December 18th Class

Beginning prayers
      ·       'om' chanting - 3 times

·       Meditation 

·       sahanaavavatu

·       gurustotram verses - none

Gitaa chanting

·        bhagavadgItaa 12^th adhyaaya 1 -  10 shlokas

Story time

·    dhruva 

Chanting/Songs

·        none

Quiet time

·         none

Game time

·         none

Ending prayers and pledge

·        pUrNamadaH pUrNamidam

·        chinmaya aarati 

      ·        om jaya jagadIsha hare 

      ·        pledge 

Comments:

Rashmi Aunty and Indira Aunty:

We had a lot of fun this week, because we had some new things on the agenda.

We started the class with our regular meditation and prayers.  After the gItaa chanting, we spoke about the upcoming program we will be presenting in the new year!  In the next balavihar, our class will be on stage, doing a presentation in the auditorium!  It is regarding the harvest festival sankraanti/pongal/lori celebrated generally on January 14th.  We are learning the lines for that.  Parents, do talk to your children for more details.  You will also hear more regarding the practice sessions, etc. from us via email.

We heard the story of dhruva.  He was a young 5 yr old boy who was discouraged by his step mother (suruchi) from sitting on his father's (uttaanapaada's) lap.  Disheartened, when he approached his mother (sunIti), she consoled him and explained that it was only Lord viShNu who could grant him all his wishes.  So, at that tender age, he left to the forest, in his quest of Lord viShnu.  On the way, he met maharShi naarada who gave him the 'om namo bhagavate vaasudevaaya' beeja mantra to chant upon.  After rigorous penance, he had the darshanam of Lord viShNu.  He was blessed with the ultimate knowledge and was given the 'dhruva padavi', (being the north star or pole star), which would lead mankind for a very long time.  But before attaining that position, he would rule the kingdom happily for a very long time.  On his return from the forest, after the penance, he was warmly welcomed by everyone, including his step mother, who had repented for her mistake.  We learnt how dhruva would not give up on his goal, inspite of all the hardships he encountered!

We then dispersed with our ending prayers.  Until we meet you next time, keep practicing and look out for our email regarding further updates about our practice.

Happy holidays everyone!
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Alka Aunty and Prasad Uncle: 

We started the class with 5 minutes meditation.

After regular prayers we discussed about Sankranthi festival. We learned that Sankranthi festival is a harvest festival and called "Lori" in Punjab / North India. We also learned that as the Sun enters Makara rashi, it is also called "Makara Sankranthi".

Rashmi aunty taught us the Sankranthi sloka  that 3rd grade will be reciting on January 8th in the auditorium.

We started the story of Dhruva, the tapas he did, and how Lord Vishnu blessed him. 

Happy holidays to all.

December 11th Class

Beginning prayers
      ·       'om' chanting - 3 times

·       Meditation 

·       sahanaavavatu

·       gurustotram verses 1-9 and 14

Gitaa chanting

·        bhagavadgItaa 12^th adhyaaya 1 -  9 shlokas

Story time

·    3 types of devotion (kapila story)

·         sati 

Chanting/Songs

·        none

Quiet time

·         none

Game time

·         none

Ending prayers and pledge

·        pUrNamadaH pUrNamidam

·        chinmaya aarati - in the auditorium

      ·        om jaya jagadIsha hare - in the auditorium

      ·        pledge - in the auditorium

Comments:

Rashmi Aunty and Indira Aunty:

Our morning prayers and meditation are coming along very well.  Today, we did not have to tell anyone to keep their eyes closed or not wag their legs or any such thing!  They all know now what we do during meditation.  We get into our routine right away.

We are learning a lot of new shlokas in gurustotram, gItaa chanting, etc.  Today, we had a surprise pop quiz!  (We have always had informal quizzes, but today, we specially played it like a game with points for boys team vs. girls team, to make it more interesting :).  In the end, it was a tie, both had equal points!

We learnt about what devotion (bhakti) is today.  We learnt the 3 types of devotion - taamasika, raajasika and saatvika are the 3 varieties.  We learnt that taamasika bhakti is practiced with a selfish motive, in order to destroy others.  raajasika bhakti is praying for the betterment of oneself.  saatvika bhakti is the purest kind of devotion where one prays due to love of God and betterment of others.

We then heard the story of sati.  She was the daughter of dakSha and prasUti (manu/shatarUpa's daughter).  sati was married to Lord shiva.  We learnt in detail how a dakSha was arrogant of his possessions.  His own daughter sati emulated herself in fire and became ashes because of his conduct. The very 6 qualities that make a good person (knowledge, austerity, wealth, great body,, youth and birth in a good family), converted him to a bad one due to his blemished vision of arrogance.  We learnt with many examples, how the same good qualities can turn bad in an instant, the minute ego creeps in.  We then finished off with ending prayers.

