Notes by Sanna Luthra

Lesson:

Today’s lesson was about karma parayana. It means, I admire the one who is engaged in meaningful actions. It is the ability to see what we are doing now, and how it will contribute to the world, in the future. See how your activity contributes to your future, see the big picture. Ask yourself this question: “How is what I am doing now, going to contribute to my future?”. Do your activities with a meaningful purpose, which will help engage you in the activity you are doing. That was the lesson for today.

1st story — The Architect and the workers:

The first story was about an architect who wanted to design a big temple, where people could worship at. This temple was made out of stone, so the workers who were hired were carving stones. One day, the manager looked around to see how the stones were looking. Shocking, the manager realized that some workers were doing an excellent job, some doing an “okay” job, and some doing a horrific job. The reason why some were doing a fabulous job, some were doing an okay job, and some were doing a horrible job, was because of the reason they were doing this. The worst worker was just there to earn money, the “okay” worker was there to feed his family, while the best worker was doing it so that people could worship at this temple, and enjoy it. It depends on your purpose of doing your activity. If you think about others and you are engaged in your activity, you will be the best worker, but if you are not, you will be the worst worker. That was the first story Shankarji shared with us today.

2nd story — John F. Kennedy and the janitor:

The second story was in relation to John F. Kennedy (one of the past USA presidents). One day, John bumped into a janitor who was working for NASA. John questioned this janitor, “Why are you here?” The janitor kindly responded, “I am here to help somebody get on the moon.” This inspired and made John happy, so he talked about this conversation in his past speeches. This janitor believed in karma parayana. He was doing his job with a happy purpose, which was why he enjoyed and was engaged in his job. That was the last story Shankarji shared with us today.

Practice:

The artistic practice that we did first was, drawing the elephant that was on our screens for about two minutes. Then, we drew the same picture (and same time limit), but the only difference was that we will be offering this drawing to bhagwan. After we were done drawing these pictures, Shankarji asked us, “Which drawing do you like better?”. Most people said the second picture. Why was that the case? Probably because we knew the purpose of this drawing, which made us, especially me, put in our best efforts. When we know the purpose of our actions and activities, we will do a better job in it. That was our fun practice today.

R.A.W. (Reflection Adventure of the Week):

Have a dinner conversation with your family. The topic or question of this conversation is: “How is whatever we’re doing now, making the world a happier and better place? Reflect on this deep topic and have a good conversation about it with your family.

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Notes by Sidh Sridhar

108 name’s of gurudev: Om Karmaparayanaya Namaha — I admire the one who is always always inspired. Karmaparaya says that every action should be done with purpose but the purpose should be done for something of greater value.

Story:

We talked about a story. In the story an architect was looking over the builders carving stones out. Some of the stones were perfect and the others were horrible. The architect was confused. He investigated. He went to the worst builder. He asked the builder why he was here. The builder responded saying that he is breaking rocks for money. The Architect went on to an okay builder. He asked the same question. The second builder said that he is carving stones to pay for his family. The Architect went to the best builder and asked the question. The builder said that he is here because he wants to build a temple where everyone in the world would want to come and pray.The architect thought about all the answers he said to himself that we need people like the 3rd builder. People who think of making a beautiful temple.

The idea of Karmaparaya is asking how is what I am doing connected to a greater good? Make a goal to try and do something extra special.

Practice:

We will draw two drawings. One image is for us and one is going to be put on the altar of bhagwan. On both papers we drew an elephant that was projected on our screens. We then took a poll on which picture was better the first or second. Most of the class said that the second picture was better. Whenever we do something for ourselves the quality is only so much. When we do something for others then the quality is much greater than expected.

Raw:

Dinner question – How is what you are doing now contributing to society.