March

March 23

 We learned about Chankya, and his empire. We learned about how you have to willing to listen and learn even when you are at the top. We learned how Chankya was arrogant when we was the leader and at the top and that ultimately lead to his downfall. He learned how. Chanakya mentored Chandragupta and spotted his talents. He taught him how the be a great leader. After Alexander died, they partnered up and started to expand their empire super slowly and ended up winning against the capital. We learned about the book called ArthaShastra, which is a way to rule. The king should follow the 7 Prakrtis which are The King, Territory, Fortified Capital, Treasury, Army, Ally, and Minister. This is also applicable in real life by having parents/teacher’s, a syllabus/calendar, finances, family/teachers, and friends.

February

February 2

Last week, we recapped on our lesson on Shivaji Maharaj, and moved on to talk about Maharana Pratap. These two kings were very important in fighting to preserve our Hindu religion by fighting with the Mughal Dynasty who ruled India at the time.

Maharana Pratap is a demonstration of perseverance and courage. He made it his life goal to go against the Mughal Dynasty and take back India. He fought with Akhbar, and was determined to free Chithoor. His victory of an attack on a small Mughal fort gave Indians and his supporters courage. After this, Akbar realized how powerful Pratap was, and decided that friendship with him would be the only way to protect the Mughal rule on India. Mann Singh, Akhbar’s assistant, approached Pratap for friendship. But angered, Pratap refused. This led to the War of Haldi Gatti. Pratap tried to charge on Mann Singh, but his efforts failed, and he was badly injured. However, one of Pratap’s good friends came in between and distracted the Mughals, and Pratap and his horse, Chetak, ran away into the forest safely, where they would stay for a while. 

Maharana Pratap died due to old age and disease and was upset due to the fact that his oath to free Chithoor was unfulfilled. He died sleeping on the floor, as he had also taken an oath that he would never sleep comfortably on a bed till his oath was fulfilled. From Maharana Pratap, we can learn about perseverance, courage, and determination to stand up for what is right.

January

January 12

Namaste parents, today in class we discussed life and achievements of Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and the birth of The Maratha Kingdom. 

 Please take sometime to share your thoughts on Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj with your children. We will spend a portion of the class next week to share each students thoughts. 

Additionally students, please review the topic starting on page 192 of your textbooks. 

 Here are 2 videos we viewed: https://youtu.be/b87x18owTKk?feature=shared

https://youtu.be/TC9piJDAbT4?si=pujm4Bs6FO3seUyf 

November

November 24

Hi parents, today in class, we reviewed what we learned in the last 3 classes about space exploration. 

We also learned about the Hindi Language. We learned that all the Indian languages follow a the same way that they are written. They are written in a Devanagari script. In Devanagari script the vowels are A, AA, E,EE,U,OO,AE,AI,OOO,Ou and more. The Vowels are in an order that make sense. They start some the bottom of the throat and make their way up. These are the same for all the letters and the way they are arranged. The order is K,KH,G,GH,CH,CHH,J,JH,T,TH,D,DH,t,th,d,dh,p,ph,B,BH. We learned about Panini, who helped make the order. He did this by observing the sounds that humans make. It goes from a light sound to a heavy sound.  In any Indian language, there is only 1 way to say and spell any word. 

The Homework is to read about the periodic table and who made it, be ready to discuss about it in the next class

November 17

Hi Parents! Today we wrapped up our topic of India’s Space History by talking about modern day missions and what we can learn from them. We went over India’s 3 missions to the moon. 

 *Chandrayan 1* - a 99% success 

- Made an important discovery that there is in fact water on the moon 

- ⁠Was carried out in a very low cost - only 60 million dollars 

 - ⁠Cons- lost communication after only 1 year and wasn’t able to come back to Earth 

*Chandrayan 2 - a failure

 - Crashed onto the moon’s surface when it was just 6 feet away from the moon 

 - ⁠India didn’t give up! 

*Chandrayan 3* - a success 

- India became the first country to land on the South Pole of the moon 

- ⁠South Pole was important because there could be findings of ice which could result in processing of ice into water and fuel 

 *What we learned *: as a class we saw India’s journey to the moon as a sign to never give up, and to take failure as a good thing and work upon your mistakes to do better next time 

 *Homework*: Discuss with your parents: is it possible for one to be Dharmic while also being scientific and successful in one’s professional career? Why do or don’t you think so?

November 10

Today we had Nirav Sheth, a meditation instructor and practitioner, come in to teach and interact our Dharma 8 students all about meditation

Benefits of Meditation

- Physical- health benefits 

- Mental- focus 

- Emotional - feelings of meditation 

- Spiritual - connecting with soul 

Spiritual Benefits for the Soul Experienced Through Meditation 

- Happiness  

- Love

- Wisdom 

- Fearlessness 

- Connectedness/Unity 

- Immortality 

The Story of The King and The Little Girl 

- There was a king who was very charitable and loved to give back to his community. One day, he decided to fill the 5 floors of his palace with all his treasures, and let the people come inside and pick one thing from the palace to keep. There was a little girl who kept going up the floors to try to get the best treasure possible. When she reached the fifth floor, the king was sitting there. The king tells her she can pick anything in the palace to keep. The girl picks the king! Picking the king meant she was picking the whole palace and all the treasures inside

- This story conveys that by picking meditation, the big idea, you will achieve all 4 categories of benefits through it. 

