War and Peace - Aria Gupta

We all can agree on one thing, which is that war is a horrible, horrible thing. It was a war that tore our country apart, which is how the Britishers were able to take advantage of us. It also takes the lives of innocent people, leaving their loved ones in immense pain.

If war has such negative consequences, then why does it still happen?

What’s even worse is that they try to cover up their greed and selfishness and say they’re doing this for the people or justice.

How can they say that they’re doing this for the people if they end up so traumatised and malnutrition after a war?

Instead, they should live peacefully and try to share resources; there is no denying that humanity is trying to achieve that. The United Nations has prevented many conflicts between Countries from arising. But humans should try harder to avoid war and encourage peace to live happily and peacefully without violence.

Aria Gupta
Grade VI
Gyanshree school

Our broken relationship with Nature - Rishona Chopra

Nature is all around us. The magnificent trees, the lush green forests, the animals and the birds. And in fact, we humans are nature. We are not a part of it, but we are nature. 

Nature heals us. By this, I don't mean just the trees and forests that heal us. Our loved ones, friends and parents care for and support us, standing selflessly as our backbone. 

Human's greatest enemy is ego. Is it the fuel for anger, jealousy, greed and whatnot? For desire, we fight wars. Why? For a mere piece of land. That very land belongs to none of us. Countries fight for the mountain areas that come into our country. But, in reality, that land is neither ours nor theirs. It is nature which has no possession. We don't have the owners we belong to, and neither does the land. 

Without realizing it, we hurt nature for a silly reason. Amid these wars, aren't oceans and mountains being affected? 

We greedily fight for possession, but do we take that possession with us when we die? One day, it all has to be lost. 

Plants, humans, animals and birds are all nature. We are one and are meant to live in harmony. But we have all broken ourselves into different categories. We are told to live in peace and harmony, yet we have created a broken relationship with one another. 

The beauty of our world lies not in our planet's biodiversity but in the harmony that we create with one another. 

Due to the broken relationship, neither are satisfied; neither are we nor are the plants and animals. 

It is high time we fix this relationship by realizing that ego is our greatest enemy and has ruined so much for us. 

We must cure the wounds we have caused and prevent more from being created. 

Listen to my podcast.

Rishona Chopra
Grade VII
Gyanshree School

What You Believe Is What You Achieve - Rishona Chopra

Our lifestyle relies on it – the quality of our thoughts, feelings, attitude, habits, personality and finally, our destiny. This means what we believe has a dominating influence on our future. We cannot afford to hold a single wrong belief. Society spreads limiting beliefs like Anger is necessary, Happiness is in achievements, Stress is natural, People and situations decide how I feel, and so on. Believing "anger is necessary", we used anger repeatedly. Although we set such a belief in our mindset, does our destiny know about this belief? It is simply influenced by our thoughts. Each thought of yours affects us, what we think we do. My thoughts full of anger come out in words; my words can influence my actions.

For example -
Due to some reason, I was angry at someone, and I started shouting at them. The situation didn't calm down, so I started hitting them. Without thinking, my thought became my words, and they became my actions. I began to respect it again and again. Soon, getting angry about the most minor things became my habit. Slowly, it became my character, and then my destiny followed along through karma. It becomes too late when we realise it has become our character because, at that stage, you simply can't reverse yourself without karma following along. You could change, there is a possibility, but your past actions won't. Therefore, start with your thoughts. Improve your thinking, and soon your positive thoughts will become your destiny.

Rishona Chopra       
Grade VI
Gyanshree School

Human Quality: Humility - Rishona Chopra

Despite living in a world of widespread competition and arrogance, whenever you come across a humble person, have you said – "What a humble person, it was lovely meeting him." Have you experienced how even a little humility goes a long way in giving love and joy to others? Our success may not please someone, but our humility has a universal appeal. 

We all want to be humble and modest, but sometimes, ego seems to take over, and we end up feeling prideful. The simplest way to check is - When we are humble, we are in the giving mode, radiating our love and purity to others. When there is ego, we shift to the asking way where we want to love and respect. And then we start radiating rejection, anger or hurt. If we are not aware of it, there is a possibility that our ego will surface. Remain calm and stable whether you receive appreciation or criticism. Expectations, competition and comparison, will slowly finish. Every time you act with humility, your ego gets defeated.

There is always someone greater than us, someone better. Often we end up in the trap of jealousy rather than appreciating the person. Appreciation for others shows your modesty and humbleness. Instead of thinking about ourselves, we understand other person's efforts. Values like cooperation and respect come in when we have the base of humility ready.

Rishona Chopra
Grade VI
Gyanshree School

The flame must keep burning - Rishona Chopra

Diwali or Deepavali is a time to brighten our homes and hearts. The messages of beauty, newness and freshness carried by the festival are being observed and celebrated differently in various parts of the country. Mythology shares that it honoured the return of Sri Ram to the kingdom of Ayodhya after a 14-year exile when people expressed their joy by lighting Diyas (lamps) to welcome him. So it is a celebration of victory and a return to self-governance or sovereignty. But like every other festival, rituals followed during Diwali hold deep spiritual significance. It becomes truly festive and more meaningful when we understand their purity and imbibe them.

