May

May 5

Hello students and parents,

In the class on 5/5 we started off reciting our two bhajans that the class will sing together during the 5/19 annual day.

Continued with the theme of how we inch closer to the divine : through Yana, tapa, vrata and samskara. Hindus celebrate many festivals that relate to the Forms of divine such as Shivratri, Ramanavami. Most festivals follow lunar calendar but some follow solar calendar. Diwali and Holi are two major festivals. Festivals are a joyous way of celebrating Dharma while bringing family and friends together. Pilgrimage and visiting Mandira bestow many spiritual benefits. Satsang is keeping company of virtuous and spiritual people and learn from them. External yoga practices of asana, pranayama and hatha yoga regulate body and life-forces. Inner practices of yoga like shaucha, shraddha, bhakti, janana and dhyana lead us closer to divine. Service to the Guru is important as the Guru teaches us the path to reach Bhagwan.

We briefly discussed the four spiritual paths to Moksha: 1) Karma Yoga, path of action, 2) Bhakti Yoga, path of devotion, 3) Jnana Yoga, path of knowledge and 4) Dhyana Yoga, path of meditation. 

In our last class on 5/12, we will cover chapter 20, Why am I a Hindu. This chapter summarises teachings of the whole course.

April

April 28

Hello students and parents, we started the 4/28 class with practicing the two Bhajans students will

sing  together during that Annual Day on May 19.

Teaching was more philosophical starting with the question of Who Am I?  When we die, it is only our body that perishes. We all have a soul which transmigrates with our ‘mind’ and ‘life forces’ into a new body to take ‘rebirth.’ We are made up of 5 layers: physical body, life forces, mind/senses, jiva-atman and paramatman. Treat your body and mind as a temple of Bhagwan and your soul. They assist our soul to attain Moksha. We discussed Karma and Rebirth where our actions in this life are responsible for quality of our next birth. 

Hindu dharma provides many spiritual practices to help us inch closer Tom divine. We talked about puja, japa, kirtan and yajna.

April 21

Hello students and parents, we started 4/21 class with the symbolism of Shivlinga. We compared Abrahamic religions with Hinduism including Abrahamic God and Hindu Ishwara. Categories like monotheism and polytheism do not apply to Hindus which have broad concepts of deities, Ishwara and Brahman. Bhagwan is our final goal in Moksha. Through stories and examples we learnt Bhagwan as the Provider, as the Lord and Master, as Witness, as abode of the universe and as Refuge. Sudama story illustrated Bhagwan as the true friend. Bhagwan is also an inexhaustible seed: Krishna multiplied himself so that each Gopi thought he was dancing with her.

We will recite two bhajans during the annual day on May 19.  The link below shows first Bhajan in video form as well as lyrics. All students will sing first two lines. Group 1 will sing first anthara. Each line is sung twice (watch the video) Group 2 will sing second anthara, again each line is sung twice. Come prepared to recite in upcoming class. 

https://www.gruhinii.com/hum-ko-man-ki-shakti-dena.html

Hum Ko Man Ki Shakti Dena

gruhinii.com

Vishalji will share slides for the second bhajan.

April 14

We started with Hindu Dharma and evolution and how Dashavatar of Vishnu are totally consistent with scientific evolution theories. We also discussed Hindu philosophies of tattvas and atoms, matter-energy conversion, heliocentric and gravitational theories.

We moved on to Chapter 12 with the nature of God: Nirguna and Saguna Brahman, Ishvara, Devi, Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesh. We discussed the symbolism of Saraswati, Brahma, Lord Shiva, Ganesha and Nataraja.

March

March 24

Hello parents and students, this is the summary of 3/24 virtual class.

Class focused completely on Chapter 9, The feminine in Hindu Dharma. Hinduism is the only major faith that gives great importance and place to women in Vedas, in deities like Saraswati, Laxmi and Shakti. Shiva is designated as Ardhanarishvara: half man half woman. Many women adorn Hindu spirituality through ages: from Maitreyi and Gargi in Upanishads to Andala, Meerabai, Ma Anandamayi, Ammachi, Mata Nirmala Devi, Sister Nivedita, Mother Mira Aditi to Ma Sharda. 

Woman is central to Hindu festivities, rituals and is lady of the house: grihalaxmi. Women are taking roles as priests and religious scholars. 

Women artists like Lata Mangeshkar and M S Subbulakshmi are there. Queens and warriors examples are Ahalyabai Holkar, Rani Lakshmibai and Rani Chenamma. Women are center of family life as daughter, sister, wife and mother. 

In next class we will transition to spiritual aspects of Hindu Dharma.

