April 15, 2020

Notes by Aditya Mahes

Giri — Acharya Shankara’s disciple

Like Padmapadacharya, Giri was Acharya Shankara’s student. He wasn’t the smartest kid but, he was the most hardworking. One day, class was about starting. However, Acharya Shankara saw that Giri was absent. He told the present students to wait until Giri arrives. Giri was very late for class. Everyone waited for Giri to arrive but he didn’t show up. The other students pestered Acharya Shankara to start the class without him. They said, teaching Giri is just like teaching a wall; he won’t understand a thing.

In reality, Giri was collecting the Acharya Shankara’s clothes and when he found out he was late for class he ran as fast as he could to class. Once he reached, Acharya Shankara asked why he was late. Giri asked for forgiveness and started teaching the students how to be happy in the form of a song. And this song wasn’t an easy song to sing; it was Thotakam, avery complicated song. The other students couldn’t believe their eyes!; what they thought to be a wall was singing! While all this happened Shankaracharya just smiled. Giri was so loving to Acharya Shankara had taught him knowledge mentally.

Vinaya Datati Vidya

• Humility Brings Knowledge (Direct Translation)
• Vinaya means Humility
• People with humility are not always talking about themselves. So they’re more open minded and ready to learn more. Humility also makes tends to make you Vignana
• The more you have vinaya the more you have vignana.
• People with no humbleness or humility try and convince others transalating to being doubtfull.
• But when you have confidence you don’t have doubt which transalates to unconvincing.

Tao of Pooh

• Lao Tzu, one of the greatest thinkers, had said the 3 treasures of life. One was to…
• Be caring(vinaya). Therefore you feel richer, stronger, more confident and courage (vignana)

Question:

How can we deal with mental bullying?

Mental bullying is mentally tormenting someone; making someone feel in a way that they don’t want to feel(in a bad way)

3 Strategies to be strong inside are…

1. Remember that your best friend is you.

2. Revolve around quality not quantity friends. If you think of yourself as popular, you’re not confident. If you don’t have much friends but they’re quality friends, you are confident.

3. Don’t take it personally

• If someone calls you a jerk, you’re the jerk if you take it personally but if you ignore, they’re the jerk for calling you a jerk.
• What they say doesn’t mean it’s you.

Practice: Pop Quiz of what we had learned so far

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Notes by Laasya Kommineni

Giri was a student of Acharya Shankara. He wasn’t the brightest student, but he was very hardworking. He would wash and dry Acharya Shankara’s clothes, make his meals, and do all sorts of stuff like that. One day Acharya Shankara was teaching a class and Giri was late, so Acharya Shankara said, “I will not start the class without Giri.” Meanwhile Giri was taking Acharya Shankara’s dried clothes and realized he was late for the class, so he sprinted to where the class was and when he arrived he recited the best ways to be happy. Everyone was shocked except Acharya Shankara. Acharya Shankara was teaching Giri the best way he could about happiness and stuff.

Sanskrit saying: “vinaya dadati vidya”

This Week’s Values — Vinaya — humility and Vijnana — courage

The more humble you are the more courageous you will be.

Pop Quiz Questions and Answers

1st Question: In a story told in our 19th class there was a girl that wasn’t allowed to study at an ashram initially. Why wasn’t she allowed to study there?

1st Answer: She was too beautiful and the Guru felt that she would distract everyone

2nd Question: In class 20 (the class about prema) what was the RAW Captain Suman Ji gave us?

2nd Answer: leave “thank you” notes/post its everywhere

3rd Question: Our 21st class was about shradha/being faithful. When Acharaya Shankara called this student and he was walking on water what manifested under his feets?

3rd Answer: lotuses

4th Question: Class 22 was on shama/being forgiving. What was the PRACTICE that was given?

4th Answer: write what happened a month ago, a week ago, a day ago, an hour ago, a minute ago, and a second ago

5th Question: Class 23 was on manthri/being friendly. What was the name of the captain for that class?

5th Answer: Captain Shankar Ji

6th Question: Class 24 was on daya/being understanding. To be understanding you have to be careful in two ways. What are those two ways?

6th Answer: watch and listen carefully

7th Question: In class 25 we had two values. We had muditha/being fun and amaya/being straight. Fill in blank, “If you learn to laugh at yourself the whole world will laugh _______”

7th Answer: with you

8th Question: In class 26 (last week) we focused on virathi/being free and viveka/being rational. What was the RAW from that class?

8th Answer: Find out how your parents came up with your name and what it means

RAW: Everytime you say your own name and “I” you have to go hug your parents.