Oct 2, 2026 - Grade 8 (Friday)

Hari Om all,

Last Friday 10/2/2026, we covered the following topics:

• Reviewed Law of Karma
• Emphasized that nothing that happens in life is unfair; concept of "luck" in life is really the fruit of past actions unknown to us
• The medium of action corresponds to the medium of the resulting fruit (eg, actions of Body/Mind/Intellect will produce fruits in medium of Body/Mind/Intellect)
• Reviewed Devanagari pronunciation (Part 1) in preparation for Bhagavad Gita
  
• Reviewed 7 of 10 of Bhishma's listed sins: murder, theft, illicit relations, bad/harsh words, lies, complaining/spreading rumors
• Theft
• Examples: not contributing in group projects, finding lost objects, cheating on exams, taxation, affirmative action
• Illicit relations
• Examples: romantic infidelity (including intellectual/attention infidelity via screen-based relationships), emotional manipulation
• Bad/harsh words + Complaining/spreading rumors
• Words are not inherently bad; rather, the intent behind their usage (eg, as an insult) matters more.
• Negative speech will result in negative consequences in the medium of speech directed toward us.

Hari Om! 🙏

Shivram Vempaty and Chaitanya Karimanasseri

Sep 25, 2026 - Grade 8 (Friday)

Hari Om all,

Two Fridays ago (9/25/2026), we did the following activities:

• Reviewed briefly Law of Karma
• Reviewed briefly 7 of 10 of Bhishma's listed sins: murder, theft, illicit relations, bad/harsh words, lies, complaining/spreading rumors
• (Main activity) Sorted class into 1 of 4 houses + participated in Jagannath Rath Yatra house activity

Hari Om! 🙏

Shivram Vempaty and Chaitanya Karimanasseri

Sep 18, 2026 - Grade 8 (Friday)

Hari Om Parents,

This week in Grade 8 Friday Balavihar, we discussed elements of dharma based on our assigned curriculum for the year "Yato Dharmah Tato Jayah".

Here's a summary of what we covered:

• Review of Daily Prayers from My Prayers book (pgs 11-13)
• Law of Karma.
• We explained that only the doer of an action gets its fruit; everything that happens to you in this birth is partly due to your own prior actions (across births) and partly due to your own free will over current actions in this current birth. 
• We reviewed the purpose of rebirth (to realize one's oneness with God / moksa) and how part of it includes exhausting the fruits of one's actions. 
• We emphasized that human birth is rare because it allows free will over current actions, while other births (animals, bacteria, etc) only allow actions based on survival of the fittest. 
• We reviewed that using free will to do good action is only the first step & not enough - offering the fruits of one's actions to God ensures that one's actions in this current birth do not lead to additional karmic debt; we reviewed how to practically do this offering to God via meaning of "Kayena vaca manasendriyairva..." mantram.
• Sins to Avoid. 
• We reviewed briefly 7 of the 10 karmas to avoid (sins) according to Bhishma: murder, theft, illicit relations, harsh words, bad words, lies, and complaining/spreading negative rumors.
• Examples of "Murder". 
• We discussed nuances of "murder" via examples: Kshatriya dharma, circumstances of being attacked / response to murderers, industrialized animal farms where animals are raised only to be killed, antibiotics that kill good bacteria, plucking fruit from tree before it falls / harvesting root vegetable which kills the plant
• Example of "Theft". 
• We used one brief example, taxes + welfare benefits, to only mention that there exists debate about what is considered justified redistribution vs theft (without telling what is right/wrong). 

Homework: We forgot to mention this in class, but ideally... please make sure your children fully memorize the Daily Prayers in the My Prayers book (pgs 11-13) by next class.

Looking forward to next class!

Hari Om! 🙏

Shivram Vempaty and Chaitanya Karimanasseri

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