We did not have time for raama hare song or likhita japa as we had to go to the auditorium for aarati and pledge.  We will see you all next week.
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Alka Aunty and Prasad Uncle: 

December 4th Class

Beginning prayers
      ·       'om' chanting - 3 times

·       Meditation 

·       sahanaavavatu

·       gurustotram verses 1-9 and 14

Gitaa chanting

·        bhagavadgItaa 12^th adhyaaya 1 -  9 shlokas

Story time

·         kardama and devahuti

·         kapila

Chanting/Songs

·        raama hare (5 verses)

Quiet time

·         Writing ‘om namo’ in Sanskrit

Game time

·         Understanding 'pralaya' though making and un-making a boat

Ending prayers and pledge

·        pUrNamadaH pUrNamidam

·        chinmaya aarati 

      ·        om jaya jagadIsha hare

      ·        pledge

Comments:

Rashmi Aunty and Indira Aunty:

The class started with 3 om-s.  We understood that we can not chant the omkaara from just the lips or the nose, but have to bring it out from the naval.  We did meditation for 5 minutes and felt the calmness and quietness in the class as well as within ourselves.  From this we understood that we can de-clutter the mind and be alert for the rest of the class.  We suggested that they do 10 minutes of meditation daily, to prepare themselves mentally to go through the happenings of everyday.

In the prayers and chanting, they did wonderfully till the 8th verse of gurustotram!  We learnt the 9th one today.  In gItaa chanting, the entire class did a great job till verse 4!!  It was so pleasant to hear them all chant in one voice, so comfortably.  They needed help on the 5th verse.  We were supposed to learn the 6th verse today.  But surprisingly, we went up until verse 9!!  They were so comfortable with the words.  Even one of the very difficult lines, they pronounced so easily the very first time!  We are now ahead by a couple weeks in the schedule of gItaa chanting verses :).  We do have a bunch of very smart and alert children!

It was story time and during the review, we revisited the story from last week.  In today's story, we saw that a sage by name kardama had been doing rigorous penance on Lord viShNu.  When He appeared, he blessed the sage and said that he will beget a virtuous wife and have 10 children.  9 would be daughters and for the 10th, Lord viShNu himself would be born as his son.  After that, he would do greater penance and attain salvation.

manu and shatarUpa had gotten 5 children, one of which was a beautiful daughter named devahuti.  They came in search of a suitable groom for her and found sage kardama.  They gave devahuti in marriage to him.  They had 9 daughters and just as Lord viShNu had said, the 10th was a son, which was none other than viShNu himself.  He was named kapila.  After that kardama went away to do his penance.  kapila was a divine child and he told things that no one ever could.  He gave the saankhyan philosophy to the world.  Even his mother would sit and listen to his teachings intently.  One day she expressed that she wanted to know how to attain moksha (salvation).  kapila said that is possible by having a pure heart.  To have a pure heart, one has to follow 7 rules -
*  Obey the rules of life
*  Perform one's duties
*  See work as worship
*  Chanting the Lord's name
*  Trusting the Lord
*  Seeing the Lord in all creatures
*  Loving God as one's own child

This is called devotion.  We had quite a few interesting discussions and examples about these rules.  Do discuss with your children what we spoke about.  During the discussion, we have also promised that each and every child will practice gItaa chanting at home.  Please remind your children and encourage them to keep their word :).

We chanted 'raama hare' till verse 5.  As a fun activity that involved learning, we all learnt to make paper boats!  We then related the making and un-making of the boat to creation and dissolution of the world.  The material still remains the same, but the form it appears only changes.  That is exactly what happens in 'pralaya'.  We did the likhita japa on the boat itself today.  We finished off the class with our ending prayers.

Parents, thanks for checking our email and phone nos. list, so that our records are current.  That helps us immensely to keep in touch.  Have a nice week and we will see you next Sunday.
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Alka Aunty and Prasad Uncle: 

We started the class with 5 minutes meditation. 

After regular prayers we continued the story of Kardama rishi and Devahuti. We learned about Devahuti's son Kapila , the divine teacher who gave Sankhya philosophy to the mankind.

The children enjoyed 7 points of his teaching. It teaches us how to purify our mind.Perform our duty, Work as worship, Chant God's name, Trust the God as your friend, Seek the God in other people and Love God.
Next week we will learn about three types of devotees. Three gunas and who is the greatest devotee.