March 3

This is the summary of our 3/3  virtual online class. Started with the topic of fulfilment of Dharma by a married couple. In Grihasthashram, we have to pay our five debts regularly: to rishis, to devas, to ancestors, to soviet and to all creatures. Enjoyment of pleasures of senses is permitted only for householders but has to be under restraints. Raising children is a duty. Pamper them until age 5 and then discipline them. We have duties towards children before birth, post infancy, during school years and young adult years when we treat them as friends and get them married. 

In the stage of Vanaprastha the aged householder retires to hermitage and spends time in worship, meditation and scriptural study. Very few go to last stage of sannyasi where the person breaks all worldly ties and devotes life fully to worldly pursuits.

Class on 3/10 will be on premises but come to classroom at 10 for assembly since auditorium is closed for painting.

February

February 25

Dear students and parents, our 2/25 online class went well.

We started with the guidelines for Dating: education is priority, keeping parents informed, using head and not only emotions. Do not accept conversion to another religion. Talked about Hindu marriage (vivaha), its sacraments and rituals with meanings. A marriage with customs in presence of elders and fire is accepted and does not require further proof. Discussed Indian and US PEW data to show that arranged marriages work and Hindus have one of the lowest divorce rate. Be mindful that in interfaith marriages, you do not tolerate the intolerance of others. Bindi represents eye of wisdom and red colour denotes life, vitality. 

There are three main purposes of married life: 1) fulfilment of dharma, 2)fulfilment of Kama and artha and finally 3) praja: bearing children.

February 18

In our 2/18 class, we started with dharma at the student stage: relationship with parents, grandparents, teachers and classmates. Examples of Shravan Kumar and Ganeshji as exemplars of dharma towards parents. Choose good friends and help those with special needs. We discussed some guidelines for dating including the timing to start it. 

Then we went into dharma for householder stage where we earn, support society and have children. Meaning of wedding rituals like saat phere and vows. Arranged marriages work as well as live marriages and Indians have traditionally had lowest divorce rate. 

We will continue with the Varna dharma in our next class.

February 11

Vishalji started with this map on the board. Click here

Dharma has many layers from individual to family to society all the way to creation. Dharma has contextual sensitivity because of our multiple identities. Choosing correct dharmik action is not always clear.

We spent time on Ashrama dharma where Hindu life is arranged into 4 ashramas or phases: Brahmachari, grihastha, vanaprastha and sannyaasa. We discussed brahmacharya (student phase) in detail because all of you are at that stage. 

In the next class, we will discuss married householder stage.

February 4

Students and teachers, today hopefully we all enjoyed and got inspired by Shri Sanjay Mehta’s talk on 2/4 in the auditorium on Bhagvad Gita on EQ. Please review pages 50 to 108 of the book in preparation for next class.

In the next class we will talk about the project students will do in small groups for presentation towards the end of school year.

January

January 28

Dear students and parents,

In the class yesterday we spent a good deal of time on the interactive exercise listing out and discussing various aspects relevant to judge a crime such as place and time of crime, personal attributes of criminal such as age, sex etc. The point was that it is not black and white to determine the criminal or immoral acts. Similarly, determine correct dharma in a specific situation is not straightforward. 

We then went to page 72 of the book and discussed the value of finding and serving an authentic guru and serving him and learning from him but not in a blind manner. Dharma has many layers. We will next delve deeply into ashrama and Varna dharma.  As homework, please review slides on pages 50 to 108. Bring your book to the class.

December

December 10

Dear parents and students,

We spent good time on understanding dharma, Kama, artha and moksha through class exercises where students chose the correct purushastra category for different activities like eating chocolate or helping poor. We discussed moksha and said that this will be fully discussed next year as part of Geeta class. We talked about the stories of Suradasa, Rishi Jaigushavya, Swami Sivananda and Swami Chinmayananda in the context of Moksha. Animals cannot think beyond Artha and Kama; only humans can pursue dharma and moksha. Hindu scriptures do teach about artha and Kama like arthashastra, Ayurveda, gemmology, poetry etc. However, now teaching Kama and artha are domains of middle and high schools and college whereas Dharma classes focus on dharma and moksha. India has been a very prosperous country through most of its history. Its recent poverty is due to the outside aggression and not because of Hindu dharma as some profess. Purushartha doctrine helps us lead a balanced life. Read chapter 5 for next class.

As homework, think about a skill that you have and how you can teach someone else that skill such that it falls in the category of dharma and artha.