How to Meditate 

- Close your eyes 

- Get into a comfortable position that you can stay still in for a while 

- Chant your Ishta Devata’s name in your mind  

- Focus on the light within the darkness 

- Try to filter out and move on from other thoughts coming into your mind. 

When to Meditate 

- Meditating in the early morning can give you the most benefits because there are no other thoughts distracting you 

Inner light meditation 

- Gets you to Bhagwan!

Who Can Meditate?

- Anyone can meditate 

- The longer the meditation, the more benefits you will reap

- Increasing the time of your meditation slowly will help you practice and gain focus 

Where to Meditate?

- A place where there is less distractions

- A favorite spot of yours 

- Darkness vs Light doesn’t matter! It depends on how you meditate, not really the environment

- Creating a habit and routine for meditation will help you 

Why is Focus (Mental Benefits) Important?

- Analogy - You are like a tree. Your brain is the leaves, your body is the trunk, and your soul are the roots. You must feed the roots of your tree for the tree to grow. This means you must feed your soul to grow yourself. Meditation is food for the soul. 

Hopefully everyone who joined was able to have a good session of meditation and understand what benefits they can gain! We hope you all will be able to implement and practice meditation daily, even for a little bit, going forward.

October

October 27

We began the topic of Astronomy last Sunday and discussed how our ancient rishis were also brilliant astronomers who spent years and decades carefully observing the skies and developing an elaborate methodology for respecting Bhagwaan via the celestial bodies in the sky.

Homework: watch this video and come prepared to discuss the characteristics of ISRO scientists in making these accomplishments possible.

https://youtu.be/OYz5peGME5o?si=EW-HjWzhfnSNOqOa 

October 6

This week we had a special guest come in to do a presentation relating to our lesson on Healthcare and Medicine last week Dr Madhuri Rao, a thoracic surgeon, presented to us on how to be the best version of yourself. 

 1) *Her Journey as a Doctor* - she did all of her medical studies in India before moving to the UK to do her medical residency. She completed her medical residency in New York and then moved to Minnesota in 2016 for a job opportunity along with her husband and her son.

 2) **Her family’s influence*- Dr.Madhuri talked a lot on how her parents and the upbringing they gave her affected her journey as a doctor and gave her a set of morals and values that connected her to dharma 

 3) Ancient Indian Medicine* - there are many ancient Hindu sages and doctors who have been crucial in their contributions to modern medicine. She mentions Sushruta, who has written books on many diseases, surgical procedures, and tools, and she shows how even today the things he mentions in his books are so relevant in surgery and medicine. 

 4) *Dhanavantri* - the God of health, medicine, and Ayurveda, Dr. Madhuri mentioned how Indian culture and Hinduism has given much importance to the field of medicine early on 

 5) *Her Roots* - her father, a pathologist, comes from a family of doctors, which influenced Dr. Madhuri and sparked her passion for the medicine field. Her mother was a passionate teacher and principal and showed her how to take pride and joy in anything you involve yourself in. Her mother was also involved in giving proper care to stray animals in India, and started local initiatives to control animal birth as well as wrote books about the issue 

6) *What can we take away from this?* - Dr. Madhuri’s presentation showed us on how to involve ourselves in our faith and culture while still giving back to the community through our professions and occupations. She showed us how she works hard everyday to better herself and do things that make her feel happy and good about herself while giving back to the community and the environment.

September

September 15

Today we covered some foundational aspects of Sanatana Dharma, which we will refer to while discussing topics later on in the year. These aspects help us assess the world around us: incl. thoughts, words, and actions - of ourselves, others around us, and the inspirational people we will be learning about. 

*Three _Gunas_ (qualities)*: 

Sattva, Tamas, Rajas

*Four _Ashramas_ (stages)*: 

Bramhacharya (student), Grihasta (household), Vanaprasthana (active retirement), Sannyas (detached)

*Four goals of life (_Purushartha_):*

Dharma, Artha, Kama, Moksha

*Six internal enemies (_Shadripu_):*

Kama (adharmic desire), Krodha (anger), Lobha (greed), Mada (ego), Moha (delusion), Matsarya (Jealousy)

Homework for next Sunday:

Students should speak with two elder members of the family (grandparents or uncle /aunt) and ask:

_When comparing your childhood years with today's world, what are a few habits / behaviors that you recommend today's kids to (1) start demonstrating more, and (2) stop doing (or do less of)_

Please compile the top 5 responses in both the categories (start & stop) and reply to class teacher via WhatsApp by next Saturday night.

Pls note that they are not supposed to provide specific feedback to the student's specific personality, but for today's kids in general.