Lesson/Story

The name of Gurudev we learnt in the class is Phala — Sakti — Rahita. Phalasaktirahita means, the one who is able to cheerfully accept whatever comes.

A long time ago, in India, there was a saint/religious person who wandered from village to village. This man, was staying near a village, and went down to the River Ganga to bathe every morning. There was a man who did not like saints, because he did not believe in god. One day when he saw the saint walking out after taking a bath in the holy Ganga, he spit on the face of the saint. The saint did not say anything, but turned around, and bathed in River Ganga again. When he came back, the man again spit on him, and without saying a word, he went down and bathed in the River. This continued for several times, in fact, 108 and by that time the man was very thirsty with a dry mouth. Seeing this, the saint came up and gave the man water. The man felt very guilty, and asked the saint why he had done that. The saint said because of the man, he was able to bathe in holy river Ganga 108 times.

This story shows us to cheerfully accept whatever happens in life.

Practice

Shankarji had pieces of paper, with different tasks written on it. He would call on a student,and the student had to try to do it without feeling uncomfortable. We learnt to turn the task into an opportunity to have fun and cheerfully accept the challenge.

RAW

Build a snowman this week! If you are in a place with no snow, build a snowman using the materials at home.

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Notes by Aarav Luthra

Review

Last class, we learned about jagātsakshi, which means to be observant. Being observant means being mindful of your surroundings, and your actions. In other words, observant means to look at things from a different perspective, in a positive, open-minded, accepting way.

Lesson

In today’s class, we learned about phalasaktirahita, which means: to be accepting. You have two options, you can fight against the situation (opposite of phalasaktirahita) or learn to be better, understand, and accept what happened (phalasaktirahita). Accepting your surroundings is a key quality to have, and it means: being okay with whatever happens, and constantly reacting to it.

Story

There was a saint, who had no home (believed in aniketa), went to bathe in River Ganga, and met a man. That man spits at him because he does not believe in god, while the saint does. This arrogant man became thirsty after spitting at the saint 108 times. The kind saint gave him water, and then the thirsty man asked the saint,” I spit at you so many times, so why are you helping me?” The content saint replied, “I should be thanking you. You spit at me many times, and because of that, I got to bathe in River Ganga 108 times!”

Moral

The saint could transform something negative (the man spitting at him) to positive (bathing in the River Ganga 108 times). He had this ability because the saint accepted the situation. That is the ability we all should have; cheerfully accepting the conflict, by changing the negative consequences into a positive scenario.

Practice

Shakarji randomly chose a few people, and each person had to do a quick task Shankarji gave them. The goal of this is to be accepting, and turn the anonymous task into an opportunity; happily accept the challenge.

Questions

Q. I get tempted to watch at my mom’s house and we have this rule to only watch on the weekends how do I not get my temptation super high and not sneak?

A. A lot of us have that problem. The easiest way is whenever it is time to do other things like go to bed or do homework is put away all distractions, put the devices in another room. The only way to really overcome those distractions is to have more responsibility.

Q. Some Swamijis have long hair and some don’t even have hair. Why is that?

A. It is based on their own preference. In the Hindu religion, most male Hindus shave their head, as part of their tradition. The ceremony which takes place (for the shaving of a male’s head) could be a reason why some Swaminiji’s do not have any hair.

RAW

Build a snowman, and accept this fun challenge.