ABK's first field trip to the Underwood Farm. Spring 2008

We had a lot of fun! See pictures of the day.

Learning About Dharma

We started this semester of Amrita Bala Kendra (ABK) by learning about dharma. Your dharma is your path in life. A spiritual dharma is influenced by what religion you follow and what you must do to live up to those beliefs. A worldly dharma is what a person must do in life -- sort of like an occupation.

Everyone has their own unique worldly dharma. For example, a boy’s or girl’s worldly dharma is to listen to his/her parents and obey them, participate and try hard at school, respect the other students and the teacher, and respect adults and elders.

A warrior’s worldly dharma is to use force or violence, only when needed, to protect their family, city, or country. During ABK class we discussed the story of Ramayana and how Rama and Lakshmana had to risk their lives in order to follow their dharma and to protect Ayodhya from demons.

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One experience where I struggled to practice dharma was while I was sitting in bed with a book. Not long ago my brother, Jeev, had asked me to play a game with him. As a big brother, I promised I would. Yet I wasn’t really in the mood for playing a game, and I had waited for this chance to read my book for so long. But because of my dharma as a big brother, I put the book back on the bookshelf and went to tell my brother that I would play a game with him.

Gyan Prayaga
Age 10

See what our other students say about Dharma.