Preparations begin with cleaning, painting or even renovation in many houses. What does this spiritually signify? It is a message for us to clean our minds. We need to cleanse it to remove thoughts of anger, criticism, rejection, resentment, hatred, hurt and jealousy. The weight of all this negativity we have been holding on to is weakening the soul. Paint the mind with new colours of peace, love and compassion. We also need to clean our words, actions and behaviour. This has to happen every day, not once a year, so we eventually reach a stage where we have a constantly clean and pure mind and body.

Regular practice of meditation and imbibing spiritual knowledge shared by God help us achieve the stage. Gifts and blessings are exchanged during Diwali. Spiritually, it is a message for us to empower and care for each other. A blessing is a high and pure energy vibration we create in our thoughts and express through our words. We have all experienced that the blessings of saints, parents, teachers, family and friends have created miracles in our lives. Irrespective of people’s sanskaras and behaviours, we empower them to change their sanskaras when we create only pure thoughts and words. Our blessings radiate to them to become their reality and change their destiny. Not just on a festival, our every thought and word every day should be a blessing. 

Giving blessings is the easiest way to receive blessings. 

Rishona Chopra
Grade VI
Gyanshree School

The Lost Resource - Rishona Chopra

It's July 28 today - we've just crossed into the second half of the year, but we have used up our allowance of natural resources for all of 2022.*

Every year, Earth Overshoot Day has been coming sooner and sooner.

This talks about natural resources being used quickly, but shall I tell you one resource we used so much that it is instilled in us? That resource is anger. Don't you think you have used this resource too much in the past few months or forgotten about months? Even in the past week, you might have used it, or even today, one resource we have not touched on is Happiness.

Happiness is a resource in abundance and never ends, you can use it then and now and as long as you live, but for some reason, most of us don't use this resource, which is perhaps the most essential source of life our entire life depends on.

Just like a car needs petroleum to move, our life needs Happiness to work. Today let's select and right down the times when we were truly happy. While remembering that day, let's pray today!

*As per a news item in The Strait Times of Singapore.

Rishona Chopra Grade VI

Gyanshree School

Ignorance - Rishona Chopra

Ignorance is when we ignore the law of nature.

When we think life will never end and we are immortal and will live forever is ignorance. When we forget that things change, we and ignorant.

 If you think you have come out of the world of ignorance and have achieved something great, and now you are more extraordinary, this thought simply displays that you are in the world of ignorance.

Ignorance is thinking that you are greater or your success will never end. Once you achieve something big and instead of being greedy for more, you cherish it: being free from ignorance. When the thought does not come to your mind that your success will never end, you are free.

The most prominent example is Lord Buddha. Did he ever show off his success and strength? No, because he was free from ignorance. And as he rightly said, desire is the cause of pain. This doesn't mean we shouldn't have ambitions and dreams. There is a simple difference between the desire of want and need. If you desire to be selfless and humble, then be it but then don't be too proud over that because once you link want and greed with need, all the pain begins.

Ignorance leads to ego, and ego leads to anger and greed. To stop this connection, we need to be humble.

Rishona Chopra 
Grade VI 
Gyanshree School

Anger & Affirmations - Rishona Chopra

Often we get angry at the most minor things. If someone says something to us like ' You are rude', those three words can hurt you a lot. One of the ways to calm down is through affirmations. When I am angry then I like writing down and repeating affirmations:
I am a peaceful soul  
I am a happy soul
I am a mindful soul
I am a knowledgeable soul
I am an emotionally powerful soul

Another way to calm down is thinking that every situation you come across, even like the one above, is simply a challenge that makes you a more substantial, mature and better person.

Whenever we feel lonely or disheartened, we should remember that we have a best friend with us, and that is God. He is someone who always listens patiently to us and is truly a friend that we can never forget.

Rishona Chopra
Grade V
Gyanshree School

Respect - Rishona Chopra

Respect is when you care for someone and have a high opinion about them.  

Many say we must have respect for elders, but we should also respect younger ones. Everyone is equal, so everyone should get respect.

Being respectful is essential as when we speak with anger and disappointment, the opponent feels terrible and wouldn’t care to listen to you, and you would feel bad. On the other hand, if we talk with respect, people would easily understand us and feel good.

Apart from respecting others, we must respect ourselves too, which is having self-esteem. 

Self-esteem is to love ourselves. When we do something wrong, we shouldn’t be hard on ourselves but respect ourselves like a young child who made a small mistake. Having too much self-esteem is not good, and neither is having no self-esteem. 

We should respect others and ourselves too.

Rishona Chopra
Grade V
Gyanshree School

Handling pressure - Rishona Chopra

Based on the chapter handling pressure, from Is Your Child Ready to face the world by Dr Anupam Sibal.

Often we are under pressure, where we feel we are not enough, but that is, of course, not true. We must know that we are what we believe, and that is why we should believe in ourselves. 

Take the example of Dr Ben Carson-

Dr Ben Carson is a neurosurgeon and a master at handling pressure. We all agree that the stress of saving a life is the highest. Dr Carson is an expert at separating twins, a difficult challenge. Along with that, he also is a genius at controlling anger. Even if his team doesn’t cooperate, he hardly loses his temper.

Handling pressure is difficult, but we must have faith and belief in ourselves, and that is the key.

Rishona Chopra
Grade V

Gyanshree School