December 3

Dear students and parents, we covered most of chapter 4 in Dec 3 class. Topic was The Four Purisharthas - dharma, artha, Kama

and Moksha. It is essential to procure the basic needs of food, shelter and clothing and artha helps us do that. Hindu dharma also sanctions  fulfilment of our desires for pleasure. Both artha and Kama, however, should be done staying within the ambit of Dharma and not hurt others or use immoral means. Stories of Dhanurdasa, Sant Ekmath and Yayati illustrated that Kama alone does not fulfill us. Stories of Sant Purandara  Das, Maitreyi/Yajnavalkya, Guru Nanak and Bhagwan Brahma showed how Artha alone is not enough. Stories of King Vipaschit and Ramanujacharya showed how these pious beings shunned heaven in order to help their fellow beings. Moksha is the highest goal in our dharma and we discussed Sant Surdas and Swami Rama in this context.

In the class on Dec 10 we will

Summarise the four purusharthas and delve into chapter 5: how do I learn about Dharma. As the homework, please review chapter 5 slides. Bring your textbook to class.

November

November 19

Dear students and parents, 

Nov 19  class was devoted to Chapter 3, Human birth - a divine gift and a valuable opportunity. We started the class with an exercise with students speaking out their goals and desires. These were listed in 4 columns of Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha. As is normal, most entries were in artha and Kama columns, with less in dharma and very few in Moksha section. Discussed how living beings differ from non-living and how humans are very special vs other life forms on earth because of their large mental capabilities. While other animals are destined to follow the law of jungle, humans follow the rule of dharma according to Hinduism. We should not waste our precious human life over trivial pleasures. We should strive to become divine by pursuing spiritual practices (moksha). 

In our next class, we will cover chapter 4. Please review the slides in chapter 4 and bring your textbook to the class.

November 12

Dear students and parents,

Nov 12 was a short class because of combined HATS Lakshmi puja performed at temple on account of Diwali.

We complex chapter 2 today. Discussed Panini grammar of 5th century BC, influence of Sanskrit on European literature, martial arts Kalaripayattu from Kerala which was transmitted to China, and the ancient Hindu games with dices and chess. There was long discussion on Hindu Dharma being an Open Source Tradition and welcoming to all to take up its principles. But some in West are making unethical profit from Yoga, Ayurveda etc and not crediting the Hindu source. We should be vigilant as a community to stand up against such mis-appropriation. We ended with the statement that non Hindus are free to practice Hindu beliefs and philosophies.

We will cover chapter 3, Human Birth - A Divine Gift, in the next class. Please browse through these slides.

November 5

Dear students and parents, during Nov 5 class, we covered all remaining topics of Chapter 2: Hinduism today in USA, Hindu gurus with non-Indian following, yoga, Ayurveda, karma, rebirth, ahimsa, vegetarianism, feminine theology. Then we discussed impact of Hinduism on Greek philosophy and Christian Gnosticism, Sufism and Romanticism/Enlightenment in Europe. We also discussed the views of famous western authors, scientists and philosophers on Hinduism. In the end we talked about contributions of ancient Hinduism to the fields of mathematics, metal and gem sciences, astronomy,  geography, food and agriculture, music, games and martial arts. 

in the next class, we will cover Chapter 3 and if time allows, start Chapter 4. As the homework, please review the slides in Chapter 3.

October

October 29

Dear students and parents:

Today, 10/29, we covered pages 4-21 of the book chapter “The Gifts of Hindus.” We talked about how the Hindu influence was spread to many parts of the world, many south East Asian countries still carrying Hindu cultures. We discussed influence on Japan, Korea, Tibet, China and Afghanistan. And recently in western countries including USA. Please review these pages so that you will remember these messages. 

We will continue with chapter 2 during 3/5 class. Please read the textbook pages 22-39.

October 22

Dear students and parents,

So far we have covered the History of Hindus starting from the ancient period to current times.

Oct 22 class is devoted to Meditation.

On Oct 29, we will start covering Chapter 2: The Gifts of Hindus. Please browse through slides on pages 4 through 39 of the textbook. We would encourage you to participate in the class through questions and comments. 

Thanks

October 8

Dear students and parents,

So far we have covered the History of Hindus starting from the ancient period to current times.

Oct 22 class is devoted to Meditation.

On Oct 29, we will start covering Chapter 2: The Gifts of Hindus. Please browse through slides on pages 4 through 39 of the textbook. We would encourage you to participate in the class through questions and comments. 

Thanks

September

September 17

Dear students and parents:

We covered rhe following material in the class today:

1. Scope of the class

2. High level characteristics of Hindu sharma

3. Historical timeline of Hinduism from 3100 BCE to present

4. Indus Saraswati civilization and Hinduism

Homework for next class:

1. Review the slides covered in class today Click here

2. Preview the slides that will be covered next week (slides attached in the latter part of attached presentation).

You are encouraged to do homework to derive maximum benefit from this class.