him to clarify the confusion. Thus ensues a lively conversation between Arjuna and Krishna.

We listened to short snippets of this conversation. We learned about the deathless and birthless state of Brahman. We learned about integrated intellect (Buddhi yoga) and actions of a stable Buddhi yogi.  From Krishna, we learned about Karma and universal nature of Yagna. We learned about the path of action, path of knowledge and the path of devotion. We learned about meditation and the abhyasa needed to calm one’s mind. Finally, we learned about the cosmic cycles of creation and dissolution.

Along the way, we stopped and talked about civil rights history and the role of identity separation in fostering hatred and violence. We talked about genocide and the state of mind of the individual and collective that can lead to horrible acts of violence.

We successfully survived the cooking challenge and even had some fun while doing it. Finally, we ended the year with a bang. We headed out to Tree2Tree for a funfilled afternoon of climbing, rope walking, swinging, screaming with joy and screaming for life. In the end we all made it through the black course. Yes we did it !.

–Krishna & Kalpana

 

TK Ramchandar & Sudhir Namboothiry

Udaya Summarized this year as follows,

Our Takeaways from the Bhagavad Gita – Udaya

What We Learned

• Our body is just a frame for our soul
• Our goal is to graduate from Earth
• Karma is action, and actions have consequences; your karma can affect your life now and affect your future lives
• The Mind is a great servant, but a bad Master
• God is in everything
• Desires prevent enlightenment
• The restlessness in our mind is caused by our likes and dislikes
• Expectations are bad, happiness requires an emphasis on the effort, not the results
• Ego is bad

 

What We Should Do

• Work to be more like the Lord
• Frequently practice Meditation
• Learn to practice self-restraint
• Learn to understand yourself
• Don’t be attached to the end result
• Detach yourself from desires and distractions
• The factors of devotion are:
  • Fix your mind on Krishna
  • Have self-control
  • Have extreme faith
• Praying requires to focus on Bhagavan; meditation
• Issues can be complex but you must always practice/follow your dharma
• Strive to be satvik
• To be enlightened you must surrender yourself and your belongings to God

“The hardest choices require the strongest wills” – Siddarth Menon, aka Thanos