Beginning prayers
· 'om' chanting - 3 times
· 'om' chanting - 3 times
· Meditation
· sahanaavavatu
· gurustotram - all 14 verses
Gitaa chanting
· bhagavadgItaa 12th adhyaaya 1 - 13 shlokas
Story time
· Recap of previous stories
· New story
Chanting/Songs
· none
Quiet time
· chanting 'om namaH shivaaya'
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
Rashmi Aunty and Indira Aunty:
In today's class, after meditation and prayers, we chanted the gurustotram. Today is special because, we finished learning the gurustotram completely! We have learnt all the 14 verses and the children are comfortable chanting them in one voice. We are so proud of them. They did well in the gItaa chanting also. Parents, do register them for the competition which will be held in April.
In story time, we discussed in quite some detail, the morals we have been talking about. It is amazing, the understanding of these children, who seem to be gulping up every word we discuss in class! They narrate the stories beautifully and recollect the morals very appropriately! Then we heard the story of puranjana. It was told by naarada to praachInabarhi, who was constantly indulging in performing rituals alone. To make him realize his mistake, naarada told him the story of king puranjana. He had a best buddy named avijnaata, who would constantly keep him off from wrong tracks. But he was chasing his search for something more interesting. He finally found a city with 9 gates and a beautiful princess. He married and even became enslaved to the princess, abandoning avijnaata. When the princess died, he lamented for her and was born as a girl in his next birth. This time, she married a king and got tangled in the same cycle. When her husband died, she lamented again. At that time, the old friend avijnaata came to him and reminded him of the follies he was committing and the cycle he was getting stuck in. Then naarada explained to king praachInabarhi that puranjana is none other than our soul (aatma) and his friend is none by the Lord Himself (paramaatma). The city of 9 gates is the body itself (with 9 openings) and the wife was the intellect. He explained to praachInabarhi that he should not entangle himself in indulging in the pleasure of his senses or in performing rituals alone. There is a higher goal to life and we are all required to work towards that self realization through meditation, service, etc. We come across these kind of situations in real life. Our eyes want to watch tv when we have pending homework. The mind wants to watch, but a small voice inside tells us that it is not a prudent idea! That small voice is the voice of our true buddy avijnaata, the bhagawaan Himself! We should befriend this inner conscience to attain our ultimate goal.
After this, we did 'om namaH shivaaya' japa, as a practice for the akhaNDa japa for shivaraatri next week. Our class will contribute to the akhaNDa japa by doing the chanting from 3 - 3:30 pm on the 19th, at the ashram. Please mark your calendars and come on time to do the japa. We finished the class with the ending prayers and came to the auditorium for aarati and pledge.
See you all at the ashram on the 19th of Feb.
________________________________________________
In story time, we discussed in quite some detail, the morals we have been talking about. It is amazing, the understanding of these children, who seem to be gulping up every word we discuss in class! They narrate the stories beautifully and recollect the morals very appropriately! Then we heard the story of puranjana. It was told by naarada to praachInabarhi, who was constantly indulging in performing rituals alone. To make him realize his mistake, naarada told him the story of king puranjana. He had a best buddy named avijnaata, who would constantly keep him off from wrong tracks. But he was chasing his search for something more interesting. He finally found a city with 9 gates and a beautiful princess. He married and even became enslaved to the princess, abandoning avijnaata. When the princess died, he lamented for her and was born as a girl in his next birth. This time, she married a king and got tangled in the same cycle. When her husband died, she lamented again. At that time, the old friend avijnaata came to him and reminded him of the follies he was committing and the cycle he was getting stuck in. Then naarada explained to king praachInabarhi that puranjana is none other than our soul (aatma) and his friend is none by the Lord Himself (paramaatma). The city of 9 gates is the body itself (with 9 openings) and the wife was the intellect. He explained to praachInabarhi that he should not entangle himself in indulging in the pleasure of his senses or in performing rituals alone. There is a higher goal to life and we are all required to work towards that self realization through meditation, service, etc. We come across these kind of situations in real life. Our eyes want to watch tv when we have pending homework. The mind wants to watch, but a small voice inside tells us that it is not a prudent idea! That small voice is the voice of our true buddy avijnaata, the bhagawaan Himself! We should befriend this inner conscience to attain our ultimate goal.
After this, we did 'om namaH shivaaya' japa, as a practice for the akhaNDa japa for shivaraatri next week. Our class will contribute to the akhaNDa japa by doing the chanting from 3 - 3:30 pm on the 19th, at the ashram. Please mark your calendars and come on time to do the japa. We finished the class with the ending prayers and came to the auditorium for aarati and pledge.
See you all at the ashram on the 19th of Feb.
________________________________________________
Alka Aunty and Prasad Uncle:
Today we started our class with 5 minutes of meditation, followed by chanting Guru Stotram. The children have learned four stanzas of the Dashavtar stotram.
We continued talking about the six sharks of the mind and how to conquer them. We talked about unity in diversity, how every person is different and different people have different types of good qualities in them. We compared this to how nature has different colors: the color of grass is different from the color of snow and the color of the sky. It makes nature look beautiful. So similarly, people around us bring good things to us. If we respect the differences, that is a true unity. Unity makes the sharks of the mind go away.
We also told one story of King Puranjana that Devarshi Narada told to Pracinabarhi, the grandson of King Prthu. The story is an analogy of the Atman and the cycle of life and death.
Since Mahasivarthri is on Feb 19th, 2012, Swamiji has asked the BalaVihar children to come and chant “Om Namaah Shivaaya”.
The children had a practice session of “Om Namaah Shivaaya” chanting using the japa mala.
On Sunday, Feb 19th, we will gather in the Ashram and chant for half an hour (from 3:00 pm to 3:30 pm).
Please bring the children to Vrindavan Ashram,Cranbury.
There is no BalaVihar next Sunday Feb 19th in the morning.
See you all in the Ashram.
