Notes by Saadhvi Mamidi

A review of our past 8 weeks

Week 1: Worldview and Karma

• What you have at birth = god’s gift
• What you do with what you’re given = your gift to the world
• Hallmark of life = action
• Desires prompt all of our actions, and we have desires with the notion that happiness is outside of me
• Law of karma — most viable and exhaustive theory

Every cause must have an effect

Every action must have a sentient doer

Result of past action is bearing fruit in the present

• Results aren’t random!

Week 2: You Are Happiness

• We’ve all been told to be happy, but how?
• Shastras and gurus tell us how to be happy!
• Happiness is our essential nature

Happiness to us is like sweetness to sugar — without it, we lose what makes us human

Happiness is within us, there’s nothing to chase outside of ourselves

• To abide in our nature, we must just be (being is difficult because of the many layers of our personality
• If we engage in selfless, right action we go from being separated to connected

Week 3: Means to Happiness (Science of Right Action)

• Our mind is nourished by our senses — Mind is uncooperative, inattentive
• Right action —

Engaging mind with purpose

Letting go of the outcome

We can implement right action by engaging in our responsibilities

• Three U’s: Use a planner, Uni-task routine, Undertake more
• By engaging in these three U’s, we become a more efficient instrument

Week 4: Mechanism to Achieve Right Action: Responsibilities

• If we have an idle mind or no purpose, we fall
• Our responsibilities help tame the billions of desires that we have
• Nature of responsibilities

1) come unasked with age (accumulate)

2) are thankless

3) ignorance of responsibilities is not an excuse

Week 5: Mindset for Engagement (Acting to Evolve)

• Actions aren’t inherently good or bad

Quality of an action comes from intention and attitude

• When we engage in volunteering, we must choose to act in recognition of a need with attitude of social responsibility and not for personal gain

Week 6: Bhagavati Durga Puja

Week 7: Purpose

• The quality of an action determines if an action helps us evolve or devolve
• If we raise our purpose, we raise our performance
• The greater the inspiration, greater the quality of our action
• By engaging in devotion to the highest, our actions help us evolve

Week 8: Results

• Our attitude while receiving results

1) cheerful acceptance (results of our actions are gifts)

2) gratitude

Acknowledge sacrifices that others have made for us

• 5 Debts at Birth

1) deva rna — cosmic & divine forces (weather, gravity)

2) bhuta rna — beings, all the creatures (trees for breathing)

3) samhaja rna — society, infrastructure

4) pitra rna — ancestors, laid down culture

5) rsi rna — rishis, for sharing the science of happiness

• 3) Vision of detachment

Absorption in our actions will give us peace

Debrief of last week’s RAW: Before complaining do a cost benefit analysis

• By engaging in this RAW, it makes you think about if it’s worth complaining about the small things in life
• By complaining, we only hurt ourselves and put ourselves in a negative mood

The purpose of RAWs aren’t to always succeed! We must begin by invoking a sense of mind that gets us prepared for evolution!