December 11, 2019

Notes by Dhruva Shreejay

We started class with Vivekji asking us a riddle — “What do you see everywhere and helps you see everywhere?” Vivekji gave us a clue and told us you see it when you’re brushing your teeth. The answer is a mirror.

Vivekji then asked us who we love the most. You may say that it is your parents but it is really your own self.

When you look in a mirror and you have a piece of dirt on one side of your face, or if you are crying and there are many tears on your face, the mirror won’t try to make you happy by taking away the dirt or tears. The mirror reflects you exactly as you are. It does not make you look happier or better than you are. It does not try to change you.

Similarly, we must accept ourselves as we are and others as they are, just like a mirror.

Story

Vivekji talked about how in the story of “The Little Prince”, the little prince understood adults. Adults think numbers are worth more than feelings. The little prince talks about how his feelings are worth more than just numbers. The pilot didn’t listen to the little prince because of how he was dressed up (like a prince) and he didn’t accept what the little prince said.

Message of Story

1. The story of The Little Prince highlights the value that we explored this week — Preeti: to be ACCEPTING.
2. Even if others are dressed up unlike us or are different from us, we must accept them as they are and listen to what they say.
3. Vivekji shared a story about when Vyasa was playing ball inside and the ball flew and hit a wall with a loud noise. Vivekji asked Vyasa to say sorry to the wall and Vyasa came and hugged the wall. In this way, he accepted the wall as another person just like us.

Practice

Our practice was to go around the house and hug four types of things in 5 minutes:

1. a human (parents or brothers/sisters)
2. an animal (pet or gently blow a fly/ small insect)
3. a plant
4. a non-living thing (like a stone or furniture or pencils).

Vivekji asked if we thought that all the objects and people that we hugged felt if they were accepted as they are.

This practice showed us that if we pay attention to the things in our life (by imagining giving them a hug), then we can accept them as they are.

RAW (for this week): Don’t talk to anyone with a high tone, or sounding annoyed. Talk to others in a calm voice/ tone.

Notes by Sahana Iyengar

Vivekji started the class with this awesome riddle — “What do you see everywhere that helps you see everywhere?” The answer was a mirror. The message of the riddle was that you love yourself the most. How?

The “how” part of the message is that you accept yourself the most. The see everywhere part was seeing yourself in the mirror. The everywhere is you. So you are accepting yourself. The value of the week is priti which means being accepting.

Now, let’s connect that to the Little Prince. The little prince is very understanding of grown ups. He accepts them. He is using his trait of priti. He is very understanding.

For our practice we had to hug everyone and everything in our home- people, animals, plants, and stone.

For our RAW we have to not speak to our parents and family in an agitated and mean way. We have to speak in a nice and soft way.