Notes by Sanna Luthra

Recap of prior classes:
The first virtue we learned was Aniketa. It means the one who has no home. The second virtue we have learned is called Anushasana Priya, which means I admire the one who believes in discipline. Last week, the third virtue we learned was Santushta. Santushta means the one who is ever content.

Lesson:

This week’s virtue is Kritaatma. This means I admire the one who is self-made. Self-made means the one who accomplishes things by themselves. The meaning of Kritaatmane that we discussed was, when we intentionally live our lives. Intentionally means that you do purposely do your actions, work, etc. A technique into living more intentionally would be taking more responsibility. Be responsible for what actions and decisions you make. That was the lesson on Kritaatmane.

Activity:

In this interesting activity, we pour some flour into a bowl, a bit of salt into the bowl and then pour a little bit of water into it too. After, within about 4 minutes, each of us created a sculpture of Bhagwan Ganeshji. This activity represented our actions in our life. For example, the dough represented us when we were just born as a baby (no intelligence, nor development in life). Each action or change we make to build and create our sculpture, forms our final piece (our final sculpture of Bhagwan Ganeshji). This is very similar to our day-to-day life. Every action we take in our life, shapes and forms how our life looks and what it will lead us to, based on our every day actions. That was the purpose of this fun activity.

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

Place whatever device you use into a cupboard, closet, drawer etc., after you are done using it. The purpose of this is for us to know that we are intentionally using our devices, because it takes a bit of effort to go to the drawer, cupboard etc. to get your devices and use it. That is the R.A.W. for Lesson #4.

==========================

Notes by Sidh Sridhar

Review:

At the start of class captain Sankar ji reviewed the names of Gurudev that we went over.

1# Om Aniketaya Namaha — We admire the people who engage in their responsibilities happily

2# Om Santushtaya Namaha — We admire the one who is always happy

Lesson:

This week the name is Om Krtaatmane Namaha. Krtaatma means I admire the one who is self made. Self made means someone who lives life intentionally. Have you ever had a time where you don’t know what you did the entire day? When we don’t know what we did the entire day it shows that we weren’t living intentionally.

Practice:

We made dough out of dough, salt and water. We could pour the water only once onto the dough. We sculpted ganesha out of it even if the dough was too dry or too moist. We had 4 minutes to sculpt ganesh ji. If we didn’t have flour we would draw ganesh ji.

The unshaped ball of dough is who we are now. If we want to form our former self. We sculpt each aspect intentionally. In the same way every action we do it is shaping who we become. When we procrastinate we make it harder for our future self to do the action. The most practical way to stop procrastinating is taking more responsibility.

Q and A

Q- lets say that you are with someone who is on their phone all the time. What should you do?

A — This is the sign that tells that we don’t have a purpose. Especially with family we can say that at diner time no devices.

RAW: Our Raw is to only use electronics like phone or TV when you know that you are doing it. When you are productive.